The Dice — 012

Hitting issue twelve feels good. I don’t know why but I figured if I can make it to this issue and add more subscribers then perhaps there is something here. While I believe that finding a niche or two is helpful, I didn’t want to get too specific starting out. I’m still on the fence as to what The Dice will become, but it’s interesting to look back and see what patterns emerge. That’s as good of a reason as any to start something and keep going until you’ve made enough that you can look back to see the way forward. Hey, speaking of making something, Brett and I dropped our eleventh episode of The High Five podcast.

Thank you to my subscribers and followers. I hope you have enjoyed the journey thus far. That said, yo, let's go!

We have to start with Morgenmete, a magazine about "the absurdity of life through the setting of breakfast." As a fan of both breakfast and the absurdity of life stumbling across Morgenmete feels like a strong signal from the universe. Go read the current feature, Waffle House Meets Menu Hacks and then subscribe. We need more publications like this in the world.

Also, check out Small Kitchens for Serious Chefs, a photo essay from another, new to me, magazine Never too Small.

Saturday Night was a pleasant surprise to discover this week. It’s a movie about the story of the creation and broadcast of the first Saturday Night Live episode in 1975. The chaos and combat portrayed in the trailer make SNL’s historic run seem like a miracle. The look of the characters and the setting are spot on. Check out the photos from Vanity Fair.

I’m sharing this specifically for Jared Christensen, but it will appeal to all SNL fans, the origin story of Wayne's World.

By now everyone has seen the epic, unforgettable photograph by Jerome Brouillet of Gabriel Medina and his surfboard suspended in the air. How can you look at that and not forget the world around you for a minute? The Olympic games always provide iconic captured moments but there are few that stand out as much as John Dominis’ photo from the ’68 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City. The Most Meaningful Photo in Olympic History provides the backstory and looks at other significant photos from past Olympic games.

Finding good, commercial free photography is never easy so to have a new tool like Openverse is a godsend. It is a tool for searching “800 million creative works” that are free to use from sources such as NASA, The Smithsonian Institute, Wikimedia Commons, and Flickr. Now go get your collage on.

I spent some time working my way through Wired Japan recently (Japanese web design FTW) and came across the book The 10 Influential Creators for Magazine Design. In the book, there is a short story about each designer with a lot of pages devoted to showcasing their work and—so cool—photos of their studio. Oddly enough—given the design style that he’s known for—David Carson’s studio is the cleanest out of the bunch.

Speaking of messy studios here’s Show Your Work author Austin Kleon on Why Having a Messy Studio Can Help You as an Artist.

In case you’re still a big fan of AI maybe you might reconsider after learning that Google’s stupid search bot uses enough electricity in one second to charge seven electric cars. If that doesn’t move your heartstrings then perhaps the learning that “significant water consumption associated with training and deploying AI models in data centers.” I can hear the CEO of Google in the near future now: "Let them drink Brawndo!"

I hope this stupidity doesn’t last too much longer. It’s clear that most of the world doesn’t want AI for most of the tasks it’s been glued to. Meanwhile, cancer still looms large but thank god for AI-enabled appliances! Thanks, stupid techbro asshats.

Have a good week and never forget — 4 8 15 16 23 42.

Published in Tacoma, Washington while listening to Rōnin I by UNKLE