Reinvention is tough. Disrupting old patterns of beliefs or behaviors is tough. Even when we finally decide to disrupt the flow of familiarity, the fear of the unknown that awaits us can be paralyzing. I know that it has been for me. But one of the things that my therapist routinely encourages me to do is to sit with discomfort — to force myself to pause and breathe and stave off the instinct to move into “fight or flight” mode. In sitting with the discomfort or the pain or fear, we reduce its power and we might be more able to move through it to whatever is waiting on the other side. For me, I think that’s the possibility of making more work that I find interesting, finding an audience that will value it, and becoming more connected with a broader community of artists and makers.

LINKS
Better Than Ezra
Kevin Griffin From Better Than Ezra Advice On Songwriting
Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson | TED
Kevin Griffin (Wikipedia)
The Greatest Song by Kevin Griffin

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.

Yesterday, Adrianne and I went out to one of favorite little coffee shops to have breakfast and spend the morning working. About an hour in, I had this urge to check Instagram, which I rarely do, especially lately. In fact, I haven’t really done much online or on social media since the election — I actually leave my phone home more often than not — but for whatever reason, I stopped doing my Morning Pages and picked up my phone and checked Instagram. The first post I saw was a story from Wesley Verhoeve. It was a photo of my friend Pableaux Johnson with a caption that read, “Rest in peace, Pableaux Johnson. Beloved by so many, a true culture documentarian, and a New Orleans treasure.” I was stunned and, in the moment, I honestly didn’t understand what I was reading. My first instinct was to respond to Wesley with, “Wait what? Pableaux is a friend of ours. What is this news?” Wesley responded, “He passed away. I’m sorry to bring you this news. I discovered it this morning from various other posts.” After a brief search, a story on on nola.com confirmed it with, “Beloved New Orleans photographer, foodie Pableaux Johnson dies after collapse at second line.” I just sat there in stunned silence as I felt my eyes well up with tears. Adrianne looked up and said, “What?” I just held up my phone so that she could see the story. “Oh, my God,” she said. “Is that real? What is that?” She grabbed her phone and began searching for confirmation.

I re-watched Dead Poets Society recently and in learning about Pableaux’s death, I was reminded of the first stanza of this poem which was featured in the film.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
By Robert Herrick

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

LINKS
Wesley Verhoeve
Pableaux Johnson
Beloved New Orleans photographer, foodie Pableaux Johnson dies after collapse at second line
Red Beans Road Show
Share Your Favorite Memories of Pableaux Johnson

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.

I’ve held off on posting this Iteration because I just didn’t feel like it was that important in light of what’s happening in California. But after some reflection, I actually think that it is important, because art and making are still important. Hope is important. Helping people to feel just a little less alone and trying to connect with them wherever that may be is important and it’s what I try to do with these Iterations. I write about my thoughts and experiences in the hope that it may help you navigate your own.

LINKS
American Red Cross
The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
The Animal Wellness Foundation
The California Fire Foundation
Dark Matter
Labyrinth
Blake Crouch
Apple TV+
Texas Shakespeare Festival
Alabama Shakespeare Festival

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.

I don’t know about you, but this is by far my least favorite time of year. It really starts around Thanksgiving, but this stretch between Christmas and New Year’s Day is particularly brutal — and it’s not just because I spent the first 48 years of my life in Southern California and still haven’t gotten used to the cold of the East Coast, but yes that. And it’s not just that I’ve lost both of my parents and Christmas has never been quite the same, but that’s part of it too. It’s more that I find it extraordinarily difficult just to be present. I feel caught between looking back on the previous 12 months and looking ahead to what I would like to do differently (or better) in the year ahead (but in all likelihood won’t, at least not to the degree that I tend to expect from myself). I suspect that I’m not alone in at least some of this. When I shared this with a friend, they responded, “Yeah, I feel the same way. But also the feeling and fear of the inevitable sameness as the previous year(s).”

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.

A few weeks ago, I took the train down to DC to meet up with my friend Richard Boutwell to walk through a show at the National Gallery called The '70s Lens. The show features the work of a bunch of fantastic photographers, many of whom I’d never heard of, and that was one of the reasons I wanted to go through it with him. Richard is a terrific photographer who specializes in western landscapes, mostly New Mexico, Arizona, and California. In fact, for years his grandfather was a park ranger in Joshua Tree, so he knows the park like the back of his hand. But as talented as he is behind the camera, he’s an even better printer. Richard has probably forgotten more about printing — both in the darkroom and digitally — than I will ever know. On top of that, he’s got an almost encyclopedic knowledge of photographers. As we were walking through the show, he was telling me all about this picture and that — why they are considered important, and in some cases, how the various photographers influenced each other’s work. It was similar to walking through exhibits with my friend Michelle — who is a paper conservator at the gallery — in that the additional context helps me connect with the work in a different and often deeper way.

LINKS
Richard Boutwell
The '70s Lens
Hollyland wireless mics
David Bowie: Full Interview (1995) | MTV News
OTP (episodes 177 and 352)

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.

