Sunset over Ipswich

Here are the five things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the football, but yesterday I found myself listening to one Iceland's greatest exports Sigur Rós and their fantastic album Kveikur.
    
2. "What Is A Polyrhythm? — Beats Taking Turns" — Short video (less than 3 mins) with a graphic showing the polyrhythms... Very cool!
    
3. Nils Frahm on reinventing classical music: “I like to treat the establishment like a cushion... I don’t throw it out of the window, but I like to shake the dust off it. I want to expand what it can be.” 
    
4. Can we change who we are? One of my favourite podcasts, Invisibilia, returns with an exploration of personality.
    
5. Seth Godin is an incredibly wise man. I read his blog pretty much every day and Sunday's post was poignant given all the political goings on this past week. 

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts straight to your inbox. Enjoy!

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A Moon Shaped Moon

Here are the five things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. Ever wanted to see what a cymbal being hit looks like at 1000 frames per second? Today's your lucky day — Pretty cool huh?
    
2. I find Elon Musk absolutely fascinating. He's the real-life inspiration for Iron Man's Tony Stark, co-founder of Paypal, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla (the electric car company)... I could go on, but I won't. Wait But Why (my new favourite website) wrote a great series of posts on Elon, electric cars, space, his companies and what makes them so important.
    
3. "You never get it down. I don't know how to do this. You'd think I do, but it's not one of these things you ever really know how to do." Paul McCartney on songwriting.
    
4. "Tell Me Who You Spend Time With, And I Will Tell You Who You Are" A great article by Ryan Holiday (another really interesting guy). His book The Obstacle Is The Way is one of my favourites.
    
5. I listen to a lot of ambient music. It soothes my brain and helps me focus (here's an interesting article on that). Ben Lukas Boysen's new album Spells is excellent and has been keeping my ears well entertained as I work and read.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts straight to your inbox. Enjoy!

Ipswich Waterfront

Here are the five things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. I hadn't listened to this album in a long time, but this week made amends. A real masterpiece — Bitches Brew - Miles Davis.
    
2. I enjoyed this rambling chat between Adam Buxton and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood on Adam's podcast (which is always good fun). Which reminds me, I can't wait to get my hands on Radiohead's new album A Moon Shaped Pool which is released physically on Friday!
    
3. I'm not totally sure this is worth sharing, but it is quite amusing — Green Screen Queen.
    
4. Another gem from Brain Pickings — Einstein’s Brilliant and Unusual Life, in a Graphic Novel.
    
5. Yesterday one of my drum students reminded me of this hilarious scene from Wayne's World 2. It never fails to make me laugh! What a tale!

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts straight to your inbox. Enjoy!

Don't look down / sun-day drum-day

Here are the five things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. I don't think you need to be a drummer to appreciate how good this solo by JP Bouvet is. It's got a bit of everything and it's only a minute long — Oh, and it's in 7/8 in case you didn't notice! It's from the album Bubble & Squeak by Mike Linden, which is well worth a listen.

2. I've been really enjoying The Kills new album Ash & Ice. The first track is particularly cool, as is it's video.

3. Are we living in a computer simulation? Elon Musk thinks we might be! Crazy thought experiments like that are fun to consider, but even if we are in a simulation does it even matter?

4. I love this quote from this article on fixed vs growth mindset by Hazel Gale — “take yourself less seriously because your imperfections are the things that people really connect with. Learn to laugh at yourself and enjoy the fact that others can do the same.”

5. I've been making a conscious effort during the last few weeks to spend less time mindlessly browsing social networks and more time on my projects. This little app has been a great help to me — it allows you to block access to any website for a period of time that you choose. So bye bye Facebook for 3 hours, hello getting some work done!

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts straight to your inbox. Enjoy!

Hot Dog

Here are the five things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. Brain Pickings is one of my favourite sites on the internet. I could (and regularly do) spend hours getting lost in the endless wisdom contained within it's pages. This post titled 10 Rules for Students, Teachers, and Life by John Cage and Sister Corita Kent is a new favourite. I liked it so much I printed a copy of the rules to put on the wall above my desk.  — “Rule 6: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.”
    
2. Austin Kleon is an author and artist that I've mentioned in several other posts. In this interview, he talks about his artistic process, his books and his thoughts on what it takes to live a fulfilling ‘creative’ life. Definitely worth listen if you are a creative individual or want to be!
    
3. “Labels are releasing cassettes again, but there's a place where they never went out of fashion: prison” From last week's episode of 99% Invisible. Are cassettes making a comeback?
    
4. Hearing Buddy Rich's drumming as a teenager is what inspired me to start practicing and to take my drumming seriously. This video is a fine example of his genius.
    
5. Ólafur Arnalds is a classical and electronic musician from Iceland, and someone I find incredibly inspiring. He has a huge body of work and regularly shares it for free, including this beautiful song “Study for Generative Piano (i)”. You can download sheet music for a lot of his songs on his website.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts straight to your inbox. Enjoy!

What did you do?

Here are the five things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. Austin Kleon shared this great Louis C.K. quote on having an audience in his weekly newsletter (it's very good, I recommend you subscribe). The quote comes from this conversation on The Bill Simmons Podcast. It's a great insight into Louis C.K.'s creative process and ethos. Just a heads up, it does contain some ‘adult’ language!
    
2. On Monday I finished reading The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin. The message throughout the book is that in this hyper connected world we all have the opportunity to pick ourselves, to leave our comfort zones and to create something meaningful. I loved it and found it really inspiring. If you are unfamiliar with Seth's work, his blog is an excellent place to start.
    
3. Courtney Barnett's ‘Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit’ was one of my favourite albums from last year. I'm not sure what I love more, the catchy choruses or her witty lyrics. Pedestrian At Best is a fine example of both and has fun video too. 
    
4. If you're anything like me and take quite a few photos on your phone, you might like the Pocket Tripod. It's a portable tripod that, as the name suggests, fits in your pocket. I bought one a few weeks ago and it's been really useful.
    
5. Earlier this week I wrote a post on my favourite drum books. If you are a drummer, check it out. I'd love to hear your thoughts and recommendations too.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts straight to your inbox. Enjoy!