Some new ideas / why you won't hear from me for a while

Hey all! Just a general life and work update for you.

The roadshow for my movie will continue through Thanksgiving but is definitely winding down, and I'm probably no longer going to attend any screenings myself. But I'm glad I made it out to as many as I did and I'm glad some of y'all came up and introduced yourselves! Everybody was lovely.

My wedding is next week and I'm bouncing off the walls thrilled. For a while I was worried that with it following so soon after the end of post-production on the movie, that I wouldn't have time to to produce any new YouTube videos – as I think I said in some previous update, I very keenly feel the amount of working time that Sudbury has sucked up this year and I was concerned that you all would feel neglected, especially with Birth of an American Town being delayed yet again. However, I'm glad I was able to squeeze in that Martin Delany video and a pretty solid Leif Erikson Day special in the interim. I hope y'all enjoyed them!

I pride myself in not giving a shit what the greater part of my audience wants or thinks, but I do feel a profound sense of obligation to my patrons, as in many ways you all are my employers!

As far as what's coming next on the channel, there's the second and third episodes of Birth of an American Town of course, and probably some more episodes of The Abolitionists to make concurrently with the finale of Checkmate. That new series is nice because although it's pretty research-heavy and the history is rich, it's trivially easy from a filmmaking standpoint, which is where my schedule always gets bogged down. So it'll be a good thing to have on the side while I'm spending weeks staging skeleton army battles.

I also have the vague outlines for a video comparing the Puritan, Marxist, and New Age movements – an eyebrow-raising elevator pitch I know, but I have a feeling that digging into Early Modern apocalypticism, left-wing accelerationism, and the now-laughable 1990s psychedelic "end of history" millenarianism will yield fascinating results.

Man, that's a lot of -isms.

I've also been thinking a lot about the history of violence, especially as it pertains to statecraft in ancient and prehistoric times. On a bit of an art history kick recently, I looked closely at the Narmer palette (a carving honoring a very very very early Egyptian king) for the first time and was intensely struck by its glorification of state violence. It's utterly horrifying today, but you have to consider how important the theme of order vs chaos was in Egyptian cosmology – and through most of premodern times, stability was politically valued much more than freedom. So sure, Narmer was a thug, but if I was alive back then I'd probably rather live under a single all-powerful thug who keeps the trade lanes open and the Nubians safely upriver, rather than a hundred petty thugs who are coming into town and Eli-Wallach-in-Magnificent-Seven-ing my ass every few years.

I'd like to dig that hole a bit further. Ancient Egypt is outside of my area of expertise but I've got a few ancient historians on speed dial who could help me get shit right. And there would be all sorts of ways to tie that theme into more modern history. I dunno, there's something there.

But anyhoo, speaking of wedding stuff – I'm going on my honeymoon next week and will be completely cutting myself off from work. Then, as I said in one of the summer updates, I'm taking a step back from filmmaking, probably until Christmas. Finishing the movie was just too intense and stressful and I feel my blood pressure rise whenever I boot up Premiere Pro. I just need some time away. So for the next couple months, updates here might be somewhat rare.

I want to be fresh, enthusiastic, and at my best when I begin pre-production on the Checkmate finale after the holidays so I give you guys the grand, emotional, satisfying ending I promised four years ago.

In the meantime I might write short stories or scripts that will never get made, and continue to absentmindedly brainstorm about future video topics and cool historical stuff. Maybe I'll check in to tell you a bit about that, but otherwise I hope y'all have an amazing next couple of months and thank you so so much, always and forever, for your amazing support.