14 / my favorite murder but instead of "murders" it's "titles and names"
WELCOME TO MY NEWSLETTER
To all my new followers – hello :) I appreciate you being here. Each month I include a little piece of writing, some shows I'm doing, and usually a few places I've donated to. I love it when people respond to these newsletters, so if you are so inclined to do so honestly go off...... it'll make me feel less insane for having the audacity to have a newsletter as if I'm like some well-structured children's arts education non-profit or something.
MY FAVORITE TITLES
I wanted to talk today about my favorite titles I've seen in media. Sort of like "My Favorite Murder," the well-known true crime podcast, but with titles instead of murders. One main difference is that this newsletter is not full of pro-police sentiment, unlike "My Favorite Murder," because I actually hate the police :) so in that way this newsletter and "My Favorite Murder" the podcast are different.
In general, I find the idea of a title or a name to be funny because they are fundamentally inadequate. Like if I'm like "I AM Charlie" it's like, trying to stuff the entirety of my existence into the tiny, arbitrary container of "Charlie," which is doubly funny because there are other Charlie's out there, believe it or not. If you've ever tried to title a piece of creative work, you know the futility. You spend years of your life writing a memoir that contains as much of your story as you know how to say and then you end up having to title it, like, "Good Boys," or whatever. And then the whole story and everything in it becomes connected to the idea of "Good Boys." Titles are totalitarian like that.
This is not going to be an exhaustive list of my favorite titles, because I only started collecting my favorite titles about a month ago. I know that after I send this I'm going to remember several absolutely crucial titles that I failed to include, and it's going to drive me crazy. Yet another of life's little disappointments.....................
"Things Fall Apart"
I’m obsessed with this title. I picked up and read this book by Chinua Achebe because I think its title is so perfect. It’s an incredible and historic book, a landmark in African post-colonial literature, which I didn’t really know when I started reading it. But I read the title and was just like “that is so true.” Because things do fall apart and I’m so grateful this book at the courage to just precisely name that dynamic. It obviously makes contextual sense within the book—you read the story and therein things do fall apart. But the title itself is just so rich. It's a truism, an axiom. Like if you've ever seen a thing, sooner or later it's going to fall apart. It's one of the hallmark moves of things in general, basically inherent to their nature. But no one really had taken the time to precisely and elegantly name that dynamic before Chinua Achebe, and now the title gets to be with us forever. "A River Runs Through It"
Ok to be honest I don't know what type of media this is, like whether it's a book or a movie or perhaps both? But for some reason the title is in my head and I just love it. I think it's so funny to describe the topography of something without telling us what it is. Like is "it" a barn? A landscape? A dream? I don't know. This title takes place in a hypothetical spacetime when we know what "It" is but we don't know how "it" relates to a river. Again, I have no idea what this piece of media is (song???) so please let me know if it's insensitive of me to include.
"Saxby Chambliss" Saxby Chambliss is an awful person, but a gorgeous name. Sorry. I think it's just an incredibly innovative way to use syllables.
"On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" I love that it feels like with each like descriptive word here (Earth, Briefly, Gorgeous) I feel like I can swap it out and play with it. It feels like an acting exercise where you have to form hypothetical questions that the title would answer: WHERE are we briefly gorgeous? I’m sorry, we’re gorgeous on Earth, how, exactly? On Earth We’re Briefly WHAT?! I like imagining the title censored. On ____ We’re Briefly ____. "I Who Have Nothing" I love this because it’s the beginning of the sentence, which you plan on finishing, but before anything else you have to disclaim that you have nothing. Like: “I, who, by the way, have nothing, [sentence continues]” It sounds like that very online construction “As a person with nothing.” I love the sweeping insane drama of “I who have NOTHING” being a useful disclaimer in a political argument. “As someone who has nothing, I think we need to think about what educational accessibility means in a testing school context.” "Why Did I Get Married Too?" This movie title has been stuck in my head ever since I saw the poster in 2010. A sequel to the normally titled “Why Did I Get Married?” “Why Did I Get Married Too?” uses the “too”/“two” double entendre in such an insane way that it has made a home in my brain and will probably stay there for the rest of my life. It’s just, like, not how you would ask this question. If anything, you would say “Why Did I Also Get Married?” and even then it’s like when is that gonna come up? Perplexing, audacious, resonant. "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" I’m sorry but this is just SO evocative……… This idea just makes me tear up. Not sure what this book is about but wow. The heart being a lonely hunter. Holy shit. "If It's Alive, It Will" A gorgeous old Angel Olsen song. If it’s alive????? Honey, it will. The title is so opaque and dramatic. I'm realizing at this point that my favorite titles are full declarative sentences. "Woman At War" Alliteration is so cool to me and this is such a visceral image. War is so big and expansive—it’s something a country does—and to apply that construction to a single woman? I’m already weeping. I’m told this movie is also incredible, so I’m going to watch it.
