The Sunday Digest 056
Look out of any window, any morning, any evening, any day.
Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you. Or, if podcasts are more your speed on Sundays, we’ve got that too.
Editor’s Note
I’m hoping there’s at least one person out there this morning who said, “Wait, is there no episode today?” while drinking their morning coffee. If just one person notices this week’s absence of The Sunday Scaries Podcast or Retail Therapy, its existence is justified.
It was time for a summer break, and that summer break begins today. While there will be a new episode of Retail Therapy next week, I’ll be taking some time off over the next couple weeks which means things will be quiet on the recording side of things. Of course, I’ll be posting Instagram stories from our regular trip to Michigan every summer as a replacement.
Will I be writing anything from this newsletter during that time? Well, we’ll have to wait and find out. Sunday Scaries will return in late August with a couple episode of Retail Therapy sprinkled in during its absence.
We’ll be seeing you.
Sunday Read: Remembering the Dead
by Tom Wright-Piersanti for The New York Times
If you’ve been around me at any point over the last week, I’ve probably tried to discuss The Grateful Dead with you. Yes, it makes me feel like the guidance counselor from Freaks & Geeks, and no, I’m not proud of it. If this reference is lost on you, here:
Last weekend, I went to San Francisco to see the final touring shows from Dead & Company. What began as a chilly summer weekend in San Francisco turned into a farewell to a band I’ve been following all-too-closely since lockdown. While I’d love to implore you to listen to John Mayer’s work on Sunday’s performance of “Althea”, I’ll leave you with an excerpt from this week’s read.
“The thing about this music is it doesn’t take place at home — no one’s home. People are trying to get home,” Mayer said.
“There’s something about the fantasy of transience for people who don’t necessarily have it in their lives, like myself,” he added. “The fantasy of the perpetual searcher, the person with the knapsack who can sleep on couch after couch. Most people who go to Dead concerts don’t necessarily live that life, but aspire to spiritually have this devil-may-care attitude.”
Read in full here.
The Sunday Haiku: Think I can drink it yet?
Ice cube, splash of milk,
or just wait 20 minutes,
to protect your tongue.
Sunday Morning Jazz: Morning Bazaar by Alan Braufman
I discovered this song shortly after I moved into my current residence, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to associate it with anything else ever again. While there’s part of me that wants Chance The Rapper to make an appearance during those first couple strokes of the piano, the entire track is an offering that fits snugly atop any modern day morning jazz playlist.
Things I Saved This Week
Note: Most images gathered via Tumblr, I claim no rights to them and would love to take them down if you do.
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Absolutely loved this article.
From one of several Nplusone reviews of the show: "Initially, I didn’t understand the appeal of Dead & Company. But then I thought about the four years I spent living in Haight-Ashbury, the Dead & Company of neighborhoods, and how, alongside the ahistorical nostalgia and revisionist aesthetics, there was a real yearning for something—maybe community, or pleasure, or a tether to history. It can be hard to let go. In certain situations, it was even noble to be loyal to the past."