It is cold, rainy and grey here. Perfect day for me to totally binge on The Fall Season 3. I mean who can resist that show! Unfortunately, I need to plan, pack and do some last minute shopping for a trip. We all live in stress inducing, mind-numbing, politically charged times and need some relief from the mundane. So, instead of sending you some heavy stuff, I wanted to share some fun reads and a few podcasts and videos for you to enjoy.

In praise of Leica M9: We are often told that digital devices have built in redundancy. We need to throw them out in order to get a better one. At least one person disagrees. Matt Jacobson, an early employee at Facebook discusses a special bond with a brassed up Leica M9 camera. I really enjoyed this story of a Leica lover’s affair with an old digital. [The Official Leica Blog]

How sampling transformed music: Great TED talk by Mark Ronson. [TED]

Insta office: La Nube: INMC young architects from Europe created a project and an Insta office called La Nube! Fun video to watch. [YouTube]

The origins of high-five: Delightful video about Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke. [Aeon]

The Rise and Fall of the Army Surplus store: They used to be everywhere. And then designers moved in. [The Art of Manliness]

A $10,000 connected/smart watch full of rose gold: No thank you, Tag Heuer! I wouldn’t wear it even if you gave me for free. My wrist space is at super premium! [Hodinkee]

October 29, 2016, San Francisco

If you liked what you read, share this link with your friends on social media. Tell them to subscribe to this newsletter.

In case you were wondering, for the third time in the past five months, I’ve gotten hit by the cold/flu combo. I decided to take time off from the Internet, work and spent a substantial amount of time over the past three days recuperating by doing absolutely nothing (except answering emails) and drinking lot of ginger/tulsi tea and hydrating myself. The rest has done me good and I feel energized to get back to work. I can’t handle not being out and about.

I remember the sparseness of talent and original thought, and degree of elitism during the formative years of Indian fashion scene. I used to write about that stuff and even as a non-trained, not-really-fashion-writer, it was obvious that there was such a huge chasm between the rest of the world and Indian fashion, despite the claims by many of the then designers. It is exciting to learn about the subtle and modern changes to the act of weaving, traditional crafts and other artisanal work being adopted by the fashion talent coming from little corners of the country.Fashion clearly has come a long way in India.

What a week! Last presidential debate! Internet melted down, thanks to a devices-based bot-net. AT&T planning to buy Time Warner for about $85 billion. I mean, things are anything but boring these days. Except, to be honest, one needs to step away from the river of news, sit down and read some good stuff. And that is why I am here – to share some of the top stories I have read in recent days and are worth your time and attention.

If you need to find peace and quiet, I highly recommend the Bose QC35 headphones — which are amazing. I speak personally and I made my decision to buy them after reading this fantastic review. And if you need a place to sit down, find a great coffee shop. Who knows, your city might be in this list of best US cities for coffee addicts.

All set? Here we go with some recommendations:

Apple has received (I think unwarranted) criticism for its iPhone 7 design from technology reviewers. I disagree with them and in my latest piece for The New Yorker, I explain what is good iconic design, what matters and how should we think about design in the connected age.