Wednesday, 11/17

Why yes, I HAVE lost my mind.

Thanks for asking.

I know I've been writing in here a lot recently about how I seem to take on too many things. Radio Jim is trying to keep three stations on the air, TV Jim is in the middle of shooting “High School Bowl”, and History Jim keeps thinking of more & more things to do. Well, the schedule of stuff I'm doing for the History Center for next year has been finalized, and all I have to say is this--

I REALLY need to stop thinking of more & more things to do.

In no particular order, here's what I've volunteered to take on in 2022--

-A live Kaufman show with Jack in January, the first we've done since the Before Times

-Two scheduled walking tours,.including one that I have to develop from scratch

-Whatever number of “Pop-Up” tours (of stuff I've already done) I feel like doing

-Half a dozen newspaper articles

-A (probably) vain attempt to try and finish the “The Greasier The Spoon” documentary I've been working for over a year

-And...another set of the “Pieces of the Past” short video series (and, as we discussed last week, with all those experts on some of them, which means even more work than just me doing them)

All that is on top of what Radio Jim and TV Jim are doing (which is a lot to begin with). I'd like to say I've learned, over the years, how to say “no” and how not to take on too many things at once, but I think we both know me well enough now to know that's never gonna happen. But what the heck...

You only live once, right?

Now before you think I'm complaining and/or panicking over everything, don't worry. I'm not. I actually enjoy doing each and every thing on that list. I am looking forward to doing each and every thing on that list. And, thanks to our favorite word of the past month “re-purposing”, I'll be able to, on several occasions, kill several birds with one stone when I reuse material from one project in another. But still, when you put the list down to paper (or type it out on a computer monitor) and look at it, you gotta wonder what kind of sane person would commit to all that.

Yet, as far as I know, I still have complete control of my mental facilities. Or at least as much control as I ever had.

So over the next year don't be surprised if you see material in one medium, hear it in another, and read it in a third (and maybe even a fourth). That'll just be me, trying to wring every single paragraph, sentence, and comma I can out of the work upon which I've embarked.

Embarked upon, of course, with as much of my mind as I have left.

(jim@wmqt.com)