The work of Ram Han feels as inspired by traditional Japanese prints as it does surreal dream visions. This interview does a good job of unearthing where some of the inspiration and influence comes from:

My work is about nostalgia: lost memories and brief reminiscence of feelings and sensations. I enjoy thinking about how I would rebuild the old memories of old pop culture I grew up with. It may not show directly in my work, but finding that 'just about enough' point is important to me.

Several pieces within the body of work have nude bodies and sexual imagery, which takes on a new context when you view it through the lens of nostalgia and childhood experiences. Maybe the surreal vibe stems from the haziness of remembering, a feeling we all have.

I value brevity

While reading this thread on Product Development I came upon this excellent Quinn Norton piece on the dangerous world of software, Everything Is Broken. In it, she explains how fragile our entire ecosystem is and how exploitable every bit of it is. It may be a bit doom and gloom on the surface but it's an absolutely fascinating read.

The piece discusses how every piece of software has some 0day sploit waiting to be unwrapped and that The Intelligence Community (the IC) is well aware of many of them and uses them to their advantage. The exploitation of software and the exploitation of privacy are intrinsically tied together. That's probably the most oppressive piece of the article but it takes an uplifting, rallying, turn that I will share in part below:

The problem with the normals and tech is the same as the problem with the normals and politics, or society in general. People believe they are powerless and alone, but the only thing that keeps people powerless and alone is that same belief. People, working together, are immensely and terrifyingly powerful.

There is certainly a limit to what an organized movement of people who share a mutual dream can do, but we haven't found it yet.

Highly suggest reading it top to bottom, whenever you have time. It's a nice reminder of the potential power we all have if we're willing to use, despite the zero day dangers around us.

In just four easy steps you can administer Lasik at Home with the Lasik@Home Kit! Just find a quiet place with no distractions, unpack your kit and perform the painless procedure.

I won't even discuss the notion of this being a hoax, parody or farce because the possibility of it being real is far too entertaining.

Very thankful for this Aerolab piece on Flexbox and Grids (your layout's best friends). It provides an easy-to-understand readthrough on the new CSS offerings, their benefits and their differences. Obviously if you don't work much with CSS this isn't going to be much of a compelling read but if you do, I think you'll understand how great it is that CSS is finally handling this stuff natively.

Additively, it introduced me to Flexbox Froggy and Grid Garden, which are a real treat.

I'm going to open a comedy club next door to Rudy's Jazz Room and call it Judy's Razz Tomb please RT

"My dog became a shark when I bought new carpet." https://t.co/r3HYT2k4yv

Recently, Baldwin sent me the track "Danse a La Musique" by The French Fries, which is really just a Sly and the Family Stone released under a pseudonym. It's great and it got me thinking about how many other releases are out there released under pseudonyms. I put together a quick list...

• Percy Thrillington - Paul McCartney re-recorded the entirely of RAM as an instrumental album, released it six years after he was done with it (1977) and didn't tell anyone about it until 1989. Read more.
• Ciccone Youth - The Whitey Album - members of Sonic Youth put together this ode to 1980's pop with samplers and sequencers as the foundational elements but it still sounds like Sonic Youth. Regardless, a worthwhile listen. Read more.
• The French Fries - Danse a La Musique - the aforementioned Sly and the Family Stone track released as a single in 1968 that's basically a remix of their own song. Read more.
• Camille (aka Prince) - a still unreleased album from 1987 that had Prince performing as a pitched-up vocal alter-ego, Camille. Read More.
• Dukes of the Stratosphear - a 60's psychedelic rock tribute from XTC, this was supposedly released as tongue-in-cheek but it (and the follow-up Psonic Psunspot) hold up on their own. Read more.
• Instruments of Science and Technology - a moniker from Richard Swift in which he released more kraut rock and electronic inspired music. His name is all over it so it barely counts on this list but if you weren't looking for it, you'd likely miss it. Read more.

I think there are plenty more examples. McCartney's Country Ham's collaboration, DEVO's The Wipeouters or Green Day's The Network come to mind.

I'd love to hear others suggestions if you have them. I'm looking for albums or singles released under different monikers, not just live performances done under a different name with the same playlist.

I'm a big fan of the work of Josh Breeden, aka St. Francis Elevator Ride, a Memphis designer and artist that has been making consistently compelling work for years. It's often a collage of styles pulled from old publications, reworked into new visions and it's always interesting.

Breeden just opened a new show of fine art at the Channel to Channel gallery in Nashville called Lush Interiors. The exhibition takes his work from the flat world of digital and print and gives it a lot of depth and presence; even literally dripping into the floor. The pieces are still done in his signature style but die cut and layered to be even more compelling.

If you're around, go see it. If not, check it out online and watch the amusing intro video.

read it again and again

There's a rather interesting vibe to the work of Hungarian designer Fanny Papay. It's clearly pulling from 80's reference points - floppy disks, bold color palettes and that bizarre catalog style flatness to the photoshoots - but doesn't feel contrived, it feels inspired by. There's certainly a unique voice being expressed here but, as someone that grew up in that decade, many of the visual cues here feel heavily familiar.

It's an impressive and amusing body of work with burning roses, cantaloupe album covers and shredded faces as just the tip of the iceberg. Dive into the portfolio or the Instagram for the full effect. I find myself rather enjoying the manual glitching.

HT Caspar.

1968 pseudonym release from Sly and the Family Stone.

stories of artists whose physical "shortcomings" led to their signature work

https://t.co/lt2VHbxgQG

Watching people return this dropped hat at the parade today was unreasonably thrilling https://t.co/oUocCtFo3i

It me https://t.co/XQAnJgfWEf

November! I've got plenty to say about plans for 2018 but it feels premature with two months left to go. Laying groundwork now for some good stuff ahead.

Here's some distractions, we all know we need them.

• What Is Spoopy? - yea, it's a belated Halloween video but this song is stuck in my head. I laugh every time.
• Sony Aibo - new electronic dog from Sony. It's impressive? It's cute? It's kind of creepy? The future is weird.
• BULLY - Feel the Same - great new stop motion animation for the single off of Bully's latest, Losing.
• Fireworks in the Kitchen - from my new favorite Subreddit, What Could Go Wrong?.
• Jonathan Bree - You're So Cool - just a weird music video. Gotta appreciate the simple and effective thing going on here.
• Jump Around Doggo - I didn't want to laugh but I sure did.
• One Hour of Imaginary Celebrities - as Wjitze said, this is an Endurance Challenge. It's actually interesting technology but incredibly difficult to watch for such a long stretch. Why is this an hour??

CREATION opens tomorrow at @cedokzakkastore in Tokyo. Enjoy a visit to Asakusa and join for the opening reception a… https://t.co/koGDsNUwRK

possibly future poop emoji variants lie ahead

Convinced if we put our minds to it we could just guess Trump's Twitter password.