April 2018
Month archive / 60 posts
Links: April 2018
Hello, dear reader!
April is gone, but its links remain.
I’ve been obsessed with my current personal project lately (more on that soon), so apart from a handful of very brief movie reviews, I didn’t do much writing in April, though the web designers in the audience might want to take a look at my notes from last week’s Generate conference.
The links this go-round include some gems for Prince fans on the second anniversary of… See more →
My notes from last week’s @netmag Generate New York 2018 conference. #generateconf v6.robweychert.com/blog/2018/04/g…
Apparently the Secret Service doesn’t believe that more guns equals more safety. Interesting. twitter.com/washingtonpost…
It is a perfect spring day outside and I’m the guy cleaning his apartment with the curtains closed, listening to Concrete Blonde.
I thought brunch was just a late breakfast with maybe a bit of booze, not this drunken bourgeois douchebaggery. washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/styl…
Class of 1984
Generate New York 2018
My takeaways from two days of talks on all things web design
The Generate conference made its annual visit to New York at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea from April 25–27. This was my second Generate, and unlike my first one (in 2014), it was a single track, which I much prefer.
Donna Lichaw: Story First: Crafting Products That Engage
Donna is the author of The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love. She applies her experience as a filmmaker to helping people take a narrative approach… See more →
Repeat the question.
Bit Brigade
Phantom Cowboys
“[P]art of the conditioning of the ‘patriarchal ideal’ is to make women feel empowered by it on their ‘own terms.’” nytimes.com/2018/04/23/mov…
Gimme Shelter
“They made — gasp — compromises. They declined to let the ideological perfect be the assassin of the achievable good.” washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-wo…
Thank you all for the suggestions! Good stuff. I’m hoping for a future where variable fonts and container queries/units make this easier. twitter.com/robweychert/st…
Sunday Morning Jackhammer: The Return of the King 🌈🌈🌈
Type nerds: Are there any display faces out there with as many weights/widths as Knockout or Acumin, but available as a self-hosted webfont?
Kickboxer
The only thing stupider than getting mad at the weather is THIS STUPID FUCKING WEATHER
Talking Heads’ “Sugar on My Tongue” except it’s “Broccoli in My Teeth”
AT&T appears to be much better at collecting money than spending it, so congrats to their shareholders I guess?
Sweet Jesus I will be spending a lot of time with the annotated discography just launched by the Prince Estate. princeestate.com
“He realized he had to socially handicap himself to be the artist he wanted to be […] he had to be a complete enigma.” twitter.com/guardian/statu…
Prince’s original 1984 recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U” was just released for the first time. 💜 pitchfork.com/news/listen-to…
“Assume that anyone you’re teaching has no knowledge but infinite intelligence.” adactio.com/journal/13747
Dawson City: Frozen Time
And if you want to work on projects like this with us, apply to be @propublica’s next editorial experience designer! propublica.org/jobs/editorial…
Read about the process behind our design for the Lost Mothers gallery. v6.robweychert.com/blog/2018/03/d…
Congrats also to Pulitzer finalists @jasongrotto and @sandhya__k of @ProPublicaIL and @RayLong of @chicagotribune! pulitzer.org/finalists/jaso…
Congrats to @propublica and especially @ByNinaMartin on being a Pulitzer finalist for the Lost Mothers series! pulitzer.org/finalists/staf…
My brain hurts, but it is a victorious hurt.
Saturday:
- Partitioning grids
- Film discussion
- Back to partitioning grids
War on Women
Isle of Dogs
Wes Anderson’s films are all effectively stop-motion animation, and part of what I find off-putting about most of his live-action work is the resulting reverse-uncanny-valley effect. I had been over his schtick for years by the time Fantastic Mr. Fox came out and made me realize that the world of proper animation is where Anderson belongs. Isle of Dogs is a welcome return to that place.
The sun is out and @frank_chimero has a beautiful new site. Pretty good Thursday so far. frankchimero.com
The work is a mix of site-wide UX and custom layout and art direction for features, working in a newsroom brimming with super smart people. twitter.com/robweychert/st…
Happy 102nd birthday to the great Beverly Cleary! I still call lamps “dawnzers” in solidarity with Ramona Quimby. newyorker.com/culture/sarah-…
Superb @davatron5000 post of collected wisdom. (In the spirit of Cunningham’s Law, I say Sturgeon’s Law is missing.) daverupert.com/2018/04/eponym…
Contrasting the political climate surrounding Trump’s impeachment rumblings and that of Nixon’s resignation. washingtonpost.com/news/politics/…
A Bay of Blood
This stylish proto-slasher is stupider and trashier than the more highly regarded gothic works of Bava’s horror ouevre, and more enjoyable for it. A Bay of Blood is a must-see for anyone interested in how giallo films paved the way for slashers, especially since Friday the 13th borrowed from it liberally.
🚨 JOB ALERT: Want to do what I do at @propublica? We’re hiring a designer! Learn more and apply: propublica.org/jobs/editorial…
It turns out that when you broadcast your love of personal sites, people send you their personal sites. 🤗 twitter.com/robweychert/st…
I love visiting people’s personal sites and seeing how they present themselves to the world when the format is entirely up to them.
Virtually every time I see a URL to someone’s personal site—in a social media profile, email, resumé, etc—I get a twinge of excitement.
My favorite thing about iOS updates is using Look Up and discovering that my system’s dictionary has vanished yet again. Always a hoot!
Bad design is bad. twitter.com/washingtonpost…
For no apparent reason, I used non-Micron pens for the past three years. That shit is over and I am reborn.
Molly Ringwald on John Hughes: “How are we meant to feel about art that we both love and oppose?” newyorker.com/culture/person…
“Crisis pregnancy centers,” which use fake facts to steer women away from abortion, are often government funded. youtu.be/4NNpkv3Us1I
Altered States
This dizzying array of Cronenbergian psychobabble, pulp horror, and avant-garde psychedelia doesn’t quite hang together, and its ending is pure garbage, but overall it is more than bonkers enough to recommend it. Pairs well with The Manitou.
Forbidden Planet
Considering when Forbidden Planet was made, its special effects are astonishing, and its psychological concept is ambitious. But that concept is explicated through far more dialogue than action, moving back and forth between just two fairly modest locations, and the result is kinda boring.
The advent of 280 made this doubly true (literally). twitter.com/robweychert/st…
FWIW, @TwitterDev, being forced to use Twitter’s site or native apps is a dealbreaker for me. Please reconsider. apps-of-a-feather.com
Fascinating documentation of ISIS governance. A tyrannical theocracy is still a bureaucracy. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
If men flirted like birds. thenib.com/if-men-flirted…
Extremely exciting epiphany last night. It has moving parts, responds directly to a unique creative challenge, and it just might work. 😮
“Fingers crossed the future is more diverse.” @davatron5000 finds that Android’s proprietary grass isn’t greener. daverupert.com/2018/04/dave-w…
gentle evening breeze
exposed as savage menace
by your car alarm
🌈
A teenager risked his life to give the police vital info about the MS-13 gang. He’s being repaid with deportation. features.propublica.org/ms-13/a-betray…
April, I know you just got here, but we need to talk.