[DON'T HIT PLAY YET - I'll tell you when to start the audio]
NOTE: If you're reading Archive Highlights in order, you may be confused right now, as you were expecting to find details about the Telelibrary as Part three of my ongoing series looking at the different "alternative payment" Systems found across my work. As it turns out, doing nearly 3 years/almost 1500 calls has generated a lot of data, and thrown me some very interesting findings worth exploring (along ...
2022-11-30 15:10:49 +0000 UTC
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After about 6 months of sprinting, I’m finally beginning to catch my breath and reflect on the (questionable) feat of launching two shows for the Philadelphia Fringe which segued immediately into a New York run. These shows are by no means over (Philadelphia folks, I’ve got some early December treats coming your way), and in fact Undersigned is still happening in New York City (public times...
2022-11-08 00:17:54 +0000 UTC
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One last scare for Halloween?
Heads up - these excerpts from this short story in "Her Body and Other Parties" get a little trippy, and fairly gory towards the end. But if you're looking for some classic, brooding, menacing horror vibes, then you slowly drove up the right winding mountain path.
2022-11-01 03:09:36 +0000 UTC
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October Archive Highlight - “Pay Up - pt 2;
“Management Bets That You Won’t”
This is the second in a series of posts about my experiments in different payment Systems across my projects The Telelibrary, Fair Trade, and 2022-10-31 10:59:01 +0000 UTC
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Just in time for spooky season - a surprising collection of short horror stories that bend what the genre can do and be. My latest work is pitched as “a psychological thriller for an audience of one.” Similar to Machado, I’m hoping audiences are willing to challenge and stretch their understanding of what a “thriller” is, and embrace the possibility that real terror is so...
2022-10-07 23:25:57 +0000 UTC
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Hey everybody,
(hi Dr. Nick!)
Coming at you with my excerpts from "Finite and Infinite Games" by James Carse. Honestly, it's one of those books I image I'll read a few times, and maybe even excerpt again someday, but for now, I chose what choice bits I could that hit me strongest this time through.
Join me for the first time! Join me for your nth time! Or join me next time, next month, when I'll have something completely different for you.
2022-10-01 03:30:01 +0000 UTC
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September Archive Highlight - “Pay Up - pt 1;
“You’re always Handing Me Money”
One of the things I like about returning to a given Festival year after year is the chance to build an ongoing relationship with a patron. Every Philadelphia Fringe, there are a few folks who will reliably look me up and take a chance on whatever I have on offer this year. Some of these do so because they are excited by the themes or forms I’m exploring — and a few do it simply ...
2022-09-30 20:26:18 +0000 UTC
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Hey there,
Thank you all for your patience this month - after a paranoid, mask-filled trip, I naturally caught COVID from my first close contact upon coming home, in what rapidly proved to be mathematically the worst possible time. As such, I have been dealing with a mess of canceling and rescheduling shows, contacting venues, and also doing the “human body” thing, which increasingly appears to be nothing more than a list of chores.
BUT since Septemb...
2022-09-17 04:03:56 +0000 UTC
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EDIT: "Wait a minute, it's not August?!!?" you cry, Calendar clutched in your fists of indignant rage.
Well, yes you are correct - but I'm on the road in another time zone, and WIFI crapped out last night, which means I'm uploading this in your wee hours on the technically September side of things. If it's any consolation, I promise I was more stressed about this than you were.
This month we're making your High School teacher's dreams c...
2022-09-01 10:12:53 +0000 UTC
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I’m on Vacation this month,* so this will be a quicker edition, but while organizing files on my desktop (yes, delays at JFK were THAT bad), I came across a screenshot that reminded me of a few conversations I’ve had lately about remote performance. This picture comes from the midst of final rehearsals for The Fleecing; previously-in-person annual show about a cult dedicated to preserving the value of money. I played a few bit parts, including a special hidden “side-ro...
2022-08-27 07:39:39 +0000 UTC
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Yes, this month is something different — I’m coming back to Adam Grant’s “Give and Take” to raid some of the studies from the bibliography (I’ve always loved the idea that learning should be framed as “stealing every idea that isn’t nailed down). It’s a Summer of big months: Last month we focused on one of my two new shows launching this Summer: “Undersigned.” We looked at...
2022-08-08 13:18:59 +0000 UTC
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This month’s excerpt is is an indulgent pick - a little something from one of my childhood favorite series. Lots of little details in this book that inspire me, but I returned to it originally as I was “shopping around” for style notes while building the voice and tone of Undersigned.
Enjoy!
2022-07-31 21:24:25 +0000 UTC
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As anyone who has spent more than seconds on my instagram can tell you, I’m not exactly social-media savvy, and I don’t get top marks for marketing. Part of this is logistical (when your shows have 1 audience member at a time, you don’t need nearly as many audience members), and part of this is admittedly my disposition; as a newly-30-year-old always-90-year-old-man, I’m too crotchety for that particular grind.
I do, however, find joy in crafting the languag...
2022-07-28 20:48:58 +0000 UTC
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This month, we take our first piece of Adam Grant's "Give and Take."
"First?!?!" You say ('you' naturally being a hypothetical person deeply invested in the format of my Patreon posts).
That's right, this book is probably going to break a few patterns, as there's plenty to get into. To find out what, get into it—which is to say, click a button and I'll get in for you.
Otherwise, skip this one - you'll only miss out on learning the title of one of m...
2022-07-01 03:56:06 +0000 UTC
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It’s Summertime! A joyous, sticky time in which I wake up exhausted and can’t tell if that heat in the air is the season or our country continuing to burn down in 50 simultaneous ways (one of which being our refusal to acknowledge and address our worsening of the seasons).
