algo-free recommendation list, no. 1

Olivia Crandall’s Substack - specifically her algorithm-free reco list series (up to fourteen must-read installments, as of this writing) I devour these posts in full ASAP. They serve as the intellectual altar this post arrives at.

Baxter After Shave - I grow a lot of hair on my face. I take a big variety of foams, balms, blades, mists, combs, soaps, creams, scissors, lotions and exfoliants to it all the darn time. My barber and trusted confidant, Jason Bauers, once used Baxter After Shave on me. The cooling is real, the firmness true. The only after shave I’ve ever used that felt like it did anything at all.

Paying for the $2 bodega coffee in only quarters - I always treat myself to a bodega coffee on the mornings I do laundry. I used to apologize for paying in change. I don’t anymore.

Doing your laundry at 7AM right when the laundromat opens - On the topic of laundry, if you don’t romanticize the laundromat stay far the fuck away from me. Put more eloquently by my friend Peter “[the laundromat] is an excellent spot for contemplating…offering moments of calm where your brain is forced to wander.” This is best done at 7AM.

Bamboo Cutlery - I received two sets of bamboo cutlery for Christmas and I play this game with myself where I try to use them exclusively, inevitably leaving me sad when i find both forks are dirty in the sink.

Letting Go of the Idea of “Keeping Up” - I really enjoyed this article by Molly Templeton! As someone who dreams up lots and lots of goals and then sets meta frameworks around goal setting and then over-engineers entire full stack applications of which I am the only user to display those little tiny goals and their tiny little progress bars, I felt very seen! Also, I’m behind on my reading goal for this year. Personal Goals should be fun and achievable without grinding. Or that’s the idea at least…

Treating yourself like a project 😈 - The rational opposite of the previous list item and only if it feels like this quote from this article by Emily North: “…i [feel] completely myself in emphasized importance of treating [my life] with a heightened sense of exceptionality and unbridled effortful joy.”

Making art with your friends - This year I’ve found myself falling back in love with the collaborative nature of music making. Shoutout to everyone I make music with.

Social Media Hiatus (actual) - I didn’t check Instagram or Twitter for like four whole weeks recently and the libration was real. The itch to Open Apps was real too but I resisted and nothing bad happened. I had no FOMO, i still saw my friends, I wasn’t lonely. wow.

A nice pen - recently, I inherited a Waterman pen after a colleague left it behind at the hotel we were staying at. I write by hand every day when I journal and I will always ride for Muji pens but this pen writes smoooth, has nice ink and makes me feel like a baller (someone who would own a nice pen.)

Going to the movies alone - Everyone already knows going to the movies alone is in for 2024. Six months in, I’m confirming it is Still In. Go and sit in the front row doused in frigid a/c.

Photographing the moon/sun with a phone - Be free.