Volume 1, Issue 30 | New Acquaintance
While I’m trying to be more of a new-quarter guy than a new-year guy, I do really love the collective energy of the new year. Livvy and I talk about almost any transition period as having New Semester Energy, but this is the one time that almost everyone is synced up on thinking about what might happen next.
For Management, we’re quite excited about a number of new things: a long-planned update to our website, some clarification to our culture, a brand new event, Beth’s soon-to-open coffee cart, and all the people that we might get to meet.
On that last note: Chris, Michelle, and I had a really great conversation this past Friday about the strangeness of meeting, and the sometimes scariness of going to an event where you don’t know anyone. How (at least for some of us) it takes far more courage to walk up to a group of people than to walk up to a friendly-looking person standing alone. Sometimes it’s easier to go a thing with a friend, but then, if you’re with a friend, that turns you into a group of people who might be scary to meet.
A little over a year and a half ago, all three of us had been at the same design conference here in Denver. And while it was exactly the kind of place where we could have met good friends with a lot in common, we didn’t meet many new people, and none of us met each other. I was tremendously fortunate to meet Dan there, but that was far more because Dan is a super friendly, welcoming person (and was standing alone), than because of how the event was structured.
Short of a clear message that “everyone here is friendly and willing to meet you, and you have explicit permission to go up and talk to anyone, alone or in groups”, it can be scary to go to any new thing alone. Which is why, at some point in the near future, something to that effect will be a part of all Company event descriptions.
But that also makes me wonder: for any of you who subscribe to Paperwork but haven’t yet joined us for anything, does this sound at all familiar? If you’re reading this and we haven’t met yet, I hope it’s because you’re curious but simply super busy. But if instead you’re free and shy, know that you have explicit permission to meet new people here. While not all of us are Dan, or even Dan-levels of friendly, we‘re certainly all happy to meet you.
—Ivan
Happenings
This week:
Weekly Wednesday Worknight, Wednesday, January 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, or free for Company and Moonlight members.
PowerPoint Party No. 22, Saturday, January 11
What’s a PowerPoint Party, you ask? Twelve people giving 7-minute presentations about whatever they’re currently into. At past ones, people have presented about topics like travels, maps, and memory dividends. It’s a wide mix.
It’s a nerdy and sincere crowd that cares a lot, and we’ve met some of our favorite people at these.
Want to present? We’ve got a waiting list. Want to just show up and meet interesting people and learn about what’s fascinating them lately? That’s great too. Bring a friend, or come alone and make a friend—again, you have explicit permission to meet anyone at these.
Next week:
Yoga with Dan: 🔥 Edition, Sunday, January 12
We invite you to a special Vinyasa Yoga class taught by the one and only Daniel Evan Quay.
This special, one hour, “power flow” class syncs challenging physical poses with intentional breathwork to engage with our mental and physical limits, for a powerful orientation to the new year. Students can expect a challenging, low impact workout with light breathing exercises.
Classes are limited to 20 students. Please RSVP early.
We have a limited number of mats available for rental.
We want everyone to have access to Yoga with Dan! We offer 5, free “Community Passes” to each class, including a mat rental.
Future Weeks:
Mary Ann’s Book Club: Non-Violent Communication, Tuesday, January 28
This month’s book is Non-Violent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg.
This book has made a big impact on a couple of Company members, and they’ve talked about it enough that the rest of us are excited to learn more. Read about (and discuss) how to integrate consciousness, language, communication, and means for influence into our connections with ourselves and others.
Snacks and drinks will be provided to fuel our conversation.
The first rule of Non-Violent Communication Book Club is… →
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Also coming up: Creative Coding Demo Day No. 9, Glint: Resolve, In the Making.
Nostalgia
Do you remember the day Chris came by to install his monitor? How that evening we had the huge Moonlight Report? How we all yelled “Bye Norton”! when he tried to sneak out, and Caryn wrote two magnificent poems from snippets of the report?
That afterward, a different configuration of us watched Severance? How we talked for a long time after about it? How after that we sat in the glow of the TV screensaver, talking about scary numbers, poems, and Justin’s forthcoming film?
“I thought 7 was the scariest number.” “Nowstalgia.” “This is good. I’d get this art.”
Do you remember the afternoon of reflection? Hearing about everyone’s year? That Greg said, “If I keep saying yes, I’ll keep dying more.”, and that felt so relatable?
How surprised you were when Jim met us at bartaco? How we talked about our favorite family foods, and bathroom schemes, and how fine we have felt coming out of our cages?
How we all went back for Ben’s bag?
Do you remember at worknight, during quiet time, that you both yelled “bye Norton!” out the window of the quiet room so loudly that the rest of us could hear it?
That after sitting and reading for hours, you squealed “Wow, fun! This was fun.”?
The Thursday workday? The lunch? The walk to Little Owl?
Beth getting her space set up? The First Friday Feast? How we talked about the strangeness of meeting?
Bureaucratic Minutiae
Beth has set up more of her space! If you missed mention of it, she’ll be running a coffee cart out of here a few days a week.
We have added a lot of events to the calendar. You can see them on the events page or on our public Google calendar. All calendar events have links out to the event pages on our website, so you can easily get to a ticket from your own calendar if you sync it up.
At the Moonlight Report for Lunation 1261, Ivan showed fonts, Livvy showed ciphers, Michelle read snippets, and Will showed a website with scrolling-animations. Announced for 1262 were paint markering, dance lessons, art making, hat bedazzling, video-making, motorcycle selling, essay drafting, layout-making, and website-redesigning.
We had an Old Year’s Resolution party. It was great.
At Worknight: Ivan created a Series database and linked it to events, Dan wrote a working outline for Essay 1 and completed a vomit-sesh, Michelle read a book and finished an outline for her PowerPoint Party presentation, Norton made a list of website changes, Livvy sorted December timecards by day count, and Allyson researched her title transfer.
December’s attendance data:
1 visit: 39 people
2 visits: 22 people
3–4 visits: 30 people
5–7 visits: 11 people
8–12 visits: 4 people
13–20 visits: 2 people
21+ visits: 3 people
Total people: 111
People who came more than once: 72
Other notes:This is the lowest 1 column we’ve had since the start of our records.
This is the highest total count and highest total > 1 count we’ve had since the start of our records.
The 2, 3+, and 5+ columns are the highest they’ve ever been.
The 2+ column tripled from last month.
Notable moves:
Daniel Evan Quay joined the 21+ column! (Thanks bull mask.)
Michelle moved up to 13+!
Jim moved up to 8+!
Out-of-town friend Patrick entering strong at 5+! Sabrina jumped from 1 to 5+! Emily moved to 5+.
Many dear and usually out-of-town friends (and parents and sister!) in the 1–3+ columns to celebrate Ivan and Livvy’s wedding anniversary. ♥️ Thanks y’all!Inevitably: incomplete data.
As a very belated follow-up for those curious, Max’s car was not in fact stolen.
We would like to apologize to the entire typographic community for all of the typos in one of our recent Instagram posts.
If you are in fact someone who is free but shy, I’d love to hear any ideas you might have for what might make it easier to show up here.
Finally, a reminder that The Company is a membership-supported mixed-use creative space, 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.
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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This issue of Paperwork was made possible by the support of our members, Halie, Drew, Justin, Mason, Lexi, José, Mary Ann, Trevr, Aubrey, Allyson, Madison, Melissa, Elijah, Dan, Michelle, Jim, Jacob, Mark, Ben, Sabrina, Beth, Dani, Chris, Brynn, and our newest members, Will and Marcia (!).
