Introducing WHAT EVEN EVER
That's the name of my newsletter
Hello, strangers and frenemies!
Welcome to my newsletter, which I am tentatively titling What Even Ever, after a phrase uttered by my friend and bandmate Eleanor Buckland that I find particularly enjoyable. (Equally enjoyable logo by Sean Trischka, fellow friend and bandmate.)
In this newsletter, I will expel the contents of my brain in a semi-organized fashion that will attempt to be entertaining, activating, empathetic, and thought-provoking. What do these words even mean? I’m not totally sure. I will try to figure that out as I go. I will be writing about the things that are on my mind — music, activism, capitalism, human connection in the time of COVID-19, The Internet, and personal growth. I will invite my friends and people I admire to contribute. I will make you playlists. I will recommend things I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to (sharing recommendations is my love language). I will make funny, funny jokes. I may answer your questions, since I have long harbored a secret hunch that I’d be a great advice columnist. I may even share some music I’ve been working on. We’ll have a great time.
I’ve been sitting on several drafts of this newsletter for some time and I was afraid to actually send this out into the world. Part of that was due to the big cultural reckoning we are having right now around white supremacy and other forms of oppression, and I am afraid of the possibility that my relatively privileged voice might take up too much space in that context. I plan to combat that by sharing voices other than my own in this newsletter. I think that that particular part of The Fear is a valid and useful feeling, but I think another part of The Fear is just imposter syndrome and a general pathological fear of putting myself out there in any way. I recently tried to start a book club, and when it didn’t get off the ground I took it as a very deep, personal insult. That’s the kind of year I’m having. But I read this quote from Heather Havrilesky, one of my favorite writers, whose writing regularly makes me wonder if she is plagiarizing my personal journal:
Are you paying attention now? The more embarrassed and weak and stupid you feel about a particular pursuit, the more important that pursuit is to you. The more rapidly you drop a creative project in the face of other people’s mild disinterest or disapproval, and the more you try to cover your tracks and hide and disown your original investment, and the more you play it off and move on and pretend that you’re sensible and you know your little stupid “thing” is just a joke, ha ha, who cares, whatever, not a big deal, the more you love that thing.
And I was like, ha ha, fuck you Heather!!! I guess I will start writing my stupid little newsletter!!! You should read the whole piece, especially if you are an artist of any kind, which I know most of you are. It’s excellent.
One other thing: I’ll also be including a virtual tip jar in every newsletter. You are, of course, under no obligation to send me money — I’m writing this whether I make money from it or not. However, this is a rough time for us self-employed creative people, and I think I’m a decent writer, so I am on an experimental quest for new streams of creativity and income. So if you enjoy the newsletter and you have an extra dollar or two or five, send it my way. Pretend you’re throwing a dollar into a subway-station busker’s guitar case. I will also be donating a portion of my tips to a variety of causes which I will disclose to you each month.
Do me a favor and move this out of your Promotions folder and add me to your contacts, so you don’t miss the first issue of What Even Ever. (This email was not the first issue; this was Issue Zero. So glad we got that squared away.) If you liked Issue Zero, maybe forward it to a friend, or you could even be kind of saucy and just click that “Subscribe now” button and enter their email address because you know what’s best for them.
Cheers,
Isa
PS: If you are my personal IRL friend, I may have presumptuously added you to this email list because I felt like it. You can totally just smash that “unsubscribe” if you don’t need more shit in your inbox. We will still be friends.