OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: I am doing my Grand Canyon Groovers Calendar again this year, as well as the Semi-Rad Dog Calendar. BUT: we only printed 150 of each calendar, so if you want one, the sooner you order, the less likely they’ll be gone before you get one. I am announcing these in this newsletter first, and then a few hours later on Instagram, so you have a head start on the Instagram folks who don’t subscribe to this newsletter (fools, all of them!). The calendars are exactly the same as last year, just new dates (obviously). Links:
2024 Grand Canyon Groovers Calendar
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This film just won Best Snow Sports Film at this year’s Banff Mountain Film Festival, and I feel like I should explain why I like it, but I’ll just say if you’ve watched more than three or four ski films ever, you will find this one quite different, for many reasons, one of which is: Jazz. And, OK, good writing. (video)
I have been waiting for Gregory Alan Isakov’s Live at KEXP session to be posted on YouTube for WEEKS now, and it did not disappoint. It’s kind of a spoiler for me to quote what DJ John Richards says at the end of the set, but here: “Goddamn, fellas, that was one of the prettiest sessions I’ve been a part of in a long, long time.” (video)
I guess in all my listens to Led Zeppelin IV, and all the time I spent looking at the album cover during my teenage years putting Going to California and When the Levee Breaks on repeat, it never occurred to me that the guy in the photo on the cover was an actual person, but thanks a super-old album of photos, the internet, and a curious researcher who stumbled upon the image and thought, “I’ve seen that somewhere,” we now know who that guy with the bundle of sticks on his back was. (thanks, Dave)
This is a long excerpt, and if you are not much of a Metallica fan you might not be that into it, but I am so excited for Rob Harvila’s 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s book and this made me even more excited for it.
I finally watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent last weekend and now this is my new favorite GIF.
Somebody photoshopped a “I’m not the STEPDAD, I’m the DAD who STEPPED UP” shirt onto the photo of this eagle, and that’s funny, but I think the actual story is better. Like how many heartwarming stories about bald eagles do we get? I think this is my first one.
This illustration is titled, “A Manifesto by Christoph Niemann — 10 rules for drawing from the acclaimed illustrator,” but I think they’re pretty universal for most forms of creativity. (via Kottke.org)
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