We took a year off but we’re back.

The League of Lensgrinders never went away.

Are you a writer? Do you want to be a writer? We have resolutions for you, and we share some of our wins of 2022 and hopes for 2023.

Get Scandal Notes and play Evelyn Pryce’s game and follow her on twitter.

Robert Long Foreman’s latest work is here at Brevity Magazine, you can follow him on twitter, and subscribe to his newsletter.

Meeting Minutes 

January, 2022 - Topic: “The New Year”

1 hour 25 minutes

Members Present: James Foreman (co-chair), Evelyn Pryce (co-chair), Robert Foreman(co-chair)

January

* Chair Check-In

* Doing Stuff for Extra Credit

* Sleeping a Lot

* Being a Better Friend

* COVID talk

2021 in Review

* No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (the book)

* 3% (the show)

* Station Eleven (the show)

* Daddy’s Home by St. Vincent (the album)

* Corrina Repp (the musician)

* Long Lost by Lord Huron (the album)

* Chaos TikToks Twitter feed

* Rabbits by Terry Miles (the book)

* Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Allison (the book)

* Jim Talks about his dream and writing

* Mad Prairie by Kate McIntyre (the book)

* The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison (the book)

News Time

* The word of the year

* Wordle Start Words

* Sci Fi is Scary

* Please Don’t Make the Torment Nexus

* Cold Cheese Pizza

The Orson Clip

* Orson Clip: Art

* Oscar Break!

* Orson was very tall

* Orson’s Additional Outtakes

Resolutions

* Rob: More Live Stuff

* EV: No new year’s resolutions

* Jim: More Everything

* Spider Mans

Your favorite secret society has not gone away, they simply took a break.

There are no minutes for this meeting, because we have had a Year, and we’re just getting started. You should still listen to it, because we have Extremely Interesting Things to share.

Meeting Minutes 

March 28, 2021 - Topic: “Food Writing”

1 hour 38 minutes

Members Present: James Foreman (co-chair), Evelyn Pryce (co-chair), Robert Foreman(co-chair); new member Liz Cook inducted (Lensgrinder 011).

Lensgrinder 000011 Liz Cook

* Pelaton joke

* Where are we?

* Chair Check-In

* I’m Fine, It’s Weird

* Schlemiels 

* Lensgrinder 11: Liz Cook

* Liz’s Newsletter: Haterade

* Feet Pics

* The Crows

* Dagger Use

* Weird but Okay

* Pilates for Everybody

* Samuel Toaster

* Port Fonda

* Food Journalist or Food Writer?

* Liz is a Bona Fide Public Figure

* Being a Restaurant Critic

* Liz’s Origin Story

* Visual arts criticism

* How to become a critic

* Why Have a Newsletter?

* What’s so great about food?

* Jim becomes Louis from Ghostbusters

* Getting Grossed Out by Food

* Nigella Lawson 

* Food anxiety

* Conspicuous enjoyment

* I Am Love

* The Foreman Alarm

* Role-Playing: How to Approach a Restaurant Review

* The Guy Fieri Restaurant Review

* GuyTV

* New Term: LensCrafters!

* Rob’s a fancy writer

* Making Money as a Writer

* Liz’s Fun New Years Party

* Bringing KC and Pittsburgh together

* Our Favorite Food Writing

* Food descriptions in fiction

* Turkish delight

* Rax King and Helen Rosner

* Rax Restaurants

* Rob’s ice cream eating

* Rob’s favorite food writing: Consider the Lobster

* Evie is a Foreman Critic

* Liz’s Recommendation: MFK Fisher

* Liz’s Recommendation: Ruth Reichl

* Liz’s Recommendation: Ruby Tandoh

* Liz’s Recommendation: Whetstone

* Liz’s Recommendation: How Apples Go Bad by Helen Rosner

* Liz’s Recommendation: newsletter Food is Stupid

* The Orson Clip: Dry Sherry Sack

* The Orson Ouija Board

* Liz’s Room in the Mansion

Meeting Minutes 

February 28, 2021 - Topic: “Women’s Work is Art”

1 hour 58 minutes

Members Present: James Foreman (co-chair), Evelyn Pryce (co-chair), Robert Foreman(co-chair); new member Amy inducted (Lensgrinder 010).

