Welcome!

There's 54 of us now! That's a massive New Year's Eve house party. I'm excited to enter 2022 with y'all :)

Next time there's this many of the same digit in a year it'll be 2111. Reflecting on where you'll be in 2111 is a good way to prioritize what's worth pursuing in 2022.

Thanks for being an early subscriber to my digital postcard. I prefer the description postcard (rather than newsletter) cuz it feels more casual, personal and specific to a moment in time. Each week I share updates, anecdotes and links to things I enjoyed recently.

TIP: First-time recipient? A reply will help prevent these emails being marked spam. Don't feel obligated to say something kind or clever. In fact, I encourage the opposite. Make your reply as conveniently incoherent as possible. A quick: "sDGHsdasd" is splendid :)

2022 - Rapid Tests & Empanadas

Speaking of New Year's Eve, here's a glimpse of mine. I noticed the shapes had a pattern similarity in these two photos:

Empanadas go back in history as far as Catalan, 1520.

We've only had rapid antigen tests a couple years.

Hopefully the coming years bring us a lot more delicious pastry, and a lot less pandemic life.

Ephemeral Creativity

Some creativity is defined by its temporary nature.

When I queue up songs as my girlfriend and I clean the kitchen, it's not saved as a playlist that exists in the future. The dish-wash DJ set is for that moment only.

The same is true when we plate food in a fun/beautiful way.

Or in my father's case, wrap a present. This airplane was my favourite wrapping performance of 2021.

West Side Story

Tuesday my family and I saw the Steven Spielberg remake of West Side Story.

I loved it. I hadn't seen the original beforehand, so the whole thing was new to me. I'd heard parts from a few of the iconic songs before (Maria, America, I Feel Pretty) but didn't know this musical was the source.

There's a real art to reviving the original narrative pulse of a cliche. The grand heart sweep of love is something that's often declared by movie characters, but seldom shown in a way we really feel and believe it. Spielberg does this phenomenally in West Side Story.

This was the second (and the last), movie I saw in a theatre in 2021. It was also my favourite.

Fun fact: We watched the first 56min of the original 1961 movie right before I started writing this week's postcard. So far I prefer the tension and realism of the new version. But I'm enjoying the explosive colour + playful surrealism of the original.

Verbal Creativity

This morning I stumbled on a fun little quiz. It takes only a few minutes and is easy to do on a phone. My score was 85.64, a bit above the average of 78.

I won't describe it any further, cuz they "recommend you take the test before you learn more about it". I know... this sounds like the setup for a sci-fi saga where you're sucked into a video game, and the only escape from the game world is to win.

I'm curious how you'll approach it. If you give it a go, screen-cap + send me your answers. I'll send mine back :)

Play the "Verbal Creativity Test"

I Can Feel It

My friend Riley sent me this mashup a few weeks ago and it's danced around in my brain since. Phil Collins and Michael Jackson, what a collab. 🙃

I Can Feel It Sickick

Mashups are often lazy/obvious: "Here's 2+ songs with the same chords, overlaid + intercut..". I love how this mix creates a hook from two disparate songs in a way that feels effortlessly cohesive.

That's all till next week!

Last week's newsletter got me my first unsubscribe! I was thrilled. Not as good as a hater, but still a good sign I've got a POV/pace not everyone wants in their inbox.

It reminded me how stoked my friend Zak and I were at the end of high school when someone we didn't know left a comment on our radio station commercial contest entry, criticizing a subtle production design detail:

Thanks for reading,

Tommy

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PS. Replies Encouraged :)

• If you have 27 seconds to jot an impression of this postcard, please do!
• I know each of your lives bustle with activity. If it helps, think of the reply as a text (rather than an email).
• A quick jotted: “lol, that intro got existential fast... 😂” or "I scored 156, so apparently I'm a genius" is valuable signal of where to re-invest :)