week 6 of 2024
tom dearie creates interesting creatures and environments for them to live in.
To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.
— Leonard Bernstein
creativity and depression
I discovered Winnie Lim this week through Manuel Moreale’s ongoing series People & Blogs. Her writing about depression and creativity and working through challenges resonated deeply with me. I love how open and expressive she is about growing and learning and living life as openly as possible. Comes back to that idea of learning in public.
A few quotes that struck a chord…
In most cases of learning something, there is bound to be phases where we feel dumb, slow, and as though nothing ever happens like no progress is being made. We have to fumble, keep making mistakes, keep having to repeat the same steps over and over again.
— Winnie Lim
Life can feel extremely heavy and to be able to be amused is a form of aliveness.
— Winnie Lim
indie web
I’ve been exploring random stops on the internet information super-highway since the early 90s. I miss the exuberant feeling that there were cool people making neat things and sharing them with the rest of the world. Those were the days before the mega-platforms and social media algorithms that control what everyone sees and shares. It makes me happy to see that there seems to be a resurgence of indie sites and personal expression these days. At least it feels like that in the places on the web where I tend to wander.
I rediscovered the ooh.directory this week. Tons of independent blogs related to all sorts of different topics. Many pleasant breaks in my days making stops in random web-places. Already had the ooh.directory on my list of graphic design resources.
Similarly, the forest is good for finding random websites to explore. Hit the button and go somewhere random. For more silliness, check out the useless web.
Eminem’s visual work
As we all know, Eminem is a true master of rhymes. I loved seeing his boxes filled with pages of scribbled rhyme explorations. It looks chaotic but there’s a structure and pattern to his work. I’ll be sharing this as an exemplar of creative process with my students this week. I’ll also be adding personal anecdotes of seeing him perform in Detroit clubs back in the 90s before he made it big. He was just another guy out there doing his thing and it was cool to see.
fun random thing
Pong Wars is great fun to watch. The eternal battle between night and day played out in Pong. Good meditative experience.