Recently, I picked up a copy of Barry Lyndon on Blu-ray. It’s one of those movies that I’ve had on my watchlist forever, but for whatever reason it just kept slipping through the cracks. As I was researching some of the other Criterion movies I was thinking about picking up, I saw a story about Google’s new AI-integrated NotebookLM and decided to try an experiment to see what (if any) insights AI might have to offer around Barry Lyndon. The results were both exciting and a little terrifying.

LINKS
The Criterion Collection
NotebookLM
Technically awesome, emotionally distant — Kubrick movie review (1975)
YouTube search results for "Barry Lyndon"
Making Barry Lyndon
How Kubrick Achieved the Beautiful Cinematography of Barry Lyndon
Achieving Perfection - The Cinematography of Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick's Meticulous Editing Process (Behind the Scenes)

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.

Saturday night, Adrianne and I spent the evening at the home of our neighbors Raj and Trupti helping them, along with about 60 other friends and family members, celebrate Diwali, which is the Hindu festival of lights. It’s hard to explain how incredible it felt not just to be invited into their home again, but to feel so welcomed by the other guests and to get the opportunity to participate in an event that is a deeply meaningful part of their culture.

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.

On Saturday, Adrianne and I took an impromptu trip into DC after seeing an interesting post pop up in my Instagram feed. The post was about an open studio event at the 52 O Street Artist Studios, which is a four-floor building that features “50+ Artists & Creative Businesses.” I’ve loved visiting artists’ spaces for years. When I was still living in California, I would regularly go to The Brewery Arts Complex for their open studio art walks, which were always fantastic. The Brewery is the largest live-work arts complex in the world, and for me the “live-work” aspect is really what sets it apart. There’s a similar complex in Alexandria, Virginia, called the Torpedo Factory that I also enjoy going to, but it’s a very different experience than The Brewery was. The artists only work at the Torpedo Factory and I think the fact that the artists at The Brewery work and live in the same space gives you a deeper insight into who they are beyond simply seeing the work. That additional context can make an enormous difference in how or how deeply I connect with the work.

LINKS
52 O Street Artist Studios
The Brewery Arts Complex
Torpedo Factory
Dave Lefner
DC Arts Studios
Deep Natter
Process Driven

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.

What you’re hearing (if you’re listening, rather than reading this) are the sounds of me unboxing a new keyboard — specifically, an Apple A1048, commonly known as simply the Apple Keyboard. What makes this keyboard especially interesting to me is the period of time in my life that it reminds me of — that and the fact that this particular keyboard has been sitting unopened and unused in a box in central California since 2003. I found it on shopgoodwill.com, where it was listed in “new or gently used” condition. When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only was it in the original box — which wasn’t mentioned in the description — but it was also in the original unopened plastic packaging. The last “new” thing I bought on Goodwill was a Starbucks Barista espresso machine to replace my Saeco Via Venezia that finally gave up the ghost after more than 19 years of daily service and literally thousands of shots of espresso. And just like the keyboard, the Barista was unopened and unused, still in the original box, neither of which were mentioned in the description.

QUESTIONS
What are some of your favorite or most meaningful objects?
Hit reply, leave a comment, or email me at [email protected].

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.

Last week, I released a video review of a new book from Prestel about Gregory Crewdson. It was significant for me, not just because Gregory is one of my photographic heroes — although yes, that is part of it — but because it was the first project I’ve done in quite a while that was really just for me. I’ve been on a bit of a “creative hiatus” for the better part of a year and I’ve only done a few videos before this. So more than anything, I wanted to see if I could pull it off and have it be interesting and feel like me, rather than just another YouTube photo book flip-through. And before I get too far into this, I want to thank Andy Adams at FlakPhoto, without whom it may not have even happened. Andy is a good guy and if you’re at all interested in photography, he’s well worth a follow.

A few months ago I started seeing a new therapist, and part of what we’ve been working on is something called Somatic Therapy, which I’ll include a couple links to in the notes if you’d like to learn more about it. Basically, somatic therapy focuses on the body and how emotions such as trauma and anxiety manifest as physical sensations. When I’m sharing a particular story or experience, my therapist will sometimes interrupt me and ask me to focus on how it feels to talk about or relive the experience — and not emotionally or existentially, but physically. It’s been fascinating to start noticing changes in my breath or heart rate or feel tension start to develop in my hands and shoulders when I’m sharing something disturbing or painful. On the other side, and this is where the video fits in, we’re working on identifying objects, memories, and pursuits and activities that give me joy or pleasure and naming or defining what those things feel like.

LINKS
Gregory Crewdson video review
What is Somatic Therapy?
Somatic Experiencing Therapy
The Difference Between Reacting and Responding
What is Internal Family Systems?

CONNECT WITH ME
Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris
Email: [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Almost Everything with Jeffery Saddoris in your favorite podcast app. You can also subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.