SUMMERBOY

Hi!

Maybe it’s because of my job writing about “economic uncertainty” every day or just the increasingly darkening convos me and the girls find ourselves having after one cocktail, but no matter what I do, I can’t shake this feeling of being stuck in a holding pattern right now. It’s a feeling I haven’t felt since deep in the pandemic (before the devastating hopelessness hit lol) but as a type-A, capricorn planner, I can’t help but read everything and prepare myself for the impending recession/depression/economic collapse that I’m constantly thinking about.

And listen I’m happy! I’m having fun! I love my life! I’m investing in my community! Hope is our most vital resource or whatever! I just feel like I shouldn’t move right now. Like I’m in a horror movie and even a flinch will alert the monster. The only way to get out of this alive is to clutch my high-yield savings account as tightly as I can and remain completely still. And then I start spiraling even more about how the holding pattern is actually the most privileged place to be. I should be so lucky to be floating around in this purgatory, grieving that I’ll never own a home but lucky enough to not be locked into a 60% mortgage rate when the market collapses again.

But then I go to self defense class. Or I start brainstorming how I’m going to hang a quilt for the art show. Or I watch my genius friend Sage Huston deliver a beautiful analysis of Block Club’s lawsuit against ICE that fills me with so much energy I have to bike down Milwaukee Ave and listen to Martina McBride.

I’m not naive enough to believe that putting up the best dang art show this town has ever seen will rid the world of its horrors, but it is something real and tangible that helps me move forward. Today’s newsletter is a little celebration of the weirdo events and projects I’m working on this summer and the people I’m working with who have helped me pick up my damn feet and keep moving.

(s)crap art show

Mira and I are hosting an art show this summer at the West Town Chamber of Commerce (with our opening set for June 6! RSVP here! It’s free!) We are both capricorns with scorpio moons which we thought was insane until we learned that Gracie, our friend/connect at the West Town Chamber of Commerce, is also a capricorn with a scorpio moon. Now it feels like fate.

The art show celebrates non-traditional, weird arts and crafts. We are featuring so much cool art from repurposed blinds to hand woven pillowcases. My friends are the most talented people in the world and this show is a testament to that. 

One installation I’m really excited about is a “community tomato garden” that the WTCC politely declined when I pitched it as their building window display. No hard feelings, but I always get my way. There’s this random window/wall in the space that I’m going to cover in vines (made of painted cardboard) and a bunch of anthropomorphized tomatoes. Here’s the initial mockup I made when I first pitched the window display.

The one we are putting up for the show will be about half this size, but it’s still going to look pretty epic. And if you think I’m making six trillion of these weirdo tomatoes by myself, you are sorely mistaken. A bunch of my friends stopped by the studio last week and helped me make them. 

We also hosted a fundraiser dance class to raise money for the art show. Kari and Elena taught a slumber-party-themed 80s dance class Thursday, May 15. It was a blast and the choreo was so epic. We charged $20 a spot for a 2 hour class and managed to make enough to pay for the space ($75), pay Kari and Elena ($60 each), and have $100 leftover to buy wine for the show.

I’m excited to try out more dance class fundraisers for our fall show by having Kari and Elena teach a shortened version of the choreo we have for “What Dreams Are Made Of” in the Lizzie McGuire Movie. I think it’s going to be a frikin hit. Which leads me to…

The Lizzie McGuire Movie: The Play

Brigid and I are directing a live, staged version of The Lizzie McGuire Movie. The show will be two nights only in the Color Club ballroom at the end of September. And I am excited to say that as of Monday, the first draft of the script has been emailed to my writing team (Brigid and Sage). We are very early on in the process but here’s a quick speed round of some stuff you can expect from this show:

• Dancers pretending to be the water in the Trevi Fountain 

• Live band

• Tearaway skirt reveal

• Basketball dress

• Cardboard vespa

• Leaning Tower of Pisa made out of yogurt containers

• Someone doing the splits

• Offensive Italian accents

• Choreographed curtain call

• Ribbon dance

I fear Brigid and the rest of the team working on this are going to build something so outrageous, so perverted, and so girly it might disrupt the industry of DIY play versions of movies forever. We are also still waiting to hear back if we got a DCASE grant for $5,000, but it seems that may simply never happen. Whateverrrrrr.

Basement Self Defense Class

I’ve been producing a self defense class in the basement of a church near my apartment every other week for a few months now. It doesn’t really have a name, just “Basement Self Defense Class” but we got a write up in Block Club and we have the sickest poster of any self defense class I’ve ever seen in my life.

The best part has been seeing regulars who come to every class <3. If you live in Chicago, you should join us for our next class, which is totally free thanks to our gorgeous class sponsor! RSVP here or just show up, it’s your life.

Normally it’s $15 a person, but trans folks fight for free. You can find info for future classes and register here. And if you’re a deep pocketed reader who would like to donate to the class, you can venmo @ matty-merritt $15 to sponsor a trans fighter, or you can sponsor a full class for $200 (we will put your name on a poster!) Just reply to this email for more info about full class sponsorship.

Morning Brew (i.e. my day job)

I have really loved writing for our themed Sunday editions. We’ve done deep dives on stuff like home buying, small businesses, and Caesar salads. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I formed an LLC, and I think a lot of you reading this newsletter subscribed after reading that story, so welcome! Dinner Cut is like if Morning Brew didn’t spell check, wash it’s hair for 4 days, and carried three beef sticks in it’s purse at all time.

I also popped over to our other newsletter Brew Markets to write about how tariffs are affecting small businesses and private equity squirming its way into 401(k)s. Also I want a Labubu so badly I could cry.

Miscellaneous sewing projects

Pray for me, I’m altering my clothes.

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I will still be carving out time to make weird little costume this summer. I made these penguin costumes out of old sweatshirts, a bed sheet, and some leftover scrap fabric. I think I’ll do a whole issue on these costumes tbh because they were super easy. Plus it only cost $26 to make four of them and they would make an excellent group halloween costume.

Sporty summer

I joined a beach volleyball league, I’m biking 100 miles up to New Buffalo, MI in a few weeks, and I have started taking 6am hot yoga classes before work. I am still drinking (at minimum) 3 beers on the weekend though so don’t worry about me changing too much.

Ceramics???

I took a hand building class at GnarWare in Pilsen a few weeks ago. The studio was so inviting and the vibes couldn’t have been better. All love, but I have no interest in pursuing this. Ceramics is hard and it takes forever. Plus what the hell is this????

Recommendations inspired by my amazing MDW:

• I went to Anna Jung-Hwa’s gorgeous market at Monday Coffee in Lawndale yesterday. 

• I bought so much jewelry this weekend, including a gorgeous necklace from Basket of Strawberry.

• Robust Chicago happy hour list.

• Had a burger and two hot dogs grilled by Mo Burns. Cannot hype this up enough. Waiiit also Mo has a show at Cafe Mustache on Wednesday, could be electric.

• Someone with size 7 feet please buy these shoes.

• Devastated to miss the Gab Magazine field day on June 14 (I’m biking my ass to Michigan<3). Pre-order your magazine and go capture a flag in my honor.

• One of my all time fav Lady Gaga songs.

Next issue: Remember that story I linked about how I made my LLC? I’m going to do a casual deep dive into that and talk more about the hell that was figuring out banking and credit cards. In the end it all worked out, I got like $750+ in intro cash back offers! Mamma Mia!

Thanks for reading and, as always, don’t tell me about any typos unless they are really bad.