Substacking: Messing around with Substack again. Tried out songs with video (which I ended up using here in post previous to this one), deleted the songs (“More Modern Songs”) substack, started a poetry substack, deleted that one too, settled on cartoons. “Laconic Cartoons: simple doodles with few words.”
Substack format seems busier than when I previously gave it a trial go. More social media characteristics. “Notes” page, for example, that seems to work like the old bluebird site (see cartoon, “This Bird has flown”).
Listened to a short podcast this morning on a cartoonist’s substack I’m following. Two and a half minutes in which she reads all the captions from the cartoons in this week’s New Yorker. It’s Liza Donnelly, who is herself a New Yorker cartoonist. Clever idea, captions without the drawings. Sounded like a John Ashbery poem as the captions ran together randomly as if they were connected by some logical narrative thread. Flight of the bumblebee. I was going to leave Liza a comment, only to find I couldn’t – only paying subscribers can comment on Liza’s substack. Clever idea that, too. And there were two captionless cartoons in the issue, which of course she could not read, but I was reminded of John Cage’s 4’33.
“Laconic Cartoons” has no paying option, and no plans of such. All free, and feel free to comment, such as, “Dude, seriously? You can’t give these away!” Something like that.
Decluttering: Have now filled a dozen grocery bags with books, eliminating the need for several bookcases. Vietnam Veterans will pick them up, along with some cool items recently discovered in the basement. What books did I keep? Might want to save that for a future post.
Guitar: Working on more original songs. “More Modern Songs”: that title, btw, suggested from Dylan’s latest book. Planning more videos. Had not tried to post a video on WordPress before. Easy. Songs are different from poems. Though you can usually read a song a lot quicker than you can listen to it, but you can listen to music while doing other things, though vacuuming the living room presents challenges, while poems should be read aloud to achieve their full flavor.
Cartooning: Here’s a cartoon (captionless) for readers unwanting or unable to visit the Laconic Cartoons substack:
The Coming of the Toads 