↬ The Daily 5/16/19

This morning’s episode of the Daily has the most heartbreaking, frustrating interview with an Iowan Trump supporter. He’s loyal, but if you listen to his opinions, he actually disagrees with Trump pretty thoroughly. I know people like this guy. There so many good and admirable qualities that come though, even in this interview, but there is some kind of ideological capture going on. People have put their trust in the wrong places.

↬ Come Get Me 5/14/19

Another song by Jenny O, but even more delightful than the last. It still has that weird chill, but with a 60s bubblegum pop, Motown edge.

↬ Lazy Jane 5/12/19

Ooh, I’ve never heard this before. Weird chill.

↬ Ruby — Ira Wolf 5/11/19

Last night I saw Lee Henke perform (he was great), but it turns out his girlfriend Ira who sang harmony with him for a couple pieces is amazing too.

↬ Stewart Lee 5/6/19

I’m not a typically a big fan of stand-up comedy, with the exception of Stewart Lee, who I adore. Hard to describe his approach, except to say that he is very clever, and excellent at using the audience itself as a source of comedy in a meta-comic way.

This particular YouTube version is a bit hacky, but if you can ignore the weird image quality, it’s very good.

↬ Aye 5/6/19

I don’t understand a word of this song except ‘Aye’, but it pops. By the Dutch rapper Dio.

↬ Week 18: Veil 5/4/19

The poem I wrote for week 18 of 52 Failures.

↬ Every Girl 4/29/19

It isn’t an amazing recording or performance, but this might be my favorite song ever. Evan Felker is an utterly fantastic lyricists and songwriter. There isn’t a loose word in the entire Turnpike Troubadours discography.

↬ Little Love 4/27/19

One of the gentlest, most beautiful songs I know.

There is one very simple lyric that I love in particular, and I think about all the time. It just goes, “White cliffs and starfish — the tide like ruined lace.” In the context of the song it’s calming and transportive.

Exceptionally graceful writing by Gabriel Kahane.

↬ Vacancy 4/26/19

Week 17’s poem for my 52 Failures project.

↬ Patriot 4/25/19

A melancholy, funny, beautifully shot spy show with wonderful music. One of those shows I keep coming back to. The main character wears a green, worn-out wool sweater that I am incredibly jealous of.

The first episode is amazing, so if you don’t like the show after the first episode, it’s probably not for you. It’s a bit off-beat, so you have to be on board.

The show is on Amazon Prime.

↬ Eden 4/25/19

My friend Haley (who is not a even music person, per se) put me onto this great song by Amanda Anne Platt.

↬ Work as Identity 4/24/19

A really good episode of the Ezra Klein Show. Interesting to think about the role work should play in life. The idea is more-or-less that work shouldn’t be as important to us or defining as it is.

↬ Champagne Corolla 4/21/19

I didn’t really like this song when I first heard it, but it might be my favorite Justin Townes Earl tune right now.

↬ Wine Lips 4/14/19

Lydia Loveless is crazy good. Just a girl and a guitar.

↬ Tightrope 4/11/19

I come back to this music video about once every two months. Janelle Monáe is insanely talented.

↬ Central Time 4/2/19

This song kicks. The amazing thing about Pokey Lafarge is that he affects this old-timey twenties persona, but in a way that is loose and fun and charismatic. My personal bias is to be very suspicious of that sort of thing, but Pokey sweeps you off your feet.

↬ Mac Drafts App 3/26/19

If you are a nerd and work with text, Drafts is this great iOS app that allows you to a) write drafts (obviously), and then b) automate what you want to do with that text. The content on this site is mostly written in Drafts and published via custom actions I’ve written for it.

Well now, after long last, there is a Mac version of Drafts. I’ve been running the beta for months. At this point it doesn’t have automation features, but it syncs with iOS, so it’s a great start!

↬ Pajama 3/26/19

Pajama is one of those words that seems weirder the more you think about it and that’s because it’s a Persian word. The English Imperialist no doubt stole it. I don’t endorse imperialism, but I do endorse the word pajama.