Lensgrinder 000010 Amy

* Chair Check-Ins

* Hitting the Pandemic Wall

* Lensgrinder 000010: Amy

* Evelyn Takes the Lead

* Rob Then Takes the Lead

* Meeting on Twitter

* Podcamp!

* Garden Party Rapid Power Down

* Moving Around Too Much

* Moving To a New Place

* Dancing Girl Press for Amy’s chapbook

* How Long Ago Things Happened

* Everything feels like it happened 6 months and 10 years ago

* The Raven Delivers the Invoices

* Amy’s Lensgrinder Origin Story

* Amy’s Popular Blog

* Blogs vs. Newsletters

* Converting From Lensgrinder to Living on Your Art

* Doing Lots of Stuff Instead of One Thing

* President’s Day Tweets: Presidential Facts (read the whole day’s worth)

* Andrew Jackson’s Cursing Parrot

* Moneyshot Lincoln

* History Mom

* Teddy Roosevelt Gave a Foreman Ancestor a Box

* The Foreman Alarm

* West Virginia is Not a Monolith

* Another Brief Hunger Games Reference

* Low Stakes Twitter Drama

* Dog Shampoo Guy

* Main Character

* Quillette?

* Feral Hogs

* Clowning on Some Guy

* Bean Dad

* Hilaria Baldwin

* Amy’s Quarantine Activities

* The Quarantine desert

* Embroidery, Cross Stitch 

* Big Projects

* Works in Progress, Unfinished Objects

* Hobbies vs. Arts & Crafts

* “Women’s work” and Art

* South Atlantic Stitching Company

* Preservation Bias

* Bristol Orphanage Samplers

* Suddenly Matt Damon

* The Phantom Thread as a Lensgrinder Movie

* Paul F. Tompkins Phantom Thread Song (read the whole thread)

* Imperfection in Art

* Weird Pig and How it Was Born http://www.semopress.com/books/weird-pig/

* The Paul Masson Commercial

* James Adomian’s Additional Outtakes

* Amy’s Room in the Mansion

* The Foreman Face

Meeting Minutes 

January 21, 2021 - Topic: Comics

1 hour 58 minutes

Members Present: James Foreman (co-chair), Evelyn Pryce (co-chair), Robert Foreman(co-chair); new member Marcel Lamont Walker inducted (Lensgrinder 009).

Lensgrinder 00009 Marcel

Chair Check-Ins

* A reading from the Great Gatsby

* Lensgrinder 00009 Marcel Lamont Walker https://www.marcelwalker.com

* Rob’s Void 

* Marcel Watches History

* Vaping in the rotunda

* The “Insurrection”

* Marcel’s Origin Story

* Pittsburgh Comicon

* Smoking Guns by M.L. Walker https://www.thisawfulawesomelife.com/home/2017/11/5/qa-with-pittsburghs-own-marcel-lamont-walker-by-fran-joyce

* Hate Your Friends by EV

* Hero Corp International https://www.marcelwalker.com/hero-corp-international

* Chutz-Pow! https://hcofpgh.org/chutzpow/

* Meeting John Lewis

* teaching art on zoom

* Rob’s teaching experiences

* Comics are literature

* “The best language arts class”

* Being a critical reader

* Marcel’s Process

* Chutz-Pow Volume 4

* Art is not pain

* Marcel Gives Us Hope

* Meliorism

* Velocity, Traction, A Push

* Mikey Wood

* The Scroll Method

* The Scrapbook

* Jim’s Recommendation: Michael Kupperman

* Skull Groin

* Rob’s Recommendation: Dogman

* Marcel’s Recommendations: Money Shot

* Marcel’s Recommendations: The Terrible Elisabeth Dumn Against The Devils In Suits

* Evie’s Recommendations: MAUS

* Evie’s Recommendations: Phonogram

* Evie’s Recommendations: The Manhattan Projects

* First Clip: The Shadow with Saint Orson

* Second Clip: Frank Zappa on the Hip Guys

* Double Threat the Podcast

* Sometimes You Need a Flop

* Comics Are Disconnected from People

* Marcel Discovers the Publishing Morgue in the Mansion

* Marcel on Twitter! @marcelwalker1

Meeting Minutes 

December 14, 2020 - Topic: Music

1 hour 44 minutes

Members Present: James Foreman (co-chair), Evelyn Pryce (co-chair), Robert Foreman(co-chair); new member Addi Twigg inducted (Lensgrinder 008).

