Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit

[NOTE: This email is certified to be 100% April Fool's Joke Free]

How is everyone feeling about April? You know the showers-to-flowers pipeline? I, for one, am enjoying this fresh-new-month-smell. Always hungry for rituals and routines, one nice repetition I find myself in is a “rabbit rabbit rabbit” text thread with friends. Sometimes it’s a bunny pun¹, a couple rabbit emojis, a simple RRR (worrrked into a worrrd like Aprrril), or a rabbit-themed-celebration of something exciting someone in the group has cooking in their life. No matter what, it’s a marked moment with dear buds, and today, once again, I’m grateful for bunnies (both real and symbolic).

Haven’t shelled out for “Little Dog 23 & Me” but I’m pretty sure our dog Bean has some rabbit in her? (see: EARS)

BREATHING IN

I’ve been spongeing up some sweet new stuff the last couple of weeks, so without further ado, here’s some of the creative soup I’ve been slurping on.²

• A GRAPHIC NOVEL: My friend Özge Samancı had a book release party for her new graphic novel Evil Eyes Sea and it was a blast! If a queer, mixed-media, Turkish murder mystery set during a scuba dive through the liminal space between two continents sounds intriguing you should stop reading this and go pre-order that STAT. Özge’s about to head out on tour, so if you live in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, LA, San Francisco, or Toronto you can experience the book LIVE. Check out her website for a decade of comics and the rad interactive art she’s cooked up over the years.³

• A GAME: Lately, I’ve been kicking back with a 10 year-old phone-game called Papers, Please. In the game, you play a border agent in a fictional Communist Block nation inspecting the papers of everyone trying to get in — so kind of like Candy Crush if Candy Crush was exploring the murky morality and impossible games of empire, bureaucracy and corruption. Fun! I am bad at it. Abby keeps asking me how it’s going and I’ll be like, “Not great, my family keeps freezing to death because I’m not hitting my quota or taking bribes.”⁴ Sometimes you just can’t do anything right, you know?

• A BOOK: I finished CHILDREN OF DUNE and loved spending more time on Arrakis after having a blast at Dune: Part Deux(n) in theaters. Truly a wild worm ride, friends. I love a good adaptation so maybe my next step is venturing out into the unknown wastelands of this early 00’s mini-series staring a young James McAvoy. I’ve been on a big sci-fi kick lately and am now tempering it with some fresh non-fiction in the form of Judith Butler’s latest book GENDER TROUBLE, ZONA by Geoff Dyer, and a kind of how-to book on smarter note-taking using something called the Zettlekasten Method. Thank goodness for libraries! Speaking of libraries…

• A RESOURCE: Do you know about the Chicago Tool Library? It’s dope and is exactly what it sounds like. The mission of the organization is “to provide equitable access to tools, equipment, and information to allow all Chicagoans to learn, share, and create”. I can often combat feelings of anxiety with a sense that I need to have everything under control or figured out — a sort of individualistic emotional-bunker-building which brings a temporary feeling of security but also isolation. As I think about uncertain times ahead, more and more I find true comfort in examples of community and mutual aid like The Chicago Tool Library instead of in the idea that I could ever truly “be prepared for anything⁵”. My friends Drew and Katelyn just made a lovely series of mini-docs about the library that you can check out on Instagram.

• A PODCAST: I’ve been loving the podcast Gender Playground from

  Witch, Please Productions
  ! Creators of Material Girls (also a banger!) and produced by dear friend Hannah Rehak, this puppy comes out every two weeks with each episode exploring the joys of gender-affirming care for kids. While a lot of the episodes are framed around parenting, I think it’s a great resource for thinking and exploring anyone’s relation to (or questions about) gender in all kinds of contexts. Big fan!

• A FISH DOORBELL: This is a doorbell for fish.

BREATHING OUT

• I animated a video essay my friend Hannah wrote about having a crush in the midst of a crumbling world - it was released in this week’s edition of

  The Honeypot
  . You can watch and read that at the link below!

  Honey No. 16

• FRESHLY WAXED - Two shows in the books and two more left (4/13 & 4/20), Saturday night’s at The Den Theatre. This past Saturday night I did a bit where I was a dressage rider competing without his horse (R.I.P.), so if that sounds like your cup of tea, I’ll be performing something completely different on 4/13 and 4/20 and it would be great to see ya! I have a comp and some codes so give me a shout if you’re intrigued.

• I’m teaching a workshop at Mainstage Chicago next month (more soon!) as well as another DIY FILMMAKING ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET at Lillstreet on Friday’s. I’m also about to jump back into a class where I teach video-editing to STEM graduate and PHd students at Northwestern.⁶

• STRESS FRACTURE, a short I edited that was written and directed by my friend Jessie Robkin, had a private screening for cast & crew & friends this past week. I like watching movies in rooms full of people! If you hear of any opportunities like this hit me up and I will come watch a movie in a room full of people with you. STRESS FRACTURE will hopefully be coming to some festivals near you this year so stay tuned.

• I directed some unhinged sketches from the twisted and talented mind of Nick DiMaso for his sketch pilot ALL KINDS OF CRAZY. This one is about healthy communication skills (CONTENT WARNING: potty humor) and this one is about just wanting to do a good job (CONTENT WARNING: bosses). I guess both of these are NSFW but maybe it depends where you work?

I don’t have a plan for the upcoming total solar eclipse but am dreaming of a drive to Carbondale, Illinois for a moment of totality. Have you read the Annie Dillard piece about eclipses? Holy smokes. Are you going to see it? Any tips? My childhood hometown of Arkadelphia, Arkansas is smack-dab in the middle of totality but, unfortunately, I moved away fourteen years ago. But I guess cosmically? In the grand scheme of things? …I really did just miss it.

miss you too & until next time,

Will

1. #PunnyRabbits

2. Listen, I try not to do this too much, but I really am sorry for that sentence. I gotta take responsibility. But, let’s face it, if I didn’t write it, someone else would have eventually (roomful of monkeys, typewriters, you get it) and I’d rather take one for the team and bear the full responsibility of living with what I’ve wrought/writ here. Keep calm & slurp on.

3. Including this interactive-digital-piece that a 20 year-old-Will helped demo by blinking

4. I may or may not know how to actually just relax.

5. I also just bought a large fanny pack to tote essentials around and am now on the slippery slope towards someday soon owning a multi-tool.

6. This class involved a lot of me showing someone who is researching a literal cure for cancer how to add a cross dissolve effect to their video clips. I learn a lot! Anytime I talk about teaching I hear Jack Black from school of rock saying “those who can’t do, teach” and I just have to keep reminding myself that I am also doing and he wasn’t even the real Mr. Schneebly.