I made it to 100

I could have written a novel. Instead I wrote 100 newsletters.

The Conversation by Henri Matisse (1938, Source: The Philadelphia Museum of Art)

No. 100: I made it to 100

It’s official. I’ve made it to 100 posts.

You’re like, okay?

Fair. But I want to acknowledge this moment not for me, but for you.

You’re like, what?

What I’m trying to say is, thank you.

With all my heart, thank you for bumbling along with me as I ramble, rant, and think aloud here on a weekly basis. I attempt to pour my heart out each week to give you something authentic and worth reading, and when I’m sure I’ve failed, you gracious and sophisticated readers always surprise me with your kind responses, thoughtful considerations, and words of encouragement.

I’m not lying when I say that it keeps me going. As can be quickly deduced from a lot of my writings, I wage a constant battle with self-doubt when it comes to my work. You take away some of that doubt, making me feel like I’m on the right path after all.

I’m sincerely grateful from the community I’ve found here. So again and again, thank you.

My parents are visiting from California this week, so I haven’t had a ton of time to scribble, but I thought it could be fun to take a trip down memory lane by digging up some of my most popular posts from the vault (barring those from the last few weeks, since those are probably still fresh in your mind). I started this newsletter on a different platform, so many of these are appearing on Substack for the first time.

Most popular posts

• Budapest - In which I visit the title city and chase after a pretty Australian girl

• Skull - Being prompted by James Joyce to purchase a model skull on Amazon

• Dog - Noting the imbalance in our extreme love for dogs and ambivalence toward each other

• Psychopath - Isn’t every writer, in a way, a psychopath?

• Wedlock - Meditations on getting married, not all of which are optimistic

• Piano - My experience purchasing a piano and being very bad at playing it

• Smoking weed in weird places - The time I got busted smoking weed in my high school’s bathroom

• Bluebird day - My early reactions to Illinois after moving into our new house

• Fireflies - The first time I saw fireflies a.k.a. “lightning bugs”

• Doodle - The -doodle naming convention for certain dogs is an affront to the English language, I declare

• Illinois - Considerations while visiting Illinois one summer

• Bark - A barking dog is usually considered a problem, but isn’t that, like, what they do?

Another thing.

After 100 posts, now feels as good a time as any to open up my newsletter for paid subscriptions, just to see what happens.

No, I’m not going full New York Times on you and pay-walling all my posts. You will continue to get Friday posts per usual.

However . . .

Paid subscribers will also get occasional mid-week posts, videos from my corner of the world, photo essays, and whatever else I deem to be fun extras.

You’ll also get my eternal gratitude, something you always have, paid or not, but to see someone throw me five bucks for my writing is enough to make a tear fall from my eye. (If you subscribe as a Founding Member, I’ll send you a thank you letter written on my typewriter and sent via USPS. I apologize in advance for the tear-stained paper).

If you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter, please consider it.

And finally!

Substack released something called subscriber chat. As far as I can make out, it’s kind of a like a group message where we can all chat it up and have a great time. Every now and then, I’ll post little prompts there so we can hang out and talk. It seems like you have to get the Substack app to participate, so if you don’t have it already, here’s the lowdown.

1. Download the app by clicking this link. Chat is only on iOS for now, but chat is coming to the Android app soon.

2. Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar. You’ll see my chat inside.

3. That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hi.

Anyway, thanks again everyone. Sending love and appreciation your way, as always. Forgive me for the different post today. We will be back to business as usual next week.

<3,
matt

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Weekly Three

HEAR: “Congratulations” by MGMT

READ: Werner Herzog’s perfectly odd diary entries.

VIEW: Ray Bradbury suggests reading one story, one poem, and one essay every day to stay creative. I have you covered on two of the three. Poetry? Look elsewhere.