[Seth Says] We learned, in 1492...

...a bunch of stuff that wasn't true.

Who should be sacrificed to right this wrong?
 

Yes, today is Indigenous Peoples Day, formerly Columbus Day, formerly Monday Still A Normal Working Day, showing that while the current state of the world may be dispiriting, some things at least do improve over time. If you're not familiar with the full background of all this, why not read my classic column from half a decade ago, The Almost True History Of Columbus Day.

You might also wonder, "Seth, you said you weren't going to link us more than two columns per newsletter, what gives?" Don't worry, I'm sticking to that like a betentacled squid.
 

My latest column isn't a pure haha funny piece, isn't a pure political piece, but A Secret Third Thing.

Also worth noting is that amidst the memes, jokes, and poking at Facebook, I wrote about the hypocrisy of our country's marijuana policy, and literally the day after it was published, President Biden signed an executive order to release all federal prisoners jailed for marijuana possession. I am always delighted to have one of my columns made less relevant/correct by the improvement of the world. It happens so rarely.

So that's this issue's new column. What, you were expecting two? Well, as of this month my column is no longer weekly, not removed entirely, but a secret third thing. Okay, not that secret, it's just been reduced to fortnightly. You may have gleaned my subtle allusions to the limited time nature of my weekly column over the past few newsletters. Or you may not have; I'm not a gleaning expert. (I'm not a cleaning expert either, as evidenced by the fact that yesterday was the first time I cleaned my desk in about a year.)

But the fact of the matter is that newspapers are all in a budget crunch, and value to an editor-in-chief is determined by what gets the most clicks to drive advertising dollars, and my column isn't it. So for now, one fortnightly column, and we'll see what the future holds. (I'm gonna guess more covid, political unrest, and awesome new video games.)

Still, all this has me thinking:
 

I think one of the tragedies of creative practice is that we often equate quality with a large (paying) audience -- mainly because just like everything else in life, people don't understand what they can't measure, and so money ends up being the measuring stick people use to determine success and value, and in the creative arts, money generally manifests as audience size.

And certainly social media has only hyper-intensified the propensity for people to draw a direct correlation between your follower count and your value as an artist. If you have a lot of people watching you, you're great, if not, you're worthless.

This is bullshit. 

Sadly, it's an insidious kind of bullshit which is of course perpetuated by the business people who care about money and follower count and audience numbers and very little about any ethereal unmeasurable thing like "artistic quality".

But anyone who is a fan of any performing art can tell you that audience size is irrelevant at best to the quality of a performance. 

Music fans will often recount the best show they ever went to, usually in a tiny room in the middle of nowhere. One of the best concerts I ever went to was when Vienna Teng was randomly on Williams College campus, playing a little concert in the then-new student center Paresky, and I think Debbie and I were a full 25% of the audience. Here was a talented musician putting her heart into some stunningly beautiful pieces, performing for a single-digit crowd.

I'm more of a comedy fan than a music fan. And while I've seen some big names in big spaces, by far the best shows have always been at tiny venues with a limited audience. Possibly the most I've laughed non-stop at a comedy show, face hurt from laughing, was a little show in Northampton where Emo Phillips was in the tiny Iron Horse bar. It was sublime. Meanwhile, I've been to arena shows, and they are just not as good. (Frankly, the last time arena shows were truly great was ancient Rome. I'm not lion.)

Poetry, more than any form of performing art, is usually about small crowds. Poets perform at coffeehouses and tiny slams and open mics. There are poets with huge audiences at giant events, and frankly, it's weird. I love a tiny poetry reading. 

Did I think about all this to try to make myself feel better about the fact that my audience is somewhat small? Yes, obviously. But that doesn't mean it's not true. I know that "harsh truth" and "hard truth" are phrases that get trotted out a lot, but I think there's a lot to be said for "comforting truth". 
 

1) It's a nice day out, you could get out to enjoy the air* (*Not available in all areas, check your local listings for details.)

2) You could eat some really delicious food 

3) There are lots of interesting things to read and fun games to play


I think I'm going to go avail myself of all of those truths, in the time-honored minimum server wage order of 213. In fact, I can't wait any longer, I'm going to go right now. Thanks for reading, and see you in two weeks.



Not A Waiter,
Seth