Hey Hartlist,
Monday night in the WNYC/Greene Space greenroom before the Civilians gig, a fellow performer asked me “So what are you working on now?”
I thought for a moment and realized that the Irish Arts workshop of Iron John was done, the 3-month band residency at Rockwood was done, the residency to develop How To Read Tarot Cards at the Cell theatre was over…
… and I replied, honestly, “Nothing.”1
JUST THE GIGS
None right now! Stay tuned!
BUT if you missed last night’s installment of The Civilians “Fantastic Flops & Failures” Residency at WNYC The Greene Space featuring yours truly,
you can watch the whole thing here!
FROM THE CHRYSALIS
For some reason the phrase “a little bit of housekeeping” irks me, so I won’t use it. I’ll just point out that I have begun offering paid subscriptions on this here substack.
This means you now can, IF you choose, pledge some (annual, I think?) support to keep The Chrysalis unfolding. Each of these newsletters is very dear to my heart and I take them (and you, reading audience!) very seriously. Each post usually represents exactly two hours (it’s weirdly consistent) of reflection, pacing, staring, typing, deleting, typing again, and gnawing on whatever is within reach (snacks, on a good day). Writing this kept me sane in 2020 quarantine, and it keeps me writing, generating, thinking, and sharing in 2023. I’m endlessly happy to hear you are reading it and I definitely have plans for future paid content including audio versions for the podcast types and more music/video content for people who miss the weekly livestream concerts, etc.
Oh so many possibilities. The Internet, am I right?
The other day I heard myself use the phrase “coming back online” metaphorically.
Someone I barely know had ambushed me at the coffee shop with the faux-casual question “So… you working?”
And I was trying to say that Things (ie, work, the Live Arts, etc) are coming back to life, becoming more available, or in the parlance of our times, “opening up again” since the pandemic. But what I said was “Things are, you know, coming back online again, which is good.” And as I scurried off (before they could ask if I “do it, like, full time”), I clocked a confused look. But it didn’t occur to me for another hour or so that I had, in fact, used the word “online” to mean “in real life”.
I HAD USED THE WORD “ONLINE” TO MEAN “REAL LIFE”.
I still don’t know whether to laugh or rend my garments.
The Civilians show on Monday featured, as always, scenes and songs made from real interviews with real people. Because in this particular residency the interviews were culled from call-ins to the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC, we also had a few funny clips of those calls. One segment of the show, however, featured additional, fictional content. And as a transition to part of that segment, we used a sound cue which involved a single recorded line in the voice of the host. Except it was not actually his voice, but a sentence crafted by AI to sound just like him, which it did. As in, just another day in the life of our tech team, in the rehearsal room, that week, NBD. Just some casual robot involvement which is not a big deal in itself but kind of also is for me because it was my FIRST casual robot involvement in a piece of art I worked on. (What next? Do I have to hang out with AI in the Green Room? Will they hog the mirror?)
I think I was allowed to tell you about that. Anyhoo…
I was about to apologize for this digression and say it has nothing to do with my theme this week, but it does. I think probably every artist to some degree experiences the unpleasant stomach-drop sensation of being asked “What are you working on?” when the answer is ‘Nothing’. It never quite feels easy. Even if you JUST finished a major project, or three. Even if life has taught you there is always something around the corner. Having to admit that Right Now you are Between Jobs can, in our culture, feel like admitting that you didn’t do your homework (or maybe that you haven’t been showing up to class (work, life) at all). And it often feels very black & white, either you’re in or you’re out. You’re an artist? Show me your papers. No, these are not current.
It’s not always about legitimacy, or what people think… there’s always also the fear of falling through the cracks if “too much” time goes by. We fear losing ground irretrievably if we don’t produce daily or get cast for a while, if we go to grad school, have a kid, take a lunch break. ( I wonder whatever became of her. Chipotle, you say?)
Anyway my point is maybe that anxiety is not helped by the advent of Robots Who Write Stuff and Can Even Do Voices, You Guys.
Look, just for the record: Has no one seen the movies? Any of them?
The Robots. Kill. The Humans. Eventually. Every. Time.
“But they could become so advanced and do so much stuff!”
Speaking of Real Life, a huge thank you to everyone who came to see us play Rockwood, and everyone who showed up to The Cell to see the first iteration of How To Read Tarot Cards. It was a terrifying, exhilarating, fun, vulnerable, meaningful experience for me and I am quite pumped to see where I can take it next.
I’ll tell you more about it when I’ve finished digesting the experience.
Ie, IN THE FUTURE….
See you next week. Try to stay one step ahead of the robots.
Rebecca
except looking for new places to do How To Read Tarot Cards!