The Dann Chronicles: October 👻

Shooting straight down the middle, ignoring AI garbage, cleaning your digital hoarder house, Matchland forever, and a changing theater landscape

October 2024

Hey all,

Four years ago, I drafted the first issue of The Dann Chronicles. I wasn't really sure what I was doing or what I wanted to say. But I felt compelled nonetheless.

Probably the biggest benefits (of which there are many) is that it's helped me think. That's because writing is thinking.

I used to think that writing was an activity that came after thinking. You come up with ideas, think them through, and then document that work in the form of writing. But that's far from the truth.

Writing, and re-writing, and crossing out, and editing, and re-phrasing...these are all forms of thinking.

And that's what I love about this newsletter. I might find a topic or a link that I want to share and have a vague idea why I want to share it. But it's not until I sit at my keyboard and start writing this newsletter that my thoughts come into full focus.

After four years of monthly newsletters, this is the clearest difference between early writing and current. It's also why I'm a strong advocate for Obsidian (or any note-taking, really) and encourage everyone to start their own newsletters.

When I first launched this newsletter, I wasn't sure how long it'd go. I planned to keep writing as long as I felt inspired and let it go if that move felt right. Now, four years later, it still feels right and there's no end in sight.

Here's to future issues. Happy anniversary!

-Dann

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🤝 From all angles

I'm going to recommend a single 30-minute podcast episode: "Can Journalism Save a Marriage?" from the new NPR podcast Question Everything with Brian Reed.

Question Everything is a podcast about journalism, and this particular episode tells the story of an older married couple on different sides of the political spectrum. It wasn't much of a problem for them until 2016, at which point their media consumption worlds split farther apart and communication broke down.

The one news source that saved their marriage is one that I've been consuming regularly since November 2023: Tangle. It's a daily newsletter and podcast with a revelatory premise: take a single topic and then summarize the right-leaning talking points and then the left-leaning talking points.

The format is genius, and one of the few sources I've found to be completely unbiased (or at least transparent where any biases are). As such, it's a great tool for at least attempting to build a bridge to friends and family who have found themselves split into two completely different realities.

For me, it's a great way to stay informed in a way that doesn't make my chest tighten up and my breathing shorten. And that's a blessing these days.

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🖼️ Stock Blocker

If you use Google Image Search at all, you've probably noticed a sharp decline in query result quality thanks to a massive influx of AI-generated garbage.

Fortunately, it's fairly easy to block using the browser plugin uBlock Origin (Chrome, Firefox) and this HUGE AI Blocklist.

Alternately, you can just switch to Kagi (a privacy-focused paid search engine I'm obsessed with). It recently built AI image detection and downranking directly into its image search algorithm.

Blocking AI-generated images is a great way to reverse the search result enshittification that's been creeping in over the last year or so.

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🖇️ Digital Hoarder House

How do you organize your digital life? Do you have a system where you save different files of different types in folders by category? What does your Dropbox or Google Drive look like? Are you able to easily find files when you need them?

Personally, I have the beginnings of an organized system. It's good enough, which I imagine is similar to most people reading this.

But if you're looking for a lodestar, there are two file organization systems you may want to consider: Johnny Decimaland PARA.

The first one, Johnny Decimal imagines your digital life as manila folders inside boxes on shelves. With this level of organization, everything you own has a specific home, which makes it super easy to clean up and find things again.

Alternately, PARA (which stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives) is a bit more targets toward project-oriented workflows.

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💎 Lit Match

I'm obsessed with the iOS game Match Land. Not only is it a great game, its the perfect implementation of free-to-play: there are ways to spend money, but they're all completely optional. The game is still fully rewarding even without spending a dollar.

Game sessions are short and easy to play in between other tasks. And the leveling-up system is nuanced and rewarding.

The only downside is that it seems like the developers have largely moved on, meaning we'll likely see no future updates. It's a shame, but the game is wonderful and full as-is, so it's got me zoned in.

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🎟️ Lost Stages

In this final section of the newsletter, we have guest post from my wife, Avi. She's directing, choreographing, and co-producing the Off-Broadway revival of the 1965 musical SKYSCRAPER next month.

Avi: Few people outside the theater industry realize quite how much it's changed in the past four years. This is less a continued fallout from COVID and more that COVID intrinsically changed what it means to make theater and we are now operating in an entirely new world

When most people think about theater in New York, they think about Broadway. And since Broadway is back up and running, they believe the theater industry is largely back to normal.

But the New York theatrical ecosystem is made up of productions of all sizes. From Off-Off-Broadway self-produced small black box shows to short-run medium-sized shows in 99-seat theaters to Off-Broadway—theatre in New York runs the full gambit of sizes and levels. And that's what allows such a vibrant industry to exist in this city.

These days, a good swath of that industry is just completely gone. A large percentage of the popular small theater spaces here have had to close their doors. Likewise, most of the affordable rehearsal spaces have either disappeared or increased significantly in price.

It's become about twice as expensive to make small shows, such as Actors Equity Association approved showcases, and many of the companies that produced these shows have disappeared. For instance, two prominent companies, Astoria Performing Arts Center in Queens and Gallery Players in Brooklyn, both of which regularly produced AEA showcase musicals for decades, have been severely impacted. Astoria Performing Arts Center has ceased operations altogether, while Gallery Players has shifted away from Equity contracts, essentially becoming community theater.

The result? A significant decrease in opportunities for professional actors, especially in musicals, and an almost complete disappearance of productions the size and scope of SKYSCRAPER.

That's why it's more important than ever for audiences to get back into theaters and support artists they appreciate and enjoy. We can never go back to the way things were pre-2020, but there's still time to positively shape the reality of this new trail we're blazing.

PS: Why haven't you bought your tickets yet?

- Avi

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End note

If you've enjoyed this, I'd love it if you shared it with a friend. You can send them here to sign up.

I'll be sending out these emails once per month, and I'm happy you're along for the ride. I'm trying to make it one of the best things that arrives in your inbox each month, so thoughts and feedback are always appreciated. You can just reply to this email.

Also, if you find anything interesting, send it my way.

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Thanks for reading. Until next time,
Dann