04: Study Notes
Kids make good chairs, Ben Affleck is Smart™ and werewolves are agonizing.
This week’s bits ‘n’ bobs in life and culture, and a hot take.
Life
I volunteered at FABSCRAP, a non-profit that collects and redistributes textile scraps from fashion brands to keep fabric out of landfills. We sorted through pounds of discarded fabric to turn it into reuse or recycling. I don't know much about fashion, so I figured this would be a good entry point. I ended up learning about sustainability in the process, something I admittedly can't speak as clearly about as I'd like.
My favorite takeaway was learning about shoddy, which, per FABSCRAP, is “a mixed fiber product used for insulation, carpet padding, furniture lining…” If that word sounds familiar, it's because to non-fashion folk, it means poorly made. Chat, I'm here to tell you they're the same thing. The insult comes from the product.
From “Shoddy and the Art and Science of Recycling,” shoddy is a 19th-century recycled fabric made from ground-up wool rags and textile scraps. Old clothes and fabric waste were shredded by a machine then re-spun into new material used for things like suit jackets, army blankets, carpet pads, and mattresses. Wool manufacturers, threatened by the cheaper alternative, did what anyone in this situation would do and launched a smear campaign. Said campaign associated shoddy with poorly made, and here we are today.
I wonder how we can apply the same tactic to Wahlburgers!
Culture
Are we watching A Knight of Seven Kingdoms, the newest GoT spinoff? Or has the Westeros chapter closed due to the abysmal GoT finale and and even more disappointing House of Dragons?
Ben Affleck is back in the limelight for The Rip's press run and I remain fascinated by the internet's shock when they hear him speak. Either the bar for actors/directors/singers/songwriters is so low that anyone with a quip about current events is a genius, or we don't value people who entertain us, or we don't recognize that you too can sound smart for the low cost of reading a book
In “Saturn Devouring His Son” news: An MFA student created a series exploring AI psychosis. An undergrad, in protest of AI-generated art, ate 57 oft the MFAs student’s 160 images. The undergraduate was arrested, but I can’t shake the life imitates art of it all
Dunesday is the new Barbieheimer. Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18, 2026. Whatever they need to do to create evergreen hype for a movie that is almost a year away
Designer Taekhan Yun turned Cambodian schoolchildren's sketches into real chairs. From the kid-sized measurements, to the clay prototypes, I would like to spend every dollar I’ve ever earned on these chairs. If you do nothing else today, scroll through Yun’s Instagram to see the full process
Image from Taekhan Yun
Hot take
Werewolf transformations will never look good.
We watched Wolf Man yesterday and I truly enjoyed it.
By your strong deduction, you can probably tell this involves a human turning into a wolf. Unlike other classics, this transformation is quick as the core of the movie takes place during a single night.
Despite this movie being made in 2025 with all the bells and whistles of innovative filmmaking, on-screen werewolf transformations are beyond salvation.
I think it boils down to the hair because the hair is unsettling. It comes out of nowhere, not even as a casual patch, but full-on yaki on their arms, legs, and upper back. Zac Efron to Chewbacca in a New York minute.
Or maybe it’s the teeth. The snarl. The hissing.
Or, most likely: the awkwardness is the point, baked into werewolf lore. Where a witch is eccentric and whimsy and a vampire is poised and seductive, a werewolf is...a mess. Stuck swaying between two species at the whim of the moon.
