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Verge Favorites: Dylan Lathrop

Verge Favorites: Dylan Lathrop

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The Verge's staffers aren't just people who love technology. They're people who love stuff. We spend as much time talking and thinking about our favorite books, music, and movies as we do debating the best smartphone to buy or what point-and-shoot has the tightest macro. We thought it would make sense to share our latest obsessions with Verge readers, and we hope you're encouraged to share your favorites with us. Thus a long, healthy debate will ensue where we all end up with new things to read, listen to, or try on. Today, designer and 2005 National High School Drama Best Supporting Actor Dylan Lathrop shares his picks.

Vintage Sears hunting jacket

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Just seconds after purchasing this jacket — which quickly became my favorite jacket — for a song at the Rose Bowl flea market, I caught the glance of a guy wearing a Bape jacket with the same cut and pattern, and we both knew I was wearing it better. As much as I love this jacket, I might love that memory more.

Bill Cosby’s 'To Russell, My Brother Whom I Slept With'

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I own this on vinyl, because I’m one of those guys, but the crackle and hiss enforces the of-a-bygone-era-but-still-sorta-timeless quality to Cosby’s classic comedy album. Side 2 features the titular bit, wherein Cosby recreates a particularly hilarious late-night battle between him and his brother, with the threat of an unseen belt wielded by their father constantly causing them both great fear. It may seem quaint by today’s comedic standards, perhaps even prudish, but maybe it evens out with the barrage of nut shot videos I watch on YouTube daily. If I know anything about humor (haha I know nothing about humor) it’s that you gotta have a range (again, no clue what I’m talking about here).

'Utopia or Oblivion' by R. Buckminster Fuller

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Mostly this book is a loop of some of Fuller’s later-in-life greatest hits, but that’s probably what makes me enjoy it so much. These read simply as the notes of a mind constantly combining and reconfiguring knowns with unknowns into prescient, interesting thoughts about how we can better ourselves and "Spaceship Earth." It’s not as immediately impactful the same way I Seem to be a Verb is, but if you want to read and then reread and then rereread the same complex paragraphs over and over to try and appear smarter with all your futurist friends, this is the book for you.

Marvy calligraphy markers

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Over the past year I’ve been really trying to figure out my own approach to hand lettering, starting with what originally sparked my interest in it, which dates back to a childhood watching my mother deftly move her hand in these crisp little movements, combining these little strokes into beautiful characters, and then words, with her pen. That’s one long run-on sentence that gets me to these markers, which aid me in finding my own little movements, creating my own characters and words. Big ups to these markers, big ups to moms.

iPhone 4s

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I was trying to think of a gadget that should go on this list. Some quiet, minimalist, amazing little tool I use all the time that surely would impress my co-workers, this audience, the elderly, and small children all at the same time. And then I got lost futzing with my phone. I’ve found myself attracted to getting the middle-children iPhones, the ones with an "s" attached to the number, because for some reason I’ve equated it to giving a new restaurant a shot months after opening so that they feel more confident in the food. The 4s feels, to this day, great to me. The size and quality of it are still appreciated every time I Instagram a dumb drawing, or text my far flung friends.

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