"Sandra Day O'Connor"
"Day O'Connor" for some reason gets stuck in my brain all the time. I often add it reflexively when I hear any person's first name. Awesome little trick my mind does :)
"Pig Brathwaite"
This is a name I made up. I keep imagining Pig Brathwaite being the musical guest on SNL and like, Kirsten Dunst saying "Ladies and Gentleman, one more time: Pig Brathwaite."
PLACES TO DONATE IF YOU SO CHOOSE
There are lots of good places to donate, as always. I've recently been donating to Bernie Sanders, for so many reasons. I think he supports great policies, and has for a long time, towards making the United States a more compassionate and fair country both to its citizens and to people around the world. He also is polling against Trump better than any other Democratic candidate!
Still, electoral politics are the not the only thing that matter! I just donated to Make The Road New York, an immigration justice group for working class and immigrant communities. They do programming involving Adult Literacy, Community Organizing, Legal Services, and more. Great org!! If you donate to either of these causes and reply and tell me and tell me one of your problems I'll tell you my advice for it. This is my
SHOWS
Wednesdays all month / 8pm – August Exploration (Jones Beach Bar)
My little cutie pie little weekly show. Come one come all – truly always a blast!!! We have a new Instagram account – follow for updates!!!!!
Monday, March 2 / 9:30pm – Rachel @ Lola (Lola Bar)
Rachel Sennott's inaugural monthly show. Sure to be incredible~ gonna do some topical material here.
Tuesday, March 3 / 8pm – Sophomore (Piano's)
Gara Lonning, who hosts this show, does these incredible dance vids on IG – you should follow them, and come to the show, where they do these amazing dance numbers.
Wednesday, March 4 / 8pm – August Exploration Presents: The Four Twenty Show (Jones Beach)
OK!!!!!!!!! SO – this WEDNESDAY, Natalie and I are each doing two twenty minute sets of new material, with two twenty minute sets of riffing/talkbacks – hence, four, twenty minute sets. I'm really excited for this show.
Monday, March 9 / 7:30pm – Rachie's Awesome Advice Hour (Union Hall – $10)
Ahh!!!!!!!!!! Rachel's new show!!!! Rachel and Eva are hosting this advice show??? It'll sell out for sure so buy your tickets!!!!
Thursday, March 12 / 7:30pm – Power Broker (BCC – $10)
I BELIEVE the concept for this show is that it's a competition and the winner gets a copy of the famous Robert Moses biography "Power Broker" by Robert Caro. Robert Moses is a crucial figure in American and New York history, and is super responsible for our experience of the city, arguably in a bad way (basically bulldozed mostly low-income neighborhoods to make massive highways, like the BQE and the Cross-Bronx expressway), which is why our cities have so many cars which makes them way way less livable
Thursday, March 12 / 8pm – Stacy (Rebecca's)
My monthly!!!! Still confirming lineup, but we have Jill Sermonte and Dash Turner, and some other incredible folkx as well <3
Wednesday, March 18 / 6pm – Hunter Comedy Night (Broadway Comedy Club – $30)
Doing a fundraiser for my high school, which was free and public but funded by Hunter College. I loved my high school but it was bad that much needed public funds went to a specialized public high school that disproportionately served wealthy kids and very few black and Latino kids :/
[PHILADELPHIA] Friday, March 20 / 10pm – Joke Bath (Good Good Comedy – $12)
Yay!!! Rachel Kaly and I are headlining the best show in Philadelphia!!!!!!!! This is an honor – Good Good is an amazing theater, and we've performed there a few times, and we're so happy to be back. Prob doing some individual stand-up and maybe dusting off some of our old sketches.
Tuesday, March 31 / 8pm – Poco show
Doing a show at "Poco" which I gather is a restaurant in the Lower East Side. I forgot to write more details about this but it's happening, though I don't know who's organizing it or what the theme of the show is. To be honest I get booked on stuff usually like two weeks in advance, so I always have a bunch of shows in the last two weeks of the month that I don't send out. This is just the way things go sometimes....
BRAGGING
I had an awesome month on Twitter.com..... two of my jokes went viral :) which feels honestly amazing. these are the highlights, though of course check it out for yourself (twitter.com/chunkbardey)
I especially love that the dividing one did well – that feels really truthful and special to me :) I love math so much, and since I learned math have been very influenced by the beauty of numbers and how they fit together. It's nice to have that shared :) I'll probably write about math in this newsletter soon.