🐌✨The Nexialist #0117

tropikali | rommel | work intensification | filtered through machines | the lazy report | degrow your mind | slugs of love | top dog | lackadaisical | worldwide sexual alliance

Apr 20, 2023

welcome to another week of content cyber-weaving, the nexialist

hello, you! i hope you’re feeling some kind of spark this week :) since last week the nexialist got quite a few new subscribers and i’m not sure where from, but welcome everyone! buckle up and get ready for some brainsparks! read until the end for some work-changing interrogations, lazy and groovy slugs, and nsfw content.

i also need to share some big news with you: after more than two years of writing the nexialist, i have activated paid mode here on substack. after having two readers do a pledge (thank you gustavo and drica for the support, it means the world to me), i decided to also open this channel. for now, i’ll keep things as they are, creating the same open-access content with love, but in case you would like to support my work here on substack and become a paid subscriber, you have the possibility to do monthly, yearly or a patron contribution. you can still buy me a coffee as one-time gifts. you can also support the nexialist without money: every time you share it with friends, family and colleagues, through e-mail or other social channels. so again, thank you so much! i appreciate the love and support. 🫀

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🦜tropikali

before we start, i’ve been waiting to share this here. this year again, i’ll have the honor to represent brazil at tropikali festival in amsterdam. i dj in the terra totale stage, where i’ll play 1-hour of soul-inspiring, booty-shaking brazilian music. come join me if you’re around on sunday, june 11th. this year they are even more sexy with their own track by dimitri tenot and marlyn anisia and these beautiful visuals by serialcut.

❤️‍🔥rommel

i feel like a teenager when goldband releases new stuff (maybe because i only get less than half of the words, just like when i was still learning english). this time they release “a short film or a long videoclip” for their new EP. rummel translates as junk, and each of them has some kind of dependence (narcissism, sex and alcohol), so get ready for some kinky nsfw imagery in the first part. in the second part, i feel very gen-z for liking this kind of post-irony (wtf is going on?)

🦾work intensification

thomas klaffke’s 30th rabbit holes had some great gems (as usual). tara mcmullin’s “how the push for efficiency changes us” brings some great truths and slaps on my face, because she doesn’t only talk about corporation work, but also independent work (which is what i do).

Work intensification happens on two levels. First, there’s the amount and pace of work. In the case of layoffs and the euphemistic “restructuring,” that’s literally making up for the work that used to be done by one’s former colleagues by adding it to the remaining employees’ workloads. Second, there’s the type of work being done and its emotional or cognitive load.

While I certainly won’t deny the satisfaction of learning how to do a task faster, I do think it’s worth interrogating the way efficiency comes to shape our lives.
It’s worth questioning the moral quality we assign to efficiency and productivity in our society is healthy, or even useful. And it’s worth asking whether efficiency and productivity are really the modes through which we want to relate to our partners, children, friends, and communities.

❤️‍🔥filtered through machines

jessie ware’s new single couldn’t be more timely with the work intensification movement. seems like just a feel-good track, but here we are groovin’ to this discomfort of capitalism: repetitive, long working hours and feeling lonely, crying out for change (can we start again?). the two last sentences got me: realities taking over dreams, purest love (our passions, our relationships), filtered through machines.

I work all night
I do my thing
Just killin’ time
Need a friend
Is this my life?
Beginning or end?
Can I start again?
can We start again?
There’s a new moon on the rise
Turn the tide, turn the tide
I’ve been walking a thin line
Between the earth and the sky
Why do my realities take over all my dreams
Why does all the purest love get filtered through machines?

🥱the lazy report

It’sNiceThat is releasing some reports this year, and this is the first one, about laziness. I’m still waiting for mine to arrive (if anyone has it downloaded, pls send it to me), but i love there is now a report focused on it.

If we asked you to name the ideal attributes of a creative person, laziness would rarely come up as a positive trait. But creative worth, and in turn personal worth, have too long been connected to productivity. Individuals are unfairly judged on the amount of work they produce (and how frequently), when in fact developing a creative idea requires stepping back for a moment. Sitting on it, opening up a new tab and browsing, taking a walk or kicking back while the idea simmers somewhere else – whatever it takes to come back with fresh eyes.

via leticia xavier’s radar (follow her!)

🧠degrow your mind

another gem from thomas klaffke’s 30th rabbit holes. erin remblance’s text, How Does Degrowth Apply to Our Minds? is well-grounded and great at pointing out signals that our minds, the collective imagination, is contaminated by the “infinite growth” mindset. erin is also great at bringing success stories and narratives of possible futures with degrowth. a must-read, really.

It is also true that individual change drives cultural change which can be the key to unlocking political change leading to fundamental change. On this point, I find it fascinating to consider how “growth has entered our minds and souls”, and how an awareness of these “mental infrastructures of growth” might free us from growthism and help unlock the cultural changes that will bring about the necessary systemic changes.

read: How Does Degrowth Apply to Our Minds? by Erin Remblance

🐌slugs of love

i loved this playful/random song and DIY video from little dragon. i’ve had it saved for a couple of weeks to send to you for a couple of weeks and now is the best moment. in a world paced by speed, the image of a slug of love is a kind of resistance, right? and you know what’s funny? exactly one and two years ago, the nexialist revolved around play (tn#16 + tn#67), so it feels even more punctual.

📺top dog

the first time i heard of magdalena bay last year i was mesmerized, they are so cool. i still go back to mercurial world sometimes (tn#64). now they have a new mini mix with some great songs. i just love their unpretentious attitude, the lo-fi videos, the groovy-japanese-video-gamy sounds. also, i just had to share it because the first song is called “the slug song” and is an ode to the “slow and steady” motto, and a mantra not to give up: “you've already come this far.” what’s up with slugs? is it becoming an icon of laziness, anti-speed? i’m all in for it.

🫠lackadaisical

lackadaisical: adjective
lack·a·dai·si·cal | la-kə-ˈdā-zi-kəl
: lacking life, spirit, or zest : LANGUID

this word showed up in my inbox, and i had never heard of it before. the sound of it is definitely more positive than its meaning. but thinking about slugs (who might be considered lackadaisical) and their new possible anti-capitalist icon status, we could reclaim lackadaisical as something positive? (no, i’m not tripping)

🦋worldwide sexual alliance

i’m COMPLETELY OBSESSED with this collab of shygirl and sevdaliza (and sega bodega). the whole nymph_o album is delicious, as well as the other partnerships. i put a part of the lyrics below. the whole paradox of being a shygirl who wakes up feeling like shlut, but gets super attached and feels lonely, but ghosts her lovers. what’s more “dating in 2020s” than this? shluts have (mixed) feelings too. “nevermind i’m f*cking with myself.”

I'm a–, I'm a–, I'm a–, I'm about to
Do you, do you, do you when I want to
On my, on my, on my, on my terms
I'll ride you, ride you, ride you 'till it hurts
Mm, chief science
Worldwide sexual alliance
I try, try, try, to keep you posted
This is for the lovers that I ghosted
I wish I were you just to get a piece of me
(This is for the lovers that I ghosted)

and what’s up with all this garden imagery popping up? slugs and nymphs, sounds like a great party. brainsparks: futures garden (tn#107) and designing an economy like an ecologist (tn#112).

💫first-rate intelligence

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald

this week i had the privilege to participate in dancing fox’s playshop for Healthcare Without Harm. my friend douwe from the bigger story shared this beautiful quote, and i couldn’t keep it to myself. btw, healthcare without harm is a super inspiring and hands-on group global movement for environmentally responsible healthcare, check them out.

see you next week, shlugs 🐌 (i know this is a snail, where is the slug emoji?)

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