What’s up, y’all? It has been a while since the last newsletter. I hope this finds everyone safe and quarantined. I’ve had a bit of extra time due to this social distancing and working from home, so I was able to assemble another newsletter. Plus, you might have some extra time on your hands as well. So fix yourself a quarentini and dive in.
As always, if you know anyone that would like to subscribe, please send them to YeeHaw.io.
Taylor
[THE GOOD STUFF]
Mont St Michel, France
The best TV show you’ve never heard of
Dark is a Netflix sci-fi series that takes place in a small German town within the Black Forest. The show centers around a group of high schoolers. And after one of them goes missing, the town scrambles to understand how a kid can disappear without a trace and the only clue is that something similar occurred a generation earlier. This isn’t horror, though the trailer presents it as so. It is more of a suspenseful thriller that can be creepy occasionally. The first two seasons (10 episodes each; hour-long episodes) are available now, with the third coming out later this year. If you are looking for something a little different, really well-executed, and a bit of a mind-bender, this show is what you are looking for. This came highly recommended by my friend, Ben. I found that it was interesting enough through the first few episodes, but later in the first season, things sped up and the show only continues to get better as the story unfolds.
Modern laundry cleaner
HEX is a laundry detergent designed for clothes, such as activewear, that contain synthetic materials. Traditional detergents work fine with cotton, but I noticed some of my nicer workout clothing didn’t smell as clean as they should with typical detergent. I tried HEX and that hasn’t been an issue since. HEX also claims that it helps maintain the fabrics’ strength, stretch, and sweat-wickability, though I cannot personally confirm this. It comes in many scents and is available on Amazon (2 bottles for $24) or on their website for $10/bottle.
The worst video game of all time
(Podcast)
In this 26-minute podcast, 99% Invisible investigates the legend of the worst video game ever. Apparently the game was so bad that it killed Atari. And they hated it so much that they buried all unsold copies (which presumably was a lot) in the middle of the desert. At least, that is the legend. (Podcast URL; Apple Podcasts)
Wanna own a Bob Ross painting?
Apparently you can’t. The public TV personality and meme hero’s work has disappeared…and demand is growing for it. In this 10-minute video from the NY Times, they find all of Bob Ross’s works and discover why they are not for sale. (YouTube Link)
The new MTV Cribs
Men’s Health has a YouTube series where they interview celebrities by taking a tour through their fridge and their gym. Each episode is 10-minutes and is good light entertainment. I enjoyed the episode with Kumail Nanjiani, but you can browse the whole catalog here, which includes Tom Brady, Kevin Hart, Arnold, and many more. (YouTube Link)
A tour through elementary school memories
This Twitter thread is a feed of many weird games, cartoons, and school supplies that, at least for me, occupied an important role in my life for a short period and hadn’t been referenced in my memory since. Fellow Millennials might have some elementary school flashbacks while scrolling through. (Twitter Link then click “Expand this thread”)
Your new gym
(at home)#coronagainz
Many are now looking for ways to get a good workout without access to their gym. I have been able to recreate a relatively good “home gym” for under $100 and expect to at least maintain most of my strength through quarantine. I did this largely through resistance bands, which can easily replace most movement you would make in a free-weight workout. After some research, I settled on Lifeline Resistance Bands because they are durable and allow you to vary the resistance from light to heavy resistance by adding multiple bands together. With their system, you purchase a pair of handles, which can hold up to three separate bands. Then you combine bands of 10lbs, 20lb, 30lb, 60lb etc. in resistance together to fit your need. So a 60lb band added to a 40lb band is 100lbs of resistance. And that 100lbs is applied to both arms or legs that you are exercising (so 200lbs of total resistance). Because of this, you only need a few bands of varying resistance to create many weigh combinations. Lifeline resistance bands go up to 100lbs for a single band, so you can still do very heavy weight training. This is what you would need to get started (if you can’t get the items from Amazon, you can always go to the brand’s website instead):
Handles ($15 for 2) You might want to get two sets so you can rotate between multiple exercises more easily without switching out the bands each time
Bands ($8-20 each) I have a 20, 30, 40, 60 and two 90s. But have found the 90s are very difficult to get into the handles because they are thicker. If you can double up a couple 50 or 60lb bands, that would be easier to get to heavier resistances.
Door anchor ($5) This allows you to set up the bands at a stationary pull or push point. You can see how it works here.
Optional
Resistance Bar ($30) This item appears to be sold out at the moment (look at the far right item on this page, which is for just the bar and not the whole system), but I assume they will restock. This is a bit of a hack….if you combine this bar with the carabiners (listed below), you can attach these to the bands and handles above to do your squats and presses with a bar, if that is your preference.
Carabiners ($16 for 2) These are just to attach the bar above to the Lifeline handles and bands.
Jump Rope ($8) This isn’t fancy and probably isn’t the best jump rope you can get. But it is super cheap and a good weight and length to get in some great cardio and leg exercise with limited space.
MUSIC CORNER
Since the last YeeHaw, a lot of music has been released. Instead of spreading my music recommendations over many newsletters, I’ve decided to catch up by throwing everything I listened to in the latter half of 2019 and early 2020 into a single playlist. Normally, this might be overwhelming, but I’m guessing you may be in the need for more tunes than usual. Hopefully, you find this 100-song playlist manageable.
You can find the full playlist on Spotify HERE.
This playlist has a lot of great songs across many genres. In the past eight months, there were many great songs or albums with a few solid songs that I included. But for albums…below are a few notable artists featured in this playlist with albums you might want to check out:
Bleached - Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? Bleached is comprised of two sisters from LA. They have a rock/pop style and this is their third album. It is stacked with catchy songs.
Kishi Bashi - Omoiyari Kish Bashi is an American multi-instrumentalist and singer, who also is a member of the band of Montreal (one of my faves). Omoiyari is actually the soundtrack to a documentary created by Kishi Bashi under the same name. The doc as about incarcerated Japanese-Americans during WWII. Though that may imply the album is quite somber, it is actually very poppy and light in sound.
(Sandy) Alex G - House of Sugar (Sandy) Alex G is a singer-songwriter out of Philly. He reminds me a lot of Elliott Smith, but with less depressing lyrics.
Stranger Ranger - Remembering the Rockets Formerly Sioux Falls, Stranger Ranger is an indie band out of Portland, OR and is their third album. It is great to work to.
Whitney - Forever Turned Around This group is out of Chicago and is made up of a few members formerly part of the Smith Westerns. They describe their music as "think Bon Iver, with elements of folk and country, only given a Chicago soul makeover". Forever Turned Around is a really pretty album.
Selena Gomez - Rare You know, I’ve never listened to a Selena Gomez album before. And I probably couldn’t have identified one of her songs by hearing it prior to checking out her new album. But this thing is a solid collection of pop songs.
MEME ROUNDUP