Roundup

Weekly Roundup #007

Gavin Strange

18 Mar 2025 — 4 min read

Hola amigos! I'm writing this to you from the dark depths of Mexico City airport, as this week I've been in Mérida, Mexico for the inaugural Paradiso festival, created by the one & only Héctor Ayuso!

It's been a wonderful week of hanging out with old friends, making new ones, attending talks, eating good food and being very, very hot (it was 35+ degrees each day!!). I was honoured to be on the line-up with my good buddy James White aka Signalnoise - we did our 'Hustlemania' tag-team-talk but a little different this time, as the vibe at Paradiso was very different, much more intimate so we turned down the bombast a little bit (but still had confetti canons, of course!)

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Mérida itself is a beautiful city and I spent most of my time roaming the streets stopping to take a photo of the wonderful textures, typography and building facades.

Here's a big photo dump of some of my favourites, all shot on the Fuji X100V:

What's that? You want more Mexican textures and brickwork? 'HOKAY THEN!

This concludes my TED-talk on weathered paint in sun-bleached Mérida.

Gracias amigos!

Gav.

P.S Big thanks to ace tattooist Super Roger who I got inked by whilst at Paradiso festival!

WHAT AM I PLAYING?

Being away I haven't been playing anything apart from opening up TCG Pocket to get me new packs. I got lucky this time as I pulled my first 'crown rare' card... look how shiney it is!!

I got myself one of the dope ModRetro 'Chromatics' - retro gaming console that lets you play original GameBoy and GameBoy Color cartridges! (and who Signalnoise just happens to be the Art Director of!) and we're now locked in a family battle for the top of the leaderboard with Tetris! Turns out Jane has a strong competitive streak when it comes to Tetris!

WHAT AM I LISTENING TO?

I've re-discovered the excellent instrumental big beats of Clams Casino, who continues to be a big influence on my own Project Toy music. I love his use of overdrive and vocal samples mixed with big booming drums!

Clams Casino – Instrumental Relics
Clams Casino – Rainforest
Blink-182 – One More Time
Lorna Shore – ...And I Return To Nothingness
Bad Nerves – Bad Nerves

WHAT AM I WATCHING?

I took my Apple Vision Pro with me to Mexico so I could work remotely with a nice big virtual screen but also to help make the 12+ hour flight more enjoyable! I'm so glad I did because I watched Godzilla x Kong and Ready Player One in glorious 3D 4K from the (dis)comfort of my plane seat!

WHAT'S CAUGHT MY EYE?

Nick & Merlin hung out with Corridor Crew when they were out in the US for the Wallace & Gromit awards season and their 'Animators React' episode just dropped!