Snow and Ice
I prefer Clive Staples to John Ronald Reuel.
dictated but not read
You can’t keep the world out.
It will find you.
Many, if not most, of us were reminded of that this past weekend when the latest evidence of climate change dropped ice and snow from Texas to Connecticut. We did okay in my neck: about 6” of snow and 4” of sleet with no power loss.
But it did force the cancellation of my daughters’ dance recital and severely interrupted my son’s birthday plans. A good instruction for all three of them that, sometimes, life conspires against our best laid plans in unexpected ways. And while our lives have been mildly inconvenienced, some people’s lives have been extremely disrupted and/or even destroyed by what life has thrown at them.
We learn that you can do everything correctly and still lose due to fate or the weather or the decisions and actions of those who have decided that cruelty is the only way forward.
Sometimes, a system blows into your town totally uninvited, causes a tremendous mess without let or hindrance or care for people or property of basic human decency.
And we look at the news and despair because there seems like nothing we can do.
But then, we get up the next day and do what needs doing.
We shovel ourselves out. We help our neighbors shovel themselves out. We expel the evil force from our homes by any means necessary. And it won’t go away quickly, or easily, but with slow, steady, and persistent pressure and force applied in the right places, combined with assistance from the sun, the terrible thing that came into our homes is gone.
Not overnight. It’ll be here for much longer than it should and it will cause a lot more damage before it is forced out. But it will be gone one day if we refuse to accept it. We’ll see friends fall and get hurt, as if the force wanted that from the beginning (and I think it did). But we help them up, if we can. And we mourn them if we cannot. And we wish we could do more. And we kiss our children and pray the force doesn’t come for them for reasons passing understanding.
Because through all the shovelling and salting and shovelling breaking through and resisting I did today, one thought pervaded over all else:
FUCK ICE.
- Patrick, 1/28/26
coming soon
The Ferberizing of Coral
NEW LAUREL on the poster! The Ferberizing of Coral will be screening at Awesome Con this March in Washington, DC. Exact date and time to be announced! Also, totally by coincidence, we put the trailer up on the Instagram and it’s tearing it up over there. Give it a click.
CineMagic
Last week, I taped a segment for DCN (DC’s cable channel) and their show CineMagic talking about the 48 Hour Film Project and especially my film The Crown Must Go On. It was a lot of fun and I’m quite chuffed to have been asked. The episode should air in the next couple weeks, watch this space for date and time (it’s streaming outside of DC.)
friends of the unknown penguin
Mitzi’s Substack
If you know The Ferberizing of Coral short film (mentioned above), then you know Mitzi Akaha. She’s a wonderful actor, outstanding collaborator, and excellent brunch date. Lately, I’ve been very taken with her Substack. I was especially moved by her post from Jan 1 entitled “Garbage Day” (linked below).
So subscribe to Mitzi. She doesn’t post on a regular schedule as much as I do but her posts are all thinkers worth your time. Subscribe, and tell her I sent you.
live on stage
Tinker Bell
available through Dramatic Publishing
Clinton County Youth Theatre (Frankfort, IN) - January 29-31
Trinity Theatre Company (San Diego, CA) - March 6-8
DeSales University (Center Valley, PA) - March 17-April 7
Union 8th Grade Center (Broken Arrow, OK) - April 16-17
from the vault
Festivale - Episode 1: Meet David Johnson
We thought we were making a short.
Seriously. A fully-improvised mockumentary about a small-town film festival getting the chance to debut the latest movie from a has-been “auteur” was supposed to be 35-minutes long tops.
The rough-cut was 135 minutes long.
I did eventually trim it down to a tidy 80 minute movie that I do stand behind. But this webseries version is the best of it. 15 main episodes, 8 bonus episodes, all wonderful.
Enjoy.
END OF LINE
It helped reading this today. Thank you.