Sunday Best is a brand new feature here at TIG that we plan on making a recurring one. Each Sunday, we will bring you a cross-section of interesting articles, links, ideas, music, culture, and anything else we think might be interesting or entertaining⏤the perfect supplement to your Sunday and one we hope you will add to your routine.
With the new year, many of you may be either getting back to your workout, or perhaps contemplating embarking on a new regimen for the first time in a while. Either way, there is a very interesting piece in the New York Times about dynamic warm-ups. Dynamic warm ups involve a series of drills that aim to move your joints through their full range of movement in a fast but controlled manner. Generally warm ups and flexibility are often overlooked and neglected components of a workout program (especially if you are pushed for time) but they are an important part of any fitness program. Dynamic warm ups serve to warm the body up for activity and prepare the joints and tendons for stress while decreasing injury risk and improving muscle and joint flexibility over time. The warm ups generally last anywhere from 10-20 minutes. The warm up title might be a little bit of a misnomer, as the exercises can be as challenging as anything in your main workout, and perhaps be even more beneficial by challenging your core balance and coordination simultaneously. You can read the NYT article for more insight or you can consult the videos we suggest for practical examples of routines you can incorporate into your program.
Another article from the NYT that caught our attention was “The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera”. It sort of struck us as humorous, the idea of Gen-Z rooting through their parents’ junk drawer searching for long forgotten cameras with outmoded technology. Apparently, this trend of capturing blurry images with low megapixel point-and-shoot digital cameras is fuelled by appearing to represent a more authentic aesthetic.
In some ways, using inferior cameras to capture authentic moments does seem counterintuitive⏤however, after listening to YouTuber Marques Brown, a consumer electronics specialist, describe “what is happening with the iPhone camera” where he goes into detail about how modern cameras on phones capture images using software to create what it thinks is the best image, does actually support the idea that phones may not be the most accurate representation of a particular scene. Brown explains that, “These days though, it’s turned into a whole computational event. Your smartphone sensor is sampling the environment, not once, but often several times in rapid succession at different speeds. It’s taking that light information, merging exposures together. It’s doing tone mapping, noise reduction, HDR processing and putting it all together.” Perhaps the Gen-Z are, in fact, onto something in their quest for authentic-looking photographs.
Now if you are intrigued by the idea of using an older camera for capturing more nostalgic-looking images, YouTuber Ulysses Aoki makes a pretty good case for the Canon G7x ii, which can be found second hand from around $200. This camera, at 20 megapixels released in 2016, will still produce sharp images but give you more of a film-looking aesthetic.
Right now I am halfway through the excellent biography Dilla Time, about the seminal and mercurial musician and producer, James Dewitt Yancey (“J Dilla”), and his influence on music during his short life. He died in 2006, aged 32, due to a blood disorder. The book, by Dan Charnas, gives a fascinating account of the artist’s development⏤particularly in regard to music production in the city of Detroit. Just as Gen-Z are searching for cameras that produce images that are imperfect for a more authentic feel, so too was J Dilla searching for ways to make his beats produced on drum machines sound less perfect and more authentic⏤a technique he pioneered and perfected on the Akai MPC 3000 drum machine and sampler, working with artists such as Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, Erykah Badu and D’Angelo. If you are interested in beat-making, you can try the excellent Koala Sampler app on iOS or on android.
Other items that caught our attention this week were a piece in the NYT about the A.I. boom in comparison to the overall tech gloom that saw mega-cap tech companies lose a collective 4 trillion dollars in 2022. Right now you can’t get away from A.I. and it really does feel like we are entering a new phase of the internet era. The Times explains that there are currently 450 start-ups working on generative A.I. and that 1.37 billion has poured into the sector in 2022.
Another book recommendation is The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman, an incredibly insightful and sometimes humorous look at an often misunderstood decade. The book does a great job of explaining the 90’s, and in particular, the advent of the internet and how we arrived at our current times.
Right now we are listening to Soshi Takeda’s Floating Mountains⏤Japanese Lo-Fi, breezy, ambient Balearic beats. Takeda sculpts beautiful, musical, ambient landscapes that channel mid-90s video game music. Listen to the album on your favourite streaming service here.
Please check out our beautiful collection of Art Prints!
Enjoy your Sunday wherever you are.
