I’m a sucker for creativity. A sucker for documenting life and being reflective. Timm is one of those people. He is the Casey Niestat of TikTok. Let’s call them vlogs that just capture a typical day in his 40s. Sure Timm is not a typical dude. The dude is driven. The dude has a big role in a company where he oversees about 200 peeps. A busy father to a driven wife. But he has perfected the art of making a “mostly-everyday” vlog on TikTok. He documents using his phone and edits his craft. The dude has it dialled down. Hey… he cheats. He uses older footage when talking about his morning routines and uses other edited sequences when doing the voiceover on the day. Fuck me… watch some of them and appreciate the little things he notices and documents… and throw in more personal behind-the-scenes knowledge in the voiceover.
The edit is crisp and flowing. Fast like our minds to keep us engaged. I remember when 150k followed Timm. Now it’s close to 900k following the daddy we wish we had.
I made a video (below) about making the playlist and also about Timm’s editing style for his TikTok Vlogs. I want to make some. I also asked my friend Cara to make some too (since she lives life on the “cool”)
I know not everyone is on TikTok. He has playlists inside his TikTok which is worth a scroll through this “Book Of Appreciation”. His “Introductions”. His playlist about his wife “Kelly” and his “Perspective.
Timm is on TikTok here. This past month has seen an increase in Timm’s style of daily vlogs by regular folk like me and Cara. So I asked the grasshopper to study him and make one. She said she would and wanted me to make one. I don’t live a fun life like her… but I told her I would.
This playlist is inspired by this creative man. Two songs you see so much in his TikTok vlogs are “Sunday by HNNY” and “Mother’s Love by Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou” which you will find in this wonderful playlist.
Timm went to school in Toronto. Comes back every year with dinner with his old friends. Lives in NYC.
Timm’s personal website is here.
Don’t forget to check out his resources tab on his website with helpful stuff about trying to work in a big office or do well in that office.
Let’s get to the music below…
Before we start and I get long-winded in my sentence typing… this playlist was created to store some of my “worldly” music that doesn’t fit in some of my playlists. I wanted a light and fun playlist for the “chillout” + “Sunday vibing” + relaxing + laptop playing + dreaming about travelling + dinner-making and couch time. Hell, you can throw this on with people around…
Let’s break down some of the songs…
Sunday by HNNY
The beautiful Sunday is my fave track from the Swedish producer HNNY’s album of the same name. Took a while for him to release a full album. He uses experimental gospel and traditional soul remixes. This song is used over and over in Timm’s Tik Tok Daily Vlog Recaps that are creative and noteworthy of the small gestures or lingering mental sentiment he has on a topic or something he notices during or in his daily routine. This song’s sample is “I Met Him on a Sunday by Laura Nyro feat. LaBelle (1971)” This song should have opened the playlist… and it does.
Tezeta (Nostalgia) by Malatu Astatke
Fuck me on a Friday this is so goddamn good. I had to add this as the second song since it has such a king-ass vibe. Mulatu was musically trained in London, New York and Boston where he combined his jazz and Latin interests with traditional Ethiopian influences. He is considered the father of Ethio-Jazz. Tezeta is the benchmark of what an evening should sound like.
Opendoors by Jitwam
A fun track. Roots in northern India, he is based in Brooklyn the psychedelic soul-savant and has cemented his reputation as a world-class DJ and live performer. I don’t know if this song should be third in the playlist. I just found it today. But fight me if you think it should move.
Sway It Hula Girl by Lisa Ono
Lisa is a Brazillian-Japanese bossa nova singer. She was born in San Paulo in 62. She moved to Japan when she was 10. Just love the vibe to this in the background… even if I have no idea of the lyrics. I wanted to give the playlist more international flavour since we already went to Ethiopia in song two.
At Last by Etta James
Yes, this was the first dance song at my wedding in 1998. But it was in Father Of The Bride when they make love in the Kitchen. It was also on a sweet Ikea commercial and it just screams a lovely Sunday with yourself or someone you know. This song makes you calm and makes you happy at the same time. One of two songs by Etta James in this playlist. A Sunday Kind Of Love is the second song by Etta in the playlist. Note: We had two first dance songs at our wedding in 98. The other one was the song from the Robinhood movie by Brian Adams. I regretted that one… but convinced her we needed two songs since we are unique… so she let me use this one since I’m a romantic.
Robinson Crusoe by Art Of Noise
My buddy Drew told me I need to listen to this song and I’m glad I did. It has this earthly peace to it and it also makes me think about being stranded on a desert island as it plays as I make a shelter for my lady to spend a couple of weeks before I create something to flag down a ship or a plane. (oh did I mention that I found all the food and water magically in the tropical forest… so we are good for a couple of weeks.) Note: I’ve had a lay down on the couch and put this song on repeat and just let it magically lift me up and take me somewhere even though it’s like a “new-age” version of some song you would find at a mall playing softly.
Black Chicken 37 by Buena Vista Social Club
When “Columbia Music House” was a thing… and you could get like 11 CDs for like a penny. This was the 16th CD I picked up back in married life. I wanted to be worldly and there were not too many CDs to pick from… so I went with this to maybe put on for a dinner party with my wife’s parents and sister in the monthly dinners we would have on the first Saturday of each month. You can’t go wrong with the bongos in this song.
Take Five by The Dave Burbeck Quartet
First time I heard this was in an Infinity car commercial. This song came out in 1959 in the album called “Time Out” Dave Burbeck passed away in December at the age of 91 back in 2012 when I split up with my wife. Even though his songbook is deep… he is known for this one song that is catchy and clever and it was on the first jazz album to sell a million copies. Many of us remember this song from the Infiniti J30 car commercial. Because of this song… I wanted this car with Jonathan Pryce narrating the commercial called “Thinking Of You” that was shot in Prague which was shot over a four-week period in the 90s. The shots matched with the song and created an emotional mood while also enhancing the car’s timeless beauty and sophisticated style. This song is a kingpin for a Sunday in your 40s or 50s or 60s with its two-cord piano/bass style and its jolting drum solo. Dave played drums and Paul Desmond played the sax.
