Host your own readings!
Oh Messy Life #33
Welcome to Human Pursuits, the column that features need-to-know names and stories in media and other creative spaces. Today, I threw a garden party and reading in our backyard, and updates from Friends of the Newsletter, including LA Explained, Rebecca Jennings, Raeland Mendoza, Brynn Wallner, and more.
For the past few years, I’ve had the admittedly strange dream of hosting a reading in the backyard of our rented duplex.
Stranger still?
On Saturday, it finally happened.
That morning, I rented a table and chairs from a party supplier in East Vancouver and borrowed a microphone and monitor from the boys in Bealby Point. I created a stage right on the grass. I watched the sky turn from overcast to sunny.
I’ve never planned an event like this without Leah’s help.
Everything was powered using electricity from the dilapidated shed at the back of the property. Everything was designed to be as chill as possible.
To that end, the list of speakers featured several Friends of the Newsletter. Kate Black, Molly Cross-Blanchard. .
There were “new” pals too. Oakes. Alex and Goose. Johanna Wagstaffe. My neighbour Debra, who writes children’s books.
While it was smaller than some of the readings has hosted in New York, the evening still felt like a significant milestone. One of those moments where things snap into focus. Where the future possibilities seem endless.
I read two pieces that night: “The psilocybin sunset”, which I wrote about doing drugs at Alex’s 30th birthday party, and a new piece called “OPENING REMARKS/CONCEPTS OF A PLAN,” which explores what I think is a growing crisis of creativity among people aged 25 - 39.
Read it below and then do the following.
Write your own stories. Host your own readings. Build your own community.
OPENING REMARKS / CONCEPT OF A PLAN
I got the idea to host a bunch of writers in our backyard after seeing some of the -branded readings that happened in New York last year.
I thought to myself, “That seems fun; somebody should do that in Vancouver.”
I have thoughts like this pretty often.
Oh, somebody should write about this.
Oh, somebody should talk about this.
Oh, somebody should do this.
For a long time, that was all I did. Think up interesting ideas and leave them hanging there in the ether. A figment of my imagination. A concept of a plan.
For 30 years, I was afraid to act on any of my creative impulses because I feared what would happen if I did. I feared imperfection and rejection, and embarrassment. But I also feared the intimacy of being known, and the power that intimacy gives to other people.
Showing the world your softest parts requires great courage. Very few people can do it. Most don’t even try.
I tell you this because I’ve noticed in recent years what I consider to be a generational crisis of creativity. Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself. The feeling of listlessness under capitalism. Of having more to offer the world than the outputs of your 9-to-5.
Since I started Human Pursuits in 2020, I have encountered many people who seem to crave a creative outlet. It could be painting, or photography, or pottery, or some other pursuit that doesn’t start with P.
Whatever it is, they suspect intuitively that it will inject their life with a sense of meaning that it currently lacks.
And, unfortunately, they are right.
Writing a Substack newsletter is my greatest character flaw, but it is also my greatest strength. It’s taught me how to expose myself and to take the risks required for a creatively fulfilled life.
If you’ve ever thought about making something, but feel scared or intimidated to try, my hope is that an event like this will give you the push you need. This is more than a group of friends. It’s a creative community operating at a shared frequency. Some of the people reading tonight are formally trained. Some are not. But they all share one important trait: they started and they didn’t stop.
Oh Messy Life
ICYMI: Last week’s interview was with LA Explained co-founders Charles Ryan and Thom Vest. We discussed the ICE protests, their favourite tourist attractions, the power of black and white photographs, and whether L.A. is the greatest city in the world.
This week’s reading included on reclaiming our attention, and on my aforementioned reading.
New (old) watch alert: and her friend Alan Bidwell worked with Timex to reissue one of JFK Jr.’s old watches. Meet the Intrepid (SOLD OUT).
Sit, speak: Steve Sladkowski was on Kreative Kontrol discussing Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster, dysfunctional band communication, ’s Who Will Look After the Dogs? and more.
Oh, and was in Harper’s Bazaar discussing “Why the Fashion Catalog Is Making a Comeback”.
Proper Chune
I feel like ’s new record is going to be a bit of a moment. Last night, she released the album’s lead single, “Quitting”, a groovy ode to nicotine and longing.
My next guest is…
Ian Wheeler, Co-Founder and Publisher of Talkhouse. He also runs Partisan Records, which is home to releases from King Princess, Blondeshell, and Cameron Winter, to name a few.
Meme Machine
