Starting the New Year marching through pieces from eight months ago, then again, it’s fun to explore the (recent) past.
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4/1/2025
Looking back, I should made a lot more of these backlit photos on the light tablet. I remember when light tables were big pieces of furniture. Now they are thin cheap LED’s powered by a USB-C cable.
After making this piece, I realized that this prompt was likely inspired by the TV show Severance. So I made a popup based on that logo as well.
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4/5/2025
state dinner droned past six rain lust through parged age never duplicate time flowing away
I spent a month playing with fractur script. Normally I use a 6.0mm nib, so it’s fun to drop down to the 2.4mm and fit more than a few words on a page.
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4/7
A simple slice, with the sliver tucked into its original cut.
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4/10/2025
A literal take on the Lego form as I was studying the 3+1 (above) versus 2+2 (below) folds.
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4/18/2025
Tigers hunt in the tall grass.
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I’ve been on a good run of working ahead, so it’s been weird to write in the present tense when it isn’t Thanksgiving yet. Moving forward, I might drop this pretense until I’m back to being behind “schedule”.
Cya next time!
,
PS—Journey to the West, CCTV, 1986
After I recounted the story of the jade rabbit from chapter 95, my daughter wanted to watch the story. The episode adapted the novel well, hitting the key points while abridging and eliding non-critical aspects. The producers spun the story with a moral exhorting Piggy to behave, but otherwise followed the original.
Indeed, they followed the spirit perfectly. The novel is itself an artful collection of folk tales, so this was a figuratively faithful translation into a new medium.
Unfortunately, the production shows its age. The pacing is a little stilted and the budget is much less than one expects with modern fare. I imagine two audiences for this show—rewatching for nostalgia and for nerds to analyze how the novel was adapted to the television medium.
I would fit the latter group, but having no fondness for live action TV, this series isn’t for me, definitely not for a 30 hour commitment.
After completing the novel, I watched the final episode of the show. I love how they stayed faithful to the original story while closing it in its campy, endearing way. I see why this show has been replayed on TV every since year since its original broadcast. I watched a trailer of a 2011 take on the novel and the old practical effects of the original are vastly more appealing than cheap, outdated CGI.
—October 2021
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PPS—Cowboy Bebop, Netflix, 2021
I don’t know how to remake a classic, except that this ain’t it. The production is of decent quality, though imperfect. John Cho is a little old. None of the actors hits their notes dead on.
This adaptation is trapped in the uncanny valley of recreating the past (episode 1) and creating its own identity (episode 2). The first episode missed the mark (a damn near impossible task), and the second episode proved it was going in a direction that I wasn’t interested in.
Vicious and Julia are barely characters in the original. He was (as the name implies) is a cruel force of nature. She’s mute lost object of desire. Making them human reduces their essence and costs us time in revisiting the main characters.
To be fair, I might have given this series one more episode but after disliking the second I crawled the internet, found mixed removed and moved on. Why spend 8 hours on a mediocre echo when I could just revisit the original masterpiece again?
—November 2021
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PPPS—World’s Most Extraordinary homes, Netflix, 2017-2018
My kids make little tent structures around the house so we thought they would enjoy checking out all these cool houses around the world.
Yup, it was pretty awesome!
Admittedly, when the revolution comes, these folks will be the first to fight the mob at their gates (unless their private security forces pushes the rabble towards easier targets).
Class envy aside, the rapport between the hosts was fun and the houses were luxurious. Unsurprisingly, we preferred the smaller (often architect owned) structures. Financial constraints made for tighter designs that just felt right.
The first season was sorted by geography (mountain, coast, etc.), while the second was by nation. Both were fun to watch and it’s a shame there aren’t any more seasons.
I met the Architect and our Agency to discuss a simple fencing project. We addressed logistical concerns and needs of their staff and clients. We covered security concerns, budgets, and traffic flows.
At the end of the meeting, the Architect started to ask questions. He stripped away the project requirements. He challenged our priorities and tested the assumptions.
It was a beautiful moment of architecture. I got to see a flash of inspiration happen in real time.
I’m not sure what the agency will do. Maybe they will stick to what they originally requested. But the architect’s job is to ask the hard questions. We’re not just order takers. We push our clients towards their best future—which might not the one they imagine.
In my years, I’ve had the privilege to watch professionals practice their craft at the highest level. A few years ago, I watched my old boss sell a design, weaving a tapestry of a story. It was a raw display of skill, and I told my interns to cherish the moment, cause that doesn’t happen every day.
