August Reading; “Media At Large”
Folks, we’re going to be SPEEDRUNNING the patreon content this month to condense it into a 2 day period - that’s what happens when I tour for 2 weeks and perform 32 times in 4 days.
Yannick Trapman-O'Brien posts
July Reading Excerpt; "How To Not Always Be Working"
After spending an unexpected amount of time either on the road or in a train terminal without wifi, I am finally getting around to sharing excerpts from “How To Not Always Be Working” by Marlee Grace. Now prior to reading this book, I’d have been tempted to say it took so long because I was too busy working—but now I’m much more inclin...
2024-08-03 14:07:20 +0000 UTC View PostJuly Archive Highlight - “Saying 'this is important, because it's in this time capsule' "
It’s the final waning hours of July - or at least, it was last night when I was sitting in the Wifi-less desert of Amtrak’s 30th Street Station, babysitting the installation of some new vinyls*. And so after emerging from the kind of sleep that follows an 8pm-5am shift, let's agree that I'll thank you profusely for y...
July Reading; “Working on Not Working”
Welcome to this month’s reading list, deep from the “envisioning better work/life balance is difficult to save time for without work/life balance” collection.
June Reading Excerpt; "The Art of Asking"
Getting thoughtful about relationships, connection, exchange, boundaries and more by reading "The Art of Asking" by Amanda Palmer.
2024-07-01 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostJune Archive Highlight - "Make Him An Offer(ing) He Can't Refuse"
June Archive Highlight - "Make Him An Offer(ing) He Can't Refuse"
In celebration of the first announcement of the Undersigned Summer tour (New York, Philly, Boston, Salem, and Los Angeles, get ready for it!), I thought I’d cover...
June Reading; “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Crowdfunder”
Just a few precious (and in Philadelphia, already blistering) days of Spring left. The book I had hoped to read is lost in transit, so I’ve shuffled my planned reading around to jump to a book I’ve been recommended countless times- wi...
2024-06-17 17:42:41 +0000 UTC View PostMay Reading Excerpt - "Keep Going"
A few reminders from Austin Kleon's book "Keep Going" on how to do precisely that in a creative life
2024-06-01 20:40:12 +0000 UTC View PostMay Archive Highlight - "For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow"
For this month, in celebrating my unlikely and very fortuitous acceptance into the 6-Month 2024 FORGE Fellowship, I thought it might be interesting to give you all a sneak-peak at the other side of an announcement like this: the application proce...
2024-05-29 15:32:51 +0000 UTC View PostMay Reading; “It’s a Living”
Another month, another flexible interpretation of my deadlines for posting. May brings another exciting excuse, which is that I’ve been selected to join the incredible cohort at the 2024 FORGE Fellowship. I’m ...
2024-05-24 14:30:17 +0000 UTC View PostReading Excerpt; "Personal Grief Rituals" by Paul M. Martin
You know that feeling when you go looking for tools and structures and end up accidentally reading a literature review too? Well, you would if you picked up a copy of this book - but I can just pull some structures for you, if you like.
2024-05-01 16:43:09 +0000 UTC View PostApril Archive Highlight - “Eventually Something Will Look Familiar”
In a conversation I had lately (read: today, 4 hours ago - these get edited to the very last minute, you know?), I found myself asking a question so interesting to me it only took me 3 attempts to find words for it: “how recently was the last moment you can remember when how it felt being you wouldn’t be recognizable to you today?...
2024-04-30 18:16:28 +0000 UTC View PostApril Reading; “Single Serving Grief”
Between a very unsuccessful tax season (that’s Uncle Sam: 13, Yannick: 0 for those keeping score) and a surprise presentation at a small conference of my old Mentor (University folks only, or I’d have inv...
2024-04-19 19:01:23 +0000 UTC View PostReading Excerpt; "The God Committee"
This month I hung out with Mark St. Germain's play The God Committee. I've done a brief read above, but didn't really find a way of doing it that felt so interesting. If you want a proper theatrical experience, check out the Amazon movie - or even just this clip and trailer below.
April Archive Highlight - “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Desk”
******************** NOTE: TELELIBRARY SPOILERS AHEAD! **********************
This month marks 4 years of operating the Telelibrary - in celebration, and as I pour through photos of myself in general preparation f...
March Reading; “The Committee Committee”
Bit of a strange diversion this month, but there’s method in the madness. I’ve been hopping through quite a few books in my background research that share a common thread of referencing/being influenced by Lewis Hyde’s “The Gift.” If you’ve been with the Patreon for a while, you know that book left a big dent in me, ...
