Cool Sh*t I Didn’t Expect to Care About This Week.

A Trend Desk on unexpected inspiration hiding in random moments.

I was walking down the street when my mind slipped me a memory I wasn’t asking for. Out of nowhere came this old cartoon I used to watch — a purple alien and a caveman existing in a bare land? Was it an alien and a cat, or was it a monkey? No plot, no urgency, nothing to chase. They would just exist in between VHS white-noise sounds. Just two strange little characters drifting through time like they had nowhere better to be.

The thought stayed with me longer than it should’ve. It followed me through the day, kept popping up at the oddest moments, like a song you can’t place but somehow remember.

Eventually, I had to search the cartoon.

Rewatching Prometheus & Bob reminded me how plain a joke can be and still work. Prometheus gives the task, Bob can’t manage it, and the Monkey ruins whatever was left of the plan. It all happens slowly, almost politely, like no one’s in a hurry to get to the point. And somehow that makes it better. There’s no surprise to it, no trick. They just let the scene fall apart in its own quiet way. Always the same.

Feels oddly comforting, I know.

There’s something about that kind of pacing that feels weirdly luxurious now — just letting a moment sit there without dressing it up. It reminded me of those rare pieces that actually trust the quiet, that don’t panic about losing you. The ones that let a single color hang in the frame a little longer than you expect, or let the silence say whatever it needs to.

A couple of days later, something else got lodged in my head. I was scrolling without thinking, the way you do, when I landed on this completely normal post—harmless, forgettable, the kind you’re supposed to swipe past.

But the top comment was unhinged in that effortless internet way.

It didn’t match the tone, or the subject, or reality for that matter. It just sat there, staring at me, derailing the whole post with one sentence that made absolutely no sense and somehow made perfect sense at the same time. I kept rereading it, not because it was deep, but because it was so confidently wrong.

I’m all for confidence, but someone being loud and wrong at the same time is pure serotonin to me. Seriously. But I'm trying to be a nicer person, so lets look at some awesome storytelling instead.

A few days later, I saw a delivery guy biking down the street with classical opera blasting from a speaker he’d taped to his backpack with what looked like the last few inches of a dying roll of duct tape. The whole setup felt improvised, like he’d decided that morning he needed a soundtrack and just committed. He wasn’t dramatic about it; he didn’t even seem aware of how loud it was i think.

It was perfect.

Sound has this way of getting under your skin, even when you’re not paying attention. That delivery guy must’ve picked that opera for a reason, whatever it was. People don’t just tape a speaker to their backpack and blast a soprano on a random afternoon without some feeling behind it. I kept thinking about that — how a soundtrack can tilt a whole day a few degrees to the left. So here’s a look at a music choice in advertising that does exactly that.

I don’t know — maybe I’m just noticing things more, or maybe the world is getting weirder by the week. But lately it feels like the best ideas show up sideways, in moments that aren’t trying to be anything at all. A cartoon with no plot. A guy delivering food like he’s scoring Carmen.

None of it connects, and somehow it all does. If anything, it’s a good reminder that inspiration as they really do say is all around us.

Have a nice week everyone.

Thank you for spending time at the Trend Desk