INSTAVERTED
Instagram Apocalypse Averted! I got it back! Woo-hoo!
After all that drama (I got hacked, I reported it, got my account back then suddenly deactivated due to all the reports during the hack)—I am back on my proper Instagram, andrewdrilon. If you don’t follow me there yet, I urge you to, as it’s where I’m most active and up-to-date in terms of posts.
Not that it’s been all that active lately, as I’ve been knee-deep in finishing a bunch of comics projects. But expect the pace to pick back up around October. In the meantime, here are a few links to dive into:
INTUITED
Interconnected talks about cricket of all things to propose a different approach to your work: "Don’t keep your eye on the ball but prime your intuition." To whit:
"This seems like a small twist in framing but actually I find the difference quite freeing: I can see now that I’m no longer meant to be right with my sketches. I’m not supposed to be straight to the point. What I’m doing is scouting the field; I’m loading up my unconscious with everything it needs to make the right choice later, intuitively."
IMMERSED
Osama Shehzad talks about how desi wedding dances and authenticity, citing the trending "Quick Style" shadi dance video as well as the recent Ms. Marvel:
"Desi weddings are portrayed in popular culture, as seen on Amazon's Made in Heaven and Netflix's The Big Day, as lavish multi-day affairs — such weddings do happen but are exclusively for the absurdly rich. For most desi people, the weddings are modest affairs — often each wedding looks identical to the other. In the US, that means that there is the same venue that every desi wedding in that city happens at, and the same local desi restaurant catering food. These weddings and their decors are nothing to show off on Instagram — and that is what we see in the background of the Quick Style video...It is the wedding that most of us have attended, and the wedding that most of us will probably have. "
Here’s that trending video, in case you just want to be mesmerized:
IDEATED
An appreciation article on a ten-year-old tweet:
"Over the past 10 years, “Everything happens so much” has been turned into a shrine and a site of pilgrimage for those who spend their lives in front of a computer. When the news is not just bad but overwhelming, people search out “Everything happens so much” and reply to it or repost it to their feeds, often with a note like “now more than ever” or “the eternal mood.” These messages acknowledge what feels like ancient wisdom: The absolute best we can say about this moment in time is that everything is happening, as it always has and always will, so much."
Source: Atlantic, Getty
Which led to this gem of a process bit:
"Bakkila told The New Yorker’s Susan Orlean that he couldn’t remember exactly where his most famous tweet had come from, but thought the original context might have been, “Everything happens so much faster when you’re retired.” In chopping that sentence in half, Orlean noted, Bakkila had made it koan-like. “I was trying to wrest wisdom from these wisdomless piles of information,” he agreed."
Which is a little meta in this post full of links to other posts, but you get the point. Everything is grist for the mill. The mill has to cut things down to make them useful, a la William Burroughs' cut-up technique or just plain old sampling.
INTERRUPTED
And with that, I must go. Labor Day weekend is over, and I have a lot of work to jump on at my day job. But I’m also super-excited for tonight as I finally get to see my favorite writer, Grant Morrison, in the flesh! They’re in NYC this week doing a book tour for their new novel, LUDA. Can’t wait to get a signed copy tonight and start this short week right!
Have a lovely one! All will be well! 😁