Be the Architect of The World You Wish to Inhabit
Sharing & making stuff, Olympic medals, evil stadiums, The Last Supper and more
Some people watch TV, some read, some browse Instagram, though personally, my way of disconnecting is scrolling through TikTok. I enjoy TikTok so much because it reminds me of watching TV as a kid. There’s lots of channels to flip through, some are Cartoon Network and some are C-SPAN, and you never really know what you’re going to get. Sometimes, you end up seeing an episode of something you really like, aka the people you follow, but otherwise, it’s all chance and kismet. Though, I realized this past weekend that I wasn’t seeing the kind of topics I really enjoy as often as I would like.
I made up my mind that I’m going to try posting something to The Fox Is Black TikTok everyday, putting out into the world the things I love. This is the very same feeling I had back when I started TFIB back in 2007, trying to create a space that’s missing. Also, I’ve been posting nearly daily on my AGILITY Instagram, using Stories as a means of random design explorations. I’m using it as a space for personal challenges, making quick digital collages that scratch an itch in my brain. You should follow both accounts, I think you’ll dig it.
I’m headed to Paris at the end of February/beginning of March for Matter and Shape, a new design salon curated by Dan Thawley (ex-E.I.C. of A Magazine Curated By), an individual with impeccable taste. If you’re in Paris and would like to meet up, please send me an email, and if you have any recommendations for new spots to try, I would love to know about them!
Quick and easy this week, hope your week is starting off well 💙 Now, on to the inspiration!
🏅 — Let’s be real, the Paris Olympics are gonna be messy but I will say their medals are cute. They were designed by Chaumet who created such beautifully detailed, tactile medals for the 2024 Olympics. Interestingly, they all include a piece of metal from the Eiffel Tower, that’s the dark steel piece you see in the center. This could have been a cheesy gimmick though I think these turned out quite lovely.
🎶 — I had no idea that Herb Lubalin created a logo for The Sound of Music back in 1965. Such a gorgeous, curvaceous logo.
👨❤️💋👨 — “A couple is an idea. A couple is something two individuals agree to pretend to be together.” Some interesting thoughts between Dan Savage and Dan Harris on what it means to choose to be with another human for a long time.
🏴☠️ — I don’t care about the Super Bowl and I’m doing my best to avoid it (save for Usher, we all love Usher) but can we talk about the dystopian stadium? It’s trying to be cool and Tron-esque… yet it’s giving evil Roomba. It’s giving death chamber from Logan’s Run. Also, super smart to build a giant black building in the middle of a desert, where it reached 116° last July.
💬 — I wholeheartedly agree with Robert Beatty about the disheartening feeling of big musicians using shitty AI. He’s subtweeting Beth Gibbons (of Portishead fame) and her new (very bad) music video, which was directed by iconic video projection artist Tony Ourseler. This ties nicely to Kyle’s essay from last week, saying “Everything is a screen saver.”
🍹 — Call me crazy but I would drink the hell out of an Al Pastor-flavored cocktail. Very Good Drinks dreamed this up and it sounds amazing, a perfect blend of savory and sweet.
🍽️ — Tavares Henderson Strachan is a Bahamian-born conceptual artist who recently installed his incredible sculpture The Last Supper at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Riffing on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, he has replaced the line-up with iconic Black historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey, Marsha P. Johnson, and himself as Judas. Strachan is such a fascinating wonderful artist and he continues to push himself with this piece.
💡 — Jason Kottke has coined a new phrase, “stinge watching,” as sort of the anti-thesis of binge watching, and I think we could all keep this in mind.
When I find a new show I really like or I’m digging into the newest season of a favorite series, instead of getting hooked and then blasting through all the available episodes, I’ll slow down or even stop watching so as to prolong the pleasure…or to delay the end. I feel like a squirrel, hoarding nuts for the winter. It’s stinge watching instead of binge watching.
🎭 — Actress dropped a new RA Live mix last week, over two hours of “ambient, chuggers and classic house.” It’s been on repeat for me since it dropped, it’s such a beautiful mix.