Pour Me A Story, Vol. 30
feat. Dana Drew, ghosts of cities past, and the Crack Shack
what’s up everybody? we’re back with Pour Me A Story after last week’s vacation-induced hiatus. it’s probably just as well I subscribe to the “underpromise, overdeliver” school of thinking because I almost said “screw it, I’ll do a newsletter on May 7, I’ll manage” and would’ve had to cobble together something in an altered state on vacation.
I’ll go further into detail in a few, but let’s get the interview going first because it’s another great one. and oh shit it’s the 30th edition of the newsletter! I didn’t even realize that until I put the title in very last of all. way to go everyone.
Anyway, We Have Company
this week’s special guest has been in the works for a month or so, probably longer if you count the first time I pitched the idea to her. I met Dana Drew around the same time as I met Vol. 8 guest Molly Dupuis, because they studied abroad together in Brisbane when I still lived there. you may know Dana’s work on Instagram from over the past year or so. anyway we’ll get into that. we spoke by email this week, so my segues aren’t as “responsive” as they usually are, but we still had fun anyway.
AC: so this year makes it a whole DECADE since we met when you were studying abroad in Brisbane, which is just bananas. where has life taken you since the last time I saw you?
DD: Adrian, what a starter question. I'll try to summarize this and not get too self absorbed and write an autobiography. I was 19 when I studied abroad and I'm now 30 so a little bit has happened since then! I graduated college in 2013 with a degree in history and american studies and absolutely no clue what the hell I was going to go. I ended up getting a job, hating it, and moving to Philadelphia on a whim with some friends who also had no life plan. Many silly, weird, low-paying jobs later, I was loving life in Philly and enjoying a tourism-centric job in the historic district but love had other plans and I ultimately moved to Boston to end long-distance torture with my boyfriend.
I snagged what seemed like a great gig with a travel company, working with customer issues and having the opportunity to travel around the world. I learned a lot with this change, mostly about my own needs and wants in a job and relationship. I started doing improv and found lots of new friends and fun ways to fill my time outside of work. It was through playing pretend on stage for no money that I met my boyfriend! He’s the best and we have a good good boy dog. I ended up quitting and, after a few dumb short stints in other roles, started dog walking just to fill my time while I job hunted. I feel in love with it and eventually started running the business entirely which was a massive learning experience.
When COVID hit, I lost the job and had to pivot fast. I was depressed as shit and had a ton of free time to do nothing, so I got back into drawing - which was a big part of my life and free time pre-adulthood. I made an insta account just for fun but it really blew up. During the pandemic, my boyfriend and I had a move to Los Angeles already planned where he would pursue comedy and I would... do something. And here we are! Many stupid moments later, we are in LA making silly stuff and working on our art together in some sunshine. I even just started a podcast called At Your Own Risk with my friend Sarah Bassy, which launches on May 25th! Life is weird and things are good.
AC: what semester you guys were all in Brisbane was just a wild span of my life because I was, like, 26 and had a full-time job and the usual bullshit life responsibilities. but on top of that I'd just got this absurd chunk of back-pay from my job, and I had made friends with a bunch of you and you were all, rightly, partying multiple nights a week and I wound up going out a lot too. what would you say are your lasting memories from Australia?
DD: Oh gosh. It’s all a bit blurry but I definitely remember lots of creatures wanting to kill us, barely going to class, and never having more than $5 in my bank account. I also had a fuck ton of really messed up shit happen back home while I was abroad, not limited to but including losing my step dad of 20 years to suicide. I chose to stay abroad and I’m really glad I did. Being so far away, but in a place that felt like home, was a really difficult but powerful way to learn I can take care of myself and do hard things. I can’t wait to go back down under and maybe actually do some things with real money this time!
AC: now I'm a relative latecomer to your Instagram art account but a scroll back shows that your first post was May 29, so just before things really jumped off around the country here. did you have a particular goal or direction in mind for your "doodles" (I don't even wanna call them that! they're so good!) before it became such a platform for messages of civil rights and social justice?
DD: Ha! No, not at all. Like I said, I started my Instagram to just dump some drawings and get some feelings out. I was making drawings for friends who still had jobs and just trying to fill my time with something that wasn’t eating chips and watching tiktoks while we prepared to move across the country. Between Trump and the pandemic and the resurgence of BLM protests, I felt like a lot of Americans did: totally trapped and unable to help and complacent in a really garbage system that benefitted me most of the time. I started drawing stuff I was feeling and a few of my BLM drawings went viral. I never intended to have any kind of social justice page.
I don’t know if I’d ever have even expected myself to get so involved or loud online about social issues. I think about this a lot and it’s actually a big theme for my podcast. Which came first: my passion for social justice or a platform with which I can influence real change? With almost 80k followers, I feel compelled to manage the responsibility of having a platform well. It’s definitely not what I intended and a lot of the time I feel frustrated that it’s mostly what people expect or want from my art. But I feel really lucky and honored (and totally unqualified) to have a voice and an audience and some impact during such a critical moment in history. It’s truly humbling.
