Wednesday

All over the place on a Wacky Wednesday, the entire day has been designed by the cinematographer of the movie Se7en, Darius Khondji: dark all day and the rain never stopped. Before publishing the Wednesday newsletter, I raced off to see a kiddo at a middle school orchestra concert; when I returned and closed the garage door, it popped off the rails halfway down. The garage door is completely jammed and half up, half down, cars are in prison… sort of like being stuck in the elevator [of life].

The show must go on; I spent the day reflecting on storytellers; one has a new story, followed by a creative section from Consequence with a new Indie Artist. Following that up with new data suggests we trust our podcasters and the communities they help build. Tomorrow is another day.

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🤘We are here every day, and every minute you spend with us sends ripples of gratitude through our souls! 🤘

I've written about Bill Watterson, and his master creation - Calvin, and Hobbes. I spotlighted Watterson's first new book in 30 years, The Mysteries, and the new graphic novel is still on my Amazon Wish List. Today, I want to reflect on the six-year-old ageless philosopher named Calvin, and an article by Rivka Galchen from The New Yorker. Everything about Watterson and how he wrote and illustrated Calvin and Hobbes was off-center. Calvin was a 6-year-old talking to what was arguably a stuffed animal tiger, contemplating big life mysteries in the shortest storytelling format ever. Song lyrics and poetry have a good way of creating a theme; the listener and reader are expected to fill in the blanks with their own context. Watterson did the same thing with single statements and cartoon illustrations!?

Watterson’s voice and the conversations he must have had with himself were expressed without question within Calvin and Hobbes. A six-year-old asking questions about routines, monotony, authority, and why things were the way they were should seem out of place. I've had kids, and six-year-olds aren't deeply contemplating life; if you took Watterson's reality, a six-year-old with an imaginary friend probably needs therapy. Instead, Calvin provided the therapy.

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Consequence Media, the company that produces Consequence.Net, was an early find in our newsletter last year, and it continues to be one of the most preferred and reflected websites from With A Shout. Today, we spotlight a cool feature called Mixtapes, and, in this episode, Anna Shoemaker, an Indie Artist, picks random situations out of a bowl and comes up with the best song she would play or listen to during each situation. In a big bowl full of situations, there were several about an uncle at a BBQ!?

The clip highlights an Indie Artist and presents a creative way to engage for the quick 2-minute clip. Check out Anna's Mixtape Playlist on Spotify below, and then listen to Anna's EP Hey, which is fantastic.

The Wall Street Journal puts together a good marketing newsletter, and recently, they gathered up some data on podcasting and found that many of us trust our podcast hosts. This story resonates with me, and I've discussed this with others. A good podcast is a great place to get different perspectives, voices, and expanded thoughts on different subjects. Listening to a podcaster with information, or the ability to source information during the podcast, gives a listener a higher level of trust in the info discussed.

The WSJ article provides a good walkthrough of the data from different sources, and it is coming at it from the angle of advertisers looking for trustworthy podcasts to advertise on. One of the other factors in building a podcast audience is the host, and a great host can make up for the content I'm listening to. I have cut my political and finance-related podcasts down by 80% or more; there is too much noise and the handful I still listen to have more to do with the hosts than the content. Trust is already there, but podcasts like Crooked Media’s Pod Save America or Tim Miller from The Bulwark are so good at what they do I can't stop listening to them. 

Stuck between floors today.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

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🤘We are here every day, and every minute you spend with us sends ripples of gratitude through our souls! 🤘

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

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