Lensgrinder 00008 Addi Twigg

* Orson’s Ghost

* The volume of emails we get is tremendous 

* The Roster

* New Member: 0000008 Addi Twigg

* Objection Raised: Human Lensgrinders and Animal Lensgrinders

* What’s a Podcast?

* Please Keep Buying Dirty Books

* First Musical Guest

* AddiTwigg.com

* Band: The Telephone Line

* Band: Cisco Kid

* West Virginia (Bingo!)

* Playing Live Online

* Zoom CoffeeHouse

* Addi’s Origin Story

* Jim Cuts Out

* Lipstick

* Lady Gaga’s origins

* Music While Writing

* Thinking vs. Writing

* Listening to Anything

* Vinyl

* Stone Taping

* Cecil 

* Musical Break! Caving In by The Telephone Line

* New Patron “Saint” — Fiona Apple

* Can Rich Kids be Lensgrinders?

* Association of Axegrinders

Image by Addi Twigg!

*

* Fetch the Boltcutters

* Feminine Anger

* Two Versions of Extraordinary Machine

* Under the Table and 40s Fiona

* The World is B******t:

* Courtney Hole

* The Hysterical Woman

* The Gift of Awareness

* I Finally Love My Crumbling Body

* Recommendations (see below)

* Orson Welles Raps:

* Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen:

* Addi Adds a Room

ADDI’S PICKS

Natalie Prass self-titled album from 2015: 

Lady Wray’s 2014 album Lady:

Lianne La Havas:

ROB’S PICKS

Jesca Hoop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesca_Hoop

Chloe Foy: https://www.chloefoy.com

EV’S PICKS

Better Oblivion Community Center: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Oblivion_Community_Center

The Worriers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worriers_(band)

Alexandra Savior: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Savior

JIM’S PICKS

Sweet Spirit: https://www.sweetspiritatx.com

Angélique Kidjo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angélique_Kidjo

Andrew Bird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bird

November 26th, 2020 - Topic: National Novel Writing Month

1 hour 16 minutes

Members Present: James Foreman (co-chair), Evelyn Pryce (co-chair), Robert Foreman(co-chair).

EMERGENCY MEETING: November is National Novel Writing Month

* Evelyn and Rob don’t think it’s a good month. 

* Evelyn would prefer a different month

* Law 4 

* “The League shall not honor or endorse one method of creation as intrinsically superior than another, except when said method is proved detrimental to the continued grinding of lenses.”

* Personal Nanowrimo experiences

* Writing during the election, and after it

* Rob’s Position on Nanowrimo and how he does it

* Evolving Positions on Nanowrimo

* Motivation to write

* Are you writing an entire novel this month? Maybe.

* Jim’s Position

* National Crappy First Draft Month

* Is the first draft the most fun?

* Research takes over

* Evelyn’s Position

* Productivity at all costs: is it healthy?

* Market Forces

* How long it takes to write a novel

* Favorite Books

* Drinking Moonshine

* National League of Lensgrinders Novel Writing Month

* How long is a novel?

* Who cares?

* Fan fiction

* A “commonplace book”

* Bathroom Break

* EV’s recommendation: The Maddaddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryx_and_Crake

* Rob’s recommendation: The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers

* The Formula for Writing a Novel

* The Guys Hanging Out novel

* Female Friendship <> Men’s Friendship

* Male Friendship Not in War

* Chuck Palahniuk

* Fight Club

* Jim’s recommendation: Crooked by Austin Grossman

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_(novel)

* Evelyn Also Recommends: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Jones_%26_The_Six

* Rob Also Recommends: The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kameron_Hurley

* Jim Also Recommends: Machineries of Empire series Yun Ha Lee

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machineries_of_Empire

* Orson Welles Clip: Talking About Dracula

* Orson Welles on John Landis

* Orson Welles on Kazan

* Do Bad People Make Good Things Sometimes?

