Newsletter No. 2

Rhythm and cadence have occupied my mind this month. I am trying to pay attention to the rhythm in various things such as literature, how I do creative work, and how I like to take breaks. By paying attention to the natural rhythms I am trying to build a new rhythm of sorts.

Rational thinking, which dominates my brain, wants to set the metronome first and then cast the rhythm. I certainly tried to do so with this newsletter last weekend. I set the metronome to a weekly cadence — which I failed to do last week. I should have probably set the metronome after the rhythm has set.

Staying with the metaphor a bit longer… setting the metronome first would work only if I was trying to play someone else's music. What I am trying to do is find my own tune in exploring thoughts, ideas and skills. But nothing I am doing is new: blogging, podcasting, reading and thinking. Others do it more and better. It feels easier to imitate.

I see other creative people who I admire produce so much work and it makes me think I can do it too. But I need to remember that I spend 40 to 50 hours a week doing my day-job which is also creative and very analytical and takes a lot of mental energy. It also pays the bills. I can not share a large majority of the work I do in my day-job because we are under strict NDAs with our clients. So it seems that the work I can share is small and slow.

I don't want this to be an excuse. So I have started a time-block Plan from 6 AM to 6 PM for both, my professional job and my personal creative work. It is a challenging schedule but I deviated from it on only a few days in the last two weeks. By all measures it is working.

Here is the stuff I have written in the last two weeks:

Van Neistat

I discovered Van Neistat's new youtube channel. It reminds me of one of my favorite short movies on YouTube called 10 Bullets. Read the post here

Fiction and Non Fiction

I've been reading too much non fiction and discovered a hunger for fiction, like I was starved of something essential. I tried to explore that idea. I have to admit, my writing is not great in this one. As I read it now, it feels like I wrote before the idea had fully crystalized. Read the post here

Rhythm

I explore another rendition of the Rhythm thought with which I opened this letter. This time I hit up the writings of Ursula Le Guin. Read the post here

On the podcast front I am nearly finished writing the copy of my next episode. I am also close to having my recording studio set up so I don’t have to juggle the home computer that my wife also uses for her work. I should post the episode soon. You can find it listen on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and Stitcher. Search for "Sighthound Studio" on Google Podcast, or directly use RSS in your podcast app.

Van Neistat

Working To Code is the movie series designed for employees of the Tom Sachs studio referred to henceforth as the studio

This is how 10 Bullets, one of my favorite videos on Youtube begins.

"Working to Code" is a movie series designed for members of the Tom Sachs studio team. Required viewing for all employees and studio visitors. ALWAYS BE KNOL...

If you haven’t seen this film yet, you will find some familiarity with Casey Neistat’s older videos. Casey is Van’s younger brother and Van helped produce 10 Bullets.

I particularly like Casey’s older videos that carried this low-tech aesthetic — videos before his daily vlog days. Here is an example of Casey making a Custom Pennyboard Suitcase.

Casey eventually developed his own style that is great for youtube. I think Casey understands attention in the Youtube world better than most people do. But this post is not about Casey, it is about Van.

I think the low-tech production of 10 Bullets is timeless in the way they do special effects. They are not trying to show off their special effects budget or Final Cut skills. They talk about an idea and show it in a plain and natural way. My brain is making a weird connection here as I write — I am thinking of how Scott Carrier writes. Plain but clear, with impact. Lasting.

Another good video from the time of 10 Bullets is the Nautical Challenge on Tom Sachs’ youtube channel. It shows all three people — Tom, Van and Casey. Think about this video foretelling a trajectory of where Casey and Van have ended up.

The trajectory I want to highlight here is Van Neistat’s new channel — The Spirited Man.

It has the timeless style of low-tech production from the 10 Bullets videos. And there is something refreshing about that.

Glimpse into a spirited man's self-reliant analog world. Meet a spirited woman, too.For an in-depth explanation of this channel: https://www.kickstarter.c...

I went to school for engineering, and engineers like me will recognize the principles of 5S in the way Tom Sachs’ studio is set up in 10 Bullets, and also in the way Casey and Van’s studios are set up. A place for every thing, labels everywhere, shadow boards… etc. Engineers are all too familiar with this way of organizing. The difference I notice here is the strong will of an Artist coming through in the organization of the workplace. I think Steve Jobs called it the intersection of liberal arts and technology. In all the places where I set up 5S ended up with neat lines on the floor and printed labels. Instead, Van’s and Casey’s workshops have hand drawn lines and hand written labels which add life to an otherwise dull process of organizing things.

I think this artist-in-action is rare to find in our ever saturated world of DIY’ers and makers.

Something honest comes through in The Spirited Man.