2024-03-13 17:13:07 +0000 UTC View PostReading Excerpt: "Entangled Life" by Merlin Sheldrake
Hello I adore this book and I fought myself all month to not just read the whole thing to you. Highly recommend you do so for yourself, but for now have some excerpts, in which you can draw a straight (and short) line to the archive highlight for the month!
2024-03-01 03:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostFebruary Archive Highlight - Feel Your Roots
This month, rather than digging deep into the archive of past projects, we’re going to look at the topsoil of a curious project that just recently came across my plate.
Image from “The ecological relations of roots” by... 2024-02-29 14:07:36 +0000 UTC View Post
February Reading; “Oh What Tangled Webs are Woven”
Hello,
February is here, and already more than half-gone. Short months are like that, and production months all the more so. Undersigned is making the rounds on the East Coast, so I’m all hands on deck in the ongoing experiment of fig...
January Archive Highlight - How I Learned to Juggle
As it turns out, I have a habit of leaving things to the last minute - which happens to be fairly incompatible with getting large, last minute gigs and bookings. So it is that January’s reflection on habits, rehearsals, and learning new skills is coming out the first day of February. Still, it’s here, so if you’ll forgive ...
2024-02-02 01:57:54 +0000 UTC View PostReading Excerpt; The Power of Habit
If you checked out this month's reading list, you know that many people* believe that the end of January is as good if not better a time for changing habits as the new year rush for resolutions. In fact, it's quite possible that I've saved this for the second to last day of the month to promote just such a mindset.
It isn't true,...
January Reading; “Habit Forming”
Hello all,
Ah, January 1st - the peak day in the peak season for getting a drastically early start on things in a way that will never be sustained. It’s resolution season, and while I have my own separate tradition (perhaps to be discussed a future month), I happen to have spent the past few months involuntarily meditat...
Reading Excerpt; "All About Love"
If you haven't cast your own vote in this month's little informal poll about "is Love a Verb or a Noun?," I suggest you do so now before listening, because Bell Hooks definitely has an opinion, and she's very persuasive. Some words on Love, Loss, and Living through Death from an exceptional and remarkable writer.
2023-12-30 16:41:13 +0000 UTC View PostDecember Archive Highlight - An Informal Poll
Given the reading for the month, I couldn’t resist looking back on a research action for an old piece about “What Makes Some Love True?,” back from the era of the Institute for Internal Certainty. As I did, I realized this actually connected to something I’d spent much of the summer in conversation about (read: ranting o...
2023-12-28 05:49:29 +0000 UTC View PostDecember Reading; "Know Love Loss"
Hello all,
Sliding into the end of the year, and already treading the waters of that strange time between Thanksgiving and New Years where many of the people I know seem to scale back our efforts and “pre-rest” for the oncoming exhaustion of the flurry of activity that is Holiday Break. Marking the end of a large and ...
Reading Excerpt; "The Water Will Come"
As my time with Garage Stories comes to a close, and I prepare to join the crew of artists pitching proposals for new creative projects to communicate and strategize around Sea Level Rise, I'm pulling a few sections of Jeff Goodell's book that explain some unexpected (and deeply unsanitary) side effects of the rising waters.
Come for the ...
November Archive Highlight - “Your Contribution is Noted”
Currently, I’m spending most of my research bandwidth on Forcing Climate Change Research through my brain and considering different pitches and tech applications; however, one of the permanently open tabs in my brain is payment systems, and since this month marks a season of gratitude (and the beginning of getting my shit toge...
2023-11-30 23:29:43 +0000 UTC View PostNovember Reading; “High Tide”
Hello all,
This month I’m doing a hard-pivot away from my intending reading/writing, but for an exciting reason: I’ve been selected as one of about 15 teams of artists, technologists, and storytellers to put together pitches for ways of telling stories of sea level rise. Of the groups, one will be selected to pitch to...
Belated; The October Excerpt
Hey All,
Last month I read The Cloisters, by Katy Hay, hoping for a soft and entertaining entry into understanding tarot. I struggled a fair bit with getting an excerpt, because in truth the book did not provide what I was hoping. It's a fun enough read, and if you're into the genre of Dark Academia (which, as I have discover...
October Archive Highlight - “Pay Up Continues; "Updates from Management”
This month’s Archive Highlight is from a work very much in process - which is to say, it’s been 12 months since I ran the numbers on Undersigned as part of my ongoing payment study “Pay Up,” and over a year since I started looking at payment systems across my current works and seriously considering what outc...
2023-11-01 05:51:16 +0000 UTC View Post