This was another such moment. It was also a professional challenge. Why didn’t I ask those questions earlier? I might be the owner, but I haven’t become a ticket machine, yet.
I’m here to challenge your assumptions and refine your future.
I’m still an architect.
~
Some Links
YouTube is an amazing warehouse of amazing dancers. I presume TikTok may even be more addictive, but I’m not touching that drug.
Lia Kim is my favorite dancer and choreographer. This collaboration with Jinwoo Yoon for Rain Dance always takes my breath away. Their body control is so tight and synchronized with the music. (While in Korea, a shoutout to TIMT who posts behind the scene to accompany their short performances.)
Sven Otter’s electro-swing is captivating in both his homemade videos and in commercial advertisements.
Marquese Scott was one of the original YouTube dancers and Pumped Up Kicks video still hits, even with the simple set camera on the ground. I also love this collaboration with a sign spinner.
My thoughts about this despised big box chain revolves around two stories.
Two decades ago, I read an article describing the demise of the pickle giant Vlasic as Walmart’s relentless supply chain squeezed them into bankruptcy.
The second was an anecdote by a friend whose sibling works for the company. Walmart employees are not allowed to accept gifts. The rule is so strict that they pay for bottled water when visiting a vendor’s office.
Aside from the power of stories to stick in one’s memory (branding!), they highlight an interesting dichotomy I’ve seen in government.
Bureaucracy has a logic all its own. The system will demand individual uprightness while being corporately cruel. As the Owner, the trick is to find that balance. We must uphold strict standards, but we also need to execute with wisdom and judgement.
It is easier to be a coldly bureaucratic operator, but the process is so much richer when practiced with warmth.
~
Some Links
For about six months, I dived into jazz. I don’t consider myself particularly knowledgeable about this obtuse genre, but here are a few standouts from those explorations, primarily courtesy of library app Hoopla.
After trying out a few of Keith Jarrett’s solo albums, I’ve settled on the Paris Concert. Like the rest of the world, I adore the Koln Concert but I prefer how the Paris Concert starts with a baroque phrase before transitioning into jazz.
Coltrane is still the truth. For the season, you can’t go wrong with My Favorite Things, and Giant Steps is every bit as giant its title.
Less famous known is Bobby Timmons. I first found him due to his excellent Holiday Soul Christmas album, but I’ve also very much enjoyed his albums Chun King and Chicken and Dumplin’s.
I walked a renovation with my Architect and the Using Agency.
It was strange to traipse through the building. Construction had started a couple of months prior, but it all felt theoretical.
As an Owner, my job is to manage budget and schedule. I’m here to make the process move smoothly; it’s all so abstract, not solving the problems in the field.
Yes, it’s less stressful than the technical day to day grind in private practice.
But we don’t get to enjoy the scenery either.
~
Some Links
I’ve always been fond of for folk music, and YouTube is a treasure trove of artists.
I found Daoiri Farrell from an impromptu flight delay session, and the Creggan White Hare has been on regular repeat ever since.
Nicolas Campin anchors a haunting Mazurka, but if you’d rather have your players separated, here is a captivating Scottish à Cheillé on dining tables.
A captivating pairing of 十面埋伏 with A Change Is Gonna Come by Charles Yang. His soulful singing is a pleasant shock after playing the high pitched pipa tune on the violin.
Before wandering into the world of pop up cards, here are five last 5WP’s…until we get back into poetry again!
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3/24 Inktober 52 (2024), week 13
battling samurai with a spork
I tried a few lineweights with this Spork. The simple clean version one felt most spork-y.
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3/28 Inktober 52 (2024), week 11
japanese racoons shapeshift with nuts
A reference to the brilliant Studio Ghibli movie Pom Poko, a fun commentary on fighting our inevitable exploitation of nature. An early scene showing the development of the rural land around Tokyo is one of the sharpest satires I’ve seen on film.
I can’t remember for sure, but with the spacing so perfect, I suspect it was tweaked in the box. Nothing crazy, just a nudge here or there.
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4/3 Inktober 52 (2024), week 8
astronaut riding a space donkey
An early experiment with inverting the background and playing with colors (using the Hue-Saturation filter). One day I should start experimenting in IRL with gauche on colored paper.
