Hello and welcome back to the suddenly-hard-to-come-by Birchtree Newsletter! I started writing a lot more on the website itself recently, which meant I didn't have as much material that was new for the newsletter, so it just kinda…stopped.

But in talking to a few of you fine folks, I've learned that the most valuable parts of the email tended to be the video and music recommendations, so I'm trying again with just these sections and I hope you like it!

The Videos

Whether you loved or hated the new Star Wars movies (or if you loved some and hated others), you should watch this video. It's not trying to convince you to change your mind, nor is it a sneaky way for me to make you watch a video that "proves" my opinion is right, it's genuinely something I think all Star Wars fans should watch to level-set on how we think about Star Wars together.

HP made a Mac Studio competitor, and it did not go well 😬

This hit home so hard 😂

I really enjoyed John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch in its entirety, but this song has been stuck in my head ever since.

If you want to play more video games but are burned out on the big names out there, SkillUp has an awesome list of indies coming this year that might rekindle your love of games.

And finally, how about some practical advice on cleaning your car's windshield?

Music

A few records have stuck with me over the past month or so.

1. Two Ribbons by Let's Eat Grandma is yet another excellent record from the UK duo who make way better pop music than their silly band name would make you guess. Killer record 🥰
2. Including the new Kendrick Lamar record on a list like this feels like cheating, but it would be dishonest for me to omit it because it's too "obvious". This is on constant repeat for me and simply adds to the evidence that Lamar is one of the greatest voices of our generation.
3. I've never really listened to the Regina Spektor album, I just heard the singles back in the 2000s, but I gave this one a shot and man, this is something else. I don't think I love it, but the production on this is absolutely insane, and Spektor's crisp vocals are amazingly able to keep up.
4. And finally we've got the new Foals record, which is more poppy than anything I've heard from them before. This one's tons of fun.