Issue 014: A Classically Trained Bar Rescue, Awkwafina, Van Life & Tracking Ovulation
Woof! That Florida Primary last night was bonkers. How's everyone doing? I took a week off from newslettering last week because I'm creative directing three branded web series (hooray work!) and they ended up taking up a chunk of my time (boo work!). Enough about me, let's get to the newsletter...
A Bar Rescue Parody Starring Richard Kind. Bar Rescue is one of my favorite formulaic garbage reality shows and Richard Kind is one of my favorite talented character actors. To combine the two into a parody series for some comedy network or streaming service would be a dream.
That's pretty much the entire idea. Just look at them. Imagine the voice of Bug Life's Molt and Inside Out's Bing Bong yelling about dubious 'bar science.' It would be so fun to make. Whadya think?
BuzzFeed News wrote a long profile of Awkwafina, who was delightful in Ocean's 8 and who I can't wait to see in Crazy Rich Asians. I didn't know much about her, and enjoyed learning more!
I daydream constantly about quitting my life (or at least taking it on the road) and getting a Sprinter Van. While I haven't pulled the trigger on that yet, I can at least live vicariously through Bearfoot Theory – a great blog from adventure travel blogger Kristen Bor.
@BearfootTheory living that lakeside van life on Instagram
On BearfootTheory, Kristen provides hike itineraries, reviews products, and more. She also has a fantastic Instagram @bearfoottheory and a weekly newsletter. Here are a couple posts to get you started:
The Ultimate Six Day Olympic National Park Itinerary (I'm thinking of doing this for my birthday next year)
Videos of perfect automation like this one from Insider.com are so soothing. They remind me of the remote segments on Reading Rainbow back in the day. Keep 'em coming!
Recycle your contact lens blister packs. Bausch + Lomb has recycling drop-offs in 2,000 participating locations or you can collect your own at home.
I want to be careful of mansplaining anything to anybody, but if you ovulate, you should really check out Clue.
My wife uses it and, for an infographic nerd like me, it's fascinating. You input nearly anything: pain, mood, sex drive, poop consistency, etc. – and Clue starts to predict when you'll be feeling different emotional or physical things based on your hormonal cycle.
It seriously makes me wish my body did anything on a cycle besides play video games and eat snacks.
During my time as a creative director at BuzzFeed I was lucky enough to work on some of the first ads that ever ran on Snapchat.
A series of spots for the now-defunct Watchable (RIP SVOD bubble) showed mundane situations becoming exciting in one shot. But, since we only had 10 seconds for the entire action (thanks, Snapchat!) we had to work hard to cram it all in.
One of our on-camera rehearsals. Chuck Ma is the incredible breakdancer on camera; the booming voice is director/producer/superman Matt Mazany who was ADing this one.
I do an improv comedy every Friday night at UCB Franklin with Bangarang! We've sold out weekly for the last 8.5 years.
SMALL TOWN: A fully improvised show based on real articles from your hometown newspaper. Second Mondays at UCB Sunset.
Inside scoop: one of my favorite character actors Stephen Tobolowsky (Groundhog Day, Memento, Californication and so much more) is sitting in with Bangarang! this Friday.
Thanks for reading! I'd love to get your feedback. Favorite segment? What's working? What's not working? What do you want to see more of?