Spirits rising

Hey! I hope you’re doing well. It’s starting to get warmer here in Wisconsin and we can feel our spirits rising.

Color courtesy of Knox and Olive.

This week in fragments, links, and tangents:

• “The artist’s job is to preserve the human spirit.” Van Neistat on compulsion. Last year I watched Colin and Samir interview him and they mentioned watching YouTube channels from oldest to newest to see how someone grows and changes over time. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m only three years behind.

• Erik Winkowski strikes again. It’s an email, it’s an instrument, it’s someone pushing against the walls of a medium. It’s very fun. Go make some music.

• Tristan Harris’ “A Call to Minimize Distraction & Respect Users’ Attention” presentation from 2013 (12 years ago).

• Another font is maybe in the works. You can download my other font Electric Sheep here.

• From the comments last week: 50 Spotify-Free Ways To Listen To Music

• Cute Ghibli filter. Now that you’ve cheaply mimicked a master’s style why don’t you go learn a thing or two about it. Watch the movies, look at the pencil sketch storyboards, watch videos of them painstakingly painting frames one by one. You’re right, it is a cute style! But Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki movies are about much more than a certain style and are often far from cute. Quite a few of them are violent and bloody critiques of our obsessive destruction of the planet and each other. OpenAI used Ghibli’s style to effectively market an improved version of their toy, but the irony that humans aren’t usually the hero in these stories is completely lost on them.

• I’ve been interested in the Light Phone for years. The new version seems pretty cool. I like the almost square shape. Does anyone have one of these or something like it?

• I mailed some zines to be included in the Official Outlet Zine Library™. The address is in this post if you’re interested. Carly made Mom Brain and How Big is Baby? Check out our shop if you want some zines.

• “Here’s what I’m trying to do with my life and my work. I’m trying to fully integrate everything. So the transition from work to play to everyday life is all seamless. So that it’s all one thing. There’s no difference between living and making art. I’ve gotten really close. Music, comics, writing, painting, playing with Eli, doing dishes, cooking, all that, fully integrated into one seamless unit. That’s pretty much my goal…” –James Kochalka (via Austin Kleon)

• Where's the Wood From? Beautiful markers and maps (by Carson Ellis) for a beautiful terminal (Portland International Airport).

• Voting in elections but also voting with our money, time, attention, etc.

• I’m reading Wool which is the first book in the Silo series. It looks like Apple has made it into a TV series. The book is good, but I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic fiction.

Thanks! See you next week.

“Where is dad going?” “To work in the office.” “Yay! More money!”

This newsletter is sent out every Sunday morning, rain or shine. It’s lovingly made by Mitchell and patiently edited by Carly. Knox and Olive are around here somewhere. We do not use AI.

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