me and utah

and also massachusetts and wisconsin, PLUS a footnote on footnotes

dear dearer dearest you all¹,

thank you for being here.
i hope you and yours are as safe and healthy as possible.
thanks for taking care of yourself and others the best you can.

here are some silly things for the week/day/moment/time-unit-of-your-choice².

1) earlier this week, i performed at a college in utah and had this experience:

from backstage before the show, i overheard an audience member coming in saying “i listen to this guy when i go to sleep so it’s creepy.”

and…

i’ll take it!³

2) last weekend, i performed in boston⁴, which makes me think about the USA:

for folks who are fans of our country's founders but NOT fans of people who protest today… weren't the founders essentially the protesters of their day?

3) next month, i’m scheduled to perform in milwaukee⁵, which makes me think about something i said about performing there once that still holds true!:

heading to wisconsin for a comedy show!
so get ready for some jokes about milwaukee-talkies.
or this might be it. over and out.⁶

and that will do it for today!
hope you liked all the notes from head to foot, playing a nice full-bodied chord.
sincerely very grateful that you are here, as always.
have a good … all!

PS one final bonus, please enjoy this photo of Maxwell who graciously invited us to stay with him while we were in the boston area over the weekend

1. welcome to the first footnote of the day!
as you may have seen, i enjoy using this footnote function, and i’ve received some feedback (which i requested) that i’m happy to share.
here is what a reader named rebecca offered to me AND NOW TO YOU (with some bold editorial formatting additions by me):

”Okay, since you asked...I had been meaning to reach out to you about the footnote issue and share my thoughts on the matter, but I held back thinking ‘have you even told him how much you appreciate his work?’ Only sort of once in a facebook message that he actually replied to which was so cool, and surprising, but whatever you said probably wasn’t sufficient and certainly hasn’t addressed your appreciation for any of his work since that message. Too much we take the good for granted and don’t acknowledge it and then only take action when there is critique.  And then what kind of unbalanced world does that make when they only thing that gets expressed is the critique and not the appreciation.  And to appropriately try to put into words how much you appreciate his work is an impossible feat, especially considering his word sorcery abilities.  It can’t be done, so just don’t do any of it. Also he didn’t ask your opinion.  But then.....over time my feelings on the footnotes shifted, so what I would have written is not what I would actually say now.  And then...you explicitly asked for footnote feedback, so here it is!  I love them.  My brain works in footnotes because anytime I say anything (well, not anything, but a lot of things.  See there’s one now, but it’s a body notes instead of a foot) I’m always thinking about how a person might respond, so I want to get my response to their response out before they can think it out loud so I want to insert it into what I’m already saying.  And it makes for difficult communication. Or maybe just detailed, layered, complex communication, that doesn’t fall in line with standard communication. So I was going to say that I wish traditional verbal or spoken communication allowed for smoother footnote communication.  Or maybe I wish I thought more for me, and not what I think other people might think about what I say.  Nah, I like thinking like me, and I like thinking about other people.  I think that’s a good thing for the world.  To circle back....

Initially I thought the footnotes created additional unnecessary complication and the scrolling back and forth or trying to remember what was being addressed and reading the footnotes later felt like some impact was lost.  I was going to suggest maybe you could insert the footnotes within the text, maybe in a different color.  BUT THEN!  I realized I could open up the message in 2 different windows at the same time.  Message on the left, footnotes on the right.  Perfection.  Because then I can take in the footnotes as I choose at whatever time or pace I feel works for the moment. Nothing is lost, only gained, and you still maintain footnote reading autonomy if there are some portions someone would elect to not read.  So if anyone else would find that strategy helpful, and allow them to appreciate your brilliance more, please feel free to share it.”

and so i have. thank you for sharing this, rebecca.

AND LET THIS BE A LESSON TO US ALL… sometimes if you send me a nice thoughtful message and say “please feel free to share it,” i might!

2. sometimes i think about whether to wish someone a good day, a good week, a good year, a good [time-unit-of-your-choice].
something i have settled on (at times) is “have a good ONE.”
one what? one whatever of your choosing.
what is the time unit of YOUR choice?

3. also, if you enjoy listening to comedy as you fall asleep, may i recommend my hilarious comedian friend joe zimmerman’s new album “comedy to fall asleep to.”

4. and i’ll be back in the MA area performing in salem on saturday, september 11
(tickets here!)
also on that show is my wonderful friend liz glazer, with whom i am ALSO mounting a new monthly show in brooklyn called “liz and myq give advice” and the first one of those is sunday, september 19 and i hope you can make it
(tickets for THAT here!)

5. here is a link where you can get tickets to my milwaukee show on october 8!
also
here is a link where you can get tickets to my st louis show on october 10!
and why not also
here is a link where you can get tickets to my raleigh shows november 5-6

6. it’s always so strange to think about how “over” means “done” and “over and over” means “keeps happening” or “not done.” and it might be that i say things like this over and over to the point that it’s overdone. okay. over. done. (ooh wait i thought of one more piece. what’s your reaction to this not being over? is it an overreaction? is it a lover-reaction? a lover-y action? okay. now i’ll do a do-over of saying “over. done.” over. done.)