Things I'm Gonna Do (2011 Edition)
Get on track to move away from the Bay Area, hopefully by the end of this year or the early part of next. While I'm still in the Bay Area, fully enjoy and explore everything it has to offer. Talk to strangers. Get involved with FUSF. Maybe even teach a class there, about Zines as Literature. Write more zines than I did last year. Figure out how to charge enough for my zines so that I can afford to print them and mail them out in a timely fashion. Resurrect my litzine. Get my publishing company going - I've only been talking about it for seven years, now! Write something every day, without worrying about how 'good' it is. Seriously, write something every day, even if I don't feel like it, even if it's small, even if no one else ever sees it. Get more of my writing published. Resurrect my podcast. Record my spoken word album. Start doing live spoken word performances, again. Play more music. Get better at accordion, and fiddle, and ukulele. Get more tattoos. Catch up with my correspondence, and keep up with it. Make my own pickles. Visit L.A. Plan and throw that brilliant May Day house show my bandmates and I are talking about. Heavily promote One Beer Prophet and Oakland Wine Drinkers Union. Play a lot of gigs with OWDU, and as One Beer Prophet. Attend that quit-smoking support group. While I do still smoke, savor every drag. Go to therapy, and stop feeling like I'm fucking weak just by admitting I need mental health help. Take longer bike rides. Start doing burlesque again. Start nude/pin-up modeling again. Do what I need to do to get into the 2012 Accordion Babes calendar. Find places to DJ in a live setting, and do it. Appreciate the good things about each day, even if they're small or hard to find. Tell everyone I love how much I appreciate them, more often. Go to Hallowmas. Plan for the future, but live in the moment. Spend less time on the Internet, but make the time I do spend on it count more - i.e., posting important things, making real connections with people, etc. Watch more movies. Go to more shows. Take more photographs. Do more visual art - pen & ink drawing, charcoal drawing, watercolor painting, collage, they all make me happy, so who the fuck cares if it's 'good' or not? Brush up on my French. Learn at least basic Spanish. Learn German. Travel as much as fucking possible. Hop trains. Do some stencil and/or wheatpaste art. Look good whilst fucking shit up. Dance. Laugh. Decide if I'm going to grad school or not. Figure out good places for busking in the Bay Area, and do it. Talk to Lissa more often. Talk to my honey about things that are bothering me right away, in a calm and rational fashion, rather than keeping them inside 'til they build up into something huge & ugly & come out the side of my neck. Do more crafts. Save money. Climb trees. Play dress-up. Smoke more weed. If I feel shitty, allow myself to feel shitty, and don't beat myself up with that whole "you have no reason to feel bad, so many people have it so much worse than you" thing. If I feel good, allow myself to feel good, and don't beat myself up with that whole "you don't deserve to feel good when so many people don't" thing. Do yoga. Meditate. Make my own essential oil-based perfumes. Sell or give away shit I don't really need or want. Write that fucking goddamn screenplay I've been tossing around for five+ years. Work on that fucking goddamn graphic novel I've been tossing around for six+ years. Do more collaborative work with other people. Plan (and do) the Salty Squeezebox Tour with Emchy, for real this time. Make sure I get to Michigan for Thanksgiving this year - I miss my family. Keep myself open to all the possibilities. And, to borrow from Woody Guthrie - Love everyone. Make up my mind. Wake up and fight.