Five things...15 December 2023
Five Things-15 December 2023
I’ve continued working through The Bear and took note of the distinct differences between the first and second half of the season. In the early episodes, everything was positive; Carmy showed himself to be a good leader and mentor—’ let’s work together, and there’s a solution to every problem.’ In the second half of the first season, things fell apart. Carmy got more and more stressed and imparted it onto the team. Initially, they had a ‘solve every problem’ attitude, but it soon dissolved into chaos. Of course, this is a TV show, but it always plays out in real life; if a leader stays calm and focused, so will the team.
It’s funny how hearing a song on a good TV show can change your perspective. I’ve written about this before. Whether it’s a song or artist I didn’t like, one I’d forgotten or always loved, hearing a song in a different context can make me love it again or for the first time. Here are three from my venture through The Bear:
When I mentioned this song, “John Mayer- didn’t we cancel him?” was my wife’s response. He hadn’t been on my radar for a long time, but I heard this song and liked it, especially in the show’s context.
Sufjan Stevens falls into the ‘never been my favorite’ category; the same goes for this song. But as mentioned above, the song was beautiful within the show’s context. It’s also a demo, which I like better than the album version.
Wilco’s Impossible Germany is a song I’ve always loved because it makes me think of Duluth. Whenever I hear the first note, everything I loved about living there comes rushing back. The song was released in 2007 when we moved to Duluth, and I started at Northland. My wife and I also saw them in concert, so we’ve seen it played live in Duluth. Hearing it in The Bear brought a double connection and made me love it even more. The last three minutes are about as good as it gets.
This camping grill was taking up space in our garage, and some time ago, I brought it to work with the intent of occasionally grilling something for lunch. This week, I finally fired it up and grilled some chicken sausages. Now that the seal is broken, I imagine many grilled lunches in my future.
I cleaned my office a few weeks ago, and now it might almost be to the point where our pre-schooler stops saying: “Dad, why is your office such a mess!?” I think he had a bit of help coming up with that line, but I’ll admit it: it was messy. Now, it’s much less so. It’s nice to have a clean office.
I recently finished The Perfect Car, the biography of John Barnard. Barnard was one of the most innovative F1 car designers in history. His most notable innovations were the carbon fiber chassis and the semi-automatic paddle shift gearbox. Both have been ubiquitous in F1 for nearly 30 years. At numerous points in the book, Barnard talked of how he was always looking for a step-change; he wasn’t happy to iterate past versions; he wanted changes that could take his cars to an entirely different level. He was always in pursuit of the Perfect Car. If you enjoy the technical aspects of F1, you’ll be thoroughly entertained by this biography.
