Five Bullets 9.26.25
On planning, field recordings, Bandcamp and more.
Good Morning and Happy Friday Friends -
Welcome back to Circles In Space for another edition of Five Bullets where every Friday I write about what’s capturing my attention.
If you’re new here, grab the zine and check out the Welcome page for more writing.
I’m thinking this week about an aphorism commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin (though he probably wasn’t the first): “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
I’m learning that planning involves creating deadlines for myself because without a deadline, there’s no plan. I’ve been pretty busy lately at my day job and it’s challenged me to create a more robust system to meet deadlines on time.
What does this mean for the newsletter? It means that to complete the projects I want to share with you I must set non-negotiable deadlines and plan accordingly. The goal is more published writing!
Do you have a method or system for managing projects? Let me know in the comments.
I hope you all enjoy this week’s bullets. Here’s what’s capturing my attention:
Five Bullets 9.26.25
I like to record short audio clips while I’m walking around or travelling so I’m starting a new series called Field Recordings where I’ll be publishing more audio content. This week’s edition features Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I hit record on my phone’s voice memos app when I heard singing during a prayer service in the park.
As a big fan of the ‘90s sitcom Seinfeld I’ve always wondered why the theme song uses a bass as the primary instrument. Composer Jonathan Wolff discusses how he created the Seinfeld theme song. Wolff watched Seinfeld’s stand-up to get the rhythm down then tried to find an instrument which could fill the bars where Seinfeld wasn’t speaking. Wolff wrote a new version of the theme match Seinfeld’s stand-up in each episode.
Filmmaker and writer Braxton Haugen’s series The World of Braxton Haugen is part Wes Anderson, part Neistat brothers. I often think of Haugen as the quintessential modern-era writer. His short visually-appealing essays on life, work and travels are well-written and Haugen clearly has a knack for short-form media on TikTok and Youtube.
Let’s face it: Music streaming doesn’t sustain artists and doesn’t even sound all that great. Enter Bandcamp, an online record store and music community which puts musicians first. I’ve been using Bandcamp for over 10 years and I love that I can download music in high-quality audio formats. On the first Friday of every month, Bandcamp waives their revenue share fee so your favorite artists and musicians get even more money. (Check out this recent interview with King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard).
And lastly, I’ll leave you with this quote from John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley (more on this in a future essay):
“If I were to prepare one immaculately inspected generality it would be this: For all of our enormous geographic range, for all of our sectionalism, for all of our interwoven breeds drawn from every part of the ethnic world, we are a nation, a new breed. Americans are much more American than they are Northerners, Southerners, Westerners or Easterners…The American identity is an exact and provable thing.”
That’s all for this week folks! If you’ve got something you’re digging lately and think I’d be interested please send it my way. I’m always on the lookout for new music, movies, books and more to check out.
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Have a great weekend,
Keith.