Through Lines 146

RIP to the maestro Burt Bacharach who passed away earlier this week. I have a long-held soft spot for this version of Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head by Ben Folds Five and have fond memories of seeing Elvis Costello perform the double album of songs he wrote with Bacharach.

• While I think it’s good on principle to read books (real ones, not digital books), reading more for the sake of it seems misguided. I’d rather soak in a book than feel like I have to race through it to hit some stupid arbitrary goal.
• It’s feel like AI Madness around the world this week with basically every tech company putting their AI stake in the ground on technology that is still very much unproven and risky in so many ways. What could possibly go wrong?
• There’s a ring around a dwarf planet and it should be there. Space science is far more interesting than anything to do with AI.
• Further evidence of the above: the strange volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon, Io.
• File under: I kind of would prefer they keep Spider Man Noir animated, but I’ll reserve my judgement until there’s something to look at (assuming that happens).
• Although I’m intrigued by the ability to start using Passkeys in 1Password soon, I don’t think I’ve fully wrapped my head around how a few things will work and also what potentially bad things might come of this.
• “Computing motives of moduli stacks of vector bundles on stacky curves” is the visual puzzle (and tongue twister) you’re looking for. Plus, maths!
• StreetPass for Mastodon looks like a great way to find peeps across the Fediverse now that the bird site APIs are dead. Just need that Safari version.
• If you want to learn about Riso printing, this new Domestika course from the delightful Gabriella Marcella (Risotto Studio) is certainly a good place to start.
• Bohemian Rhapsody as performed on the world’s largest pipe organ.
• Manuel!

Notable Type Releases

• Around-A and Around-B landed on Future Fonts and are a good bit of fun. I find that both fill out the limited supply of rounded sans type families. I very much dig the quirky disconnected arm and ear of the lowercase r and g in the B variety.
• Gayot New is a reinterpretation of a wacky 1970s gem with its tiny counters and odd visual color. This new version also adds an even more 70s outline shadow style.
• Carole Serif, designed by Matz Gasser and Lisa Schultz reminds me a little bit of Lipton’s Bennett with its chunky wedge serifs but maybe with just a smidge more outgoing personality.
• CoType’s all new utilitarian RM Mono sits comfortably alongside RM Neue and might even work well in your favorite code editor despite its intended use for traditional graphic design purposes.
• Rhau from the Cast Type Foundry definitely makes me want to go design and typeset some very 14th Century printerly illuminated pages.
• The blocky (ahem) Shuttleblock is going on my type wishlist for sure.