A friend of mine was recently rejected for a job and it stung a bit. They’re someone who hadn’t often had the experience of rejection, having mostly done their own thing where they needed no one’s approval but their own. Honestly, I think this person is better off without this job they were applying for but I sympathize with the pain of rejection, particularly when it’s for the first time, really. As someone who has been rejected hundreds, if not thousands of times, I thought I might help ease the sting a little. 1) It’s not you. It’s them. When I was a young actor, doing a lot of auditioning, I kept trying to imagine what the auditors wanted and tried to provide it as best I could. I imagined they wanted a particular kind of Juliet so I would try to BE that kind of Juliet for them. If I didn’t get the job, I’d assume it was because I did not do a sufficient job giving them what they wanted. To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
Now that I have an expensive piece of medical tech installed in my arm, I can no longer go through the body scan when I go through airport security. I flew out of JFK, which, as usual, was an absolute zoo, and when I finally got to the scanning portion of the proceedings, I tried to explain the issue. When they understood, the man shouted “Opt out” and called for “female agent.” The pat down I then received was so thorough, it felt punitive. Like, was it really necessary to run your hand between my waistband and my skin? Do you really have to get right up in the inseam? How well did you really need to feel my underwires? But, you know, it was my first time going through airport security with my new medical condition so I was just glad they didn’t destroy my device. To keep reading Female Opt Out visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 410 Song: Pat Down by Faybee Image of the Munich Airport in 2009 by Politikaner via Wikicommons To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
I’m currently seated on a deck that looks out over the Pacific Ocean, on Bowen Island in British Columbia. I can smell the saltwater from here and hear the lap of the waves. When I look up, I see the mountains and little islands across the bay. Wildflowers dot the hillside. I have an iced coffee and pen and paper. I’m not sure how this scenario could be more idyllic. To read more of Writing in a Beautiful Place visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 409 Song: No Distraction Image of the scene on Bowen Island taken by me, Emily Rainbow Davis To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
The nurse turned pale when she read the glucometer. The whole office kicked into emergency mode and when the doc came in, he let me know I was going to be there a while. My blood sugar was super high and had been super high every time I’d been tested over the last five months but now that I was in this endocrinology office, it was suddenly an emergency. A young man came in to give me an insulin shot and asked me if it was Type One or Type Two and I gave him the biggest shrug I have ever shrugged. No one had diagnosed me yet. Diagnosis: I have Type-I-Don’t-Know-Man-I-Guess-I-Have-Diabetes. Maybe ask the doctor whose office you work in? To keep reading A Day at the End of May visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 408 It's about #diabetes Song: Sugar on My Tongue Image by smallbox via Unsplash To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
The little black velvet notebook reappeared and I thumbed through it. I had called it The Adventure Book and at the top of each page, there was an idea I’d written there at some point. I don’t remember why I decided to do that or why I stopped but I assume it was meant to encourage the development of each idea. In re-reading these ideas from I don’t know how long ago, I was struck by how many of them I’d actually made happen. To keep reading A Different Measure of Success visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 407 Song: The Champion Image of my Adventure Book by me, Emily Rainbow Davis To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
A patron of mine sent me a message about receiving my zine, explaining that her husband found it easier to read the paper version because he didn’t really read so much on the computer. I said I understood and felt similarly – that I much preferred paper to reading on-line. Which is funny, really, because I publish most of my stuff on the internet. This exchange made me think of a moment of transition that happened at one of my jobs years ago. It started like this: I’d been working at BAM as a teaching artist where one of my main gigs was doing pre-show prep workshops. Whenever we’d get assigned a show, we’d receive a packet of information about the show, information about the school, our contracts, and if it was available, a videotape of the show we were going to teach. It had gone like this for quite a few years when the program manager (maybe the third one I’d worked with at that point) started to email us PDFs of show information instead. And this is the moment of transition. To keep reading Print This for Extra Comprehension visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 406 Song: Screens Image by Nguyen Thu Hoai via Unsplash To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
