The Recommendation Engine is Campaign US' weekly feature in which we learn about the media young people in the ad industry are consuming
What I’m watching:
Frantically binge-watching every season of RuPaul’s Drag Race on Hulu. What dreary rock was I living under for the past eight years to have missed one of the silliest, smartest, and most subversive shows on television?!
What I’m listening to:
This music geek still downloads and manually organizes all of his hundreds of playlists on iTunes. My tunes change drastically depending on my mood and activity, but this month Jamila Woods, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Solange and Ryan Hemsworth are on heavy rotation.
What I’m reading:
I only read physical books because I like to underline and dog-ear. I just finished Rebecca Solnit’s collection of stories, The Faraway Nearby. Anyone interested in understanding how our lives are shaped by empathy, imagination, and the stories we tell ourselves should read this book. Currently re-reading Nightwood by Djuna Barnes. Even the fifth time around, it remains one of the strangest, most radical and beautiful books I’ve ever read.
Who I’m following:
This year I got really interested in ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement. Most of the masters are not on social media, so I’m actually finding a lot of my inspiration in the library. But there are some really inspiring artists on Instagram who are pushing the art form into new territories, such as @azumamakoto, who freezes his stunning arrangements in giant blocks of ice.
What ’m ignoring:
For personal sanity, I’m actively ignoring my parent’s political views. And the urge to confront every single person who complains too much. But most of all, I’m ignoring people who reinforce absurd and damaging gender stereotypes. I think we can all learn so much from embracing and expressing all aspects of our complex humanity, not just the traits that tell the world how men and women should or need to behave.