Studio Notes #81

Happy April 24th, Y’all. Here are this week’s Studio Notes™—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

🕹️

Current MIT students paid homage to a legendary 2012 “hack” by recreating a playable Tetris game on a 21-story building on the university's campus. The building's rooms had LED lighting installed that flashes on and off, replicating the game's lo-fi falling blocks animation. I love this. And Tetris is still one of those simple games that is still fun to play. Also, the story of how the game was invented in Soviet Russia and later licensed and patented and ended up bundled with the first Nintendo GameBoy, etc. is a wild one. The 2023 film is worth a watch if you're a fan.

💳

A punch cutter tool that turns old credit cards into guitar picks. Do we need it? Probably not. Do we want it? Heck yeah. Cue up a shredding of Master Card of Puppets or In-A-Gadda-Da-Visa.

🎨

I recently found the art of Justin Parpan, an artist, animator, and professor who creates incredibly-textured, semi-abstract, digital paintings. Those color palettes! He also launched a newsletter covering the processes used that marry digital and analog textures to nail that final vibe. The art is superb on its own, so getting this level of insight to the creation is the icing on top.

🎙️

Earlier this week, Mel took me to see Raye in Boston. I wasn't all that familiar with her music, and went in almost blind while looking forward to hearing some new music. Holy wow was I blown away. Full band with horn section, string section, background vocalists and a Broadway-show-level of production. Raye's stage presence and command and sense of humor was impressive as heck. It felt like I was watching someone 30 or 40 years into their career. Anyhow, if you're into primarily analog, genre-bending music that bridges loud, classic R&B and jazz with modern pop, check her out.

This Week’s Poll

Latest Fonts

What are you working on?

I've mostly been playing around with Beeswacks, our latest font released earlier this week. It occurred to me that the ultimate racing number for SimpleBits® would be #58.

And so I'm going with that. Going forward. Because at the end of the day...what it boils down to, is—we're on the brink of something that...when push comes to shove—with everything on the line—I think we can all appreciate what's happening here...in a dog-eat-dog world...you have to know when to fold ’em...or when to walk that thin line, where...you take the good, you take the bad—and long story short, we can rest easy knowing...just around the bend—just a hop, skip, and a jump—is a light at the end of the tunnel where...Look. I'm not saying it's going to be a walk in the park...god only knows when–and let me be crystal clear here—we leave it hanging out to dry and running on empty...we're not putting the cart before the horse, but rather, when all's fair in love and war—and it starts raining cats and dogs...we should reach for the stars and remember the big fish in a small pond...because, when it comes right down to it—and more often than not—it's a close call that means a three-ring circus is about to blow the lid off this...I mean, please...correct me if I'm wrong, but, if you really stop and think about it, it's not all sunshine and lollipops, yet, sure, it can be six of one, half a dozen of the other—but nine times out of ten, you can really start to reframe the story and put one foot in front of the other. And I sincerely hope that rings a bell.

I once wanted to record an entire podcast episode like that. At least 20 or 30 minutes of...nothing. Perhaps another day. For now, have a fabulous weekend, friends.

Cheers!