Pete's September 2024 update
Home is where your art is
“It’s the first of October,” I said to the team. “Which means we have three years left in 2024.” Oh man, that’s like 2020 vibes right there. 😆
7 years ago I was in Chicago, in a week-long intensive improv class.
It was an amazing experience. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect, but went in with a beginner’s mindset to take from it what I could. Actually being in Chicago, immersed in it and seeing shows every night, seeing the things we learned happening on stage, is so different from having a teacher out from Chicago and performing in one show at the end of the week.
How do you get a group of strangers from around the world to quickly establish trust? Get them to dance! We came up with a group dance, where each performer added 4 beats of choreography to the end of what came before. Everyone got to bring their own style to their bit, and added moves I never would have come up with by myself.
And how good was the dance? It was… moving.
I’ve been immersed in Melbourne for 12 weeks. Been to a conference, a few startup events, 6 different markets. Bought a car, bought a house, had a job interview. It’s very different to the times I’ve visited, which mostly consisted of “comedy shows and related hustling” during Comedy Festival, or “eating all the things” in later years.
We live here now. That’s wild. And for the first time since November 2023 we know where home is. Home is where you fix things.
Melbourne library lets you borrow a toolkit! I did, and we used every bit of it: hammer, pliers, spanner, screwdrivers, spirit level. Most of the tools I kept I shipped, and only brought a few bits and pieces over in the suitcases. It was awesome not having to buy stuff while we waited for the shipment to arrive.
Startups + Work
There’s a trend the team is seeing in Dunedin: everyone is hustling. Whether it’s turning their hobby into a business, starting a side hustle, or pivoting their existing business, demand for entrepreneurship support is high. So I’m busy coaching the 9 startups we accepted into our incubator — a maybe-crazy more-than-double the usual intake. 😅
I’ve added “Leadership Facilitator” to my feature set, running sessions on conflict and feedback (so far, more to come) for Scalable Leaders. It’s been awesome seeing how much impact I can make in an hour over Google Meet. 🧭
I have some other irons in the fire, too, to hopefully add another couple of days per week of work. TBC! 🤞
Got to catch up with the old BlueChilli crew at HEXPO! Megan was on a playful debate panel about AI and the future of humanity, in which Megan used her trademark “prolonged eye contact” technique to intimidate her opponent with “intense human connection”.
And I finally met Dunedin-based founder Abbe from Winely… at a pitch event in Melbourne. 😆
Fiction
I spent last weekend at a virtual convention. I ran an Improv 101 workshop which went really well; ran a couple of “open mic” reading sessions; was on a panel about how to do live readings; and attended some talks and workshops. I also signed up to a challenge to write a new story during the con, which forced me to write something new. (I got the first 600 words down.)
But I was also on deadline to re-write a story to submit, and I’ve gotta pat myself on the back for how good that story turned out. I’m still learning the whole “kill your darlings” part of editing, but for this story I had quite consistent feedback that I needed to make big changes. I started with a complete rewrite, got a third of the way in, and that gave me enough distance to make other major changes. It’s really good, now, and it feels like I’ve improved a lot as a writer between the last version and this one.
For those not familiar with how short fiction publishing works (lucky you, who only know the shadows that dance on the wall, and know nothing of the fire): I still need to sell the story to a publication, which may take no time, years, or never happen. 🙈🎯 Same goes for the story that got 3rd place—it had already been rejected by a couple of places (what we call a “higher tier rejection” because it lasted a few rounds before it was ultimately rejected) before it went into the competition, and has been rejected once already since. It’s currently sitting in a pile waiting to be read by another publication editorial team… and it could be months until it’s even skimmed. What a fun system!
Nutmeg
Nutmeg is having a rough time. We’re trying a new medication and it’s making her restless and shaky, when it’s not making her sleepy. She’s being a trooper, though, and trying really hard to be good. Sometimes a kiwi dog just has to pick a fight with a magpie, y’know?
Read/Watch/Listen
[Watch: 10 minutes] Simone Giertz shows such vulnerability when talking about selling her products. I love how much of a contrast this is to the “invention” part of her work/persona.
[Watch: 2.5 minutes] Solid John Mulaney impression.
[Listen/Watch: playlist] Sally Baby’s Silver Dollars / Salvatore Geloso with some warm New Orleans tunes. (Full YouTube playlist)
“I dare you to reference Plato’s Cave in your newsletter.” — Julie Trell