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4/4 Inktober 52 (2024), week 9
always add a red balloon
The version on blank sheets was fine, but ruled binder paper felt like a relevant background for something that references a red-balloon (and as always a little extra noise can make a huge difference).
This was a reference to the architectural rendering trope adding a child with a red balloon. It gives a pop of color in the sky and a sense of playfulness to an otherwise staid image.
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3/29 Inktober 52 (2025), week 13
a flock of folded rams
With this I detoured heavily into the world of pop-up cards. We bought Paul Jackson’sCut and Fold Techniques for Pop-Up Designs for the boy’s birthday, but I stole it as soon as I saw it. There would be a few more 5WP’s, but dealing with the third dimension and the constraints of the paper sucked all my creative energy for a while.
After summer, I returned to flat paper with the ruling pen but focused on a single word at a time. I’d like to return to poetry and pop-ups (and maybe both at the same time!), but struggling with a word itself is challenge enough for now.
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As we head into this season of year end summaries, it’s interesting to think that this post covers the first half of 2025 with my “standard” 5WP format, practicing with a brushpen on ruled binder paper, and folded pop-up cards.
The second half of the year (assuming no surprises after I draft this in late October) was dominated by the ruling pen, a month off due to illness, embracing a focus on just one word at a time, and finally pushing out some old blog drafts.
I wonder what the new year will bring? All I know is that I don’t.
It’s gentle, but dang if your arms don’t get tired! And it’s easy to crank it up if you’re feeling it.
For me, it is cultural tourism, exer-dancing with a group from the exotic orient. I guess it’s not totally foreign since I’m of Chinese descent. The music is familiar, even though I don’t understand the words to the songs. While the megalopolis Asian urban setting is strange, the faces are not.
I would prefer to hang out at the local Kung Fu gym for my exercise. But that time that has passed. I don’t have time to slip out to practice with kids who are a just a few years older than my children.
Unfortunately, Tai Chi by myself gets old after a while, but partaking in the kitschy music and oddly familiar foreign group movement with the family is a nice change of pace for a day’s exercise.
—May 2021
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PPS—Rubber Balloons
My daughter wanted helium balloons for her birthday, but we ordered a bag of regular balloons from Target.
She quickly got over her disappointment after my wife inflated a couple of them. Human air doesn’t float, but gravity makes for play. They spent a couple of hours batting them around the house. Up and down the stairs, over the dividing walls, in the bedrooms.
I hadn’t heard the boy laugh like this in a while. All over fifty cents of rubber.
It pained me to think of all the kids who can’t afford such a fleeting luxury. And I was reminded of a fellow father riding in the Vegas heat with a foil balloon for each of his kids.
—October 2021, soon after, they discovered the manual mattress pump. We had hours of fun inflating the balloons and letting them fly through the house.
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PPPS—Pac-Man
Our daughter is growing up fast. She was reading a book with snippets from American History and asked about “Pac-Man”.
We watched YouTube videos and played Scratch versions of this classic. I also explained the concept of “arcades” where people had to pay coins to play computer games, and how the value of a quarter has been debased over forty years.
This weekend I pulled out a “Pac-Man Connect and Play” that plugs into the TV. Even though they didn’t enjoy Pac-Man, the boy loved a driving game where you left oil spills to spin out the pursuer. She preferred a flying game shooting coins out of the air.
After TV time was up, we played Pac-Man in person, using deflated balloons for the smaller buttons and inflated balloons for the ones that made Pac-Man eat the ghosts.
Then we took another YouTube break for the The Go! Team’s Ms. Pac-Man music video. That led to watching more music videos, TV advertising, and discussed how TV used to be appointment viewing.
Basically, we covered the last half century of American culture in a weekend through a yellow lens.
Long ago, boardgaming was my primary form of entertainment.
I would read rules while riding the bus into downtown Houston for my corporate gig. I was trying to internalize the rules and visualize the game experience. Of course, great games stand out because they create complex dynamics that can’t be visualized in a steel tube crawling through city traffic. But what’s the alternative? Buy a game without thought?
Beyond the acquisition decision, this turned out to be was a powerful mental exercise. I was focusing on a complicated text in a variable environment, applying words to a future self. In mentally playing a game, I sat in each opponents’ chair, visualizing their competing interests—different goals leads to different actions, creating that elusive the gameplay dynamic.
Years later, I’m doing the same thing as with contracts tackling difficult situations. The stakes are a bit higher, but that’s all. People generally act according to the set up. So I try to empathize with their pressures to understand their motivations. How can I navigate this mix to discover an optimal outcome?
