SLAY Don't Wait

the online process of Matt Slaybaugh

I’d like to thank everyone in this coffee shop

01.13.2018

I’d like to thank everyone in the coffee shop, everyone who did the right thing today. It took the whole team, I know, to make sure that Acacia and I could sit at this big table. Usually we end up squeezing into the corner, or knocking people over for space at the communal table. But this time, when we really need it, we’re sitting at this properly sized table.

Guy with your iPhone and nothing else – I know you usually like to sit at this table, and play noisy games by yourself, and not even move when there are three tiny, one-person tables open all around you, and we are looking desperately (not to mention obviously) around for adequate space to sit. But today you’re at the big, communal table and I’m grateful. I’m even a bit (I hope you don’t mind me saying this) proud, here today.

Med students who aren’t even going to buy anything but are gonna take up most of the space all day – thank you for using the medium-sized, square tables. They’re here just for you. They’re the perfect size for your big textbooks. I know you relish spreading your stuff all over your un-bought space, but today you have constrained yourself. Today you are not disrupting the ecology and economy of the coffee shop and that’s just so wonderful to see. Thank you.

And last but not least, you – young, angry man with a laptop. I feel your pain, I truly do. It’s awkward to sit there with the two soccer moms having incredibly loud conversation less than two feet from your face. On on your other side is one of those med students, whose music we can all hear blasting through his earbuds. But you gritted your teeth, you plugged in your giant headphones, and you’re getting work done anyway. And over here, at this mesa that is just the right size to hold my wife and I and our coffee shop related belongings, (even if I decide to open this big board game rulebook, which I brought just in case I get my work done) over here we are content. We are at peace. Today we will not struggle. This table doesn’t even have a wobble. It’s an incredible table, and we thank you for it.

Maybe everything really is gonna be okay. Maybe just maybe.

Filed Under: misc Tagged With: coffee, gratitude

Be robust

01.13.2018

Robustness is when you care more about the few who like your work than the multitude who hates it (artists); fragility is when you care more about the few who hate your work than the multitude who loves it (politicians).

– Nassim Taleb

Filed Under: work Tagged With: fragile, Nassim Taleb, robust

something about Merce

01.12.2018

Filed Under: Etc. Tagged With: Merce Cunningham

restartrestartrestart

01.10.2018

Filed Under: Podcast, sound

Some Favorites from 2017

01.05.2018

These are just some lists of culture I encountered this year that I really liked and am happy to recommend to you. It’s not even all from 2017, necessarily. Back in the day, I used to create massive, well-considered lists. It was quite a joy for me. Ha! I guess I didn’t have enough to do!

Any strong recommendations from your 2017?

MUSIC
NEW MUSIC
– Susso, Keira – Oh please, please, please listen to this record. I love it so much. (Even it is from 2016.)
– Four Tet, New Energy
– Juana Molina, Halo
– Thurston Moore, Rock n Roll Consciousness
– Jlin, Black Origami
– Slowdive
– St. Vincent, Masseduction
– Binker & Moses, Journey To The Mountain Of Forever
– Milk Music, Mystic 100s
– Fleet Foxes, Crack-Up
– Kelly Lee Owens

[Read more…]

Filed Under: books, misc, music Tagged With: 2017, books, lists, movies, music, pens

My friends are super heroes

01.03.2018

Filed Under: misc

How We Got On

11.05.2017

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Tumblr

Autobiography, 1968 Rauschenberg

08.11.2017

Autobiography, 1968
Robert Rauschenberg

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Tumblr

#1. Ritual [7 Elements of Great (Wrestling) Performances]

04.18.2017

NOTE: This is something I wrote almost five years ago. I'm quite fond of it, so I'm adding it here.

About 10 years ago, I had a conversation with one of the great avant garde theatre directors of all time, Anne Bogart. (Hoo boy, not a great way to start a pro wrestling blog post, eh? Better insert a cool photo.)

That’s better.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: theatre Tagged With: Anne Bogart, elements, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, theatre, thtr, wrestling, WWE

from Reality Hunger

04.11.2017


by David Shields, 2010

The American writer has his hands full, trying to understand and then describe and then make credible much of the American reality. It stupefies, it sickens, it infuriates, and finally it is even a kind of embarrassment to one’s own meager imagination. The actuality is continually outdoing our talents, and the culture tosses up figures almost daily that are the envy of any novelist.

Filed Under: misc, writing Tagged With: characters, David Shields, reality, Reality Hunger

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