Hello, friends new and old, hello!
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Hello, it is me Zach Mandeville! This is the newsletter of coolguy.website. It is good to talk to you!
"What the hell is this?", you may be thinking. A strong reaction, so early on, but I can help!
You either signed up for the newsletter at solarpunk.cool or here at coolguy.website. Both are written by yours truly. There was a pregnant pause between these letters, a pause long enough to move past human gestation and approach elephant or giraffe. I wanted to write to y'all again, but was no longer sure which place to send it from, and so I consolidated.
If you want to only read newsletters directly related to solarpunk and cool, have no time for cool guys with websites, then you can skip out right now. I don't mind, you got things to do, the day is getting away from you, the bus is on its way. Get to it!
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For the rest of you: how have ya been! My big update is that I have no clue what I am doing. That's sorta always been the case, but this year I'm leaning into it. I am trying to transcend my basic, all-encompassing confusion into a type of holy foolishness — to live like a dog, happy and striving and blissfully lost. Progress so far has been good.
The other big news is that I have a comedy show coming up in a month that I want to invite you too. I'll talk about it more in a sec, but... it truly has been a long time between emails. It may be we've lost the thread of this convo entirely. And so, I thought I'd do a brief history of the newsletter and where we at today. Let's get that beautiful context!
The story so far!
This newsletter emerged when we started doing weekly dinners at our home and wanted to invite our friends. I am not trying to brag, but I have so many friends that I hit the limit of people I could bcc at once (I have 26 friends). I didn't want to spend time figuring out how to do a mailmerge (I had food on the stove) so I figured, "I'll start a newsletter and send the invite that way!" Feeling motivated by how easy it was, I thought I'd make a website to go with it. This became solarpunk.cool and the solarpunk.cool newsletter.
Then—through no fault of the dinners or newsletter—Covid happened. We went into lockdown here in Aotearoa New Zealand and the only person I could legally eat dinner with was Angelica. We wanted to keep socializing though, and had been missing this event we used to do back in New York called Solarpunk Magic Computer Club. Back then we did it in this punk venue/greenery, now we'd try it full digital. I blundered my way through setting up a video chat site, and sent out another newsletter. No dinner was mentioned, now we were all about radical technology.
Solarpunk Magic Computer Club
We held Solarpunk Magic Computer Club every Sunday morning, and people came to it from all over. Not just people, the coolest most beautiful people I've met. SMCC has supernaturally good vibes. The newsletter, somehow, had global reach and the club was literally cosmpolitan, full of new friends from around the world that I've yet to meet in person.
Simultaneously, I found out my family back home subscribed to these emails. They had no way of coming to the dinner, and no intention of joining the computer club. They just wanted to know how my life was going. So this newsletter became a way to announce the next SMCC event, but would include little details about how healthy and happy I am, and what's new with Angelica, and how no one needed to worry, even though I was far away, cos I was thriving.
My family appreciated this addition, but so did a number of friends and, surprisingly, strangers. I started to get replies from people I hadn't met who had no plan on attending SMCC, but kept up with the emails. Some of them had no interest in technology, or any connection to me, they were just friendly internet strangers who wanted to read reviews of libraries in cities they'd never been. I loved it! I hope you're doing well!
Da burnout
Then, through no fault of the dinner,the newsletter or SMCC, and probably entirely due to covid, I got supremely burnt out and a little weird! I started to really hate staring at a computer. I had to do it for my job, and for most other aspects of my life at the time, and I started to doubt whether technology was ever good for us. When the weekend rolled around, all I wanted to do was go outside and stare at trees, or see if I could count every bird in my neighborhood.
I had a hard time finding the energy, and subject matter, for our clubs. It was a vibe that felt shared by the other main members, all of us pulled to spend more time away from the screen. Personally, though, I was unnecessarily stressed out, weighed down by an expectation (created only by me) to have some new subject each week and to teach this subject with unflappable expertise. I needed to deliver the goods, but had no clue anymore what the goods were. I wasn't sure how to say this, or even what I was trying to say, so instead I just disappeared. I am sorry for this.
The bounce back!
Now, in the year or more since the last email, I'm rediscovering a healthy love for these computers again — getting all emotional listening to an IBM 7094 sing Daisy Bell and finding a good balance between the ethereal and material worlds. I also started doing comedy a lot more, writing new material in a naive, foolish style that's made shows satisfying in a way I haven't felt since Olympia.
And now! Now I am back at the start, with an event I'd like to invite you to, and the "you" in that sentence is still blessedly more than my email client can handle! I do not know the scope or subject of this newsletter except that it's dear and personal and meant for family and friends, known or unknown, present and future. And so, I am sending it to you from my personal page.
That's essentially it, we're caught up!
Sweet! Now to the invite!
I am doing a solo show at Fringe this year called COMEDIAN OF THE YEAR 2069.
It is March 9th, 10th, and 11th at the Cavern Club, Te Whanganui-a-tara.
It is standup. The material feels new and daring for me, yet also invetiable. I am attempting literal solarpunk comedy — observsational humour for future worlds and such. It might go real bad and off the rails! I am currently in the mode where I am excited for what the show is shaping up to be, but it's a type of excited where I'm constantly nauseous and losing sleep. Historically, that's been a good sign!
The show is fairly affordable: more expensive than a cup of coffee, but less than a high-end smoothie. The jokes are AS GOOD as a high-end smoothie though. I promise you this!
If you are in town, I'd love if you could come. If you are not in town, I'd still love if you could come but understand if it's hard logistically.
one more thing!
OH! And also! I will be playing Welcome to Nowhere this Sunday. If you are heading up to that, I'd love to see you! And again, if you are not in town I'd still love it... but we've been over this!
No matter what, I miss y'all and wanted to say hi. Hello, how have you been?
your friend,
ZACH!