Last month I posted a list of seven good things I had been enjoying that month. Surprisingly, the world did not immediately become a better place, so I hereby commit to releasing another list of seven good things every month until the world improves or I get tired of doing it.
1. Where The Light Fell - Philip Yancey
I’ve done a lot of driving this past month, moving two kids into dorms in two different cities, and my companion for most of it was the audiobook of Philip Yancey’s 2021 memoir Where The Light Fell. I’ve long been a fan. Years ago, his books would sit on the shelf next to titles that would seem kind of cheesy, so I assumed he was as well, until somebody gave me The Jesus I Never Knew and it was legitimately fantastic. He’s a writer’s writer, and after this memoir I have a better understanding of why. The book, though, has zero to do with his writing and everything to do with his family growing up, particularly the relationship between his abusive mother, his brother and their fundamentalist church upbringing. It hit a little close to home with that last detail at times, and I loved it.
2. Self Control / Cold Turkey Writer
Though you can’t download any fruits of the Spirit from the internet, you can at least get the self-control app and Get. Some. Stuff. Done. It’s a free app for your Mac, where you choose all the other things on your computer you want to not work for a set amount of time, then set a timer, and Voila! Self control.
If you just want to turn your computer into a typewriter, the nuclear option is Cold Turkey Writer. You set a timer or a word count, and your computer will be utterly useless for anything but a word processor until you have hit that goal. It’s amazing. If this is not for you, you’ve already glazed over this. If this is for you, you’ve already downloaded it.
3. Vaults
The Crow Hill Company makes some of my favorite audio samples out there. If you record any kind of music, you need their free plug-in Vaults. They release one new sound a month, which would be lame if it wasn’t amazing. And every month, it is. The latest six sounds are free, and after that they’re five bucks each - but if you keep up you can get them all for free. (Most of them are worth more than five bucks on their own.) Christian Henson, the main guy there, is a legitimate genius. He founded Spitfire Audio and Pianobook, a free open source place where people share their own audio samples of all kinds of instruments. You should check that out too. A bunch of Crow Hill’s other things are pretty cheap and they’re all wonderful.
4. Aldi kombucha
Look, I’m a man of a certain age. I should eat better than I do, so I try to make up for my lack of salads by drinking kombucha. I don’t know what it’s supposed to do or what it actually is, but apparently I’m supposed to get healthy by drinking it. It’s kind of expensive though. As usual, Aldi saves the day. They have a bunch of flavors and it’s the cheapest I’ve seen anywhere in the United States. And it tastes really good.
5. untitled.stream
I share a lot of unfinished music with friends and colleagues. People share a lot of music with me, too. I get links from dropbox, OneDrive, and random texts of MP3s. I can’t keep track of them all and trying to download anything from Microsoft or Google makes me want to lose my mind . Then this app called untitled.stream walked into my life and literally solved all my problems. I can upload and stream demos or works in progress just like Spotify. I can listen on my phone, send anybody the link and keep it however private I’d like. You can upload new versions while keeping the old versions there for reference. You can keep all the things people have sent you in one convenient place. It will even do some AI vocal muting stuff if you wanted to, I think. There’s a free version and the full version is only 50 bucks.
6. Zenni
Paying hundreds of dollars for glasses is dumb. You don’t have to do it anymore. I haven’t for over a decade. Because Zenni. I heard a podcast with the founders of Warby Parker years ago where they shared some stat that all the glasses in the world are made in the same three factories or something. That’s probably not correct. But the point was all glasses are basically the same. What makes them more expensive is marketing. Zenni‘s glasses start at seven actual dollars. Once you get old like me and you need more complicated lenses than you get all the way up to like 50 bucks. Gasp! At the regular eye doctor now they want me to pay like $500. No thanks. I’ve got guitar pedals to buy, I mean, kids to put in college.
7. D’addario “Silk & Steel” Strings
All three of my daughters have taken up guitar, so I’ve passed out all the random cheap guitars I’ve collected over decades for them to learn on. I’ve had a Baby Taylor for years that’s never really felt like a real instrument, and a 3/4 size Martin that’s definitely better, but still been a challenge. Then I found these “Silk & Steel” strings. They’re somewhere between classical and flat-wound, with a soft, gentle tone. They’re shockingly easy to play. They’ve made those cheap guitars both feel and sound like wonderful instruments. Now I’ve put these strings on some more guitars, too, because I love their warm tone and how my fingers don’t get so tired from playing a long time. And they’re cheap! They’ve brought many derelict instruments back to life. Can’t recommend them enough, particularly for kids or beginners (or guitars you thought weren’t worth playing anymore.)
Hope something in here puts a smile on your face. Some fun news coming later this week. Stay tuned!
I've got a couple guitars hanging around that I don't play as much as I should. I'm going to have to try some Silk and Steels!
Thanks for the Crow Hill rec! I downloaded a few of the free plugins and bought “Tiny Strings” Can’t wait to play around with them.