Jacob All Trades #327
Kickstarter Launch, Trad Wives for Trump, Schiffty Schiff, Beautiful Data, Easter Eggs, Cher Side Story, Shia LaBeouf, and More!
LET’S PUT ON A FRASIER ART SHOW
Last year, I led a team of 130+ artists, illustrators, and filmmakers to remake an episode of Frasier before the debut of the official Paramount Plus revival. Amid a (pretty dang dehumanizing) dual entertainment strike, we pulled off something fun, unexpected, collaborative, and joyful. Our Frasier Remake had sold-out screenings in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and Seattle. The project also got a ton of coverage — everywhere from the Seattle and LA Times to BoingBoing, Cartoon Brew, The Wrap, and more. My dream was always to showcase the artwork alongside other Frasier-inspired pieces by curating a gallery show… and now I am!
I’ve put a down payment on an awesome gallery in Los Angeles for May 16-19, 2024 (to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Frasier’s series finale), and have some amazing artwork coming in from a diverse group of artists and mediums. All art sold at the show will be split directly between the artists and a great mental health organization, The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
But, to do that, we need to cover the cost of the gallery. So, we’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds. There are some amazing reward prizes — but even a couple of bucks would be a huge help. Candidly, if everyone who reads this newsletter donated $5, we’d be halfway to our goal. Please consider chipping in!
CONSUMPTION JUNCTION
Today it’s an all-politics Consumption Junction to follow the State of the Union, Super Tuesday, and the unofficial kickoff of the 2024 presidential election. Here are three things I’ve read recently that have stuck with me:
Brittany Packnett Cunningham’s superpower is breaking down complicated sociopolitical trends into sticky and easily understandable snippets. Immediately after Katie Britt’s SOTU response, she posted a fantastic breakdown to threads about “Trad Wife” culture, pro-segregation, anti-abortion, etc. Today, she followed it up with a video I would encourage you to watch.
Writer, comedian, and director of the Peabody honored doc series We Need To Talk About Cosby W. Kamau Bell is smart, funny, and on point. In his latest substack, Kamau breaks down some of the shadiness behind Adam Schiff’s Senate primary win in California. I’ve voted for Schiff before but Katie Porter and Barbara Lee are both amazing women who I would much rather see represent CA at a federal level. I was really bummed to see Schiff use legal but totally f*cked tactics to knock two much more principled, charismatic, and progressive Democrats out of the race.
Colbert’s interview with Bernie Sanders this week was great and really made me wonder what a Sanders presidency would be like right now. I have enormous respect for Senator Sanders (even though he was once brusk with me when I asked him for a second take during a Kimmel bit 😬). I also have a deep respect for how he and Biden have worked together for our country. I wish there were more people in politics like him.
BEAUTIFUL DATA
I think about process a lot and have an endless interest in how different creative people spend their day. So, of course, I was thrilled to see this (beautifully designed) chart on Adam Grant’s Instagram. I believe it’s from Mason Currey’s substack.
I’d love to see a similar chart with more modern creatives. Though this list has Haruki Murakami and Maya Angelou — the majority of these creatives were privileged enough to be part of the aristocratic class and not have many of the financial constraints modern creatives have. Not a lotta day jobs is what I’m saying….
A QUICK AND (NOT DIRTY) CLIMATE SWAP
The spring holidays of Passover, Easter, and Ramadan are upon us. For you Easter folks (or anyone who gets down with secular egg celebrations), here’s a quick reminder that plastic Easter eggs are, of course, very bad. They (like all plastic) are made from fossil fuels and create plastic waste (which lasts longer than any of us will be alive).
There are both recyclable and compostable options to replace plastic Easter eggs. I hate to plug Amazon, but if you’re looking for the cheapest option (while remembering the ‘cost’ will exist in other ways) there are a lot of paper eggs there.
There are also a lot of beautiful paper mache eggs available on Etsy and you can make your own using balloons (which doesn’t really help the waste angle but is a fun project).
And look, none of these options are going to be as “cheap” as plastic. But, my hot take is that when everything we buy and consume feels disposable, our experiences feel disposable. When we feel that time, energy, and resources go into the items we interact with, yes, we may have less of those items, but they’ll feel more special.
THE [MUSICALS] I DIDN’T KNOW I NEEDED
Titus Burgess Sings Poor Unfortunate Souls From The Little Mermaid
Shia LaBeouf (Okay, fine I’ve seen this before but it’s fun to revisit and friend of the newsletter Scott Uhlfelder knocked it out of the park)
RIDDLE ME THIS
Last month, I participated in CrossHare.org’s Monthly Midi Crossword Challenge and got to play around with a fun little theme idea I’d like to explore for a larger puzzle. You can play it on your desktop, tablet, phone, or print it out here.
Alrighty, that’s it for this issue. Feel free to leave a comment or share the newsletter using the links below.
Party on,
Jacob