lieroplantir@gmail.com 

Favourites:

August 2021


by Liero Plantir
20/09/2021


The last month of summer 2021, how sad. Here’s some favourites from that time. 



still slipping vol. 1
Joy Orbison
Baron Libre
Arca
ARCHIVO VOL. 1
Kelman Duran


Mixes




Yung Singh | BR London: Yung Singh Pres. Daytimers

Daytimers are such a great collective, from what they represent to how they put on an event. The energy is unmatched. Every Boiler Room from that night was elevated to a whole other level with the energy in that room. You can just feel it. If you don’t know about Daytimers, there couldn’t be a better place to start.
Dekmantel Podcast 342 - Loraine James

I love Loraine James and I love the selection on this mix. There’s so many great tracks which amalgamate into something energetic, glitchy and wonderful.

XLR8R Podcast 708: QRTR

This mix is a teaser to QRTR’s album which has now released called infina ad nausea. It’s a great album, of which I’ve written a few words here. This mix got me very excited for the album as there’s so many great tracks on here including some extras sprinkled in.
045: Loom

This is my favourite mix of my own that I produced in August. I really love the selection, it mixed together quite well despite the range of different sounds on there. It’s fairly mellow so could probably be listened to in most environments. It’s dreamy at times but it stays locked in with consistent grooves from a range of amazing artists.


Articles


1.
The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to ‘The Office’

I’ve had a couple of articles in my favourites before about The Office, The Michael Scott Theory Of Social Class and The Three Aesthetics of the Creative Class.

Those pieces are based upon a set of posts by Venkatesh Rao called the Gervais Principle which essentially breaks down The Office in such depth that there’s no way not to be amazed. The way in which Rao is able to metaphorise almost every aspect of the show into something coherent yet complex is astonishing.

At a high level he categorises the characters into three archetypes, Sociopaths, Clueless and Losers, and not only analyses each one in depth but also the way they interact with each other. It fundamentally characterises the office in the real world and the dynamics of the people it inhabits.

It’s insane the amount of depth he goes into. It’s some of the best writing I’ve come across in a long time and the more I read the more I’m encapsulated by every element of it. It makes you reflect on the people around you and your co-workers regardless of where you’ve worked.

I could honestly not recommend any piece of writing more. If this series of writing doesn’t blow your mind then I don’t really know what to say. It goes beyond The Office in so many ways, and the way it makes you think is very rare.
2.
Why White Privilege is Wrong - Part 2

I guess this is a somewhat clickbait title and I haven’t read part 1 yet, however this essay breaks down a range of factors which cause disparities between different groups of people.

It’s a rather obvious thing that group disparities are not caused by one single thing so there tends to be a danger in focusing on one reason as it can sometimes worsen an issue or just cause more damage.

Morally neutral factors naturally attract far less attention than other causal factors which stir moral outrage, such as birth order, geographic settings, technological advances and demographic differences.

Henderson and Harinam explore a range of factors which cause group disparities in a thoughtful and interesting way. They explore intergenerational mobility and its link to geographic determinism, the impact of personal responsibility on group outcomes, family structure and culture.

In regards to personal responsibility they talk about a study by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill which found that to avoid poverty individuals must do three things. Graduate from high-school, work full-time and not have children outside of marriage. This has become known as ‘the success sequence’.

There’s a lot of interesting research throughout this piece and it’s fascinating to explore a range of different factors in detail.

3.
The Life-Changing Magic of High-Speed Career Sampling

I really like this short piece on basically just trying loads of things and quitting. Given that every year there’s more and more opportunities to do so many different things it would be unfortunate to not at least dabble in various things.

The idea of having no defined career path is quite normal at this point or just switching careers. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot in the past year. Obviously, the only issue is finding the time to commit yourself to something to actually decide whether it’s a direction you want to go in. However, regardless of your age, trying to build in some kind of flexibility in your life would probably be massively beneficial depending on what you were doing.

I guess you can find a lot of meaning and fulfillment in trying and building things and not being afraid to just quit. Limits create optionality.


Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction
Mark Maslin