Ratboys, who describe themselves as a “post-country” band, produced this sweet claymation video to accompany their sweet song, “Figure.” But as it turns out, sweetness is only the end product; the band’s frontwoman wrote this song for catharsis late one night, pouring all of her frustrated feelings onto the page, and then the band took all those sour thoughts and made lemonade. They breathed some playful life into the music, and then a friend of theirs animated the lyrics in this bizarro-literalist way. For example, the line, “Is it the point of a story / To draw a picture in flame?” sends two-dimensional flames shooting out of the main character’s book, and then on the next line about her heart, the flames turn into a heart at the end of a vine that carries her up into the air. It feels like you’re watching a dream. And if that’s your Friday headspace, jump on in.
“We’re so inspired by this wood’s unique beauty,” says furniture company Sapphire Pine in San Francisco. They’re talking about the salvaged pine that’s been afflicted by the mountain pine beetle. See, these beetles burrow into trees and infect them with fungus, which discolors them as they die. Healthy trees used to be able to withstand the bug thing, but then winters got warmer and stopped killing the beetles, so now trees that might make it in a regular climate are falling. So companies like this are collecting the wood and using it in furniture that gets to be called sustainable because it’s using dead trees instead of live ones. “If you love design and making a difference, we can’t wait to share it with you,” says the Sapphire site. But look, we already made a difference. We turned our wood blue.
**I initially learned about this on Popula, a wacky new media site that’s ad-free and Ethereum-based. Yeah. Check it out.
In a recent study, coyotes, elephants and tigers told us that they were sleeping more during the night to avoid crossing paths with irritating people. A coping mechanism that you might consider as well.
Found you a nice cutting board.
