Think hard, relax well

Been a bit of a heavy week back, even as it’s been nice to spend time at home, catch up with friends, and dive back into work (yes, even that!).

One of the heavier moments was learning of the passing of Curtis McCord, one of the many bright folks with whom I’ve had the pleasure of crossing paths over the years. Curtis was one of those dependable, delightful folks that you’re always glad to spend time with. He was a deep thinker who also had great recommendations for forest foraging. I’ll miss our consistently excellent calls and conversations.

Here’s to thinking hard and relaxing well, just as Curtis would do.

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• Recently had the pleasure of spending a few hours in and around the Barbican. Found a small exhibit while I was there, which linked to a sprawling set of digital exhibits about the Barbican and its history.
• Speaking of archives, Arkivism searches 51 different archives and museums, returning public domain (or CC0) work. (It’s a little sad that the copy text for the tool itself reads so reminiscently of AI-generated text, and that this is a question we now have to ask. But a genuinely useful tool, particularly for how it incorporates collections from outside of North America.)
• Enjoyed Ernest Wright’s “workshop notes”, things they’ve learned over decades of making scissors. (To see what they mean, watch the short documentary “The Putter”.)
• Shawn Graham wrote a nice little piece explaining why he asks his students to write assignments by hand.
• This video has done the rounds, for good reason: using the barely-audible background noise of planes to geolocate videos.
• In local news, sad to hear that my old haunt All Books will close in the coming months. It’s been a while since I went (I have plenty enough books)—seems it’s time to drop by and say hi to Mark and the books.

All the best for the week ahead.

Lucas