Office Crush: The Artists, Albums and Tech We Can't Get Enough Of

Editor’s Note: Office Crush is a monthly series that lets the Scene's writers gush over their current obsessions.

I've been participating in #MWE — or Music Writer Exercise — this month, allowing a lot of new music into my life. The idea, developed by writer Gary Suarez to make Twitter a bit more bearable, is simple: for each day in February, pick an album you've never before listened to, give it a spin and then tweet a short review. It's a smart way to discover music in these days of algorithm-curated playlists, which after a while can feel like the audio equivalent of rewatching The Office for the fifth time. It also offers a good excuse to check out new (or new-to-you) artists, deep-dive into established acts' catalogs or finally check out those landmark albums that shaped music but somehow never entered your rotation. Some of my favorite listens so far have been Kemba's Gilda, Yola's Walk Through Fire, John Coltrane's Giant Steps and Ivy Queen's En Mi Imperio. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ, associate editor

I got to see the Outsider Art Fair while I was in New York recently, and I’ve become extremely obsessed with one of the artists, Sal Salandra, whose work was in Norman Brosterman’s booth. Sal is a retired hair-stylist living on Long Island, and he makes the filthiest, horniest needlepoints you can imagine. They’re so joyful and bizarre, truly the vision of someone who has been on the fringes for so long that he has absolutely no fear of social or sexual norms. That’s the kind of honesty I crave in artwork. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER, arts editor 

This past summer, I finally had to say goodbye to the car I’d been driving since college. Its replacement is about 12 years newer and, among other amenities, it has Bluetooth sync for the stereo. I was able to listen to podcasts before, of course, but now it’s super easy, and the upshot is that I’m listening to a lot more of them on a regular basis. You don’t need me to tell you that the podcast is an interesting, flexible medium with some excellent journalism and other kinds of storytelling. (Some favorites: Marketplace, The Daily and Car Talk.) But the convenience has made a remarkable difference in how much I listen. I’m also a big fan of text-to-speech apps for this reason — my phone can read me all the Scene stories I didn’t get to read during the day while I sit in traffic. (Those apps need to be way simpler, too, but that's another story for another day.) Call me a tech grandpa, but I’m crushin’ on Bluetooth — a technology that’s been widespread for close to a decade — right now. STEPHEN TRAGESER, music editor 

Life is chaos. I know my Enneagram type and I am not happy about it. It won’t stop raining. (Check the forecast; it’s going to rain again most of next week.) We get closer to the presidential election every day, and never have I felt less confident in the democratic process. All of my pastimes are escapist. In Littlewood, a new RPG video game available on Switch, Steam and more, I’ve already saved the world, and I’m greeted around the country as its hero. My task is to build my town and make it pretty. As more townspeople come visit and want to stay, I construct houses, open a marketplace, run a tavern, build an air balloon platform to take me to faraway lands and more. And of course, I must mine for ore, chop down trees, grow crops and raise farm animals. All the while, I build friendships with my fellow townspeople and enjoy a few flirtations. Littlewood is in the tradition of my favorite video game Stardew Valley and the OG agriculture RPG Harvest Moon. It’s still in early development, and creator Sean Young is updating it regularly — but it’s already a super fun way to relax and imagine a more simple, satisfying life. ERICA CICCARONE, culture editor