Delete All Work Files
Plus, Tyler in South Dakota, Eliza’s Peach Pit, and a promotion for Max.
VANCOUVER — I’m sitting at a computer on the third floor of the Vancouver Public Library when the man slams his palm against the table.
He’s seated across from me, muttering incantations, his eyes sparkling like crystal beneath a dirty red ball cap.
He raises his hand and brings it down again. Quickly. One slap. Then another and another, as if he’s trying to get someone’s attention.
No one comes, of course.
Why would they?
Weird man. Dirty beard. Capable of anything, one might presume.
He’s done this before. He will almost certainly do it again.
I know because I’ve seen him do it.
Four days in a row.
I stare straight ahead and try to disappear into the shell of my Lenovo monitor.
Big things happening over here, I telegraph, Huge, really. Future of the music business, millions of streams, all that jazz (Lipchitz! Cicero!).
Oh, was there banging? I hardly noticed…
I turn the volume in my headphones up to 45% and try to ignore my looming sense of overwhelm.
Though no stranger to miracles, the power of Bealby Point’s forthcoming music video, “For Your Time,” proved too much for my Obama-era Macbook Pro, forcing me to seek digital refuge at the library’s Inspiration Lab.
The upside is that I have access to computers capable of running Adobe Premier.
The downside is that I can only work three hours — as people peruse soft hentai around me (!) — before I’m locked out of the system, my files obliterated off the hard drive.
Most people would tell you not to edit a project under such conditions.
And they would be right.
Yes, limitations breed creativity. I’ve adopted new workflows, I got a Dropbox business subscription trial. I’m innovating, dammit.
But I’ve also surrendered. To the whims of the universe, to my own poor planning, to the download speeds of public internet.
The guy bangs his hand on the table so hard it shakes the sign next to my monitor: Save your work. Protect your privacy. Delete All Work Files Before before leaving.
It’s a gentle reminder. It’s a slap in the face.
And so I feel you, brother man.
Oh Messy Life
- Brian Moylan teased that this week’s episodes of Vanderpump Rules and The Valley were the best of the season. He was right. 2024 is the Year of Mess.
- Max Tani is moving up in the world; yesterday he announced he’s Semafor’s new media editor. The gig involves Thought Leadership with a side of SCOOPS. Congrats!
- Willem and Personal Trainer have a new music video out. It’s got some aesthetic parallels to the one I’m cutting for Bealby — dad cam footage, no tripod — which is honestly a bit of a relief.
- eliza mclamb is out here putting her money where her d*mn mouth is!!! This week she announced The Peach Pit Grant, which offers three low-barrier $1,000 grants to help fund *your* next artistic pursuit. Read about it HERE.
- Perfectly Imperfect operator, (and “small-town mayor” to the stars) Tyler Bainbridge is back from a boys trip to Badlands National Park. He says:
“Visit South Dakota, you won’t regret it! You can fly into Rapid City and within an hour drive of each other you can hit: the otherworldly national park Badlands, the Black Hills, colossal monuments like Mount Rushmore + the Crazy Horse Memorial, huge mountains + thousands of bison in Custer State Park, tiny casinos in the old cowboy town of Deadwood, and you can even cross over into Wyoming to see Devil’s Tower. Special place.”
- You can see more of his great photos HERE.
Proper Chune
- Three days: that’s how long it took for The Tortured Poets Department tea to completely corrode my brain. Things are so bad Leah’s thinking about deleting TikTok. It wasn’t much but I did find some respite in Cloud Nothings’ new record, Final Summer. The title track goes. Mixed by Sarah Tudzin of illuminati hotties, who produced eliza’s record.
Let’s connect: ethan@humanpursuits.org