Folks over on the Period Drama subreddit recommended the Russian series, Detective Anna, and as previously established, I am a particular fan of period workplace dramas about women, so this seemed right up my street. Anna is not really a detective, though. She has visions of dead people who then help her solve their murders. It’s a ghost detective show, I guess. Like a Pulling Daisies or The Ghost Whisperer or Medium. (There’s a genre now, it seems.) Detective Anna takes place in the late 1800s in a small Russian town called Zadonsk so it has a pleasing amount of period overcoats and hoods and hats and such. I’m enjoying it for the most part. There’s something about it, though, that feels very familiar and a little uncomfortable. The titular character, Anna (not a detective), is a young woman who has a talent, surrounded by men who do not acknowledge it. To keep reading Something Familiar About this Russian Show visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 405 Song: Nobody Takes Me Seriously Anyway Image lifted from Detective Anna TV show To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
Because I get my Feldenkrais liability insurance through a massage therapy umbrella, they send me Massage Therapy Journal, which I read, even though I am not a massage therapist. I figure I might learn something. What the heck? In the issue I just finished, they talked a lot about how to avoid burnout and take care of one’s self at work. Much of the content involved identifying one’s top strengths and leaning into them. Now, about a decade ago, I got really into the Strengths Movement which was focused on a similar idea. I thought it was interesting for both work and education. I identified stuff I was good at and figured out how to lean in to those things. Then I promptly forgot about it and now I can’t even tell you what I determined my strengths were back then. The burnout article suggested using the VIA strength finder to determine your top five strengths and values. This sounded familiar to me. I thought I probably had taken this test before so I searched for it on my computer. Yes, yes, I had – about a year ago. And I found that my top five strengths were: Humor, Perceptiveness, Creativity, Social Intelligence and Love of Learning. To keep reading Signature Strengths Seems Neat But Confusing visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 404 Song: Strength, Courage and Wisdom Image of a pineapple in sunglasses by Elena Cordery via Unsplash To take the Via Strengths Finder quiz, go here. I'm sorry you have to register. To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
The other night, I found myself watching an interview with a theatre practitioner I admire a great deal. He’s an amazing performer, director, teacher and thoughtful analyst of his craft. I found myself taking notes – adding them to previous documents I’d created, filled with his tips and tricks. But as I was taking notes, full of enthusiasm and excitement, I felt an undercurrent of “Why?” Why was I furiously writing down his clown exercises or his recipe for comic developments? I haven’t put on a clown show since 2009. I haven’t had need to exercise my physical comedy chops in ages. I know a fair amount about these things. I care about them. I still have curiosity about them. If any of my beloved teachers gave a workshop here, I’d sign up for it. But not because I have any use for it. I don’t have a life for which any of this knowledge is necessary, which somehow makes me very sad. There’s something about having spent decades growing my knowledge about things that I now never get a chance to exercise that feels so wasteful somehow. To keep reading Boxed Up Knowledge, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 403 Song: Black Socks Image of John Wright from Mask Workshop To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
Despite my appreciation for Yorgos Lanthimos’ earlier work, I was not planning on seeing Poor Things. A lot of my feminist friends were not fans and I figured I could skip it. But then I learned that Kathryn Hunter was in it, playing a madam, and I got curious. (I worked with Kathryn on a show in London a while ago so she’s very dear to me.) So I watched it. Apparently there was a whole conversation around whether or not this was a feminist film. (Answer: not.) But it is, as my friend said, some men’s idea of a feminist film. Which is really not the same. This is not to say that men can’t make feminist films. If Lanthimos made a bio pic of Gloria Steinem, maybe that would be a feminist film. (Though maybe not if he chose to focus exclusively on her relationships with men or only her Playboy bunny stunt but otherwise it would be hard to NOT make a feminist film about Steinem.) But while this film may pass the Bechdel test on a technicality (I think the conversation between Emma Stone and Kathryn Hunter was longer than thirty seconds and not about A man – it was about how to service men so… ) I’m not sure I’d give it the point. A film in which a woman is largely on her own in the world of men does not scratch any feminist itch of mine. Women working toward equality and the benefit of other women is the main criteria for that as far as I’m concerned. To keep reading Poor Things, AKA Sexy Baby Lady Frankenstein visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 402 Song: Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon Image - still from the movie To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
The other day, I was feeling so much despair about how things are and where we were headed as a culture. I thought, “If someone showed up with a time machine and asked me if I wanted to go back to the 70s or 80s to live, I’d absolutely say yes.” I told my friend about this feeling and she said, “I’m coming with you.” We figured we should bring her kids and her husband (she was pretty sure they’d want to go, too), and my partner and maybe another friend of ours and her family – if they were up for it – and we were ready to start over in the past. A past that would be familiar, because we lived through those decades as children, but would likely look different through our adult eyes. To keep reading I Would Accept that Time Travel Invitation visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 401 Song: Like the Weather Image by J Huang via Unsplash To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
