Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that may or may not have stockpiled a small quantity of frosting to make graham cracker sandwich treats on some future occasion
You'll Like This
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 five+ 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
Medium Ramble
Skippable if you're in a hurry.
I'm not on TikTok, so apologies if you've seen this already (@ariathome on TikTok) since it went up in May and has ....... 16 million views?? I personally may account for a significant percentage of those. I take no position on the authenticity of it: if you look at the clip previous to it, it seems like maybe this guy likes to hang out near recording studios, because the singer and cellist appear to be session musicians, and I would 100% believe session musicians just have something like this in them ready to go at all times. King Legacy, I dunno, man: if he's been waiting for his moment, this was it.
I want to stop and admire that cello, though: five strings, with tuning machines!!! If I'm ever in a place where I decide I need a fancy electric violin and I have the money for it, that's the first thing I'm looking for. Why do we bother with these medieval fucking pegs when tuning machines for stringed instruments exist? What, are we too good to borrow from guitars??
#dadthoughts
Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.
Well, Felix is 5 now. He's 5 and he's going to kindergarten in a month!
We had his party yesterday and it went swimmingly: there really is no better plan for a preschooler's birthday than
Pick a park
Show up
Eat cake as soon as everyone arrives
Run around
All of Felix's preschool playmates were invited, along with a couple friends for Quentin so he had someone his own age to play with. This worked out tremendously well, in that Quentin and his pals ended up becoming something like ringleaders for the other kids to follow. The much-loved park we used as the venue has a few different tiers of land: one with swings and a play structure, one with two highly fascinating artificial ponds jammed with minnows and ducks and a couple of turtles, and a semi-hidden basketball court with a good stick-shedding tree next to it. For a few hours the whole place was host to a couple bouncing troops of yelling children running from tier to tier, with a revolving trio of parents walking serenely behind them to chat and keep an eye out for injuries. Our goodie bags were simple: a couple packs of fruit snacks, a prepackaged raspberry fig bar, and one of these robots. Felix got one of these guys in a goodie bag last year and let me tell you, it was a hit in our house. Hopefully it was the same for everyone else yesterday!
Fascination Corner
I read a lot of newsletters; here are some links that caught my eye.
The Swiss have proven it's a good idea to put solar panels on railways. (swissinfo.ch)
It's good to state this up front and out loud for the people in our lives who somehow might not have caught on: "ICE’s Mission Is Murder: It is a genocidal organization and it will keep killing people." (Everything Is Horrible on Substack)
The Machine did unequivocally help people in Venezuela put together super useful tools to aid disaster recovery efforts post-earthquakes. (Rest Of World)
Something uplifting: I cannot take the risk that you've missed seeing this absolutely immaculate drive-by; as one of the comments below attests, it's such a clean kill she doesn't even break stride. (@gravelinfluencer on Bluesky)
Fuck dating apps: it's time for invasive plant removal!!!! This is genius, honestly. (MPR News)
The only Lindsey Graham roundup you need to read was in Today in Tabs, so I've provided it for you here for your enrichment and amusement. (Today In Tabs)
Making a live-action remake of Moana was a stupid idea; the movie's not that old. Nobody needed this, and thankfully the numbers back up a common-sense opinion just this once. (Variety)
"The looting of science fiction: Tech titans claim the genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future" is a good read, though it's too bad the author either never read the Culture novels or his editor made him cut any reference to them, because Elon's use of their concepts is frankly embarrassing. (Aeon)
We all dream of flying, but The Scientists have run a study that suggests birds also think flying is rad as hell. (PhysOrg)
The Scientists have invented a process with the incredibly badass name of flame plasma pyrolysis that can turn any high-moisture organic waste (like coffee grounds) into coal-equivalent fuel. (Anthropocene) (Paper)
NEW EMOJI COMING (Did Someone Say Emoji? on Substack)
Baskets can have whimsy too, dammit; also, why do I already know the name Lewis Prosser? Do I just think it sounds familiar? What the hell's going on here. (It's Nice That)
Thermodynamic computing sounds wild as hell, actually. (Quanta)
It should be illegal for rich people to own T-rex fossils; if you've got that kind of money, the glamour should be in paying for a super-exact replica to be made, in whatever custom colors you want. (The Conversation)
Like it or not, Machine-powered political text conversations are coming to your phone sooner than you want! (NPR)
Nature has evolved a great many ways to stab you; let us sing their praises. (The Conversation) (Paper)
A staggering mass effort to turn back desertification in northern China seems to be paying off. (AP)
"The trinket takeover: unpicking the microtrends of consumer culture in Seoul" (It's Nice That)
Jaya Saxena has a great meditation on waiting in line for trendy food; reading the article might require your email but why not give it to 'em, they've earned it over there. (Ravenous)
The cops are using Flock cameras to track people, too, not just cars. Great. (404 Media)
A British movie from the 80s about nuclear war called THREADS sounds brutal as hell and thus should be considered the most realistic warning we have about what such a war would entail. (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
The first T-rex hatchling fossils ever recorded were uncovered in a museum storeroom, and they suggest the little guys were roughly cat-sized and hatched in large numbers, which ......... seems more ominous than it probably should. (Science Alert) (Paper)
Just so we're all on the same page, MAGA America is ready to bring back Lysenkoism, so here's a refresher on how that all went down for the Russians. (Science News)
You should read this writeup on robots with guns on the Ukrainian front lines. (IEEE Spectrum)
"Skill nostalgia: Is all the beekeeping, baking and leatherwork just escapist fantasy or the start of a radically human approach to work?" (Aeon)
It turns out women are people and they experience pain, so maybe we should think about making (for instance) IUD insertions less horrifying?? (The 19th)
Animals have a more nuanced understanding of our presence in their lives and environments than we maybe were giving them credit for. (Indian Inst of Science) (Paper)
Worse On Purpose tackles cookware and gives some recs for brands to consider. (Worse On Purpose)
As a treat for anyone who made it this far down: type to drop some cars. (Road Trip)
A Fictional Thing
Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.
A band and their album
Photo by ola szkolda on Unsplash
(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)
New Music Roundup
Last week's band/album was:
Photo by Alim on Unsplash
Reader Lauren says "One might expect B0YB4ND to be either electronica or some sort of synthpop, but in fact "Sleep Now In Sorrow" covers the gamut from sleepy garage band grunge rock to some inexplicable but fairly bangin' death metal. The band met as teenagers at a Girls Rock camp in Omaha and bonded over a mutual love of Connor Oberst, Hole, and Evanescence."
Something in this one must've really spoken to people, 'cause reader Stuart also delivered: "B0yB4nd are, of course, the neo-riot grrl 4 piece who claim among their influences ‘The burned women of Salem’, ‘Anyone who ever had their choices stolen from them’, and Hannah Montana. With their sophomore release Sleep Now In Sorrow, they have somehow found a blend of 2010s European Hyperpop, 1990s Seattle guitar rock, and 1970s New York sleaze. What should be a confusing and discordant mess is somehow transformed into the first truly new soundscape of the 21st century, especially on standout track Eileen Wuornos Is Coming Back To Finish The Job."
Thanks
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)!
