* (and if you’re one of those people who is going to go on about how you didn’t watch TV and hate TV now and… yes you’re a special flower, now hush and let the rest of us talk)

They spent years trying to force us to buy into the concept that these rich white guys just wanted to save the world – one kidnapped orphan at a time. And once they were nice and Stockholmed in their beds, the orphans would come to realize “Gee, having money is so much fun but it doesn’t solve your problems, either!”

Sure, you never want for toys, or clothes or food or warmth – but wealth can’t make you forget that you broke that toy through folly and thoughtlessness and you need to be a better person so you can have nice things. Here’s a replacement toy for learning your lesson.

Yeeeeah.

Not that it’s generally much better now. It’s a bit better, I suppose.

But still. How many shows really just want you to know how hard it is to be a rich white dude? How many do we need? Do any of us buy it anymore?

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Don’t hate North Carolina.

Don’t hate Southerners.

Don’t hate the South.

When you start tossing that sort of thing around you engage in a lot of friendly fire. Think about it:

You live in N.C. This vote comes up. You know many of the people around you are against it, but you have to do what you feel is your duty and vote to try and stop hate. You cast your vote and that night it comes in – you lost. The vote went the other way. As you try and seek comfort from friends and hit up some allies for support what do you see?

You see a whole mess of people blaming your entire state for what happened. Slathering you with their hate as well. And yeah, you probably get it’s just in the heat of anger, but come on! That has to feel like extra punches to the face.

Why would you go out of your way to punch your allies? It’s not cool, guys. Never mind all those folk on the fence. The ones that aren’t quite sure where to land. Right when they might be looking for reasoned debate after a vote, they see their home torched by the people on one side of the debate.

It doesn’t help. Of course it doesn’t. But anger is a thing that happens, and when it flares, after a blow like this vote, it’s hard to contain and be 100% rational. No one should be expected to hold themselves to that every minute of every day.

But we have to try. And when we slip, we have to apologize. There is hatred to be doled out, but it shouldn’t be hitting the people standing with us, no matter if they live in the areas that feel like targets. Hell, especially if they live there. It isn’t North Carolina as a whole that voted for hated. It was bigots that happen to live there. Bigots live everywhere. If you want to hate someone, if you want to be mad and angry at someone try being angry at the bigots specifically.

Of course, hating anyone is not really recommended. You don’t change minds with hate. You harden them. Fighting bigots with their own hatred doesn’t get us anywhere, sadly. As tempting as it is. Still, to hate, to be angry, is human and will and does happen.

So remember, if you need to hate:

Don’t hate North Carolina.

Don’t hate Southerners.

Don’t hate the South.

Do hate bigots.

And then forgive them, teach them, enlighten them and help them grow as people. Turn them into allies, and they can do the same to others who were where they started. That’s how you create change not just more hate.

And that has to be the end goal here.

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We want to do it again.

Please note a few things about that poster:

THING NUMBER ONE: The time and date are not filled in.

THING NUMBER TWO: The show’s audio will be recorded and released on the internet.

These are both important. The show would take place in Atlanta. In June. We’re thinking June 22nd, it’s a Friday. But we have to book a venue. And when you book a venue for a strange show like ours, they like to know people will be coming.

Right now we don’t know if anyone wants to come to our show. Seriously, this is a problem. We really wanna do this, but we need to know if people are interested. It’s 2+ hours of Juliana singing and me telling stories and both of us discussing, with each other and the people around us (that’s you) the creative process.

HINT: The creative process often includes cookies.

This show will make us no money. Actually we’re gonna lose a lot of money doing it. I mean, to be perfectly honest with you – we will each lose decent money. There’s travel, set-up, time… it’s not the cheapest thing in the world. And we still want to do it. Because we love it and we thing you’ll love it. But you need to let us know that you want to see it, that you’re interested in our brand of madness.

As for why the recorded audio part is important, well… partly because even if you aren’t there you will get to hear the show! But also because this could be the start of something bigger. But it can’t be if we don’t do it.

We’re not asking for money. We’re not asking for anything other than people who are interested simply tell us they are interested. That’s all. If you are in the Atlanta area, or will be in late June and want to see a show that doesn’t come around often (we did the last one 2 years ago, lord) – just let us know.

Validate our existences, people! We’re needy artists! C’mon!

…ahem. I mean… You know… Whatever. We’re cool either way. No big deal.

…we love you…

I remember when a movie would have a poster or two, and a trailer or two and you would see them, and maybe a friend would go “Hey, hear about that new movie out?” and you would be excited by it and go see it and enjoy it.

When I saw Ghostbusters I knew exactly three things:

* It had a nifty ghost logo.
* It was a comedy.
* It was called Ghostbusters.

I knew literally nothing else. Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Dirty Dancing – I knew the posters, I knew the names and maybe I knew an actor or two and a genre. That was it.

