Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 309
June 7, 2016
Go to The Moth and tell a story. And not "someday." Go soon.
Just this past week I heard from listeners who heard one or more of my stories on The Moth's podcast, The Moth Radio Hour, and/or The Moth's website in:
Cape Town, South Africa
London, UK
Columbus, OH
Hartford, CT
Western Australia
Hong Kong
New Hampshire
New York City
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Blackstone, Massachusetts
The idea that people across the globe are listening to me tell stories about my life is incredible. The power and reach of The Moth cannot be overstated.
And you could do this, too. If you're in the vicinity of a Moth StorySLAM (and there are many throughout the country and the world), you should go and tell a story. Drop your name in the tote bag and wait for your name to be called. Perform well, and your story might travel the world someday, too.
And everyone has a story. If you don't believe me, start doing my Homework for Life and you'll soon discover that you have more stories than you could have ever imagined.
So choose a true story from your life, take the stage at a Moth StorySLAM, and speak into the microphone. Tell your story. It need not be funny or sad and suspenseful or perfect. It simply needs to be a story. The Moth actually offers some tips and tricks to help your performance. And there is no better place in the world to tell a story than at The Moth. The men and women who host and produce these shows are remarkably supportive and exceptionally professional. The sound equipment is second to none. And best of all, the audiences are warm, kind, and more accepting than you could ever imagine.
And who knows? It could change your life.
It changed mine.
July 11, 2016 will mark my five year anniversary in storytelling. On that day in 2011, I took a stage at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and competed in my first Moth StorySLAM. I told a story about pole vaulting in high school and managed to win the slam.
That story eventually made its way onto The Moth Radio Hour and podcast.
My original plan was to tell one story on a Moth stage and never return. Do it once and put it behind me. Check off the box marked "The Moth" and move on.
Instead, I fell in love with storytelling. I worked hard and got better. Today storytelling is an enormous part of my life.
In the past five years, I've competed in 43 Moth StorySLAMs, winning 23 of them. I've also competed in 17 Moth GrandSLAM championships, winning four of them. I've performed on stages small and large throughout the country and around the world for The Moth and many other storytelling organizations.
In 2013 Elysha and I launched Speak Up, a Connecticut-based storytelling organization with the goal of bringing the art of storytelling to the Hartford area. By the end of 2016 we will have produced more than 40 sell-out or near sell-out shows throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts. We've partnered with theaters, museums, art spaces, and more, performing for audiences ranging from 150-500 people.
I've also taught storytelling to thousands of people, both in workshops that I run and in my role of storytelling expert on Slate's The Gist. Recently, I've begun performing solo shows at places like The Pound Ridge Storytelling Festival, The Lebanon Opera House, and Kripalu, and I've begun delivering keynote and inspirational addresses for a variety of organizations.
My wife has been able to stay home with our children for the past seven years in part because of storytelling.
All I wanted to do when I began this journey was tell one story for The Moth.
And I am not special. I did not grow up in a family of storytellers. I didn't learn to tell stories from some master storyteller. I didn't spend nights in coffee bars and at open mics honing my craft. I just went to The Moth and told a story. Then I did it again and again and again.
So if you're in the vicinity of a Moth StorySLAM, you should go and tell a story, too. As frightening or daunting or nerve wracking or impossible as that might sound, you should go. Since I began telling stories for The Moth, about half a dozen of my closest friends (including one former elementary school student) have gone to The Moth to tell a story. Many of my former storytelling students have taken the stage at a Moth StorySLAM and performed.
Dozens more have told a story for us at Speak Up.
If you live near a city that host a Moth StorySLAM, go and tell a story. I can't imagine what my life might be like today had I not conquered my fear and told my first story.
And if you live in the vicinity of me, I'd be happy to take you to one. Climb into my car and we'll drive together to New York or Boston and listen to ten strangers (and perhaps me) tell a true story from their lives. The stories will be honest, funny, heart-wrenching, surprising, suspenseful, and more. Some will be told exceptionally well. Some less so.
It won't matter. You will have a fantastic evening of entertainment and human connection.
Maybe you'll even tell a story yourself. You should. You never know what may happen.
June 6, 2016
I have discovered what women look for in a man
I spent a portion of Saturday night in the company of Elysha and some of her lady friends. They were discussing what their single straight girlfriends should look for in men.
I just sat and listened.
Men, based upon this conversation, here is what women want:
A responsible man with modest or better career prospects who possesses better than average intelligence and has "an edge." Also, you should not be living with your parents or other family members.
This last part struck me as fairly obvious, but perhaps not so much in today's world.
"An edge" appears to mean "not boring." You need to have personal interests outside your career and family. You must possess strong opinions or feelings on things that matter to you. You should bring the promise of new frontiers and new possibilities to the relationship.
Things that apparently matter little to women:
Physical appearancePrior marital statusGolf handicapTrust fundsArrest recordWardrobeMusical preferencesFamilial safety netsPerformance in bedThe college or university that you attendedThe car that you driveJune 5, 2016
She would not be happy on a skateboard, but these kids are.
My favorite thing about my daughter's picture of skateboarders is the smiles on their faces.
