rabbit holes to explore this month - #2

niche things to inspire you

Hi lovely people, I hope you’re all feeling great and getting some sun on your skin. Welcome to the second monthly inspiration digest, where I share all the best things I’ve been exploring each month!

In this series, you’ll find notes on the best books I’m reading, fun things I’m integrating in my life, unexpectedly inspiring podcast episodes I stumbled upon, ideas I’ve been collecting, lessons I’m learning, and everything in between. I hope you enjoy it and that something here will prompt you to go down your own exciting rabbit hole.

Today I’m writing to you from Athens, my hometown. I’m making my yearly summer appearance here and it’s been so nice walking in the center of the city at night, through the al fresco restaurants scattered on the pavement with fairy lights weaved all around them. I absolutely love living in London, but this is one of the things I love the most about Athens.

So, let’s get into it. This month I have so many things to share with you guys, I’ve been feeling extra whimsical. So here’s everything I’ve been loving.

🎬 NOWNESS Super 8 Footage and Postcards — a filmmaker discovers his Late Uncle’s “Time Capsule”

I’ve been loving documentary-style photography and video lately, and thinking a lot about what it’d take to create a mini documentary. I just love media that’s true to real life while making it extra beautiful, so I’ve been turning ideas over in my head about potential mini docs I could make. Stay tuned because there’s more on that later as you scroll. This month I found this 5-minute documentary on NOWNESS (I love everything they do), and here’s how it’s described:

A short documentary about opening a “time capsule” of Super 8 footage and old postcards, contemplating what it means to hold on through the stages of grief. Cameron Trafford’s documentary Please Look After My Dog For Me is dedicated to his late uncle Bruce Taylor who passed before Trafford was born. The film began when Trafford was handed an unknown “time capsule” – his uncle’s dusty Super 8 reels and a stack of postcards from the latter’s trip through Southern Asia. Much of the materials had never been explored, even by Bruce’s close ones.

I just love the feeling in this video and how the footage is recorded with Super 8. Take a look and be transported.

📹 Documenting everything with a vintage camcorder!

Okay, I don’t know how this started, but one day I literally woke up and decided I needed a cheap vintage camcorder to document my everyday life in a style that feels more analogue, fun, and intentional. iPhone videos just aren’t cutting it for me, and as a big big lover of both photography and video, I love playing with medium. So I got this little second-hand camcorder (a Sony Handycam DCR-SX33E) on Vinted, and the best way to describe the look of the footage is it looks like videos you found in your parents’ archives of them documenting their whimsical life in the 90s. I love it. I’ve been taking videos of everything, and I just love seeing my friends through its lens - it feels like we’re actually creating and capturing memories in a way that’s much more intentional than with a phone. Can’t explain it.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this footage, but an idea is that I might make little vlogs of each month and upload them to YouTube unlisted to just share with friends, or maybe share them here on Substack. Not sure! Any ideas, let me know.

🌀 Apps I’m using: Freedom & Imprint

Another thing I’ve been loving lately: limiting social media. I mean, I’ve been on this journey for a hot minute, but it’s hard to find methods that actually work for you consistently. Especially since I work in social media. So I started using the app Freedom, to block my social media apps completely until 11am each day. It reminds me of when cartoon channels on TV used to shut down after 9pm and just be like “see you in the morning!”. I wish social media had that. There’s genuinely no reason for me to need to be on social media before 11am, so I’ve been using this app to block my access which has been a lot more effective than other apps I’ve used before like BePresent, that discourage you from using social media, but don’t block it. I also read that if you start your day with social media, your brain immediately starts expecting social media-style dopamine for the rest of the day, which makes it harder for you to focus and feel good all day long. So something as simple as blocking social media for the first couple hours of the day can make a difference.

What I’m replacing them with instead, if I want to go on my phone for something, is (of course) Substack (oops), and also this other app called Imprint, which is like a Duolingo but for learning things. You can learn anything from philosophy to history to psychology to business and finance, but I’m using it for philosophy and history because they’re my favorite topics. It’s so nice to actively learn new concepts instead of doomscrolling on Instagram and being unable to name a single Reel that I watched after an hour.

🎧 Poolsuite Radio