amazing recommendations for now

if you want to start appreciating the weirder music in your collection, purchase an analog modeling synthesizer. the default lame thing to do with that is make dance music, which many people have already done poorly. if you want to do something more serious/experimental, you'll find yourself looking for a degree of guidance. suddenly the deerhoof and sin fang bous type stuff is easier to appreciate during daylight hours.

see air if they tour the us this fall/winter/whenever. the 0.1185 people who took up my previous recommendation will get even more smiles out of the experience. bonus: one of the new songs is 'sing sang sung,' which is way more hilarious if you ever knew someone who liked to conjugate the english verb swim in order to make fun of the silly sounding english language. note: air is a good example of french people acting like they're way cooler than you because they think it's funny. if that's not true, just pretend it is and (again) get even more smiles out of the concert experience for taking my advice.

start a textbook company that isn't trying to rip people off. apparently the new way to fight the tyranny of used textbook sales is to convince schools to push the use of a paid website that you sell access to as part of a textbook bundle. those who purchase the textbook used don't get access, until they pay for the site on top of their used textbook cost.

when starting a band that pushes the limits of a particular genre, don't necessarily bother listening to anyone who's trying to do the same thing. hopefully you'll push the limits in a different direction by default.

during a move, throw out all items that are not useful or valuable. sentimental value should only count in rare instances.

the best way to save money on sporting equipment is to avoid knowing anything about new developments - this is true of all things, but if you're american you probbaly own specialized equipment for five sports you play intermittently. it's easier to avoid news on tennis rackets than mobile phones, you know? example: when was the last time the nyt ran an article on a tennis racket? how about a smartphone? personal note: i went to the driving range with my roommate's 2nd hand rusty clubs and had a blast. i have never been able to hit a driver but finally was able to get that to work intermittently. if you'd told me those were the best clubs in the world and they'd looked the part, i would have believed you.