Release Party

The best part of creating something is the Release Party.

After creating something you put it in a form the world can consume for a reasonable price, and you let everyone know it’s available with a Release Party.

You invite a bunch of people to a cool arts friendly venue and entertain them with performances from some of your creative allies. Then when the momentum is built, you present a small portion of your new creation.

When you’re up there in front of the audience you have their full attention cuz they came there just for you. After you’re done they applaud loudly, purchase your creation, and ask you to sign it. You get one moment where you take it all in and think, I deserve this.

The day after the Release Party is not as good. That’s when you realize you hafta try and sell copies of your creation from now on without a Release Party. You’re not allowed to have more than one. It’s just the rules.

It’s not easy to sell things. People might not want them, and you’ll feel bad. And after awhile you haven’t sold as many as you wanted, and you’re just like, “Fuck it, I’ll just start creating something new so I can have another Release Party.”

It’s not easy to create things. People might not like it, and you’ll feel bad. But knowing there will eventually be a Release Party makes it easier. Even if your creation is bad people hafta like it at a Release Party.

After a few Release Parties you learn to create things quickly so you can get to a new Release Party sooner. You might have people politely suggest things like, “Hey man, your new creations don’t seem to be of the same caliber or effort as your earlier ones.”

And you’ll be like, “What do you mean?”

And they’ll be like, “as far as I can tell this Release Party is for nothing more than a blurry iPhone photo of some kinduv hawk you took yesterday.”

And you’ll be like, “Well, it took a lot of courage to create that.”

But you both know you’re lying, and you really just wish you could have a Release Party without creating anything at all.

If you have a Release Party for nothing tho people will become confused.

They’ll be like, “I don’t get it. There’s no new creation available to purchase?”

And you’ll be like, “No.”

And they’ll be like, “So it’s just a Release Party for yourself?”

And you’ll be like, “Yes.”

And they’ll be like, “Is it your birthday or something?”

And you’ll be like, “Absolutely not.”

Then you will get considerably less people attending your Release Party. At your best Release Party there were enough people to violate the fire code, but at this one there will be zero people. It will just be you performing nothing to no one.

“This is not a good Release Party,” you’ll hafta say.

And it will make you too sad to have another one ever again.

You will still create things tho. You will still create things cuz you can’t help it. And they will have no Release Parties anymore. They will just stay unreleased inside you.

Maybe you can feel good without Releasing things. You won’t hafta care if they’re bad or people won’t like them anymore. Maybe Release Parties are actually the worst part of creation.

Of course, without Release Parties your creation doesn’t get shared with anyone, and sometimes creations really help people, even if it’s just one moment of soothing.

If we can just find the right balance of having a Release Party and needing a Release Party, maybe everything will be alright.

– January 2017, Westminster, CO