Burst Reach #48: "Do a barrel roll!"

Hello hi

I had multiple drafts of newsletters for June and they never got finished or posted because I was constantly busy. I overextended myself last month and have been dealing with the consequences of that.

I set up at three markets, all successful but draining, and the last one, the Rainbow Festival, got hit by a huge rainstorm, soaking me and most of my stuff to the bone. I ended up tossing a bunch of ruined zines because of that one. I also attended receptions for two separate art shows I was in and went to a dance performance my instructor and classmates were in, doodling every act to the best of my ability.

More stressful was all the medical stuff happening amidst it all: two MRIs, labwork, and three appointments each with a different doctor, all regarding the ongoing nerve pain and producing no real answers. A neurologist put me on an SNRI for the pain but I simply couldn’t handle it and quit after just a few days. Sometimes when I’m especially stressed and such, my stomach starts producing too much acid, and that’s happened again, causing quite a lot of discomfort and leading me back to a doctor’s office earlier this week.

Oh, and I drove out to the lake every day for a week after work to go feed a cat, but that was honestly super relaxing once I got out there because it was so peaceful by the water and mostly private.

This month is mostly free of events, with one exception happening on the 31st at my favorite local bar:

I’m sick of seeing nothing but AI flyers lately, so when I got the idea for this figure drawing session I knew I had to put in the effort to make it stand out as handmade and, uh, deranged in the way that only a human could do. Gotta make David Lynch proud! I ate with a friend at a local punk themed deli recently, and the xerox show flyers they had up on their walls, all black and white, were super inspiring. It really doesn’t take much to make a good flyer!! There’s no reason to use AI! But yeah, super excited to be hosting figure drawing again and I’ve already got a playlist built, because I’m good at prioritizing.

Art and Planet Nude work took a backseat amidst all of this and I’ve yet to get back up to speed on either front. Things are in progress, but that progress is minimal. I have so many ideas for new paintings too, but time and energy are limited.

Overdoing things is a big problem of mine and I’m trying to learn from all of this in order to actually be able to relax. It’s…not going great. On my day off on Tuesday after my wife took off for a camping trip, I went to the gym for the first time since May, bought the new Star Fox remake, did loads of laundry, cleaned and tidied here and there, worked on a Blokees Eva-01 model kit I bought, and plotted what to do with the three day weekend I’m currently enjoying. I shouldn’t keep doing all of the things!

It’s nice to be engaging with media again though. We went to the movies for the first time this year to see Jackass: Best and Last, and have been rewatching the other movies as well. A new Ultraman show has started and the first episode has a killer fight scene in it. The new Ghost in the Shell anime has also begun, developed by Science Saru and aiming to be a more faithful adaptation of the original manga by Masamune Shirow. The first episode was dense with information, rapid in its pacing, and funny as hell too, so it’s pretty damn accurate.

The Star Fox remake is fun too. I played the N64 version from time to time as a kid whenever I’d visit my best friend’s house, and it brings back warm memories of those days. Plus, I love rail shooters (Rez Infinite is maybe my favorite videogame ever), and this is one of the best.

All of the above was written earlier in the week. It’s now Saturday, two days into that three day weekend with little to show for it besides new Godzilla toys (the new Godziburst line is SO COOL), and fuck it, that’s okay. The weather is nasty, but staying in won’t be a problem. I’ll just follow whatever whims I feel.

Don’t let me do everything I did last month like that again though, because shew.