Blogger blogging near Seattle
I’ve long enjoyed the webcomic “Sandra and Woo”. Today the artist posted the following strip:
I found this amusing. However, me being me, I was disappointed that he didn’t create a 3rd solution (Solution C), so I went ahead and did this for him (I love PhotoShop).
I was pretty proud of how quickly I was able to whip this together, getting the font to match and copying/pasting the images over. Anyway, I hope you find it as amusing as I did. And you should definitely go and check out their site.
Walking in the night
Street lights serenading me
Foot steps upon dreams
Looking like it will be a damp and dreary day. A lovely day for ducks, methinks. Which often makes me think of this song by the British electro-pop duo, Lemon Jelly.
I do find the song delightfully charming. I’m deeply grateful to John Richards at KEXP for introducing me to this song, along with so many other great ones.
I’ve been following Debbie Millman’s “Design Matters” for years (I’ve written about previous episodes before). She’s a brilliant interviewer with a great gift for finding interesting guests. With a focus on creatives and the life of being a creative, I find her guests to be inspiring and fascinating. I love seeing a new podcast in my feed.
Today’s episode features Fanny Singer, author, art historian, and, perhaps, most famous for being the daughter of restauranteur Alice Waters, proprietor of Berkley’s Chez Panisse.
I must confess my ignorance of Dr. Singer, Ms. Waters, and Chez Panisse before today. Even though I have an affinity for Berkeley that started in the mid-80s when I was a music student. One year we went to the West Coast Jazz Festival, hosted by Berkeley. I loved the campus and the city and seriously wanted to head there. But, well, life happened. With all that, I’m disappointed in myself for this ignorance.
I highly recommend taking the time to listen to the podcast. For some reason, the podcast is only showing up on the Design Matters Soundcloud feed. Maybe it just takes some more time to ripple out to iTunes, Google’s Podcasts, etc. But, hey, Soundcloud is awesome!
The episode references a few things that I thought I’d add links (for your convenience).
Colophon: Dr. Singer’s dissertation focused on the British Pop artist Richard Hamilton, who I hadn’t heard of before this podcast (I learned a lot this one). Their description of him makes me extremely intrigued so I intend to research him further. In particular, his cutting edge computer-generated art seems very intriguing.
Here’s a comic from The Nib that gave me pause. What are the bounds of free speech? A what point does “centrism” enable the destructive forces of hate?
Comics provide a unique voice in the modern political climate that I value. This particular series was created by Kasia Babis. The link will take you to a large list of their work. You really should check them out.
early morning
small birds converse
time for tea
Early morning, no one else awake. I sip tea and listen to the birds sing.
For this poem and image I used the app “InstaQuote” on my Kindle Fire. I like the paper background and the font choices. It’s my preferred app on my Kindle since there’s no Canva app.
Often with my haiku I seek a minimalist, handwritten ascetic. For me, that captures the essence and history of haiku.
Several years ago Google’s Creative Lab came up with this video to showcase Google. So often I see people get caught up in the technological minutia of video production (or any other creative initiative), of any aspect of storytelling. Insecurity about their camera, their editing software, lighting…on and on. And here’s a video, needing none of this, just a bunch of text typed into a browser, and a few other shots of Google pages. I’m pretty sure all that was needed was a browser, OBS, and an editor (iMovie might’ve been powerful enough to create it).
The tools don’t matter. Only the story has value. You can tell a story with the most minimal gear. And, to be blunt, if you can tell a compelling story with the most basic tools, you’ll be more likely to be entrusted with bigger and better tools.
So, go, create! Tell your story with whatever you have. Your audience, your tribe awaits.
I discovered Mr. Aung Than this week and already posted one of his comics earlier. However, I wanted to post one more. As someone who struggles with my identity as an artist, who fights frustration and feelings of futility, and the demon of perfectionism, this one spoke quite loudly to me. And knowing so many who walk/walked the same path, I felt deep value in sharing this one. Keep to the path, face down that ugly voice within, fight, and keep creating. The world needs more beauty.
Frank Herbert’s “Dune” holds a key spot in my soul. The “Litany Against Fear” that Herbert created spoke power to my soul back as a teen, carrying forth to this day. Gavin Aung Than’s art inspired by the litany holds power, too, speaking to today.