Jordan Swartz-The Rad Times #10

I can’t contend to know anything about baseball other than the fact that it’s a good Summer hang, but recently I learned about a change some teams had been employing and it got me thinking where it could apply to other parts of life. It’s fairly common knowledge that you can overrun first base and still be safe, by running through the base you’re able to get there fractions of a second sooner, but sometimes that’s all you need. Some players have started doing this with second base when there’s a runner on third and two outs, by running through the base you’re getting there faster than sliding and you’re not allowing the forced out, with that it keeps the play going and allows the runner on third to make it to home. There’s a good chance you’ll still get the out but you got another run, and sometimes 1 point is all that matters.
This is amazing to me, a game that is over 175 years old and they’re still finding new ways to play, and new ways to approach different scenarios. I’ve been thinking endlessly about how to apply this in my own life. Where can I force a positive outcome from a situation that is pretty much assured to not go my way or be in my favor?

A few quick updates
- Candles are done and available now in my store, along with new prints added weekly.
- I’ve made a monthly playlist for a few years now & decided to turn it into a basement grade radio show, I still have some stuff to figure out but it’s cool to hear music in a different way. Listen to the first episode of Rad Times Radio now!

Thanks for hanging!
Be good to each other.

Working as a graphic designer in Hong Kong, Wing Shya found himself through chance as the on set photographer for Happy Together and In the Mood for Love, photos that feature prominently in his new monograph Solace. As a big fan of Wong Kar-wai (stop reading this and go watch Chungking Express) I’m excited to see this released and the sample photos have fully delivered. Shya’s photos are lush, saturated, and sentimental much like the movies themselves. He seems to capture the moments just before or after the director yells action or cut, extending the characters narratives into a more humanistic realm. Shya has gone on to have a successful photography career with some of those photos included in Solace, and has even started moving into his own video and film work.

The term “don’t judge a book by its cover” seems to have first appeared in print somewhere in the mid 19th century but in relation to the clothing a person wears, which makes sense because we all know it’s categorically false when it comes to printed matter. Book covers matter and have long been of interest to me. Similar to album art, I often find myself most interested and moved by covers/ art that doesn’t necessarily spell out the contents within but more so builds on the foundation already established. The Book Cover Archive is a treasure trove of cover variations and editions. I found it interesting while scanning their archive that I am often drawn to the same designers work even if the covers are stylistically different. Some good ones to check out are Matt Dorfman, Paul Sahre, Kelly Blair, Paul Buckley, and John Fullbrook III.

Another good website is The Casual Optimist which has a running list of the best book covers every month.

A piece of my youth that helped ring in the holiday season was the PA lottery commercial, and this year was the same but in a wild fever dream. As I watched the commercial it felt so similar and known but also to clean and digital. Through some internet digging I discovered they recreated the classic 1992 commercial almost shot for shot. This is how you do nostalgia.

The loose inspiration for the 2008 movie The Bank Job, The Baker Street bank heist is one of the more notorious in British history. In 1971 a crew rented a shop two doors down from the bank and tunneled 40 ft underground into the vault. A combination of nearby construction, mixed radio signals, holiday hours, and bad alarms led to a large take away, most of which has never been recovered. While four members were caught and sentenced, others from the crew were never found. The details of this are fascinating and the movie is worth the watch.

Words have always mattered to me, I have to get behind the lyrics in order to like a band and poetry has always been the same. The stuff I enjoy, I love, but it’s a small class. I recently came across Tony Hoagland’s Reasons to Survive November and it floored me. It gives me such a sense of place and character every time I read it.

Reasons to Survive November
November like a train wreck—
as if a locomotive made of cold
had hurtled out of Canada
and crashed into a million trees,
flaming the leaves, setting the woods on fire.

The sky is a thick, cold gauze—
but there's a soup special at the Waffle House downtown,
and the Jack Parsons show is up at the museum,
full of luminous red barns.

—Or maybe I'll visit beautiful Donna,
the kickboxing queen from Santa Fe,
and roll around in her foldout bed.

I know there are some people out there
who think I am supposed to end up
in a room by myself

with a gun and a bottle full of hate,
a locked door and my slack mouth open
like a disconnected phone.

But I hate those people back
from the core of my donkey soul
and the hatred makes me strong
and my survival is their failure,

and my happiness would kill them
so I shove joy like a knife
into my own heart over and over

and I force myself toward pleasure,
and I love this November life
where I run like a train
deeper and deeper
into the land of my enemies.

Candles are here and in my store now! Featuring Devil’s Kiss, a mix of bergamot, amber, and tobacco and Heaven Scent which is sea salt, fresh grass, and lemon. Available individually or in a pair. Grab some now!

As well new prints are being added to my store weekly as they are available.

Some recent work for The Ozarker Lodge has hit shelves. If you find yourself near Branson Missouri this winter, pick some up.