Recently updated blogs

When I purchased this sateen, jacquard-woven fabric from Mendel Goldberg a couple of years ago, I wasn’t sure what it would eventually become. It had a wide repeat to the design (which is something to consider when you know you are facing considerable matching of the design), but it was a lovely 60” wide. I bought just 2 yards (it was expensive) and hoped I would have enough fabric to …

At the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival, Indian director Payal Kapadia etched her name for eternity in the annals of cinema history by winning the 'Grand Prix.’ Kapadia's debut feature All We Imagine As Light, was singled out among 22 entries. Her contenders included the likes of Andrea Arnold, Francis Ford Coppola, Jia Zhange-Ke, Paolo Sorrentino, Sean Baker, and Ali Abbasi. Kapadia is the first Indian woman filmmaker to win …

Just a brief update here -- I recently had the honor of participating in Rock Paper Shotgun's "what's on your bookshelf" interview series.It's one of my favorite gaming journalism things happening at the moment, full of interesting book recs and observations from smart people like Alice Bell, Josh Sawyer, and Xalavier Nelson Jr. Check out the full series listing here.The implication is that I too am also a Smart One. …

Typographic glyphs have their moments. The @ symbol was barely used before it became indispensable for email and social media. The creation of the single European currency saw thousands of fonts being reissued to include € at the turn of the century. It’s likely that some crypto-boosters are hoping this will happen again, and the […]

I took a little break from sharing to get used to my new normal. A week ago I had to have some blood work done and for the first time in my memory I engaged in the process. Usually I would be sick from nervousness for days before. I would avoid and postpone. I would get to the blood draw place and start to panic. When it came time for …

Over the past few weeks, I've been experimenting with painting in watercolours using my AxiDraw plotter. Watercolour is a medium I enjoy painting in (by hand) as a personal hobby, kind of separate from my public art making, so it’s been interesting to combine it with code. I’ve thought about trying this for a while but I was finally spurred on to do it after I visited Licia He’s studio …

CrankWheel uses Maxio (née Chargify) for subscription management. It’s OK but I’ve never been super duper happy with it (mostly because I chose it for its flat fee structure, then later they switch to charging a flat fee plus percentage… and the switching costs are high). Today, I present another small gripe with it: The filename of invoices sent by Chargify looks something like _541780067.pdf, and this can’t be configured. …

Credit: ApexToday, Apex announced their Series B funding round, led by XYZ Ventures and CRV, with participation from Upfront. And if you spend much time in LA, you’ll quickly realize that we’re in a groundswell of space and defense startups.Is it because of the rich engineering talent coming out of Caltech, UCLA, USC, Harvey Mudd, and all the other universities?Is it because of the long history in the region of …

I guess this is goodbye. I thought we still had a little time. Even though I said it was okay to go, I held onto a spark of hope that I could squeeze your hand one last time on earth. Oh, how I wish the flight had been a little earlier.The past few months have been heart-achingly gut-wrenching. I'm so sorry I took you out of your house. I'm sorry …

“Swedenborg’s visions were not events imposed upon him by some outside agency. They were the agency that he had always, from the beginning, solicited with his eyes wide open.”—Iain Sinclair ... The post SWEDENBORG’S LUSTHUS first appeared on Iain Sinclair.

Sometimes, I’ve just felt a meeting or pitch slipping away from me. In desperation, I start to thrash around for a way out – throwing new ideas or angles into the conversation, trying to dig my way out of the hole in the hope that something – anything – lands and gives me firm ground […]

Short post for you all today. Notes on Lancelot (T.H. White) Fifteen Questions and Ten Principles (Dieter Rams) 128 Things about the City (Edwin Heathcote) What Every Kid Should Be Able to Do by Age Sixteen (Audrey Sutherland) The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowlege (Borges) The Catalogue of Ships (Homer) 250 Things an Architect Should Know (Michael Sorkin) Reading lists. Bibliographies and syllabi in general Joan Didion’s packing list Vignelli’s …

Kamakura, where I lived from 2020 to 2024, is a beautiful coastal town less than an hour south of Tokyo. Its temples, gardens, and beaches attract tourists from across Japan and the world, but what became evident even in the short time there is that development is concreting over much of the green space that makes it so attractive. Source This is not a new phenomenon; a substantial reduction in …

I tried some absolutely outstanding ice cream yesterday that reminded me of yet another reason I feel lucky to be part of Generation X: We are living in the golden age of ice cream. In the 1970s, we had a few basic flavors to choose from: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, chocolate chip, mint chocolate chip, and rocky road. There were a few shops like Baskin Robbins that marketed some scary stuff …

I can't remember how I first came across these near-ultrasonic 'beacons' ubiquitous in PA systems. I might have been scrolling through the audio spectrum while waiting for the underground train; or it might have been the screeching 'tinnitus-like' sensation I would often get near the loudspeakers at a local shopping centre. Whatever the case, I learned that they are called pilot tones. Many multi-loudspeaker PA systems (like the Zenitel VPA …