The May McBirthday Monthly
Slow starties, birthday parties, and sneezing out an eel. A monthly digest of what I produced, as usual.
I turned 34 in the middle of the month, which makes me the birthday girl. The beautiful birthday girl you see here is my godmother, Alexandra Mamangakis, who I miss very much.
EEL
In January of 2023, I was recovering from knee surgery at my parents’ house. I don’t remember what inspired it, but I was in the dining room which was also my makeshift bedroom and a song arrived to me mostly fully formed. Or rather, a chant? I was in the throes of revising a screenplay and I remember being pleased that I had thought of something so short and complete, when what I was embroiled in felt sprawling and disorganized.
I wrote down the lyrics and recorded a voice memo, for future use. This is rare, but the words and melody ended up staying pretty much the exact same throughout the process.
Flash forward a year. As I was leaving Mainstage, I asked our wonderful Musical Director Ryan Miera if he would make a track for me. So he brought his mic backstage after a show and we recorded the song.
About six months later, I asked on Instagram stories if anyone in Chicago had a fish tank. My friend and stage manager Charlette did, so I picked it up and brought it home on the bus. It was heavy, my arms ached, and I took frequent breaks to crouch down on the sidewalk to rest the tank on the tops of my tennis shoes.
The tank sat in my apartment for months. In that time, I made some eels out of clay, because I was planning to do everything with real props. I baked the little lime Sculpey dudes on an overturned glass pan. Through that process, I realized that making a full-scale eel and a then making a small wig to fit it’s head would not be worth the effort and materials, when the style of the video lent itself to Photoshop anyway.
Before I moved out of my apartment, Caroline came upstairs (my sister lived below me, you see) and we had a photo shoot which felt like a giggly sleepover. We used the tiny eels as placeholders.
I returned the fish tank. I tossed the eels.
Months later, I shared Caroline on a folder of eel photos, dead and alive, and paid her to Photoshop the real eel into the video. I drew a couple different fonts on my (boyfriend’s) iPad.
I showed the cut to some friends, got some notes. I made a vertical edit. I posted it. And there you go, that’s the two and a half years that went into this one 35 second song. 😀
You might have some questions like why did you think of the song and why is it a slide show and why did you take the photos at night with flash. I don’t know.
I think the horizontal cut is my favorite. But if you like it, may I encourage you to share it on Instagram or TikTok? I hope I may.
ART FOR MUSIC (THINK ABOUT IT)
Think About— another beautiful song— is out from Wingtip. I painted the art for it! Listen here.
Fun fact: This is a composite. I painted the background. Scanned it. Then painted the posts. I scanned that, laid it on top, then I digitally added the people and the telephone wires.
JUNE SHOWS
Tonight in LA @ 5:30PM! You can come see Maureen and I do our new half hour of sketch comedy. The show is called TBD NEW PLANET and we play planet-designers pitching our new concept. I made the poster!
Saturday June 7th @ 9PM - Kim and I are putting up our sketch show in Richmond, Virginia as part of 2nd Best Fest! We are headlining. Send your friends. I’m also teaching a sketch workshop the day before at 2PM. Send me recommendations for Richmond, please!
Friday, June 27th @11:45 PM - Kombucha, the horror movie I shot last summer, is premiering at the Chinese Theatre as part of Dances With Films Festival. I am the villain. Tickets here.
MAY IN REVIEW
Maureen and I spent the month writing and rehearsing our show, either on my back patio or in her living room. Here’s an amazing sneak peek at our opener, with all the spoilers removed:
I’ve been on a freelance contract with Netflix Games, so I’m back doing video game writing and game design. I booked a bunch of flights for this summer. I did two revisions on a short film. I drugged my cat and took her to the vet. I started swimming laps in the public pool. I had a birthday party with a vegan hot dog bar. And I went snorkeling in a kelp forest.
It felt like a slow month, I think because things have settled down since we moved and now time feels more normal (moving too quickly, I’m confused about what I did with it). I’m particularly frustrated by my “mornings,” as I tend to get an extraordinarily slow start to the day and then I light up at night and get a surge of creative and productive energy that sweeps me out far past midnight. I’ve never been a morning person and I had a really good run of not minding, but now I mind again. I feel at odds with my energy clock. I want to get things done in the daylight, so then I can relax and paint and walk and hang out with Sean and not have my To-Do list follow me up until the moment I put myself to bed. I’ve been doing morning pages and stretching in the backyard first thing, to try to build a routine, but it doesn’t propel me into the day the way I see others do it. Like penguins into the water, gliding right in.
Well, it’s not my job to solve everything at once ha ha that’s for damn sure ha ha.
LOVE,
CLAIRE
Happy Belated!