📜 Newsletter Time! The launch of Tiki Tube Amps
Things are about to get weird...
Hello everyone! I hope you’ve had a delightful summer. If you did something cool, please reply and let me know about it! I’d love to hear from you.
In this issue:
Tiki Tube Amps!
Artist Profile: Daphne Yap
Recipe: DIY Hummus
The Launch of Tiki Tube Amps
I’m beyond thrilled to announce the launch of Desmond’s Tiki Tube Amps, which went live at the beginning of Summer. But just what the hell are they? They’re handmade hifi stereos built into carved tiki heads. Weird, right?
Each one is 100% unique and handmade by yours truly. I start with a blank log and carve the tiki with a variety of hand tools, then solder all the electronic circuitry inside. The circuits are driven by vacuum tubes, the predecessors to transistors (imagine 5 billion of those inside your phone), which sound better and look cooler. If you’d like to geek out about them, please hit me up.
What’s fun is that they each have their own personality (and names). They kind of look at you while you dig the music. In an age where all stereos are boring boxes and everything is mass produced, I wanted to make something that (1) has vibes and (2) cannot be found elsewhere. I love these things and I hope you will too.
I’m please to announce that these amps are for sale! Please check my website for availability. I am also taking custom orders if you’d like a particular style of tiki carving, circuit design, bluetooth connectivity, whatever. Please get in touch.
Note these are stereos for listening to records or CDs, rather than guitar or bass amps.
For more info, please visit my website or check out my Instagram. There is also a separate newsletter where I share tiki-specific updates and events, plus a YouTube build video of the latest amp.
Artist Profile: Daphne Yap
I’m pleased to feature my friend Daphne in this newsletter. Once in a while you encounter an artist or musician whose work is utterly unique, unlike anything you’ve seen before. Daphne is such an artist. The only word I can think to describe her style is enchanting. Anytime I see her work I feel I am in the presence of real magic.
In addition to creating her own sketches, drawings, paintings, and various merchandise, she has worked for basically every major Hollywood studio and toy company, including doing designs for a little film you may have heard of called Avatar.
Honestly I cannot begin to showcase her work with just a few examples. For more info on Daphne or to get in touch with her, please visit her website or Instagram.
Recipe: DIY Hummus
Okay, I know what you’re thinking: “why would I make hummus when I can just buy it in the store?” Well, friend, the not-so-secret truth is that making it yourself is stonking easy and it tastes much, much better than anything you’ll get in the store. Gone are the days of boring, bland hummus that makes you feel you like got lost in the woods on the way to the vegan festival! This shit is tasty and good for you.
Ingredients:
1 can garbanzo beans
1 dollop of tahini
1/3 cup cold water
juice from 1/2 lemon
2 garlic cloves, mashed
drizzle of olive oil
large pinch of salt
Recipe:
Open the can of garbanzo beans and drain them. Say “garbanzo” a few times cause it’s a funny word. Combine everything together in a food processor and process the food for about 30 seconds. Boom you’re done.
protip: The cold water helps make it fluffy.
protip: You can add other fun stuff like a dash of cayenne, cinnamon, half a red pepper, you name it.
Store in the fridge; it keeps for a while. Makes for a great snack when you dip some bread in it, or some vegetables, or, you know, like a pita or something. FYI tahini is just crushed sesame seeds, like peanut butter.