Big day, today is the 200th issue of the With A Shout newsletter; this is a special edition written by me, Johnny Christian, sitting atop a mountain of contemplation, preparing to make decisions.  The newsletter is different; it's an open letter to a specific part of you, for everybody, with a particular request of what part of you I want in the audience and what I want you to bring to the show. 

With A Shout 200 Issues!!

One Word:                  Together.

One Connection:         Only have to listen.

Reading Tunes:           Feel Us Shakin’ - Live by The Samples

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If I don't care about what you think of me, does it matter what I think of you?  I just finished reading Nick Cave's latest, The Red Hand Files, and in this letter, Cave's friend Sean O’Hagan lambasted Cave for being a centrist, or as O'Hagan describes it.

Cave describes artists' inner conflict, especially punk and alternative artists.  We appear to rail against everything established and take on the mantel of not giving a damn about anything but accepting all the misfits and misunderstood among the masses.  From an observer's point of view, O'Hagan is calling Cave a centrist, but he's only calling the "don't give a damn" part centrists, and nothing aggravates someone who takes a side more than someone who finds all sides boring as hell.  If you want to see this in action, the next time you are at a party with friends, don't take a side and see how many people try to pick you for their team?!

Read the book Faith, Hope, and Carnage for more arguments and conversations between Cave and O'Hagan.

The argument might be interesting; typically, the voices are all dull.  If you are not interested in expanding a point of view or listening to other perspectives, then you are correct, and you can call it whatever you want – I am not interested.  It may be that many of us are exhausted from the rhetoric, and many data points suggest the radicals on both sides of most issues represent 30 to 40% of the whole.  It's worth mentioning and remembering that the extremists aren't interested in conversation or dialogue.  That is another reason we aren't listening anyway.

I have enjoyed writing this newsletter daily for over half a year.  Writing and publishing every day comes with many more benefits than challenges.  Many great ideas are hidden, like those unique spaces on a Candyland game that explode you forward on your mission.  To get to many of the thought treasures, I think about this; published word count – the gems are hidden in the printed word count; the more published words, the more uncovered gems.  I also repeat this mantra daily: "Fun to Write = Fun to Read."  If it's not fun to write a newsletter like this, it won't be fun; if it's not, I've missed the point and the opportunity.

During the first 100 posts, I was finding a voice, and I wanted to write and publish 100 posts.  The newsletter changed formats a few times and changed its name early on from Fables Reconstruction Letters (R.E.M. album) to With A Shout (U2 song).  The newsletter is a good mix of current events, design, indie artists, and music – even with the mix, it could be too broad for an audience, inundated with reading options growing by the second.  Today, as I read through headlines and numerous weekend newsletters, musicians and their stories repeatedly came to the top of the feed.  A report from The Atlantic from veteran reporter Tom Nichols was being interviewed by his magazine and recommended a memoir from Joe Jackson called A Cure for Gravity.  An hour later, I was 50 pages into a book I couldn't stop reading.  After that, another headline got me to a 30-minute set on YouTube from boygenius Live from Brooklyn Steel last month.  From Joe Jackson Look Sharp!  To boygenius, 40 years later, music still rules.  As I struggle to determine what the newsletter will be about and define what the audience will look like, two questions pop up often: first, aren't there already too many newsletters about the news written by people much better than a hack like me?  The answer is yes, doesn't mean I won't find a way to keep up.  Second, if you move over to indie artists and music, will you alienate regular readers, and is there enough of an interactive audience on the indie side?  Again the answer is yes; regular readers might get turned off, and indie artists, especially indie writers, spend time writing and finding an audience to connect with more than reading.  Indie music plays, listens, and creates more than reads.

Axios for Indies?  Music Brew?  These are all ideas floating around my head right now.  If marketed effectively, you could keep all of them.  The number of news sources we read through every day to find the best stories is massive; time to start training that next A.I. Intern!  The next quarter will be the soft launch of what we have already built and see if there is a market out there of exciting people who like inspiration, soul seekers, design, curiosity, art, and music.  Inside those categories will always include new technologies and business; when we can find the right story or unique angle, there might be a current event or two.  As suggested above, I am a grateful independent.  You will only see the full extent of my Gen X “don’t give a damn,” attitude if I think an issue is presented without a willingness to listen, discuss and learn from.  There are many places online to scream and vomit noise onto other “like-closed-minded” groups, but we will have none of that.

I want 50,000 voices from all backgrounds, beliefs, and people who think for themselves.  I was hoping you could think of the last big concert you were at, I went to the 30th Anniversary of the Joshua Tree Tour, and 50,000 people from all different backgrounds were all singing at the top of their lungs; none of them cared about the political views of anyone around us.  We were all there to escape for a few hours, shout for a few hours, remember for a few hours, and leave exhausted and energized simultaneously.  I want that feeling for a few minutes every day, stories that prompt stories and help us talk about the things that bring us together.  There you have it, my Jerry Maguire Mission Statement.  Thank you, Cameron Crowe - It might work, or everyone could leave, but in the end – YOU had me at hello.

Be Good,

Johnny

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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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