What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms

I’ve had a pretty grim feeling about the United States lately and reading this book certainly does not make it better. I just finished What We’ve Become by Jonathan M. Metzl which frames the US gun debate and culture through the lens of the 2018 mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House.

Nearly every chapter of this book is just a heartbreaking peek into the ripple effects of guns in our lives; The lives lost, the families ruined, and the incredible inaction taking place at every government level to curb mass shootings in the United States.

The situation since this book was published has only seemed to get worse in my opinion. Just a truly sad look at the state of the country in contrast to the efforts of other power-nations curbing this threat of guns.

What happened to Six Flags New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

After 20 years, the Six Flags New Orleans location that has pretty much been abandoned since Hurricane Katrina is finally coming down. Earlier this year, crews began to dismantle and demolish what was left of the facility. Here’s a trip with VICE to the spot before it was torn down.

A mechanical keyboard with a word counter

Just came across the Freewrite Wordrunner, a mechanical keyboard with a built-in word counter that doesn’t stop counting even when the keyboard isn’t connected to a computer.

You can pre-order it here.

The Hundreds coffee table book

Somehow in 2020 I missed the announcement of this coffee table book from The Hundreds. I wonder what was going on then…

Anyway, the book chronicles the journey of one of streetwear’s most prominent brands from its founding in 2003 to about 2020. The brand is still around, but has recently closed their last physical store on Fairfax. I was very sad to see this store go as it was ground zero for a lot of my 20’s while I was living and traveling to Los Angeles.

The 2nd edition of this book is now out and available for $59. A nice little walk down memory lane for somebody like me, and a neat coffee table book for design nerds and streetwear aficionados.

The JVC RX-1001V

The displays on this device are just gorgeous!

Ciro DIT digiplate

Really intrigued by the number of new companies coming out with digiplates. Ciro is advertising heavily on social media (which can be a good or bad thing!) but their plate looks promising if it can stand up to the rigors of moving around on set. It has a ton of anti-twist connectors (great for arms and such) and its design might make it one of the lightest digiplates around.

I don’t need one, but I would love to see/test one!

The last Kodak DSLR

I have never used a Kodak DSLR, so this throwback “review” of this last DSLR that they produced is quite interesting. It’s mostly a Nikon body with Kodak’s CMOS sensor built-in.

Kick The Cheat plush toy

The Cheat from Homestarrunner can now be yours as a plush toy!