Favorite photo I took this month:
I’m presenting this giraffe without much context. I’ll fill you in on that story later.
Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone around me is also trying to recover from an extremely hectic stretch?
The end of August and start of September was quite the crescendo. I had a race, several improv shows, an international trip, and my work’s biggest event of the year all right on top of each other. It seemed like all these big events were landing mid month, and the other side seemed like this mysterious void of much lighter activity.
Greetings from that mysterious void.
Happy to report that it is indeed a slower pace over here, but there is a lot of cleaning up and catching up to do after the chaos.
Anyways, that was my experience this month, but it feels like I’m far from alone. So many friends have reported being in recovery mode following travels, big social events, and so on. Maybe this is the big back-to-school curve I’m getting reintroduced to, as my oldest just started!
How did I not mention that until the very end? That was perhaps the biggest event, and the biggest change for our family since we welcomed twins. I guess this month has just been that full. Now time to prepare my nervous system for baseball playoffs.
Somehow, I’ve still managed to find the time to make things, and I thought I’d share some of my favorite bits of creative work from this very, very full month:
Gig Poster: Metal People at Mockingbird
After a little stretch without an improv show, I finally got to take the stage with my Metal People and I had a blast. I feel like we’ve hit a good groove as a team. I put together a quick textable gig poster for the event since I feel like I need to get better at promoting our shows. On that note, this weekend (9/28 at 7) I’m playing with Brown Privilege at Finest City!
Video: Plant With Purpose’s 40th Anniversary
Plant With Purpose celebrated 40 years of work this month and I made this video to premiere at our gala. Making a commemorative anniversary video is a bit of a challenge. You want to celebrate your history and play to your community, but you don’t want to be too self-congratulatory and keep looking forward. I’ve been pulling this one together since June.
Art: Josh Gibson
I made this illustration of Josh Gibson to celebrate the incorporation of Negro League statistics into the Major League recordbook, quantitatively entering Josh Gibson into the conversation of baseball’s GOAT. Most art I see of the batting king features him in mostly black and white, given that he played in the 1930s and played for a team called the Grays. But I wanted to lean in the opposite direction and cranked up the colors here.
Video: My 50th Country… SURINAME
Made this video to celebrate my 50th country, which I entered in the form of a quick daytrip. I love how pleasant the capital of Paramaribo is to walk around. Old wooden buildings hang around, monuments and gardens all around the riverfront, and an abundance of good spots to eat.
Sticker: Metal People
Remember when I noted my need to get better at promoting our improv shows? I turned our team logo into a sticker to give to attendees. Branding, baby! The peel off back has a QR code to our Instagram page so people can keep tabs on us.
Art: Alec Bohm
Baseball playoffs… the most wonderful, blood-pressure spiking time of the year. My beloved Phillies clinched their spot in the playoffs, first place in their division, and a first round bye in their last three wins this past week. It’s been an incredible season, but it’s always about how you finish, huh? Peep some of my playoff thoughts here.
Creative Changemaker: You don’t need to be the one who hits launch
The founders and top leaders of movements and organizations are often the most celebrated within the world of social change... and it's not undeserved. Launching and leading good organizations is tough! But, there are also many other ways to be part of leading change and doing good that should also be celebrated. If everyone was a founder... we'd have a whole bunch of ineffective tiny organizations of one! Here's a spontaneous little riff on how those who find their specialized role within a system are also important changemakers.
Art: Mac Miller
Been catching myself listening to quite a bit of Mac Miller lately, so I decided to draw the late Pittsburgh artist.
I really liked the direction his career was going at the end, moving away from straight up rapping and instead parlaying his vocal style into halfway-singing. It blended well with his later concept albums, and his posthumous releases have only confirmed this evolution.
Short: Heart of a 1 on 1 Trip
I know I’m not gonna get everything right as a dad, but one thing I am pretty confident in, is that I will not regret making sure each of my kids gets some quality one-on-one time with me.
It’s fun to have a large family, but it does mean having to put in the extra effort to make sure I get these special moments with each kid in appreciation of who they are.
And as a nice little bonus, sometimes they happen in Finland.
As always, thanks for following along. Love having you in my corner.