February 2017

Blown Away

If you’re suffering from an excess of self-respect, the Corey Haim/Feldman erotic thriller is now available on Hulu.

King Crimson: Starless

RIP John Wetton. Colon cancer. Here’s my favorite King Crimson song, which he co-wrote, sang, and played bass on.

What Can Ivanka Trump Possibly Do for Women Who Work?

Before the election, her main interest in women was getting them to buy her clothing, her handbags, and her shoes. Who can forget… See more →

Great hang with @m_swartz today, who shared some great journalistic design and strategy insights from his work at @upstatement.

Big week for our Cabinet Cards project: it received an @SND Award of Excellence, and @JessicaHuseman and I discussed it on the @RWD podcast. twitter.com/RWD/status/836…

Art is about the artist. Design is not about the designer.

“We’re trying to work freely without a client’s desire. […] We don’t give assignments, we give prompts.” 🙄 eyeondesign.aiga.org/why-fearful-co…

With every repetition of ⇧🔊 on a Mac, I expect Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” to kick in.

Talk about an unreliable narrator. Powered primarily by a single interview, Author: The JT LeRoy Story gives Laura Albert carte blanche to frame as she pleases her decade of hoodwinking the literary world. And yet, the skepticism her story provokes is eclipsed by how engrossing it is, providing canny insight into how she was able to pull off such a stunt in the first place.

Albert is a masterful and enigmatic storyteller, and one whose… See more →

I just noticed one of my steak knives has gone missing. In a movie, this would be the moment when the killer emerges from th

“Gaming didn’t impact the election, but electing to secede from reality is political, too.” vulture.com/2017/02/video-…

Behind the scenes of a photo series on Philly’s share of the opioid epidemic. I am so awed by this kind of work. youtu.be/xq2SwiBylow

“Because of the stigma, a lot of them were afraid to go to the ER, so they just bled out.” youtu.be/vlAR8IsvCfM

The 00s and 10s don’t feel like distinct decades to me like the 80s and 90s. Is it my age? The early millennial numbers? Or is it too soon?

Apatow productions have a habit of reveling in the pathetic frailty of maleness, and in a way that usually doesn’t do much for me. Superbad, the apotheosis of the form, an effortless synthesis of vulgarity and tenderness, is the one that finally reached me. Every time I see it, I laugh until I cry, and then I laugh some more.

RIP design hero Dick Bruna, best known for his Miffy books for kids, though I’m partial to his early book covers. nytimes.com/2017/02/20/boo…

Listening to Lungfish today for the first time in ages and feeling really good about it. lungfish.bandcamp.com/album/the-unan…

Not to brand Milo a victim, but would @ReaganBattalion look for dirt on a CPAC speaker with the same record minus the, y’know, gayness?

This social media bingo card from @gemmacorrell’s Feminist Activity Book kinda nails it. thenib.com/social-media-b…

After all Milo’s unpunished antics, I didn’t think the pedophilia comment would make waves. What if Trump said it? mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/us/…

No big company is without issues, but giving your money to Uber has been indefensible for years. The latest chapter: susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19…

Just re-upped my Letterboxd membership. I say this a lot, but if you love movies and you’re not using @letterboxd, you’re missing out.

They’re a problem, to be sure, and a uniquely difficult one. But I hesitate to conflate 4chan’s actual scope with its own self-serving myth.

For all the noise they’re able to make on Twitter and Reddit outside their self-selecting cesspools, it’s not like Pepe is a household name.

Are their numbers knowable? As a collective defined by nihilism, do they even vote? Is their influence graded on an internet curve?

But the inherent slipperiness of 4chan and similar communities makes it hard to say just how influential they are in this political moment.

4chan is worth trying to understand, and this essay, though muddy in places, is as good an analysis as I’ve seen. medium.com/@DaleBeran/4ch…

Designers: Anyone else have issues lately with Illustrator CC ignoring/changing colors and/or strokes when it opens SVGs?

“Be a danger to your opponents, not your friends.” incisive.nu/2017/facebook/

Netflix noticed I liked Archer, so they picked it up from the dollar store on their way home from work.

This survey has 25 questions, but one would have sufficed. action.donaldjtrump.com/mainstream-med…

Famous people dressed up like other famous people works great for SNL, but not so much for The People v. O.J. Simpson.

The Trump administration is keeping me busy this week. propublica.org/article/the-ch…

Congrats if you managed to snag Mike Flynn’s rookie card in the brief time it was available. propublica.org/article/the-ch…

Netflix spammed me relentlessly about its Michael Bolton Valentine’s Day special, but I had to search for its new series on design. Data! 👍🏻

“[A]bout 70 members of the Rock Sorting Committee met to discuss […] whether ‘Don’t Hurt Yourself’ is a rock song.” nytimes.com/2017/02/06/art…

I’m amazed this role wasn’t written specifically for Isabelle Huppert, because no one else on the planet could have pulled it off.

Someone please confiscate my wallet. typography.com/fonts/ringside…

who is this joaquin and why were these boots made for him

This is exactly as corny as it looks.

“Rather than working to close the digital divide, this action widens the gap.” nytimes.com/2017/02/05/tec…

“We have the equivalent of a dynamic neural network running our government.” bloomberg.com/view/articles/…

Dear Fictional Military,

You’ve got a tough job, I know. Your presence in any story is inescapably political. You are either a condemnation of our instinct for violence or a celebration of our defense of Freedom, with little opportunity to exist somewhere in between. You have to balance your duty to propel an artificial narrative with your duty to realistically portray the actual military, two things that are often at odds with each other. So… See more →

The first six words uttered in Rashomon summarize my feelings about the film’s universally fervid acclaim: “I don’t understand it at all.”

“A man was murdered,” says the priest, overcome with despair.

“Just one?” replies the commoner. I share his confusion.

In a world the priest describes as full of daily, devastating horrors, the crime at the center of Rashomon seems almost mundane. And yet, more so than even the rape and murder themselves, the… See more →

RIP John Wetton. Colon cancer. Here’s my favorite King Crimson song, which he co-wrote, sang, and played bass on. youtu.be/OfR6_V91fG8

Mostly on the stupid side of silly, but it still beats Temple of Doom.

If you’re suffering from an excess of self-respect, the Corey Haim/Feldman erotic thriller is now available on Hulu. hulu.com/w/A66S

brb meeting with top gang thugs

The latest addition to my growing collection of Gwar stained glass, hand-crafted this time by the amazing @sneakfuzz.