Greetings and welcome to my very own newsletter! I used to write one of these as part of my campus job and it was one of my favorite bits. Two people told me they enjoyed that writing so hopefully that means you, the reader, are in for a treat as well.
The purpose of this column is mostly to share my work. I have a semi-active YouTube channel that I’ve kept running in its current form for the past seven years. I’ve used the Meta platforms for promotion for a while, and I don’t plan on totally abandoning those, but I also don’t want to invest in them more than the minimum amount of time it takes to get word out about a new release. I’ve experienced the timesuck of the apps and their numbing properties enough times to know I need them at arm’s length. Best wishes to my friends who are employed through those platforms – keep hustling baby.
Still, I invest the majority of my free time into creative projects and I want to do a better job helping the completed versions of what I make find their audience. If that means a handful of close friends and family are kept in the loop, then it was completely worth it to write this thing.
Carrie On or TikTok Done?
I also would like this writeup be somewhat personal, or at least less impersonal than my online presence has been up to this point. I’m still interrogating how much of my candid self I want to exist on the internet vs. playing a character or being behind a camera. Last year I did a daily project watching/reading and reacting to all works within the Sex and the City franchise, and the highlight was getting to engage with the people who followed along. This was a sequel to my 365 day Jack Bauyear spanning my 24th year alive. ‘Six and the Twenty’ was six months and twenty days, kicking off with the original series’ anniversary in June and concluding on December 26th. Social media people were much more interested in this one than 24. In addition to daily reactions, there have been season recaps with guests, a trivia video, a fantasy draft; an abundance of footage of me discussing the ladies who lunch. That all lives over on TikTok and Instagram @sixandthetwenty. Under threat of the TikTok ban I confirmed my intention to cover the upcoming third season of And Just Like That…, so in the coming months anticipate a cherry atop this melty sundae.
Working out my coll-abs
In the interest of keeping it personal I’ll share that I’m writing this on my 27th birthday. The past year for me, or the five months where my thoughts weren’t filtered through Carrie Bradshaw, was about reenergizing. Since I moved to Chicago in 2021 I have worked nonstop. Not trying to complain or I guess brag, but that was my existence. Working on paying jobs and personal projects that were funded by those jobs. Closing out 26 I’m grateful I had the opportunity to reflect and decide where I want to place my energy going forward. I also got to assist on friends’ projects more-so than in a typical year. One example is “Ice Maggots”, a music video I directed and edited for pibblepap in October. I almost never get to execute someone else’s idea. Even though this one was a sprint to produce, it was a joy to get to work on.
I was able to go to New York twice in the past couple of months, once to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s and again before Martin Luther King Jr. Day to work on a feature film. Because the film was crowdfunded, this is one of the only times something I’m involved with is announced well before it gets released. My dear friend Grace Tarducci, with whom I’ve collaborated several times now, including on a feature called Blue World we shot in 2021, is embarking on making a very ambitious, moody, stylish adaption of Alice Through the Looking Glass. We only shot a couple of days and it will take some time to complete but I have a ton of confidence in Grace. She’s fearless and determined, which in the DIY filmmaking space is a vital combo. She dreams big and puts her limited money where her mouth is. She also makes very different work than I do so it’s especially gratifying to be a part of her process and see her point of view realized. If you want to support Grace and the new project you can do so here. And if you want something else to tide you over Grace and I made a short film called Shrimp Cocktail that just dropped.
As always, I was so elated to see loved ones in New York. New York and New Jersey are a massive part of who I am and I feel blessed every time I get to go back and devour a delicious slice of pizza.
Thanks very much for reading! I left a subscribe button here if you thought it was good. See you soon!
Love,
Eric