The 2022 "Small Awakenings" Community Wrap Up
Appreciate What's Behind, Focus On What's Ahead, But Live Inside Right Now
Thank You For ‘22!
…from the bottom of my white-bearded heart.
When I started this Substack community in earnest this year, I had no idea that it would become a place where I would pour my heart out through the art that moves me across the tides of my life.
I composed and published writing here in 2022, the best I’ve ever written in over 40 years of telling stories and making purposeful arguments to find meaning between minds.
This year, I wrote about:
Started a project exploring whether Norman Lear’s cultural impact on American Prime Time during the 1970s contributed to the poisonous Reagan Revolution, which bled into the Newt Gingrich era of abandoning Democracy and right into Trump and his Global Organized Crime ring trying to overthrow the entire system of American government. We live in wild fucking times, and Archie Bunker and George Jefferson were part of it.
I explored if racists can be redeemed in modern fiction through the crimes and punishment of the character of Andrew Gascoigne in the UK film & three series of This Is England.
I poked fun at myself and other Twin Peaks fans by trying vainly to create a meme. It’s fun to fail in art.
I wrote a long and passionate piece about Wayne Shorter’s incredible run of Blue Note records over five years in the 1960s. I was inspired to write this while reading
's book The History of Jazz. Ted is such an inspiration that his writing about music gave me the confidence to take a swing. I still love these records so much. They saved my soul during the pandemic.
I published a short chapbook of poetry:
I published an EPs-worth of new music here:
I started writing a novel…
And then put that novel on the shelf to focus on a complete (and hopefully final) revision of my 2020 book, A Skeleton Key To Twin Peaks, which took me three years to write. I have rewritten nearly every word of this analysis and appreciation of one of the past decade's most complex and rewarding cinematic experiences.
I might start reworking those first five chapters of my novel The Rock ‘N’ Roll Assassin into a screenplay.
And speaking of screenplays, I took one of Scott Meyer’s online screenwriting courses and wrote the first act of a touching comedy about an estranged father and daughter coming together through the art of music. This was a generic writing prompt given to all the students, so I’ll never do anything more with it, but it’s a good example of my instincts when writing a scenic narrative.
This year I went through some difficult relationship struggles with family and friends. I lost a good, old friend to the politics of vaccines & public health. I split up with family members so close and loved that the sky opened up to swallow my whole life for several months. And then my dog died and ripped me up all over again. Through it all, I wrote, and you supported me by reading and sharing my words with other kind and intelligent people.
And so much more writing! I originally planned to publish something every week, 52 times in 2022. I ended up publishing more than 130 times. More than 700 of you tolerate my writing weekly, and I love you for it. Nearly 20 of you have subscribed with monthly and annual subscriptions. I cannot describe what that means, but you will be rewarded for that investment with exclusive stuff I haven’t yet dreamed up.
But now, let’s look to the future. What’s in the Small Awakenings pipeline for 2023?
I have two goals right now with Small Awakenings in 2023:
To complete the revision of A Skeleton Key To Twin Peaks and produce an e-book that captures the spirit of the analysis while sacrificing as little of the design as possible. I still have six more analyses to revise (Parts 13-18) and a couple of essays that I’ll be adding, and I will put a bow on publishing about Twin Peaks for a while. I may produce a color hardcopy of the book in the future, but it will likely be a small run and available only to paid Small Awakenings subscribers.1
My new project for January will be available for FREE and PAID subscribers.
When I was wee, home VHS recording was all the rage, & HBO had all the great movies. My Dad recorded hundreds of films, thousands. He had every tape labeled and built a library program on his AppleIIe that told him where every film was on this wall of numbered tapes he kept.
One Sunday movie night, Dad chose The Outlaw Josey Wales. I fell in love with it immediately. I've seen that movie a hundred times and counting. There is purity in the fire of Josey Wales' redemption. I was recently inspired to start writing about it.
Beginning January 1st, I will work to publish a short 500-word essay every day about a different theme in The Outlaw Josey Wales. In his youth, Bob Dylan sang, "To live outside the law, you must be honest." Josey Wales is honest in his word and his crimes.
Here’s the trailer for this project. You have to do nothing to get it because it will broadcast right here where we’re sitting, only in the Small Awakenings Substack newsletter. Tell your friends and don’t bogart the j.
Thank you so much for your kindness and attention this past year. It means the world to me. I hope you stick around in ‘23.
THE JB MINTON NEWSLETTER
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
I like the exclusivity factor of meeting some prerequisites before getting our hands on a physical book.
Thank you so much for bringing me to your page here, JB. I'm wishing you and yours a very, yrev, Happy, Healthy and Prosperous NEW YEAR! Blessings to you always. Love, Eli