3.1 — Mullet

        May 19, 2026

3.1 — Mullet

        In case you believed last week’s intro, ha! It was satire! I’m still here, still human, and still working with the same cadre of human contributors. It was true though that that was the 100th issue. It is also true that we are starting a new volume. And in this new volume we are making a minor tweak where we put new business in the front.
→ May 17–23

Creative Code Denver Meetup No. 14 is on Monday (May 18). It’s free, though it has caused some people to becoming irreplaceable gems of The Company, and very dear friends of ours, which can be very costly in its own way. (Already passed.)
Also on Monday is Mary Ann’s Book Club, and we’re discussing Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente. By “we” I am being aspirational, as I have yet to get very far. It is also free, though it’ll cost you some time, both the reading and the discussing. (Also already passed.)
Every Wednesday forever (including this one, May 20) is Weekly Wednesday Worknight. $5, or free for members.
In the Making is on Thursday (May 21), and it’ll include works-in-progress from Madeleine and me, José, Lauren S., Earl, Sylvia, and Ale. $10, or free for members and presenters.

That’s it for this upcoming week. You can of course check out the events page on our website to see what’s happening further in the future.
← May 10–16
The Company turned two on Friday, and we held a modest celebration that was mostly just hanging out. The only slightly produced thing we did was load up all sixteen-hundred-thirty photos from volume two into a Keynote and cycle through them on the TV. It just ran in the background, while we ate pizza and played games and talked.
None of us watched the whole sequence, though it was easy to catch glimpses. The park hangs, the crane, Trevr’s show, your first visit, the salsa classes, Allyson and Livvy performing at The Moth, that day you held court, the Autumn Activity Day, the art show with all the receipts, the night of Halloween, the Thanksgiving table, the convertible delivery of the Christmas tree, the Old Year’s Resolution party, ice skating, Nerd Nite, the Annual Performance Review, the afternoon with the parachute, Prom. So many recesses and birthdays and events, and new friends. So many hugs.
A major purpose of this newsletter is to reminisce on the recent past, but even at the scale of a week it can sometimes feel like too high a concentration of nostalgia. At the scale of a year it’s overwhelming. A little like staring into the sun. Better to glance for only a moment, to instead look at the shadows.
Of the problems to have, this is one of the better ones. Having too much good you don’t know what to do with it. Having too many photos to pick from some weeks that you need four people to narrow them down. And even then, at the end of a year, it’s still too much.
—Ivan
Bureaucratic Minutiae

At Glint: Weather: Sylvia recounted what was fairly described as a shitstorm, Christof reported on clear skies and their meaning, Joshua remembered a snowmageddon with his dog, Madeleine talked about being under the weather and over the moon in Andorra, Beth pondered the mystery of a strange noise upstairs, Ivan remembered forgetting about worst things that ever happened to him, Riah shared about losing a fear of everything except lasagna, Mark told us about a poorly timed trip, and Allyson recalled a moment of sapphic manifestation.
At Worknight: Alex finished a chapter and rode the train to Westminster; Norton uploaded January punch cards; Ivan drafted a letter to Livvy and fussed with Hauntings music; Livvy finished the draft of a script; Will tried to render a pencil; and Joe did a Qualtric survey. Writeup by Livvy
After the recent death of our old TV, we now have a new TV. We have also ordered a gorgeous new TV stand, with wheels, suspecting that the sudden decline of our old TV may have had something to do with how frequently we jostled it.

To allay future confusion and provide some helpful context, future new subscribers to Paperwork will be receiving the following welcome email:
Hello there! And welcome to Paperwork, a very sentimental, often fictional, occasionally satirical weekly newsletter about what’s happening at The Company.
I’m Ivan, the main photographer and writer, and one of the people who runs this place.
Paperwork is mostly written for the people who hang around a lot, the members who make this place what it is. There’s a lot of easter eggs and callbacks and jokes, and a lot of reminiscing about the very recent past. Sometimes I get carried away writing long intros. I have a lot of fun.
If you’re just starting out here, the important bits for you are probably what’s happening in the coming week. So we’ve recently moved that section to the very top.
The rest? You can totally skip. Though hopefully you’ll come to something and if so you’ll maybe show up in photos and memories. At the very least, a quick skim will give you an idea of what this place is like. Just be warned: skimming an at-times fictional newsletter can be confusing.
Thanks for subscribing! More (a lot more) soon.
- Finally, a reminder that The Company is a member-supported gathering place. If you’d like to pop in for a workday and you know one of us, reach out to schedule a time and we can let you in for free. If we don’t know you yet, reach out so we can get to know you, or come by an event and say hi.