Meeting Minutes

October 31st, 2020 - Topic: Failure

1 hour 26 minutes

Members Present: James Foreman (co-chair), Evelyn Pryce (co-chair), Robert Foreman(co-chair); new member Jocelyn inducted (Lensgrinder 007).

Lensgrinder 00007 Jocelyn

* The bylaws are magical, folks

* EV update: new game, no cricket, bad sleep

* Rob update: not just having bad ideas, following through on them

* Fish Sandwich and Book Review

* Joey’s World Tour

* Lensgrinder 000007 Jocelyn

* You can’t avoid paying for the robe, people

* Fish Sandwich and Book Review Continued

* EV’s show notes

* Jocelyn First Performer Lensgrinder

* Long Form Improv

* Interior Design

* Dramatic Improv

* Gate Keepers (shaking fist)

* Emmitt joins the meeting

* You need to be a natural

* SNL

* Zoom Coaching

* Arcade Comedy Theater, Pittsburgh’s Only Nonprofit Comedy Theater

* Broadway is closed!

* Comedians are damaged people

* Holiday Time: October 30, the War of the Worlds broadcast

* Orson Welles was very young

* Foreman Family Alarm

* Listen to the War of the Worlds broadcast!

* Morgan Freeman’s narration

* (Jim loves this speech)

* No Person Lives or Dies in Vain

* How did the aliens not know about germs?

* No Mercy in the Lensgrinders

* Failure!

* “Mistakes are gifts”

* You can’t be afraid to look bad

* Failure is part of the process

* Rejection, too

* Drawer Novels

* Hard time admitting failure

* Not everybody is ready for rejection

* We hate doing monologues

* What’s a failure?

* Hearst, Kane and Orson

* The Battle Over Citizen Kane

* Group Chat

* Tom Holland’s performance

* AITA for Accidentally Washing My Ex’s Wallet?

* Servant Boy

* Jocelyn Wants to Improv With Us

* Frozen peas

* Toast of London

* Christian Bale

* Jocelyn had a Christian Bale Moment

* The Apology

* Swing Kids

* Fred joins the meeting

* Jocelyn adds a Black Box Theater

* Rob changes his name on Twitter

Meeting Minutes 

October 12th, 2020 - Topic: Drink

1 hour 28 minutes

Members Present: James Foreman (co-chair), Evelyn Pryce (co-chair), Robert Foreman(co-chair); new member Meagan Ciesla inducted (Lensgrinder 006).

Lensgrinder 00006 Meagan Ciesla.

-Read Meagan’s writing here, here, and here.

-Name pronunciation

-Sabaton song “40:1”

-“Bequeathment”

-What is a Lensgrinder?

-The Meagan Ciesla Elevator Pitch

-Stella, the 3-legged dog

-Meagan’s novella “Me, Them, Us” is available. Get in touch with [email protected] to order

-Rabies

-Louis Pasteur

-Nursing School

-Enter the Cricket (Lensgrinder 00007)

-Hard to concentrate when you’re worried about money

-Things that give more than they take

-Writers get pushed into teaching

-Nursing is an important job

-Pivot to cricket conversation

-Drinking and writing

-The process of Weird Pig (Weird Pig, get it now)

-Drinking and Podcasting

-Alcoholism is an occupational hazard for writers

-Hunter S. Thompson’s ritual

-Drinking used to be fun, not anymore

-Truman Capote and Groucho

-Enter the cat (Lensgrinder 000008 Emmitt)

-Worlds Fair stories by Meagan

-Sticking to fiction after trauma

-Brain Tumors are Scary

-Writing to Communicate, Not Process

-Private Moments

-“Figure it out, dude”

-Lucia Berlin, beloved Lensgrinder and writer

-AITA for Saving a Crow?

-Our answers may surprise you

-Bird Hitler

-the Birdologist

-Please Don’t Touch Things

-Picking up the Pigeon

-Writing Advice

-Having an Agent

-Selectric Typewriters

-Servant Boy