Now? Come the fuck on! If I watch trailers I’ve seen at least 1/4 if not 1/2 the film. If I read a review it’ll go out of its way to spoil things more often than not. If I dare look at the internet anyone who has seen the film will start spoiling every inch of it within 10 minutes of seeing an early screener. They don’t even give you the chance to see it yourself.

I love trailers, is the thing. They didn’t used to be this bad. Now trailers have trailers and even then there are four trailers and six teasers and they all have to be kind of different so you have to run more and more film and…

Why am I not allowed to enjoy a movie without knowing what the inside of its liver looks like, anymore? What is the motivation? I really don’t get it. Movie companies spend hundreds of millions to advertise the film. But they start a year out. Assholes. That lead time forces them to show so much they might as well be Elizabeth Berkeley.

Let me know a month before the film opens. With one trailer. One or two posters. Simple. Give me enough information to excite me, and hold back enough so I enjoy the moment in time I am watching. Advertising costs would plummet, margins would grow, profits would increase and we would all enjoy movies far more again.

Instead it’s going the other way. I seriously expect trailers to become items you pay for, getting only teasers for free, within the next three years. And then they’ll show you even more.

So by the time the movie comes out the only part of you won’t have seen is the credits. Not the post-credits scene, you’ll know that, too. I mean the actual credits will be the only new footage you get.

I just wanna watch a movie. Without having seen it before I get there to see it. It doesn’t feel like a huge thing to ask.

My family isn’t religious, and hell, we’re not even of one religion. That’s a long story for another time, but suffice to say we didn’t exactly do church. Ever. Still, because of school, I had it all shoved at me.

But here’s the thing. I believe, deep in my heart, in the Superman concept. That doing good things, choosing good over harm and paying the price for it, is the best a person can do. Bringing hope to other people, improving the world, is just a personal choice away. Every choice, every minute of every day, is yet another chance to improve the world.

And yes those improvements are tiny, each one taken by itself. But over a lifetime it spreads. It inspires, it enriches, it builds and grows and takes on a life of its very own.

Which brings us back to Jesus, doesn’t it? Tossing aside all religious aspects of it, God and resurrection and all of that, you still have a man who was willing to die rather than not follow what he believed and what he believed was that we’re all worth giving a damn about and helping.

And that’s powerful shit.

The problem comes in when the people following that example go astray. We all do it. No one is perfect. Not every choice is made in service of the good. That’s fine and natural but when people build a structure based off of goodness, and then marry it to power – well trouble sets in.

Which is why I belong to no church, and probably never will. People do good things. In general, institutions do not. Mostly because at a certain point in their live cycle, all institutions, if they get anywhere, become about keeping the institution alive. Which means money, which means power, which means making choices that are no longer good. And when you’re a person a choice or two, here and there, that falls down is fine. When you’re a larger power that bad choice creates ripples.

It’s worse when the ripples hit the people involved in the institution itself. Because they have been taught, by the institution, that the institution itself always does good. And so when it makes a mistake the followers tend to whitewash it and take it as good, especially when it isn’t (because once you start admitting mistakes by the thing you trust the most, it’s a rocky road), and suddenly one bad choice spirals out into a thousand bad choices. Those beget others and you can find yourself with…

Well.

You can find yourself with an organization that is built on the single best of intentions suddenly promoting everything that foundation is against. And then, from the outside, it’s really easy to paint a large group as a single entity. Suddenly, that thing at the core is painted with that same brush.

And that’s a shame.

People love it when the good are shown to be bad. It makes them feel better about their own failings. They’ll rush and lynch anyone who falls from grace even the littlest bit, because it excuses them from not being perfect.

But shouldn’t we use it, instead, as a learning experience, and a chance to lift someone back up where they were? Isn’t that the chance we would want if we were in that space? I think it is, generally.

We all want to be that person who inspires, who does great things. We need to stop being ashamed we aren’t 100% there yet. None of us are. But if we work together maybe we can be.

Ignore the institutions.

Focus on the individual.

Raise yourself up, and help raise others, and they will help raise you. Every time.

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As always, you can also just hit play below, as well. Thanks, and we hope you enjoy!

Should I finish the novel (I mean I am in the very early stages of it here) and:

A) Look for traditional publishing for it

B) Kickstarter the novel, now/soon and go from there

C) Release it for free on-line and hope for donations

There are plusses and minuses to each of these. And I’m not sure what to do, here. I am a big fan of trying new ways of getting stuff out there. But I also feel like most people don’t read fiction on-line. So C feels like the weakest idea. A is the safest, of course. And B? Well… B is unknown territory.

I don’t know. I really don’t. What are your thoughts on all of this, I’m curious…

Would you fund something like this / pay for it / spread the word / give a crap? What are your gut feelings about all of this?