Listen: In A Meeting by koleżanka
Someone has GOT to use this song as soundtrack to some office glow-up montage. You can see it: protagonist, deadened by her job, has some tiny epiphany, then we see her cycle through days, livening up beige clothing with increasingly obnoxious accessories until one day she’s bopping her way around people’s desks, laughing stylishly at her own brilliant ideas. Why is this the song for that? In short, it takes elevator music and spins it into some fine pop by the end— truly a feat. Listen here.
Sounds like home
Admit it: have you started going into the office just because there’s air conditioning? Do you miss home the second you get there? Do I have a treat for you. I don’t know if you remember those coffee-shop background noise soundtracks from the before times, but given Where We Are These Days, there’s a new one you can turn on that sounds like home. And after it breaks your heart a little bit, it’s actually very fun. First you choose your base music, and then you can tag on whatever neighborhood sounds feel right to you: baby (asleep or awake), fighting neighbors, leaf blower, upstairs mystery stampede… Just add some intermittent jackhammer and you can be transported anywhere.
Truly, home was better
To emphasize the pitfalls of re-opening, Ashley Carman from The Verge recently martyred herself and went to an in-person Clubhouse party hosted by a popular crea-tor, and it went exactly the way you’d imagine: lots of people from Williamsburg wearing hats and making a show of hugging each other and then floundering in search of anything real to say. No, really. “Two Clubhouse creators, who seemingly pride themselves on honest, real, authentic conversation, worried after the event that I might quote them or actually print what they said,” wrote Carman. Turns out it’s easier to look cool when no one can see you.
(Also for real what is Clubhouse going to do now that we have other activities.)