Friday's Five ✋ #437
A Day Off in the Sun
Happy Friday! ☀️
My friend Matze arrived in town yesterday for the weekend and we started our time together at Vienna’s WUK to see Betterov live on his second show of his tour that just started. I’ve written here before that to me, Betterov is one of the best current German artists and seeing him play live confirmed that feeling. We just got back from a long walk ‘n talk in the fields and woods with my in-laws’ dog who is with us for two weeks.
What I’m reading 📖
In The Wall, John Lanchaster creates a dystopia centred around The Wall, a 10,000km coastal defence structure in Britain in a not so distant future. Every British youngster is conscripted to spend two years of their life as a “Defender”, patrolling concrete walkways looking for “Others” who might appear at any moment from the sea.
Life on the Wall is cold. It is boring. It is utterly grim.
Enters Kavanagh, our protagonist of the story on his first day serving at The Wall. I most enjoyed the book–its audiobook version read by Will Poulter–yet found it a bit basic. More about the book.
What I’m listening to 🎧
New month, fresh monthly playlist. Shuffling through my February playlist reminds me of long stretches of focused and deep work on several creative projects. It was a good month, musically. Here are 17 songs that carried me through February.
What I’m watching 📺
Ever since his performance in Ozark, I take note about anything new Jason Bateman is involved in. DTF St. Louis, a new HBO Max mini series puts Bateman in a love triangle between three adults which leads to one of the ending up dead. Watch the trailer.
What I’m thinking about 🧠
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
What else I’ve built! 💯
Since leaving SoundCloud in 2017, I haven’t followed the macro business aspect of the music industry closely. Here and there, I see and read some pieces and posts and this one got me wondering and thinking, quite a provoking title: The Death of Spotify: Why Streaming is Minutes Away From Being Obsolete.
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!
David
Instagram | Website | 2025 Playlist | Company