Jenny Wen has an impressive resume! She's leads design for Claude over at Anthropic. She was Director of Design at Figma and spent time at Dropbox, Square, and Shopify. Regardless of what you think of the actual design of each of those places, you can't deny that there is likely a very robust design process and a lot of people trying to make informed decisions. As such, Wen has some interesting perspective on the future of design. Inversely, she's also employed by Anthropic, so that's likely going to inform her answers a bit as well.

All that together makes for an interesting podcast episode talking about the future of design, process and the tools that will be used. It's a long episode with a lot of ground being covered, so block off a good chunk of time to let it sink in.

My personal design experience with AI assistance has been OK. From a generative art perspective, some interesting results came from it! Images I've used to augment existing designs or to help form something new. From a purely design perspective (i.e. layout, UI, UX), nothing has impressed me too much. But I'm a sample size of 1 and it's still very early days.

I'll refrain from monologuing too much about this but AI is fundamentally changing how writing code works... it will be interesting to see if it has a fraction of that impact on any other area.

Absolutely adored this Jon Hicks rundown on The Perfect Music App Doesn't Exist. Obviously that's true for a number of reasons but what exactly are those reasons? Hicks will tell you! Scrobbling, local files mixed with streaming, big beautiful artwork, immersion, organization, sorting, et all. Even better still, he'll show you what's lacking and what he proposes he'd like to see. Oh, and Hicks was a part of the branding work for Firefox, Mailchimp and Shopify so this isn't just an essay from someone without solid experience in the graphic design world!

The final proposal is very interesting! I love how he was able to incorporate so many of his requests into a very clean solution that finds that balance of robust info and entirely usable.

Because it's the Internet, I will add my two cents. I find the blurring on the right edge of the artwork to be offputting. It is immersive but I don't want my artwork blurry. Let it be a sharp cutoff! But, seriously, if any company dared to build this - they'd win over every designer still lamenting for Rdio's return.

Continuing my Larry Sanders kick, I recently ran across this book excerpt from Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers. I've not read the book but this piece is a great oral history of how The Larry Sanders Show came to be on HBO, what the work environment was like and loads of behind-the-scenes anecdotes.. many of them not very flattering! Here's a particularly jaw dropping one about Rip Torn (Arthur) from Linda Doucett (Darlene).

Linda Doucett: One episode, they were cutting lines, and Rip didn’t like it when his lines got cut. He was getting really angry, and the AD comes into the writers’ room and says, “Rip is going insane. He’s smashing everything in his dressing room and he has a gun.” Everybody froze and Garry says, “Oh shit, we have a show to shoot. Send Linda in. He won’t shoot her.”

Obviously gun violence (or the threat thereof) is not something I condone or praise but it sounds like no one on the show did either! Holy moly that is wild.

If you're a fan, it's a Must Read.

More often than not, YouTube's algorithm has got my number. I'm not sure when I was shown the work of Rusty James but it is right up my alley. James reinvents Nine Inch Nails songs as if they came from different albums within the NIN catalog.

More specifically, he'll take a song like "March of the Pigs" and rework it as if it was part of The Fragile. Or "Love is Not Enough" as if it were from Pretty Hate Machine. From what I've read, he is leaning into using actual samples from the original records to reimagine the songs.

This is obviously some deep niche fandom at work here but if you're into it, you're into it. If nothing else, it's a fascinating experiment.

If you're a regular reader here, you likely know that I've been enjoying Ampwall for a few years. It's an alternative to streaming platforms that is akin to Bandcamp but taking a different approach. One of their biggest differentiators is just how much they ship. For those of you not in tech, that means they are adding new features, improvements and optimizations to the platform all the time.

Their latest launch is the iOS app. Just like how Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp have apps to help you listen and discover music, now Ampwall does too. The experience is, obviously, not exactly same as those destinations because their catalog is different but it's provides a pleasant way to find new music, support that music and then enjoy that music. If you aren't on Ampwall yet, I think this may be the thing that gets you to finally check it out.

