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Talked about it in yesterday's MacroParentheticals, but I wanted to record it here: I'm taking a month away from the newsletter to rebuild it from scratch and bring it into line with where I am, creatively (for better or for worse). More zine, less letter, seeking that balance somewhere between; new name not unlikely, but like most things, remains TBD. Aiming to release every four to six weeks, starting at the end of July, first of August.

TSBMR no more

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After much back and forthing over the last 24 hours, I've decided that, instead of switching to bi-weekly, I'm pulling the plug on THE SHORTBOX MEMORY REVUE completely. While it was a fun little experiment, my reasoning boils down to the simple truth that I'd rather spend my creative time writing fiction and my usual little slices of whenever/whatevers here. As you were.

“something more ‘inward’…”

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Pleasant Monday surprise: something I wrote appearing elsewhere (that elsewhere being Kevin Hodgson’s always-excellent Kevin's Meandering Mind blog) along with a super-cool graphic version of same and generous linkage to the newsletter! Super-cool graphic version:

And I loved Kevin’s rumination on it (a sentiment I wholeheartedly echo) about blogs now being an inward space:

Tyler’s piece had me thinking (yet again) of this blogging space, and how my view of it has changed over time. It used to be more of a space that I imagined as “outward” facing — sharing with other bloggers, and being connected into larger blogging networks — but now I see it more as a reflective space, something more “inward” where I am curating my writing and thinking. My audience may be smaller (I may be my only audience) but I still keep the door open for others (you, perhaps?) to peek in and see what I’m up to.

Also happy to find myself sharing space with James Shelley's excellent piece, What's the fun in writing on the internet anymore? Many thanks, my friend.

principle09 :: this is it / this is me

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Updated Principles page with 09 :: this is it / this is me:

I'm not aspiring to anything other than continuous progression and improvement at my chosen art: this site, the newsletter, and the zine are, until they are otherwise, my chosen, wholly independent delivery systems for whatever I think, ponder, and create. The expressions and experiments and explorations shared in these spaces are neither aspirations nor stepping stones for anything bigger: I've spent more than half my adult life caring about things out of my control and, as I enter the back half of same, I've little interest in continuing down the same path. This space is – and these spaces are – for better or for worse, the truest expression of myself in this moment; whatever the next moment brings will be dealt with when it's time to deal with it. Until then, this is me, and I'm good with it.

(insta)deactivated

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After much searching through menus and settings (and an unwillingness on the part of the app on the iPad to scroll down far enough to hit the "deactivate" button requiring me to go to a computer), finally hit the deactivate button (six days early, but to hell with it: those who wanted to stay connected have already done so, the rest, bye): my Insta-presence is no more. Aside from that one video with the "get that shit out of my face" vegan frog (which I did watch about 35 times before hitting deactivate: that "motherfucker stop, STOP!" shriek kills me every time), I don't miss any of it.

(And when Threads launched, I realized I didn't really need or want another microblogging conversation platform: that's what this space and the Fediverse are for / Note: still want to use the FV for my comment system here; running out of time before the next annual bill comes due.)

Didn't go full delete on Insta because I'm enough of a shit that I don't want the other Tylers Weaver to have that account name. I've protected it long enough, even added the extra W to myself, across multiple platforms and decades, this being my third (holy shit).

Related/un–: I anticipate the day that some startup buys (or pulls a Muskian coup on SpaceKaren himself) the Twitter name and the rights and the bird and brings it back, sort of like Twinkies and PBR, banking on nostalgia as a (highly viable) business model. As someone rightly said, the brand was the only thing that didn't need fixing at Twitter.

Anyhow byebye massive communication/advertising conglomerate techbro companies. We had our laughs and our cries and our successes and our failures but it's time to move on. Internet dinosaur powers: activate.

attendance cards + ds106 daily create

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Very excited to see my little daily Attendance Cards being used and remixed via my good friend Kevin Hodgson and others as part of the DS106 Daily Create, a “a space for regular practice of spontaneous creativity through challenges published every day.” Here's my original, from the end of April:

And the first remix:

Followed by this fantastic bit of trippy by Alan Levine:

Which was made even tripper by John Johnston, in GIF form:

Which itself was then given a soundtrack in video form by Kevin:

So very, very cool: you may consider me duly honored and thoroughly chuffed.

and i am not bleeding!

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Behold, the new binding for PRESS (A) TO START: all future editions and issues – unless format dictates otherwise – will be bound in Japanese Stab Binding-style:

Or, rather, all future editions and issues - unless format dictates otherwise – will be bound in my iteration / improvisation of Japanese stab binding (meaning it involved three holes instead of four and a power drill in conjunction with the awl).

Either way, proud of this one, considering the last time I tried to thread a needle I was in a state of inebriation at 2AM and convinced I needed to sew a button back on my shirt. It took two hours to thread that needle. But that button held.