DRAWING CONNECTIONS

One of the best podcast episodes I heard in the past month was a little back and forth conversation between @davidchang and @shadkmusic on how the food scene reflects the personality of different cities in a way that runs parallel to how hip hop evolves geographically.

I get really excited when I notice parallel lines between two things that previously seemed disconnected. Baseball and racial justice. Movies and Ignatian spirituality. Beer and linguistics.

I used to think having a mix of such different interests was a challenge, because its typically a tough sell. But then you have something like Hamilton: hip hop and Broadway and American history. An odd combination of wildly different curiosities creates some of the strongest creative DNA.

I think it’s probably because I believe deep down everything is connected and meaningful, and because I don’t mind spending large chunks of my life pulling at different threads.

THIS IS ALSO LIFE

Behold, a gallery of what life looks like these days:

Falling behind on my reading list, but liking the stuff I’ve been reading.
Trying to get work done despite having a lot less time in office than usual.
Eating copious amounts of pho.
Loving the rain in San Diego and wanting it to last.
Escape rooms, open houses, and packing, while Deanna only gets to use one leg.
Strategic planning at work, strategic planning at church, and at home too.
The Umbrella Academy on Netflix.

This month has been absurd. And I don’t think I’ll miss it that much once all the dust has settled. In spite of all that, a lot of good things have been happening that I’ll be thankful for in the long run.

plant with purpose x known supply

A heathered gray tee with a clean, unaltered @plantwpurpose logo on it seems like a simple thing to make. But you’d be surprised.

I went through several manufacturers to try and get it just right. One printed them on stiff, unappealing tees, with the ink feeling like a thick layer of paint on top. Many had trouble getting the heathered, soft look down, and that makes all the difference.

I have a few simple black-on-gray tees and the ones made from the right stuff have been wardrobe staples for close to a decade. I keep wearing them and they kind of get better with age.

Then I figured, why not reach out to somebody I really like to produce these tees? Enter @knownsupply. You may have been acquainted with with them when they were @krochetkids. They’ve gone from making beanies to trying to take anonymity out of clothing production.

Every shirt is handsigned by the woman who made it. And you can go online to look up her story. Mine was made by Rocio in Peru. 🇵🇪 Ethical manufacturing gives her an opportunity.

Want to cop a shirt? Check out the link in my bio. So glad to make a brand partnership between Plant With Purpose and Known Supply a reality.

YOUR IMPACT

Many of us live like we were just born into a time and culture and now we’ve got to play by its rules. If it’s a culture of fear we live in, well then, that’s the hand we’re dealt. If it’s a divisive and polarized time we live in, then we’ll just try to avoid the scary conversations and carry on.

Except that’s not the whole story.

Every single person is affected by their time and culture. But every single person affects their time and culture as well.

Even if you do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING except the most average, typical, predictable things that the majority of other people around you are doing, you will have contributed to the status quo. And often the status quo isn’t a great one.

Thinking about things this way reminds me that there’s really no such thing as neutral. It encourages me to challenge harmful ideas, even if that comes at a cost. It encourages me to sacrifice comforts for other people’s freedom.

If you’re silent about things that matter, then you help ensure things won’t change. If you’re inactive to the needs of others, then you keep an object at rest resting.

Don’t think that if you don’t start a revolution of some sort you won’t have an impact on the world. All of us will. The question is what kind of impact.

fight ignorance

When there are scary things happening, uncertain times, or an atmosphere of conflict, whose voices do you catch yourself listening to?

Do you listen to those in power? Good leadership matters, but many know that few things can rally votes as well as fear.

Do you listen to the headlines? Good information matters, but many know few things can grab attention as well as shock.

Or do you listen to the people who are directly affected? The ones who feel the effects of the stuff you read about. The people on the ground, on the frontlines.

When people are hurting, we have the chance to rush in and ask how we can help. And when we do this, there is far more to be gained than there is to fear.

scrimshaw coffee

While life’s been on the crazy side lately I’ve been working out of the office and away from home quite a bit. San Diego’s got a lot of cool coffee spots so I could think of a lot worse solutions.

Here are my tips to being a good coffee shop worker:

• Please buy something. As businesses, a specialty roaster is tough to run. Don’t just leech off of curated space.

• If you bring a power strip, you will be everybody’s hero.

• If you bring a friendly dog to a dog friendly joint, you will also be everybody’s hero.

• You don’t need to be a full blown coffee snob in order to appreciate the ethical and environmental concerns that go into a mug. Honestly, I can only taste the difference between brews if one is reallllly good or reallllly bad, so I let things like shade grown or single source make more decisions for me.

• Going to the same spots means recognizing more familiar faces. That may or may not make it harder to get work done eventually.

• Lots of coffee shops have cool branding and merch, but unless you work there, it is a bit like wearing a band’s swag at their show.

diy oscars

If you wanna watch a bunch of movies from last year that are, in my opinion, much better than Green Book, Vice, Bohemian Rhapsody, and A Star is Born put together, might I suggest the short list below:

🇲🇽 Roma
🙅🏿‍♂️ Black Panther
🛤 Won’t You Be My Neighbor
🀄️ Crazy Rich Asians
🕸 Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
🏤 If Beale Street Could Talk
🌾 Happy as Lazzaro
🧗🏻‍♂️ Free Solo
🔥 Burning
👨🏽‍💻 Searching

And since I pretty regularly disagree with the Academy, I made my own awards. Best Villain and Best Trailer should definitely get awards. So should the movie that most makes me want to be a better person. I want to also make an award for the most mouthwatering scene but I’m having trouble thinking of competition for the food cart scene in Crazy Rich Asians.