The Dice — 010

I don’t know about you, but I feel 100% better than I did a week ago. We have a new presidential candidate who has inspired way, way, way beyond expectations. Everywhere I look on social media, I find stories of people coming out to support Kamala Harris. It feels to me like there is a cause worth fighting for, one that has a chance of winning beyond an election. I Understand The Assignment and I hope you do too.

After following the Tour de France throughout June, I’m ready for a new sport to watch and the Olympics are delivering in spades. The basketball games are super competitive, men's soccer is doing alright (they're not as good as our women's team), and we finally get the highlights team we deserve with Keven Hart and Kenan Thompson (I’m still working through my Bob Costas and John Tesh childhood nightmares).

Ok, rolling...

Last week I came across Ben Brown’s Happy Net Box, “an experimental internet social experience based on the arcane and near-forgotten retro internet protocol known as Finger.” Naturally, I created an account. It got me thinking about other older protocols, namely Gopher. Turns out there is a slice of the Internet that is actively hosting Gopher servers and posting content regularly.

Meanwhile, I missed the memo when Paul Ford started Tilde Club back in 2014 and it appears to be going strong. Want to go back in time? Surf the community gallery.

Speaking of niche Internet experiences, I’ve seen this statement a few times across social recently by Derek Thompson, a writer for The Atlantic: “The Internet is Tokyo. The Internet allows you to be niche at scale.” 

It’s a beautiful metaphor for how Derek thinks we should fight the instinct to create for the biggest audience. “The best way to produce things that take off is to produce small things. To become a small expert, to become the best person on the Internet at understanding the application of Medicaid to minority children or something like that.”

During these interesting times, I seriously wish Spy magazine was still in publication. After all, they were the original Trump antagonists often using his images to portray him—zine style—as the clown baby that he is. So I thoroughly enjoyed this interview with Spy co-founder, Kurt Andersen. I love that he thinks about magazine covers as “cool posters.” The interview is a playbook for starting and running a magazine.

If you’ve never read Spy then you’re in luck as every issue is online. And I highly recommend picking up the book Spy: The Funny Years, which appears to be in the discount bin.

In 1989 Christian Blackwood directed, Motel, a weird documentary about three motel owners in Arizona, California, and New Mexico—“far untouched by homogenization and corporatism.” Untouched is putting it mildly by the time the film gets to the last location. You could take the third story alone and turn it into a pitch for a sequel to the Shinning, no edits required.

Did you know that teriyaki as we know it today was invented in Seattle? Neither did I until I wanted this episode of America’s Test Kitchen’s show On the Road (also new to me). Toshi Kasahara, an imigrant from Japan and introduced the world to teriyaki in 1976. The dish rose to popularity in the 90s along with Seattle’s other two exports, coffee culture and grunge music.

Yet another story of immigrants who bring some of their culutre into this country and create and new spin to create something unique.

In addition to Ghost’s advances on their Activity Hub integration, “Flipboard has been quietly adding Fediverse compatibility to its curation platform.” Fedi.directory recently posted a long list of publications that you can now follow via Mastodon.

These announcements in conjunction with Project Tapestry rolling out recently…it really feels like the best version of the open web is coming together.

That's issue 10 in the bag—as they say—thank you for reading and clicking. Please consider forwarding this issue to your entire address book! Everyone will love you for it.

Published in Tacoma, Washington while watching "Equestrian Eventing Cross Country" which is a fancy way of saying riding a horse through the woods.