Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that must accept that spring has come and therefore temperatures will begin to climb once again

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

Instant Band Night Returns In May

I've had to come to the conclusion lately that there's just too much on my plate to continue managing Instant Band Night, but the good news for you the reader is that a new team of bright and capable people (led by an Instant Band Night volunteer who should be familiar to anyone who's been to one the last few years) is already working on putting the May installment together! Watch this space for more concrete news as it gets closer!!

Surprising and Unique Ceramics For YOU

I'm cooking up some new weird little guys for the shop already, but did you know there are now enough purchases for the reviews down at the bottom to constitute some lovely little reads? It's nice beyond description to know that these things I'm making have found homes with the right people. Go have a look; eagle-eyed viewers may notice a new bunny has snuck in there.

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.

I need to break my silence on this: Starfleet Academy is good, actually, and no one is going to be able to change my mind on this. It's simple: if you regard Star Trek as less of a story and more of a place, a setting in which stories happen, then you must accept that Star Trek is large enough for adventure/drama (most Star Trek shows), comedy (Lower Decks), and CW-ass YA teen drama (Starfleet Academy). Yes, it's ridiculous: the cast are impossibly beautiful, the interpersonal relationships and conflicts are overblown teen nonsense, but? So?? What you gonna do about it??? Star Trek is a place, friend!!

Starfleet Academy is still recognizably Star Trek, and what's more, it's fun, it's interesting! Truly! And I cannot be alone in that I've been salivating to know more about the 32nd century since Discovery jumped there at the end of their goddamn second season. Especially this part of the 32C!!!!!! What's it like trying to rebuild the Federation post-Burn now that they have warp travel again? What do the interiors of the starships look like?? What did everybody get up to in the intervening centuries — what do you fucking mean the Betazoids put up a psionic wall that nobody could get around and they're starting to peek out from behind it? Jem'Hadar started to have families and established their own noble houses?? The goddamn EMH from USS Voyager is still around and carrying the psychic weight of that holographic family he lost from season fucking three??? I'm frothing at the mouth here!!!!!

We must also acknowledge that the cast is great. I really hope Gina Yashere is having fun, because her character's a delight. Holly goddamn Hunter is here playing a nigh-immortal starship captain who has a violent opposition to wearing shoes or sitting like a normal person? A gift to us all. And whatever they paid Paul Giamatti was the exact right amount, because he's an insane person on this show and it's amazing to witness.

And yes, the show looks beautiful: the sets are gorgeous and shiny and everything looks incredibly expensive. I'm just glad they spent more than $5 on the lighting, which seemed to be the entire illumination budget for all of Picard s03 (for the record, I'm still glad it got made despite the trainwreck of s01-02, but damn).

I know they've already wrapped shooting on s02 of Starfleet Academy, but I sure do hope they get to make more of it. Knowing the balance of justice in this universe, I may have just jinxed it by saying this out loud. Fuck.

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

I've gotten into the habit of taking the kids on some sort of out-of-the-house adventure on Saturday mornings through lunchtime, and having been to our local parks a bunch, I wonder if it might be time to venture slightly further afield. I'm thinking of one place in particular that doesn't have a playground to speak of, but a long "observation pier" that juts out over the water right next to the Bay Bridge, a place of some fascination for the boys. This would also allow us a relatively close view of the loading cranes and big container ships. If it turns out to be a bust I can always take us to an actual real-ass playground, but I wonder if they might find it cool??

I might have to temporarily retire this segment as I clearly haven't had the juice to do much culinary exploration as of late, but I do believe in its merit and I will be bringing it back at some point!!!

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:

Reader Laura says this one "is perfect to put on when you are trying to nap on the plane. A post-rock lullabye album."

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!

If you've read this far, I thank you. Feel free to forward this to someone you like, or inflict upon someone you don't. If you received this as a forward and would like to subscribe yourself, you can do it at this page right here (which also has the archive)!