volume 143 - your top songs 2017

going deep in the archive to a memorable time

i’m trying something new for today’s Run It Back! inspired by a Spotify-generated playlist (hence the title 😉), we’re going back to a year of great significance for me

today’s playlist will be a small snippet of what i was listening to that year. i encourage you to throw it on while reading for the maximum 2017 Claud™️ experience

hope y’all enjoy :)

and with that, let's get to the music for the week ❤️‍🔥

- claudio / claud / @offballscreen

this week’s music ⤵️

2017 will forever be ingrained in my brain. i feel like it’s very rare to have a majority of a year so vivid but it’s gotta be attributed to major change: the good, the bad, and everything in between

mood all 2017 🥲

it was like new beginnings on hyper mode:

• i got out of a bad relationship (where we both were young shitheads who didn’t know any better). i focused on myself for the first time in a long time

• i started a new job that brought me so many experiences that i wouldn’t take for granted

• i lost 70 lbs in 7 months in what was many ebbs and flows of my weight over the years 🤪 (and how i got there i would not recommend doing)

• first time moving away from home too! living in (what became) one of my favorite neighborhoods in SF (Outer Sunset)

however, two experiences stand out the most from 2017: hooping at the University of San Francisco (USF) and all things Village Resting (VR) with Josh 😌

i played basketball off and on from college up until 2017. i hella wanted to play in high school but felt pigeonholed into solely playing football (which didn’t bring me joy)

i also hate running aimlessly. well, just running in general lmao. it’s just not for me :)

fast forward to 2017: playing basketball at USF Saturday mornings quickly became my ritual

i still haven’t found pickup games quite like USF 😪

i always wanted to be part of the first game (which would be whomever 10 players showed up first) to maximize play. i was…rusty to say the least 😅

i wasn’t good onball and generally my offense was weak given my size. however, there was something in my control: effort

i made myself indispensable to every team by hustling my ass off, grabbing every rebound, and playing good defense. and i loved every second of it! i found a sense of belonging 😌

as i played more and met more people, i became a regular. which was so nice to be included with that group!

i even joined someone’s rec basketball team after playing with them at USF. i’m still friends with a lot of those teammates today

as with life, everything passes (or “todo pasa” if we want to use my favorite Spanish phrase 🙏)

i didn’t know when i was in it that it would be some of the last times i would play with people due to injury, moving away, or COVID. there’s grief around the highlights because those experiences were so great

time perpetually moves on (todo pasa 😌)

Village Resting was also peaking at this time too 🤠

we did a limited run with these on shirts just for us lmao

like i mentioned in the intro last week, Village Resting is Josh’s pop-up restaurant that he’s had for over a decade now. if you’re lucky enough to have had his signature “Bando Sando” (fried chicken sandwich), you know how good his cooking is

a small snippet of our offerings

he’s a visionary in my eyes and the timing worked out for me to invest full-time in supporting his vision

at that point in time, we even had a podcast going where we’d do skits, share music, and see who could make the other laugh hardest

our gimmick was that we were trash and wouldn’t release episode 1 until we had our shit together lmao

so we had the pod and pop-ups rolling full steam ahead. i’m not a great chef myself, so taking what i learned from hooping at USF, i filled in the gaps and just tried:

• need helping peeling 40 lbs of potatoes on a Friday night? and someone to work the fryer? sign me up

• how tf do we get insurance for a company pop-up? i’m really good at googling and taking notes

• braising pork belly over night for a brunch shift? fuck it, that sounds easy enough. (yet i did fuck it up but it ended up working out lmao)

so i was the fry guy / anything else VR needed. at our peak, we were doing a brunch and dinner shift with a rotating cast of friends to help along the way. we made #content and just had fun

i contributed in a domain i’m not an expert in, trusted myself to learn, and linked with so many dope people that i never would’ve met if it wasn’t for VR 🙏

unfortunately it wasn’t a 6’2-sized lens

looking back, i’m surprised at what i accomplished throughout 2017. i don’t remember 100% tactically what it took to get there but i know that the results happened and i actually did that shit (and had fun while doing it!)

whether it be Village Resting, hooping at USF, or whatever else happened in 2017, those moments will stay with me for as long as time allows. and i’m grateful for every second of it 😌

so on that note, think back to a significant time in your life. what was your soundtrack? what did you learn about yourself? if you feel comfortable enough sharing, please bang my line and comment / reply to this email 🤠