Tim Hecker — Ravedeath, 1972
This one slipped under my radar for years. He collaborated with Ben Frost, who I absolutely love, but who now does scores more than the contemplative, well constructed, grungy, drony things he once did. And if you find yourself loving it, you can find a good condition vinyl on Discogs for a reasonable price, which is more than I can say for some of Ben Frost's older work.
Artist in Residence Photographs (Joshua Charow)
Hundreds of artists in New York City have been living in industrial lofts and similar settings going back as far as the '60s as part of a loft law enacted by the city. The buildings used to be marked A.I.R. ("artist in residence") to let firefighters know that somebody lived there in case of a fire in what appeared to be an abandoned building. Joshua has been documenting these artists, their spaces, and their stories for several years, and shares more than two hundred of them in this book. I happened to get a first edition, but he's taking pre-orders for a second edition now.
Matic
Matic is the first robot vacuum and mop that actually just does what they say it does. No bumping into things, no sending data to the cloud, no dirty mop water to empty. Actually mops rather than just smearing dirt around. It avoids pet messes, toys, cords, and furniture. And you can point to something and say "Hey Matic, clean this." Oh, and it's actually made in Mountain View, California!
2024 iruai Psychic Terroir Red
Light, bright, high-acid, red wine with tons of character. Fruity, herbal tomato leaf, peppercorn. Iruai absolutely nailed this wine. I ordered two cases after discovering it at Flourish in Austin.
