Wednesday Walk: Where We Live
Welcome to the Quarantine Creatives newsletter, a companion to my podcast of the same name, which explores creativity, art, and big ideas as we continue to live through this pandemic.
Every Wednesday, I share random thoughts and tidbits with links to let you do some exploring. I call these Wednesday Walks, as it’s the type of conversation we might have walking down a path in the woods- the topics are free flowing, sometimes related, sometimes not.
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Happy Wednesday! I hope your week is off to a good start. Today’s Wednesday Walk is a bit of a grab bag, with lots of little random tidbits. I hope you find something to inspire you and make you think.
98 Degrees
I wanted to start off with an interesting YouTube video that I happened to stumble upon from the channel Real Life Lore. Take a look:
The video looks at the area around the 98th longitude meridian and how it invisibly divides our country. Supposedly, 80% of the US population lives east of this line.
The line sits just to the west of several cities including San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Omaha, Sioux Falls, and Fargo. When you head west from those cities, people are spread out much further and settlements are few and far between.
The video shows that the 98th meridian seems to hold remarkably consistent as a dividing line on other maps, including distribution of McDonald’s locations, linguistic changes, and diversity of tree species. This phenomenon was observed more than 150 years ago by John Westley Powell.
There are geological and climate reasons for this divide, and with climate change, the line may be moving further to the east.
If you’re interested in taking a deep dive into maps, geology, and the natural differences within the U.S., spend a few minutes with this video.
Frozen
I started following Daniel Lupien on Twitter a while back. He’s a Montreal-based VFX supervisor and prop maker. I was really intrigued by this little teaser that he posted on his Twitter:
Daniel has taken his shop door and built a replica of Han Solo frozen in carbonite from The Empire Strikes Back. I haven’t had a chance to watch the full build video yet, but the entire project is on his YouTube channel.
I’m always intrigued by the process of prop building and disguising one thing as something else with some creative texturing and painting. I also really love the idea that art can exist in more places than just in the blank space on your walls. Why not turn a door into a piece of artwork, right?
When I visited the Lucasfilm offices in San Francisco with some coworkers a few years back, we all loved taking photos with the replica of this prop that they have on display. To my eye at least, Daniel has done a great job recreating it. Give Daniel a follow on Twitter too- he does some cool work!
Smart COVID Advice
Finally this week, I’ve been a bit frustrated that COVID precautions seem to have completely disappeared, yet so many people around me are getting infected. I was back in the office last week and was one of the few people in a mask. I later learned that a coworker who was sitting next to me in a meeting tested positive a few days later. I may have been embarrassed or felt out of place masking in the moment, but in hindsight, I was very happy that I kept it on.
I recognize that COVID fatigue is real and that many people are simply willing to take on some risk for the sake of returning to some semblance of normal.
I really appreciated Tara Parker-Pope’s recent article for The Washington Post (which was part of the Well+Being newsletter) that takes a more nuanced approach to COVID prevention. If you’re still COVID-cautious like me, it’s worth a read.
A few of the key takeaways:
Masking when the risk is higher, like in a crowded meeting, at the grocery store, or on public transit is still a good idea, but you may not need to wear one all day at work.
Mask when traveling on an airplane. If not for the full flight, at least when boarding and deplaning (though full flight is not a bad idea).
Stay home when you’re sick. This seems obvious, but the notion of “pushing through” an illness seems to be creeping back into our lives.
There are more great tips, but I appreciated that Tara is giving tips which focus on the highest risk situations, recognizing that some prevention is better than none at all.
Other Wednesday Walks
If you’d like to catch up on past episodes of the Quarantine Creatives podcast, they can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
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If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.
Stay Safe!
Heath
I live in Montréal . Did not know about that. It's interesting to find out if the 98 meridian applies to Canada.
Really good tidbits. The Han Solo in carbonite bit really brought a smile to my face on this gloomy day in Central Vermont. That bit about the 98th meridian is also something I'm thinking about learning more about, too. Also, I completely agree that COVID is still very much around, and we should be wary - I certainly am, with my already compromised lung capacity! Have a great day and rest of your week, Heath, and I look forward to more of your posts!