How do you touch grass? Disconnecting from the attention economy.
Stepping away from the screen is harder than ever in an economy built to capture attention. In this clip from You’re Not the Audience, Parliament Creative Director Calvin Ross Carl asks viewers how they touch grass and shares his own ways of feeling present, from metal shows he calls going to church to a $10 vinyl date night at Portland’s Music Millennium. The chat chimes in with vinyl digging, chopping wood, and moss on trees, and Calvin explains why simple, finishable tasks feel so good after years of monthslong design projects. It’s from the You’re Not the Audience episode on beauty and attention, The Search for Beauty in the Age of Algorithms.
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Outline
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl turns the conversation to the audience, asking for their favorite real-life experiences that pull them away from doomscrolling. His own go-to is metal shows: loud, sweaty, dark rooms full of fellow fans, where he can shut off the parts of his brain that are always telling him what to do next.
Viewers share digging for vinyl, chopping wood, and moss on trees. Calvin describes a date night at Music Millennium in Portland where each person could spend only $10 on a record, and explains why simple physical tasks, like chopping wood or painting board game miniatures, feel satisfying to designers used to monthslong timelines. He closes with plans for board game night.
Highlights
Metal shows can be oddly meditative despite the noise.
A $10 limit turns record shopping into a hunt through the strangest sections.
Simple, finishable tasks offer a sense of completion that long design projects don’t.
Board games and painting minis are Calvin’s other ways of touching grass.
Key insights
Presence can be loud
Being present doesn’t require quiet. A crowded metal show can clear the mind as well as any calm setting.
Constraints make discovery fun
The $10 rule forced a deeper dig into avant-garde and old jazz sections, turning a simple errand into an adventure.
Finishing feels good
For people who spend months on a single project, a task with a clear end offers an immediate sense of accomplishment.
Detailed analysis
The clip is a lighter moment in a conversation about the attention economy, but it reinforces the episode’s theme. Each example, from live music to record stores to board games, is a physical, in-person experience that algorithms can’t replicate. The chat’s contributions show how universal that need for unmediated attention is.
Conclusion
Touching grass looks different for everyone, but it always means trading the feed for something real. Calvin’s examples are a reminder that joy often lives in slow, tactile experiences.
Transcript
We’ve got a meeting in just a few, but everyone, what are some of your favorite ways to go touch grass? What do you do? You need to get away from the screen. You’ve got to stop doomscrolling. What’s your favorite real-life experience where you actually feel #present?
One of my go-tos, the place where I always call it going to church: I go to metal shows all the time, and metal shows are great. They’re super loud and noisy. You’re just surrounded, in the sweaty dark room, with a bunch of other nerds who are into metal like that. And I feel like I can shut off all of those other parts of my brain that are just screaming that I need to do this, I’ve got to go here. Sometimes it can be a very meditative experience, even though you’re surrounded by all this noise and usually angry music. So that’s one of mine.
Oh, Jared says, “Digging for vinyl in antique stores.” Yes, I love a good vinyl digging day. Okay, this is just one of my favorite things I’ve ever done, vinyl-wise. Here in Portland, there’s a legendary place called Music Millennium, and I did a date night there with my wife one time. The rule was we could only spend $10 on a vinyl. Each of us would find a vinyl that cost 10 bucks, and then we’d come home, make a cocktail, and listen to the vinyl that we got. And honestly, incredible. So fun. First of all, it’s very hard to find some vinyl there that’s only $10. So you start digging through the craziest avant-garde section, some weird old jazz section. That’s very fun.
Oh, Nick says chopping wood is so satisfying. Nick, I feel like you’ve had a lot of trees fall in your yard, if I remember right, so you’ve probably had to do a lot of wood chopping. I totally get that. There is something really nice about chopping wood. Especially being a designer for 20-plus years now (Nick, I know you can definitely relate), we’re often working on time scales that are months long. So when you get to just do a task like that that’s dead simple—I see this pile, I’ve got to do this thing, and at the end of this it will be done—I’m able to zone in, really lock in and do it, and you get that immediate “I did it.” It’s great. A lot of [unclear] do that for me. I like painting minis for board games. Board games are my other form of touching grass. I play a lot of board games.
In fact, that’s the plan today after work. It’s board game night, and the game we’re playing is called Earthborne Rangers, which is a whole futuristic game about exploring the possibilities of what if the post-apocalypse happens and we actually become better as humans as opposed to more evil. So maybe that’s related to today.
Oh, Valerie says, “Moss on trees.” Yes, moss on trees. If you grew up in the desert, you just don’t know. Moss on trees is beautiful. Dang. Now I want to go digging for some vinyl. Jared, next time you’re in Portland, let’s do a Parliament trip to Music Millennium. We can do the $10 rule. We’ll make it our date night. We can have our own Parliament date night where we each get $10 to go digging for some esoteric album. All right.