Tell me what you like

Plus: Pirates of the Caribbean, "My Family and Other Animals," and the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Hey all, long time no see! How have you been? Good? Great. I need your help with something.

TL;DR please take this survey about the newsletter

You haven’t heard from me for a while because I was on vacation for the first half of September, and heads-down on LightningPod work on either end of my trip. The plan was that I’d be back in your inbox today with a regular ol’ edition of Follow Friday.

Whenever I had time to work on this week’s newsletter, though, it just hasn’t been happening. That’s usually an indication that something has to change.

Candidly: I want to be as excited to write this newsletter as I was to make the Follow Friday podcast that preceded it. It’s not there yet.

And maybe I should spend my spare time creating something else! A different kind of newsletter, maybe, or a new podcast, or who knows what. As a self-employed person, I am privileged to be able to make stuff on my own terms and I want to take full advantage of that.

There’s also the chance that the vibes have just been off this week and that I’ll be re-invigorated by Follow Friday next week. I always reserve the right to be fickle.

But here’s where you can help: Take this quick survey about what you want to see in this space. It shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes. Thank you!!

Before we go, a mini version of the newsletter…

The single best thing I’ve seen this week: This video essay about the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Were films 2 and 3 good, actually? I might re-watch them and report back.

The best podcasts I’ve been listening to lately: Craig Ferguson’s new show Joy, a Podcast, specifically the episode with his former late night sidekick Josh Robert Thompson; and — just in time for spooky season — Alison Leiby and Halle Kiefer’s podcast Ruined, where they spoil the plots of scary movies like Frozen (2010) and Buried.

New from LightningPod: Too many episodes to list since my last newsletter, but in the past two weeks we had Paramount Streaming CMO Domenic DiMeglio on Building Better CMOs; a recap of CEDIA 2023 on The Smart Home Show; “What does your car need to know about your sex life?” (what a title!) on Lock and Code; and Snowflake CRO Chris Degnan and Udemy CEO Greg Brown on Grit.

The best thing I’ve read recently: While I was on vacation I read & adored My Family and Other Animals, a 1956 memoir written by Gerald Durrell about his family’s relocation from England to Corfu, Greece in the 1930s. It’s hilarious and also beautifully written, and I’m very excited to check out Durrell’s other books.

And a palate cleanser: What the Red Hot Chili Peppers sound like to people who don’t like them