Nostalgia
Do you remember the joint birthday lunch of Case and Livvy, with the long table setup? How it began with a critique of The Devil Wears Prada? The birthday questions they answered? Or how we wondered about how to slice bread, and it led to Ryan ripping apart an apple? How eventually Norton just went downstairs to grab a knife? That we all stomped on the floor as he did so?
Do you remember the game of PIG? How Madeleine won? How after, she and Livvy won the two-on-two game, both in dresses?
The late afternoon TV setup? The birthday watch party of the 2003 live action version of Peter Pan? Livvy’s pre-show remarks, about being at another precipice? The discussion after, Madison K.’s hot take, and our quick reset?
Do you remember the lunch with Emily? Norton’s reading of the Fork Amnesty announcement? Our talk of alternative ways of opening bananas and apples? Our small and quick recess walk? How Livvy yelled “AIR FRYER!” at Mark when she saw him start to put a room temperature peach turnover in his mouth?
Or the Glint about weather? The set of us outside, beforehand, practicing our stories? All the new folks? How much the literal weather figured into so many stories? How we reset and lingered and gave so many hugs goodbye?
The mystery walk-in that we learned was Kyle, from months before? How Madeleine came dressed to ball? The Worknight discussion about the proper wording of my goal? Our discussion of HearseCon, and Will’s belated Christmas gifts?
Our lunch discussion of celebrity look-a-likes? How you ran into Madison B. during recess and she gave Livvy a gift card to ice cream?
Or the Friday with Ale and Nathan? Our big lunch? The recess walk that ended in Amendment XXI?
And do you remember the second Company anniversary party? How the room filled with friends, old and new? How we ate pizza and played games and talked, as a year’s worth of photos flipped by on the screen? That we ordered a second round? The games of Qwirkle and cribbage and spoons and Ricochet Robots?
Photos
Livvy clocking in on her birthday. It is a tradition of hers to a wear a birthday hat the entire day.
Livvy likes to ask people two questions on their birthday, and often people like asking them of her on hers. The questions: “What was something remarkable about your last trip around the sun?”, and “What’s something you know or hope will happen on your next trip around the sun?” Here she’s responding to the first.
Case’s birthday also happened recently, so they did a joint birthday lunch. Lots of folks showed up.
Case responding to the birthday questions. One of her answers to the first one was that she met José, who introduced her to The Company.
Of course there was cake, with two sets of candles blown out at the same time.
Without ever having seen it done, but merely having heard that it’s possible, Ryan attempted to split an apple in half.
He succeeded. (After great effort and much juice.)
A walk to Maci, still in birthday hats. Photo by Ellen
It’s a little harder to play basketball in birthday hats. Here, a game of PIG, which was won by Madeleine. (HORSE was originally suggested, but there wasn’t enough time. OX was considered as well, to save even more time, but upon a clarification of the rules, it was decided that PIG was the right amount of letters).
After PIG, a 2-on-2 game. Livvy and Madeleine versus Alex and Ryan. Not visible at this angle, but Livvy did continue to wear her birthday hat while playing.
The hats came back for everyone during the rest of the workday. Photo by Case
Setting up the new TV. Photo by Case
Alex and Lauren helping cull photos, after an earlier round by Madeleine and myself.
Part 2 to Livvy’s birthday celebrations was a watch party of the 2003 live action Peter Pan. She prepared some pre-show remarks about why this particular film is meaningful to her, and why she was interested in watching it again.
The discussion afterward.
Glint: Weather. Sylvia with a cautionary tale about the conditions that can lead to a perfect storm.
Christof sharing with us how a loss led to clear skies that, in a way, led him to Denver.
Joshua telling us about a time he and his dog remembered fondly.
Madeleine took us on a challenging hike through the heights of Andorra.
