Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 11
Working from home, Eddie Van Halen, Willie, Lenny Kravitz's fitness routine, new music from Future Islands, and three vicious knockouts you need to see.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week.
This is a newsletter filled with things Micah Wiener finds interesting.
Check out the introduction post here, and the entire archive of previous newsletters here.
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Read of the Week
Americans might never come back to the office, and Twitter is leading the charge.
This is an interesting look at two issues: the future of white collar work in America, and the HR policy of the Twitter organization. I discuss this in depth on this week’s Mind of Micah podcast.
First, the bigger question: what does it mean that the pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work?
Just six months after the coronavirus outbreak led thousands of companies to mandate that their employees work from home, 35 percent of the full-time U.S. labor force is still working remotely, compared to 2 percent prior to the pandemic, according to an August survey of 2,500 professionals by Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economics professor who specializes in distributed employment.
Then the fun stuff. First of all, the stories and quotes from Twitter employees are delightful in an insufferable way.
At the opening night party for the new headquarters, Dorsey drank smoothie shots with staff on the rooftop deck overlooking the homeless encampments below. “Gorgeous,” Dorsey tweeted that night.
So why is Twitter ahead of the curve? Because, two years ago, the company’s CEO had a good day working from home.
Then in January 2018, Dorsey, who is known as a freewheeling thinker, fired off a late-night email that took everyone by surprise — even the company’s own head of human resources. The email was originally written for his inner circle of senior executives, but he then unexpectedly forwarded it to the whole company. The subject line was “reflection."
“I decided to work from home today,” he wrote. “I got a lot done, and felt more focused and creative. We should always optimize for where people feel their most creative, and I’d love to see us be a lot more flexible about working from home.”
HR Chief Christie said her jaw dropped when she read the email, which appeared to be announcing a work-from-home policy she wasn’t aware of.
Subscribe to Mind of Micah wherever you listen to podcasts to get all three parts of this story sent to your device as soon as they drop.
Micah’s Musical Pick of the Week
As Long As You Are, By Future Islands
I like Future Islands. I don’t know how you would describe their music. It’s like electronic rock, but without a guitar player. I dunno. It’s good.
They first came on my radar, like they did for many with this absolutely electric performance on Letterman. If you’ve never seen it, or if you have, go out of your way to watch it RIGHT NOW.
This new album is enjoyable. Listen to it.
R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen
I’ve never been much of a Van Halen fan. They fell into a different era between my parent’s generation of Classic Rock and the stuff I discovered on my own. That being said, I’ve found myself down a couple of YouTube rabbit-holes this week. The power. The sound.
I’ve also been entertained by videos of Eddie in his studio, talking about his craft. A true artist. I loved this quote from his Rolling Stone obit:
“I don’t know shit about scales or music theory,” he told Rolling Stone in 1980. “I don’t want to be seen as the fastest guitar in town, ready and willing to gun down the competition. All I know is that rock & roll guitar, like blues guitar, should be melody, speed, and taste, but more important, it should have emotion. I just want my guitar playing to make people feel something: happy, sad, even horny.”
Gone too soon.
Willie Corner
Willie Nelson, Interpreter of the Great American Songbook
Texas Monthly has a special Willie-themed magazine out now, and the contents are available for free online. There’s stories about Willie and his guitar, Trigger, Willie as a landlord, and more.
People who aren’t from Texas, like my fiance, may not understand what this man means to us. They may not even understand his true understated genius. He’s arguably America’s greatest songwriter.
The piece we’ll feature in this space is about his mastery of the classics.
Then came Stardust, which featured not just “Georgia on My Mind,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” and “All of Me,” but also seven other songs made famous by some of the most popular vocalists of the twentieth century. Though the album seemed like a weird idea at the time, it moved Willie squarely in league with Ella, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby; suddenly, a man who first made his name as a songwriter had established himself as one of the most exceptional interpreters of American popular music.
Willie celebrated his forty-fifth birthday the same month Stardust came out, and for many stars that’s a time for retrenchment and consolidation, not risk-taking and expansion. The executives at Columbia were skeptical about the album, fearing that the aging poster boy for outlaw country would embarrass himself with such a slapdash project—recorded in only ten days—made up of songs older than he was, some dating back to the twenties. Would record buyers even remember “Moonlight in Vermont” and “Someone to Watch Over Me,” let alone want to hear Willie Nelson sing them?
But Stardust turned into a megahit, rising to the top spot on the Billboard country albums chart. The lead single, “Georgia on My Mind,” became a number one country single. Then the 1926 song “Blue Skies,” delivered with a plaintive vocal twang that composer Irving Berlin never envisioned, somehow followed it to number one. And then Stardust stayed on the Billboard country albums chart for the next ten years.
The piece also includes a new-to-me quote from Frank Sinatra.
After Stardust came out, Ol’ Blue Eyes reportedly called Willie his favorite singer. “That cat can sing,” he remarked. “That cat is a blues singer. He can sing my stuff, but I don’t know if I can sing his.” Then, in 1984, Sinatra paid perhaps the biggest tribute of all, opening for Willie at the Golden Nugget, in Las Vegas.
Lenny Kravitz's Guide to Immortality
Lenny Kravitz is 56. He looks like this:
Wanna hear his keys to success:
Since the late ’90s, Kravitz has worked with Miami-based trainer Dodd Romero, whom he credits with helping him maintain a slinky silhouette and the stamina to play three-hour concerts well into his 50s. The routine is targeted—fasted cardio in the morning, cardio before bed so he’s burning all night, weights throughout the day. These days, they work together via FaceTime, Kravitz says, “and we always have a goal in front of us. My best shape is not behind me. It’s in front of me right now. We keep moving that bar as we get older.” But in Eleuthera he’s had to improvise a little, Albert Roker style. He’s found trails on his property, runs through the bush on grass and dirt. “That’s been my cardio,” he says, “and then I moved some hand weights over next to a coconut tree that basically comes out of the ground sideways, so that’s now my bench, and I lift weights on this coconut tree. I’m doing a complete jungle workout.”
Some life. Must be nice.
Knockouts of the Week
These are insane. Both from Saturday night.
And from the main event:
Goodnight now.
Tweet of the Week
Maybe this is the knockout of the week. Buh-bye.
Where else can I find Micah content?
Podcasts: Mind of Micah, Back Door Cover, Too Much Dip
Twitter: @micahwiener & @producermicah (Why two twitters? It’s a long story)
Instagram: @micahwiener
LinkedIn: @micahwiener
Peloton: #badboysofpelly@micahwiener
Email: micahwiener@me.com
A- This week. Really digging the Future Islands recommendation. Loved their 2014 Singles album but haven't really thought about them since then. So this was a great reminder of their weird genius. Disappointed we didn't get a Whole30 update. Also, last week's coffee ratio helped push me over the edge to upgrade my coffee maker and get the ratio's perfected. Keurig's are trash; the opposite of Micah newsletters. Everyone go vote!