Week 23, 2018 – Every once in a while, a shortlist of 5 things that caught my interest lately, with a few notes.

1. Best movie I’ve seen lately

Spivak. Found this little gem on Netflix and really enjoyed. Btw, great cast, built by Riva Cahn-Thompson and Mary Vernieu. Starring Michael Bacall in the main role, just perfect for this comedy.

2. Most interesting read

If you’re not living in Italy, maybe you ignore that Trap music is the biggest trend among the newer generations right now. Fortunately (and strangely) enough my 9 years-old daughter’s favorite music includes The Ramones, AC/DC, Weezer, among many others, but all of my three nephews are totally into Trap (I’m surely getting old, but it sounds horrible to me: judge by yourself these top Italian artists Dark Polo Gang, Emis Killa, Sfera Ebbasta). While I was quite worried about my nephew’s musical tastes, I went across this article on RollingStone Italy about just don’t giving a f*ck. Great point of view, I feel better now. (article is in Italian, sorry. Try Google Translate).

3. What I’ve been listening to

Too many Trappers led me to Too Many Rappers by The Beastie Boys, and from there I’ve basically listened to The Beastie Boys for the entire week. One of my first listen when I was a kid (they were still playing raw punk/hardcore, I still own the New York Thrash tape where I’ve first discovered them), the Beasties are still one of my all-time favorites. Just random pick, every song is killer.

4. New habit I’ve started

I’m lately working on a pretty tight schedule, I have several different projects going on and very short free time. Phone calls, messages, notifications, and news updates are just minor distractions, and just a very short percentage is really urgent or important. In order to avoid interruptions (and stress) I decided on an extreme new habit: keep my smartphone on airplane mode for the majority of the day. Tim Ferriss mode.
Don’t panic: I can still be reached via email, which I check constantly.

5. Best purchase lately

Found this great graphic anthology in my favorite bookstore at a discount price. Metal & Hardcore graphics, compiled by Cristian Campos, published by Konemann Press. More than 500 pages filled with illustrations, album covers, t-shirt design, pictures, interviews, and much more, covering the best extreme designers and illustrators around the world. Needless to say, I own a good portion of the albums in the book. If you’re into metal or hardcore, you need to get this one.