2023 Challenge Projects continue, building character and increasing happiness. Adding a project that will build stamina may need to be next, but With A Shout! finishes what it starts.

Friday, we close the business week with a few stories about the movies, the sounds and feelings that go along with the films, and a deeper dive into how much music a penny could buy you in the 80s.

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This is the 21 Day Challenge Program.

There are two parts to today's challenge; a work aspect (hard) and a mentor and a student aspect (easy). 

New people are arriving virtually and physically to help with 2023 growth.  The anxiety with trying to teach others how to do the things you figured out on your own is strong.  I have a long history of coaching kids in sports; I've raised 3 boys and coached hundreds of kids over the years and gained tremendous satisfaction from that experience.  I've built several businesses and hired and fired many people over the years.  Training people to do things has never been my strong suit.  New admin and operations people will start this month, and I've always been more of a "pick up a shovel and dig" guy myself – maybe the Stoics have the secret I need to become a better mentor/manager. 

I mentor students at a grade school in my neighborhood.  Similar to coaching, mentoring kids is easy for me.  Easy doesn't mean I can't do it better.  I'll take a tip or two from today's challenge when meeting with my kids next week.

This is the 7-day happiness challenge, focused on relationships.

After years of kids' Christmas presents, friends' White Elephant gift exchanges, and holiday work parties, I started giving a few gifts to people in my life that impacted me during the year.  Last year I gave small gifts to a few people I work with at my gym, and this year I gave a gift to a kid who wasn't expecting to get a gift from me.  Today's challenge goes deeper into thankfulness and telling the people you love that you love them.

I will take the advice, match it with my Christmas gift-giving, and write a few thank-you cards for people who would not expect to get them from me.

Working with a journal allows you to slow your own thoughts, and meditate on your days. Sahil Bloom does it again, and adds to the January projects. This project will be the daily cherry on top of all the others. Here’s the write from Bloom:

Caveday is a virtual focus community. You signup, schedule time in a "Cave," and start a Zoom call with a quick introduction and then off on your Sprint to work alongside others.

We have made several comparisons to the Columbia House Record & Tape Club from the 80s.  In a few quick searches, we found a story from a couple of years ago by The Washington Post that goes into the details of the program that took more than a penny out of our pockets but provided us with great music. 

Back in the day, just before CDs and proper past LPs, we had a moment with cassette tapes.  These nifty little music holders fit nicely on the floor of your car and, if you were an organized person, in a Case Logic cassette case.  We displayed cassettes and, eventually, CDs in a different way than LPs; a cassette had a binding with the band and album name on it.  In a case or a makeshift shelf, you put all your cassettes on them and proudly boasted your taste like a poster on the wall.

The piece in the post goes into fascinating detail about the bands and the process of building the music.

The NYT has an article on music in movie trailers.  We have reported on sound and movie trailers before; Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast does a great series on movie sound design.  The NYT article talks more about existing music that is repurposed and used in a way that could make you think about an upcoming movie differently.  The example they use we recognized is Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in the upcoming “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”  Adding this tune to the trailer is said to add “cosmic drama,” another name we might take for a punk rock cover band in the future. 

A second notable trailer mentioned in the article is Radiohead’s Creep in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network.  In the trailer, a women's choir sings the Radiohead song, and it is creepy, beautiful, but creepy. A movie with a remix of a Radiohead song in the trailer, followed by a film score by Trent Reznor (NIN), you go in dark.

Enticed by a headline and further interested by the article in Wired, a movie that would not typically make the "let's trek to the movie theaters to see" might be on the weekend agenda. The headline:

Kate Knibbs wrote the piece and goes on to defend the headline, and supporting a smaller indie film to a behemoth that is a James Cameron film is enough for a little newsletter peppered with a punk rock mentality.

The article says there is a tone to this movie; it is more comedy than horror, and it is both "winking and self-aware," which we find endearing in film these days.

Besides, how can you not go from Radiohead's Creep above to M3GAN below?

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

Very creepy.

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.