Microdosing Monday: the Late Edition
(Edited by my cat, Hunter S. Tomcat, cross posted on my Patreon account, and shared on Facebook)
Once upon a time in America, Newspapers were read in nearly every household everyday, and once upon a time they were so important some of them printed a late edition that came out in the afternoon. Or an early edition that came out first thing in the morning before the actual paper.
Here’s a fun fact for you. The internet and corporate greed has almost killed the newspaper. But nobody talks about how the skilled printers industry has declined over 70% since the early 2000’s. Think about how many people it took to operate a press room with giant printing presses, for a twice a day paper in New York. Printing Press rooms have been a source of dozens to hundreds of solid union jobs in most major cities for well over a hundred years, but all those union jobs are about gone now. They predict a further decline of 26% of what’s left over the next decade.
That labor tidbit brought to you by a factory poet that reads too much. And it’s a roundabout way to start off a two day delayed late edition of my weekly blog update.
Hey. Sometimes life gets big and heavy, so heavy that all the words I try to write wind up smushed in a pulpy puddle of word soup so weak it would hardly be an appetizer for a hungry reader. Sometimes I can’t get my brain to sit in one place long enough to finish a single paragraph. When life is heavy and my brain is unrepentant and freewheeling at the same time? Good luck getting a legible text message from me.
But I need to build my life in a way that I start putting my writing, like this weekly update blog post project, I need to put the writing first far more often than I do. And I’m determined more than anything to be a writer.
Today is better. This might not be the way you get to the divine, and remember, I’m likely not to judge your path, but today I took the time to sit and get stoned. Just absolutely ripped until the only sound left in the world is the ticking of a slow clock, and the cricket that’s been chirping in the corner somehow all winter. Some of you can meditate to that point. Despite 1,013 attempts at meditation, I haven’t been able to yet. But large amounts of cannabis has become one of the healthiest methods I’ve found for slowing my pinball brain and my self destructive heart long enough for me to get a breath of fresh air.
Onward. Last week seems like a month ago already, and I didn’t get much writing done. Just a few poems. But I did attend the Toledo City Paper’s Best of party, where I was honored as Toledo’s best writer and author. There’s some stories coming from that night, and I can’t wait to write them. One thing I learned, private clubs like the Toledo Club, host of the party, are nothing but a safe space for the rich. They just don’t call them that.
This week has less days left in it than it would have if I completed this on Monday, but there’s no public appearances planned, thank Buddha, because I need to shake the cobwebs in my compass a little this week to make sure I still know which way is what. I plan to finish another column for Sweat Stained Review, my column over online at A Thin of Anxiety. That’s hopefully forthcoming. I’ve got a stack of adventure, readings, and travel blog posts to finish, forthcoming on Patreon, then later to Substack. And I still haven’t worked on my website this year.
Forthcoming events:
Holy hell. April is busy.
Thursday April 11th I’m reading in Toledo at Wandering Bean Coffee Co with John Amen, Timothy Geiger and One Single Rose. This is going to be an incredible night of poetry.
Thursday April 18th in Kansas City, Mo
Friday April 19th in Indianapolis
Saturday April 20th in Toledo
Sunday April 21st in St. Louis
(Details coming soon)
Saturday April 27th in Owensboro, KY at Bard & Busker Fest
I was thrilled to hear that some copies of The Dead and the Desperate, my latest novel, sold at Wandering Bean Coffee in Toledo, and at Gathering Volumes Bookstore in Perrysburg. Both locations are low on books, and selling out and having to restock is a writer’s dream. Go get your copy soon if you haven’t yet.
Or online at magical jeep dot com
Alright. Finally. This took me five and a half hours and three days to write, but there you go. I gotta go take my daily shower in the campground’s lodge. They have six public showers that are pretty decent. Then I gotta go get the oil changed in my truck, and drive up to Coldwater, MI an hour away, to exchange a camper part at Camper World. Still working on remodeling my camper while I live in it. Ain’t no moss growing on me.
Might as well stop at the dispensary while up in Coldwater. Keep myself stocked up on the one medicine that has absolutely saved my life a hundred times.
Be kind to workers if you can. Whether we find them in retail spaces, or bartending at the most prestigious private club in northwest Ohio. Work is work. So is writing. Painting. Singing. Let’s never forget that.
Ps. In 1990 I swore a DARE pledge to say no to marijuana. They gave me a T shirt. At the time of the swearing, I was already a regular user of cannabis, and had already dabbled in trying to sell nickel bags to my friends. I’d already been drunk a few dozen times, and although I hadn’t smoked crack yet, I knew how to smoke it and cook it. I was 12. Someday. I’ll write those stories.
Photo of my editor “at work”
Remembered to get one photo at the Best of Toledo party thingie
But I took a total of three photos of the celebration pancakes afterwards. There are side effects to cannabis use. This is one of them.
Funniest meme I’ve seen lately. It’s good to laugh.
Poster for the reading on April 11th in Toledo
-Love y’all. Thanks for reading this gibberish every week, and for your indispensable support.