Dylan's Open Tabs Vol. 5: America Online Trial Discs, Spiderman's Junk, Sk8r Boi, and IKEA
Also: DMVs, devious elephants, and how to ruin someone's Christmas.
“You’ve got OPEN TABS!”
Tell dad not to make any calls and get ready for this 56k experience!
Are you on one of those 1,000 hours trial discs of my newsletter? Here’s your obligatory reminder to give me your money for exclusive content and also to enable this nonsense for years to come.
I’ll stop promoting subscriptions once we reach one billion subscribers. That’s 1 in 7 on this planet rounding down. 1 billion also happens to be the estimated number of trial discs AOL sent out…
Listen to this:
You may have noticed that I like Olivia Rodrigo.
(Don’t judge my playing, it’s honestly really messy lol.)
Based on context clues in this video thumbnail, you may be inclined to believe that Olivia Rodrigo lives in a DMV. That isn’t the case as far as I can tell, but what I can tell you is this is one of my favorite Tiny Desk (Home?) episodes of them all.
Vocally, incredible. It is clear to me, having watched several of her live performances, that she approaches each set with a different vocal arrangement and/or room for improvisation, and it always works. Call me the Jokerman, but I hear some Bob Dylan moments with the upward inflections that sort of “give up” on the tail end of some lines. “Ain’t it funny…”
What I love about Olivia is that her music has a sense of lyrical maturity and genuine emotion beyond her age, and I don’t mean that in a condescending way. Traitor, in particular, really fucks with me.
That said, she adds a very endearing, awkwardish Gen-Z (sorry) vibe between songs, and I really believe she doesn’t take herself too seriously.
Many internet buffoons like to claim she’s a manufactured industry plant. Perhaps there were strings pulled and money spent to get Driver’s License to pop off like it did, but I really believe she has a significant role in her image and music. How many engineered pop artists show up and awkwardly laugh away silence between songs they perform in a DMV, with an ensemble of five guitars for one song?!
Also, there’s a great guitar solo, and I’m gonna leave it here because I could talk about this forever. I stan.
This:
No reason, just this.
Read this:
“If you know you’re the ocean, you’re not afraid of the waves.”
I think I read her books out of order… oops. Anyway, Tara Brach is a voice you may have heard if you use the Calm App for meditation. (I do, also recommended). She’s a “psychologist, author, and proponent of Buddhist meditation” according to Wikipedia.
In addition to meditating with this diva, I was recommended these books by my therapist on my quest for gratitude and self-acceptance and all that fun stuff. It was just genuinely a good book, great insights, and memorable concepts “R.A.I.N.” will be stuck in your B.R.A.I.N. by the end of it, in a good way.
There are stories and end-chapter questions from her previous students that answer a lot of the skepticism along the way. Clever lady, Tara.
I really dislike reading self-help framed in religion, but that hardly ever comes off in this book, and it’s Buddhism which is one of the more respectable religions. If a religion isn’t an “organized religion” is it disorganized? If so, I think I just discovered a connection to my brain.
Wheeeeeee!
Radical Compassion by Tara Brach
Watch this:
It’s not often that I think of this video, but when I do, I have to stop what I’m doing and watch it. It’s 2:10 of pure hilariousness.
Share this:
Okay so I used “read this” already, but here’s more reading material. This time by yours truly. I hinted at a new outlet you’d see my writing in and… here it is!
91 Famous People with ADHD 👀
Oh, and I wrote about where to get weed in Seattle for Vibemap. (Yes, I left one infamous company out on purpose. IYKYK.)
Also watch this:
As a rule, I’ve sort of avoided “politics” in favor of social commentary here because we hear this shit everywhere and I want to continue to enjoy writing this. If you want to hear me rant 182 times a day, you can do so on Twitter.
In cases where there’s a productive, solution-oriented, enjoyable format for the material, I will pop one of these in here and there.
At a time when everyone center/right on the political spectrum is discussing property crime and vandalism despite the fact that most crime is categorically trending down, I think it’s important to be equipped with the information. This conversation intersects with the ongoing labor movement in an interesting way. To see all of media and police departments and local governments constantly talking about property crime (down), they never discuss wage theft (up) and the difference between these two numbers (astounding).
The estimated total of all theft (robbery, larceny, burglary, and motor vehicle theft) in the US amounts to $15 Billion dollars.
What is stolen from American workers? Estimates reflecting only minimum wage violations from corporations: $15 Billion. Some estimates including more areas of corporate theft reach $50 Billion per year, which is thousands on average for each American.
Thousands of dollars, on average, for each American, is stolen without consequence by corporations, but your local news will tell you every night and day when a brown man scared a Karen on Nextdoor. Watch out!
This week, just one Burger King franchise in San Francisco was cited with $1.9 Million in wage theft. But you should feel really sad when thousands protest for Black Lives and a single Amazon Go’s windows get broken (by someone not even involved in the organizing was taking advantage of the commotion to let out their anarchist dreams).
Watch this to be equipped for the next conversation you have with your conservative uncle who watches Fox News.
Behind this paywall is more stuff and things and junk. You know what to do if you want to see it. (Kidnap my dog and hold him hostage, I’d do anything for that little man, tbh. I can’t even deny it.)
Want to ruin someone’s Christmas? You can gift them a subscription, and it won’t get held up in the mail. The supply chain can’t take me down!
— #ADHDylan
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