Roundabout Highlights - Week of February 11th
Music I listened
In a previous Roundabout Highlights I mentioned the pianist Simon Ghraichy. Chilly Gonzales is also one of my favorite artist. I don't know why, but I love minor key piano. In his weekly 5-Bullet Friday, Tim Ferris shared a link to Gnossienne No. 3, by Erik Satie. Great music. He did an interesting podcast with Susan Cain where she mentioned that " minor key music can help you better experience the full spectrum of the human condition."
Books I enjoyed
I went to Dominican Republic to ...
Posted on February 3rd, 2019
Roundabout Highlights - Week of January 28th
Music I listened
I'm trying something this year where I listen to sets rather than songs from a playlist. I find that it is easier to stay in the flow, but I might be wrong. YouTube and Soundcloud are the best to find uninterrupted mix. My favorite set this week was Kiasmos - Full Performance (Live on KEXP). Kiasmos is a Faroese-Icelandic minimal, experimental techno duo. Think of it as when a classical music composer brings harmonics to the electro beats.
Podcast I enjoyed
What Jd Ross Thinks About B...
Posted on January 28th, 2019
Where is your temple?
One of the most important concepts I learned in 2018 is the concept of bliss after reading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell.
Campbell's philosophy on life is that you should follow your bliss [1]: "If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time....
Posted on January 27th, 2019
Roundabout Highlights - Week of January 21th
It's been a while 😅 It was crazy at work and was just able to get my head out of the water.
Music I'm listening
Simon Ghraichy - Heritages. My kind of piano! Graichy is a French pianist of Lebanese and Mexican heritage, living in Paris. Heritages is a masterpiece that mix different style and different cultures. While doing some research, I stumbled on this quote: "Il ne faut pas avoir peur du piano, confie-t-il C’est un instrument percussif que l’on doit maitriser. Chercher le beau son à tout prix ? N...
Posted on January 27th, 2019
Lessons from Mary Barra on leadership
Mary Barra is GM current CEO. She was appointed in January 2014 and she is the first female CEO of a major auto manufacturer. At the time of her appointment, she had been with GM for 33 years, making her a veteran of the company. Barra started working on the assembly line, inspecting fender and hood panels, to help pay her college fees as an 18 years old. She completed her degree in electrical engineering at the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) and then started worked as an engineer ...
Posted on November 24th, 2018
Roundabout Highlights - Week of November 19th
Music I'm listening
Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra - Cantaloupe Island (Live). I like when actors are also musicians. They usually bring an extroverted side that musicians don't really have. It's the case with Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, Independence Day, Thor) who brings a lot of energy to the scene and approach it that way: "I love improvising and that feeling of communication and interplay. It's one of the cornerstones of my acting technique. I see my music in th...
Posted on November 24th, 2018
Roundabout Highlights - Week of November 5th
Music I'm listening
Khruangbin @ Villain. It's so smooth and sensual. I feel like I'm in an old western or in a Tarantino movie. Khruangbin is a Texan trio. Their sound is rooted in classic soul & Rnb, but they also include some funk, psychedelia, rock and pop. The projections at the live show are also worth looking at.
Podcast I listened
Seth Godin was on Tim Ferriss podcast and he dropped some gems. Feeling overwhelm is a systems problem: "Drinking from a fire hose is a really bad wa...
Posted on November 12th, 2018
Roundabout Highlights - Week of October 29th
Music I'm listening
Brothers from Harvey Sutherland. It is electronic music rooted in soul, disco and funk. Harvey was influenced by dance music, but not comfortable inside its rules and decided to create a world of his own: "looking for songs in strange places".
Podcast I listened
I got laser surgery this week, so I went on a podcast binge. My favorite was James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, on the Rich Roll podcast. Also very podcast notes here."Every action you take, is a vote for the type o...
Posted on November 5th, 2018
Roundabout Highlights - Week of September 24th and October 1st
What I'm listening
I was already a big fan of Jon Batiste and particularly of his Jazz is Now album. He released a new album, Hollywood Africans, which includes well known jazz songs like What A Wonderful World, Saint James Infirmary and The Very Thought of You.
What I'm reading
I read At Home with the Inner Self by Jim Burns. It's a short book of 126 pages that discusses how Jim Burns, a diagnosed schizophrenic tortured by his outer self for much of his life, studied his mind to become...
Posted on October 8th, 2018
Roundabout Highlights - Week of September 17th
What I'm listening
I don't know why but this week I had Hiatus Kaiyote - Nakamarra on my mind all the time. No love story, but I guess I just love the mix of soul, sensuality and energy in this song.
What I'm reading
I really liked this conversation between Michele Gelfand and Tyler Cowen. You can listen to the podcast, but it's also worth a read. Michele discusses the concept of tight and loose culture which is fascinating from a culture, social psychology and human behavior persp...
Posted on September 23rd, 2018