A recommendation: Make art

December 22, 2024


Hello, again. It’s been a while. I wish you a happy holiday season, and I’m here to bring you some recommendations. There are a few links, but I have not arranged to receive any money if you choose to buy anything through them.

My primary recommendation is to make art, any art, whether it’s a small project that takes one minute or a large project that requires your attention over the span of years. You should make art because there is a small chance that other people will find something illuminating in the thing you have created, but mostly because the actual doing will change you for the better.

This year, I finished two fairly large projects. First, I wrote and recorded a bunch of music, which you can stream on the 29sunset.com front page, on Spotify, or any number of other platforms. I called it “Big Stupid Feelings” and it’s perfectly fine as far as these things go. A few dozen people have probably listened to it, but it was well worth the effort because I learned so much about music production over the months I worked on it, from guitar-mixing techniques to microphone placements and much more. Moreover, I learned a lot about myself: I am the limitation to how my music sounds, and if I want to achieve a given sound that’s in my head, I can do it at home, provided I develop the personal skill.

But also, it changed the way I listen to music. Having attempted to balance guitars, bass, synths, drums, and voice in a stereo mix, I am much more attuned to how other songs are mixed, whether they were recorded by friends or major pop stars. I can’t do what those folks do — yet. Because I haven’t developed the skill. But even if I don’t, my appreciation for their skill and the sounds they created has deepened.

Second, I finished writing a novel. I have not received any interest from agents I have queried, so I’m considering whether to self-publish. Therefore, I’m not going to share too much about it right now, but here’s my one-sentence pitch: A photographer hired to work a remote destination wedding discovers her ex is in the wedding party, bringing to a head an emotional journey decades in the making. It’s romcom-adjacent, a “beach read” that’s a little more than breezy entertainment, and I loved every second of writing it.

In a similar way to making music, I consider the actual process of writing this story the best reward I could have gotten. When I write, I tend to think in terms of 500-800-word arguments, not 70,000-word novels, and so attempting to conjure a story of that length, building a mental model to support it, was incredibly challenging. But the magic of it was that because I have read extensively, I could call upon other novels to show me ways my story might go, and constantly thinking about how to infuse my central plot with the central theme — the argument! — that drove me to write the story in the first place turned out to be less of a struggle than I feared going in. And just like making music, after this experience, I am in greater awe of novelists generally, and even more so those writers whose work sticks in my mind and changes me.

So: make art, if for no other reason than that it will enrich your life, whether anyone else sees it or not. Looking ahead, I’ve got more projects already in the works that I’m figuring out how to do alongside of my job and spending time with family.

I also have a few product recommendations that I feel comfortable proselytizing. Again, these are *not* affiliate links, so I’m not making money off these — that’s how much I believe in them.

1) Schneider Slider Memo XB ballpoint pens • I have purchased two boxes of these over the past four years, and I’m still going strong from that supply. They write like a dream on paper of any tooth. They feel substantial in my hand, though not heavy in any way. In fact, the biggest problem I have with them is that people at work keep “borrowing” them and never returning them.

2) Dad shoes, specifically the Nike Monarch IV and New Balance 608 • A few years ago, I saw a podiatrist about some toe issues, and they told me to never wear dress shoes, if I could help it, to wear sneakers with a bit of heel rise (no Chucks), and a wide toe box, plus some other advice about what type of shoes to wear. Following that advice has made my feet feel fantastic. But that’s what so-called “dad shoes” are all about, right? Comfort over style? The thing is, dad shoes can represent the ultimate in style, which is total and utter comfort with one’s self. I have two pairs of the Monarchs, both in the red and black colorway: one in my regular sneaker rotation, and one that I had converted to softball cleats via customcleats.com. My pair of New Balance 608 sneakers are in the all-white, and I rock them with joggers, pants, shorts… whatever. They’re a million times more comfortable than the New Balance 550, Air Force 1, and other all-white casual sneaker options that tend to be narrow on the foot, and when you wear them unapologetically, with confidence, they look good as hell. Dad shoes rule.

3) Mighty Wallet • Earlier this year, I bought a Mighty Wallet — specifically, this design — and have been extremely happy with it. For cheaper than a lot of wallets at Marshall’s or Ross, you get a wallet made of Tyvek, which you might know as the same material the USPS uses for Priority Mail envelopes. There’s more on their website about how, precisely, it’s put together, but the main things I love about mine are: there are two large pockets for bills; the card pockets face inward so it’s virtually impossible for anything to fall out; the wallet’s paperlike fiber material is showing slight signs of wear, but that adds character rather than looking busted, and despite the wear I have had zero concern about the wallet tearing or anything like that; and finally, when the time comes to actually move on from it — I hope years from now — it’s recyclable.

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All the best to you and yours in the rest of 2024, and a happy and healthy 2025 to you all. Maybe we should communicate a bit more often?

(Photo by freestocks.org, published as public domain.)