AC: I feel like the news cycle is moving so fast and it's basically multiple times a day that we're learning of new atrocities and violations now. your posts are always so topical and timely (even though this country is great at following patterns) -- what does your creative process look like?
DD: Hahahahahahah wow I just laaaughed and laaaughed. I don’t totally have one! Lately I’ve been grappling with needing to prioritize making an income through my Etsy shop and commissions over making Instagram content (for which I am paid $0, even if a post does well). Back when I made Instagram more of a priority, I was doing my best to stay informed and be ready to work quickly. I have a running list of ideas that I’ll pull from at any time. But, for more timely topical things, I basically just hunker down and do a lot of work as fast as I can. The sooner you can produce something, the bigger the impact. Lately this has really sucked because I have total feed fatigue and burnout symptoms; my brain is just full of banana peels and no creative ideas are flowing freely. In fact, I’m not even really sure where I’m going with this paragraph. What were we talking about again?
AC: I know it's like asking whether you have a favorite kid (probably), but is there one particular piece that stands out as your personal favorite?
DD: Eek! I have no idea. I just quickly scrolled through my Instagram and fully could not find something I liked so... that’s pretty telling about ~ where I’m at ~ emotionally and professionally. If I were to bucket my drawings, I feel really proud of the work I did during the election month. I put a lot of time and effort into my post-debate illustrations, finding the perfect quotes, and illustrating powerful but super simplified and sometimes funny takes on complicated, really serious, horrifying shit. It was a lot of work and it broke my brain but I feel really proud of it. BUT if I had to pick my favorite drawing it’s probably my existential animal series. I’ll attach one to this email as a glimpse of what my Instagram would look like if my social justice drawings and the cultural shift in our country hadn’t grown to dominate my feed.
AC: the response is clearly majority positive, and you have a really strong following, but I'm sure you get your share of dumbfuckery in the comments. does that weigh on you or make you reconsider what you're doing at all?
DD: Definitely. I have a “blocked words” list that’s about 50 words and phrases and even emojis long. I’ve been trying to do everything I can to allow a conversation, connection, and feedback on my posts without cultivating a dangerous, upsetting void of humanity. It’s a lot to manage when you get hundreds of notifications a minute and dozens of posts (even old ones) are being interacted with at any given moment. If I leave my phone for just a few minutes, I can have thousands of new likes and comments and messages. It’s totally exhausting and makes me not want to do it, but I also feel obligated to get the fuck over it and use my platform to speak out for those who don’t have that privilege, or at the very least make some people feel less alone. I used to try to reasons with trolls, then I trolled the trolls right back, but now I mostly just block the ones that get through and try to move on. Did I mention the burnout? Yikes.
AC: now I know you're probably tired of talking about this by now, but I think it's probably the first time I've spoken to you since this went around the internet in the pre-viral age. *WHAT* is the story here?
DD: Aw, my first viral internet thing! I’m at a college dance in 2011 here. I’d actually just gotten back from Australia which is why I’m so skinny and tan (no money for food and a hole in the ozone does that I guess)! I was standing by the dance from talking to my friends when this moron just started humping me My friends and I actually did this reaction and photo shoot a lot (there are way more photos like this is what I’m trying to say). Whenever a dude would start doing that gross approach-a-woman-from-behind-and-rub-your-dick-on-her-ass-without-asking-and-hope-she-rubs-back thing, we’d make crazy gross faces and stand totally still.
I actually feel like this was inspired by the Jenna Marbles video about getting hit on and acting nuts so they go away? Really dating myself here. And... Ah, the joys of being a woman. Somehow it got shared from not Facebook and popped up as the title photo of Buzzfeed’s list of “16 Reasons Why Grinding is Ruining Humanity” or some shit. It makes its rounds on the internet every so often and luckily my face is contorted enough that no one knows it’s me. Anyway, the guy actually ended up yelling at me for taking photos and not being sexy enough for his liking. Men are really just... why?
AC: and all this online quasi-celebrity aside -- what's next in life?
DD: Lots of fun stuff! The cool thing about this year is that it really helped me slow down, worry less about doing the things I thought I should be doing, and letting myself prioritize the pursuit of joy and fun. I’m hopefully finding a therapist soon (can you tell I need one????) and working on my mental health more seriously now that we are officially living in LA.
Professionally, I’m over the moon about my new podcast, At Your Own Risk. Sarah and I are calling it a “comedy survival podcast” where Sarah teaches me tips for tackling everyday issues like self doubt and imposter syndrome, and then I teach Sarah how to survive terrifying life or death scenarios like tornadoes and plane crashes. It will release every Tuesday (hopefully, still working on it) wherever you get your podcasts. Super exciting stuff!
AC: okay two more then I'll let you go I promise. first off: the special guest gets to choose the song of the week -- something you've been jamming to lately, or something of particular significance, or hell a jingle you heard in a commercial. Whatever you want.
DD: Puppy Songs by Matt, Leni and Mar on TikTok. Like seriously saving my life right now.
