Brain Rain: Distractions That Distrook Me

The Matchbook | 4.10.26

A few short days from now, the lovely Lady G and I will be once again on the Emerald Isle. We’ll be staring down vistas like this, we’ll be photographing not one, but two wonderful elopements, and we’ll be sharing time with one of my BFFs in the world, Anna “B Nana” and her handsome fella, Danny.

I cannot wait.

In the meantime, you goobers need some Brain Rain, and it’s time I distract you with things that have been distracting ME lately. Randomities (not a word but I think it is), things I read, watched, whatever.

Just a reminder, these Matchbook posts are provided free for everyone literally due to the generosity and patronage of our beautiful paid family. They keep this place alive for all of us, and I’d love if you joined us.

• A Framework For Letting It Go (Whatever “It” Is) - Whatever “it” is is the key signifier here, and the reason I love this little article. I’m not sure if I’ve shared it before here, and if I have that’s fine it just means it’s rad. This article has a simple 14 point, step-by-step process on how we, all of we, can start letting more go that we needn’t hang onto. We all hold on, so tightly, to so much, and it’s time we released that weight. #11: Reclaim YOUR Power. Yeah. Read this one friends.

• The Madison - Ok, I’m just gonna be blunt…I am NOT a Taylor Sheridan (of Yellowstone/Lioness/Landman) fame. I think he promotes a strange view of toxic masculinity, and I think he has done a lot to make Montana seem like something very specific that it very much is not, and it’s caused a lot of issues for those of us who ARE from here, and still live here. Saying that, my Mom had been insisting we try his new show, The Madison, and we were very reluctant. We shouldn’t have been. I’m not at all ashamed to say it’s pretty f’ing great, from top to bottom, and while it does have some funny little stereotypically “Montana” things it might get a bit wrong, the acting Michelle Pfieffer is doing is out of this world, the scenery is stunning, and it’s presenting such a gorgeous, nuanced look at grief, and what it is to live a meaningful life. I have a feeling a lot more people from New York and California are going to once again move here after seeing this, because dammit, Montana is special. Yeah. Watch this one.

• 1000 True Fans - I’ve spoken about this before, but never in great detail. Stumbled across this article again and was once again blown away by how simple success in a world like the one I have to inhabit can look. I don’t need a million fans, I don’t need a million followers. I need 1,000 true fans willing to say, with their voice and their wallet, that the art I’ve spent the last 20 years making is valuable. Is worth something. 1000. Full disclosure, the very small income I generate from this Signal Fire is one very big part of the income I need to support my family and my life, and without the paid community, I wouldn’t be able to keep this place alive at all. I’ve lost A LOT of paid subscribers from this beautiful family over the year, and it is making it a lot more difficult. SO, read this article, figure out what your niche is (and if I can help you find YOUR 1000 fans, I will!) and then see if you’re able to join our family. We’d all love to have you!

• The Weight of the Woods - Dermot Kennedy - New record for one of our favorite Irish recording artists! It’s been quite awhile since he’s released anything new, and so this was a welcome little gift from the universe, especially as we’re leaving for Ireland on Monday! I love his music, though I will admit, sometimes each song kinda sounds a lot like the song before it, but I love hearing his accent, and I Love the roots in Irish storytelling. How can you not? Give it a listen, you might just love it.

• EVERYTHING ARTEMIS II - I’m a massive, MASSIVE space nerd. I always have been, since the day I met Sonny Carter, an Astronaut who became a family friend, and who actually flew ON the Space Shuttle Discovery and made 79 orbits of our beautiful Earth. He tragically passed away after his mission (and was already assigned onto a 2nd mission) in a commercial plane crash, which is just the ultimate unfair irony…he goes all the way to space safely, but cannot make it on a simple domestic flight. That said, watching these brave souls venture further than any humans in the history of our planet, seeing the images they have captured, and hearing their wisdom about a world without division has been a stunning and gorgeous reprieve from the horrors of our world right now. I sob every single time I see any update. I cannot help it. We can be so much more than we’re being allowed to be, and dammit, I want that hope to spread. Some of my favorite images NASA has shared, below, as well as the official Mission photograph from Sonny’s mission. I still have the sticker he sent me that’s shown in the top right.

  

  Our dear friend, “Sonny” in the top left. Image taken 1989, © NASA

  

  © NASA

  

  © NASA

  

  © NASA

  

  © NASA

  That’s all I’ve got for now dear Friday friends. I hope something in there struck your fancy, or lit your candle. I really do.

I also hope you have a beautiful weekend, and I hope you find that all you need is what you have and all you have is more than you could have ever imagined.

I Love you all.

Be good.