Happy New Year!
If you're like me, you might have spent a day or two (or a week) sitting at your desk and wondering "How do I computer?" I'm still figuring it out, frankly.
Over the December break, I spent a lovely couple of weeks watching screeners (I really liked Zone of Interest), doing pilates, and hanging out with my partner and dog. The dream. Now I'm circling back on all the potential projects I'd been stoking for Q1 because I'm freelancing (along with sourcing projects for Good Afternoon). I'm so curious if I'll be able to make it sustainable! It spooks the heck out of me, but it seems like the right thing to do.
A lot of overachieving millennials dream about how healthy it would be to have a job they don't care about (and subsequently don't stress about). But in my last job, I learned that I don't have that in me. I need to do stuff I actually like, which is so inconvenient! I have a few writing/teaching/speaking things lined up, and have been hustling to get back into the immersive and cultural sectors as an exec/sr. producer and partnerships person.
I've been engaging in the embarrassing project of cold-calling people whose work is interesting and asking them to coffee, showing up at things, cutting out pictures of Pee-Wee Herman and Jim Henson and Jordan Peele and putting them on my wall; basically just going balls out to get back to feeling close to the things I care about. Not a terrible way to exist, but it's a big bet, you know?
I'm still an AI Guy, but that's because I'm a creative industries guy. I have been cooking up a workshop and research project focused on creative workers and you'll hear more about that soon. In the meantime, let me know if you've set any new year's resolutions, if you've got an idea or a friend to share, and whose pictures you're cutting out and putting on your wall.
And now, the links.
LINKS:
Not ready to return to the office? Let these icelandic ponies respond to your emails.
I'm delighted by how stupid this McDonalds ad is. Did you know there's a new McDonald's restaurant? It's giving beverage goblin, which has my curiosity piqued. But I'm still outraged that we don't have The Lemonade That Kills You in England.
I recently finished Deb Chachra's How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems that Shape Our World, which is so legible and passionate and good. Around the same time, I watched both Live Free or Die Hard and Leave the World Behind, which means that I'm having big infrastructure Baader-Meinhof. It's almost like infrastructure is everywhere I look!
Was this you on New Year’s Eve?
If you have a UK-based creative business, Creative England will pay up to £2,500 for you to work with me, or any other consultant to help grow your business!
What's your most neglected sense? For me, it's vision. (Pretty weird for an arts worker, huh?) Neena Pathak did a gorgeous audio piece about smell for the BBC, one of 5 pieces in a series about the senses.
If you're in London, check out the book launch for George Voss' SYSTEMS ULTRA Jan. 27th at the Design Museum.
xox,
Sarah Brin