The Dice — 014

So here we are, the unofficial, last week of Summer. It’s also the exact time of year that I celebrate being married to Kitchen Storey aka the Rocket Scientist. This year marks thirty years as a couple and all but one of those years as a married couple. Very few people can hold a candle to our master ninja skills in love, empathy, diplomacy, communication, and collaboration. I share this because it’s been a rough year and this is the one win that nobody can take away from me. I don’t know how your year has gone, but I suspect not as good as you would like. If that’s the case I encourage you to think about your own win that no one can take away from you—any will do—and plant your feet firm on that rock.

Also, this is the time of the year when way too many people go apeshit over artificially flavored pumpkin beverages. If you or someone you know is afflicted with this illness, I encourage seeking medical help.

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We in Storeyhouse are square in the middle of Paris Olympic withdrawals. While the videos are all accessible, I enjoyed the collection of photos in the essay Shoot like a pro: how the best photos of the Paris Olympics were taken.

While on the subject here’s an update from the guys at Framelines magazine reviewing photos submitted to a community challenge. I heart these guys and what they create.

Here’s a very thorough interview with magazine designer and publisher Richard Turley whom you might know through his work on Bloomberg Businessweek many years ago. Once you click through you’ll see a fantastic gallery of his work on Bloomberg and other publications including a certain, phalic cover for a story on hedge fund managers. Richard walks through his art direction of that cover in particular in this short interview clip.

Also, as a follow-up to last week's news about the Onion turning to print, here’s an older article, but still very relevant—Strategies of Growth for Niche Magazines in the Digital Age.

When I came across the artwork of Ed Fairburn my jaw dropped. As he describes, “I manipulate paper maps to construct other forms, usually portraiture. I call this process topopointillism; a direct combination of topography and pointillism.” I call it “Wow!” Look at the piece Aberdeen Harbour and try to remain silent.

I’m going to guess that most subscribers will feel incredible nostalgia for the documentary The Art of Warez. “The work can be hilarious, fascinating, and dazzling, while there is something exotic about artist operating within such tight constraints and finding their increasingly baroque modes of expression,” writes Eli Diner who interviewed the documentary filmmakers Oliver Payne and Kevin Bouton-Scott. A young Brilliantcrank dreamt of being a part of a warez crew. I always thought it would be so cool.

After you’ve watched the documentary, read Warez: The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy by Martin Paul Eve.

In a recent issue of the must-subscribe weekly, Sentiers, Patrick Tanguay added to my belief that the world isn’t going to be run over by AI any time soon through his thoughts on the article, Three reasons we’re in an AI bubble. “ChatGPT was the fastest growing tested platform ever but a huge percentage of people never went back to it. AI is a rare combination of being seen as software but requires massive investment, like computer hardware and anything require an assembly line. That new combination of development, ‘testing,’ and adoption curves might mean we need to evaluate it differently in terms.”

Lastly we have a crazy program, The Wild World of Public Access TV Iceberg Explained. It's extremely bizarre but after I saw the clip Dance O’ Dance I had to share because it reminds me of what a Sunday night with DJ Boba Fett spinning at the Elysium in Austin, Texas looks and sounds like. If you know, you know.

Published in Tacoma, Washington in the still silience of a sunny day after a week of rain.