Sawyer Paul's Blog, page 2
April 27, 2020
Blog Roundup, March 8-April 27, 2020
Peloton offers free 90-day subscription trial for its at-home workout app
WWE statement regarding WrestleMania 36
A free book about working from home
Toronto waking up to new reality
Outbreaks In Victorian England Confirm Coronavirus Capable Of Spreading Through Time
The Coronavirus Is Here to Stay, So What Happens Next?
Walking in the Age of Coron
Let’s meet this moment together
Walking in the Age of Corona
Alto’s Adventure and Odyssey go free
Skateboarding is Illegal in Toronto
Adobe Offers Two Free Months of Creative Cloud
Microsoft announces new Teams features as usage skyrockets nearly 40 percent in a week
Affinity — Supporting the creative community
12 Women on Their Favorite Video Games
Free online concerts in Toronto
Free photography workshops
Ten songs a Week returns
I want this mug
Anchor just made it easier to start a podcast while we’re all social distancing
The Best of Youtube, March 2020
Cura, March 25, 2020
Link Blog, March 2020
Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card
Randy Savage vs. Bret Hart
Peloton after 9 months
An encyclopedia of appreciations
The New Normal For Life Under a New Plague
Stop Trying to Be Productive
No One Should Worry About Working Out Right Now
My Favourite Outline Articles
In praise of balconies
March 2020 in photos
My Favourite Quotes: Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead
Are physical distancing measures giving bikes a new lease on life?
Cura, April 14, 2020
Use Code TPL2020 to Get a Temporary Digital Toronto Library Card with OverDrive
Don’t get depression
Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self by @juliemarienolke
Album on Rotation Today—Antisocialites by Alvvays
Album on Rotation Today—The Neon Skyline by Andy Shauf
The Best of Youtube, April 2020
Album on Rotation Today—Heaven by Dilly Dally
Album on Rotation Today—Meet Me at the Muster Station by PS I Love You
Microblog Thoughts, March 24-April 26, 2020
Album on Rotation Today—Red, Yellow & Blue by Born Ruffians
Album on Rotation Today—Red, Yellow & Blue by Born Ruffians
But even if Red Yellow Blue overstays its welcome for one song, it still counts as one of this new year’s most engaging and endearing indie-rock debuts. Which may echo the sentiments attributed to another debut album on this site recently, but then Born Ruffians are the Vampire Weekend you don’t have to fret over– all the witty wordplay and jingle-jangle joy, none of the nagging questions about Afro-pop appropriation and Ivy League privilege.
I’m way more familiar with their 2013 album Birthmarks, but apparently Red, Yellow & Blue is more beloved. The Vampire Weekend-like is true, but maybe there was just something in the water in 2008.
April 25, 2020
Microblog Thoughts, March 24-April 26, 2020
Watching The Lighthouse is probably not advised anymore.
Anyone else notice their commute media becoming a way bigger pile? I have like 50 podcasts in the que now.
I bought Wheel of Fortune for the Switch because it has a 3 player mode. We played one game and all three of us were like “oh, right, wheel of fortune is a bad game.”
Man we don’t deserve @BasiaBulat
Okay, I gotta stop comparing my sketches to people who’ve been doing this as a craft for like, their whole life. Who else started sketching last month?
I’m still doing sketch a day stuff, but I’m not posting them all because it’s bad guys. I hit that spot where I care about the quality of the result but haven’t grown the quality muscles to get there yet. I post them when I’m not 100% embarrassed.
Now however is a great time for Picard and his motivating speeches about how it’s probably a bad idea to kill each other with robot space tentacles.
Catching up with AEW. Chris Jericho pulling out a Harvey Birdman reference “Shake hand, kiss baby, shake hand, kiss baby, shake baby, kiss hand” watered my singular, weird crops.
One of the weird shame things about being left handed is doing things “right” because that’s how they taught you. For me: I mouse with my right hand. I’m slowly learning to mouse left though, and it’s like, finally?