There might have been less frivolous ways to spend the commute, but reading boardgame rules turned out to be a solid choice.
~
Some Links
Our son prefers cooperative games, and Matt Leacock is the giant who designed Pandemic that popularized this genre. In simplifying his classic for a wider audience, he designed Forbidden Island with a board made out of tiles. This twist created a game where the board would disappear over time.
He developed the idea further with Forbidden Desert, where the tiles would shift and and move. I haven’t tried Forbidden Sky, but we just purchased Forbidden Jungle. Here, the players are required to shift the board around—while managing a bunch of grouchy aliens.
This series is a fun case study of a designer developing a simple game mechanic (tiled boards in a cooperative setting) over several iterations. All three are highly recommended.
Oh, I don’t want to watch Pokemon. Cleaning up takes energy and I only have 1 energy left.
8/28/2023
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3/11 Inktober 52 (2024), week 17
history comes in funny caps
That’s a funny looking cap.
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3/13 Inktober 52 (2024), week 16
red ball chasing this parabola
I pulled the background way down for the final composition. Just enough for some visual interest, but not enough to compete with the 5WP.
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3/14 Inktober 52 (2024), week 15
reading by clear river light
I studied abroad in Paris in the Spring of 2007. It was a glorious semester. I traveled a little, had a nice project, and spent a lot of time in the city of lights. One of my favorite moments was reading Raymond Chandler along the banks of the Siene on a glorious Sunday afternoon.
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3/15 Inktober 52 (2024), week 14
Steve Jobs is my sidekick
It’s crazy how addicted we are to these rectangles in our pockets.
Growing up in the 80’s, it’s crazy to think the guy behind the Apple IIe’s would take over the world with pocket computers, with unimaginable power and connectivity.
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3/23 Inktober 52 (2024), week 10
this moment frozen in flight
Once I have a good rhythm going, it’s really hard to go off script. So that last “t” was surprisingly hard, even though I had the cursive down pat.
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I’m writing this a bit in advance, but I’ll have basically run through my second Inktober.
I’m sharing my pieces on Substack Notes and on Bluesky, but I won’t be using Instagram, where the whole exercise sprouted. I despise Zuck’s algorithms, so I’m not giving him any more “content”, especially since all I get in return are a few hearts on IG and no comments of substance.
There are very few clean transactions in this world—one day I’ll have to reconsider my usage of Substack and Bluesky, but I’ll enjoy the party for now.
Cya next time!
,
PS—Pokémon TV
It’s a kids show, boring for adults.
I was just old enough to miss the phenomena when it first hit America, but after winning a Pikachu stuffy at the claw in the Primm Outlet Mall, the kids wanted to see what the fuss was about.
Good lord, Nintendo created one heck of a merchandizing machine.
Gotta catch them all!
Toys, collectable card games, video games, books, plenty of gear, and endless TV shows!
A brilliant case study for late stage capitalism via a little yellow electric squirrel!
Pika pika!
—September 2023
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PPS-Pokémon Go
A slight nudge to walk more Kilometers (to hatch eggs)
Kids love collecting! I had to set a screen time password on this game.
Eventually stopped using it, I don’t need more nudges to use a phone.
PPPS-Pokémon Sleep
I never tried a sleep tracker before. Interesting to see how badly I slumber.
The kids spent too much time playing with the game parts.
I stopped using it. It’s weird to have a phone on the bed next listening to me all night.
PPPPS-Pokémon Smile
Great timer for brushing teeth. Works for 44-year-olds too.
The kids spent a bunch of time with stickers until Mama put her foot down.
I brush my teeth in horse stance so my head is low enough for the iPad camera. 2-for-1 exercise!
—January 2024
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PPPPPS—Pokémon Zeddemore (v0.1)
Years ago, I came across a single-deck format for Magic the Gathering by Seth Brown and Tom (no last name given).
After a fellow architect gave me a pile of Pokémon commons for my kids, I dusted off the ruleset to make a game out of these cards (since the little ones aren’t ready to construct their own decks).
We played it a couple of times this weekend and this format translates well to Pokémon.
Plagiarism alert: everything below is a copy of Tom’s original tumblr post with only minor revisions to adapt it to Pokémon—why rewrite rules that already work?
