#20 La Dolce Vita

or, the sound of a Select Spritz along a water fall with friends.

I will be the first to acknowledge that at the moment, I am living an extremely charmed life. As I wrote in the last newsletter, a lot of this comes in tandem with being stretched far too thin due to problems related to overcommitting and a void in my soul I attempt to fill with productivity and output. However the other side of that coin is a life rich with friendships and opportunities and extreme gratitude for the privilege I have to occasionally detach from The Thing and prioritize walking and looking and talking and all of the things that refill my tank. 

I write this just a few days after returning from 3 weeks in Italy and Slovenia where I came extremely close to finding the limit of carbs I can actually consume on a daily basis, thankfully in combination with the 20K step days of a life that just seems impossible in the US, especially in California. I saw art and shared conversations with friends new and old that have greased the gears of my mind in a way that only disconnecting from your daily life and repositioning your perception of relativity can do, even in our modern world where we’re all still online no matter where we are. I’m still marveling in how different the internet experience presented to me because of the time zone and satellite positioning created a completely different offering from the algorithm. I’m chewing on some far less pithy pollyannaish thoughts about all of this, but thats for further down the road once I’ve figured them out. 

Just a few weeks prior to this trip, still thick within the Spring semester, I used my spring break to take a hybrid personal/business trip to New England, where I spent 10 days with cherished friends and collaborators of whom distance and logistics makes meaningful time together usually difficult. 

The playlist below is a capsule of the last couple months of shared meals, aimless meanderings, and aperitivo times. I believe it’s an appropriate companion to a cocktail in the sun as much as a backing soundtrack for work and contemplation. It’s jazzy and weird and more than a little idiosyncratic, as travel inspired playlists often tend to be. 

I hope you’re able to get away this season, even if for a short moment, in whatever form that looks like. The respite is integral to resilience. 

#20 La Vita Dolce

Listen here on spotify.

(no youtube playlist this time because finding many of these specific recordings is a pain and lets be real, minimal good music videos).

1. Gia Margaret - body

2. Khruangbin - May Ninth

3. Etta James - At Last

4. The Avalanches & Leon Bridges - Interstellar Love

5. Buddy Fo & His Group - Girl From Ipanema

6. Yann Tiersen - Les Deux Pianos

7. Lindsey Buckingham - D.W. Suite

8. Tim Fain - Freedom

9. Kacy Hill - Here I Am

10. Triste Janero - Rene De Marie

11. Belle and Sebastian - The Model

12. Taylor Swift - Lover

13. Jon Brion - Phone Call

14. Vikingur Olafsson / Claude Debussy - Preludes Book 2, L. 123

15. Middle Kids - Bootleg Firecracker

16. S. Carey, John Raymond, Aaron Parks - Blood Orange

17. Glenn Miller - Moonlight Serenade

18. The Cooltrane Quartet - The Lady In Red

19. Tori Amos - Silent All These Years

20. Bibio - Patchouli May

21. Rosie Tucker - Lightbulb

22. Jinx - Tamo Gdje Je Sve Po Mom

23. Frankie Yankovic - No Beer Today

24. En Attendant Ana - Black Morning

25. Hovvdy - Jean

26. Leon Fleisher / Johann Sebastian Bach - Sheep May Safely Graze

27. Tobias Jesso Jr. - True Love

28. Yard Act - Blackpool Illuminations