Jacob All Trades #314
Jury Duty, Teenage Kubrick, Stroads, Cardboard Billionaire Fascists, Blood, Wordle Crochet, Crosswords, Marcel the Shell, and Behind The Scenes In The Desert
My birthday is this week and I’m somewhat introspective around that time (and all the time, I guess). My daughter’s birthday was last week, and I’m realizing we’re always going to be linked now — and I’ll have to work twice as hard to remember to do something for my birthday.
I’ve been watching a ton of Columbo recently, after watching Rian Johnson’s unofficial reboot: Poker Face, which is fantastic. I also just finished two mysteries by Lucy Foley that were bestsellers and my advice to you is: skip ‘em. Watch Poker Face (or Columbo) instead.
Anyhoots – here’s a newsletter for ya. Enjoy!
Jacob
HERE’S AN IDEA: VOLUNTEER JURY DUTY
Jury duty always seems to come at the worst time, so why don’t we do volunteer jury duty? Yes, I understand the idea of a jury is that it is not just people that have the privilege to show up (although in my experience it’s usually the most entitled people who are trying to get out of their civic duty).
Here’s my pitch: instead of getting a notice when you’ve been scheduled for jury duty, you get a notice when you are eligible for jury duty. This means enough time has elapsed since your last service. Imagine getting something like this:
Dear Mr. Reed,
It has been X months since your last jury summons and you are now eligible for jury duty. Please list your top three choices for jury service start date during the next six months below. If your chosen dates are not available or if you do not reply within 30 days, you will be scheduled for jury duty at the convenience of the court.
You could even have a little section that talks about why jury duty is cool and how being engaged in your community helps things. IDK, it just always feels like a drag and I don’t think it has to. What do you think?
CONSUMPTION JUNCTION
Three things I’ve seen, heard, or otherwise experienced recently that have been on my mind.
Years ago, LACMA had an incredible exhibit about Stanley Kubrick where I saw photos he took as a teenager for the first time. A movie nerd Instagram account recently reposted a few and reminded me how great they are. Here are a bunch from a 2014 BBC article.
Artist Tim Knowles facilitated a series of line drawings made by trees in which he “attach[es] artists’ sketching pens to their branches and then place sheets of papers in such a way that the tree’s natural motions — as well as their moments of stillness — are recorded.” (via Cabinet Magazine)
Each year, the podcast 99% Invisible rounds up some of the stories that weren’t long enough for their own episode and hosts a collection of “Mini-Stories.” The podcast is always great, but one of these recent mini-stories about Stroads really stuck with me. Stroads are when something is not quite a road and not quite a street.
“Now wait just a dang second!” I hear you saying, “Aren’t roads and streets the same thing?” Well, dear reader, they’re not. And the difference between them will forever change how you look at the world around you. I listened to this episode a month ago and I am still thinking about it daily.
DO SOMETHING
You might be in a toxic relationship at not even know it. That’s right, it’s time for you to break up with ULINE.
ULINE is “a family-owned business” and the “leading distributor of shipping, industrial, and packaging materials to businesses throughout North America.” It’s also a company owned by the descendants of Nazi sympathizers, a far-right conservative couple who in the last two years alone have spent more than $120 MILLION dollars on state and federal elections, vocally fighting against unions, abortion rights, and LGBTQ folks. A whopping half of that money went directly toward election-denying candidates. Read the full expose from Pro-Publica here.
So, what can you do? Well, if you work at a company or small business that purchases office supplies, make sure you aren’t buying anything from ULINE. I’ve got a guide below that has some alternatives.
I’ve even taken to sending a friendly letter to companies when I see that they use ULINE or if I purchase something that is sent to me in a ULINE box or packaging. So far I’ve gotten one reply out of three emails and it was a very enthusiastic “Uline's malfeasance toward humanity is a known quantity” and that they are using up their remaining Uline stock while switching to another vendor.
Here’s a link to my quick guide:
HOW TO BREAK UP WITH ULINE AND ENCOURAGE BUSINESSES YOU SUPPORT TO DO THE SAME.
The bad news is that Uline stands in powerful opposition to all progressive and Democratic values, and their wealth has grown exponentially since the pandemic. The good news is that, unlike most awful billionaires, the Uihleins are rich because WE ARE GIVING THEM MONEY. So… let’s stop.
SOME GOOD NEWS
For decades, an archaic rule has been in place that prevents MSM (men who have sex with men) from donating blood. This homophobic law popped up during the AIDS crisis. It was fear-based then. It’s fear-based now. Especially since we have figured out HOW TO CHECK IF BLOOD IS HIV POSITIVE.
Last month, the FDA announced they are moving toward repealing this ban – paving the way for an enormous group of potential donors to give blood.
BEAUTIFUL DATA
There are a lot of ways to visualize data. Mostly, I post interactives and infographics, but this is the first time I’ve shared textile art.
In January of 2022, a woman was saved from kidnappers when her daughter realized she had gone radio silent on their daily Wordle text thread. Knowing she also played Wordle daily, my friend Amanda’s dad sent her this article, and – part superstition, part bonding – they began texting their scores to each other daily.
That might have been where the story ended, but Amanda’s dad is an economist and mused about how often they might be guessing the same words. So, like any good economist’s daughter, Amanda started keeping track on a spreadsheet…
Amanda (besides being a talented writer and actor) also learned how to crochet as a kid from her (economist) dad’s (non-economist) mom and decided to visualize this data as a giant cozy blanket. Drawing inspiration from temperature blankets (which are, apparently a thing) she began color-coding their Wordle data and crocheting a giant-ass king-size blanket.
Here’s what Amanda and her Dad’s Wordle games from 1-26-22 to 11-1-22 look like:
Various colors represent whether they guessed the word in the same number of turns, with the same word sequences, etc.
When we spoke, she told me about the meditative feeling of working on the blanket, a literal manifestation of her family (her dad, the economist, and his mom, who taught her how to crochet). She said that it got so massive that she sometimes had to completely envelop herself in its comforting folds to work on it. We also spoke about the reassuring slog of creating a piece of art that will only be seen by a small group of people when our industry (Showbiz, baby!) and larger culture values eyeballs over anything else.
What struck me most, was what she described as the ‘bizarre feeling of crafting a family heirloom,’ and how — after spending almost a year living with/in and working on the blanket, she misses it… but also knows one day (hopefully in the distant future) it will find it’s way back to her.
I’m trying to convince her to pitch this as a This American Life story.
TAKE MY MONEY
I just bought three things from A24 (yes, the studio) that I’m extremely excited about:
This Book of 99 Movie Crosswords
Made for movie nerds by longtime puzzle constructor Anna Schechtman (of New Yorker and NYTime xwords).
This Kid’s Book from Director Daniel Kwan
Time travel before/during/after bedtime? Yes, please!
This Tiny Metal Figurine Of Marcel The Shell
I’m going to start hiding it in our garden and waiting for our son (a major Marcel-stan) to notice. In fact, I bought two because their sh*t sells out fast and I know we’ll lose one a few years from now.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Want to know more about my creative process? Here’s a (tv episode length) video showing how I got the idea for my latest music video, how that idea evolved within the crucible of a scrappy budget, and how we pulled off stealing a shot in one of the most filmed locations in Los Angeles and celebrated by lighting a piano on fire in the middle of nowhere.
Alrighty, that’s it for this week. Feel free to leave a comment or share the newsletter using the links below.
Party on,
Jacob
I am also obsessed with the A24 Movie crossword book!!!!! Got it as a "present" for "tyler" and demand he do them with me any night our eyes are still open past 10
I’m really enjoying these. Thanks for sharing.