Winston is a draft format designed for two players by Richard Garfield. Here’s how it works:
A big shuffled deck of cards is put, face-down, in the center of the table. The top three cards are placed in a line next to the deck. I will refer to these cards as ‘piles’, because that’s what they may soon become.
The first player to draft looks at the first pile (currently just a single card) and decides whether or not they want to add it to their pool. Let’s say they don’t. They add a new card from the big deck to that pile and move on to the second pile, where they repeat this process. Let’s say they want this card. They take it and replace the now empty pile with a new card from the deck.
The second player looks at the first pile (which now contains two cards). If he wants them, he takes the entire pile – in this case, two cards. He replaces the empty pile with a new card.
If a player passes on all three piles, they take a random card off the top of the deck.
Continue until all cards are taken.
And that’s it. Simple.
What Zeddemore does is take the already fun Winston Draft, and spreads it throughout the game. You draft as you play. Your initial draws at the start of each turn become drafts.
Hopefully that gives you a sense for how Zeddemore plays, so let’s talk about how it works.
The Opening Hands
The original MtG Zeddemore starts with three rounds of drafting to construct your opening hand, which makes sense for sophisticated players. On the other hand, I’m just playing with my kids.
So I just deal seven to the hand (and six as prize cards).
And then start the first draft as the first draw phase of the game.
Changes to Pokémon
Before we start playing, I borrowed up two key rule changes dug up from the internet.
Any Pokémon can evolve into any other Pokémon of the same type, as long as the stage matches. Hoppip—Gloom—Venusaur, but not Hoppip—Vileplume—Venusaur.
You can use any Pokémon as an energy (turn it upside down to attach). The energy type is determined by the Pokémon type.
The Turns
Aside from the draw being replaced by a draft, turns work as they usually would. Drafting does, however, have one important rule. Only your first draw during your turn is replaced by a draft. Any other card drawing is handled in the usual fashion – straight off the top of the deck. You may only draft during your turn, and only once per turn.
The Deck
Much like with Cube, a bunch of cards will be needed. A great deal of creativity is possible in the construction of a Zeddemore Deck. Generally though, it follows these guidelines.
Energy – Since I use Pokémon cards as energy, there is no need for energy cards. However, this rule change came about because I wasn’t gifted energy cards. Maybe this will change at some point. (The original MtG Zeddemore recommends 25 to 30% of the cards in a Zeddemore deck should be lands, a bit less than normal, but they also start with a couple lands in their hand).
Milling – Cards that put cards from the top of a player’s deck into their graveyard are generally avoided. Players can’t lose by decking, so most of these cards simply don’t do much.
Singleton – Generally, Zeddemore decks are singleton, although this is by no means a requirement (I don’t have enough cards to go singleton, but it is a goal if I buy a bulk pack of a thousand).
Card Quality – One aspect of Zeddemore that Seth and I both hold dear to our hearts is the inclusion of both good and bad cards. I will explain the thought behind this in depth in the future, but suffice it to say that it serves an important mechanical need in Zeddemore, and an experiential one. If you have any cards that would cause you to recoil in horror if they should somehow appear in your opening hand, you should probably include them in your Zeddemore deck. Worry not – strong cards are welcome too. An equal number of good, okay, and bad works well.
Recovery – (I have no idea what is good or bad in Pokémon, but I’m keeping this here for future reference), Zeddemore has an aspect to it that can allow a player who’s ahead on the board to easily build upon their advantage, leaving their opponent in a situation that rapidly falls out of their control. For this reason, I like to include some cards that are not at their best in the hands of a player that’s winning. There shouldn’t be too many of the good ones, of course. Occasionally, players do have to lose.
Deck Search – For reasons I will explain below, cards that let you search your library, while allowed, should be approached with caution. (Unfortunately I don’t think this is suggestion avoidable in Pokémon).
Deck Size – The bigger the better. How small can a deck be? Well, you don’t want to run out of cards (though it’s not a big deal to just shuffle the discard pile and keep playing).
Random – Some of these guidelines can be ignored if players are willing to utilize the deck construction technique that is most in the spirit of Zeddemore – completely random. With this approach, not even the deck’s builder may look at the cards until the drafting begins.
Sundry – There is all sorts of other bits of advice and rules, often relating to specific mechanics, that I will share in the future.
The Graveyard
Traditionally, there is a shared graveyard in Zeddemore. This is not a requirement. If the builder of the Zeddemore deck feels that their deck would work best with individual graveyards, then that is their prerogative. Playing with a shared graveyard can make some cards better. Generally, this is fine. Zeddemore likes strong cards.
