Season 1, Episode 6

Hi there! I dropped the ball on sending you all an email in June, and since then I’ve been trying not to feel bad about it. It’s the first one I’ve missed and I’m fighting the urge to take it as an indicator that this is just one more project I’ve started and can’t be consistent with (how self-absorbed (how falsely humble (how self-aware))).

I deeply enjoyed sending a handful of you not-really-random books from my purge pile after the last dispatch. Thanks to those of you who requested!

Thanks for being here.

Fashion icon (not me)

In 2014 I saw Bill Cunningham and his bike on the street in NY. I’ve rarely been more starstruck and I snapped this photo of him in his iconic uniform. I love his slight underbite and how you can see his gait. He looks absorbed in thought and a little troubled. I wish I’d spoken to him and glad I didn’t. Bill died about 2 years later.

There’s a beautiful documentary about Bill made by Zeitgeist Films. It’s called Bill Cunningham New York and maybe you’ll like it.

Who is this guy?

I would like to tell you that I’m headed out on tour in September. In 2021/’22 I was drum tech for David Byrne’s American Utopia on broadway, and I’m reprising that role for a new world tour in support of David’s album Who is the Sky? There are dates released through March 2026 and the tour may extend through next summer. I’m very excited to be doing this job again (one of my favorites I’ve ever had). It’s challenging and exciting and I’m looking forward to seeing some parts of the country and world that I’ve never seen. I’m going to miss my family a lot too, but the tour is broken up so that I’ll be able to make it home sometimes and will be able to bring them out for some visits here and there as well.

Fun fact: these tour trunks were passed down to David by another iconic DB—David Bowie (these are the drumheads and tambourines we went through during American Utopia at the St. James)

I told you all in Episode 2 that I was (more than) exploring the idea of a substantial career shift, and shortly after that I was asked to work on this tour—which is not exactly what I had envisioned happening, and I very nearly immediately respectfully declined, but Jenny (that’s who I’m married to) talked me out of it, and convinced me to take the job. The decision to do so set into motion a chain of fairly chaotic events (an apartment move to facilitate Jenny’s mom moving in for the year to help with kid logistics, a wrapping-up of most of my other ongoing projects, a departure from my beloved job at Good Hands Drum Shop, a temporary re-housing of my drums, etc. etc.). I’m starting rehearsals in NY in August and then we head out in September. Maybe I’ll see you somewhere out there!

I lied to you

When I started this newsletter, the primary reason for doing so was because I had recently decided to delete all my social media accounts. And I had deleted all my personal accounts, but not all my accounts. You see, I have a lot of little Instagram babies that I’ve birthed over the years. Every time I come up with some weird idea for a website or project or scheme (there are a lot of them) for some reason I’ve made an Instagram account to correspond. Typically, once I forget about or lose steam on the project, the Insta account remains active and I forget about that too, until I get some email notification about terms of service or something and I have a chuckle remembering that moment in time. Here are the ones I can think of right now:

Wire Robots (@wirebots) was an account I made while I was trying to quit smoking. My plan was to carry around a spool of wire and make little figurines instead of smoking a cigarette, and then give them away. I made one.

Duolingo Philosophy (@duolingophilosophy) came into being when I started noticing that sometimes the app would serve unexpectedly profound or existential phrases. A bunch of people submitted for repost! I’m thinking of re-activating this one so maybe go give it a follow if it sounds funny.

Non-Smokers Smoking (@nonsmokerssmoking) began as a structure for a photography project. I bought a film camera and wanted to learn to use it by convincing self-identified non-smokers to smoke a cigarette and taking their portraits. It seemed like a great setup. It was, and it also started me smoking for six years like an idiot.

Deceased Umbrellas Of New York (@deceasedumbrellasofnewyork) is the only one of these that I still actively maintain. I’m anonymous there, so if you’re reading this—you’re getting a pretty exclusive reveal. It’s just dead umbrellas—which people go nuts for.

Music For Podcasts (@music.for.podcasts) was a venture I started in an effort to create a small collective of composers as a counterpoint to the big, faceless stock music companies. I had six member-composers who made some really delightful things, and hired human artists to create some fantastic cover art. The account is worth a glance if just to see the work of some friends that I love. I didn’t know how to grow it though and eventually threw in the proverbial towel.

I created 17 Syllables (@17syllablesproject) because I thought people would like to submit original haiku and have them recorded by someone else. No one really did.

I have no idea what Small Songs Radio (@smallsongsradio) is all about.

The Talk - The Podcast (@thetalkthepodcast) is the companion account to a podcast I produced in 2020/’21. The idea was to interview all sorts of experts in child development and related fields, as well as parents themselves—as a way of investigating my hunch that kids are capable of understanding and engaging in conversations that we often reserve for adult discourse—and that we owe them the respect of including them in those conversations. I loved doing it, and a lot of people appreciated it and you can still listen to it on all the podcast outlets!

7 Songs 10th Anniversary!

Hey! It’s been ten years since I put out Seven Songs, which I still love and listen to sometimes. I’m always grateful when anyone has a kind word to say about these songs, and I’m deeply appreciative to all the people who helped me make it (Susan Mandel, Allison Seidner, Margo Seibert, Jahn Sood, Joel Waggoner, Jess Birch, and KJ Hardy).

The album has been off the major streamers for a while, but it’s back to being available pretty much wherever you look. If you liked Living Thing, I bet you’ll find Seven Songs tolerable.

Jenny Yaddaw made the artwork, and this is what you got if you ordered one of the original 25 physical booklets (with accompanying USB drive).

That’s all for this month! Love you!

You can read previous episodes of this newsletter HERE.

More from me at jeremyyaddaw.com. Text me at 518.207.7658.