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Writer's pictureThomas Fox

Dies Caniculares

Back-to-school ads make no sense to me. Why on earth would you remind me that it’s time to go back to school, and also, ehhhh... get 50% off a new matching sofa and love seat! How about a new car! Why?? These things are unrelated. If it’s not about school, please stop saying back to school. Golden Hour is gonna be cool tonight - There’s this dance chill vibe with our musical guest, Argonaut and Wasp, I’ve been looking forward to swimming in for months. Yes, there IS a pool on deck at The Lumen, but that’s not what I really mean. The guys have a song called 'Dog Days' where they rejoice in dreamy reverb that “the dog days are finally here.” If you’d like to hold on to summer a little bit longer, grab a paddle. For me, I’ll dance it in and don’t mind the change, as summer breaths its last the Dog Days Are Over if I’m getting what that phrase means right? I was thinking I knew, but I be can wrong sometimes so I did a little digging to see if what I thought I knew is the right thing to know. See, questions, yes! This is a back-to-school special. If you think like me, Dog Days puts a tune in your head thanks to a girl named Florence and a machine band, who poured their own understanding into the words - turns out it’s an old phrase though, ancient, far enough that it crosses the barrier of time, of generations, of language dialects, war conquering, colonization, disease and the worst we haven’t even imagined in the rearview. These, my friends, are Old Words. I always understood The Dog Days to be synonymous with the month of August. As a kid, I think one of my brothers referred to the dog days this way and it stuck - could have been as few as one time, but our brains are sticky when we’re young. Dog Days - Hot - like a dog panting on concrete in blazing sunlight. It seems from brief googling that the phrase 'dog days’ was used by Greeks and Romans to describe a 40-ish day period, starting early July, and ending by mid-August. Extreme heat at that time would have meant severe lethal struggle, debilitating people from their normal activities to a stagnant hum, survival at best. A respite in a succession of agonistic days like this would have meant a great deal, worth sharing a common phrase to describe the experience to one another - and now thousands of years later it’s alive in new songs in popular cultures all over the world. The way that information spreads is fascinating to me. Broadly speaking academics call transfer of cultural information memetics - which is where we get the term “meme” from. I feel compelled to ask questions about things I think I know often because the internet and all of our digital connectivity tools have created a massive expedition of the transfer of information, and with it the transfer of untrue information. It seems I got dog days correct but check this canine fact. I heard that Bill Murray once said “I’m suspicious of people who don’t like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn’t like a person.” I like Bill, and I like this statement, happy to accept Bill would have said this, but he didn’t! A fictional Bill Murray account tweeted these words around 10 years ago and now it lives in my head and probably in many many others as if we were in the room with Bill as the utterance invoked that first reflexive nod and grin. Right again, Bill! While I am excited for Golden Hour tonight, I’m even more excited to gather again for our creativity peer learning talks. Questions, answers, exploration, new discoveries waiting to change our worlds if we want it. We broke a lot of templates this past year - last August was the first in name GREYT BIG TALK - and we’ve spent a bit of time shaping a new identity through practice. Maybe you’ve seen it or it’s been subtle enough to feel like business as usual. However it appears, It’s an honor to embrace our own changes among so many change makers in this community. The more of us that decide to do things differently, do things our own ways, the easier it becomes for others to find that courage. I’m a big talker, obviously, but I try not to share too much news at once. I’m sorry, today I have no choice! There are 3 major headlines right now so the best option I have is to offer this quick digest - in no particular order:

  • Fall Greyt Big Talk Season: Mark your calendars for the Fall Greyt Big Talks!. They’re all up at thatsgreyt.com/bigtalk - Free “FOMO" registration will open as tickets are available on Monday morning before each talk, but regular registration is open now so please sign up!

  • Big Talker Membership: If you think you’d like to come to all of the talks consider becoming a member - you'll save a little bit off registration and you’ll get discounts to other programs like Golden Hour, and discounts on Greyt Culture merchandise we’ll be rolling out soon. Information on becoming a BIG TALKER, or a REAL BIG TALKER with a small team sign up here: thatsgreyt.com/membership

  • Golden Hour in Playhouse Square and Terminal Tower: Tonight’s concert in playhouse square has only a few spots and will be gone soon. We’ll be closing out the summer concert season with one final show on Sept 23rd on the quintessential ICON of Cleveland, Terminal Tower. If you’d like to attend either of these events I’d encourage you to sign up now. Thatsgreyt.com/golden-hour

To the days and nights to come, much love -Thomas T.Fox GREYT CULTURE // Greyt Letters Archive // About the Letter: This monthly(ish) email goes to GREYT event participants and partners, and others I would like to be aware of the contents of upcoming programs. The Team Email is for Planning Purposes Only and treated as confidential/non-promotional/not to be distributed. Event details listed here are subject to change based on input back from recipients. Confirmed event details will always be listed through ThatsGreyt.com - recipients are added and removed periodically at my discretion. If you would like to be a permanent recipient or removed from GREYT emails, reply and I will comply with kindness. Thanks for reading.]

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