I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks. I’m writing a screenplay (with deadlines thanks to Tim Neenan – highly recommend) and finishing up a music video that should be out in the next week or two. But, mostly, I’ve been freaking out about local, state, and national elections and how billionaires like Rick Caruso have been able to buy their way into political power. To really downplay it: boy, it sure does suck. Side note: WTF is up with Gavin Newsom being the only major Democrat to not endorse Karen Bass? Shady.
I’m hoping that Republican polling has been juicing the stats and there will be some good news over this next week, but in the meantime, I’m going to keep fighting. I hope you will too.
Enjoy the newsletter, and stay positive,
Jacob
DO SOMETHING
Here are some great and simple ways you can get involved over the next 72 hours. And, a quick note for people that (understandably) are hesitant to ‘bother strangers': 1) it’s important and we all are eventually going to get out of our comfort zone if we want to protect democracy and 2) this late in the game, pretty much every ground operation is focused on effectively turning out supporters, so it’s really unlikely they’re going to have you calling, texting, or knocking on the doors of people who disagree with you.
Search Swing Left for actions near you: canvassing, phone banking, text banking, etc. https://swingleft.org/take-action
Text and phone bank with Vote Riders - a non-partisan group that simply wants to make sure everyone knows what kind of ID they need to bring to the polls: https://www.voteriders.org/volunteer/
Help the Environmental Voter Project make sure that the millions (yes, really) of environmentalists that don’t vote regularly turn out this year.
https://www.environmentalvoter.org/get-involvedAnd, for godsakes, if you live in Los Angeles vote for ANYONE except Rick Caruso for Mayor.
A QUICK PSA
Did you know the National Parks Service offers something called an Access Pass that allows any U.S. citizen with a permanent disability access to over 2,000 recreational sites – for LIFE!
A GOOD LONG WATCH
You’ve probably heard about how Eric Stoltz was almost cast as Marty McFly but this long video explains all the ins and outs of how Back To The Future almost didn’t happen. It’s a great watch.
“Any time Fox isn’t on screen… he wasn’t on set. He hadn’t even been cast yet.”
I COULD WATCH THIS ALL DAY
When Eric Lind was visiting his parents in Eureka, IL he looked up and saw what looked like a witch…. but was really a great horned owl that had stolen a kid’s hobby horse. The video is delightful, so make sure you click through to see the full thread.
TODAY I LEARNED
…That MLK and Coretta Scott King paid the bill for Julia Roberts’ birth. Roberts told the story to Gayle King in an interview that recently went viral. Her parents ran an integrated theater school in Georgia that the King’s children went to. Coretta became friends with Julia Roberts’ mom and when the Kings found out the Roberts fam was having trouble paying their hospital bill, they stepped in and covered it. Wild.
CREATIVE RESOURCES
In case you’re not following the Adobe/Pantone drama, here’s the quick version: basically, Adobe (the massive corporation with a monopoly on creative software) got into a pissing match with Pantone (the massive corporation that assigns a number to every color) and now you can no longer use Pantone codes in Adobe products. Here’s a slightly longer version from Ars Technica and another from NPR if you’re interested.
For more than a decade, if you wanted a specific Pantone color in an Adobe product, you could punch in the number. The main reason you’d want to do this is to ensure an exact match for print work, but over the years Pantone also became the de facto way for companies to describe their brand colors. So, without the ability to do that, the loser in this battle has been the little guy: working graphic designers, most of whom are freelance. Currently, the solution is to pay an ADDITIONAL $15/month to use the colors – not an easy ask for people who used to pay a couple of hundred bucks every 3-5 years for Adobe software, but now have to pay almost $70/month for a subscription to the same software.
If you’re not a design nerd, you’ve probably skipped the last two paragraphs so I’ll cut to the chase: absolute hero Stuart Semple has made a collection of colors called FREETONE available for… well… free. They bear a striking resemblance to the corporate-owned Pantone colors.
Thanks to Margaret of Paper Pastries for the heads up about this.
THINGS OUR KID SAID
Look, I try not to be one of those parents, but I legitimately think these things our three-year-old, Wilder, said are very funny:
Wilder, climbing on me: Giddeeyup Hork!
Me: What’s a hork?
Wilder: A hork is a dork. A horse that’s a dork.
“Reading” a book about the planets to one of his stuffies: “These are the planets. They all have names. Their names are Jupiter, Saturn, and Greg.”
Wilder: Pretend you’re the sun!
Me: Okay.
Wilder: Pretend you’re the sun!
Me: Okay, I’m the sun.
Wilder: CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?!
Immediately after his third birthday, starting to plan his next birthday: “Can I have a piñata at my birthday? We can fill it with soup.”
WORK IN PROGRESS
I’m very excited to share this music video with y’all. Here’s a sneak preview:
Alrighty, that’s it for this week. Feel free to leave a comment or share the newsletter using the links below.
Party on,
Jacob
HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE BEST QUOTE, from a 3 year old, or from any age: “Can I have a piñata at my birthday? We can fill it with soup.”
Wow, Stark Landscape. Can't wait to see the finished product.