Works in Progress
Perennial Font
Not quite done yet, but I’ve had time to draw and digitize an “@” and “&” symbol. Still working on the diacritics!
Album: Emotions Archive
I’ve committed to attempting to turn my archive of half-written songs into an album of some sort, and have tentatively named it Emotions Archive, as a log of various feelings I’ve had over the past 15 or so years. I’ve got a working track list and status updates for each song so it’s feeling like a real project now. The goal status for each is “performance ready” which…none of these songs have achieved so far, but they’re theoretically on their way. Practice makes perfect, and a large chunk of my hobby time right now is going towards this. Also at some point I will be looking for a producer, because as interesting as music production is, I don’t currently have time to teach myself Logic Pro or Ableton. If that’s you, hmu!
Finished Work
1 Song
This month I finished a song that I had started writing probably 2 months ago, about pigeons! And AI. I’d had a hook and a vibe in my head for so long but couldn’t decide what direction to take the verses in until this month. I also added bridges to a few songs that were either mostly done or that I was on the fence about needing a bridge.
Turtle Race Poster
I also made this poster for the New York City Charity Turtle Race:
What’s Feeding my Brain
Watching
Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky
This movie had been on my list of things to watch for almost as long as it’s been out and I really loved it! Gripping and really reminded me of all the pressures and perfectionism I felt in middle and high school. Ironically I did do ballet and dance growing up, but for me these were more of an outlet away from perfectionism rather than the source or medium it was channeled through.
Dimension 20: City Council of Darkness
One of my hobbies outside of work is playing Dungeons and Dragons and I’ll be honest, Dimension 20 seems to be the only actual play show1 I can get through, probably because of the intentionally digestible episode and season length. This season, they’re actually playing Vampire the Masquerade as a group of vampires trying to get someone into city council to improve a small town (make buses fast and free!). It’s wacky, makes me wheeze laughing every week, and is full of local politics which feels very aligned with the upcoming primaries for midterm elections. Can’t wait to see a bunch of vampires go canvassing! They’re just like me for real!
Reading
The Double, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Aranofsky cited this book as an inspiration for Black Swan so of course I got curious and checked this out from the library. I’m almost halfway through and liking it so far, although I did get some secondhand embarrassment from the beginning of the book.
Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu
Clearly my media consumption informs itself because my other read for this month has also been influenced by what I’m watching. The vampires of City Council of Darkness have spurred me to finally read this classic vampire novella! I know it’s widely regarded as the one of the origins of the lesbian vampire trope but I was still (pleasantly) surprised at how overt and non-subtexty it was in its gayness. Very quick read both for the length and language (not terribly dense as some older books can be!)
Listening
“The Cure,” Olivia Rodrigo
I’ve been enjoying dancing to this one in my living room a lot, and I love the music video! I’m a real sucker for a handcrafted aesthetic and stop motion so I was bound to love this.
“Click Clack Symphony” RAYE, Hans Zimmer
LOVE the strings on this and the way all the parts flow into each other.
“Disco Snails”, Vulfmon, Zachary Barker
I just wanna party with ‘em!
Field trip!
Whitney Museum
This month I found out that the Whitney Museum is free on the second Sunday of every month, and took advantage to go for the first time! I saw a lot of cool stuff, a very inspiring way to start off the month.
AIGA NY: Everything is Waves
I went to this cool talk by AIGA NY about sound and sonic branding. It was super cool to hear how the thought processes behind visual brand systems are similar to those of sonic branding. And there were lots of interesting tidbits about sound in general. Did you know we process sound 10x faster than visuals? It was also interesting to hear that the studio that gave the talk is using sonic branding as a more niche differentiator for brands and is predicting that sonic branding will increase in importance as people become more and more fatigued with screen time.
Coming up
I’ll be volunteering at the Typographics conference this year, so hopefully that will give me more inspiration to finally wrap up the font I’m designing. I shifted my focus a bit too much away from it once I started getting back into music, but I’m really hoping the energy of the conference will be invigorating. Other things I’ve got going on in June include planning a GOTV party with Sunrise, going to a folk music festival, and hopefully doing something for pride month! Design-wise, I’ve just kicked off a non-profit annual report project that I’m excited about, though I don’t expect it to be done for a few months. Stoked to be working with an org that focuses on direct action!
Tuna Tax
For those who don’t know, actual play is when the players of a TTRPG like dungeons and dragons livestream or record themselves playing so that people can watch. Often the episodes and overall length of the show can be long, because game sessions can be 3-4 hours, and campaigns can last indefinitely.
tuna really said 😜