Just A Peck 0057 // Crunch, Friends, Proto-Performance

Just A Peck

Welcome to the latest issue of Just A Peck. I’m glad you’re here!

JOURNAL

I spent most of this week coding long hours on a secret project for work. This is something I’ve been working on for over six months, and it has its official launch in just over a week, so I’m in crunch mode. In an unfortunate bit of timing, our heat pump stopped working and our internet went out twice on two different days. The spotty internet, the heat, and the humidity have not helped my stress levels. 🙂

I still managed to get together with two different groups of friends last Sunday to discuss books, I went to a backyard grill-out gathering between those two discussions, I attended my playwriting class on Monday night, had drinks with friends after work on Tuesday night, and got together with friends for games on Thursday night. The only picture I took of all of these awesome things was the end of a session of Sagrada. You’ll just have to trust me on the rest, I guess.

Finished stained-glass window boards full of colored dice at the end of a game of Sagrada

On Tuesday we had our monthly family movie discussion. The movie this month was Logan (Corey’s pick) and the conversation was enjoyable, as always. We had to reschedule our usual weekend time to a weeknight, which meant that Kaylee missed out. (She is stage managing A Chorus Line at the Playhouse, and rehearsals started this week.)

Justin, Jody, Spencer, Corey, and Justin's parents on the video call for the monthly family movie discussion

On Friday we attended the opening night performance of Hadestown (Teen Edition) at the Playhouse. The talent of the kids in this community and the caliber of youth theater at the Playhouse are always astonishing. Really outstanding work by everyone involved.

The set for Hadestown (Teen Edition) at the Duluth Playhouse, seen from the back of the house on opening night

This morning, along with a dozen other local artists and supports, I watched a proto-performance of a new work by my friend Tom. It was a beautiful, emotional piece with original songs, Tom’s unique and endearing handmade aesthetic, and a poignant story of childhood trauma and growth. It was an honor to witness this in its nascent stage.

The hand-lettered program for the Journey To Self proto-performance at Zeitgeist Theatre, held up as Tom Maloney performs onstage

WHAT I WATCHED THIS WEEK

Logan (2017) poster
Logan (2017). As mentioned, we watched this for our family movie discussion. There are parallels to Shane (explicitly referenced in the film), to revisionist westerns like Unforgiven and The Outlaw Josey Wales, to The Tempest, and more. I'm not really a superhero movies guy in general, but this one is pretty solid.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK

Finished:

A battered Avon paperback of Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
Rogue Moon, by Algis Budrys. A short, Hugo-nominated novel which you think is going to be about characters making their way through a giant alien structure that kills them for inexplicable reasons (like Diamond Dogs), but the alien structure is barely a part of the story. Instead it's a more complex novel than I expected — a meditation on death and dying.

In Progress:

BOOKS I PURCHASED

MEMORIES

Ten Years Ago:

Jody and I drove the full length of Skyline Drive for the first time, exploring some of our new home’s most stunning vistas and seeing some of our favorite places for the first time.

Jody and Justin taking a selfie at an overlook along Skyline Drive at sunset

Fifteen Years Ago:

While helping my parents clear a bunch of fallen trees after a storm, a downed tree flipped over onto my foot, breaking two of my toes. (Why was I wearing sandals while clearing trees? Mind your own business.) After fifteen years, the big toenail on my left foot still hasn’t quite grown back correctly.

Justin's left foot in a walking boot next to his right foot in a sandal

Twenty Years Ago:

Kaylee, Spencer, Corey, and one of Spencer’s friends were at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a “treehouse party.”

Kaylee paddling a kayak while Spencer, Corey, and a friend swim alongside in the lake

WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT

This week is all about Mothership for me. I’m preparing to run four introductory sessions at Excalibur Con next weekend. (You should sign up!) I’ve enlisted the help of some friends to be my guinea pigs today so I can run the session once as a trial run. Here’s the summary: Something has gone terribly wrong aboard the Rimor 89. Crew are failing to report for duty, something is scuttling in the dark between the bulkheads, and a hundred fathoms beneath the surface of an alien world, the hull groans under a weight it was never built to withstand. The remaining crew — underpaid, indebted, and a very long way from anyone who cares — have to find out what’s happening before the ship, and everyone in it, is lost to the deep. Will the Rimor 89 make it back to the surface? Or will it end up as yet another redacted paragraph in an incident report no one will ever read?

The Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG core set box
The Excalibur Con logo, a sword driven through the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge

The filmmaker Steven Soderbergh just released an app called Production 02074 that tracks every camera setup and shooting day on the production of Jaws. This is incredible.

The cover of Production 02074 beside a black and white production still from the set of Jaws

MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I can't go back now and change the boy that I grew out of. I can see him; I can see his mistakes as well as his correct decisions. But I'm the man who grew out of the mistakes as well as out of the choices an adult would approve. I have to work with what I am. There's nothing else I can do — I can't forever sit in judgement on myself."

— Algis Budrys, Rogue Moon

That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!

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