I AM AN AMATEUR

Oh, this is heavy:

“Being an artist within an economic system that favors private property, capital accumulation, wage labor, a price system, and competitive markets belittles my practice into a hobby. I am an amateur with no artist statement, thesis show, or MFA. The money I invest in creating art is a temporary loan to myself that I feel pressured to repay quickly by attempting to exhibit wherever the crowds are.”

From ‘A soft manifesto‘ over at The Creative Independent, via Naive Weekly.

SATISFIED, CALM, COOL, COLLECTED

I’ve known Sarah Saturday for well over a decade or more, dating back to my very first music blog. We finally got to meet in 2013 in Nashville for coffee, and have chatted on and off over the years.

Sarah recently released ‘Like You,’ and the opening line caught me off guard, in a good way:

Satisfied, calm, cool, collected

My mom used to say she was “calm, cool, and collected,” which made me and my sister laugh out loud, because she was definitely not calm, cool, and collected.

This is a sweet little reminder to put everything and anything you want out into the world because you just never know where it will land, or how it’ll be received.

SEVEN YEARS OF RUNNING

Today is my seven year “run-iversary.”

Seven years ago today a good friend texted me from a party, saying someone there challenged him to run a mile in eight minutes (this was seven years ago, so details might be fuzzy). He ran it, though it took longer than eight minutes. I tried it, and it took me 13 minutes, and I had problems walking down stairs for the next week.

According to Strava, since I started in 2016 I’ve gone on 1,419 runs, for 5,160 miles, in 1,006 hours, and climbed 229,692′ in elevation.

Biggest thing I learned? Slow down. Savor every fucking footstep, because one day each place you run will be the last time you ever run it.

Here’s some photos I took from runs over the years: