vol. 2, no. 21 | Charismatic Megafauna

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                October 7, 2025

            vol. 2,  no. 21 | Charismatic Megafauna

            At the end of Jacob’s PowerPoint Party presentation he mentioned the term ‘charismatic megafauna’, which, as I understand it, refers to animals that are really cute, and therefore more resistant to existential threats. We humans feel compelled to keep the really cute animals from all dying off.
And that got me thinking: wouldn’t it be nice if tiny heartfelt indie community centers were considered so compellingly adorable that it was easy for them to flourish?
Clearly we all think we’re cute—and we’re so grateful to all of you who keep this place existing through your memberships and ticket fees—but wouldn’t it be nice if society at large thought spaces like ours were so overwhelmingly cute that there were tax breaks and incentives and protections to keep us and our kind around?*
We will continue to think hard about our own personal survival, but if we could also all do our very best to be as cute as possible we’d really appreciate it. We’ve definitely got no chance (nor desire) to be too big to fail, but too cute to fail would be great.
—Ivan
Happenings
This week:
Mild Salsa No. 8, Sunday, October 5
This already happened, but I’m again leaving it in for the record. If you’re interested in joining in the future, these always happen the Sunday after PowerPoint Party.
Weekly Wednesday Worknight, Wednesday, October 8
The Company is about combining creative work with good friendships. Make an appointment with your side project this (or any) Wednesday at a Worknight, where we oscillate between enforced, focused, quiet time and optional chatty social time.
$5, free for Company and Moonlight members
Work together →
Future Weeks:
Glint: Flight, Tuesday, October 14
True, personal stories, told live, without notes. Pretty much exactly like The Moth, except without the competition, on Tuesdays instead of Fridays, and everyone knows each other (or is about to). Our next theme is “Flight“.
Do you have a story of flying? Of airplanes or travel? A story of taking off? Or running away? Or escaping? Or fighting instead? Do you have a story that involves stairs? Or samples? Of feeling so amazing that it felt like you were soaring? Of transcendence, liberation, dreams, or imagination? Whatever your interpretation, we want to hear it.
So far on the list we’ve got Emily R., Trevr (🤞), me, Joe, Lauren S., Gabe, Anjali, Allyson, Madison, Livvy, Jim, and Lauren T.
If you’re also interested in telling a story, reply and let us know.
$10, or free for tellers and members.
Come fly with us, let’s fly, let’s fly away →
Ishmael Book Club, Thursday, October 16
Mark once read a book that still means a lot to him, and he’s hosting a book club about it. If you’re interested in joining, we’ll be reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, in three sections. The first to be discussed will be chapter 1–5.
Think mythologically →
In the Making, Thursday, October 23
In the Making is a showcase of original, amateur, creative works in progress, finally back after a season off! Are you interested in sharing about a passion project, and what you’ve been learning through it? We’ve got a lotta presenter spots left. Are you interested in just attending and learning about people’s creative work? We’ve got roughly forty spots left.
$10, or free for members and presenters.
Make an appearance →
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Also coming up: Offsite: Madeleine competing at The Moth GrandSLAM (Oct 24), The Third Annual Creative Coding Art Show (Oct 25), Death and All Her Friends (Oct 28), PowerPoint Party No. 32 (Nov 1).
Nostalgia
Do you remember the everything-but-the-birthday-party party? How we dressed for slumber, rodeos, searches, weddings, and political movements, and held a party dedicated to none of those?
The afternoon Rebeca stopped in, and we were glad for the distraction? How afterward we went to a very windy recess but couldn’t fly the kite for reasonable and well-argued fear of electrocution? That minutes after we got back there was a downpour?
Or the book club discussion for which Alex was tragically absent? How we talked about our phones, and information and communication technology, and the authors’s writing style? That Evan held forth on his hopes for intention, and read an excerpt from his delayed but forthcoming manifesto?
Or the recess where you used an older form of information and communication technology that was more aligned with your goals? How Molly came to visit after?
The lunch where Gus asked how we keep track of memories for nostalgia, and I jotted down a note about that? That we discussed the difference between art versus craft?
How we successfully surprised Alex and it was more fun that we thought it would be? How we spotted a chicken from the playground and wondered whence it came? The touring exhibition of a limited sampling of the Alex Prinsen Media Theory Library for Anti-Technopolistic Thought? How we formed an orderly line to say goodbye to Beth?
Do you remember the star ceremony where we laughed so hard at the unexpected knot? All our twisting attempts to untangle?
How we interrogated Trevr about what he’s looking for in a partner? How our questions became increasingly about our own idiosyncrasies? “She’s really nostalgic: yes or no?” That we got too much pizza? That it was terribly hot on the way back?
Do you remember the last-minute Nacho Libre watch party in preparation for Dan’s return? The PowerPoint Party that followed? The tips, the facts, the stories, the hallucinations, the vindication, the arguments, the athleticism, and the possible key to our survival?
Do you remember how afterward we dressed in dark colors and sat in a circle around a candle and passed Norton’s skull around? How we said goodbye to the past, put on party hats, and danced an awkward dance?
Bureaucratic Minutiae
Lauren T., frequent PowerPoint Party presenter, is running a donation drive at The Company for the Foothills Animal Shelter where she works! Up through the next PowerPoint Party (November 1) we’ll be accepting the following items: blankets, towels, washcloths (no sheets or pillows please), cat toys, Churu, Gerber baby food (beef or chicken, glass jars), canned chicken (in water), canned tuna (in water), and kitten milk replacer. Feel free to bring any items by during the workday or to events, and we’ll tell you where to stash them. For any questions, reach out to Lauren at laurenthomas527@gmail.com. (Feel free to use this Amazon Wishlist she’s put together.)
Mary Ann’s Book Club gave a collective rating of 3.2 stars to Stand Out of Our Light.
At Worknight: Drew designed five compositions and created the first five slides for his In The Making presentation; Will worked on his Where’s Waldo Watercolor; Priscilla carefully read documentation; Mary Ann B. readied Ridwell; Ivan disambiguated 20 names in Punch-o-tron and finished reading a book; Livvy worked on printing from JS; Lexi printed pet forms; Norton added visit length to poisson composition; and Alex implemented URL blocking.
At PowerPoint Party No. 31: Marcia expressed strong opinions about pasta, Gaby reflected on the meaning of Bad Bunny’s residency, Micah gave an AI-assisted presentation, Lauren S. spoke passionately about GLP-1s, Christof shared the role of comics spaces in his life (as in graphic novels not comedians), Dan handily won an argument, Simon argued that there may be ethical consumption under cannibalism, Lauren T. taught us about a pleasant, engaging, docile man with a keen sense of humor, who knew that he had a poor memory and accepted his fate, Madeleine formed a pole vaulting team, and Jacob finally told us what his job is.
Thanks to Mason and Lizzie for their help setting up, to Lizzie for taking tickets, to Allyson for tending the punch clock, to Alex and Jessica P. for keeping time, and to Caryn for summarizing the evening.
We have a time clock. Partially because, hey, we’re a Company! And mostly because we love having a physical record of (almost) everyone who’s been in the space. People punch in and out when they visit. At the end of each month, we stack up all the cards by visit count in the Fibonacci sequence. Here’s the data for September:
1 visit: 43 people 2 visits: 11 people 3–4 visits: 14 people 5–7 visits: 10 people 8–12 visits: 3 people 13–20 visits: 5 people 21+ visits: 1 person
Total people: 87 People who came more than once: 44
Other notes:
Norton and Livvy were away this month!—leaving Ivan a lonely Manager in 21+.
Welcome Liz to 13+!
This was the first month ever (excluding exceptional December) where there were more people who came two or more times to The Company than people who came only once.
Note: We don’t generally record visitors to Cuppa if they are only stopping in for Cuppa. Many people came through the space that are not represented here!
Inevitably: incomplete and messy data.
*I do realize that I might just be describing non-profits.
Finally, a reminder that The Company is a member-supported gathering place, and if you know any of us, you’re welcome to pop in any time for free (outside of events). If you know that one of us is here and you’d like to come by, reach out and we can let you in.
Photos
Happy Birthday to Sam Ar.! Photo by Lizzie.
Rebeca in her first weekday appearance!
The very rainy rain right after recess.
The book club discussion was very fun. While the collective rating of the book itself was somewhat low, the collective rating of the discussion was very high.
Evan was on a tear. He’s been thinking about ideas like this for a very long time, and this might have been the moment when he was reading to us from the book he started to write on the topic over a decade ago.
On the whole I think it’s fair to say that, in this group of people,
we’re fans of the older versions of information and communication technology.
Alex, who recommended the book, had to miss the discussion for reasons of sickness, so we caught him up the next time he was in. The next time he was in also involved a moment where we were getting ready to leave for recess but he had to finish something off for work really quick, so we waited for him on the porch and all yelled “surprise!” when he opened the door. It seemed like it might not be that fun, but it was so much more fun than we expected.
This is just to show that the Little Man area has been overrun by Charismatic Megaflora.
Alex Prinsen, Chief Curator of the Alex Prinsen Media Theory Library for Anti-Technopolistic Thought, shares a careful selection of items with a neophyte.
Beth Bogdewiecz, Director of Coffee Development and Chief Barista at the Beth Bogdewiecz Tasty Coffee Cart for Pro-Coffee Consumption (commonly abbreviated to ‘Cuppa’) awaits goodbye hugs from admires.
One of the many followup discussions on Stand Out of Our Light.
Worknight star-filling.
A few minutes after this photo I was crying from how funny this became.
Recess, featuring a guest appearance by Ellie.
“She’s always taking photos of her food: yes or no?”
I usually have a light touch with the photos but I edited this to help it accurately reflect how hot it was.
Marcia on pasta! She popped in just before I wrote this caption to ask if we’d had pasta since then, and also suggested that we have a big midnight pasta party sometime soon. We have to get exceptions from our landlord to have events past 11, so this seems like it should work.
Gianna helped behind the scenes! (Looking at this photo makes me wonder if we shouldn’t do midnight pasta on the 24th–25th, but that’s going to be a bananas weekend.)
Gaby hablo sobre ‘No me quiero ir de aquí’, la residencia musical del cantante puertorriqueño Bad Bunny, hecho como un promoción de su álbum Debí tirar más fotos. (Hablando de eso, creo que sí tomo suficientes fotos.)
Can you give me a presentation about artificial intelligence in the style of Micah Goldstein? Include jokes and also make it a little bit meta. Keep it to seven minutes.
I went from not knowing anything about this topic to having Lauren’s same strong feelings about it.
Did anyone else tear up when he spoke of homesickness in Japan?
Intermission.
A long-awaited comeback about a long-prepared comeback.
There is no might be ethical consumption under capitalism cannibalism.
Lauren T. helping Henry’s memory go on.
This woman has lived
so many lives.
And now we all know how to pole vault.
Jacob once came to a Worknight with a VR headset, so some of us had some inkling of what he gets up to during his day job, but this was a very nice amount of depth.
Caryn is a poet! And transcribed snippets of the night and shared them back at the end in a style of poem I’ve forgotten the name of.
Helping our new coach celebrate her new decade in a totally normal way.
The original goal was to make it to midnight, but we were all pretty sleepy, and there’s only so long you can dance with a skull.
Attendance data for September.
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This issue of Paperwork was written by Ivan with additional reporting from Jessica S., and was shot by Ivan and Lizzie. Photo selection and editing by Ivan and Jessica S. Editorial support was provided by Livvy and Norton. This issue, and The Company itself, was made possible by the support of our members, Halie, Drew, Justin, Mason, Lexi, José, Mary Ann B., Trevr, Allyson, Lizzie, Melissa, Elijah, Michelle, Jim, Jaime, Jacob, Mark, Sabrina, Beth, Dani, Chris, Will, Marcia, Rebeca, Sarah, Mary Ann T., Alex, Jessica P., Jessica S., Mike, Ben, Sam, Liz, and our newest member, Christof.
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.
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