A weekly selection of what I was reading, drawing, writing, and doing.

I was offline much of last week on “holiday” visiting a city we haven’t been too (Newcastle) and spending time chilling out in a hotel pool. Both activities were better than expected. Newcastle is a cool city and who doesn’t like swimming pools?

I’ve been working on getting a coach this month and I learned about four questions you can ask a professional coach to determine whether they are a good fit you.

I visited Hadrian’s Wall last week as part of a trip to Newcastle upon Tyne and I learned that it felt good to feel small standing next to something nearly two thousand years old.

Two UK beer “learnings” this week: the first is for DEYA brewing and their awesome range of beers and cool illustrations. Really enjoyed their Heavy Rotations West Coast IPA (you can order from their web shop!). The second note is for By The River Brew Co in Newcastle and their super pale ale sampled at a super location right on the river Tyne.

Did you know that the US Library of Congress officially archives audio recordings that qualify as “the sounds of history” and this includes milestone music? Me neither. This year they are archiving Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the 36 Chambers. I support that.

This was strangely interesting: A day in the life of (almost) every vending machine in the world. Some people just own a single machine.

I’m watching this mini-documentary on Rick Rubin in spurts and it’s great. He’s worked on seemingly a million albums and artists and I admire his approach.

Yeezus was the most critically acclaimed album of 2013, appearing on sixty-one Metacritic top-ten lists and named #1 on eighteen of them. Critics commended its brash direction. When asked about their collaboration, Kanye said, “Well, I didn’t reduce it. Rick Rubin reduced it. He’s a reducer, not a producer.”

I’ve discovered Denzel Curry and have been listening to him a lot recently and this interview with him was great. Here is a quick part about him meeting Andre 3000 from Outkast:

So when I met him, you know, I knew this was probably going to be one of the only times I was going to meet this guy ever in my life. And thanks to my manager, like, I was able to meet him when he was doing his museum. This is when Outkast had that comeback, and they were doing shows and all that stuff and, like, Coachella and everything. And everybody was, like, around him, wanting to take pictures and stuff like that. Of course I wanted a picture, but I was like, damn, I need to ask him three things because this could probably be my only time I’ll ever talk to this man.

So I talked to him, and I was just like, yo. Why you kept changing every album? Why you kept doing different sounds? And, like, what kept you going? He was just like – bro, he gave me the simplest answer. Like, I don’t get bored. I just try not to get bored. Long as you don’t get bored, you can do whatever you want to do, long as you don’t get bored and it’s true to you.

Finally, just for fun, here is how to make a Minecraft iron golem Lego plate (yes, that’s a thing!?).

Don’t get bored. See you next week!

Last but not least, check out what I’m up to now.