If you do sign up, here's some free music for ya: Bleary "bug", Fetching Pails "Duchenne Smile". That should get you started!

Every few years I find myself revisiting The Larry Sanders Show. If you've never seen it, treat yourself. If you have seen it, I promise there's a high rewatchability. Get back in there!

Inevitably, I start deep diving on random Garry Shandling snippets during my revisitations. Case in point, I just discovered this extended Dr. Katz recording from Jonathan Katz own podcast Hey We're Back!. The original 1996 episode is amusing but, understandably, edited down to include multiple plots and streamlined psychiatrist couch chat. This podcast episode is a much longer version - 40+ minutes of Katz and Shandling riffing back and forth. It's as absurd as any Dr. Katz episode and that's a good thing.

"Raw Shandling" was the filename for the recording. Perfect.

Last week I saw Flickr teasing something new. Yes, Flickr! The original destination for photo sharing that has been acquired a number of times and is probably forgotten in the recesses of your mind. My assumption at their tease - "Photographers need art, not algorithms" was that they were going to launch a new app that was just a linear feed of your friends photos. What a dream!

What they actually announced was MODE Festival, a photography festival in Minneapolis that costs between $330 to $660 to attend.

I'm torn on my excitement levels. On the one hand, I actually think it's good that they launched a real life event for people to gather and connect. The Internet is doing an increasingly terrible job of bringing people together. Also, who needs another app? On the other hand, paying for a festival can be a tall order. But there are great examples of it working.

Gonna keep an eye out. Be curious to see what the reviews are in October when it's over.

Way back in November of 2024, I posted about the Major Label Debut podcast, a show having conversations with artists about their transition into working with a major label. Over the last few years, it's had a ton of great episodes with many very notable artists! They talked to Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum, Mark Arm and Steve Turner of Mudhoney, Ryan Miller of Guster, and Nels Cline of.. Nels Cline! That's just to name a few.

They also started talking to other people at the intersection of art and commerce. Brendan Bourke of PR firm The Syndicate, Lisa Fancher of Frontier Records, and music lawyer Randy Ojeda - all equally compelling as the artists and producers chats. I'm a fan of the show. I think host Graham Wright does a great job and producers John Paul Bullock and Josh Hook are really making a compelling listen. So, I was quite shocked when they asked me to be a guest! I'm not saying that to feign humility, I just don't consider myself or my store in the same arena as Soul Asylum. hah!

I am flattered and honored to be a part of the show. I also think I did a decent job with my episode and hope people enjoy the chat. Maybe you will too! Give it a whirl.

I mentioned that Bleary has joined the yk Records roster and will be releasing their debut full-length in May. "sugar splint" is already out and, now, "bug" is everywhere. I know I'm biased but I'm a massive fan of every track on this record. The guitars on "bug" remind me of several other "space rock" bands that I adore but not in a derivative way, just sonically similar. It's steeped in huge sound and melancholy vibes; a stellar combination when pulled off this well.

We are in an era where AI tools are emerging at a breakneck pace. It's not far fetched to assume that new tools are launching every day. Regardless of what you feel about AI, the volume is wild. Even more surprising are the number of tools released by big players that I have never heard of.

Case in point, Google Stitch is a text-to-design tool that launched... who knows when? You describe a layout that you wanna see and it churns out a pretty reasonable response; all exportable to Figma. I don't necessarily recommend it for any production project but if you're curious to play around wiht a tool from one of the planets largest tech companies, it's worth a quick spin.

The Unnamed Footage Festival has at least two things going for it. First, it's a film festival focused on "the artistic value of first person narrative filmmaking." Born from an evolution of appreciation for films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, it's a festival that focuses on horror and beyond. Watch the festival trailer, it's nuts!

Secondly, the website is a full on Windows clone. Given that it's 2026, this is likely been done a thousand times over but I am always impressed when someone can make a website behave like an operating system. It's fun to click around and explore the material rather than having it presented completely linearly. And their demonic looking floppy disk mascot really deserves its own nod of appreciation.

