Bird Mail 032
Birders, welcome to the thirty-second issue of Bird Mail, a newsletter about watching and writing, at least, for this week. I have been doing a lot of both of those things.
Watching a trio of young hawks move from their nest atop stadium lights on to the hunting trees around Lady Bird Lake. Watching the skies as Austin weather this time of year can be unpredictable. Watching too many news stories fly past, unable to process the magnitude of all of it.
Writing not enough snail mail. Writing slack messages and text messages genuinely asking, “How are you?” and hoping for an honest answer. It’s okay. None of us are fine. But you might be having a good day. It’s okay. You can say that. Or, you might be in the midst of a bout of depression. That’s okay, too. Please say that to someone. It does help. Even when you think it might not.
Onward, to the double double-ues.
Watching:
- Normally, Bird and I don’t watch much television, or even many movies at home (we typically see three plus movies a month at our beloved Alamo Drafthouse), but given, all the changes, we have been watching more at home than usual. Some things are less watched as they are background, like this incredible experiment by Steven Soderbergh, Raiders of the Lost Arc, in black and white, stripped of dialog and set to the soundtrack of The Social Network. Grand Designs also makes for excellent background watching, or paying attention to. Unlike the home building shows from America and Canada, Grand Designs is frank about money: where it comes from, where it is spent, what happens when it runs out. This load of shed is a great place to start (S15, E3 if you’re looking on Netflix).
- What we have been watching, and cringing at, more closely is Ramy. It is a funny and real and incredibly frustrating look at the titular Ramy, trying to figure out what it means to be millennial and Muslim. This may not be a show for everyone, but it is most certainly a story worth being told.
Writing
- There is something so satisfying about watching someone write the Home Depot font by hand.
- I try hard not to bring Corona virus related news into the confines of Bird Mail, but this is near and dear to my heart. One of the changes that I hope people will adopt to their “wallet, keys, phone, mask” check when leaving the house is adding a pen to the mix. Of course, I have some recommendations. My current pen of choice is the Tactile Turn Mover/Shaker filled with a Pilot Juice Up refill. The BigiDesign Ti Arto will take almost any refill you can throw at it. And if you’re like Reader Dawn, might I suggest something in brass.
- Type designer Jonathan Hoefler (yes, yes that one of Hoefler&Co) has a fascinating article about pangrams, proofing fonts—the lorem ipsums and their pop culture variants—and the process of designing fonts. Make sure to read the marginalia to learn about “typographical sirloin.” If you’re looking to play with some new fonts from other type foundries, you might have some hidden in the font book of your Mac.
Thank you, as always, dear reader, for tuning in to another Bird Mail. If you have come to the end and realized that you need a little break from Bird Mail, even a permanent one, you can unsubscribe here. I will miss you, but I completely understand.
Now, I have some reading and some action I must attend to.
Your friend,
Bruce