Are There Six Degrees Between You and Me?
Now that stupid “It’s a small world after all” song is in my head!
Six Degrees
I am sometimes flabbergasted by how many times I find myself running into the six degrees of separation. We live in a vast world, or at least it feels vast to me. Yet time and time again, over the course of my life, I meet someone, and it turns out we know someone in common.
A recent case in point is my Substack friend
. If you’ve been reading the Sunday Sip, then you are probably familiar with my love for Radio Amor, as I’ve shared a few of Marty’s stories in my Substack Restack. I dig Marty’s takes on Michigan music. Marty and I have shared mutual affirmations online, but that's about it. The other week, my friend and photographer extraordinaire, Doug Coombe, posted that he was looking for someone to cover a photo gig in Ann Arbor for him. I said, “Sure, I can do it.”The gig was to photograph an annual event for Summer Works, a youth work program. My contact was a young woman named Lauren. I met her, got the lowdown on what they needed, took the photos, and shipped them off to her. Lauren sent me an email thanking me for the photos and asking how Brenda and I had started Life In Michigan. She continued her email, noting that her husband, Marty, wrote about Michigan bands and that they had met covering local news. That’s right, folks, her husband is the very same Marty from Radio Amor on Substack!!
I’m pretty sure I ran into Brenda’s cozy nook to share this small world tale. I also shared this revelation with Marty. We now have plans to meet up with the Slagters for dinner and beers while reveling in small world-isms.
I think artists probably find that the degree of separation is a bit less than six. I’m guessing a given artist is just two or three people away from knowing all the artists in the world. My definition of an artist is someone who shares their creative pursuits with the world. I make this distinction as I believe all of us are creative. Yet it is the artist who dares to share their art with the world, despite their vulnerability.
Being “out there” as an artist typically leads to even greater social connectivity. Now you may be wondering why in the fuck I’m going on about artists? Well, my friend, the reason is that when I meet an artist, the world seems to shrink before my eyes. The number of interconnections an artist has is astounding. Another case in point, our friends Annie and Rod Capps.
We met Annie and Rod through mutual friend Johnny Williams (another artist as well as major supporter of the arts) and the Save The Speakeasy show at the Ark in Ann Arbor. Annie said something to the effect of “Oh, you guys are the ones behind Life In Michigan, I can’t believe we haven’t met sooner!”. Since then, Brenda and I have been meeting up with our new pals Rod and Annie for food, beverages, and conversation.
Sidenote: Annie has also been instrumental in GIG - The Art of Michigan Music, using her amazing design skills to create our program last year and our flyers for fundraisers this year. Thank you so much, Annie!! If you need a fabulous graphic designer, see Annie and her company, Swamp Street Design.
Ok, back to artists and degrees of separation. As we got to know Rod and Annie, it became clear that we knew a lot of the same people. Rod used to work at Al Nali’s (a legendary music store in Ann Arbor) back in the day. It turns out our orbits were intertwined, as our mutual friend, the bass player and overall super awesome dude, was Chris Taylor. I shared the stage back in the day with Chris’s band Youth Corpse a number of times. I also purchased my Ibanez and a Marshall amp at Nali’s, and more than likely bought them from Rod. It is a damn small world, my friends.
Recently, Brenda and I met Jen Prouty, a fabulous local photographer. She is the communications lead at Creative Washtenaw and now their interim director. Jen was interested in being part of GIG this year, and I was delighted to have her as one of our featured artists this year, as well as a speaker during one of our educational sessions. You can probably guess where this is going. That’s right, Jen is a long-time friend of Annie and Rod! She’s taken all of their promotional photographs too.
I could keep going and going and going, but you’ve got the idea. I’m sure you're now thinking of all the wonderful social connections and “small world” moments you've experienced in your life. The fact that the world to me gets smaller and smaller is one thing I love about getting older. As I age, my connections with other people grow and grow. Unlike unwanted ear hair, I love the surprise of finding these new connections. As an introverted dude, I feel particularly blessed with a wealth of social connections. I think I may, in fact, be only six degrees from Kevin Bacon :) If you are like me and love a good rabbit warren, check out this article about the six degrees of separation.
Happy Birthday Brenda!
My lovely wife and best friend, Brenda, has a birthday on Monday, July 21. We are celebrating early with a few family and friends today with brunch, books, and dinner. Then, more dinner with family on Wednesday night. Now I need to think of where to take Brenda for her actual birthday :)
Upcoming Events You Won't Want to Miss
Our new events calendar on Life In Michigan is curated with a treasure trove of events we’ve scoured the interwebs to bring to you. From that list, here are a few highlights:
The next GIG - The Art of Michigan Music Foundation Fundraiser starts TODAY!!!
