Today started with three top reports that turned into 7, cut down to 5. In too deep on several stories from creative spaces to knowing when to "Grit" and tech stories that never were. New music and new music news will wrap for the day.

During my first two years in college, I lived in a dorm; during my third year, I rented a condo with a few friends and took the unfinished basement as my room and office. I started a painting company that year and needed a desk and a phone; I bought a desk from Good Will, a desk I had kept for 25 years. I have had an office inside every apartment and home I've lived in ever since. Some of those offices were in unused dining rooms or unfinished basements but used as offices. My last two houses had an office on the main floor and a second office/studio in the basement. I love my office spaces and all of my stuff.

Austin Kleon recently sent out pictures from his new office space next to his pool in Austin, TX, which looks beautiful. A place with all your stuff, where you can get things done and get into your zone. A place to show off your art, your affinity for other artists, and the place that can make you feel like "you." The benefits can be tangible.

I can hide in my office and get busy with unimportant, non-creative things all the time. I can procrastinate work on the road, convincing myself that I must return to my creative cave to get the job done.

In April, Nick Cave talks about the dark side of the artistic Cave in The Redhand Files Issue #192. Look at this picture of Nick's old office, and if you are creative with an office or studio, I'm sure this picture makes you as jealous as I was looking at it. In true Punk Rock ethos, what did Nick do with his beautiful Cave? He gave it all away, and it's now part of an exhibition. Nick believes imagination is more important than the creative space you work from. The sacred space is within; if the computers, big screens, ergonomic chairs, and organizers help you produce the creative inside of you, they are a benefit. The line between benefit and crutch can be razor thin.

I am working on an adventurous travel project set to begin in 12 to 24 months. That travel project will take me to other countries, and an office will be a luxury I am not anticipating having access to during this time. Next year, I plan to start tearing down my sacred spaces and transition into only what I need to write and publish. On the music side, that will take some additional thought. Every year I like to do something scary; tearing down the home offices I've spent my life in will be a scary mess!

Brian X. Chen from the NYT does his annual review and report for an article for The Times this week. The piece talks about the weird highlights of 2022 and what to watch for next year.

A lot of what Chen adds in the "2023 Tech Invasion" is more talk. Apple has a new headset, and most of the headset action will stay in games. Electric vehicles could be attractive. More options for social media; that's a long game.

We could see innovation in 2023 make several breakthroughs, big and small. Downturns and market volatility can spark innovation. In tech, the hardware teams might want to spend a little time finding the right problems to solve instead of inventing hardware that has to look for a problem. Electric vehicles could have a rough year if supply chains kink and chips remain short. Social media could have a big year; all we know for sure - we will be watching!

Michael Easter writes the newsletter 2%, and as we get ready to head into Resolution Season, he writes about quitting and grit. Easter also wrote a book called The Comfort Crisis, which goes well with a story about grit. In the newsletter, he looks at quitting and separating a person who can be thoughtful and know when it is time to let something go vs. someone with a high "Grit Score" and powers through whatever it is.

Grit, a combination of perseverance and tenacity, is good. Hanging on with grit to something that doesn't serve you are the time you are in is not a good thing. Sometimes it is wiser to "Fail Fast" and move on.

Setting up a system that can help to get through the many dips a resolution or long-term goal may hit you with is a great tactic. Say you want to be a writer and published author. A great way to start, challenge yourself to publish a newsletter every day for 100 days. That's grit, and you have to be comfortable knowing it won't be perfect, but it will be published. It also forces improvements to be made throughout the process, and over 100 days, many things we started with, we quit along the way. We started with another name for the newsletter; it didn't serve what the newsletter was becoming; we stopped it. We began by Rewriting pieces of writing we admired. We did that to remove the excuse of not having something to write about; once we had enough to write about every day, we quit the covers.

Getting to the top of the challenge is often easier than staying there. The daily grind (and grit) of getting the work published and constantly improving it. That's the pinnacle of determination -that's the sweet spot.

[Music Notes]

Here and there with the music.

We are happy to introduce (to our audience) Damon Krukowski, the drummer from Galaxie 500, along with writing, poetry, and according to his Substack, also vegetables. Krukowski is a discovery, and so our reading begins. A considerable benefit of being in the business of reading is discovering intelligent and creative people who publish words.

Today we read a piece from Krukowski talking about the "false flag" that is a CD Revival, which goes with the cassette revival we wrote about previously. Krukowski highlights much of the "noise" surrounding this non-revival and then follows it up with data, as all intelligent people do. In addition to the CD Revival myth, he goes into streaming, and what we thought was most impressive was the chart on income share in the music business over the last 100 years. Go read Dada Drummer Almanach.

Dada Drummer Almanach | Damon Krukowski | Substack

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

New music.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.