🌯 February wrapped; short months, long books, and a lot of live music

Hey there

If 2022 felt like the world was slowly starting to reemerge, 2023 almost feels like nothing happened. Cool events are popping back up all over the place, and live music, festivals, and travel are all back on. With the weather being slightly less spicy, the comedy festival happening later this month, and Bluesfest bringing all the bands to our backyard, these are the best months of the year IMO.

This month I’ve been out and about. I saw Future Islands live, who were supported by an amazing Naarm-based band called Glass Beams. I’ve never seen a support band (who weren’t already big themselves) capture a crowd like they did. On a fittingly rainy Sunday evening I watched Bon Iver create musical magic at the Myer Music Bowl, a big tick off my ‘to see live’ list.

Slightly less cool, we took my partner’s parents to see Rod Stewart in Perth last weekend. But the next night I managed to grab one of the final few tickets to see Björk’s indescribable Cornucopia show at Perth Festival. Check out her Instagram to see a slice of the multi-sensory experience.

Whilst I’ve been seeing live music for over 20 years with no issues, I was a bit worried about my hearing after the sound levels at a couple of the recent gigs. I’ve embraced the fact it’s apparently cool to look after your ears now and have ordered myself a pair of Loop earplugs. Review to come next month.

I also jumped on another train last month, this time to Ballarat to my friend Jess’ Tiny Office open factory day. I love seeing how stuff is made. It was a treat to get behind the scenes and see the HUCX sustainable building system in action, go inside the demo units, and chat to people who were thinking of adding interesting additions to their homes.

Somehow I got some reading done too. Keep reading for those review notes.

Here’s a few other things I’m obsessing over, enjoying, or am curious about right now…

• Podcast - Decoder with Nilay Patel: This was a hot tip from a client, I enjoyed the episode ‘Taylor Swift and the music industry’s next $20’ talking about the changes in the music industry over the last ~30+ years and how some artists are reinventing how they can make money in today’s landscape. Spotify | Apple

• Netflix: Drive to Survive is back. Christian Horner is still unlikeable 90% of the time, and it seems that some of the drivers and teams are a bit over having Netflix follow them around.

• Robots + Disney: If anyone can make a robot that makes people feel something, it’s DisneyPixar. Luckily they’re already on the case.

• Music: Cracker Island is the latest album from Gorillaz and several of the tracks have been on rotation in my head for the last fortnight.

• Film: Aftersun is brilliant and haunting and deserves all of the awards it won.

• Pre-reading: I read the beta reader copy of my clever friend Leanne Hughes’ first book The Two Hour Workshop Blueprint. I love being part of reviewing books in these early stages and being able to give feedback. I’ve also got an advanced reader’s copy of Michael Bungay Stanier’s new book, How to Work With (Almost) Anyone, which comes out in June.

• Baking: Last year I went on a very serious voyage to find the best hot cross buns in Melbourne, which a lot of people were very enthusiastic in following along with on Instagram. This year I might make my own and try a few recipes. I reckon this technique from Edd Kimber looks like a winner.

What have you been up to? What are you reading? Hit reply or add a comment to this post and let me know.

Waving whilst doing all the things,

Steph

PS. To borrow from Austin Kleon (and everyone else who borrows this from Austin Kleon), this newsletter and the podcast are 'free but not cheap'. You can support their ongoing creation and keep me in books by buying me a coffee as a one off 'thank you', or leaving giving the podcast a (five 😉) star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Thanks!

What I read last month

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This has been on my TBR pile for a long time, and it was worth the wait. Patrick Radden Keefe lays out the long and murky history of the Sackler family, arguably the family at the epicentre of the US’s opioid crisis. It’s a tale of lies, cover ups, pay-offs, unethical business practices, and completely ineffective regulatory oversight. Ultimately, a series of events that have cost thousands of lives, and ruined many, many more. At times I thought the book was a little longer than it needed to be, but the compelling writing made up for it.

Applied Creativity by Christopher S Sellers ⭐️⭐️💫
I liked a couple of the ideas in this book; the fact that arts/creative skills are just not valued as much as more linear skills, and the fact that creative skills can’t be measured in the same way as other skills can be (they’d likely fail the replication test every time). Which means that these skills, and the people who possess them, are ‘too hard’ for most businesses to organise and fit into neat boxes. The book itself felt a bit confused and contradicting though, as it seemed to try to make creativity more linear and I felt like it lost some of its potential usefulness.

Wicked Arts Assignments ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This isn’t a ‘cover to cover’ type read, but more of a resource/guide type book. It’s full of cool projects and activities that get the right hand side of your brain working. If you’re a facilitator, this is a good one to add to your library.

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy (audiobook) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Jeanette brilliantly tells her incredible story of mental, physical, and emotional abuse by her mother. The saddest parts are that nobody stepped in, and that it took Jeanette a long time to realise the extent and long term effects of what just seemed like an ‘unusual’ childhood experience. The book is so well written (and performed), and even manages to squeeze in some humour amongst the heavy subject matter.

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PS. Want to start your own team bookclub?

If starting a work (or social) non-fiction bookclub has been on your list for a while, but the effort of curating the list of books and discussion topics feels way too hard, Bookclub in a Box is for you.

I ran a virtual session with my buddies at StoryTail last week called Budget Friendly L&D, and the idea of internal bookclubs got some conversation going. The thing that seemed to be the barrier for people was the time and effort required to pick the books to get the bookclub off the ground.

In your Bookclub in a Box download you’ll receive…

📚 12 book recommendations
📚 A set of discussion questions for each book
📚 A suggested calendar of reading for the year
📚 A DIY calendar option, if you want to decide your own order

PS. I’ve used an honesty pricing model for this resource, based on how many people will be using it in your team / organisation. This is an attempt to make it accessible for different audiences, whilst also recognising the value when it’s used at larger scales.

ICYMI, recently on the podcast…

What I read in February 2023: four books about creativity, epidemics, and grief

What I read in January 2023: five books on life, food, and the future of work