The Annoying Rules
Zeddemore alters some basic things in the game, and as such, some annoying rules are required. (Some of these rules might not be applicable to Pokemon, but I’m hesitant to delete them until I feel more comfortable with the Pokemon TCG universe)
Searching the library – If a card tells you to search your library for a type of card, you may only look at the top eleven cards of library. When done, cards that weren’t taken are shuffled and placed at the bottom of the deck. The overall deck is not shuffled. Zeddemore decks are often very large, with the number of cards currently on the table possibly only representing a small portion of the deck’s total size. Allowing players to search even 50 cards, which they may not be all that familiar with, for the one card that would be optimal for them, is simply too slow. Searching 500 is a nightmare. It would also run headlong into one of Zeddemore’s greatest strengths – an exploration of the unknown. This rule makes many cards worse than they would otherwise be. Generally, this is fine. Zeddemore likes bad cards. However, cards that will often not do what they say they’ll do can piss off almost any player. Tread lightly.
Card drawing – As already explained, additional card drawing never gives you additional drafts.
Card ownership – A card’s owner is the player who most recently drafted the card. This rule can be especially important with shared graveyards.
Tucking – Cards that are put on the bottom of the library or are shuffled into the library, should be put on the true bottom of the library. As already stated, the portion of the deck currently on the table may not be the full deck. In my case, it never is. Most of the library sits in a box, waiting to replenish the cards on the table. Rather than turn the timing of this replenishment into something that can be ‘gamed’ (a short library might advantage one player), never consider a portion of the library to be the full library. Cards that are put on top of the library, or in the top portion of the library, work like normal.
Drafting – The game essentially pauses while a player is drafting. Abilities can not be used. Cards that continuously reveal the top card of the library don’t work until the drafting is finished.
More on drafting – A single draft counts as a card draw, even if that player drafted five cards.
The Play
(a benediction from Tom)
And now it’s time to play Zeddemore. Zeddemore is fun. Seth, myself, and the dozens of friends that have tried it can attest to that. Something else Seth and I can attest to, however, is that not every game is fun. Sometimes a player won’t get the lands they need. Sometimes a bomb can’t be answered. What Seth and I found, in our marathon sessions of Zeddemore, was that these games ended quickly. The great games, though, the ones with shifting board states, barely-answered bombs, and the skillful deployment of some truly sub-par cards, can last quite a long time, especially in our memory. I hope you have as much fun with Zeddemore as we do.
Revisions
If we play this game more (which hasn’t happened in the past eighteen months), I’ll make a freestanding posts with updated revisions. However, I suspect, this moment will be a relic of a moment, as I continue (unsuccessfully) my quest to be a boardgamer dad.
We were curious about the plants in grandma’s backyard—there’s an app for that. Take a photo, identify the plant! Easier than hitting the big red Staples button, and it’s almost always right.
Amazing, until I remember watching my landscape architecture friends slaving over flashcards preparing for tests. Now it’s a camera and an internet connection. Kind of scary!
Is the the future? The prophets of AI have been warning us that automation is now coming for us. (I wrote the first draft in 2020, before ChatGPT became famous!)
I suspect that my generation, those landscape students who are now a quarter century into their careers, will be spared the worst of it. Our kids won’t be so lucky.
How do I help them become useful producers in this brave new world?
The obvious answer is to minimize the menial work in my job. If it’s easy, someone will automate it. Focus my energies on the difficult, squishy parts of work. Like figuring out how to create deep relationships with my team, to dance through problems with firmness and grace.
Of course this is a bummer. Crushing a simple TTD list feels so good! But too gorge on fluff and some OPM-AI app will push me into an early pension.
~
Some Links
John Parshal gives an intriguing presentation on the different tank manufacturing systems between the Germans, Americans, and Soviets. (The full conference session about the Kursk is worth a watch.)
Dr. Robert Citino asks “Why Did the German Army Fight to the End?” The sobering answer is because they kept fighting. As much as we want to blame one man, everyone played their part in that machine.
On a completely different note, a surreal scene of a gunfight capped with a Nick Cage directing one of the gunmen to shoot a corpse, “his soul is still dancing”.
The gothicized italics was nice, but lacking. So added an extra layer.
,
10/26
INFERNO
As a longer word, I slammed it together, but it didn’t feel right.
