MUSIC | We all say we like to discover new music, a prospect that's easier today than it's ever been. But then comes the moment when we slip our headphones on or key up our i-devices for a drive. For most of us, whatever we already know and love gets played. Enter NOON PACIFIC, a service that finds the best new music and sends you a playlist every Monday at noon. The songs' genres are all over the map, but the list is always full of enough upbeat tracks to get you through the Monday afternoon slump. It takes the searching out of finding new music and brings you back to the days of getting a handmade mixtape or CD from a friend. (Bonus: it's curated by Spokane native Clark Dinnison.) Sign up at noonpacific.com.
APP | It seems like there's great journalism happening just about everywhere. Even Buzzfeed is investing in serious long-form work. But more stuff is only making it easier to get overwhelmed and end up missing something you might love. The LONGFORM APP wants to help. The free app — from the same people who run longform.org, the website that highlights the best narrative journalism and the podcast that interviews writers — lets you subscribe to writers or publications you love, browse staff picks and curate a reading list you're sure to like. Using an algorithm, it pulls only long-form work, so your feed won't get clogged with short blogs or listicles.
TV | If you haven't heard of UTOPIA yet, you're about to. And no, this is not the same Utopia reality show that's currently bombing hard on FOX. Director David Fincher is going to remake the British show for American audiences on HBO and it'll get lots of ink. So get ahead of all your friends and watch the original version now, because there's nothing about it that needs a remake. The story centers around a group of fans of a cult graphic novel who find themselves caught up in a government conspiracy. It's hard to get too far into the plot without spoilers, but like other British dramas, Utopia's storytelling is totally next-level compared to American shows. The seasons are shorter, the characters more unsettling, the twists more surprising and the aesthetics infinitely more stunning. It's not on Netflix or Hulu, but you'll figure it out.
