Theia: Bittersweet Symphony

September 10th, 2023 I cried a lot for Theia. Like, an obnoxious amount. I always tell people that if you want someone to feel something in your art, you should feel that way while you’re making it. And I do. Arguably, too much. Look, if you don’t want to feel sad today, I recommend maybeContinue reading “Theia: Bittersweet Symphony”

The Words I Needed Then

July 31st, 2023 Today is the last day of Brushfire month, which means I can shut up about it for a little while now. I tell people that I don’t write for an audience, and that is generally true; I don’t sit down and think of a target person, their age or gender or preferencesContinue reading “The Words I Needed Then”

SKP 2023: Brushfire

July 1st, 2023 Happy July, squirrels! This month is (and in my heart always will be) Brushfire month. Not only will we be spending some sweet time spilling tea on the wildlife of the Burrow, but Wave 2 officially drops in just a few days (July 4th, 2023!). If you don’t know the mission statementContinue reading “SKP 2023: Brushfire”

Cold World: Building a house you can live in as is, with doors and stairways to expand up, down, or sideways

June 30th, 2023 Everything about Cold World was, for me, too big to contain in one story — whether I ever decide to write any of those other stories or not. I knew that I wanted to tell a complete, specific tale: this chapter of Calef’s life as he explores the power of understanding, throughContinue reading “Cold World: Building a house you can live in as is, with doors and stairways to expand up, down, or sideways”

Untitled

June 25th, 2023 Seeing people so unabashedly, recklessly happy has filled my insides. I would love to do something weird and thank everyone who went to Twin Cities Pride and Taylor Swift this weekend. Through the magic of being human, your joy has been a highlight of my summer; you are all a Bomb PopContinue reading “Untitled”

Cold World: Faith & Spirituality

June 16th, 2023 “It’s not that I don’t believe in anything. I just haven’t found the thing that makes sense to me yet.” That’s how I usually answer the question of whether I’m religious or believe in God. The formal term is agnostic; I learned that the difference between being agnostic or atheist is thatContinue reading “Cold World: Faith & Spirituality”

How To Be Kind & Think For Yourself

June 7th, 2023 I was going to write about something else today, but Elliot Page has a new book coming out and I’ve been watching his insightful interviews and I want to talk about how we decide to be decent people. Sometimes, more than often than I’d hope, somebody around me will say something disrespectfulContinue reading “How To Be Kind & Think For Yourself”

61

May 31st, 2023 The older I get, the less I try to use the word “hate,” but today is the worst day of the year, and I hate it. It’s my mom’s birthday, which is worse than her death day, because that day was something that happened and is done, while her birthday is aboutContinue reading “61”

The History of The Next Step, Part VI: Unreleased Work, Legacy, and The Future

May 29th, 2023 Like a person, The Next Step isn’t and never was all good or all bad. And it was never a boy band. But it made me who I am today. Before I get to how, however, let’s talk about the stuff that never got made (or got made and then buried somewhereContinue reading “The History of The Next Step, Part VI: Unreleased Work, Legacy, and The Future”

The History of The Next Step, Part IV: Love & Fear

May 23rd, 2023 “I’m sorry that I fell asleep…” So starts Love & Fear, the most ambitious and audacious Next Step album. It’s also the longest and the one that sounds the biggest, because I was trying everything, everywhere, all at once. The sixteen-track LP came out on September 26th, 2006, and was my secondContinue reading “The History of The Next Step, Part IV: Love & Fear”