She wouldn't climb aboard a skateboard if her life depended upon it.
Maybe this will change someday, but I suspect not. She is not a risk taker. She is not physically daring. She is cautious and precise as she moves through this world. Dainty, even.
She has many great qualities, but climbing aboard a skateboard and soaring up and down concrete ramps is not one of them.
And yet she still can see the joy that others derive from skateboarding in one of these parks, and she does not judge them for it.
I also think it's kind of remarkable how my little artist daughter manages to capture posture and motion in her drawing, but admittedly that might just be a proud father talking.
June 4, 2016
Perilous Pizza: The Cook's Cook June/July 2016 edition
I published a piece entitled Perilous Pizza in the June/July edition of The Cook's Cook. It deals with food insecurity in my childhood and how it influenced many of my choices as a boy and continues to influence my decision-making process today.
Hope you enjoy!
June 3, 2016
Dance Recitals: The Joy and the Horror
My humor column in the spring edition of Seasons magazine (page 49-50) on the horror and occasional joy of springtime dance recitals.
"Just about everybody" I know is not flying on a plane this summer, and to assume otherwise might be an indication of the bubble you live inside.
I like the Freakonomics podcast quite a bit, and if I could choose a new friend, I think I'd take Steve Levitt, an economist and co-author of the Freakonomics books who loves golf and McDonald's and seems to share my disposition.
Every time I hear him speak, I think that we would be fast friends.
Yesterday, I was listening to an episode on flying when I heard Levitt's co-author and producer and host of the podcast, Steven Dubner (who I also like a lot) open the show by saying:
“It is nearly summertime, which means that you, and just about everybody you know, will soon be getting on an airplane.”
Either Dubner is making an enormous assumption about his audience demographics or he is living in some kind of bubble where everyone in his world flies to exotic locales during the summer.
While I have friends who are flying places for vacation, I also have friends who have never set foot on a plane once in their lives.
I have friends who can't afford to take a vacation this summer.
I have friends who don't have paid vacation as part of their employment.
I have friends who can't afford airline tickets for their family to fly this summer.
And I will not be getting on a plane this summer, as much as I might like to. I'll be working quite a bit - teaching, speaking, and writing - and we simply can't afford the four airline tickets to whatever destination we might choose.
"Just about everybody" who I know is not flying this summer, either. Some are. Some are not. Perhaps this is reflective of the economic diversity of the people I know, but I don't think so. I suspect most people who aren't living in a bubble have friends like mine.
Some of greater and some of lesser means.
I love you Dubner, but that was not a good sentence.
June 2, 2016
Telling tales: A profile
A profile of me entitled Telling Tales. which appeared in the June 2016 edition of Newington LIFE and West Hartford LIFE - a local Connecticut magazine.
Teachers must stop assigning problems to students in math class, but apparently they need to stop assigning equations, too.
About a week ago I vowed to stop using the word "problem" when asking a question in math, and for good reason, I think.
I proposed using the word "equation" when asking a student to add, subtract, multiply, or divide.
It turns out that "equation" is the wrong word, too. My friend, who is a physicist, points this out in his comment to my post. I'm posting his comment hear, broken it into paragraphs to make the reading easier but otherwise unaltered.
This is the same person who once explained to me that an email actually has physical weight.
I'm still not sure what word to use in place of "problem" but apparently it won't be equation.
_________________________
Equation isn't the correct term. An equation is a relationship between numbers (i.e., it doesn't involve missing values).
If you want you could call it a puzzle (as is suggested by Linda): figure out what the missing number is. However, puzzle implies that this requested work is something that will require some type of deductive, inductive or creative thinking. In an addition, subtraction, multiplication or division "problem", though, we are hoping for a more rote response.
Therefore, if problem is unappealing, then I would argue for using "question". At the end of a reading assignment, we already ask them comprehension questions. They get multiple choice and fill in the blank questions in other disciplines.
But math is better than those. Shouldn't it have its own terminology as a meritorious distinction? And, a really good math problem is one that does cause us to think; it is a puzzle, or better yet a game. In actuality, though, is it not that math is nothing more than logical deductions based on the definition of the number line. Shall we then agree to say "Deduce by mathematical inference the answer to the following:"?
June 1, 2016
Resolution update: May 2016
1. Don’t die.
Still alive as I write these words.
2. Lose 20 pounds.
Still just five pounds now. 15 to go.
3. Do at least 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups five days a week.
Done.
4. Practice yoga at least three days a week.
My school year ends in ten days. Then my yoga retraining will be scheduled. I've been assured that increased flexibility will improve my golf game.
There's no greater incentive.
WRITING CAREER5. Complete my fifth novel before the end of February.
Done!
6. Complete my sixth novel.
I have two novels that are more than halfway finished and one that is finished but requires a complete re-write. However, it doesn't look like any of these will be my next novel. We decide upon the next book this month.
7. Write a middle grade novel.
Progress has commenced.
8. Write at least three new picture books.
I've begun writing a new picture book with one of my students.
I've also received feedback on my three other picture books from a children's book editor and have been told which ones to focus on in terms of revision.