Pajama. Pajama. Pajama.

↬ Gabriel Kahane Apartment Session 3/17/19

I love this song, but the logistics of making this video are even more amazing. They fit at least 50 people into this tiny apartment to record it. Since they can’t all see Gabriel as he conducts, it appears that they have sub-conductors who stand in door ways and at corners trying to exactly mimic Gabriel, so everyone stays in sync. This seems ridiculous, but somehow it appears to work.

↬ Old Tyme Mem'ry 3/17/19

This song is so good. Perfect barstool song—nostalgic and makes you want to belt along.

I hadn’t heard of this band, Mischief Brew, until now, but they’re this anarco-punk band that is folk-y but with an edge. In 2016, the frontman of the group, Erik Petersen, who seems like he was a truly excellent person, took his own life, so they are tragically no longer active, which makes the song even more bittersweet.

↬ Even on Wednesdays 3/11/19

Week 10 of 52 Failures. I don’t feel as great about this one for some reason, especially with hindsight. People did like it though. I just feel it wasn’t put together well enough yet.

↬ O Magnum Mysterium 2/26/19

One of those pieces of music that is impossibly perfect. The composer, Morten Lauridsen, did a video about the composition of the piece that is delightful and soothing and added depth to my appreciation of the work.

↬ Alt Country Spotify Playlist 2/23/19

Last night I spent a couple hours putting together an alt country playlist on Spotify. For the uninitiated, alt country is a type of country music that isn’t as infected with pop as mainstream country and isn’t about trucks.

↬ Fujifilm X-T30 2/22/19

Someone needs to order me one of these. Currently I’m using an Olympus, which I do like, but I’d love to upgrade.

↬ Medici 2/18/19

I’ve been watching this show. Interesting politics, beautiful costumes and people.

↬ I have a crush on the DigitalOcean Illustration Team 2/18/19

I use a DigitalOcean Droplet (a VPS) to host some of my sites, but recently I’ve been really into their illustration style. Visually it connects with my work at The Block, so I’m especially obsessed at the moment.

↬ The Spinners 2/17/19

I was reading The Spinner’s Wikipedia and found this uncited line about how Motown Records used them during a lull toward the beginning of their career:

With limited commercial success, Motown assigned the Spinners as road managers, chaperones, and chauffeurs for other groups, and even as shipping clerks.

I don’t know if this is true, but if it is, it definitely paints a picture of the difficulties black artists of the era must have faced. I don’t don’t know if this is something that was common practice, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it was.

↬ What happens to crypto when you die 2/15/19

I was really happy with how this illustration turned out. It think it’s a very gentle, calm depiction of death. If I did it again, I might even edit out the watchers, and add in another squiggly wave.

↬ Whoa, Draplin Made a Stamp 2/14/19

Aaron Draplin is one of my fav designers. Pretty cool. The design looks to be based on the Bicentennial Logo, which I know Aaron loves.

Designing a stamp would be a dream.

↬ Dvorak and Northeast Iowa 2/14/19

In the summer of 1893, the composer Anton Dvorak spent about three months in Spillville, IA—a tiny town about 30 miles from my home town—and it had always been a great disappointment to me that he wrote his most influential piece, Symphony #9: ‘From the New World’, just before then in early 1893.

I just recently discovered that while the piece was probably mostly completed in early 1893, but it wasn’t premiered until December 1893, which means that there is a good chance he worked on and maybe even finished the symphony in northeast Iowa. I don’t know if that’s true, but at least one source said so. I really want it to be true.

↬ New Editorial Illustration Gig 2/11/19

Here’s an illustration I did for The Block. It’s not highly polished (I turned it around in 2 hours), but I really like it. I’m going to be working with them a fair bit, so look forward to more.

↬ 52 Failures: Glow 2/10/19

This week’s poem is about computering. I pulled it off at the last minute, so I was really happy to get good feedback from folks.