Solo week of daddy duty has ended which means I must make it a point to make this week a week of much work as well as much socializing, as I am somewhat deprived of both. Have yet to make much of a plan for the latter, but I've got my work cut out for me on the former.
Branding and logo design tends to come easy to me, a consequence of cutting my teeth on that sort of thing throughout my twenties, but I am presently wrestling with a logo for something only because it's the type of thing that lends itself so easily to cliche, and you don't want a terribly cliche logo, as that defies the chief objective of branding to begin with.
Hoping to wrap that up today and still have time to squeeze in some TSG despite it already being close to 2:00 pm.
Cloudy with bouts of rain today. Hot and humid as fuck though. Inbox 115, RSS 605.
These days I start my morning at around 7am by reading a passage or two from Yevgeny Zamyatin's WE and Mason Currey's DAILY RITUALS along with my first Americano. Then breakfast: scrambled eggs and homemade pita followed by a small bowl of granola and fresh fruit along with my second Americano.
After a bit of tidying up in the kitchen and a scolding hot shower, I get to work, typically by 9am: Mostly the very last installment of THE SOLAR GRID right now along with whatever work-for-hire I have on my plate: presently a branding gig and an illustration thing. I break for exercise around 1:00pm. Protein shake at 2:00, which I enjoy with some more light reading. Back to work by 2:30 for a final hour or two before I start cooking dinner, which if I'm low on supplies can sometimes be preceded by a quick grocery run. I'm on solo daddy duty for a good stretch which takes up most of my evenings. Not sure if I'll have enough time to squeeze in the next newsletter, but I'll try.
Woke up today comforted by the knowledge that I will no longer be pestered by rich politicians to give them my money.
I have been on a roll of not-so-great reads lately for some reason, a couple of which I reviewed:
THE PLAGUE by Albert Camus
THE SEAMSTRESS AND THE WIND by Cesar Aira
George Bataille's STORY OF THE EYE and Nathanael West's MISS LONELYHEARTS/THE DAY OF THE LOCUST are a couple others, yet to be reviewed. I'm annoyed at this bad book spell I seem to have fallen under, and am wondering how these books ever landed in my TBR pile to begin with. Moving onto WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin and keeping my fingers crossed that this'll be the one to break the spell.
“We live in a right-wing culture that has an instrumentalism for the ruling elite.”
— China Mieville
Previously referred to as PROJECT BIGSPREAD, this is THIS IS GAZA, an artist-book created as part of the second Mailbox Project initiated by Dongola Limited Editions out of Beirut, Lebanon:
More pix at ganzeer.com
Very good Ted talk by Eric X. Li, A Tale of Two Political Systems, which may at first come off as propaganda for China's one party system and an indictment of democracy, but he makes it a point to point out that it isn't about coming to the conclusion of what the best political system for the entire world ought to be, in as much as he makes the point that perhaps a plurality of political systems, whether they be old, current, or new may be more apt.
“The gift that is not used will be lost, while the one that is passed along remains abundant.”
— Lewis Hyde
Finally scheduled the new newsletter. This one took a lot out of me.
It goes out in a few hours. Sign up, as always, is at Ganzeer.com/Newsletter
Inbox 237, RSS 438. Terrible.
“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” said the Earth followed by a sinister laugh.
She was bruised and visibly ill, but still stood tall. She wasn't proud of this, not really. She'd held back doing anything like it for a long time, but she was at her wit's end and found no other way.
She shook her head and retreated into the embrace of the universe, muttering no more than two words: “Puny humans.”
(Uncredited photo from Valencia following unprecedented floods.)