Being as I am clearly in a festive mood, this month I thought I’d look back at a project that ab...
2022-06-22 17:54:27 +0000 UTC
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P.S. I made a mighty push to finish this game and post this excerpt on May 31st ... but seem to have not actually hit the "post" button. Please enjoy these belated fruits of my labor.
Hey everyone,
It's the Reading Excerpt for May - GRIS, by Nomada Studio.
This game is very elegantly done, and proved a great chance to talk about design via negativa So...
2022-06-07 12:38:48 +0000 UTC
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May is almost gone, which means we are rapidly approaching the halfway point of the year.
If that makes you feel uneasy (or downright physically unwell), know that you're not alone in screaming. As the days fly by, they're catching me hard at work on a few projects, for which exciting updates are forthcoming. That said, for this highlight, I'm chasing the deep, subtle, complicated shades of feelings that can only really come out when they're given some time and space. Let's...
2022-05-29 15:45:16 +0000 UTC
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Let's read some Game Theory!
... or like, skim—do you want to skim? I'll help you skim. Take a listen to dip your toe into the heady frustrating world of trying to prove mathematically that maybe one shouldn't be a prick (sometimes).
I'm running these numbers with the guidance Robert Axelrod to better understand "The Prisoner's Dilemma," as it's currently the starting point for a work I've been slowly bringing into alpha testing.
You can refer to...
2022-05-01 00:30:40 +0000 UTC
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This Month I’m focusing on my 2014 project [MISSING] again, but this is definitely one of those themes you find running throughout my work, so there are some minor spoilers for Telelibrary ahead as well (nothing you wouldn’t find in your first session). So if you’re just jumping on-board with these updates and/or if you haven’t read my previous post about [MISSING], I’d gently sugges...
2022-04-20 15:24:24 +0000 UTC
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"The Stanley Parable is a first person exploration game. You will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end. Contradiction follows contradiction, the rules of how games should work are broken, then broken again. This world was not made for you to understand.
But as you explore, slowly, meaning begins to arise, the paradox...
2022-03-30 22:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Celebrating 1 year of Patreon, and 2 years of the Telelibrary
Hey everyone,
Don’t touch that play button yet!
It’s a little something I’d like to give you, but it wants to live in context with the piece below. This is a piece of writing I had planned to release later, but since today is officially the 2 year anniversary of the Telelibrary and the 1 year anniversary of my Patreon, it seemed an appropriate time to highlight Gratitude. It feels v...
2022-03-24 02:15:22 +0000 UTC
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UPDATE 5/6/22: Based on messages from interested folks, I've added a few more available times for this piece! Check them out below
Do you love rough drafts, sketches, and experiments? Do the terms "short form" get you excited? Do you secretly wish theater would start and end faster than it takes to order a pizza? Do you feel an unplaceable but undeniable anxiety that seems exacerbated every time you realize there is no escape from the economic systems shaping your life...
2022-03-24 02:15:01 +0000 UTC
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Hello February Readers,
I'm in the midst of juggling many things, (including a fast-approaching in-person engagement for The Telelibrary at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, MO), but making time to read and hunt for inspiration on projects in development. I've got a few works in progress that have me thoughtful about bargains, but this month's reading made me very excited for upcom...
2022-02-28 03:53:46 +0000 UTC
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This is Part 2 in a series on the Opening Few Minutes of the Telelibrary. If you haven't read Part 1, or you need a refresher, it's recommended you begin at the beginning. Otherwise, you're welcome to join me here - 75 seconds into a Telelibrary call.
"What would you like to call me?"
There are countless stories of humans and our capacity to2022-02-19 17:01:02 +0000 UTC
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This month I read "A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence," by Kartik Hosanagar, and I enjoyed it even more than I expected.
Take a listen for a few choice excerpts. You'll find two images or texts referenced in the selections below, marked [1] and [3] for the excerpt they correspond to.
[1]
2022-02-01 03:30:05 +0000 UTC
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Part 1 in a series on the Opening Few Minutes of the Telelibrary
Hey everyone,
I want to thank you all for your patience this month with Patreon content. Unfortunately, I’ve had some family matters that have needed care and attention, and so much of this month’s content has been pushed back. I’m grateful for your understanding.
That said, I’m glad to have this chance to share with you a little side-project ...
2022-01-31 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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This month I read Priya Parker's "The Art of Gathering," and used it to look at one of my favorite questions from my AMA earlier this year:
The whole thing became slightly more involved that anticipated, and I am once again dangerously close to starting a podcast, but thankfully for us all, that ever-presen...
2021-12-29 19:03:10 +0000 UTC
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And just like that, we’ve almost run out of 2021! This month is a busy one, with the 1st round of playtests for Immodest Proposal done, 1000 shows for the Telelibrary, moving apartments, and the release of the game I designed for 2021-12-22 23:00:04 +0000 UTC
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It's technically-within-the-vague-parameters-of-the-beginning-of-the-month, which must mean it's update time!
Reading list is in your inboxes, jumping into a new book for which I have high hopes, and passing along one of my all-time favorite reads on designing experiences. I am looking forward to your thoughts on both!
In other news, as you know, I was asked to collaborate on the Obvious Agency’s “Care Pa...
2021-12-04 01:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
This month I've been reading The Screwtape Letters, both because it is absolutely delicious and for a secondary, far more practical reason to be imminently discussed (!)
I think I must have dog-eared and even recorded 2-3 segments of it, because the whole damn book is so enjoyable, but this particular excerpt stuck with me. As someone outside the particular theological conversation being had, I am still struck by the resonance of the "dim uneasines...
2021-11-30 03:45:03 +0000 UTC
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