Memories of Boomboxes

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the Sunday Bagel. I am back in my home after a week of house and dog sitting, ready to get back on track with life.

With the recent bat mitzvah of my niece, I remembered that back in the day everyone was given a boom box by someone to commemorate this milestone moment.

And it was the perfect item to transition you into high school as the boom boxes in this era were really amazing.

They could play CDs, and would always have a tape deck. So combined with the radio, that means you had a few options to make your ideal mixtape. Not long after, we got CD burners installed in our desktop computers and the rest was history.

Nowadays things are much different. A family likely won’t do well to get into music without some sort of family account on a service like Spotify.

There are MP3 players designed to send kids to summer camp which are able to download music from Spotify and then go offline for a few weeks to listen to those tracks. In the middle of the summer they have to go to Wi-Fi to refresh the license and hang onto the music on the player.

Music is incredibly locked up by the corporation now, yet at the end of the day we still have lots of flexibility to listen to whatever we want. And a monthly subscription to streaming is way cheaper than what we spent on CDs every month.

What do you remember the most about listening to music when you were younger?

My favourite boombox in the house was a Sony that looked like this:

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Three Ideas from My Notebooks

1. We often settle for sub-par experiences in life because we are afraid of living in agreement with what we deserve. Continually seek to raise your standards. The holidays are a great time for mentally shedding any problematic situations that came up this year.

2. Try to avoid the habit of perfecting your schedule and making the most of every minute. Just accept that this is how your day is unfolding and enjoy it.

3. A good job or career path is one that unrolls and unlocks new opportunities as you go along. That means there is synergy between you and the company or clients you serve. In other words, you have found yourself in a situation where you are indispensable¹.

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What I Watched While Housesitting: Painkiller

I found there was something ironic about a show about the opioid crisis that had me hooked. One night I was watching it late at night on my phone in bed which is something I never do. So clearly it hit a nerve with me.

This show walks you through how Purdue Pharma created and marketed a drug that led to complete chaos and the loss of countless lives. The production of the show was fantastic in how it would cut from boardroom shenanigans to what is happening on the ground with families affected.

After finishing this series I was embarrassed that this sort of thing happens. Even though it took a long time for progress to be made, at least it did happen in the end so there’s that item to find something positive with here.

In Canada, provinces recently sought $67 Billion in damages to Purdue Pharma, but since the company is going through insolvency in the U.S., there was a settlement for $150 Million.

Blackberry: The Movie

This was an enjoyable watch on the inventors on the Blackberry. The takeaway for me was that behind every creative genius is a shrewd business person who will exploit that idea and get it to the market.

It is free to watch on CBC Gem, but if you are outside of Canada you might have to rent it on a streaming service.

Music Recommendation: Lyle Mays

I was excited to discover this artist this week who has collaborated closely with Pat Metheny. Expect a bit of 1980s new age jazz with a few light jams inside Lyle’s music.

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Larry’s Bagel and Sign Off

Larry picks up a bagel from the high-end place called Schmaltz in Toronto as he gets ready to take the kids to hockey.

This is an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese, capers, cucumber, and smoked salmon by the Wolfhead company who are based in the east coast of Canada.

One day we can have a deep dive discussion into the validity of capers in general but for now, I would say that looked like a quality bagel experience.

Have a great week ahead this week,

Elliott

1. Read the book Linchpin by Seth Godin for more on this idea of being indispensable.