Another advantage of having a pro @letterboxd account: a friend asks you for movie recs. You ask what subscriptions they have. You filter your history by those services and cross-reference it with your ratings. Boom.
Couples who are playing Animal Crossing together: how’s that working out?
Oh no I’m bad at drawing dog eyes
I think 37 is a good age to get into Discord.
April 24, 2020
Album on Rotation Today—Meet Me at the Muster Station by PS I Love You
Muster Station is rife with similarly thrilling displays of the frantic and the ecstatic: the sustained, skyward surge of “Butterflies & Boners” proves every bit as glorious as its title, while “Breadends”– inspired by a friend’s revelation that he used to rob banks– sees Saulnier reveling in the vicarious thrill of shouting, “gimme all your fucking money!” It’s apt that this declaration of criminal fantasy is one of the album’s few easily discernible lyrics.
Another new one for me. Nice and dirty.
April 23, 2020
Album on Rotation Today—Heaven by Dilly Dally
Heaven is the quartet’s thrilling second album, and while Dilly Dally might still formally recall 1990s alt-rock à la Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins, their songs are noisier, more metallic, deconstructed. Monks’ raw rapture sets the comparisons at some remove. With her unwavering pop sense and keen way with a chorus, you can tell she is a woman who learned guitar through a Beatles songbook. Dilly Dally once covered Drake’s “Know Yourself” to delightfully grotesque effect, and as their fellow 6 dweller has posited: It’s not about who did it first. It’s about who did it right.
Feels like a Hole kind of day, and Dilly Dally scratches that itch.
April 22, 2020
The Best of Youtube, April 2020
Youtube is a bad place, but every now and then a good video appears. Because I can’t seem to stop going there, I can at least make it easier for you (and future me) to see what was worth it.
The Story of Star Trek’s Miraculous Resurrection - Movies with Mikey.
it’s time to get good at darts | bdg.
Give up on Your Dreams of Becoming a Baker | bdg.
7 tips to prepare for the Bell Riots.
The Galar Region and Hygge: A Study in Comfort.
Coronavirus and the American death cult.
Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self.
BoJack Horseman: Being Human by Being Animal.
Wholesome Sound Design in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Album on Rotation Today—The Neon Skyline by Andy Shauf
Shauf’s new concept album The Neon Skyline takes place over the span of one night, as did his last solo record, 2016’s The Party. The story goes like this: Our narrator heads to a bar where he hears that his ex is back in town. From there, he spirals through the course of their relationship from young love to jealous arguments to dreams of starting over. He eventually runs into her and they go their separate ways. But by this point, late in the album, you’ve learned that reconciliation was never the point. In the climactic “Thirteen Hours,” Shauf drifts through a flashback that doesn’t focus on the fight that brought out their true nature, or the injury that landed one of them in the hospital. Instead, the key lyric is about a simple facial expression that suggested how things could never be the same again.
This one’s brand new to me.
April 21, 2020
Album on Rotation Today—Antisocialites by Alvvays
Antisocialites by Alvvays on Spotify.
From Pitchfork:
The musty ambience of Chad Van Gaalen’s production on their debut has turned bright and clear on Antisocialites, with O’Hanley co-producing alongside John Congleton, who’s overseen big-ticket indie albums from artists including Future Islands and St. Vincent. Alvvays can still kick up a piercing dream-pop din, but now it’s less muffled by reverb and digital distortion. The reference point here is less “Archie” than another Alvvays single, “Party Police,” with its mournful synths and weary entreaty, “You don’t have to leave, you could just stay here with me.” Apparently, this person has left, but Alvvays’ endearing songcraft is intact.
Dreams Tonite and Lollipop are my go-tos, and Plimsoll Punks will stick with you, but the whole album is good.
April 17, 2020
Don’t get depression
This TikToc series says a lot in a few seconds.
April 16, 2020
Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self by @juliemarienolke
Things have never been better for climate change.
