Some Things I’ve Enjoyed
Little things that make my life better
Here are some things I have enjoyed watching or using over the past few weeks.
Note: I do not have any affiliate links, so I do not make any money if you decide to try any of these, nor am I recommending that you purchase these items.
Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
A new documentary now running on Hulu, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) explores the life and musical career of Sly Stone and his band, Sly & the Family Stone. Using recent interviews with former band members and family, as well as archival interviews and footage of Sly Stone (real name: Sylvester Stewart), the documentary traces his origins from being a young boy in Texas to a radio DJ and then a music star.
Sly & the Family Stone’s music was a large part of my youth. It got a lot of airplay on Philadelphia’s FM rock radio stations in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band’s performance at Woodstock became legendary. They had one hit after another: Dance to the Music, Everyday People, Sing A Simple Song, I Want to Take You Higher, Hot Fun in the Summertime, and Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin). Then the hits stopped coming as Sly Stone became more involved in drugs.
Produced by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of The Roots, this film gave me a lot of insight into the events that I was unaware of as a teenager at the time. It is a little under two hours long but seemed much quicker as I watched it. Highly recommended.
You can read more about Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) here.
Fujifilm Instax Square SQ40 Instant Camera
As I get older, I am more interested in pursuing creative activities. Photography used to be one of my hobbies, so it made sense to start that again. LIke many of us, I have my digital cameras and enjoy using them. But I was looking for something to spark the fun again.
Enter instant film photography. If you are not aware, Polaroid instant cameras are back. Fujifilm has its own line of instant cameras called Instax. Instax cameras cost between $60 and $350, depending on the size of the film format and the capabilities you choose.
I chose Instax over Polaroid primarily because the cost of Instax film is about half the cost of Polaroid film. More specifically, I chose the Instax Square SQ40 camera. Instax Square film provides images that are 2.44” x 2.44”. Instax Mini film gives images that are 2.13” x 3.4”, about the size of a credit card, while Instax Wide film images are 3.9” x 2.44”. There are several types of color film, and black and white film too.
The SQ40 is a simple point-and-shoot camera with minimal controls. It does not offer the creative options of my digital cameras, but it is a lot of fun to use.
Kuhn Rikon Auto Safety Lid Lifter/Can Opener
I hate kitchen gadgets. If it were up to me, I would throw away at least 60% of the gadgets in our kitchen. But there is one gadget I would never do without: the Kuhn Rikon Auto Safety Lid Lifter/Can Opener. Priced at $24.00, this is not a low-priced can opener. But it is a high-quality tool that does things other can openers do not do. It works. It is easy to use. Its most important to me is that the lids it removes from cans do not have sharp edges that can cut your fingers.