some thoughts from a + j

Good morning Overthink community! As Carly is out of office enjoying all there is to offer in the Canadian wilderness, this week’s Overthink will be a joint guest column by Juliana and Alex, everyone’s favorite high school couple of the (in)famous wedding last August.

Shoutout to Carly for the creative writing opportunity. 

Jule's Verse

So I don’t know why, but as soon as I learned about the Overthink coverage, I thought CLOUDS. So that’s it, we’re going with an analysis of clouds today folks. And no, it has nothing to do with Alex’s section. 

The question I pose to start is how many cloud types do you remember? Do you remember what age you were when you learned them? 

I have a vivid memory of learning about cloud types for the first time when I was about 7, sitting in the back of some old room, on an uncomfortable wooden bench, as my Dad dragged me along to his sea kayaking safety info course. While the majority of the evening went over my head as I tuned out listening to my favorite album on my MP3, Irish Pub Song Classics (featuring my favorite of the time, “Tom Burleigh's Dead” - which hilariously is by “Eddie from Ohio” in 2001 so I don’t know how it ended up on the Irish Pub Song Classics album library rip). 

Anyways, as soon as the class got to the cloud analysis, they had my attention. To this day, I still see tall clouds and feel like I have some secret piece of information about what that means (big storm). 

So let’s go over the basics, gratefully copy and pasted from the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. (Check out their website for all the cloud types). 

Below, guess the names of these clouds, and for extra credit, guess what they mean:

Answers:

1. Cirrus - A change is on its way!
2. Altocumulus - Fair
3. Cirrocumulus - Fair, but cold. However, if you live in a tropical region, these clouds could be a sign of an approaching hurricane!
4. Stratus - Fair, but gloomy
5. Cumulus - Fair
6. Cumulonimbus - Look out for rain, hail, and tornadoes!
7. Lenticular - None
8. Contrails - Big Brother is frying your brain! JK they’re from plane engines and indicate air moisture. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, good news! You are safe from internet brain disease. 

I hope you enjoyed today’s quiz. Personally, I only remembered a few of these names - one of course being the Cumulonimbus from kayaking class. However, in my head I always pronounce it as “cumulo [long word gibberish] us”. But hey, I know what it means for weather so that’s all that matters. In fact, I used this cumulonimbus recognition to get me, Alex, and bestie Matt Baynes off a VT lake during a storm. Unfortunately, the clouds came in even faster than expected, and we all ended up trying out Olympic canoeing as we paddled for our lives from the middle of a huge lake during a major thunderstorm. Given that we could have stayed out and camped out on the other side of the lake, who’s to say whether cloud knowledge will actually save your life. 

I was thinking I could tie this into all of my favorite ways clouds also show up in art, but given the length, I’ll have to let you consider this on your own. To me, I love that clouds are a persistent aspect across all time periods and cultures. There’s something comforting about being able to predict the weather just from looking up at the sky, and boy do they make sunsets better. 

As demonstration, here’s a photo from me and Alex’s trip to Mammoth Lakes last weekend when I was screaming about the perfect clouds:

Alex's Verse

Back in mid-July (almost a month ago I guess), I was in Southeast Asia for my biennial “clone a bunch of fixtures to local lighting gear and walk around and get a coffee” work trip. For reference - I did a nearly identical trip in 2024 for the Hikaru Utada tour in 2024 in Hong Kong and Taipei, 2 unbelievable cities.

This time around, I was there for the Southeast Asia leg of the rising Japanese group XG - whose tour we started back in January.

This was my first time in Thailand, and despite the crazy itinerary and work challenges which I will not bore you with, me and the crew had a wonderful day off exploring Bangkok with a guide, and I got a few extra days tacked onto the end to wander around in 400 percent humidity and find a coffee and some photo ops.

On our one day off, me and the jetlagged XG crew immediately hopped into a hired van and got taken around the city to see the sites - the grand palace, a longboat tour on the river, and then lunch at a lychee farm. I somehow did not eat shit getting on and off this boat and had a wonderful lychee americano with lunch (pictured). Anyone in the coffee scene right now should invest heavily in “espresso with a type of fruit juice” stocks - they’re going to go gangbusters. Watch this space. 

The longboats in Bangkok were one of the cooler little details - they don’t have traditional outboards and have instead strapped a long pole and propellor to the flywheel of what looks like an American big block V8 with a huge turbo and just rip the throttle, no transmission. I personally hope these engines are sourced from Chinese Instagram superstar Auto Parts Store Tina. 

After the show, and a brief whirlwind diversion to Manila - I was back in Bangkok for my few days off that I entered into absolutely exhausted. As I usually do, my main plan was to find a cool neighborhood and walk around and get a coffee - which I immediately achieved in Bangkok’s Chinatown and the surrounding environ. 

Besides some very cool art I was able to source there, and some good coffee, the main highlight of this area was the street scenes in Chinatown and the nearby Flower District. Chinatown was just wall to wall food vendors and smalls shops selling hyperspecific industrial machinery for block after block. The flower market was also unbelievable, it was again like 6 blocks of just massive shops selling tons of flowers for absurdly low prices - so low I got a little bouquet for my hotel room. 

I did a lot more wandering in the days following, but nothing topped that first day as far as overall look and feel. I did have a lovely day exploring the Chatuchak Weekend Market, the Jim Thompson house (white boy gets obsessed with Asia after being WW2 spy, many such cases) and a few other tourist spots. 

I have much more to say (all positive) about Bangkok and Thailand in general, but without writing another 4 paragraphs, here are some photo highlights for the readership. First block is phone, second block is 35mm Cinema film.

Bye!

Recs (Jule and Alex Version):

songs we're loving:

• Alex - Haunted by Phoebe Bridgers

• Alex - 1995 by DJ Mandy

• Juliana - whatever this is???

a movie we watched:

More than you can afford pal....Ferrari

Juliana and I (Alex) got last minute tickets to the 25th anniversary screening of “The Fast and the Furious” (2001) at Westwood Directors Village (formerly known as the Mann or the Fox.)

This movie gets a lot of (somewhat warranted) hate but it kind of holds up insanely well as a period piece? The cinematography and editing isn’t even campy, it’s straight up good. Truly felt like a “We’re Losing Recipes” moment for standard fare mid-budget filmmaking watching it. It’s also a blast to see in a packed theater.

a book i'm reading:

Alex - Reaganland by Rick Perlstein - Jimmy Carter was kinda the og Joe Biden, and I don't mean that as a compliment.

Juliana - Two opposite vibes because Omar’s book is incredibly well-written, but also immensely depressing.

1. All About Love by bell hooks
2. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Shoutout to Carly for gifting this one!)

Until Next Time!