The Flu Issue
Castles in the Sky #16
In Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz were tied 2-2. Perennial challengers but never champions, the Jazz were a force to be reckoned with. As a child, I remember watching Stockton, Malone, and co. beat my hometown Rockets on several occasions. The Bulls were a good matchup, but they had one huge problem: Michael Jordan had the flu.
Miraculously, he managed to not just play well, but to win the game for the Bulls.
“Probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” Jordan said afterward. “I almost played myself into passing out just to win a basketball game.”
Said Bulls coach Phil Jackson: “This was a heroic effort, one to add to the collection of efforts that make up his legend.”
This has come to be known as “the flu game,” because of his commanding performance despite his illness.
Last week, I had the flu—among other things. Although the 18th issue of Thought Bananas and the 1997 NBA World Championship are slightly different scales, Michael Jordan inspired me—as you could have heard in this conversation between me and my wife:
“Hold on, I have to finish this issue of Thought Bananas and send it out. My readers are waiting.”
“You’ve got the flu, babe. It’s OK.”
“If Michael Jordan can get the flu and beat reigning MVP Karl Malone and future Hall of Famer John Stockton in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA finals—I can send this issue of Thought Bananas!”
And so I present to you, the “flu issue.”
🍌Quote of the Week
"Being adult means being a person of action. It's just what it is-and it sucks sometimes. But when you make your plan and go after that plan, you'll succeed."
Karamo Brown
🍌In the Newsletter This Week
Original Writing: Seven Books That Inspired Me In Under 300 Pages
On My Mind: Goals, Setbacks, and Steps Forward
My Favorite Things: My Analog Journal
Original Writing
🍌Seven Books That Inspired Me In Under 300 Pages
I’m currently making my way through a few really excellent, really long books. In the meantime, it got me doing some “page math” and thinking about what the shortest really great books I’ve read are. These are seven books that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and left a lasting impact on me, all under 300 pages each.
On My Mind
🍌Goals, Setbacks, and Steps Forward
Thanks to everyone who reached out after I published my goals in the last issue. You may notice, that issue came out two weeks ago. Since I’ve already missed one week I only have one more week of slack if I’m going to hit my “publish 50 more newsletters” goal.
The thing is, God has a funny sense of humor. Immediately after proclaiming—in the most public place I can—all of my ambitious goals, I had my two most intense weeks since our nine month old daughter was born. First, I had my busiest work week of the year. Next, I pulled a muscle in my back. Then, as I got the flu. Finally, nursing my back injury and flu, my daughter brought pink eye home from day care and managed to sneak it into both of my eyes. I went from everything being totally fine to my body basically saying, “peace out—see you in mid October.”
This is not to say my ambitions are smaller now, or I’m giving myself an out. But, I did realize that I had basically planned on 52 weeks of uninterrupted productivity when I set my goals. I have spent the last two weeks thinking, “what if a bunch of things go wrong?” The end result is that I’m keeping all my ambitious goals, but for each group of related goals, I have a “most important goal,” as well as a “minimum satisfactory goal.”
My Favorite Things
🍌My Analog Journal YouTube Channel
I have been super busy, and so spending a lot of time sitting in front of my computer. I’ve been reminded how much happier and productive I am when I have good music to listen to. To that end, I want to highlight one of my favorite YouTube channels, My Analog Journal.
From their own website, My Analog Journal is a:
YouTube channel that curates vinyl-only mixes on a weekly basis. Every mix focuses on a certain genre, country, or region, era, or simply an idea or a theme.
It all started in late 2017 when Zag Erlat - Istanbul-born, London-based music producer, filmmaker, record collector, DJ and the host of the MAJ Youtube channel - decided to play his Turkish records from the ‘70s, which was the golden era of Turkish psychedelic rock music; after he realised that there aren’t any vinyl sets focusing on this genre, on Youtube. Shortly after, his sets gained some attention and very positive feedback from all around the world.
Zag found his new passion and desire to create more vinyl-only episodes and share the music he loves with the people of the internet, which eventually turned into an online community.
The music is so good and so eclectic. These are my two favorite sets from the last week:
Guest Mix: Psychedelic Cumbia with Krishna Villar
Japanese City Pop on vinyl with Shaqdi
That’s all for now—see you next week!
Off to some chicken soup and planning next week’s issue! Thanks to everyone who edited, proofread, and gave feedback on the writing in this issue. And thanks for reading Thought Bananas!
Your seven books list has my interest piqued!
Love the tunes and found a new book read idea, thanks to you, and yes, no need to play until passing out, hope you are feeling better.