Studio Notes #75

Hello hello, and greetings to you. Here's issue #75 of Studio Notes™—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

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I came across a new-to-me band that made me temporarily feel better about the world. They're called The Lemon Twigs. And boy did it make me smile to find out this is new music, created by some young-ish (?) lads from Long Island. “Kids” making analog music that harkens back to 60s and 70s is a breath of fresh air. Fans of The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Byrds might enjoy them. But I also hear John Denver (When Winter Comes Around), Queen, ELO, and...I could go on and on. They play familiar vibes from yesteryear, but often with a non-traditional song structure and sometimes odd time signatures—but it works because of the orchestration, wonderful vocal harmonies, and pop melodies that meander through it all. They also remind me of a less chaotic Lilys in their Better Can't Make Your Life Better era (which is one of my all-time favorite records).

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Something I also just discovered are these nifty powerbanks by Ridge. They're having an anniversary sale, so I picked up 3 of 'em at a steep discount. (Remember, there are no ads in this newsletter—except for my own stuff!) Magnetic charging, built-in USB-C and Lightning cables, LCD status, compact. It seems like it's the ultimate solution for travel, as the magnetic portion also has an indent specifically for an Apple Watch so you can ditch its cable as well. Oh, and there's a kickstand.

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It's one of those ubiquitous, green (or black) cutting mats that makes you look cool and creative in videos but that's actually really useful and this one comes in optimal dimensions for your desk under your keyboard and mouse. Though I wonder if an optical mouse would jitter on the lines. But anyway, I dig the layout.

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And for no particular reason, here's a five year old video of Samara Ginsberg performing her 8-cello arrangement of the theme from the 80s TV show, Airwolf. It was, and still remains, glorious.

What are you working on?

I was obsessed with the idea of go-karts as a kid, though the best I could do was hammering scrap wood and wagon wheels together. No steering. Or motor. Just gravity. Anyway, this week I daydreamed of getting an actual kart and what the custom livery might be. Then went down a rabbit hole of researching kart tracks in New England, chassis, engines, trailers, kart clubs, etc. Essentially driving my partner, Mel, crazy (as usual).

Today at 1pm ET, I'll be doing another monthly livestream for Secret Club™ members. My plan is to take some found lettering and start from scratch building a typeface in Glyphs and see what happens.

Have a great week, and I promise I will lay off the racing content next time ;-)

Cheers!