Barista and San Francisco
January-March 2023
Hello everyone!
Hope you are all doing well. I am personally doing much better now; the first three months of the year were quite the whirl. I had to unfortunately quit my job as a barista for a variety of reasons, but still learned a lot in the ~2 months I was there. Feel free to ask for a coffee any time, I have a nice coffee bar in my apartment now 🙂. Being in two creative classes with weekly expectations (and wanting to pursue a whole host of my own creative endeavors) has also been significantly more tiring than I assumed, but they have felt more fruitful now that I have gained more free time. Excited to share my final work for both (an urban design style project, and photo project) towards the end of the semester! Besides class and work, I took a short weekend trip to San Francisco as well which was a lot of fun. I'm excited that the warmth I felt there has seemed to follow me to New York, making me eager for the spring days to come.
Here is a short edition I have prepared for all of you. I will return to writing more regularly now, and perhaps with some longer opinion pieces, general reflections, and experimental formats sometime soon. I have a final lecture for some younger friends still in university brewing (btw - do I have to wear a cap and gown???) and want to capture some of those thoughts here as well... with that:
Updates on Quality
Pirsig's theory of Quality appearing in other books I've read recently (not a new idea in many ways. as he himself suggests. The story of history isn't a linear story from the Greeks... especially non-Western societies and even many medieval ones):
the latest Avatar!
Scott's Seeing as a State
Simard’s Finding the Mother Tree
Graeber's The Dawn of Everything
Look at the rich history on this map...
Walter Ong on technology, related to this Pirsig quote on Static and Dynamic Quality:
"Our language is an imperfect instrument created by ancient and ignorant men. It’s an animistic language that invites us to talk about stability and constants, about similarities and normal and kinds, about magical transformations, quick cures, simple problems, and final solutions. Yet the world we try to symbolize with this language is a world of process, change, differences, dimensions, functions, relationships, growths, interactions, developing, learning, coping, complexity. And the mismatch of our ever-changing world and our relatively static language forms is part of our problem."
Particularly helpful blog applying this to, say, politics and identity
Opposing what I believe - this article says good hardware is masking bad software.
It is interesting how there is a push for more niche hardware and broad software - an inverse of the last two decades. Do you all think this is true?
Links
Design
Fashion
I have recently purchased a sewing machine: I plan to tailor my own clothes and make some bags, which excites me. However, I have been getting my thread tangled near my bobbin whenever sewing thin materials - does anyone have any advice?
Safincore fashion inspiration
My personal aesthetic has shifted the last 6 months to be slightly more traditionally tailored in this way, has been interesting to observe.
Dickies - Trickster collaboration suits?! These photos for the collection are inspiring!
Photography
It's better on paper - cool photos!
High res drone photos of the tops of famous American buildings
Misc.
Interesting piece on Morocco National Team's multifaceted representation. c/o friend of the newsletter Hansen :)
The spiritual benefits of material progress - I like this approach towards welcoming materiality, I think it aligns with my own opinions more than the currently more stereotypical maximalist approach
ADHD and running - I just related with this one a lot. I am running a 5K in early May, and plan to complete a half by the end of the year!
Housing as the resource - this piece just made me sad
Bad graphics - great video with a ton of character, told in such a gripping way (the section transitions!)
That’s all folks. See you here next month!
