Hi friends,

I write this as my dog, TBD, lovingly and noisily jaws on a rubber bone. It’s an appalling and distracting noise but it is better than some of the other things he is capable of. The short version of this post: I am launching a newsletter. Posts like these will now be available via email and on the newsletter homepage.

I have some announcements!

• TikTok

During the height of the pandemic last year, I started using puppets to make videos about life, death, and wellbeing: The Squirrel Dialogues.  I’ve now moved that project to TikTok.

If you’re not familiar with TikTok, good for you, you have no idea how much time you’ve saved. It’s the video platform du jour, and has been for many for jours at this point. TikTok videos are short and sweet, and spread widely through a mysterious algorithm. My intention is to use my animal emissaries to spread my Secret Agenda on TikTok.

• Secret Agenda

I’ve been zeroing in on a Secret Agenda for some years, which I’ll share publicly here. I’m using my skills as an artist and communicator to spread a message of compassion and understanding. Examples of this include: Talking openly about my mental health challenges, and puppets.

As most of you probably know, it’s difficult to spread a secret agenda without vast pools of dark money, and so….

• Mountains of Cash, and Substack

When I’m in a bemoaning mood (e.g., most days), I like to bemoan how hard it is to make a living as an artist. But the truth is, I’ve rarely tried to make a living as an artist. Part of making a living is asking for money, which is a thing that I hate to do.

But this year I’m setting up a few systems by which people with access to capital can direct it to me. I’m calling it “Capitalism.”

First, I’m setting up a couple of newsletters that will have a subscription option, through a service called Substack. If you haven’t heard of it, Substack is the pay-newsletter service du jour.

My first offering is Lord Bezos Rides South, an epic fantasy about the crowned billionaires of the Westlands. The epic opens with a great battle between the legions of House Facebook and the contractorii of Lord Bezos of Amazon. I thought I was very original in envisioning Mark Zuckerberg as a Roman emperor, until I found out that he idolizes Caesar Augustus.

The second newsletter is what you are reading right now. I’m calling it the Standard Rainbow Hour until I think of a better title. On this newsletter I’ll be posting my work on human wellbeing, as well as occasional comedy material.

In the coming weeks I will press an on switch that will allow you, if you have access to capital, to transfer it to me so that I don’t have to work in advertising.

I’ll also commit here to finally, at long last, launching a Patreon account this year. Patreon is a platform that lets people fund their favorite artists. I’ve had a to-do list item to start a Patreon artist account for at least 10 years, which tells you how much I don’t want to do it. But I will.

I have more updates, such as this dog (Wilbur? Walter?):

But I’ll save them for future letters.

Thanks for reading to the end, how 20th century of you.

Solidarnosc,

Evan WL