Well, It's Been a Year, It Doesn't Surprise Me

Thoughts on this year and 2025, as well as a year of OÍR mixes

Here we are, already in December, with another year which feels like it’s flown by. Honestly, it’s wild to think that next year will be 2025, a year which in my mind seems to only exist in sci-fi novels and films. Yet, instead of flying cars and robots and AI jammed in everything, I just want tasty meals, funky wine, and some interesting conversations! I had an idea about my coffee shop, that perhaps it’s not only a coffee shop, but a small store that carries an interesting selection of offbeat magazines and quirky art books? I was reading in Monocle’s newest edition of The Entrepreneurs and they wrote a piece about Nicola Hamilton and her shop Issues which she started back in 2022, where she also hoses pop-up shops and live talks.

“I believe in independent media,” says Hamilton. “We encourage people to linger, browse, take a seat and ask questions. I hope that there’s plenty of inspiration to be found here.”

This reminded me of Ensemble, a bookshop and gallery I visited over the summer in Marseille, who’s also created a really interesting space for people to explore and meet. Next year is going to be challenging in many ways so a good goal is to make places for people to be together. This is something Kyle and I talk about a lot, about finding those people who are like us here in Barcelona, and building that space where we can gather interesting people to learn from and enjoy. And I feel like they have to be here somewhere! Just last week, RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects, awarded its 2024 International Prize to Modulus Matrix, an 85-unit social housing development on the periphery of Barcelona. Or Mesura winning Dezeen’s best interiors project and retail interior (small) project of the year for their work on the Aesop on Diagonal, which repurposes discarded local stone and transforming it into functional objects. There are cool things happening here, but perhaps there are better ways to organize and gather people? More to process and plan in 2025!

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Yesterday, I sent out the last OÍR of the year, a mix dedicated to X-Mas and the holidays. But in the email I forgot to include a link to download it… whoops! So I wanted to make sure you saw it. It’s wild to think that I did a mix a month this year. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to keep it going, honestly. Do I listen to that much music? Am I aware of that many genres and artists? As it turns out, the answer is yes. I’m already planning January’s mix, something very weird and ambient, it should be super fun and interesting to listen to.

Additionally, I’ve uploaded all of the mixes to The Fox Is Black SoundCloud for those of you who want an alternate option from downloading MP3s. I’ll continue to upload the mixes there going forward, and hopefully add them to Apple Music as well. One step at a time!

Okay, that’s all for this week, short and sweet. Next week I’m going to do a mini-gift guide with shops and places to visit to meaningfully spend your hard earned money! Happy Monday, I hope you have a lovely week 💙