9. Complete a book proposal for a book on storytelling.
The book is outlined, and most of the proposal is written. Sample chapters are being written in earnest. Chapter one is complete. Work on chapter two has begun. I'll need three or four to complete the proposal.
10. Write a new screenplay
No progress yet.
11. Write a musical for a summer camp
Outline complete. Partner is working on songs. I will finish the actual script this month.
12. Publish at least one Op-Ed in The New York Times.
I submitted an Op-Ed to the New York Times in May. It was rejected. I submitted the same piece to the Washington Post and The Boston Globe and was rejected in both places as well.
13. Publish an article in an educational journal.
No progress yet.
14. Submit one or more short stories to at least three publishing outlets.
No progress yet.
15. Select three behaviors that I am opposed to and adopt them for one week, then write about my experiences on the blog.
I spent a week backing my car into parking spots (which initially struck me as insane). I am still writing about my experience.
16. Increase my author newsletter subscriber base to 1,000.
I gained 17 subscribers in May and 62 since the beginning of the year. My total stands at 974.
If you'd like to subscribe and receive my monthly writing and storytelling tip, as well as my recommendations and other miscellany, you can do so here:
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17. Collaborate with a former colleague on an educational book.
This project has been cancelled. After meeting with my collaborator, we determined that I am not best suited for this project.
STORYTELLING18. Produce a total of 12 Speak Up storytelling events.
We produced one show (sold out!) at Infinity Hall in May, bringing our total number of Speak Up events in 2016 to six.
We have eight more events on the calendar in 2016 (with one or two more possible shows), which will bring our total to at least 14.
19. Deliver a TED Talk.
Done twice over!
I spoke at TEDxNatick in January. The title of the talk was "Live Your Life Like Your 100 Year-Old Self." Here's the recording:
I also spoke at the TEDx conference at The Country School in Madison, CT in April. The title of the talk was "Speak Less. Expect More." Here is the recording:
I've also pitched talks to two other TEDx events in 2016. I await word on acceptance.
20. Attend at least 15 Moth events with the intention of telling a story.
In May I attended a Moth StorySLAM at The Bell House but did not have my name drawn from the bag. Luck has not been on my side in 2016. I have attended several StorySLAMs but only taken the stage once, and that time I was chosen to perform first.
I also performed in The Moth Ball at Capitale in New York and told a one-minute version of one of my two GrandSLAM winning stories from 2015.
This brings my total number of Moth events in 2016 to nine.
21. Win at least three Moth StorySLAMs.
I attended a StorySLAM in May at The Bell House but did not compete. So far I have attended four StorySLAMs in 2016 and only performed in one (and had to go first).
I plan to attend multiple slams in June and July.
22. Win a Moth GrandSLAM.
Done! I won the Moth GrandSLAM in Somerville in March.
I placed second in the most recent NYC GrandSLAM in April. I've had to perform from second position in the last three GrandSLAMs, which sucks.
23. Launch at least one new podcast.
Background work (podcast logo, hosting service, website, etc.) continues.
24. Launch a storytelling project that I will otherwise remain vague about here but will become a primary focus of 2016.
Work on this project has begun in earnest.
NEW PROJECTS25. Host at least one Shakespeare Circle.
No progress.
26. Learn to cook three good meals for my wife.
No progress.
27. Plan a 25 year reunion of the Heavy Metal Playhouse.
No progress.
MISCELLANEOUS28. Replace the 12 ancient, energy-inefficient windows in our home with new windows that will keep the cold out and actually open in the warmer months.
No progress.
29. Optimize our television for a streaming service.
Likely a summer project.
30. Set a new personal best in golf.
I played several rounds of golf in May, including a 48 and a 61.
My nine hole best is 45.
I'm actually playing well despite my scores. I plan to work closely with a friend this year to significantly improve my game.
I also applied for a targeted practice experiment through a popular podcast with a specific focus on hitting my driver farther. If accepted, I will receive a professional trainer and my progress will be charted via the podcast.
31. Play poker at least six times in 2016.
I played one game back in April. I canceled the game I scheduled for May. I will be scheduling at least one game in June.
32. Do not speak negatively about another person's physical appearance except when done in jest with my closest friends.
Done. This remains an easy goal to accomplish once you've committed to it. I highly recommend it to everyone.
33. Post my progress in terms of these resolutions on this blog on the first day of every month.
Done.
May 31, 2016
My first comic books. Too bad I can't show my kids. Or my students. Or anyone squeamish.
Last year, I had the opportunity to work with Double Take comics on their new comic book series based upon the original Night of the Living Dead film.
Double Take asked a handful of Moth storytellers to consider writing stories for their zombie-filled universe, and I decided to give it a shot. The result was two comic books in their Slab series that feature some of my writing and one of my Moth stories, which I adapted for the comic.
Seeing my name along the bottom of the book as one of the authors was thrilling, but sadly, because of the nature of the comic, the content (and even the covers) of both books are too graphic to show my children or any of my students.
As a result, the people who would be the most impressed with my work can never see it until they have reached an age when they are probably no longer impressed.
But here they are in their gory glory.
You can actually read Slab 2 online. Slab 3 will be made available online later this summer.
