This is a NOW page, a neat idea cooked up by the rather clever Derek Sivers.
It’s a way to get an overview of what I’m slogging through focused on at the moment.
I was recently invited to be a guest on the Fireside Fedi podcast!
I’m told by listeners that it was both interesting and entertaining. Amongst wild array of topics we explored were the Rules of Play.
Now that the original livestream has been recorded, it’s available in their archives:
Stage & Stream: A Professional Clown’s Online Life - Russ Sharek - E81
Someone described my constantly shifting sleep schedule as “Timezone Parkour”. The fact that long covid has messed up so many of my rhythms is a constant point of frustration, and this adds a little delight to thinking about it.
I’m kind of nerdy. Here’s some stuff I’ve been doing to/with computers:
I’ve recently rebuilt this site using a combination of text files, a simple markdown parser, and some absolutely wretched shell scripting. It’s a bit like having a puppy so ugly that it comes around the other side and you fall in love with it.
I’m sure I’ll be tinkering on things further. Keep an eye on the RSS feed for details.
When I first started playing around with text editors, I came to the conclusion that most of my thinking happens in messy little chunks. I like to think of myself as writing these long, ponderous sentences, but the truth is I don’t really do that. Instead, I build up ideas, one little bite at a time.
Folks far smarter than me have referred to these little chunks as “units of thought” in the past. The phrase really stuck with me. I suspect it’s part of what has intimidated me away from the notion of longer form writing.
I (foolishly) assumed that my “units of thought” were too small to bother documenting.
I recently rediscovered an idea called “Semantic Line Breaks” and I’ve been trying to incorporate them into my writing practice. It’s been an interesting experiment so far.
This project now has its own page.
We’ve been doing a bit of knowledge sharing, as everyone in This Old Clown House is learning to use some basic command line tools to make playlists because it’s easier and more fun than poking at frustrating GUIs.
This also led me to upping my own computer touching game, and as a result I wrote my first completely horrible perl script. It does the job of keeping the playlist filled with interesting music when no else adds anything. Like all terribly written code, it’s being tested “in production”.
I enjoyed poking at perl, and I suspect I’ll try do more with it in the future.
I recently dug out my accordion, which I’ve not touched in years. It’s like reconnecting with an old friend, and I’m slowly learning how to “type” on its many buttons again. One of my fellow clowns in incredibly musical, and they’ve joined me in making weird noises in the theater.
A fedi friend challenged me to record the Valse des Idiotes. Some of the weird noises I’ve been making have technically been practice for this.
Currently wrapping up lots of little projects in preparation for working on the collage portion of the Sunrise PottyDoor installation.
We’re getting ready to record a new episode of our podcast.
After chatting with Robert Kingett, who granted me permission to create a ‘zine from of his incredible short story, The Colonization of Confidence. It’s one of the most powerful things I’ve read in a while, and it seems fitting for it to exist in some sort of edition crafted by human hands. Currently it’s halfway converted into Typst’s markup, and I’m slowly making decisions about how the final booklet might look.
I’ve set up a page to link to various creative experiments we’re exploring. I didn’t like the term “projects” or “portfolio” for exploring these sorts of things.
Doing this has made me really think about how much of what I do is slow moving and iterative in nature.
The never-ending adventure of transforming a hundred-and-someodd year old hotel into a clown school, artists residency, and theatrical playspace.
There’s some rewiring coming up on our to-do list now that the freezing temperatures are letting up. We’ll be heading back into the attic to wrestle with Wattsworth, the electric tentacle monster who lives in our walls, soon.
We’re working on the front panels for the bench in the Delrita Reading Room.
In an exciting bit of news, we’ve officially broken ground on one of the guest rooms in This Old Clown House!
So far, the mouldering carpets and padding have been removed from the floor. Cutting and bagging these up was a filthy, disgusting job. :)
Next, there are nail boards to pry up, and underlayers to scrape away.
This project now has its own page.
We’ve written a creative license for this (and future) projects. It’s called the Filthy Human Hands License, and you can make a copy for your own use.
One of my clown partners made some breakthroughs on juggling recently. I’ve been excited to wear the coach hat and encourage them to keep throwing things at me, themselves, and the floor.
My battle with trauma and Handstands is still a focus at the moment. I’ve recently made some progress, and I’m excited about it.
I’ve also been itching to dig through some boxes to find my juggling hats.
I was interviewed about my work as a clown teacher: BoldJourney.com
After unpacking our velocipedes, we added some lights to a 20” unicycle. Video here.
I’ve updated my Recommended Reading List For Clowns.
Things I’ve either eaten, or am in the process of eating:
Weird corners of our music collection streamed at random via Rhino Radio!
Schall und Stille - Strategies Against Algorithms
Huntza has been playing during juggling practice.
The Mask Handbook - A Practical Guide by Toby Wilsher
Useful Not True by Derek Sivers
The Colonization of Confidence by Robert Kingett
The Cult of Done Manifesto by Bre Pettis and Kio Stark
Leaving the Cage Behind by Jason Self
I’m tired of wanting things I don’t even respect by Dr. Molly Tov
Last Updated: 2026-04-11