AC: lastly but certainly not least: this is the segment where you get to plug something, anything at all. It can be something meaningful or that you're passionate about or something folks choose to support or just your IG account if you want. Sky's the limit!
DD: I think I plugged a whole bunch without you even asking - yay for being proud of accomplishments and not trying to play them down! Feel free to add my Etsy shop here if you’d like :)
Ghosts of Cities Past
vacation was great, and extremely weird by the same token. after more than a year of not being around more than a handful of people at the same time, it was quite the sensory overload to first be on a full flight with 180 other people, and then to be on S. Las Vegas Boulevard with thousands of other people who appeared to not have a care in the world.
what I will say, though, was that despite being surrounded by people at all hours of the day, there wasn’t a time where I felt unsafe from a pandemic perspective. obviously I was fully vaccinated, but when it came to everybody else, things were pretty…considerate? every casino and restaurant property mandated masks and seemed to be pretty watchful about it, but even outside I was surprised at how many people were willingly covering their faces despite the heat and the lack of outdoor mask requirements.
on my second afternoon in Vegas, Alex generously offered me the chance to stay an extra night if the flight and hotel arrangements weren’t outrageous. so, influenced by a particularly good blackjack run the day before, I figured I had the cash to extend for another day.
I didn’t want to go overboard on Thursday and send myself back to Denver in worse shape than I left, so I decided I’d have a good lunch, eat a little edible, and then wander through the casinos with elaborate scenes inside. see if I couldn’t melt my mind a bit. once I had exited the northernmost of the four, Wynn, I figured I’d wander a little further north to long-time shithole Circus Circus, reasoning that I could see the sign out front so it couldn’t take THAT long.
I continued this line of faulty reasoning for another two miles, which is considerably longer than it sounds when it’s almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit, to visit both the Sahara and the Strat, the casino and space needle that marks the northern end of the Strip. on my trek from Sahara to the Strat, I crossed the street to avoid construction outside of a nondescript white building with pink script on the front: The Little Chapel of Hearts, which advertised “fake weddings” on its awning.
my mind instantly flashed back to 2008, on the first evening of my very first trip to Vegas. my “drunk 18-to-35-year-olds” coach tour guide cooked up a fake bus breakdown on a side street, piled all 50 of us off the bus and into a nearby building…where a fake wedding broke out between two randomly selected passengers. it was at that very same chapel I walked by 13 years later.
when dinnertime came around, I decided I’d stay close to the hotel as well as filling up with something carb-heavy to knock my ass out for a good night’s rest before I flew home. what what else would I choose but red-sauce Italian food? at the supremely divey Stage Door, a “casino” by very loose definition which serves $1.50 Budweiser bottles two blocks from my hotel, the bartender had recommended their next-door neighbor, Battista’s Hole in the Wall, for good Italian grub.
I made a reservation, showed up on time and strolled into the lobby. it looked vaguely familiar, but most little Italian places do, so I didn’t think too much of it. but when the hostess led me to my table, in a dining room at the back of the building, that wave of nostalgia flashed over me again. it was the scene of the first meal that very same tour group had shared together on that very same trip. I’d been seated smack bang in the middle of one of my memories.
a couple years ago I wrote about the “ghosts of Denver past,” about the same phenomenon that had happened when I first moved to town. it’s no secret that I’ve revisited the same cities on multiple occasions over the years and revisited the same attractions or haunts. but even though this was my fifth trip to Vegas, I still didn’t expect it to happen, especially so vividly.
Worthy Consumables
in the early hours of last Tuesday morning, as I wandered home from a blackjack beatdown with a bag of wings to-go, I looked across the Strip and saw a sign that piqued my curiosity.
I was reliably informed that it was a fried chicken sandwich joint worth visiting, so when I extended my trip another day I decided I’d check it out for lunch.
and as someone who has enjoyed a chicken sandwich or two in his time on earth, I can reliably say the recommendations were spot on. the sandwich was good as hell, I had a cheap(-for-Vegas) beer and got to sit undisturbed in some air-conditioning while I caught up on my reading for a bit.
anyway if you’re in California you might know about the Crack Shack, because it originated in San Diego. in any case, if you’re ever in Vegas and want to check it out, I would very much endorse that decision. get the Firebird and some schmaltz fries, and I’ve heard the chicken oysters are good as hell too.
Parting Note
well you know I’m an Old Millennial so it should come as no surprise that I don’t really mess with Tik Tok too much. honestly I could barely keep up with Vine, and I’ve probably opened six total of the thousands YouTube clips that people have sent me over the years. I just don’t love video content online.
ANYWAY. Dana chose Puppy Songs from Tik Tok so that’s what you’re getting. but it doesn’t embed so I’ll just have to link it.
thanks again for spending your time with me this week pals, it’s good to be back. confession: I was pretty high when I wrote this, so you and I both will both have the same newsletter-reading. whatever will we find!
catch you next Friday there friends.
— adrian ✌🏻