This is Finish Your Monsters, a weekly blogletter about the creative process. I'm sharing adventures in art and life as well as setting CLIFFHANGER goals for myself, so--

DID I MAKE MY GOAL?

My goal for the last two weeks was to get the website for our horror film, Dead Media, up and running.

And I did it with an asterisk.

(I Did It With An Asterisk is a possible title for my autobiography.)

The website is mostly done, but I need to put a few finishing touches on it. But I’ll take the almost win!

Focusing on work continues to be a struggle with everything going on back in my home state of Minnesota, but I did get some other stuff done.

On Friday, I combined my stress with my work. The Star Wars podcast/YouTube show I co-host, ForceCenter, did a livestream to raise money for organizations helping out in Minnesota. Our ForceCenter community was very generous with money which was great. But it also felt good to spread the truth of what’s going on with ICE’s lawless invasion. Ultimately, we raised about $900 for these two orgs: Community Aid Network Minnesota and Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

I also had a great meeting with a friend who can help with some of the producing/marketing tasks to get Dead Media out into the world. So a great step forward there!

And speaking of Dead Media getting out into the world, the movie will be appearing at its first film festival, Nevermore in Durham, North Carolina! Tickets and full schedule will be live on January 26th. But if you live in or near Durham, the festival is Friday, Feb 27th through Sunday, March 1st and Dead Media will be playing on both Friday and Saturday. More info next week!

A NICE THING THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK

I did several nice things that helped me refocus on important things like art, empathy, and calm (just a little bit of precious calm, dammit!)

All of those nice things were centered around celebrating the art and life of David Lynch.

Lynch is one of my favorite artists. Seeing Twin Peaks as a teen really opened up my eyes and my soul to how different art can be. To dealing with the honest truth that the world can be a nightmare while striving toward making it a beautiful dream.

As an adult, as I work on my own films, Lynch’s tenacity in advocating for unique personal art over treating stories as solely a business commodity has been a balm.

He passed away last year on January 16th and his birthday is January 20th. (He would have been 80 this year.) The dates being so close together means the second half of January is just a rolling David Lynch celebration.

On Friday, January 16th I was inspired to make time to make some art. I made a little film of Lynch’s tombstone in the Hollywood Forever cemetery. The cemetery allows fans to leave a collection of strange and wonderful physical tributes at the grave—everything from personal notes to cans of PBR to, for some reason, a ticket to the Minnesota State Fair.

I think of it as a living grave. You can actively see in the physical world, the impact this person’s art had on so many other humans.

You can check out my little tribute film here.

I also attended a screening of a rare documentary about Lynch traveling through India, a screening at a movie theater of an individual television episode of Twin Peaks, and I’m going to a Conversation with Cast & Crew event tonight.

But the thing that had the most impact for me was something I’m terrible at: Meditation.

On his birthday, Lynch’s foundation did a livestream on Vimeo, celebrating his life and inviting folks all around the world to join in 10 minutes of meditation—whatever that meant to them.

For me, it was just closing my eyes and breathing slowly for 10 minutes while letting my thoughts flit around wherever they want.

I’m not good at meditating because I feel my biggest problem is being stressed because I don’t have enough time. So taking the time to do nothing doesn’t feel like a good way to address that stress.

This is, of course, bullshit reasoning. I know it, you know it, the David Lynch livestream knew it.

So the stream was a great reason to call myself on my own bullshit and sit calmly with my eyes closed for 10 minutes.

It was fantastic.

The organization held a similar livestream last year. That was the first time I’d ever meditated. This was the second. I plan on doing it again next year.

So at the very least, I now have a solid plan to meditate once a year.

And if I can keep myself calm enough, maybe EVEN MORE!

LIGHT PLUGS

Three light plugs!

DEAD MEDIA MAILING LIST: We’ve got a mailing list for Dead Media. I’m only going to send out messages occasionally with concrete info and asks for help—screening dates, sales news, help getting the word out, etc. You can sign up here if you’re interested!

SHORT FILMS ON YOUTUBE: I had planned on releasing three of the short films I’ve made over the last few years, starting last Thursday, January 8th. With everything going on in Minnesota, I’m going to hold off. I really want to promote these extensively on social media and it just doesn’t feel right at the moment. But it would still be a huge help if you subscribed to my YouTube channel and hopefully it will feel right to put them out soon.

DONATIONS TO DEAD MEDIA: We need all the help we can get for film festival submission fees, advance money to book theaters, etc. Through Film North, you can make a one time tax deductible donation here. Thanks for all the help and support!

MY GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

I need to keep moving on the business for Dead Media and make time for art. So my goal for next week is some concrete forward movement on booking screenings and work on the outline for the next feature film.

YOUR GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

I would absolutely LOVE to hear what you're working on this week in the comments below. What's your goal? How can I help you literally finish your monsters?

A LITTLE SKETCH--

This week’s sketch is a self-portrait of myself attempting to meditate. I love disembodied heads and mind lightning. Thanks, meditation! Thanks again and best of luck finishing your monsters.