So I went in the opposite direction with uncial, a wider script. Even though the aspect ratio makes the final one look small, it’s actually from a long 6×18 sheet.
,
10/27
puzzling
Another tricky word. I dropped the vowels (saving width on the page) and went with gothic, which emphasizes vertical strokes at the expense of legibility, hiding the missing letters.
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10/28
Onion
I might have been able to get the top version to work with a compass and straightedge, but I wasn’t feeling the effort, even though camera is one of my favorite pieces from last year.
So back to ruling pen cursive! I have several versions of this that I’m all fond of. I picked this one because the nion felt very comfortable inside the O.
10/26/2024
,
10/29
SKELETAL
After a couple horizontal tries, I realized this word wants to go vertical. After inverting arctic and seeing how it could be pushed to make overlapping letters more legible, I realized that it was even more applicable here!
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10/29
Lesson
I love the simple swooping capital cursive L.
It took a few tries to get right…turned out that I needed a guide line to keep esson lined up properly. I usually just wing it, but this was not one of those pieces.
2/5
,
10/30
VACANT
I’ve been wanting to work in versal and the V got me thinking of this script that draws out the letters. But Roman Capitals weren’t the right fit so I dove into my book on graffiti.
I just realized the relationship between graffiti and vacant lots. Maybe it was hiding in my subconscious, but at the time I just felt this script looked bubbly and I had run out of ideas.
For the second version, I borrowed the the girl’s Posca markers from last Christmas. I might buy another pack this year.
,
10/31
AWARd
I wrestled with this graph, until I switched to a lower case d.
It seemed fitting to close Inktober with another splatter, after a summer dominated by the ruling pen.
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I always think that finishing a project will feel triumphant.
It never does. It’s always ends a whimper.
On to the next one.
Cya next time!
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PS—Over the Moon, John Kahrs, Glen Keane, 2020
Good, mediocre, and bad.
The animation was nice, and it was great to see Asian faces. Unlike Mulan, the faces felt real and detailed. The family dinner scenes with the aunts and grandparents were as real as one could hope for in this idyllic country town. Yes, both moms were airbrushed, but the animators really put real soul into the ancillary characters.
Unfortunately, for all the good animation, the story was mediocre. This wasn’t a cheap knockoff, but it wasn’t a top-notch Disney imitation either. Classic Pixar would blatantly telegraph its game and still manage to tug your heart strings. Then again, Disney hasn’t been very good at imitating Disney for the past decade.
This movie has a similar structure to Coco, but it’s just clunky. They blatantly unalive Mom#1 in the first song. The songs and dance routines are inserted awkwardly. The other world seems gratuitously wacky. Along the way, they basically unalived suspension of disbelief.
Oh and, her dad did an awful job trying to blend the family. Dropping the news on the daughter right before a big family event. Geez.
—September 2021
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PPS—The Painting, Jean-François Laguionie, 2011
This movie isn’t subtle as an allegory of God asleep at the wheel with the cold heartedness of mankind. But it’s still a good adventure, with love, exploration, justice, and ultimately freedom.
In spite of its straightforward messaging, it charms in a way that American animation fall flat. The early Pixar formula was great, but it’s predictable to the edge of dullness.
Even though this isn’t that avante garde, it’s fresh air in America. And the art is great with a bold painting style that contrasted against the CGI of the painter’s studio. Everything has been done, and this story’s tropes aren’t new. But the combination with the art direction make this a movie a fine 90 minutes.
—October 2021
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PPPS—Tales of the Night, Michel Ocelot, 2011
This is a fun collection of short stories with the main characters in silhouette. In a world before Into the Spiderverse, anything that wasn’t the same 3D blob felt unique, and the flatness of the papercut characters made the backgrounds shine bright.
The movie raises the thorny question of cultural appropriation. I suspect it’s a hotter issue in American than France—referencing another culture might be more fraught in a pluralistic society. But over the past few years, I’ve decided that we should let storytellers set their stories in a diversity of fictions. They are taking a risk when they venture outside their known world, but that’s their problem. Why should I force them to stick to exactly what they’ve experienced?
And maybe the heightened sensitivity around cultural appropriation is a holdover from the mass-culture era. As media becomes diffuse and publication becomes democratized (even as the algorithms have become monopolized), it’s hard to feel strongly about any specific cultural product. If it fails, ignore it.
The culture is no longer mass. It’s a series of short stories connected only in our internal stage. Just like this movie.