It's a silly thing but Capybara Simulator looks like a sweet and delightful little game. The description sells it nicely:

This game offers relaxing and meditative gameplay. You can simply stand there, soak in the beauty of the jungle around you, and live life as a capybara. You can also do all the things capybaras usually do (mostly just chilling and doing nothing).

And if you've never watched much video actual capybara chilling, I suggest you do so.

Had a nice surprise / shock recently. There's a website called TheFeatures.live that compiles an ongoing repository of bootlegs from the band The Features. They recently added another 19 shows to the overall list. There are a bunch of shows from the college town where I saw them countless times, as well as shows here in Nashville at venues that are long gone. I've been a fan of the band for a long time and remember seeing them for the first time in high school.

In fact, I distinctly remember the very first time I ever saw the band was in 1996 at Rocketown in Franklin, TN opening for Caesar's Glass Box. Much to my surprise, that show is now in the archive. What an absolute shock to see that someone recorded the show, that it survived for 30 years and made it on to this website. Stunning!

I'll pair this with the fact that my very first concert is also somehow on YouTube. That's probably not a big deal for anyone under the age of 40 but it is for me!

I love a thoughtful, heady, exercise about a vintage videogame. Case in point: The Rygar Exercise: Assessing Ancient Themes In Visual Art takes a look at the possible historical influences in the 1986 NES adventure game Rygar. It's actually much shorter than I'd like.. I'd take a hefty 10,000 words on the subject if I could find it.

A few tech related items for ya:

• The o16g Manifesto - a long treatise on "outcome engineering," aka o16g. It's a manifesto on the future of AI assisted engineering. It can be a bit heavy-handed, as manifesto's tend to be, but does have plenty of principles that resonate with my experiences. I can't say I agree with it entirely - nor do I think anyone should be dishing out such platitudes about the future - but I do think it's worth reading.
• Your App Subscription Is Now My Weekend Project - semi-related to the above; Roberto Selbach talks about writing his own AI-assisted software to replace all of his subscription software. He's not saying it's the scalable future for everyone to write and ship their own custom code but it does give a peek at the future maybe you don't have an app store with a bunch of apps you're forced to subscribe to (you'll just be forced to subscribe to an AI :sadtrombone:).
• I Doesn’t Reduce Work - It Intensifies It - very unfortunate this is behind a paywall but you likely get the gist from the headline. This piece by Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye speaks on how AI's ability to empower everyone to do everything is not making lives easier, its adding more work to everyone. This can be combated with some good internal policies on how you work with AI but it also seems like the sort of thing companies would shy away from because they want employees doing 100x more.
• The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - a research paper on what happens to two months of exposure to X's algorithmic feed. The TLDR? X is bad for you! Dr Jacobs points out:

  And something we may not have known that this paper shows is that once a person gets into the right wing silo, we’ve lost them. Changing to the chronological feed does not bring them back.

  More reasons for you to quite X already if you have not. Please.

My wife loves New Orleans. We started going a few years ago and I was also struck by how different it feels there. Aesthetically it is unlike anywhere else I've been in the United States - different vegetation, architecture, vibes. It's a city known for partying and drinking (as Nashville is now) but it's a city rich with intense history of the French, African, Spanish, Caribbean and dashes of so many others. There is a partying culture there as well but t wasn't until I attended a proper Mardi Gras that something unique struck me; a feeling of unbridled, unencumbered joy. It took me a minute but I understood why she was enamored.

That feeling wasn't the alcohol. It wasn't anything spurred on by chemical forces in the slightest. Standing on the sidelines of a walking parade, I saw hundreds of people in DIY costumes marching to a brass band. I've seen hundreds more people celebrating Beans, wildly inventive costumes made from legumes and embracing puns. I've seen a pop-up parade of the outlandishly positive - marching joyfully against crimes in Palestine. I've seen floats beyond my imagination - Macy's is amateur hour after you've seen a blocks long alligator. I'd heard the term "joyful noise" before but you can feel it from every corner during Mardi Gras.

