It's Summer! Do something (or nothing)
Videos that will get you outside for summer.
To me, it’s not summer without eating a perfectly ripe peach while leaning forward with your legs spread apart so the explosion of juices doesn’t get everywhere.
Some people say it’s the summer solstice, I stick to the peach solstice.
What people do with their summers depends, but it almost always includes some kind of adventure.
I love a good adventure.
Last year, I went with one of my best friends to Norway without a plan. My girlfriend and I recently walked across São Paulo following a subway line. I once took trains across the US, stopping in 9 different cities.
Sometimes adventure beckons out of nowhere, summoning me like I’m smelling a cartoon pie.
Other times, adventure knocks on my door in the form of a picture or a book or a video that makes me want to leap out of my chair and onto a bus or a bike or a plane into the unknown to see what’s out there.
There is a whole universe of Youtube explorers whose identity centers around adventure. Eva Zu Beck travels by herself around the world, mainly out of her truck. Goth Babe makes crazy beautiful travel videos.
But there is only one video that every time it pops into my consciousness – which is often – makes me yearn for adventure, opening fifty tabs of flights and bus tickets dreaming of possibilities for something big.
This video, called “Cycling Across Europe Alone” is made by one of my favorite film-makers, Bernardo Bacalhau, who I’ve mentioned here before. His aesthetic eye, his contagious enthusiasm, his joy for life, make me want to join him, or at least follow in his path to do something wild, challenging, and fun.
In this video, he doesn’t exactly cross all of Europe, but he does ride his bike a lot. Other than that, I’ll let him explain (41 minutes).
As he races down these windy French paths, or eats an omelette atop the castle that is Mont St. Michel, I felt alive through him. Besides his summer shirts and shaded rest breaks, it was clear he was enjoying the season.
Not every adventure has to be a cross-continental bike ride with only your camera.
There are small adventures to be had too.
As a recent bird-admirer, I’ll go to the local forest or garden to try to see if I can spot any familiar avian faces. Or a friend and I once tried a taco at every taco shop in town. 5 tacos is an inhuman amount of tacos. Don’t try to eat 5 tacos.
The master of these mini adventures, of turning day-to-day life into “movies” – not videos, movies – is Casey Neistat.
He has been uploading videos to Youtube for the past 16 years, has 12 million subscribers, plus many other accolades. But what really makes him impressive is that while having a family and running his company and doing all sorts of other things, for more than 500 days in a row he filmed, edited and published a video.
And even living in New York City, you can’t possibly do interesting things every single day.
But Casey managed to make his day interesting enough for a little story, more than 500 times.
There are obviously many options to choose from when suggesting a single video of his to recommend. But in the spirit of mini adventures, of things that remind you adventure is all around, I’ll suggest this one simply titled “Rental Car Mess” 9 minutes
I don’t know what it is about his filmmaking style that makes me want to watch this man pick up a rental car with his friend and drive back to New York, but he did it! Of course he has many other much more popular movies, more than one flying first class on various airlines, surfing trips on the east river and in mexico, bigger adventures.
But the essence of his filmmaking is to transform the mundane into the adventure.
So that’s why, on this lovely weekend, I did the smallest possible adventure, and the best possible celebration of summer.
Instead of going out on my bike, or climbing a mountain, or setting off on some great expedition, we got a picnic, went out to a park, ate the perfectly ripe peach – given to us by a random man crossing the street – and did absolutely nothing. For a few hours at least.
I lay on the grass with my hat on my head, listening to birds, thinking about nothing, and feeling the heat of the sun on my body.
So I guess whether you’re out there trekking new territory or just sitting back with some ripe fruit, I hope you’re enjoying your summer.
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Yours, spirally,
Francisco
📺 What I watched
The World Cup - Are you watching yet? It’s so good! I wrote a whole dispatch about it!
Chernobyl Documentary - after watching the mini-series on HBO, we watched the actual lost files, actual footage of the aftermath of the disaster. It’s eye-opening both as someone now fascinated with the disaster, and as a storyteller.
📖 What I read
After listening to the author read the first chapter of the book on our way to Sacramento, I had to buy this book at Beers Books. As sad as it is, I can’t put it down.
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
It might be a while before I finish this one, but even reading one chapter every few days helps me think differently about the world. The chapter about appreciating the maple syrup from the trees made me thank the blackberry bushes after I picked as many ripe ones as I could find.
🎧 What I listened to
This podcast from Serial and the Marshall project covers lawyers trying to prevent the execution of their client accused of being the famous Desert Killer. It’s well done and enrapturing.
After randomly hearing these guys on the stage at a festival in the Bay Area, their brand new album has been on repeat. Highly recommend their chill soul / funk.