Community, Crafting, and Favorites- Oh My!
1/30/25 Craft Night Recap & 'Top 50' Playlist Challenge
Howdy, friends! I’m Noelle, regular attender of Community Dinner & friend of Happy Medium. It’s nice to meet ya (-:
Jake has kindly given me the space to lay out the framework for a few things I’ve been dreaming up and do some shameless self promotion on this here substack.
Everybody say “Thank you Jake!”
Yesterday, January 30th, I hosted my first ever Craft Night! Craft Night is a way for me to combine two of my favorite things: creating and connecting. The power of gathering has been incredibly formative in my own life, and I believe making art with others is a beautiful way to ease the tension in making friends. As cheesy as it sounds, I want people I know and don’t know alike to feel like they have a space to come as they are.
The goal is simple: to meet monthly and make art together. Sometimes it will be structured, sometimes everyone will bring their own craft. Regardless of what is being made, my hope is that it will feel low pressure and focus more on creating together rather than creating perfectly.
This month we collaged with the scraps of my rather large National Geographic collection, and it was really sweet. I’ve included some photos from the evening, as well as some art that was made. Hopefully it persuades you to attend the highly-anticipated February Craft Night (Please come, date TBA!)
On a separate but equally important note, I have a challenge for you.
Let me first give some backstory. My roommate Emily and I recently spent an evening looking through a few random Rolling Stone’s ‘Of All Time’ lists. Greatest Songs of All Time, Most Impactful Vocalists, Best Album Covers…you get the gist. It doesn’t help to mention that most of their takes are horrendous, but it got me thinking about what my favorite songs of all time would be if I absolutely had to choose. So there I was, up until midnight, nose to the grindstone, curating what I ultimately dubbed my Top 50 Favorite Songs of All Time.
I enjoyed the process so much that I have asked almost every person I’ve seen within the past 2 weeks to make one and send it to me.
Sifting through songs I loved as a child alongside the questionable playlists I made in high school allowed me to reflect on how I’ve consumed music through the years. Everybody’s combined personal experiences, relationships, and environments influence what their taste becomes. It’s truly a beautiful thing that cannot be replicated from person-to-person.
Therefore, it has become my life’s purpose and mission to collect as many top 50 playlists as I can, and I’m calling you to rise to the challenge…if you’re brave enough.
Here are the rules:
You can only choose 1 song per artist (with the exception of 1 artist you may repeat once)
Your favorite song must be first on the playlist
You must send them to me, Noelle, or else I will be deprived the joy of discovering your awesome and incredible music taste (you can DM it to my instagram: @nolparker)
Notice how I say FAVORITE rather than the BEST. Objective quality is not the goal here, rather, emotional importance/relevance. Don’t take yourself too seriously!
I have a “master list” of all of the playlists I have been sent so far which you can find here if you’d like to peruse. This is where I will add yours when you send it to me!
Go crazy! Have fun! Discover more about yourself and your taste as you piece the playlist together! I’m excited to get to know more about you through it.
Oh, and again, please come to Craft Night-I’d love to see you there.
Don’t be a stranger!
Noelle