August 2026

August was steamy, there was art, music, a fair amount of reading, a tornado warning, good hangs, an extra-long bike ride, and it ended with a string of losses across the arts.

Growing up we’d gather round the TV to watch The Grand Ole Opry, Hee-Haw on the regular, and any countrified special that aired.

Every character on those stages were larger than life, though sequins likely added to this magnification. Minnie Pearl had that tag hanging off her hats and a wide grin like my Aunt Mildred… Porter played the good guy, but it was the man in black that felt like the real hero... Loretta had frills, Patsy had jackets with long fringe, and Dolly? She had extra sparkle.

She always kept one foot on the stage but found new places to show up — sometimes encouraging attention and some behind the scenes.

I’ve been watching her performances… an early trio of Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow, again with Emmylou and Ronstadt doing After the Gold Rush on Letterman, In the Pines with her parents, Moses with Bette Midler, and Travelin’ Thru at the 2006 Oscars.

I’m filing away some of her recipes to enjoy for later: Cinnamon Bread, Church Potatoes, and Cole Slaw (with pickle juice).

And I’m thinking about how I can show up better for the world.

Her passing feels like a blip in the demarcation of time and we’re now experiencing Life After Dolly. And though it’s sad she’s no longer here, how lucky we are to have overlapped for a spell.

A collection of places surfed throughout August with brief notations

Deadpan photography
I learned a new word/phrase! Deadpan photography is generally straightforward, unemotional, and evenly lit photographs of mundane subjects. (Guilty.)

Merriam Webster Time Traveler
This is more fascinating than my description makes it: Pick a year and find when a word or phrase was first used in print. / via Victor

Digital Camouflage
Simon Weckert designed a shirt intended to avoid AI surveillance, an admirable goal. Related: Decoy, a font that hides messages from AI.

Not everything is for you
Ty Finck considers the favorability of 20 things over the years. I love making charts to visualize life, and this is a fun exercise to consider.

Reading Maps
Journeys from fiction (and film) overlaid on real world maps, animated and annotated with the Claude aesthetic. / via Chris Shiflett

Ora Ito’s Renault R17
French industrial designer Ora Ïto created a retro inspired concept car for Renault based off their classic sports coupe. It's dreamy, inside and out. / via YouTube

Alfredo Castañeda
I didn't want to link to a Thread filled with lowercase letters, but there's a profound lack of good websites sharing the story of this Mexican Surrealist.

This is the new most used emoji, plus other rankings
Jennifer Daniel has a rundown on what’s what.

Garden of Flowers
Finnish artist, designer, and toolmaker Heikki Lotvonen has created a growing catalogue of pictorial letterpress works. There are lots of filters to sift through, or you can jump into some of their favorites.

Branch
This project creates a collaborative collage of tree and branch photos. Made by Grant Custer who makes experimental interfaces.

Tarkovsky
Simon Collison shared thoughts on discovering and appreciating films by Andrei Tarkovsky. Also emerged from this link, a thoughtful essay by Frank Chimero on the matter.

BitCam 2.0 App
At first this might seem like a simple bitmappy camera app, but there are oodles of options the more you dig in. Maker Héliographe has a bevy of tools for photographers.

Carbon Arc
I learned lots from this latest edition of Caitlin's alphabetical series for cinema. She turns her attention to carbon arc lights that were used to power projectors and created limitations and workarounds. Ingmar Bergman featured close-ups of the lights in the intro and closing shots of Persona.

Zalgo
I'd seen this glitched-out type before and was always baffled how it was possible. Marcin Wichary reveals the machinations of accent mark stacking that makes it possible. Related: I've word the new Four Tet record is solid.

Things I Want to Remember
Grace has a recurring series to share collected observations, some lighthearted, some deep. Her post from July closes with a contemplation as to why she keeps sharing online, and it resonated deeply with my own reasoning (and inspired this seasons' homepage tagline).

Brandi Carlile – Uninvited
I feel there’s another line in the universe from the time before Brandi Carlile covered Alanis Morissette at the 2026 Newport Folk Festival, and after… Such an epic performance.

The Chicago Brand Museum
Want to go to here, next time I'm in Chicago. / via BrandNew

Stardust & Stitches
I first became enamored with daily embroidery projects when Jen Schuetz posted about her monochrome hoop capturing 2024. (She's documenting temps this year.)

John Gruber on Simon Willison on Technical Blogging
Let's just set aside the word "technical" and focus on some of the highlights that John raises from this solid piece about blogging. These thoughts pertain to anyone that has a desire to publish online, and removing some of the hurdles. And frankly, scrap the blogging bit altogether and it's about writing in general.

Flamingo Revolution
I need to broaden my news sourcing as I haven't heard much beyond a blip about the Flamingo Revolution. Wikipedia has a timeline, and Our Town has a stateside update on the protests against the $4.6 billion Trump / Kushner resort planned inside a protected wildlife lagoon: Albania is Not for Sale! 

Taylor Detector
Scan a product barcode to check if it may be associated with Taylor Farms. (Wished I’d had this at the supermarket yesterday.)

The Beginning of Convenience
Lucy Sparrow made a supermarket of felt objects, currently on view at the The Momentary Museum through July 2027. Filing away just in case I find myself near Bentonville, Arkansas.

There’s a viral recipe going around that modifies a boxed yellow cake mix. I don’t get what the fuss is about. It was just fine.

I managed to spend only $5 during the World’s Longest Yard sale and two of those dollars went to this Transformer:

I sent over a testimonial to the team at Aphera extolling my delight using their photo editing app, along with a handful of headshots.

Let’s leave with some flowers for Dolly, Tim Curry, Yayoi Kusama, Wendell Berry and others that left our realm this month.

See you next month. Unless you want to scoot. If you unsubscribe, I will never know so it’s okay.