Nothing ever goes away

until it has taught us what we need to know.

Oct 29, 2023

I wrote the first edition of Branches (or Excellent Things, as I called it back then) on New Year’s Day 2016, nearly eight years ago.

“If you were trying to live an excellent life, you’d limit the content you consumed to only the best…

…For some reason, it’s difficult to keep that up. You keep clicking on things you shouldn’t.
One of the best things about the internet is that it gives you unlimited chances for content redemption.

Every time you sink into the morass, the internet gives you a new day, a new chance to get back to the excellent.”

Each edition of Branches is an attempt to distill something excellent from the nearly infinite amount of content out there.

I call it ‘an attempt’ because I don’t always get it right. There are things I recommended then that I wouldn’t, or couldn’t now. Things that haven’t passed the test of time - Making a Murderer, my favourite Fitzroy North cafe (now closed), Snapchat’s Spectacles.

Eight years is a long time, and a lot of content.

I’ve gone back and reread every edition, and surfaced up a list of the things I still love now.

I have an eight year old son, so you will find in the list an absence of books and movies. Things that fit better into the long breaks that haven’t really existed since he was born.

This is not an objective list. I’m not sorry for including seven links to live recordings of Bon Iver songs.

I am still grateful to the people who introduced me to excellent things along the way.

My high school friend Josh who introduced me to Pitchfork.com in 1999. Kanyi for introducing me to Nicolas Jaar’s Essential Mix as we sat in Adirondack chairs, our feet in a shallow river in Big Sur. This Paul Graham tweet for causing me to read Barbarian Days.

I’m forty today.

These won’t all stick with you, but if one does, then all of this will have been worthwhile.

A Murder Foretold 📝
A Practical Guide to Executive Presence 📝
All Too Well 🎶
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE 🎥
Aphex Twin’s Avril 14 on pedal steel 🎥 🎶
Barbarian Days 📖
Before I Go 📝
Being Known Is Being Loved 📝
Bon Iver - ____45_____ / Saal 1 / PEOPLE Festival 16 🎥 🎶
Bon Iver - Blood Bank (Live at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA, 2019) 🎥 🎶
Bon Iver - 715 - CR∑∑KS - Paris Philharmonie 2016 🎥 🎶
Bon Iver - 715 - CR∑∑KS, TD Garden Boston (10/15/19) 🎥 🎶
Bon Iver - "Heavenly Father" (Acapella) | Live at Sydney Opera House 🎥 🎶
Bon Iver - I Can’t Make You Love Me 🎥 🎶
Bon Iver - Woods - Live in Seoul 2016 🎥 🎶
Bright Eyes - First Day of My Life 🎥 🎶
Counting Crows - Anna Begins (@ MTV Most Wanted).mpg 🎥 🎶
Daniel Johns covers 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' 🎥 🎶
Dear April 🎶
Dan Wang’s 2019 Letter 📝
David August Boiler Room Berlin Live Set 🎥 🎶
Fast response times signal social connection in conversation 📝
Fleet Foxes - Tiger Mountain Peasant Song (Cover) 🎥 🎶
Frank Ocean - I Miss You (Live At The Bowery Ballroom In New York City!) 🎥 🎶
From 100th St to Ground Zero 📝
Gerd Janson’s Boiler Room x Sugar Mountain 2018 DJ Set 🎥 🎶
Good 🎥
Gorecki: Symphony No. 3 🎶
Havoc 📝
Hania Rani - @arteconcert's Piano Day 🎥 🎶
How to Know If You Talk Too Much 📝
In & Of Itself 📺
It Was Just a Kayaking Trip. Until It Upended Our Lives 📝
It’s worse than you think 📝
J’ai Dormi Sous L’Eau 🎶
Jamie XX - Gosh 🎥 🎶
Japanese Maple 📝
Joe Montana Was Here 📝
John Butler - Ocean 🎥 🎶
Just Be Thankful (Tokyo Edition) 🎶
K-Strass the Yo-Yo Guy Super Compilation 🎥
Kanye West Sunday Service - Easy On Me (for Virgil Abloh’s funeral) 🎶
Keith Jarrett - Sapporo, November 18, 1976 (Part I) 🎶
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert 🎶
Letter From A Region In My Mind 📝
Look for me in the trees. I will be there in the trees. 📝
Meditation is preparation for the worst day of your life. 🎥
Miserere Mei 🎶
Missy Higgins - ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ 🎥 🎶
Mouse of Silver 📺
Music Is Not Sport: Nils Frahm's Favourite Albums 📝
My 8 Best Techniques for Evaluating Character 📝
My Criticism Is the Highest Compliment I Can Pay You 📝
Narrative Distillation 📝
Nicolas Jaar’s Essential Mix 🎶
Nils Frahm’s Piano Day Playlist 🎶
Now Matters 🎧
Omens of exceptional talent 📝
on being known 📝
On Father’s Day 2015 📝
Once More To The Lake 📝
One Day In America 📺
People underestimate how enjoyable and engaging just waiting is. 📝
Playboy Interview: Steven Jobs 📝
Perfect, Briefly 📝
Politics & The English Language 📝
Reality has a surprising amount of detail 📝
Richard Hammond explains what he experienced during his coma 🎥
Saying Yes More Slowly Will Allow You to Say No More Often 📝
Alone: Series 7 📺
Speak to yourself the way you would speak to a friend. 🎥
Something New Is Fucked Up In My World Every Day 📝
Stranger In The Village 📝
The 1972 Olympics 800m Final 🎥
The best quote from The Office 🎥
The breeding process of Siamese Fighting Fish 🎥
The Bureau 📺
The Bystander 📝
The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar 🎥 🎶
The Colonel 📝
The Cost of Leadership 🎥
The Drones: Shark Fin Blues 🎥 🎶
The Fair Play Deck: A Couple's Conversation Deck for Prioritizing What's Important 🃏
The Fun Scale 📝
The Happiness Activity Chart 📝
The high-return activity of raising others’ aspirations 📝
The present moment becomes good enough. 🎥
The Rule of Thirds 🎥
The Swimming Chair 📝
The Tail End 📝
The Unthinkable Has Happened 📝
These Precious Days 📝
Trump Solo 📝
To Run My Best Marathon at Age 44, I Had to Outrun My Past 📝
Whales' Bubble Net Fishing | Nature's Great Events 🎥
What I Want For My Son 📝
Why She Broke 📝
You Can Only Maintain So Many Close Friendships 📝
Your Life in Weeks 📝
Your real biological clock is that you’re going to die. 📝

“I remember that time that you told me,
you said “Love is touching souls”
Surely you touched mine ’cause
Part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time.”

— Joni Mitchell, ‘A Case of You’

Branches 🌿

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