thursday night intermission

welcome back 😌

Mar 29, 2024

welcome back to another intermission! as a refresher, this space will be more stripped down, more lowkey. these’ll be posts every other week in lieu of the traditional volumes we know and love

*dusts cobwebs off*

happy thursday y’all :)

it’s been a minute! glad to be back writing again

life was a bit much this past month and i didn’t feel inspired. the decision to post or not was nerve-racking. the weight of writing felt immense

i took a winter break, got back to it, so why take another break? would people still read? why do i want people to read?

i was questioning a lot of things. it was the imposter syndrome talking

i wasn’t sure what to do so…i did what felt right

interlude: do what feels right

claudio castro

March 1, 2024

Read full story

and i took a break 😌

looking back, it makes sense that this coincided with my injury. i had a ton of momentum playing and then i was forced to put it all on pause

luckily, i avoided major injury with my knee. initially they thought it was a torn meniscus but the MRI came back clean. i was in physical therapy for the past month+ building my strength back up again

and i just got the go-ahead to return to playing again!!

this is how i felt at my graduating from physical therapy today lmao

so i’ll be back hooping next week :)

that means getting back to that flow state is on the horizon. and i can’t wait for it to spill off the court as well ❤️‍🔥

- claudio / claud / @offballscreen

this week’s music ⤵️

wanted to highlight a select few of my favorite Lil Wayne mixtape songs this week. it sucks cause these will never be on streaming proper because of licensing / sample issues

caveat: i am not a Weezy expert, this is simply what i grew up on 😌

I Can’t Feel My Face
Lil Wayne
Da Drought 3
Released: 2007

you’ll recognize this sample being used in the latest Metro x Future project

on first listen i knew i heard that beat from somewhere

SportsCenter
Lil Wayne
Dedication 2
Released: 2006

teen claud was a sports generalist 🫡, so when he opened up the song with this i knew it would easily become my favorite Wayne song

My favorite TV shows, man, is SportsCenter, ESPN News, Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, Quite Frankly, Outside the Lines, Baseball Tonight? Y’er’me? I watch sports, dog.
…
I got a favorite team, a favorite player in every single sport. I’m not gon’ answer those questions.

side note: i remember ESPN would put out the audio of those shows as pods. i would listen at 2.2x speed. why? idk lmao

Rewind
Lil Wayne & Juelz Santana
Blow
Released: 2006

the opening bars are embedded in a deep wrinkle in the back of my smooth brain

Yea, Ice Cream hoodie, Bathing Ape tennis shoes
No time for pictures, no time for interviews
I'm gon' get the money, snowstorm or sunny
Try me and I'm coming out my coat arm with somethin'

the “i can’t feel my face” and “kmicheeada” (← no idea what they’re saying 😅) tags are iconic af