Weapons of Mass Destruction or Beautiful Paintings?
Ed Begley Jr! Makoto Fujimura! Brad Montague! Aurora! James Baldwin!
Hello Beloved,
How are you? I really want to know. Hit reply to this email (if you’re reading online, leave a comment below) and let me know. Sending hugs and love to each one of you.
If I may, allow me to attempt to encourage you.
I’ve talked to lots of folks lately who feel utterly helpless by what’s happening in the Oval Office, what’s happening in Gaza, and everywhere in between.
I get it. I, too, spend at least a few minutes each day thinking to myself, “What the fuck is going on? Are we going to survive this shit show?”
But please keep going. One foot in front of the other. Begin right now. Do what you can. Don’t give into despair. Do something.
Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote from Danté Stewart in his tremendous book, Shoutin’ In The Fire:
“To believe in the better, to believe in your future, to shout in the midst of a country on fire, to stare down lions, to shake the foundations of the empire, to make meaning in the face of death, to fail, to create, to live, and to love—this is the stuff of hope. It is not an assent to nostalgia or myths or lies. It is the audacious belief that one’s body, one’s story, one’s future does not end in this moment.”
We live in a country (and world) on fire. The foundations of empire are crumbling.
It’s time to fail, to create, to live, to live, and to make meaning in the face of death.
Please keep going.
Here are a few things I think you should read, watch, listen to, and consider:
🎧 THE LATEST PODCAST EPISODE
It’s Ed Begley Jr. week on the Let’s Give A Damn podcast! Ok, fine, it’s taken me a bit to send this email out. It *was* Ed Begley Jr. week on the Let’s Give A Damn podcast.
On the environmental front, Ed Begley Jr. is one of the foremost environmentalists in Hollywood, supporting and advocating for multiple eco-initiatives and charity organizations. He is also the name and face behind the successful Begley’s Earth Responsible Products, a line of plant-based eco-friendly cleaning and pet supplies.
Begley is a Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy nominated actor who for decades, has been a champion and educator for causes dedicated to protecting the earth. In support of this work, he starred opposite his lovely wife and daughter on the hit eco-reality shows Living With Ed and On Begley Street.
Begley has appeared in the Christopher Guest films A Mighty Wind, Best In Show, and For Your Consideration. Other feature film credits include Pineapple Express, Batman Forever, The Inlaws, and countless more.
On television, Begley has recurred on Arrested Development, Portlandia, Better Call Saul, Modern Family, Veronica Mars, and many others. He received his seventh Emmy nomination for the streaming series CTRL ALT DELETE.
On the stage, he led the West Coast Premiere of David Mamet’s Cryptogram at the Geffen Playhouse, in the role that he first performed in Boston and New York. He also starred in Mr. Mamet’s production of Romance at the Mark Taper Forum. Ed Begley Jr. wrote and directed the musical Cesar And Ruben, a play that won him a Nos Otros Award and four Valley Theater League Awards.
But I didn’t have Ed on the show to talk about show business. That’s a conversation for another day. What I love about Ed and have for years now is that he takes such great care of our planet. He talks the talk and walks the walk almost more than anyone I know. To the extent that he has ridden his bike and take the subway to the Oscars more than once. That’s just one example of many that we’ll touch on in this conversation.
_____
✅ Check out and purchase Ed’s eco-friendly cleaning products
✅ Purchase Ed’s memoir, To The Temple of Tranquility…And Step On It!
✅ Watch this fascinating tour of Ed’s eco-friendly home
✅ Click here to listen to our conversation on Apple Podcasts or click below to watch it on YouTube.
✅ For a peek into our conversation, watch the first clip, the second clip, and the third clip we’ve posted to Instagram. Please watch, like, and share!
🗞️ DAMN GOOD NEWS
✅ Last weekend, No Other Land won an Oscar! I believe it’s the first Palestinian film to ever win an Oscar. What an incredible accomplishment! Here is their acceptance speech.
This film is directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor. Basel is a Palestinian living in the Occupied West Bank. In this film, he risked arrest to document the violence and destruction happening to the homes and people in Masafer Yatta by the Israeli Occupation Forces and Israeli terrorist settlers.
Click here to see if the film is in theaters in your area. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until they find a distributor here in the US.
✅ A gay cruise rescued a boat filled with 11 refugees in the Gulf of Mexico! (And, yes, I said Gulf of Mexico because fuck the whatever the Gulf of America is.)
Matt Conrado shares the story in 2 parts — here’s part 1, here’s part 2, and here’s part 3. The refugees were, allegedly, traveling from Cuba to Mexico and said “Hell no!” when the cruise offered to take them to the United States. The group of refugees were taken safely to Mexico.
God bless the gays and the refugees!
🔗 OTHER LINKS TO CLICK
✅ Aurora is one of my favorite artists. Her voice is flawless, her music is magical, her spirit is wild, and she is a deeply principled and passionate artist.
Many times when I feel down, I turn on this 38-minute performance. It was filmed in the middle of Lysekloster Forest near Os, Norway. Every song in this set is incredible but I love Runaway (12:20) and The Seed (22:33). Watch and be rejuvenated!
✅ My friend Brad Montague wrote a book about failing and recently realized there was a typo in it. No, really. It was not intentional. But I’m glad it happened.
Brad is so fucking cool and the way he handled this is absolutely perfect.
Watch the video he made and the post he wrote about this epic fail.
🧠 PONDER
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive.” — James Baldwin
👋🏽 GOODBYE!
That’s it for this week, Thank you for reading. I'm truly grateful. Consider forward this email to a friend? Or send them this link so they can sign up. And you can always email me about anything. I’ll be back soon with good news and steps we can take together to build intentional community and to make our world a much better place. We have a lot of work to do, y’all. Sending love.
Keep giving a damn,
NICK LAPARRA
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