Indie Love - Love in a Time of Gchat

I am traveling through Ontario these days, after a weekend in Toronto, I am leaving Kingston for Ottawa later this afternoon to head towards an epic family reunion with my 9 cousins and their twenty million parents and kids (feels like). We are what’s left of a mad matriarchy, and all girls but 1 in this generation.

We are a family of writers, schemers, photographers, filmmakers, feminists. We are terrifically loud, often competitively erudite and word-playful (Dickens decendents, can’t help it,) and fiercely lovingcriticalprotective. Quite the bunch. As an introvert with performative tendancies it took me a while to find a place in this family but now I am hugely appreciative of their wacky brisk glowing kind of love, and looking forward to being with them for a few days. Still, though, 7 days in and I am definitely missing my quiet home, dancing in the livingroom with my love, watching movies, being around eachother without talking, communicating through waves in the air. Email and chat are a poor excuse for eye contact and hugs.

We’ve been doing late night gchat or phone dates, and these are fun in their own way, actually. I might recommend these to anyone who wants test the limits and edges of their love. Bleary eyed text jokes can be hit or miss, but when they hit you get the glow of “you get me!” in a whole new way and it’s kind of great. And it’s nice to just try and be ok with the fact that sometimes people need to be in different places in their lives, and have it not feel like it’s threatening your love. Love that can’t survive independence won’t last, I know, so we’re keeping a stiff upper lip and trying to live our lives well when apart, I’m trying to get what I came for. Fortunately I have my own snazzy laptop these days, so I’m not as dependent and adrift as i have been on trips past, and though it can be nice to travel unmoored, this ability to blog, or gchat, or collaborate from anywhere is an awesome thing. I feel like I’m test-driving a dream of a time when we’ll be able to take our work on the road together.

Over the course of these days I’ve been talking to a lot of people about future plans for Indyish to get their thoughts and dreams and feedback, and actually the travel thing keeps coming up. I think a disproportionate amount of artists are nomadic at heart, longing for ways to take their show on the road, find new contexts and creative people to work and stay with along the way, and they dream of a time when Indyish is a true indie inter arts hub, linking them to their fellows around the world. And it’s happening a bit already - if you are Indyish and want a free place to stay in India I know a cool filmmaker who will wholeheartedly hook you up, and I hope this generous vibe will continue to grow and grow, creating new homes for us around this ever-shrinking globe. Now. Off to the bus, and just 3 more sleeps till home…