Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that unironically and sincerely hopes everyone's having a good summer thus far

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.

Instant Band Night Returns Sometime Soonish?

I'm not going to lie: the team working on bringing Instant Band Night back has had some stuff going on. But it may yet return, so we should keep the hope alive and watch this space in the meantime!!

Surprising and Unique Ceramics For YOU

Spare time has still been difficult to come by as of late; we know this. But we all need releases, and believe me when I say ceramics are high on the list for me even if I haven't been able to get my hands on the clay in a bit. Thus: the store still remains, and know that I haven't stopped thinking about new weirdos and perhaps even some dishware?? Watch this space, is all I'm gonna say, but take a peek at the shop in the meantime — maybe that garden you've been planting (or thinking about planting) needs a little buddy in there to surprise passersby?

Idea Factory Giveaway

I think it's probably safe to say the podcast is on hiatus after four+ years of inactivity, but I'm putting a link to its evergreen Apple Podcasts presence here, which includes a back catalog over 150 episodes long chock-full of excellent ridiculousness, including an experimental tabletop RPG and a couple of Star Trek fantasy drafts that could almost be their own show if I had the time to make yet another podcast

Skippable if you're in a hurry.

PSA: Widow's Bay on AppleTV or whatever they're calling it now is good. I mean, the season finale has yet to air, so it's possible they might severely biff it, but even so, the nine eps that have come out thus far are pretty damn great. The pitch I heard was essentially "What if the mayor from JAWS presided instead over a sleepy New England island town that was also incredibly haunted/cursed?" Katie Dippold (she of the Babadook wine party tweet) (btw I've always loved the reverse one) created it — she also worked on Parks & Rec — and it's both spooky and legitimately hilarious. Patricia is the character find of the year; may Kate O'Flynn find the recognition she deserves. Just sayin'.

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.

There are a few books I'm keeping around hoping for the kids to one day stumble upon and Discover for themselves. I thought one of them was The Phantom Tollbooth, but that fucker up and disappeared on me a while ago and I had to get another copy that I sort of thrust into Quentin's hands, which did not have the desired effect. He might come back to it, who knows. One that I straight up forgot about was James and the Giant Peach,* which the boys brought to me while asking many questions. It turns out they loved having it read to them out loud; I tried as hard as I could to make the beginning sound funnier than it maybe was, lest the cruelty of James's horrible aunts cast a pall over the proceedings. If (and I recognize this is a big if) you can pull off the same trick, great rewards await you once James meets the friendly bugs inside the giant peach and they start their journey. The ending in particular provoked gales of laughter; truly delightful. I've started Fantastic Mr. Fox, but after that I don't know what to do. The BFG is full of literal kid-eating giants, I don't think that's gonna fly with Felix. The Witches seems likewise too scary. Nobody actually dies in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, right? Wild that this is a question I'm even asking, hahahahahaha

* I have this little tickle of memory from somewhere in the back of my brain that tells me Roald Dahl was discovered to be nasty in some way. Is this true or was this some sort of made-up conspiracy? I could look it up, but I just plain don't wanna. Also, the dude is long dead and all his books are like $1.50 on the used market, so it's not like any purchases I make are going to line the pockets of a living and active demon.

I read a lot of newsletters; here are some links that caught my eye.

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.

A band and their album

(I remembered a formula for making fake album covers that involves searching for a random appropriately licensed photo and then applying your best Graphic Design Skills to the result; let me know what you think this band/album sounds like, because your answers are always incredible)

Last week's band/album was:

Alternate universe music critic Steve says this one is "an album of folksy Americana a bit like "Young Man in America", but the lyrics have some knives in them about how difficult it is to just get by these days in today's modern world nowadays"

I still could use some more submissions to build out a notional Reader Submission Month for band/album/artwork combos! Feel free to send something in; just tell me how you want to be credited!

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