Strip Down and K.I.S.S.
Historically I wait a week to write my new year’s blog post. The chatter’s too loud on the 1st and no one’s listening. So here we are 10 days in. How are you doing? This year I’m taking a recent revelation and making it a resolution. And it involves you. I hope.
There’s a tiny but enormously popular dining joint in North Berkeley CA right around the corner from my son’s house – it’s a mainstay on our dining list whenever we visit. It’s called The Cheese Board Collective; a worker-owned co-op on Shattuck Ave. in the groovy Gourmet Ghetto section of town. It’s a cheese shop/bakery by day (9am-4pm) and a pizzeria by night (5-8pm). Their unconventional business model is genius: They only serve one style of pizza & salad per day. It's vegetarian, no meat. No substitutions allowed. Limited seating. And every day the line is wrapped around the block.
Their secret sauce?
(other than their famous hot green Papi Chulo sauce you can request on the side)
They keep it simple stupid. Boom.
In a world of too much and too many, how does the simple thing get noticed? Make it easy and make it memorable. What makes it stick? Give them a taste and they will want more. Simple right? Nope. It’s really hard, especially for business owners and it’s why most don’t do it. I know because I’ve tried it a million times. It requires self-control and discipline to stay on task and intentional. Stick to what you do best. Don't try to be everything to everybody.
You might think it’s simple to keep things simple when you’re just starting out, and you might be right. You don’t have anything to lose or compare it to. That voice (yours) isn’t in your head yet. It’s why the ‘laissez-faire’ of beginner’s luck is so hard to replicate. It’s why a band’s sophomore album is much harder to write after a solid gold debut. It’s because ignorance is bliss and the minute you start to care or keep score you start to crack.
Why is it so hard to just keep things basic? Because the world is shouting more! more! more! It’s human nature’s narrative. And humans will deliver in a veritable feeding frenzy of one-upmanship, copycats, knockoffs, invention, disruption. And it’s real. But is it true?
Do people really want more? Or will they simply consume more if it’s dangled in front of them... What do you believe? My truth is loud and clear. It starts as a stomach ache when I’ve swiped too many instagram posts. I feel numb after I’ve binge watched my 4th episode of TV. Blood pressure up as I re-watch the same news stories. FOMO hits eventho there’s nowhere to go. It’s dangled in front of me and I get sucked in. My bad.
Ironically it requires a deliberate deceleration to undo and detox from a deluge of incoming. It’s bigger than cramming a quick 20 minute meditation session into a hectic schedule. Maybe a better approach is to do the things you love but take smaller bites. And you can start right here because I’m going to give you a small taste of what you came for… a simple soundbyte.
I’m going back to basics this year and I'm starting with you. Yes we'll still offer many music experiences (playlists, blog, music festival, house concerts, social media posts, etc.) But we're bringing back a popular and simple music segment we used to do called "Then & Now" (name changed to "Music Match" when I wrote for NYT) where I simply pair a new artist and a vintage artist, with a similar vibe. Linking something new with something familiar is how I built your trust to check out these new artists.
The simple format of one short music post each morning is easy and digestable for even the busiest people. And it keeps everyone relevant because it pulls from both sides of the timeline - and hopefully makes the new artist memorable. Today we’re relaunching our popular artist pairings under a new name: BOOMERANG! We will post daily on Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn. We will post a weekly Sundays on Instagram / Tik Tok
HERE'S A TASTE:
TODAY'S BOOMERANG:
If you like Crosby, Stills & Nash, Then try Fleet Foxes
"Southern Cross" on Daylight Again album -1982
"Sunblind" on new album Shore - 2020
All Boomerang Artist Pairs Will Be Added to our Boomerang Playlist on Spotify
In music,
Val
PS: You can find all of our playlists on Spotify - it's easy - just search Valslist and click on the little Valslist circle icon (our profile) and follow us! If you want more - subscribe to the Valslist Music YouTube channel, or sign up for our email list. Stay connected with us!