Welcome to this week's edition of our Friday Quality Linkage column. Please enjoy this week’s collection of interesting and entertaining links. Brew a fresh cup of coffee, find a comfortable place, and relax.
Hayao Miyazaki on His Life's Work »
While watching the documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, Chase Reeves was struck by a scene of Hayao Miyazaki expressing a sort of heartbroken indifference about Studio Ghibli, the company he'd spent his life building.
You’re going to lose in the end and you won’t be able to take anything with you. You could build the best g----- company and bring more magic to people than any of your contemporaries… and you’ll still stand somewhere at the end recognizing that whether it persists or falls apart won’t be up to you. And then the wind will brush your hair and face and you’ll get distracted by something beautiful regardless.
This being so, what kind of adventure do you want to have?
Photos: Brittany Wright
Food Gradients »
Photographer Brittany Wright arranges food by color. Buzzfeed and Yahoo! Food offer some backstory on why she does this, but honestly I just want to stare at the pictures all day.
Follow her on Instagram for more.
Terroir »
Seth Godin:
Heinz ketchup has no terroir. It always tastes like everywhere and nowhere and the same. A Dijon mustard from a small producer in France, though, you can taste where it came from. Foodies seek out this distinction in handcrafted chocolate or wine or just about anything where the land and environment are thought to matter.
But we can extend the idea to you, to your work, to the thing you're building.
Interesting idea.
Photos: Adam Kuban
The King of the Pizza Nerds Is Opening His Own Restaurant »
Widely-respected pizza blogger (my new favorite job title) Adam Kuban is making his own pies now to great acclaim. Bloomberg Business has the story:
Now, here are the particulars of Kuban’s pies: They are perfectly round and saturated with color like a particularly sweet memory, or a cartoon. Their structure, in profile, is lifting slightly away from the pan as if encouraging you to go ahead, pick us up. They are thin and crisp, but pliable enough to fold a little when hot. You’ll notice some extra weight along the perimeter where Kuban, who builds each pizza himself, has tapped the dough into the edge of the pan with his fingertips, then sprinkled over some extra cheese. This fuses in the hot oven, developing into a deep golden lace of caramelized cheese and pizza crust that mimics the best bits on a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s totally delicious.
Oh my. I gotta try this place.
(Also, they totally should've titled the story King of the Pizza Nerds Finds His Kingdom. Missed opportunity.)
Son Lux – Change is Everything »
Incredible rotoscoped stop-motion music video, directed and animated by Nathan Johnson using 200 push pins and 500 feet of rubberized thread.
Watch the making-of here:
As our friend Jeff Sheldon said, they could've faked the whole thing with CG but chose to do it the real way. Impressive, and maybe a little crazy.
Fat and Lazy »
Casey Neistat's daily vlog often has a way of making me feel I'm not being nearly proactive enough. His recent video, Fat and Lazy, is one such example.
Transcript of 2:16–2:57:
Seneca said, “It's not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” And, that pretty much sums it up. Right now is go-time for me. I wanna maximize every waking second. I'm never gonna get any younger, but right now, I'm completely healthy, I'm full of energy, and who knows how long this will last? I doubt it's gonna be like that when I'm 50 or 60 years old, so I wanna do it now.
With that, I wanted to share a little bit of my thinking behind that — a little bit of the logic and the mechanics [of] maximizing every day.
Photo: Dan Provost
How to Make Clear Ice »
Our friends at Studio Neat detail the science and thinking behind their Neat Ice Kit, used to produce a cube of perfectly clear ice.
So, why even go through the trouble of making clear ice? If you are the type that enjoys making cocktails at home, the small amount of extra effort makes a huge difference. For one, it looks awesome. Cocktails are thoughtfully constructed, and, in our eyes, it’s fun to be a little bit fussy about them. For some people, it is extremely satisfying to put some care and attention into something. Think: trimming a bonsai tree. Or being fussy with your coffee. It ticks a box for a certain personality type. And you can’t argue with the result; a perfectly clear ice cube is a thing of beauty.
In short, many will think clear ice is not “worth it,” but we find both the process of making it, and the end result, rewarding.
Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.