Cultish Creative Weekly Recap (2/22/2025)

Last week I asked for your help to support my wife’s birthday wishes and HOLY CRAP YOU PEOPLE ARE FRIGGIN’ INCREDIBLE.

There’s still time if you want to support her in making a 40th birthday donation to Ruth's Place, one of the incredibly important women's shelters in our area. No gift is too small. And, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU if you’ve already given, please know, we are both so moved by your kindness, generosity, and the notes (THE NOTES!). If interested, please take a moment to check out the Amazon link where you can add to our haul. Sunday is going to be a beautiful day. Anything that arrives late will be delivered as it comes in too. Ruth’s Place is an organization we’re determined to keep supporting either way.

On to the archives…

Mat Cashman beat me out for best wine bar jazz gig story. He also delivered on the balance required between making stuff for yourself and making stuff for others beyond expectations. Check out our special Just Press Record conversation here:

Kevin Muir has long been one of my favorite market-related thinkers, not the least of which because he’s so earnest and funny. I knew I wanted to get more of his life story captured (in particular, the story about his dad boarding their dog, and why the dog gained 25lbs while they were on vacation, which is, let’s just say my face still hurts from laughing so hard), and that’s why this Intentional Investor episode delivers in spades. So much life advice in this one too!

Jack Forehand and I went deep on Excess Returns using clips from our multiple Cem Carson interviews over the years. Cem’s an exceptional thinker, and it was great applying his lessons beyond finance with Jack. Cem has some wonderful philosophical points (and a lot in common with Kev Muir above):

From the Personal Archive!

I got into Kendrick’s halftime show. I think this is really important for all creative people to consider. Your art on various stages, at various stages of your journey, this is an important reflection.

Ever say something you don’t remember saying but then someone quotes it back to you, or shows it to you, and you think, “Hey, that’s pretty great”??? This is a post about it happening to me. Less “touch grass” and more “catch bumper.”

My wife and I are skipping through various era of Saturday Night Live and it’s been so fun. I can’t remember how many things I’ve forgotten, and - especially in the pre-streaming/YouTube clips era, how many bits I’ve never seen. Another funny thing that keeps happening is I’ll see a clip I’ve been quoting for years and get to say, “look - me and my brothers/friends/random colleagues say this to each other!” This is one of those expressions, via Tracy Morgan, “Let’s learn a lesson, from the Swiss!”

I’m deep in a hole of re-thinking a bunch of my personal strategies right now. Suffice it to say, that also means I’m second guessing myself, feeling like a fraud, and freaking out while I try to keep my left foot in front of my right. Here’s a note inspired by a text exchange between a friend. Expect more of this next week too, I’ll share what I’m working on and with.