Schuler Book Days with GIG - The Art of Michigan Music Foundation on July 20 - 26th at all Schuler Book locations and online
Buy a book (or three or thirty) at Schuler Books in-store and mention GIG - The Art of Michigan Music Foundation. Buy a book (or five hundred) at Schuler Books online and use the code GIGARTMI at checkout. Either way, GIG gets 20% of the proceeds to help us fund our annual event!! If you are looking for a book suggestion and want to participate (be sure to wait until July 20!!), Here is our GIG book list -
https://www.schulerbooks.com/wishlist/2944
Detroit Festival of Books at Eastern Market in Detroit on July 20th (TODAY!!)
Browse from hundreds of authors, book sellers, and some vinyl record dealers at the Detroit Festival of Books. Look around for us as we’ll be down there in the afternoon (probably 2 p.m.) for the last couple of hours of the festival, celebrating Brenda’s birthday a day early.
Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Fest in Ypsilanti on July 25-26
Nothing says summer like enjoying a Michigan beer on the banks of the Huron River with a few thousand friends at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti. The Michigan Brewers Guild throws the best beer bashes, and the Summer Beer Fest is two days of fabulous beer and music. New this year is a special Saturday Night concert featuring Keller Williams and his band Keller and the Keels. Bodiacious bluegrass and brews, hell yes!!
CreativeMornings - Ann Arbor: MENTOR with Susan McLeary at Bamboo in Ann Arbor on July 25
Meet up with other creative folks in Ann Arbor and meet Susan McLeary, who will be sharing her story on mentoring. Bonus, I’ll be there as the photographer covering the event for CreativeMornings Ann Arbor.
In Other News
We're still burning it up over at Life In Michigan Studios. Recent stories include a review of Smoking Moses at Small’s with St. James and the Apostles and Winds of Neptune at Small’s in Detroit.
Brenda has coverage of our tour of Castle Rouge with a pit stop at The Mother Loaf Bakery in Detroit.
Brenda donned her best 18th-century dress to share her rug hooking skills at the Waterloo Farm Museum’s Blacksmiths, Soldiers, and Log Cabin Weekend.
Finally, we’ve some beer stories that Brenda wrote for Michigan Brew Trail, which are now in press and online.
Curious about the term “Michigander”? Well, Doug Marrin over at the Sun Times News has a great article on the origins of this term for those of us from the great state of Michigan.
Life In Michigan Podcast
The latest episode of our podcast features Johnny Williams, who shares his stories of being an educator and champion of local music.
The Johnny Williams Story: From Dodging the Draft to Saving the Speakeasy
In this heartfelt and wildly entertaining episode, we sit down with Michigan music legend Johnny Williams—educator, community builder, and founder of The Speakeasy—along with the brilliant singer-songwriter Judy Banker.
Substack Restack Attack
Substack is where it’s at. Check out these other superb publications:
shares an opportunity for film photographers to do something incredibly creative together.
As a Stevie Wonder fan, I totally dug
review of Stevie’s Where I’m Coming From. and are celebrating 5 years of exploring the world as traveling nomads. She shares some fun facts and links to more in-depth stories on the Road Life Magazine.
Adventures Yet To Print
Lordy, that Manistee story is getting dusty. Not quite as bad as Detroit Vinyl, but jeez Louise! I also have a Chelsea Sounds and Sights report, which includes the turbo-prog music of Scissor Now. There is also a review of Ananda Murari with Jon Torrence at Leon Speakers coming soon! Brenda is busy with a story on the historic Highland Cemetery in Ypsilanti, as well as our tour of Michigan Central with Detroit History Tours. Shew Wee Ilene!!!! 🙂
What Are You Reading?
My most recent read was Virgil Wander by Leif Enger. It is a lovely story of a man who gets a second chance at life after a near-fatal car accident. I dare say it is a love story and mystery all in one. We learn about Virgil, his movie theater and cache of stolen films, the mysterious disappearance of Alec Sandstrom, and how Virgil takes in an old kite-flying Norwegian who is looking for the son he never knew he had. There is so much more, and I’m surely not doing this book justice. Let’s just say that this book is like a beautifully crafted quilt. A quilt of unimaginable layers, which is so unbelievably soft and warm that you never want to leave it.
What Are You Spinning?
I’m out of time this week, kids. I’ll throw in some musical thoughts next week.
That’s A Wrap
As my buddy Sturgill once said:
“Keep your head out of the clouds
And remember to be kind
And just stay in school
Stay off the drugs
And keep between the lines.”
Thank you for reading. I hope your week is awesome! Don’t forget to kick out the jams!
Now, here is your moment of zen:
no.1 happy birthday Brenda!
no.2 thanx for sharing the initiative of bringing community together
no.3 you mentioned a song stuck in your head. well, here's a take of the meaning "six degrees of separation"
https://youtu.be/FCT6Mu-pOeE?feature=shared
Thanks for the shout out, Chuck. I’d say you and Doug are a couple of Kevin Bacons in our state’s arts and culture world. Happy we are able to finally meet up!