Shady Transformers, David Byrne on Performance
Geniune shade. In an era of hyper-real imaging and printing, it’s easy to forget there are other badass styles. These creations by LEK Custom Toys are actual in-the-flesh figures painted to look like the old 2D shading of the cartoon. The background is also painted to match that look. I just…wow. It’s pretty amazing, both to have the idea to do and the execution here. There are lots more photos of work like this in LEK’s insta.
Byrne on Snapchat before Snapchat. I was hoping to find a full video of David Byrne’s talk at this year’s New Yorker Fest based on what I see in this Twitter thread, but no luck so far.
His explanation of the role of performance in his life is especially fascinating to me because it just never occurred to me. I was a shy, awkward kid through several eras as well, but I never thought to use performance as way to let more of myself out. Any time I had to be on stage for something it was the opposite - I was 10X more anxious about how I’d appear to the crowd. I was terrified of doing something embarrassing. It takes incredible courage to flip that and think about it this way as something ephemeral, like we have with Snapchat today.
Also, for context - remember what I said a letter or so ago about sci-fi and living long enough to see the world change several times over:
The evident joy of pumpkin boat guy.
The PARTY RACE everyone warns their children about. This thing and this worthwhile thread that I’m dropping you in the middle of kind of speaks for itself. It’s a set of observations about how humans must look as a species to other beings in other worlds, and what our relationships with an imagined space congress would look like. It so smartly encapsulates how the same traits that are incredibly endearing in us are also kind of sinister when you take a giant step back.
Bonus bananas: One of the most innovative coin makers around made a coin with a mechanical heart. A table of how little musicians can make from streaming. A video game composer who enjoys making songs for video games that don’t exist.
Those are the bananas I have for you this week. You can hit reply and it’ll go only to me. You can also inquire about joining our Slack team, if you wish. Thank you.