In a full letter today, Nick Cave again proves why he is the standard for a true Soul Man. He would be someone we would consider for a dream conversation; speaking of conversation, how about a few thoughts on what you need for a good conversation and whether we've lost the ability. From conversation and community to focus work, we offer our thoughts and a few others on tricks you can use to do some focus work. A Lollapalooza 2023 review and photo gallery will finish off today's notes.

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We report on nice guys in rock music like Dave Grohl and Mark Hoppus, but Nick Cave is on a different level.  One of the projects we’ve been working on as we wrap up the first year of With A Shout is who our top highlighted people are. Nick might be on the top of that list; we always highlight his Red Hand Files website. Today we are highlighting another piece of Cave; this one comes from another person we highlight often, Eric Alper, a must Twitter follow, fellow music lover, and SiriusXM host. He shares a letter Nick Cave wrote to MTV back in the day about award nominations. If you want to know how to express passion with gratitude and do your craft for the soul, you need to know Nick Cave.

I hold people brave enough to produce art for the sake of the art in a high place. This letter by Nick Cave was written in the 90s, back when his bands were famous but not yet infamous. You still needed to sell records and tickets; turning down nominations for legit awards doesn't help you sell records. In true punk rock style, Cave's gratitude for the exposure and the attention is anti-establishment through and through. Many good punk rock bands will sing about isolation and feeling left out until the awards, accolades, and acceptance start to roll in. It's a hard drug to shake once you start taking it. Unless your art is what you are; profession, passion, and vocation. Unless you are brave enough to do it for the sake of doing it and for nothing else, thank you, Nick Cave, you are a lighthouse for my soul.

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Charlie Tyson brings up a profound article about the characteristics of a good conversation. It's a lost art, but before we all melt into our headsets and avatars, it's worth another review. Tyson highlights a book by Paula Marantz Cohen called Talking Cure, and she makes a point that a good conversation requires mutual vulnerability. This goes along with what seems to be the current discourse between people. A good conversation requires vulnerability, and part of vulnerability means you must be curious about what someone else thinks. A lousy conversation is when you spend too much time trying to make a point. If I wanted information, I could have Google it; I want a conversation; I want to know what you think, not what you've heard elsewhere.

Like a previous story about productivity, today we highlight a Popular Science story about removing distractions. The move to digital work began in the late 90s, and by digital work, we mean all office work; accountants, managers, and most white-collar work involves sitting at a computer for most of the day. Some of us remember AOL Instant Message and using it at work as far back as 20 years ago. Distractions from the work you must do are as old as the work itself.

A few of the tricks Whitson Gordon suggests are ones you've probably heard before, and a few of them we've used ourselves. The first one, create a new browser profile. We agree with this; according to the article, you can create multiple profiles, and it's easy in Google Chrome. Once you've created the additional profiles, you can click on the profile circle in the top right corner of the browser and select the one you want to use for your work. We've taken this a step or two further by using multiple browsers for our work. Chrome is one of the primary apps, but we use Microsoft Edge for research, links, reviews, highlights, and so on. The other benefit of using another browser or another profile is that you can save them as bookmarks. A profile with specific bookmarks for the jobs you are working on can save a lot of time, and getting the old bookmarks or distractions out of the work profile helps us stay focused.

We will always shout out any recommendation that includes music; if you are in an office and need to do focus work, bring some headphones. If you work hybrid or remote, play your jams remotely. There are many suggestions as to what Focus Music is, and to us, it's whatever helps you focus or puts a smile on your "mind face."  You work better with a smile on your mind!

Consequence has a grumpy recap of this past weekend's Lollapalooza 2023 in Chicago. As a sometimes grumpy old man, I can relate to the observations, especially in the Chicago heat in August 2023, but come on, it's Lollapalooza! As a young 20 nothing in 1991, seeing the first Lollapalooza will always hold a special place in my heart. It still promotes music and community, which will compensate for a few shortfalls with the venue and acts. 

Click on the picture below to see a gallery of photos from the event.

I admit hearing that a few of the acts may have phoned it in doesn't bother me. After the last few years, getting back to a bit of artist exhaustion and taking the audience for granted says we are another step closer to normal 😎

Bury your beauty.

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

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Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Here’s one for the road!

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

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