Bird Mail 027
Birders, good morning, good afternoon, good evening to you—whenever you may be reading this, I hope that you are well. If you’ve forgotten, or maybe missed a few issues, Bird Mail is a gathering on words and links pulled from around the internet to give a little lightness to your inbox. If you aren’t enjoying what you find here, it’s alright, you can unsubscribe at any time.
This week’s letter is a special one for me, it marks a year to the week that I’ve been writing Bird Mail for you. It is a joy and an honor to write and send something to your inbox with some regularity. I didn’t have much of a goal when I started Bird Mail beyond writing it with consistency. I made sure it landed in your inbox every two weeks, mostly on Tuesdays, and in that I succeeded. The thing I consider the bigger success is the number of responses and messages I get from y’all: asking when the next issue is coming, replying to a particular link with something it made you think of, or sharing something you found that would be perfect for the other Bird Mail readers. Thank you for making this a conversation, not just me sending emails into the void of your inboxes.
For the next year, I do have a goal, beyond keeping Bird Mail arriving on a steady only-on-Tuesday cadence, I want to double the readership of Bird Mail by the end of the year, and that requires your help. There are a few options for helping:
1) If and when you find something in Bird Mail you think your friends needs to know about, will you forward the email on their way?
B. Send Bird Mail to three (3) of your close friends and family. If you need a blurb about what Bird Mail is, here’s a starting point. Feel free to tweak it.
Bird Mail is a newsletter about internet ephemera. It’s a bundle of links and stories, collected around the themes of craft, design, art, fashion, and anything else this quirky guy I know named Bruce finds interesting. It arrives Tuesday mornings and is a no-pressure, delightful read of neat things you might want to learn about.
With that, I’ll conclude the membership drive portion of the newsletter.
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I will watch the video—at least twice—any time Danny Macaskill goes back home to Scotland. In his newest video he takes an e-bike to uninhabited Inchkeith Island for some electrified trials riding. Macaskill is used to doing these tricks on bikes that weigh 20 - 30 pounds, so to watch him throw 50(!) pounds of bike around with the same apparent level of ease is truly impressive.
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Bird and I have taken to pulling a record off the shelf to spin during our workday. The finite length of a side serves as a nice Pomodoro timer, forcing you to step away from a screen for a moment to flip the record or pick something new. If you’re in need of a record player but don’t have a ton of space for one, might I suggest this adorable VW Bus from the musical crew at Ghostly. We have been listening to Hits of the Forties, Artsy by The Grouch, and Bird’s real favorite Bruce.
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Long-time Bird Mail readers will likely recognize the “Levels of Complexity” series from early issues. Beatboxer Butterscotchtakes you from a simple boots and cats beat all the way to a beautifully layered full song. The way the producers layer on the visual representation of the layers of complexity show you just how skilled Butterscotch is.
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It has been a while since I’ve written about fonts, and my goodness I’m excited about these. I’ve been playing with an Arcade Pocket Operator and loving the simple fonts on its black and white screen and this perfectly timed Vox video deconstructing 8-bit arcade fonts fell into my lap. Much like last issue, this becomes an exercise in design within constraints. Jason Kottke mentions the wonderful pixelated typeface, Silkscreen he designed for anyone to use and I downloaded it immediately. One of my favorite designers, Aaron Draplin—creator of my beloved Field Notes and many of the pieces of art on our walls—has a new font foundry with some sweet fonts like Hardware and Discount. I picked Hardware Condensed for the image at the top of the issue. In other letterform news, I want to highlight the work of a friend who does some incredible work with paper and pop-ups, Zachary Horst. Right now he’s making some amazing flower arrangements (you’ll see what I mean), but my favorite project is definitely his 36 days of Architecture. It’s worth watching him pop-up the pages to see just how intricate these works are.
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I want to share a special “thank you” to reader Joy who sent me another wonderful example of art within constraints. The artist Nina Katchadourian—whose show I sadly missed at the Blanton a few years ago, drat—has an incredible ongoing project, with a perfect title, "Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style” from a broader work, Seat Assignment of photographs, videos, and other improvised digital images made in-flight. Who knew a neck pillow could make the perfect Flemish hat?
Like the rest of you, I’m feeling bombarded with updates and news about the current COVID-19 crisis. Bird Mail isn’t really the place for that kind of thing, and I’m making sure these missives don’t end up drowning you in more upsetting news. I want these to be a solace in your inbox. I want them to be as sane and comforting as this Twitter account.
Thank you again for being wonderful readers. I am excited to continue writing and growing Bird Mail in the year to come. If you have anything you’d like to share with the club, please, do send it my way.
Your friend,
Bruce