Despite my swearing off Wrongfully Convicted podcasts, I found myself watching a similarly themed docu-series recently. I was maybe halfway into the first episode before I realized it was a doozy of a wrongful conviction case. Were it not for the theatre element, I might have quit watching right then. I’m glad I stuck around. Mind Over Murder is about the impact a murder had on a small town in Nebraska called Beatrice (Bay-AA-trice). Six people were sent to prison for the crime, then pardoned and exonerated but it’s still a painful and contentious issue in the town, even decades after the events. The documentary shows us people who are still convinced that the exonerated people did it and tells the stories of many of the people involved. All of that would have been enough for a fascinating documentary – but happening alongside it is a community theatre production of a verbatim style show about the situation. Not surprisingly, for this theatre maker, the theatrical element was the most touching piece. The show brings the community together in incredibly moving ways and changes minds that previously seemed as though they’d be fixed in their beliefs forever. To keep reading Documentary Theatre in a Documentary visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 400! Song: Plains of Nebrasky-O Image is a still from the Documentary To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
The venue told us to tag them on social media so they could share our posts. I said, “We’ve tagged you multiple times on Twitter, TikTok and Facebook. Are you not seeing them?” “Oh,” they said, “We’re not active there. I guess it’s really just Instagram.” For some people (mostly Millennials, I guess), “Social media” just means Instagram. I happen to loathe Instagram the most. So for me, I lean toward Twitter and Facebook – but it’s all social media to me. I still post things to Instagram, even though I don’t like it. I figure I can’t afford to leave anyone out. Sometimes something hits on LinkedIn. Sometimes a thing is a hit on TikTok. It’s possible that these are sort of generational silos, where different generations gather in one place or another. I guess since Friendster and MySpace are gone. Gen X tends to go wherever – and I think that is actually a useful instinct because our numbers are small. So when sharing our work, for example, we can’t just talk to ourselves. To keep reading Social Media Silos visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 399 Song: Internet Drama: I Need Butter Image by Waldemar via Unsplash My puppet video of this butter song. My puppet video of another Lubalin hit. To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
A friend of mine has developed a show to be performed on Zoom. It’s an innovative concept and she’s doing that innovating in a form where people don’t necessarily expect to see innovation. She asked someone to attend this show and they said, “I don’t do Zoom,” which understandably got under my friend’s skin a little bit. It’s a little like someone saying they don’t go to the theatre when you give them a postcard for your show in a theatre. To keep reading "I Don't Do Zoom" visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 398 Song: Video Killed the Radio Star Image by Vinicius "amnx" Amano via Unsplash To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
There are probably some artists that aren’t utterly flummoxed by the question “What’s next?” but I am not one of them. It’s usually an inner cascade of “Oh dear god, I don’t know! How will I go on with no real plan! This person just wants a simple answer. I have nothing. No plans. Nothing is next! I’m doomed!” This is not because I don’t have any possibilities on the horizon. I’m just not ready to look at the horizon, particularly if I’m in the middle of a project. Maybe to regular people, with regular jobs, “What’s next?” seems like a perfectly normal question – but to me, and a lot of artists I know, it is fraught with challenging uncertain questions. To read more of What's Next? visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 397 Song: What now? What's next? Where to? Image by Tim Mossholder via Unsplash To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
Since I have several podcasts that are now hosted by Spotify, I receive their newsletter (four copies, one for each podcast) which offers podcasting tips. I mostly ignore them, as I have read MANY tips previously and there’s rarely anything new. I clicked on the most recent one though, since it was about how to grow your audience. I’m in the middle of putting out a new podcast so I figured I could use some reminders of that kind of information. Ultimately, there was nothing in it I hadn’t seen before but something about it made me think about what they were suggesting in a new way. So many tips involved making some other form of media alongside the podcast. It felt like they were saying that in order to have success as a podcaster, you had to make videos. To bring ears to your podcast, you should also write a newsletter. It struck me as absolutely absurd. In order to create one thing, you have to become expert at several others. Let me tell you, I didn’t get into audio to make video. If I wanted to make videos, I’d make videos! (And I have made a couple!) To keep reading Promotional Tips for Everything, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 396 Song: Selling My Pork Chops Image by Szabo Viktor via Unsplash To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
