I love this idea. May I ask, do you have kids? I have two young kids and I love the idea of them growing up around events like this. I grew up in a secondhand bookstore and even though my parents did events way, way less often than at a new bookstore, readings and live music of the type you mention here were a fixture of my childhood, and I didn’t realize how lucky I was til later.
That sounds fantastic--and yes, we also have young kids, four of them. They--or at least the ones who are old enough to understand--do get excited about these events (and I hope they'll remember them fondly too).
That's a great trade off--similar to what you mention, when I was growing up in a rural part of the country there was a local café owner who turned his place into an incredible jazz club in the summer by asking music fans in the area to put up the musicians and their families.
Wonderful. Keep going! I'm grateful we got to share one of these experiences in an NYC / LA / Chicago crossover for the Contemplative Realism reading for Arthouse2B in my living room in fall 2023. So worth it to embrace "backyard culture"!
Thank you Erin! Encountering Arthouse2b was an added inspiration for these "backyard" events (I should have mentioned that in the piece!). We've been more ad hoc about it so far, but maybe at some point this can become more institutionalized. I thoroughly enjoyed that evening with you and Katie and Thomas.
Ad hoc is great, sometimes it's the most needed for the community's needs! I'll be praying for ya'll. If I make it back out to LA anytime soon would love to catch an event or say hello!
With so many people striving to be at the center of something as abstract and vast as "the culture," we are inundated with increasingly hysterical and psychopathic offerings. You evoke the human-scaled center of your backyard beautifully -- I wish I could join!
Yes, completely agree with what you say about "the culture"--a strange abstract space (and this can even be true of a conference, say, that's too big, such that your experience of it could be utterly different from that of other attendees just depending on which talks and panels you choose to attend).
Love it
I love this idea. May I ask, do you have kids? I have two young kids and I love the idea of them growing up around events like this. I grew up in a secondhand bookstore and even though my parents did events way, way less often than at a new bookstore, readings and live music of the type you mention here were a fixture of my childhood, and I didn’t realize how lucky I was til later.
That sounds fantastic--and yes, we also have young kids, four of them. They--or at least the ones who are old enough to understand--do get excited about these events (and I hope they'll remember them fondly too).
fantastic. I have friends who do this and offer lodging to traveling blues and jazz musicians in exchange for the private concert.
That's a great trade off--similar to what you mention, when I was growing up in a rural part of the country there was a local café owner who turned his place into an incredible jazz club in the summer by asking music fans in the area to put up the musicians and their families.
Wonderful. Keep going! I'm grateful we got to share one of these experiences in an NYC / LA / Chicago crossover for the Contemplative Realism reading for Arthouse2B in my living room in fall 2023. So worth it to embrace "backyard culture"!
Thank you Erin! Encountering Arthouse2b was an added inspiration for these "backyard" events (I should have mentioned that in the piece!). We've been more ad hoc about it so far, but maybe at some point this can become more institutionalized. I thoroughly enjoyed that evening with you and Katie and Thomas.
Ad hoc is great, sometimes it's the most needed for the community's needs! I'll be praying for ya'll. If I make it back out to LA anytime soon would love to catch an event or say hello!
Thank you Erin. Definitely do let us know if you come through LA!
With so many people striving to be at the center of something as abstract and vast as "the culture," we are inundated with increasingly hysterical and psychopathic offerings. You evoke the human-scaled center of your backyard beautifully -- I wish I could join!
Also, you _should_ join for one of these!
My perpetually-postponed LA trips... always looming, never arriving... But I will get there!!!
Yes, completely agree with what you say about "the culture"--a strange abstract space (and this can even be true of a conference, say, that's too big, such that your experience of it could be utterly different from that of other attendees just depending on which talks and panels you choose to attend).