Welcome to the first edition of this new thing.
This isn’t an essay. This is a curated digest containing my greatest finds from the beloved internet. In these digests I’ll share content that nourishes my soul in hopes that it can nourish yours too. You can expect music, videos, articles, visual art, and the miscellaneous. I’m not sure how often I’ll be doing this, this is an experiment.
All of WWWW is an experiment.
Thanks for sharing your attention and time with me. I will use it wisely.
For Listening
Fred Again.. just released an album: Actual Life 3. It’s high energy. Fred’s fingers are clearly set firmly on the pulse of everything around him.
Fred Gibson is an innovative musician with a range of experience producing for the likes of Ed Sheeran and George Ezra. Electronic music or EDM may not be your cup, but Fred’s new album is unlike anything I’ve heard. Prior, he released the immediately nostalgic We’ve Lost Dancing that permeated strobe and smoke lit basements mid-pandemic. Fred has been mentored by none less than Brian Eno since the age of 16.
Eno makes ambient music, aural journeys that transport into immersive soundscapes. If you like ambient music, check out Eno’s Music for Airports. It’s awesome, especially after taking a tab of acid or smoking weed. Optional: close your eyes.
There’s something special about Fred’s sound, especially when compared to most EDM. Eno’s influence is palpable as Fred’s uses a mixture of stretched out sounds sampled from the world around him, tweaked vocal samples from Instagram or his own recordings and more, forming unique dynamics and harmonies conveying the beauty of humanity and relationships. In his interview with Zane Lowe (skip to 39:00 to see Fred do an amazing thing on a beat pad), he explains his creative process. He travels around London on his bicycle with his laptop (he often creates right off his laptop), sits somewhere crowded, and starts producing while taking in the vibe of a place as he’s creating. He also uses samples from videos he records on nights out with friends, giving his music a distinctive emotional quality rooted in a humanness that I haven’t heard or felt in other electronic music, especially EDM.
For more Fred, check out his Studio Live set and his Boiler Room set.
For Watching
Watch on Youtube: Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride (Documentary)
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
— Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter was the literary legend responsible for pioneering gonzo journalism. Known for his drug-fuelled gun-slinging life that mocked all American proprieties, he was a complete individualist with a love for words, smoking, drugs, guns and excess of all four and more. The man lived his life to the utmost, on his own terms. Described as deeply moral and integral by the people closest to him, his writing explores the very edge of the American Dream and the spirit of excess that accompanies it.
Having famously said “I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn't know I could commit suicide at any time,” the man and the self-created American counterculture myth who eventually became a prisoner of his own myth, shot himself in 2005.
Regardless of his unfortunate death, I’ve always felt inspired by Hunter. His inimitable commitment to personal freedom and self-sovereignty reminds me to live my life on my own terms, and to have faith in my own feelings and thoughts.
He’s also a master of words.
For more Hunter, watch Where the Buffalos Roam featuring Bill Murray or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas featuring Johnny Depp. Read Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by the legend himself.
For Reading
Read: If You’re Reading This It’s Jim Joe
Jim Joe is a secretive street artist from Montreal who’s latest work has been spotted in NYC, on the streets and in art galleries. He tags “Jim Joe” on trash, walls, roads… anything. Sometimes he signs his name alongside enigmatic variations of common saying and popular quotes. He also designed the album cover for Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late project. Few people know who this person is.
Where is he now and what is he up to? No one knows, but I’m waiting.
If you enjoyed reading this, please let me know by tapping the “heart” icon. If you didn’t enjoy this digest, you can also let me know. If you hated it, definitely let me know. Or maybe don’t. I don’t know, it doesn’t matter.
I hope you enjoyed and found new rabbit holes to dive into!
Peace and love.
Jim Joe sounds like the UK's Banksy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy ! I really like that painting you showed.