I changed the name of my Substack from Queens Bird Zine to Let’s Go Again.
(Same name as the podcast! Much more cohesive!)
That’s really all you need to know and the upgrade offer is below!
But for those of you who, like me, get a kick from knowing other people’s interior motives for producing work on the internet:
I’ve been feeling weird about “Queens Bird Zine” as a pub title for almost a year. Because, not sure if you also noticed this but, this isn’t a zine.
In 2022, when I picked my pub name, I was still sending out most of my emails via Flodesk. So I didn’t need a newsletter name. I just sent my little missives.
When I set up my Substack pub, I liked the word “zine” because it felt indie, and punk, and institutionless, which, on my best days, are all things I strive to be.
Practically, I thought how very smart it would be to have different branches of what I make on the internet lead back to my production company Queens Bird Films.
And while, yes, I want you to watch everything I make at Queens Bird Films, and yes, I want to give it a reputation, and no, I don’t want to confuse everything, I’ve also come to realize that no one is confused and everyone’s quite smart, and in fact, perhaps everything being too rationally connected was making my many projects actually more difficult to discern from each other.
Bottom line was, I chose “Queens Bird Zine” without too much thought or intention, but rather just grabbed a pub name that worked for now but now is now later, and it doesn’t really reflect what’s going on here, so we’re updating!
The Substack publication you get in your inbox will now be called:
Let’s Go Again
But what does it mean?!1 you may be wondering.
On a film set, when a director wants to do another take, you often hear them say, “let’s go again”. It’s a colloquial phrase that signals to the cast and crew to reset for another take.
It’s an homage to the artistic process. Not to mention the fact that in the 21st century, it seems there’s another disruption we have to navigate or adapt to or resist every other Thursday, and iterating ad infinitum is an artistic necessity more than a style.
Let’s Go Again is very fancy so she has a subtitle. As the good Samuel L. Jackson said, “hold onto your butts”!
The subtitle:
A Philosophical and Practical Guide for Indie Artists
I wrote a book in 2015 with the subtitle: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Creative Longevity, and that subtitle always felt accurate and interesting to me.
That’s really all I’ve been talking about for the past ten years anyway, the philosophy behind being an indie artist and a practical investigation of how to do it.
So I stole from my self, tweaked it, and now you can rest easy, knowing how I came up with that subtitle.
This was my mini mood board for it. 1980s Broken-Spined Paperback Core:
And of course because I must, against all reason, always complicate things, the name change is coinciding with a launch of the pub’s paywall tier.
If you haven’t read my public litigation of the Paywall, long story short, I think it’s best to be clear-eyed about your personal intentions when using one.
So here are a couple of my personal Paywall Guiding Principles:
Nothing will change for free subscribers. If you like things how they are, great news: they shall remain.
Other than one sneak peek of the very first paid email so you understand what’s in there, I’ll only send paywalled emails to paid subs. (Personally, if I choose to open an email instead of archiving it, and then I’m merely opening up to a paywall, I feel prickly. That’s just me!)
I chose a format that would be super fun for me. I won’t be doing anything un-fun.
I’m not trying to reach a certain number of paid subs. It would be cool to have like 20 people become paid subs one day, because that would mean 20 people would want to talk about the weird stuff I want to talk about, and that sounds like an incredibly interesting party, where I’d certainly be the last to leave. But even so, I’m mostly concerned with #3 above.
My guiding principles.
Paid Subscribers Get Access to LGA Disciplines
Paid subscribers enroll into LGA Disciplines, which are asynchronous, self-study courses organized into 6-12 weeklong terms. (For clarity: this will go on all year, but we’ll divide them into terms/semesters like school.)
We’ll be studying writing, filmmaking, & the underlying principles of critical thinking that make for really really good art and freedom of thought.
As you know, I believe freedom of thought is imperative.
As you dive into the courses each term, you’ll:
develop your intuitive taste
do less scrolling and more deep thinking
strengthen the skills needed for self-study and free thinking
increase your confidence and self-trust that you can always figure it out (whatever it is)
think more critically about filmmaking, writing, and storytelling, which in turn, makes your writing more nuanced & interesting
fill your life with a vivid & ever-growing compendium of ideas, stories, and highly individualized unconscious connections
enrich your daily experience of life by connecting with other folks who have super interesting things to add in the comments section
In full transparency, as I develop and teach these courses each term, I personally hope to:
become a better writer and director
document and organize my personal on-going syllabi into a searchable container
convince others that critical thinking is the passcode for the future
find myself in deeper, more complex discussions about craft with fellow artists and arts lovers
nurture other’s love of film, writing, and thinking
This is Exactly What You Get as a Paid Subscriber
In addition to the regular emails, this is what you’ll get each term:
The Term’s Syllabus, including Course Objectives and Suggested Reading & Watching Lists
Theory & Practice Essay-Lecture, written classes that teach a specific theory and then give you practical exercises to explore or implement that theory further
BTS Commentary, where I’ll share personal lessons from my own projects and give a very in-the-weeds look (read: actual $$ numbers) at how I make my work (in general I’ll be more personal behind the paywall)
Have You Seen, giving high level context on watch & read lists, a list of questions to consider for each film or reading, and term-specific prompts for both your own work and the group discussion
And, as things progress, the full archive of all previous terms which you can run through at your own pace whenever the mood strikes
Plus, for annual subscriptions:
You’ll get access to Magnetic Marketing & Release Methods in the Time of Inbox Overwhelm ($59), a 60 min masterclass on marketing your artistic universe, for free.
And, for founding subscriptions:
You’ll get everything listed above plus, Written Office Hours.
In Written Office Hours, you’ll send me 15 pages or 15 minutes of a specific piece of work you want feedback on, and I’ll send you written feedback within 30 days.
(Limited quantity so I can give the time and mental effort your feedback deserves.)
Projects can be up to 10 pages or 10 minutes of:
a screenplay
a play script
an essay
a short story
part of a novel
website copy
your film
your web series
your website
your podcast
literally, anything creative, artistic, and wonderful that you’ve made that you want feedback on
The First Term begins soon — 001 Subliminal Signals: How Atomic Details Create Big Meaning
HELPFUL INFO:
The first term (August 12 - September 23) starts this week!
The Term’s Syllabus comes out on Monday August 11th to all free subscribers.
The first Essay-Lecture comes out on Tuesday August 12th to all paid subscribers.
Questions? Need more info before you sign up? Email me here and I’ll answer any question you have about it.
Otherwise, if you’re ready to go, upgrade your subscription here:
So many Substack teachers (as in teachers who teach how to “do” Substack) say you should have a publication title that names your community (i.e. “Whale Watchers”) or names your product (i.e. “Stories About Whaling”) and you should avoid, at all costs, confusion. Well, I tried that. I did! I tried to come up with something that checked those boxes. I just couldn’t, though. I am nothing if not committed to a catchy sounding phrase that gives me an ironic chuckle at the expense of algorithmic leverage.