Happy New Year!
Or maybe, if I'm being honest, it's more like Slightly Terrifying New Year! We're certainly not starting 2020 off slow. The news is full of imminent war, raging fires, and dark politics. So it feels right for this first newsletter of the decade to be all about survival. Avalanches, mental health crises, climate change... here are some stories of how folks are making it through.
Upcoming Events
LOS ANGELES
Thursday, January 9th at 7:30 pm Due to a scheduling conflict, this show had to be postponed. New date TBA
Wednesday, January 15th at 7 pm at the Lyric-Hyperion. Matt Porter and I are starting a monthly multimedia comedy show called HOMEWORK. Tickets are on sale now. Link
NEW YORK
Friday, February 7th and Saturday, February 8th. I will be back in NYC workshopping a stage show about long term couples and new scientific research on love. Presented by All For One Theater. Free (email AFO to RSVP) Link
This week’s list
GREAT:
Heidi Julavits is a novelist and a generally anxious person. She channels her fears into plot lines and back stories for her characters. But how do you make sure your writing feels accurate and grounded in reality? To make sure she was getting the details right, Julavits signed up for a course on avalanche survival. This beautiful, funny essay is about how she discovered the real dangers. "I wanted to be prepared for the worst nature could throw at me. But the real threat turned out to be human." What I Learned in Avalanche School
FUNNY:
Maria Bamford is one of my favorite standup comedians of all time. She manages to be hilarious and vulnerable while also staying goofy and kind. There's a misconception that comedians have to be dark and edgy in order to speak truth to power. Maria blows that idea out of the water. This is an amazing short profile of how she's prepping for her bigger standup shows and coping with performance anxiety by meeting with strangers in coffee shops and performing her set for them one-on-one. Maria Bamford Melds Speed Dating and Standup Comedy
INTERESTING:
Martin Luther once supposedly said "Even I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." I find that idea very moving. That we should try our best to improve the world, to make the future better, to imagine a harvest, even if things appear to be falling apart. And it turns out that planting (or caring for) trees might actually be one of our best chances at preventing the world from going to pieces. This piece about the tree species that do the most to mitigate the effects of climate change is fascinating and solutions-oriented. Supertrees
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Thanks for reading,
Chris