Matt's Mix Tape, Vol. 114
Hi, I’m Matt Tillotson, and this is Matt’s Mix Tape: essays + links on living a vibrant and creative middle life.
This week’s Mix:
Mix Tape logo: tribute bands
Write the thing you really want to write
Step down: 7K is the new 10K
A dapper niche
Florida photo
Mix Tape logo: tribute bands
My go-to move for concerts: finding good tribute bands.
Headliner concerts are fun spectacles. But they force to you navigate various hazards:
Pricey tickets
Traffic
Large and sometimes oddly angry crowds (see next point)
Occasional brawls*
Other misbehaviors and secretions of the overserved
A good tribute band gets you:
90% of the fun of the headliner act
At 5% or less of the price
With 0% of the headaches
Yacht Rock Review and The Petty Hearts are a couple of my favorites. And last week, we saw Corduroy, a Pearl Jam cover band.
Corduroy rocked The Attic, a small Ybor City club, for over two hours. With only about 30 people there, it was like a private show.
Don’t sleep on tribute bands.
*You never know where a fight might break out. I saw a fight two years ago at a Phil Collins concert. Seriously. It was a frenzied blur of gray hair, khakis, and airborne chardonnay. Two button-down clad gentlemen went at it until their aerobic endurance gave out (about 20 seconds).
Write the thing you really want to write
That thing you *really* want to write about online …
You know, the thing you’re still "gathering information" on.
You have enough info. That’s just fear talking.
So, write.
You’ll never know everything about the subject. The more you learn, the more you discover you don't know. It never ends.
And someone needs to hear from you exactly where you are, right now.
Just remember one thing:
Don’t be a poser.
"Fake it ‘til you make it" is BS. That’s where people get tripped up.
Just write what you know today. Write about what you're trying to learn next. Then go learn more.
And write again tomorrow.
Don’t worry about those ahead of you. Help those just behind you.
Step down: 7K is the new 10K
Good news from a study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst:
men and women aged 38 to 50 who took approximately 7,000 steps per day experienced a lower chance of early death compared to participants that took fewer than 7,000 steps per day. For people who reached 10,000 steps and beyond, there were no documented harms or additional benefits.
People taking 7,000 steps per day had a 50-70% lower chance of early death. That’s a big number.
Since ditching running in February, I walk 4-6 miles most days. Weight is down, hips feel much better.
Nothing magical about 10,000 steps. So get out there and walk—and maybe a little less than you thought was necessary.
A dapper niche
Online content is not saturated—you just have to find the spaces between what the loudest voices are saying.
Michael Williams writes A Continuous Lean, a newsletter covering classic menswear. Williams found success in a gap in traditional media coverage:
Be unique in what you do. The internet was built for niches and it doesn't take many subscribers to make this whole thing work. My newsletter works because GQ and Esquire don't see enough value in my classic menswear niche to continue to cover it in a big way. That gap made space for my point of view to work on a small level.
Williams has 10,000 subscribers, including 1,000 paid subscribers. The Internet has room for your work, also. Publish.
This week’s Florida photo
The aforementioned band Corduroy, on stage at The Attic in Ybor City. They reside in San Francisco, and the lead singer (center) is from Lima, Peru.
Hello to 11 new subscribers
And thank you to you for reading. Drop me a note, ask a question, or make a suggestion anytime.
Best yet!