Then I saw this post that articulated the defiant nature of embracing joyfulness in a time that is riddled with misery. It sounds like a message on a stitched pillow: "Embrace Joy." But so what? It hit me just right. This isn't about ignoring the pains of the world but remembering to celebrate the positive things, community and allowing goodness to overcome that heft. In a place riddled with its own set of unique pains, New Orleans somehow manages to let that goodness out.

I post this primarily to share these words and hope that you'll find some way to integrate this into your life. Even if its just a few days a year.

A smattering of interesting things to read.

• Berkley scientists hone in on 100 SETI signals - you may recall the SETI@home project, a global undertaking to put idle computers to work analyzing data from signals captured from space. Every computer in every computer lab in college would run this and I always admired the crowd sourced endeavor to try and understand data coming from other worlds.
  
  This article talks about how the project ended in 2020 and how Berkley continues the work by looking at 100 of the signals that are of particular interest. Great history and insight into the project.
• The WAYMO World Model - there are fewer companies that need to be on the forefront of AI and visual computer learning than automated driving cars. I have plenty of hesitation thinking about getting into an autonomous vehicle but I gotta respect the amount of learning going on with the process. Waymo has introduced a World Model based on their massive amounts of mining that will hopefully improve the technology across the board.
  
  If that sounds like something you have no interest in, I recommend you go visit the page just for the GIFs. There's an elephant approaching a WAYMO that gives you an idea of how they're visualizing and understanind a myriad of outlandish (yet plausible) scenarios.
• What Stanley Kubrick got right about Artificial Intelligence - I read this on a Bloomberg guest pass but you can read the first part of it on Reddit if you need to. A nice essay from Ian Watson about how Kubrick understood actual artificial intelligence and embraced that for A.I..

I've been a fan of John Rafman's 9 Eyes for a long time. If you're unfamiliar, it's a repository of strange and surreal images captured by the Google Street View car (hence, 9 eyes) that Rafman stumbled across. The archive goes back some 16 years and every page of it is worth spending time with.

Admittedly, I have not kept up with Rafman's work outside of this. I was not even aware that he was a fine artist! His website is seemingly straightforward but contains many subtle secrets - just be sure to tap that Kool-Aid man.

Despite all that, I found myself on Rafman's Instagram glued to his short film, Report a Concern, Ep 2 - Oak Run, CA. It's six clips that tell a somewhat scary, somewhat surreal and altogether blurry tale about Rafman, 9 Eyes and someone he managed to capture in a tragic moment.

From a storytelling standpoint, it's riveting. From a storymaking standpoint, it's extremely clever. There's lots of AI being used here but the tone of the story, the distinctive look and the blurred-for-anonymity security footage angle of it all works incredibly well together. I know there are lots of big feels about AI in filmmaking but this feels like a prime example of great usage of it. Tho I'm sure there are some that would argue against that.

I wish this was viewable in some format that wasn't an Instagram clip but I suppose that delivery method plays into it all as well.

I've posted about Davis before and if there are future releases, I'm sure I'll post about Davis again. His latest release, Beacon Hill, builds on the practices of the prior release, Rime, combining ambient soundscapes, a touch of noise and something entirely unique. "Ambient" is a bit of a misnomer in this scenario because it's not music that falls entirely to the background. The presence of these compositions are active and felt - particularly "Broken" and "Blackout Lullaby", as they are giving undeniably active and optimistic vibes.

Much of the EP does have a foreboding and dark vibe but not in an oppressive or punishing ways. These songs can lean into something unseen and creepy but that tension itself is engaging.

The cover art is apt - a bright light amongst the incredibly dark surroundings.

You can finally surf the Gibson in search of your very own garbage file to brag to Acid Burn, Phantom Freak, Cereal Killer, Lord Nikon and Crash Override. Just keep your eyes peeled for The Plague!

If that's all gibberish to you, you have now have weekend plans.