I Should Get Out More!

I don’t think too much about my old life as a staff writer for The A.V. Club and The Dissolve in part because I don’t want to reminded of all of the things that I have lost. There were a lot of things that I absolutely despised about my old jobs and my old life but there were a number of things about them that I loved as well.

I loved that I got to travel but there was part of me that resented it as well. I felt profoundly honored to be able to cover Sundance for The A.V. Club for a good half decade even if that meant working fourteen hour days and going to bed at four in the morning after a marathon late night writing station.

I was similarly lucky to host some installments of The A.V. Club video features like Pop Pilgrims and One Track Mind where I got to do things like have Naughty By Nature perform a private mini-concert just for me or visit the birthplace of Hip Hop with Grandmaster Caz as my tour guide.

Then there was the time I spent a surreal week in Brazil at a film festival as a guest of the Department of Culture. I was unbelievably depressed at that point but that is a story for another blog.

Regular travel was another aspect of my career that I more or less gave up when I traded in the relative security of being a salaried full-time employee of a pop culture website for the exhilarating uncertainty and free-floating terror of being a full time freelance writer just barely getting by.

I’ve traveled for work since then but it has been sporadic and, with the exception of trips to Los Angeles that Netflix and High Times paid for, Netflix for a special on cliches hosted by Rob Lowe and High Times for a special on stoner movies that I’m not sure ever aired anywhere, I’ve had to pay for all of the expenses myself.

Just before the pandemic hit I flew to Los Angeles for Juggalo Days and to promote The Weird Accordion to Al. It was a wonderful trip that wouldn’t have been thinkable even three months later.

Like everyone, I have not traveled because of the pandemic. That’s the safe and responsible if boring thing to do but last month I flew to Chicago to write up the first ever Blues Brothers Con in Old Joliet Prison.

Despite the second and final day being cancelled due to rain and the climax of the first night being James Belushi performing black music I had an absolutely amazing time. Even more importantly, I wrote an article about the experience that I couldn’t be more proud of. It may not have set the world on fire in terms of page-views or scored me even a single new Patreon donor but writing that piece I felt like I was doing what I was put on earth to do, which is to try to articulate my truth as powerfully and eloquently as possible.

I felt all the feels at the Blues Brothers Con. It was sad. It was happy. It made me miss my dad and Chicago and the Chicago White Sox and the depressed, anxious, perennially scared but funny and smart and passionate person I used to be.

I bought a tacky Old Joliet Prison tee shirt as a souvenir because I wanted to remember all of those powerful, complicated and intense feelings so I wanted a tangible reminder of that crazy weekend.

I may be an introverted homebody and semi-hermit with a wide variety of neurological conditions but I was reminded how much I love to travel, to meet new people and go to weird places and do crazy things I’ll remember forever.

That’s why I love going to the Gathering of the Juggalos and am willing to put myself through a whole lot of hassle for a few days in Shangri-La.

I should get out more! I should leave the fine city of Atlanta on a more regular basis but I should also leave my home once in a while. Let’s just say that I REALLY put the “stay at home” in “stay at home husband and father.”

It’s not unusual for me to not leave my house for days except to take my dog for walks and my children on trips to the park.

I love my life as a stay at home dad. I love my family. I love my dog. I love my website. I love my podcast. I love ALL of the books that I have written and am in process of writing.

But I feel like part of the trade-off that I made when I became a full-time independent involves having a smaller career and audience in exchange for more freedom, autonomy and control.

For the most part I’m happy with that compromise but I miss book tours. I miss getting to promote my latest literary masterpiece all over the country on Scribner’s dime.

So I am officially open to invitations! I’d love to visit your town and talk about “Weird Al” Yankovic and/or my lifelong battle with mental illness! And if I can make some money and/or sell some books in the process, even better!

I really should get out more. And you can help me in my quest to be at least slightly less of a weird recluse. Who knows, maybe some day I’ll reach mere semi-recluse status

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