Happy New Year! (Happy sold separately)
Turning the page on a calendar really doesn’t do much.
Here’s a gentle reminder that the “happy” part of “Happy New Year!” is really up to us.
Here’s to a year of small wonders and everyday miracles!
Take this stuff and stuff it!
A gentle reminder on the cusp of the day when we get more stuff:
Stuff may make you happy, but it’s fleeting.
Being happy with what you have, and who you are… those are the real “durable goods.”
A heart full of Heartless
It turns out that Erika Wennerstrom (lead singer/main songwriter/leader of the band Heartless Bastards) is even cooler than I thought she was. (And I thought she was pretty cool before this past weekend.)
Her solo show at The Columbia (the one that came to be thanks to some random connections – as blogged about in these pages last week) was even more amazing than I thought it would be.
Erika’s otherworldly voice in an old church = pure magic!
My friend Laura owns the church that served as the venue. Her husband Eric (my friend and co-worker) recently had surgery, so Laura asked her friend Keith and me to be on-site early to help with getting set up for the show. We helped Erika unload her merchandise, install batteries in the fake candles, and generally served as grips and go-fers. When the doors opened, I was the ticket-taker (really just checking names off the list). Showbiz ain’t always glamorous. But the show was stellar.
Better yet, Erika was super-nice. So was Steve, the local musician who served as her sound guy. And Erica (with a “c”) who worked the merch booth. That starts with Erika – she picked Steve to run sound because she’s known him forever, and knows that he’ll get the sound right without causing any drama. And Erica was Steve’s friend. Surrounding yourself with good people and treating folks kindly makes a big difference in the experience. You can be a rock star without acting like one.
But the biggest karma award goes to Laura. The venue where Erika played her holiday shows in years past was asking for a pretty hefty percentage of the ticket sales this year. Whereas Laura donated her space for the show. Which meant more ticket sales overall, and more money going to the artist. No everyone would be in a position to donate use of an old church as a venue… but not everyone who owned an old church would let someone play there without worrying about their “cut” of the sales.
120 people were at the show – nearly all of them had never been there before, and many raved about the space. Laura’s “investment” in helping out an artist will pay dividends down the line, as the word spreads about The Columbia as a cool venue. Whatever she could’ve made in rental fees on Friday night, she’ll make tenfold over the next year.
Be helpful. Be kind. Don’t be heartless. Music to my ears!
Meeting(s) of the (hearts and) minds
I took a vacation day on Thursday yet I still bookended the day with two very important meetings. That’s just the kind of mover and shaker I am.
The morning meeting was a gathering of the greatest creative minds in the Tri-State area. Oh, and I was there too! It was an informal holiday season gathering of a bunch of graphic designers, illustrators, writers, art directors, [insert other ad agency title here], etc. A coffee klatch of the cool kids, organized by my buddy Keith.
I don’t miss the ad agency business, but I do miss the magic of being part of a larger creative team. And these folks are Creative with a capital C. There are a lot of laughs whenever we get together, and it’s amazing to witness how quickly everyone can build on someone else’s thought or joke. I imagine that it must be similar to being in the writing room on The Simpsons.
It takes years of practice to be able to make those uncanny connections that others don’t see. But these dudes (yes, it was a sausagefest) have been doing it for decades. They see the world with an artist’s eye – and the world is better for it.
In the evening, I attended a board meeting of a heart foundation. (Translation: the monthly “hoppy hour” gathering with the lifelong friends I made at Xavier four decades ago.) This was our 64th straight month of meeting up, but it was the first without our brother-from-another-mother LJ. We needed the connection and camaraderie more than ever with him gone. The chance to share a few more memories and a lot of laughs is the best heart medicine around.
Start the day with a creative circle. End it with a gratitude group. Those are the type of “work meetings” I need to have more often!
Just for laughs
I’ve always liked comedian Brian Regan. I think he’s one of the funniest standups going, and has been for years. His bit about going to the emergency room is an all-time great.
His material is clean, too, which earns extra credit in my book.
Brian’s got a four-episode series on Netflix called “Standing Up and Away!”
It’s an interesting format: he does some standup, but they intersperse a few short pre-recorded comedy sketches into the show, and he takes a question from the audience at the end (ala “The Carol Burnett Show”).
I watched all four episodes over the past couple of days and thoroughly enjoyed the stand-up bits and the video sketches. And “Cincinnati” even gets some air time in a recorded sketch – with a callback during the audience questions segment!
If you’re looking for some laughs — and who isn’t these days? — it’s well worth the investment of 24 minutes per episode.
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