How is your new year starting out? Mine is pleasantly busy. As some of you know I tend to eschew hard work. My interest in Productivity was born from a desire to do no more than I absolutely have to. And I’m very fond of long stretches of time with no plans, and rarely want to work hard.

But right now I have some projects going that really engage me and I look forward to the tasks ahead.

I Always Wanted To

I’m in the middle of my ninth series of episodes for I Always Wanted To.The interviews have been recorded and as usual that’s my favorite part. I love talking with people about their favorite subjects. I love how they light up and get very eloquent when they speak about sharing their passion with others. I’ve also come to realize that I’m pretty darn good at interviewing. People often tell me that I put them at ease and sound as though I’m truly listening and curious. (I’ve started keeping a collection of the times they say “Good Question” and I’m up to about 35 seconds of them).

The parts after the interview, the editing and promotion, are more difficult but I get to use my techy skills, and I now have a workflow that’s pretty efficient. I’m going to need it because of project number two.

Project Number Two

Awhile back, it might have been 2019, Michael and two of his cartoonist buddies, Jimmy Gownley and Harold Buchholz, started recording Unpacking Peanuts– a deep dive into the greatest comic of all time– Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. There are probably no three people more qualified to discuss Schulz’s work with deep analysis and humor. They went year by year from the beginning and got up to 1955. Then stopped. Nothing happened. Life got in the way. The project was never edited or released.

Fast forward to this past fall. I got the notion that I’d like to help bring it back. I think it’s too great a concept to discard. They were thrilled to have my help. Unfortunately only one of the original recordings they did survived so we’re starting again.

I loved Peanuts. (Who doesn’t?) But to hear smart, funny, knowledgeable people discussing it as a superb example of the art of cartooning is absolutely fascinating. In the editing process I listen to things over and over again and it never gets old. They get into character development and ink lines and gags vs non-gags– stuff the average Peanuts reader would never think about, but is glad to know.  

We want to get a few more finished before we start releasing them, but it shouldn’t be too long.

MichaelCohenMusic.com

So now my workflow includes editing TWO podcasts, plus we are offering Michael’s music for license on other podcasts. I’ve created a searchable database at michaelcohenmusic.com. If you know of anyone looking for original music to license or custom compositions please have them get in touch. I know from the various groups I belong to that it’s a service that people are often looking for.

So life got busier and I’m having a great time.