getting started, basil (!), and some curated potpourri
In the beginning, I always want to tell you everything.
I am a nesting-doll and six-year-old-Will-who-has-found-a-cool-looking-bug/stick/rock-and-needs-to-tell-you-about-it still has a lot to say.
Plus, beginnings have always been tricky.
On the character creation screens in video games, I would typically spend forever trying to come up with the perfect name instead of getting on with the business of playing.
After devouring The Lord of the Rings as a kid, I would dream up my own fantasy worlds1 but rarely made it past the map or the alphabet I was trying to create from scratch. (Tolkien never would have tolerated the number of umlauts, and the stack of epic prologues I abandoned might actually fill a book.)
Even now…Pillow Fort! Months in and I have second thoughts about the name, perhaps exacerbated by the discovery that Pillow Fort™️ is already a very well established kid furniture brand from Target, but still. What if I want to expand into tiny bespoke bunk beds some day? Well, I’ll just have to start from scratch.
Sometimes, it helps to take a break, jump to the end, and write the museum plaque of the thing you haven’t created yet.
“Sonheim’s playful fusion of language and aerodynamics effortlessly evokes the myth of Icarus while offering an unwavering critique of the prison industrial complex.”
Then you have point “B” and just work backwards to “A”. Easy peasy. Wings, wings…something with wings…
So, as usual, here I am, wanting to tell you everything. Today I’ll settle for an abbreviated list of some of today’s top headlines.
THE NEWS
BREAKING: The basil2 on the windowsill is blooming with tiny white blossoms and frankly, no offense, but this is exactly the kind of crap that makes a guy need to write poetry. I mean, give me a break! This plant’s got metaphor, simile, and alliteration3 written all over it. The last time I had herbs on the windowsill like this I accidentally ordered an entire collection of essays from Wendell Berry and then spent a week trying to figure out if I should ditch this substack (and computer entirely) and just write on yellow legal pads that my wife (TBA) would transcribe while I’m out tilling the fields of my family farm (TBA). IT’S A GATEWAY HERB.
Lately, I’ve also been addicted to this guy → 🫡 . What do our emojis say about us? Well, he pairs well with a 🏄♂️ or 🕺to make it clear that I mean business when it comes to having fun.
A rainbow crashed my friend’s wedding in the desert and I loved it.
Once my dad butt dialed me in the middle of describing the plot of The Hobbit to my nephew and I stayed on the phone for a full two minutes just to hear how everyone was doing. (The party was good but freshly packed inside of barrels, I think?)
It is finally time for me to part ways with the broken forty pound typewriter I found in the alley. ANY TAKERS??? 🫡
THE FULL HEARTACHE VISUAL ALBUM
A year ago, I collaborated with many of my favorite people to create a visual album for my friend Ollie’s album HEARTACHE. It remains one of my favorite projects and the heart, scrappiness, and collaborative spirit of the endeavor epitomizes all of the things I love about making work and life in Chicago. Each director took a different track and then shared the opening and closing frames of their piece so we could stitch them together into one fluid piece. I’ve already shared the individual videos, but now that we’ve finished our festival run (you’re looking at the New Media Festival Music Video Award Winner) we’re releasing the full version which flows from one song to the next in the way we always intended the piece to be experienced.
HEARTACHE is an album written about and through the ever winding road of grief. My hope is that HEARTACHE might bring comfort and clarity to any listeners who are wading through the deep end of their own loss.
- Ollie Hobson
A COUPLE OF CLOWNS
My pal Ella Pennington was in town and she treated us to a clown-y photo shoot inspired by Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati. The one color shot here is a behind-the-scenes moment of another clown (me) just trying to tie a tie for Abby. Once you can tie a tie for someone else you graduate to landing exactly in the window of a falling house. Steep learning curve — I hope I have what it takes!!!
(p.s. Ella is an amazing photographer and you can see more of her work over at
)SOME SHOWS!
This month, I traveled to Bloomington, Indiana to do an improv workshop and performance at an art gallery, a collaboration hatched by the lovely performer and designated rental-car-driver Tim Felton. The show itself was a series of improvised scenes inspired by the photography and artistic philosophy of photographer Clarissa Bonet who joined via Zoom. Very fun! Highlights included Trader Joe’s employees that all kissed their co-workers on the mouth, a flock of pigeons rising up against their human overlords, and a good eight hours of conversation there and back.
Up next? Well,
’s very own Cat Huck and I will be doing a set this Saturday (9/21) for Logan Square Improv’s Saturday Show and then Caleb Fullen and I will be doing some more two-prov on 10/7 at Industry Night.Plus, a PLUG for the show FIVE YEARS that Abby Pajakowski and Annie Share are putting on at Cafe Mustache on 9/23. I got a SNEAK PEAK and if you like musicals, friendships, good writing, a playful concept that’s got HEART, and Abby and Annie, then this one is a must-see.
A POTPOURRI OF LINKS
My friend Karly is working on a wickedly cool film called BOY BAND that is written by, directed by, and featuring a full cast of artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It looks like an absolute blast, and if you can throw it a few extra bones (SPOOKY!) I recommend it!! (LINK: https://seedandspark.com/fund/boy-band-in-a-haunted-hotel#story)
Miden Wood illustrated a tarot deck with accompanying guide book that looks really beautiful! If you’re interested, you can read more about it on
or snag a copy at the Kickstarter link here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/friendtarot/two-bugs-tarot- of tuned me in to the great newsletter from Ann Friedman — I love her latest post about intentionally building community! (LINK: https://mailchi.mp/ladyswagger/no-community-without-effort-1198322?e=726c4dd100)
Holy smokes, I just finished A COUNTRY OF GHOSTS by Margaret Killjoy and absolutely loved it. Can’t recommend this epic anarchist utopia fantasy highly enough. If you read it let’s TALK! (LINK: https://www.akpress.org/countryofghosts.html) AK Press just finished a big ol’ sale and now I’ve got an embarrassingly stack of radical reading that I’ve been blazing through. Just finished LOVE AFTER THE END4 and HERMETICA…what are YOU reading?
~~~
Thanks as always for reading and subscribing! And HUGE thanks to the paid subscribers who help keep the metaphorical lights on the literal coffee flowing.
Some of this could derive from the lived experience of eight-year-old-me creating a rich fantasy world full of massive, magnetic, coliseums that erupted with lava and meteor strikes once every thirteen years and then, in describing it to my brother, him not being able to get past the fact that I had called this planet “Exxon”.
The herb in question is from a CSA called Global Gardens that Abby and I joined this year. Each week we get a brown paper bag full of a surprising haul of vegetables grown in Chicago with seeds originally from all over the world. We don’t always know what to do with the bounty but we’re working on it!
Blooming, blossoming, BASIL, Batman!
“What does it mean to be Two-Spirit during an apocalypse? What does it mean to search out romance at a pipeline protest — can we have intimacy during doomsday?” - Joshua Whitehead
Keaton & Tati foreverrrr