Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that's got its hands on some Zero Sugar Fanta Orange but wants to know where the hell the other fruit varieties are

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.

In the car the other day I found myself thinking for basically no reason about how INDEPENDENCE DAY came out in 1996 on the Fourth of July weekend, and how genuinely pressed I'd be to find something else that's hit as hard for me cinematically since (is it seriously 30 years since that movie came out, oh no oh nooooooo). That marketing department really knew what the fuck they were doing. That summer I was at a pre-college program in Boston that I may or may not have talked about before in this newsletter; truly one of the defining experiences of my life, I think. Anyway, INDEPENDENCE DAY. We'd seen the trailers and we were hyped — how could you not be, this movie was tailor-made for teenage me — and a bunch of us went to see it opening weekend. For some reason we had to go see it in, like, a suburb? Or something? Someplace not within reach of the T. This is key, because none of us had a car, so we were at the mercy of our understanding of aboveground public transportation, which was: spotty. It didn't matter. I literally don't even remember how we got back to campus (I think a bus did come eventually?); what I remember most is stumbling out of the theatre into the cool dark of the parking lot and sitting on a concrete parking marker to wait for whatever our ride was going to be, staring up at the night sky like damn. Daaaaaaaaaaamn. If you have a Big Summer Blockbuster story in you, I'm all ears.

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

Summer has begun and thus far all is well with the world: Felix has about a month of preschool left and Quentin's on week 2 of summer day camp, blessed be its name. Once again we're eschewing the patchwork scramble of two-week camps I keep seeing other parents do; the variety is nice if you can get it, I suppose, but I'm also happy not to need a spreadsheet to manage the different pickup times and locations and lunch requirements from camp to camp. Having said that, I suspect that by next summer, Quentin will have enough deep and abiding interests to perhaps warrant investigating some specialized experiences? Have I just doomed myself a little here??

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 Neal brings us this account:

I bought this album from an older gentleman with a three foot long rattail. He set up a small folding table in front of his van, in the parking lot of a T-Moble. He wore a dirty black t-shirt that simply read: "Pony Boy." His wooden clogs click-clacked on the pavement.

His name was Dave. He smelled of cloven cigarettes and Little Trees air freshener.

Dave said the album was like flavor crystals for your mind.

I was so enthralled by Dave, I venmoed him $17 for this homemade CD.

Only now do I realize that I haven't a way to listen to a compact disc. None of my devices have a CD drive.

So. I will let you know what Sexual Bronies sounds like when I go to my parents' house for the holidays.

I hope Nana likes flavor crystals.

Reader Lauren was able to give it a listen and reports: "Sexual Bronies They're Hoping God is Love is 45 minutes of experimental drone tape highlighting the fact that their drummer discovered you could play a cymbal with a violin bow and have a nice time. It's really good background music for an intense food preparation night."

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)!