The June McBursting Monthly

Finishing a notebook, going offline, and doing sketch shows. A monthly round-up of what I thought about and did in June.

Creatively, June burst at the seams and dribbled across the linoleum. I did two two-person shows with two different wick-ed-ly talented women who are shorter and funnier than me. I shot a web series, premiered a feature film, and wrote a sketch packet for that show we know.

But let us begin with a notebook.

This month I reached the end of my notebook. This is the book I carry with me everywhere, which holds journal entries, lists, jokes, drawings, and lately, bits of ephemera I paste in with a glue stick. I also carry a planner with me, so my quotidian tasks and calendar stuff goes in there and the notebook is more of a playground. It took me 6 months to write my way through this Leuchtturm notebook and I thought it would be cool to share a sampling of the more colorful pages. Most of the book is text with scattered drawings, so I’ve chosen to excerpt the fun spreads, and blur out the journal bits for privacy.

For my next notebook, I bought a Bindewerk sketchbook. It’s my third one. Almost any time you see me smiling slightly 🙂, it is because I am clamping my lips together to resist over explaining my notebook system. I love stationary stores. That’s all I’ll say right now. 🙂

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PIANO IN THE GARAGE

I’d like to tell you something important. I’ve begun to take piano lessons. My boyfriend got me a keyboard for my birthday last month, which we have installed in the garage temporarily. So I got out there to practice for about ten or fifteen minutes a day. My goal is to learn to play well enough that I can compose little songs. Maybe a big one, as well. I also want to be able to play Vienna by Billy Joel and half the album from Taylor Swift where she wears flannel and is sad on the east coast. When I was getting my roots bleached a couple weeks ago, I practiced the C major scale on my leg. This has been the most exciting and fun new thing in my life.

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OFFLINE SUMMER

About a third of the way through the month, I decided to make a change. I found myself upset every day and the reasons are: climate change, ICE raids, the government generally, Gaza, and AI. Not only am I stressed about each thing (+more!) but it was grating to see, all day, in spurts and scrolls, people I like and with whom I generally align saying or doing things that bummed me out. A comedian I like putting AI images on their poster. A friend who is environmentally conscious posting an Amazon wishlist. (Please stop giving Amazon your money! Oh my god!!¹) The cacophony of voices was making me irritated and disappointed, compounding the misery of the news. So I decided to build a framework to be more Offline and more present in my actual life, while still keeping up and trying to help.

So here’s what I cooked up for ~Offline Summer~ and it’s been going well:

• REDUCE SOCIAL MEDIA & USE IT MORE SOCIALLY. I check social media once a day for ten minutes. Usually at 2:30pm. (I logged out of Twitter on all devices and TikTok is already not allowed on my phone, so really this is just Instagram.) When I’m on there, I try to actually comment, pay attention, and appreciate stuff my friends are doing and posting. Versus scrolling through the feed as “entertainment.”

• DO SOMETHING TANGIBLE TO HELP RATHER THAN JUST WORRYING. I know it doesn’t help anyone that I am upset every day in my house. And I will be no matter what because I continue to participate in society and the news is rancid. But I figured I’d feel better (and less guilty?) about disconnecting from the constant barrage of posts and takes, if I’m doing something more active. So in June I started recurring donations to sponsor a kid in Honduras via Children International and set up a recurring donation to Rainforest Trust. I also signed up to weed out invasive plants in a nearby canyon via Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy.

• PAY ATTENTION TO WHO AND WHAT IS ACTUALLY IN MY LIFE. Call people, invite myself over, go outside, monitor my cat for symptoms of asthma. You get it.

To kick this off, I painted one of the first spreads in my new notebook.

To watch this video, you’ll have to click-through to Substack. But can I entice you to do that by telling you that I did an unscripted voiceover for it and added a jazz loop?

JOIN ME!! And I suspect this will bleed into the rest of the year and hopefully my life. In the last few years I have been regimented about my online scrolling in different ways, but ten minutes a day (FIRM) is probably my most restrictive yet and it feels really good.

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RECENT COMMISSIONS

Here are some house commissions I’ve done over the last few months!

As always, you can commission me here!

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PICTORIAL EVIDENCE OF STUFF I DID THIS MONTH

Right at the top of June, Maureen and I did half an hour of our new show at UCB, which went really well.

Spooky Dookie presents: backstage and onstage.

Then we had a beer on the sidewalk and I went home and slept well and woke up and started thinking about my two-person show with Kim. Three days later I was in Richmond, Virginia where I taught a workshop, did a show with Kim, and bought some vitamin-C serum at a Rite Aid that was going out of business (thirty five percent off, mind you).

My Trip to Richmond presents: workshop and show

Then, I spent a week in Chicago, for a wedding and to shoot some videos with the aforementioned Kim. And when I came back, Kombucha, the horror movie I shot last summer, had it’s premiere at the Chinese Theatre in LA! My face was huge on the screen and then we did a Q&A afterward. It was really fun to see the cast and crew again and celebrate by drinking a margarita so sugary, the hangover began before the ice melted.

On the orange carpet, wearing a dress that I wear in the film! Which I got at a church rummage sale for $7.

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And now? My body is run down. Lymph nodes ballooned, voice raw, skeleton jiggly. I have very light freelance work scheduled for the next few weeks, and then I’m off for a month of travel. So I’m really looking forward to resting and regrouping and seeing where my mind goes.

HAGS! See you offline.

Love,

Claire

1

I feel tense even saying that because I know so many people use Amazon and I don’t want to make you defensive; everyone has their reasons. So here’s what I’ll say: there are degrees. You don’t have to never use it again. But what if you cancelled your Prime account and mostly tried to find other ways to get what you need (Chewy.com, eBay, FB Marketplace, Costco, stores by your house!), then once in a while, you order something à la carte from Amazon because that really is the best price/the only place you can get it/the most convenient. That’s so much better than shoveling a monthly subscription fee into their burners and then using it as your default store. That’s what I mean by degrees! You can dial it back a couple degrees and support Jeff Bezos, union busters, bad working conditions, plastic proliferation, over consumption a little less. After two years of discussion (😇 ), my boyfriend cancelled his Prime membership. I am proud of him! Be like Sean!