Issue 7 - 'Wich
Let me take you inside my brain for a minute. I promise, it’ll hurt me more than it hurts you.
Amy and I have been practicing intermittent fasting recently; it’s a great way to stay healthier just by virtue of limiting your “snacking hours” to the core of the day, but waiting until midday to start eating sometimes means you’re real hungry when you get there.
I worked from home on Wednesday morning of this week, and when lunchtime hit, I surveyed the fridge. It was full of various leftovers from last week’s camping trip to Love Burn, so I started pulling stuff out and forming a plan for a sandwich.
First up was some “Cilantro and Jalapeño Hummus”, which formed the base. Since that would make the sandwich quite wet, I threw 2 slices of wheat bread in the toaster before adding the hummus to them.
Some leftover kale salad when on next, with a bit of grated carrot to add sweetness. Harvarti cheese seemed like it’d go well with the hummus, so on it went. Finally, some Chipotle Mayo for more heat, and leftover pre-cooked bacon.
I do this sort of thing a lot; I feel lucky that I can quite vividly imagine how flavor combinations will taste, and have pretty good instincts as a result.
As I stood enjoying my creation, my brain went where it often does — “what might this be called if it was on a cafe menu?”. The answer which popped into my head was “Jimmy’s Incredible Mess”. I should point out, perhaps, that I don’t know anyone named Jimmy; it just seemed like the right name for the sandwich.
And then, as I pondered the imaginary cafe which might serve this sandwich as part of an eclectic menu, I started thinking more about what it might be called, and what it might feel like to be there.
“‘Wich Craft” popped into my head as a possible name for such a place; a quick check revealed that there’s already a store in New York with that name. ’Wich Wizard, though, doesn’t seem to have been claimed by anyone else.
I probably have 20 random thought-paths like this a week. I’m probably not alone in that fact either. But (besides the occasional entertaining podcast), people don’t seem to talk about these weird flights of fancy very much. I wonder what exists in everyone else’s fantasy idea-world… and imagine if we all had the time and support to make more of those things real, in service of making the world better, rather than making the shareholding-class (yes, including myself) ever-richer.
Project Updates
In which I attempt to keep myself honest by talking about things I'm thinking of making, or have half-made. Or perhaps, have put successfully out into the world.
So, I wasn't 100% focused on the party game IDGAF this week, but I did make some progress towards working out what I want the brand and the game to look like.
I sketched this out early in the week, as a starting-point for capturing some of the elements I want as part of the brand...
It's not quite there, though, so I took a wise suggestion from Kevin and spent some time gathering a wider array of examples on a Pinterest board (pre-apologies for Pinterest's bullshit "log in to see more" prompts).
It actually helped remind me that I'd got "vintage" stuck in my head as an inspiration based on the wonderfully cheese-tastic boardgame boxes which I remember from childhood -- stuff like this:
Everyone's having so much fun! Perhaps too much fun! I feel lucky never to have played Word War, since the lady on the box appears to be having a fun-induced medical episode...
Anyway, I'm interested in pulling together some kind of broad visual language for the game, so that I can produce a prototype deck. I'm pretty sure there are some gameplay elements which need attention, but more in-depth playtesting feels like it'll be easier with proper cards, rather than a ratty pile of index cards which I scribbled on.
A Thing of Beauty
Miles Toland, Turquoise Dream, 2016, Miami.
Ephemera
I've tried several times over the years to learn the basics of digital music production, but it's never quite clicked. This exhaustive Ableton tutorial on Youtube, though, has taught me more in 2 days than I've ever managed to retain before. I'm currently on episode 8 of 13. I'll try to share the resulting track once I'm all the way through.
Sticking with the subject of music, this map of music clips to listeners' primary emotional reaction is fascinating on multiple levels at once (not least the groupings of different emotions).
And less related to music (barring the pizza-themed punk band episode), this interview with Macaulay Culkin was pinging around the internet quite a bit this past week, but if you didn't already give it a whirl, do. I was pleasantly surprised by how healthy and self-aware he seems to have become. It definitely didn't jar with my preconception of him at all.
Found this gif on Reddit the other day, via the same folks who made the enjoyable Grow Cube game. The image is incredible -- only 3 seconds long, but you can easily watch it for 5 minutes straight trying to see everything that's happening in the loop.
Finally for this week, check out these beautiful Japanese fireworks illustrations which are free to download!
Endnote
Yes, I do still need to fix the section-divider image so it looks less weird on non-white backgrounds. I'll do it soon, I promise.
If you're enjoying reading this, feel free to let me know by replying to this email. Even better, tell your friends to sign up!