Beth telling us about a night of terror.
Me telling a story about two near-death experiences. Photo by Jim
Riah related her changing relationship to peace during stormy times.
Mark telling us about one of the days he was on drugs during a music festival that was cancelled because of a tornado.
One could easily be mistaken into thinking that all of Mark’s Glint stories involve drug use, but in fact it is just most of his stories.
Allyson with a story that ended with a tasteful cut to black.
On Monday, Madeleine played ball in a dress, but on Wednesday she came dressed for ball.
Will sharing a new page-turning animation he’s added to ZinesForever.
Star-tracking.
Thursday was quiet.
Lunch on Friday, with a guest appearance by Ellen’s friend, Ale.
A recess walk to a tiny library.
A stop at Amendment XXI.
We celebrated the two-year anniversary of The Company by skipping a show and cutting straight to the lingering.
There were also games. Myself, I don’t like many games, but this is one, Ricochet Robots, is of the few that I do. Next time you’re in we should play. Easy to learn, easy to drop in and out of.
Justin Schaffer (center), played by Mark Butler, was one of the main characters in Season 1 of the ensemble comedy The Company, and was heavily involved in most of the major arcs in that season, even including the starting of the eponymous community center (depicted in a flashback in Episode 8). He assembled desks, hosted and presented at many events, and had a romance with the character of Halie Willis (leading to the naming of the kissing room). However, repeated scheduling conflicts, along with an opportunity for Butler as one of the leads in a much higher-paying rom-com led to his departure, and required the showrunners to wind down the Justin arc, causing a pronounced drop in ratings. But before he transitioned over to appearances as an infrequent guest star, the writers hastily threw together an arc where Justin met Mark Gabriel, who went on to become one of the main characters in Season 2. Critics have noted that the Justin-meets-Mark arc was one of the more weakly-written moments in the show. In it, Mark just walks into The Company, and Justin suddenly remembers having met Mark at an event a few months before. Mark wanders around the space a little, asks some questions, and then just stays. The lack of believable motivation for Mark’s character, along with “the Noticer” having not remembered their earlier meeting, led the renowned television critic Jules Mercer to decry it “a disappointing and lazy use of deus ex machina, beneath what is otherwise a promising new show.” As with many shows, however, an early fumble in writing was more than made up for with the consistent charm that was brought to the new role. Longtime fans of the show were glad to see Butler reprise the role of Justin for the end of season 2, agreeing that it was nice to see the two of them in the same scene again.
Trevr hanging out with the two teachers who already had enough socializing in their weeks.
Half the table playing Qwirkle while the other half talks.
A game of cribbage, with a very hilarious and sometimes confusing how-to. Cribbage involves something called “pegging”, which people kept laughing about every time it was said. Also lots of math.
A game of spoons.
Management at the end of year 2. Photo by Madeleine

—
This issue of Paperwork was written by Ivan and was shot by Ivan, Ellen, Case, Jim, and Madeleine. Photo selection and editing by Ivan. Editorial support was provided by Livvy. This issue, and The Company itself, was made possible by the support of our members, Halie, Drew J., Justin, Mason, José, Mary Ann, Trevr, Allyson, Lizzie, Elijah, Michelle, Jim, Jacob, Mark, Sabrina, Beth, Dani, Chris, Will, Marcia, Rebeca, Sarah, Alex, Jessica P., Jessica S., Ben, Sam Ad., Christof, Ryan, Lauren T., Madeleine, Simon, Adam B., Gus, Lauren S., Earl, Maddie, Bennett, Sylvia, Morgan, and Joe.
Do you know anyone in the Denver area who might be looking for creative community? Feel free to forward this email along to them. Everyone loves Paperwork.
😎

                                Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to Paperwork:

            Email address (required)