The podcast I was listening to was about the crisis in journalism – about how so many news sites were disappearing, how so many journalists are losing their jobs and about how the landscape was changing so dramatically and not for the better. (This country has lost one third of its newspapers and two thirds of its journalists since 2005 and it is accelerating.) I was only half listening – truth be told. I was still pretty wiped out from COVID and I was dozing a fair amount. But then – after a history lesson in how journalism was funded and then how that landscape shifted and then shifted again – I sat bolt upright at a concept the guest (Ezra Klein) brought up. He said we should not think of ourselves as consumers of the internet but as generators. His feeling was that we are all rather passively engaging with the internet, without realizing that we are creating it while we do that. Basically, the idea is that we are creating with our clicks. What we engage with and look at and pay attention to is the internet we create. If I want to see local news, I have to subscribe to local news – or at the very least – visit local news sites. If I want more independent media, I have to read independent media. I can’t just wish for these things to exist. To read more of Click the Clicks You Want to See in the World visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 395 Song: Welcome to the Internet To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
On Monday, March 4th, I tested positive for COVID. I tested negative on March 1st when I woke up with a swollen throat and subsequently slept for the later part of the weekend. By Monday, the fever had gone and I was feeling a bit better. But I tested anyway because I had a rehearsal to go to and I wanted to be able to go in clear. Surprise! The thing is – I have been very careful. I’ve rarely eaten indoors at a restaurant. I don’t go indoors for longer than a couple of minutes without a mask. I wear a mask on the subway and also the grocery store, two places I’m often alone in my caution. The week before I tested positive, I’d barely gone anywhere. The lone risks I was taking were related to my show – rehearsing and attending our shows without masks and celebrating our performances indoors unmasked afterwards. That’s it. I knew I was taking those risks (for the first time) and I did it with full awareness of what I was doing. If they’d have been responsible for this case, I would have felt it was an appropriate consequence of the risk but all those things were three weeks before I caught it. I don’t know where this came from. And after nearly four years of doing everything in my power to keep this virus from spreading through me, it knocked me down and stole all my lunch money, the bully. And I was pissed. To keep reading Is Anger a Symptom of COVID 19? visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This episode 394 Song: Angry Johnny Image by Cyrus Chew via Unsplash To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or help me pay off my tickets to and from Crete on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
Close observers of my work might notice some commonalities between my most recent audio drama, The Defense, and my previous audio drama, The Dragoning. They both feature nice women who develop magical defensive and destructive abilities. They both hinge on fear and power. They are structured very differently and the contexts are not the same, but at the center of both are nice and dangerous women. You might say I’m trying to work something out. We’re in the middle of rehearsing for and recording The Defense and sometimes I’ve found myself self-conscious about the things these audio dramas have in common. I imagine some critic saying. “Doesn’t this woman have any other ideas?” But, of course, I do have other ideas. I have so many other ideas! But when an idea presents itself for realization, sometimes you just have to move forward, even if you’ve looked at a particular theme before. You don’t throw ideas back into the muse’s face when she presents them to you, even if they look a little like one you received before. To keep reading Working on a Theme, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 393 Song: Good Time from Bright Red Boots Image of the Dromios via the Folger Shakespeare Library's Digital Collection - LUNA To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or help me pay off my tickets to and from Crete on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis
A while back, I wrote about how they started locking up the toothpaste at my chain pharmacy/drugstore. Since then the drugstore has only expanded their lock-up program. Now, they lock up soap and deodorant and vitamins and eye drops and much more. There were a lot of news stories about this; These big drug stores (CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, etc) were claiming that there was a massive theft problem at their stores and they needed help to fix it. But then, those stories were debunked. Not only has theft not gone up, it has, in fact, gone down. It turns out that these big drug stores are attempting to make more money by getting governments to pay for their security – because of all this CRIME that’s increasing. This has worked for them. Here In New York, our governor just launched an initiative that would give these places a tax break and provide extra security for them. To keep reading Are They Trying to Go Out of Business? visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 392 Song: Bright Future in Sales Image: my zines, photographed by me To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or help me pay off my tickets to and from Crete on Kofi: http://ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis or PayPal me: https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist Join my Substack: https://emilyrainbowdavis.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter @erainbowd Me on Mastodon - @erainbowd@podvibes.co Me on Bsky - @erainbowd.bsky.social Me on Hive - @erainbowd Instagram and Pinterest Tell a friend! Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here. You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany As ever, I am yours, Emily Rainbow Davis