🌭 3 Years of Hot Diggity Dog! – 10 Things Worth Sharing
Newsletter #017
This blog was adapted from my monthly newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.
Honestly, if you told me back in 2023 that Hot Dog would last 3 years, I would be pretty damn proud of myself.
This month marks 3 years since I went out on my own to start the studio! I wrote a blog about some things I’ve learned and what I’m still learning.
-This month also marks 15 years since Kate and I got married. We were sweet little 22-year old babies and that feels like a lifetime ago, but I’m proud of everything we’ve done together.
I enjoyed reading this collection of Thoughts on Marriage: "Most people are going to have two or three marriages or committed relationships in their adult life. Some of us will have them with the same person."
-If you thought I liked Hot Dogs, check out this lady. “I’m in HEAVENNN…”
-I didn’t realize Noah Kahan was such a goofball but I love him. If you like Noah, you’ll enjoy this Rolling Stone interview of him fishing on the farm and talking really fast for 40 minutes about weed and Paul Simon.
-“I guess old white guys are only afraid of colon cancer and societal change.” I don’t know why it’s taken so long, but we finally started watching Only Murders in the Building last month. What a great show! Currently on season three (Hello, Meryl!), no spoilies please!!!
-Did you know that air conditioners do not cool the air, they just remove heat and humidity? I learned this from Joey the repair man. In physics, “cold” cannot be created, it is simply the absence of heat. This broke my brain because I always thought it was like a reverse oven – cook the air cold – but its more like a heat sifter.
-Hot Take: Airbnb hosts should be forced to stay at their rental for at least one week before they’re allowed to collect a dime. I can’t tell you how many times I have stayed in a “luxury” home that doesn’t have a goshdang pizza cutter. And how do you expect me to survive vacation with my family if your house doesn’t have a corkscrew? I’m back on the hotel train: no cleaning fees, there is always coffee in the pantry, there are no hostile neighbors, and the Comfort Inn will never beg you for a 5-star review.
-I loved Ann Lamott’s Bird by Bird, a book about writing and life: “My priest friend Tom said, ‘you can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.’”
-Also Ann Lamott: “Every writer you know writes really terrible first drafts, but they keep their butt in the chair. That’s the secret of life.” Turns out, I am a big ol’ Ann Fan. I dug up this TED Talk from 9 years ago titled, 12 truths I learned from life and writing.
-“Chefs welcome up-and-coming chefs into their kitchens and share their best suppliers, because a supplier without customers doesn’t stick around for long.” - Seth Godin on generous competition
-Friend-of-the-Dog Ella requested that we bring back “Molly’s 11th thing.” So here ya go – from Molly:
My album recs this month are Tiffany Day's album Halo and Suki Waterhouse's Loveland. The transition from track one into track two on Halo is a masterpiece, and the hyperpop sound of the album is chaotic yet rhythmic and excellent for dancing! Many songs on Loveland feel straight out of the 70s, with a cool psych-rock sound. I highly recommend!
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Cheers,
Justin
NEW Brand Work: Drafting the Past
This summer we helped Drafting the Past overhaul their brand identity. DTP is a podcast and community dedicated to “history worth reading.” We pulled inspiration from vintage book covers, periodicals, and the rich history of publishers with adorable animal logos.