Boffo, Sim Games, and Vintage CD Players

Oh hey y'all 👋 A week late because... well, starting to rebuild a home amid recovery from a natural disaster is really, really time-consuming. Who woulda thunk?! This project is likely to be the single most important project of my life. And I'm going whole hog. No other choice really. As a wiseman once said: Sometimes, the only way to survive a shitstorm is to put on a raincoat.

Without further ado, here are some things to read, watch, play, and think about.

• I finally launched Boffo 🍿 a lil' homegrown box office tracker. I know it's silly to obsess over box office numbers. And it's no secret that box office success has only a loose correlation to the quality of any film (and a lot of great films go unseen and make little to no money in theaters). But amid the recent turbulence of our industry, and the glimmers of hope that have emerged so far this year, I found myself trying to keep up with the battles and ol' gamesmanship of the box office. Maybe it's the vestigial Chicago sports fan in me? But yeah, I just wanted a better tool/UI for tracking releases and keeping tabs on the box office. And of course, the trailers. That's probably the most useful part of the site: the release calendar allows you to quickly watch any trailer without leaving the page. The site is ad-free and is yet another labor of love. Enjoy!
• If you want more from artist Robert Tinney (see above), look no further than the online archive of vintage Byte Magazines: "Byte nicely captures the history of the entire personal computer industry from the early days (Sept 1975) through July 1998... and all issues have been lovingly restored by Steve M. to look as good as is possible from a magazine scan." Thanks Steve M., whoever you are.
• I had multiple people send me Lego Skylines, and a team-member who said "This is the most Tim-coded thing ever." Not wrong! Though truth is, my sim-loving brain has been more intrigued by OpenTTD and OpenRCT2 as of late, both open-source versions of Chris Sawyer classics. And while Atari is trying to correct course and bring back fans with Roller Coaster Tycoon Wonderworks, if you're feeling the itch, I'd recommend just going with Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic on the iPad for $6, which is basically an idealized version of the original games in all their isometric glory. Or Planet Coaster. Also waiting for Economicon.
• Looks like I'm not the only one doing home-grown-coding-for-good in Altadena: Altadata is a data map that shows rebuilding progress at a glance, including how many homes have sold, and to whom, and on what grounds (i.e., so-called density projects). There's been a lot of righteous calls of "Altadena is not for sale!" and one look at this maps shows... that it really isn't! 60% of homes have started construction (and soon, so will ours!) and only about 7% of destroyed lots have sold; 3% to corporations/developers. I dunno, I find this map rather comforting. One reason being: the entire historic tract of Gregory Ain's Parked Planned Homes is being rebuilt – with plans based on the originals, no less 💕
• Metrolog ruler by Craighill. Yeah, I'm the exact target for this company's intense Instagram-ad game. I'll admit I feel a bit icky about their tactics, but goddamn am I a sucker for expensive/well-built office supplies.
• "‘It brings me joy’: how young people are making CDs cool again" Yes, a recent report found that the growth of CD sales is up 16%, compared with vinyl’s 2.4%. As some of you know, I had a massive vinyl collection, curated over 10+ years, before it melted in last year's fire. And while it was quite a hit to my music-loving soul, I'm finding myself rebuilding a collection with CDs, the format near and dear to my 90s-kid soul. There's a whole trend around this, with some referring to it as "performed audiophilia" (or loud depth, or "depthfluencing") but I am very onboard with people being more intentional about their media consumption, no matter what form it takes, and even if it's performative. Coupled with younger generations' embrace of movie theaters, I'd say there's something afoot here. And at least some of the kids are alright.
• Related: Retrospekt has a massive collection of vintage CD players for sale. Personally, I find myself lusting after the Sony D-191. Pair with the Koss KPH14 for the full experience (because the OG yellow MDR-W14s are damn hard to find!)
• "Tex Jernigan is a creator and digital strategist" and I very much appreciate the little tools he's made available on his personal site, like the VHS slipcover generator (which also includes a CD label generator, among other neat things).
• If you're looking for a simple, collaborative online whiteboard (without getting locked into Figma's closed and bloated ecosystem) look no further than tldraw. There's also Excalidraw, an open-source alternative.
• "In middle school, I begged Mama & Papa Spyplane to buy me a secondhand VHS camcorder for my birthday so I could make movies with my buddies. We wrote and improvised them together, costumed them by rummaging through our parents’s closets, and — lacking any postproduction capacity whatsoever — edited them entirely in camera. Doing as much focused, fun, collaborative work like this as you can, you might make lasting connections (not that you regard them as “connections” at this pre-careerist, pre-transactional point in your life, when they’re just “the homies”). And you might build up a fledgling c.v. you can point to later when you hit up total strangers. Either way, you will begin to learn what it means to collaborate, how to argue for ideas you believe in, and how to not just accept it but embrace it when someone else comes up with an idea that’s better than yours." Blackbird Spyplane, in response to the reader question, "How do you get a cool job making a cool thing with cool people?" which sounds a helluva lot like my own life and career journey. And I cannot over-emphasize the importance of that last point!!!

Listen to this:

This track is my gateway drug to Jam City, A.K.A. British electronic producer and DJ Jack Louis Latham. Pitchfork referred to his 2023 album EFM as "an effervescent blend of rattling garage, glitzy disco, and thumping house that invokes the idea of nightlife as an endless fantasy." Say no more.

Related: Logic1000 - Jersey (feat. Jam City)

Also: I stumbled upon YPC2000 – an in-browser MPC-like sampler that allows you to remix any YouTube video. While fun, it actually just ended up reminding me of the pure, unadulterated beauty of its default track, Imogen Heap's 2005 "Hide and Seek". This track has a habit of burrowing itself into my soul.

One more thing:

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That's all folks ✌️ peace, love, and hugs to you all.

Thank you for reading anyway by Tim Strube, a creative director and agency founder curious about all things AV, media, and tech.