keeping in touch

letters to the homies

Hey y’all,

I am notoriously bad at blogs, having dipped my toe into many a site like this before. In fact, most of my creative endeavors feel temporary, limited, confined to a particular time and space. Yet, here I am - still existing, still with things to say, still hopeful that people want to hear them.

I was driving earlier and reflecting on the main form of connection in my life, Instagram. Overall, I love Instagram. I enjoy gazing on people’s lives. It’s like MTV True Life except it’s your family and friends curating a sneak peak into their minutiae, into their material worlds. And while I appreciate this form of connection, I am not quite a visual person.

Earlier on Twitter, folks were lamenting about the TikTok integration occuring on IG and it got me thinking about the methods by which we have to connect. Photo, video, sounds, words, when we’re lucky - touch. And while IG holds my desired communities at this time in my life, I realized that my preferred mode of connection are words, not images.

Now I’m not necessarily claiming some type of romanticization of the “before” times. Instagram in many ways developed my voice. The Drake captions of my youth slowly transformed into captions that try to direct your gaze, to feel what I was feeling just beyond the frame. My photography skills could only capture so much of what I was feeling and experiencing. Those feelings felt so much more enlivened in the words I crafted for captions.

So, I decided to create a blog again, or a “substack”, as they call them now. All my past blogs eventually withered out from lack of attention, and tbh, in embarrassment. I used to be known as [parenthetical musings] on WordPress, and while my 23 yo emotions were hella valid, I still cringe at my past selves. This is definitely something to work out in therapy since I continuously feel compelled to say something about the world, to place my thoughts in spaces others can find them.

This substack is called Delayed Response. The same premise as my Verge.FM show in written form. The main difference is I will not only be reflecting on cultural moments and artifacts at a slightly delayed pace, but also be responding to all your missed texts, calls, vms here as well. I just moved away from Columbus and am feeling a bit untethered. I figured a newsletter formatted as a delayed check in with a friend could ground me in something. Once a month, I will write you back and fill you in on what was happening while I was away. Suscribe and read up as I attempt to keep in touch.

Until then,

Deja