Brain Rain & Mental Precipitation Of The Week

The Matchbook | 4.18.25

I love the gentleness of this photo for some reason

Another Friday folks, and I’m here to be a weatherman and tell you the only thing on today’s forecast here on Signal Fire:

BRAIN RAIN.

That’s right, more mental precipitation from my bizarre mind. These are the things that I have thought about, pondered, been elated for, curious towards, or whatever else. These are the little bits of things that occupied some of my mental spaces, and now they’ll occupy some of yours too. Cool, right?

Once again, this little Matchbook post is going out to all of you, free, because of the extremely generous paid subscribers who are helping keep this place alive, this fire lit, and occasional bonus posts like these filtering out to all of us. If this work I do here resonates with you, consider upgrading your subscription and offering up your pledge to keep it running. It’s the best way to say thank you and ensure Signal Fire sticks around for a long time to come.

Anyhow, I just saw some mind lightning, just heard some thought thunder, and that means it’s time to bring on the brain rain. Here goes:

1. Playing with light in Santa Fe - We took a little trip down to Santa Fe a few weeks back, and it afforded me the opportunity to play with light with the ol’ Fuji camera. We named our wedding & elopement photography company Chasers of the Light because of this, because it’s what we love doing, and dammit we’re good at it. Here’s a little sample gallery of a few I liked. Click one and it’ll make em big.

   

   

   

   © Chasers of the Light

2. Black Mirror - A new season of what I consider to be one of the best Netflix shows ever made, hell one of the best series made Period, is officially out. We just finished the final episode, but I will say, two different episodes really, really stuck out and slapped me in my face. Hotel Reverie, and the unbelievable Eulogy. The latter was so intensely beautiful, a haunting exploration of grief, of regret, and of why we really do need to take the risks, say the words, embrace the loves, that we’re given a chance to. Hotel Reverie, also breaks your heart and Emma Corrin is astonishingly accurate as an old-fashioned movie star who is so much more than she seems. Both were amazing, both asked hard questions, and both made me cry.

   

3. Crows Know Math + Geometry - I’ve long, long spoken about my love and affection for crows, as ravens and crows are my favorite birds of all time. They are fascinating, beyond brilliant, and beautiful to me. New research, however, is proving that just how smart they are, we are still learning. Now, we know they understand geometry. I am running out of ways to say “SEE, I TOLD YOU SO!” about how cool the entire corvid family is.

   

   According to the article:

   Crows are able to look at a handful of four-sided shapes and correctly distinguish those that exhibit geometric regularity from those that don't…It's the first time a species other than humans has been shown to have this kind of geometric intuition.

4. Finally, A New Computer - After 6 LONG years of using an antiquated Mac to do all of my wedding photography, family photography, and senior photography editing of massive RAW files from my Canon camera for work, I finally had to bite the bullet and buy a new one. I did this partially because I was afraid that the tariff’s would skyrocket the prices, and partially because I tried to calculate the number of hours I have wasted over the years sitting and waiting for certain processes to finish processing, and the answer was heartbreaking and eye-opening. I absolutely cannot afford this, but the time it will save me editing our photoshoots is worth much more than a little stress financially. Ok, a lottle, but whatever, as my Dad always says: “I never saw a hearse pulling a uHaul” hahaha. Saying that, if any of you wanna book us for wedding photography, bespoke elopements ANYWHERE in the world, or upgrade your subscriptions now, it’d realllllllllly help me keep this place alive haha. NO pressure.

   

   This tiny little spec cost way, way, way too much.

5. Cincinatti or Bust - When you’re reading this (assuming our flights on Thursday went well) we will be waking up in Cincinnati, Ohio for a wedding! We’re planning on going to the American Sign Museum, because, well just look at the photo below and explain to me how you can not go to something that rad, and then just wander today. If you have any brilliant ideas about what to do, OR you wanna meet us somewhere and happen to be in Cincinnati, send me an email or DM either me or Lady G on Instagram immediately and we’ll see what’s what.

   

That’s all the rain for now kiddos, as I’ve gotta finish packing up and getting ready for our flight. Once again, Thanks for being here, thanks for joining this community, thanks for subscribing and for those that help make this newsletter free for everyone else by upgrading, to you specifically:

THANK YOU. I LOVE YOU A LOTTLE.

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