High Five Friday - 7/19/2019 (Patreon)

Street Fight Radio is back! For two weeks at least, you can watch our livestreams on Youtube, Twitch, and Facebook. You can get tickets and info for DC, Chapel Hill, Nashville, Jacksonville, and Atlanta on our site. 8 days to go until we jump in a van with The Sams and the The Trillbillies and Means TV and head down to the DSA convention. We have a show in Atlanta on Saturday 8/3 and Sunday 8/4. I got some healthy tips and habits for this week. 

• MyFitnessPal - If you are having trouble with your eating, trying to gain weight, lose weight, avoid sugar, or anything related to your nutrition, you need to track what you eat. Logging every food item you eat isn't fun, and it is an extreme thing to do, all the time, but what about just for a month? You don't need to be a bodybuilder to know what's going in your body. I checked in to myfitnesspal every day for 6 months, I entered in all my recipes, and I measured all my food portions with a scale and measuring cup, and now I can look at any plate of food I make and know about how many calories I am eating. Knowing the caloric content of entire bag of chips makes it harder to scarf them all down. The information can help you find a way of sustainable eating that isn't dieting, which is doomed to fail when it comes to lifelong success. 

• Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad - I could write a lot about this book. Bryan is reading it as well so hopefully we will get to say a lot about it on a podcast as well.
  
  Overall this book was incredibly informative about what we are doing now. The only stuff I knew about SST, Dischord, Touch and Go, Sub-pop, etc was from these older druggies who would tell me half-truths and myths when we were hanging out. They peppered in some of the stories from this book as well. For some reason I never picked up the book, I think because I considered it nostalgia, looking backwards at a time and place when there was the best scene ever and knowing I'll never get to go. I've always preferred modern creators and enjoy the boundary pushing that comes with it.
  
  I think I also avoided this book because I didn't wanted to be tainted by somebody else. I didn't think we were going to make an impact by following a guide book.  Now at a more mature age I realized that you don't have to just wish you could be in scenes long past, you could actually learn from them, to make your own. I am sitting here wondering how much faster our trajectory could have been sped up had I read about how these early labels and bands got started. Our early insistence on boots and jeans being the most superior combination, and square cut being the only way to eat a pizza was us making our own myths and rules and having a unique type of fun that came from rejecting the norm. The last chapter about K records, Beat Happening, and specifically Calvin Johnson, and they way he used an unconventional and atypical playing style, cardigan sweaters, and board games as a signifier of a new kind of fun anti-punk to piss off the dirty macho shit heads in the pit, was inspiring.
  
  Last year was pretty rough for me and a big part of the misery that led to therapy was about whether or not what I do is of any importance, and if I am deserving of all that I've received. This book lifted a lot of that residual burden for me. I felt like I was being completely and fully acknowledged. It's a struggle for me to not have an abundance of peers around who know what my career is like. This book reminded me that I am a part of the cosmic tradition of spending all your time and money on your passion, and hoping you get some back. The ethics that Fugazi ran their band with are not what I would do, but they reminded me it's something we can do. It's part of what inspired the discount ticket system. Before I ever asked to raise the price for tickets, I had to get an okay from Bryan. When I sat down and did the math and figured out how much the Hellfire Congregation Of Radical Egalitarianism needed to go on the road, I told Bryan it would be $25, and we both said something like, "can we make it affordable?" Also along with that there is a silent agreement of,  "and how can we make sure it's not a pain our asses to do so." So the discount system has being working really well so far and I am really touched by how many people who have extra income are using it to help out other street fighters. I believe we are going to have a leftover amount of donated ticket money. We'll most likely be donating that to an immigration advocacy group. Let me know if you have any favorites.
  
  

• Shaun T - When my daughter was born I decided that with all this stay at home dad time on my hands it was my duty to stay physically fit for her sake. My workouts are now a foundational part of who I am and something I wish I had done for a longer period of time (warehouse work was fitness enough). I started where I suggest everyone does, the most comfortable place in the world, home. Once you’ve practiced some foundational movements like push ups, squats, lunges, etc. it make going to a class or the gym a lot easier.
  
  Shaun T is the guy who motivated me to push myself farther than I thought I could. I am home all day with my daughter so I haven't been able to get any runs in and I went right back to Beach Body to get my T25 workouts in. I follow him on social media and he has an adorable family and is generally a joy to follow. I even cried a little when I watched his spectacular wedding vid. As a home fitness coach he is really intense and draws out the last of energy reserves. There is something engaging in the way that he says he believes you, lol, he's a guy I can trust through my TV screen. A week of full blown Insanity workouts is still the most ridiculous thing I ever did for exercise so I am still trying to work my way back up there. I mostly lift weights and run these days.

• Samsara - No story or dialogue, just 102 minutes of beautiful images and sounds of human life on earth all shot on 70mm film. A younger version of me would have tripped while watching this, and I still plan to, but it's just as great without ego death. It's meditative and peaceful and makes for a wonderful background imagery as well. It rewards your patience and sharpens your concentration. So much of it is just incredibly moving.
  recommended for: Planet Earth fans, Calm app users, burnouts, prayer flag owners.

• "... life does not consist mainly -- or even largely -- of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one's head." -Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1

If you like what you read here and you haven’t seen all of my High Five Friday posts they can be found here.

Peace,

Brett