Not a front for a secret organization.
Written by Rob Schultz (human).
Here’s another original tune by Becky Sanders (with bandmates Ben Bromfield, Libby Ward, Matty Barreca, and Erik Desiderio), recorded for the 2025 NPR Tiny Desk Contest.
It feels like the final exam to cap off our year of 25 shower jams. As they say on Sirius, share and enjoy!
(if anyone out there is using an RSS reader, I’m sorry that video embeds don’t come through anymore, but trust that there’s a video linked above!)
Normally I send out an email to friends, colleagues, associates, co-workers, acquaintances, comrades, compatriots, allies, people who almost hired me for something but then didn’t, and a bunch of people in Delaware sometime in the first couple weeks of the new year. It usually gets a few responses, gives me a chance to talk to people I haven’t heard from lately, and a gig or two.
This year, I couldn’t really get over myself enough to send out an email where I brag about how I’m doing great while people are evacuating their homes due to fire, or dealing with the governmental eye of Sauron turning to their communities and families.
I don’t think most of those people are looking at this site, but here is the email I didn’t send this year:
Hello!
And Happy New Year, such as it is.
I always look forward to sending out a January greeting, but it never feels like the right time to help myself to part of your day. You just never know how everyone's handling the quantity and quality of disasters happening all around us.*
* I'm in Los Angeles, but my home has not been damaged by the fires. I hope you're doing okay too.
Since social media is a shambles (I'm on at least 5 services I never look at), maybe direct communication with friends, colleagues, and the homeowners association in Delaware** that sent me so much email that I added them all to this list is the way forward.
** I've never signed up for their litter-pick-up-athon, but they've never come to a single one of my shows, let alone offered to fly me out to perform at the July 4th block party / potluck. And I know they have the budget. Because they sent it to me.
I had a very full 2024. I shipped just under 1,000 VFX shots for various productions, spent months assistant editing on an upcoming documentary feature, watched 82 movies, walked 1113 miles, made 25 music videos for youtube, kept 7 lists, and brought my comedy panel game show IDIOMATIC*** back to the stage.
*** Would've been smart to get the new episodes online before emailing everyone.
That's as braggy as I want to get. At least in writing. For today.
But if you'd like to share one of your triumphs of the past year, I'd like to hear about it and cheer for your success.
Plans for the year ahead? Want to get lunch**** sometime? Happy to hear about that too!
**** I'm available on Thursday.
-Rob
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Edit | VFX | Motion Graphics | Generally Very Helpful
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Electric Telephone: ###.###.####
Internet Website: www.normalwebsite.com/now
Real things in the Real Mail: http://patreon.com/NotArt
This new year's-ish greeting is a real email from a real person, and does not have an Unsubscribe button, but I guess if you were bothered about it I could take you off of the list for next year. Unless you happen to be a member of the Catalina Circle Homeowners Association. Then you're stuck with me.
And let’s leave last year far behind.
One last holiday jam with Tony Gonzalez!
…and here’s my first video of 2025.
In 2024, my friend and associate Zach Sherwin posted a social media video six days a week all year long. He asked if I would edit a supercut of the year, and here it is.
My takeaways:
this was fun!
it makes me want to post short videos of my own
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the word Jamples.
