Instagram used to be a social media app, but has now slowly
devolved into a shopping and private chat room app.
What went wrong? It’s very simple. The elements and features
that made it a social media app were removed, effectively destroying organic
discovery and interaction.
1. The feature where you could see what friends liked was removed.
This feature had its pros and cons, but mostly they were pros. Sure, it had some elements that might seem creepy (seeing the exact posts your friends liked, which might not always be flattering). BUT, that’s what makes “social”, SOCIAL. If you put something embarrassing out in your lawn, or say something in public, PEOPLE SEE IT. This is what makes it social.
Whew. It’s been a minute since I’ve posted a substantiative update to this page.
I left Missoula in January to house shop in the Pacific Northwest, camp, photo journal, and wrap up a writing deadline. While Montana will always be my #1, The long winters have started to wear on me. However, the summers are impossible to beat.
I checked out the Oregon coast, Portland, and several other areas. In the process I lost my whisper-quiet photography drone, which was capable of filming at 4k resolution with a 3-way gimbal head. The drone went berserk fifteen yards from me and crashed into a remote salmon stream. I searched for the drone for two days in the wilderness ravine, but no luck. BUT, luckily DJI stands by their products, and they shipped me a new drone for free. So that’s cool.
On the writing front, my debut novel THE PULLER has a new publishing home. I’m hoping to announce specifics any day now. In addition, I’m 1/3rd of the way finished with what I consider to be a novel on the level of THE PULLER called, LOST PLANES, LOST RIVER. It falls into the category of “upmarket thriller” and I’m excited about the project. I really wanted to come at the page hard and not filter myself. I wanted it to be art, not product in the way TH PULLER is experimental. It’s turning out well.
And on the house shopping front, things are getting interesting. In March of 2019, I left Missoula with my adventure cat Wrigley to attend a couple business meetings in LA. After the meetings, Wrigley and I ended up visiting various national parks and forests. And sadly, he died on December 27th, 2019. This had a profound impact on me…the kind of tectonic shift to where it felt like I’d become someone else. Less brighter, less smiles. Despite a myriad of distractions.
I honestly haven’t been able to stay between four walls for longer than a week. I feel compelled to move at all times, whether that constitutes gym, hiking, photography, different hotels, etc. This feeling, this change, doesn’t seem to be fading, but rather intensifying as time passes. So I’ve been rolling with it. The freedom is intoxicating. We’ll see how much longer it lasts.
The only thing I’ve ever learned in all this, is that nothing lasts forever. Not drones, not careers, not friends, nor beloved cats that liked Redwood National Park. But we try to make it last, don’t we?
Best, – Michael
A remote section of the Oregon coast where my drone disappeared.
This last month has been *crazy*. I’ve spent a lot of time writing, camping, and staying in hotels across the beautiful Pacific Northwest. It’s been a bit of a celebration. Writing news SOON.
Back when I first moved to Missoula, my dad asked me what kind of place I was looking for. I told him I wanted to be able to walk to the gym, and to groceries. He asked me why I wouldn’t want a cabin. I said there was no need, that the Lolo National Forest was the real backyard. It’s been an honor and privilege to live in the Lolo for as long as I have.
2019 ended in the worst possible way. My furry soul mate Wrigley
passed away on December 27th. I forced myself go on a date for New
Years, and I was nothing more than a zombie in shock, stumbling around
slack-jawed. I felt bad for my date.
From there I slept for a month in Missoula, then stayed at a lodge
in Yellowstone for a week. As I packed up and left the lodge, something
powerful compelled me to drive to Chicago and see good friends, including
Wrigley’s cat pal, Ruffy, whom I’d rescued with my friend Sarah.
I spent a month in Chicago with those very good friends and
Ruffy. From there I drove back to Missoula, Montana to prepare for a move to
LA. My agent had rented a house in the Hollywood Hills. We had numerous
meetings, networking events, and dinners planned with very creative folks. The
plan was to move to LA for my career. A week after I arrived, the mayor shut
down LA (for obvious reasons). All my dinners were cancelled and my meetings morphed
into Zooms.
So, my agent left LA to head back to New York and I had the
house to myself. I woke up one morning and couldn’t move. Literally. My lungs
felt weird. I had a fever. My chest was tight and I could hardly walk up two
steps.
Then I received a phone call that Ruffy died of cancer two weeks
after I left Chicago. Was that why I felt the strong pull to speed out there
from Yellowstone National Park?
So, I isolated myself for thirty days. The lung symptoms stayed
the longest, and I embarked on a vigorous walking program and low-inflammatory
diet to return my lung function to normal.
I found myself back in Missoula shortly after that. One night,
while out running errands, I had shotgun pulled on me in the parking lot of a
gas station.
Fun.
I literally thought I was going to be shot as this dude pulled out a military style shotgun. He was shaking, threatening, and angry because I’d asked him to respect the new six foot social distancing guidelines.
The incident made the news as the first social distancing dispute. But I did my best to suppress it as the nation was worried and anxious. I did not want to feed the flames.
Somehow, I’d survived Covid and a shotgun. But 2020 wasn’t done
with me yet.
I decided to head to Grand Teton National Park to film grizzly 399 and her quad cubs, and to camp and film nature far away from people. I had one of the most productive and awe inspiring days of my life. And also met a cool girl. We arranged a date in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for that evening. Eight miles north of town, I bull elk ran out in front of my car. Next thing I knew, the car window shattered, smoke pouring everywhere.
When I limped out of the car, the elk was gone. And a few days
later, my beloved Subaru Crosstrek deemed a total loss by the insurance
company.
When I hit the elk, the
back leg almost went through the windshield, but the hood crumpled just in time
to block the hoof. Right where I had Wrigley’s collar wrapped around the
rearview mirror.
I was sore for thirty days.
How I survived this crash, I have no idea.
The insurance company cut me a check so I bought a new car up in
Whitefish, Montana. After these consecutive near death encounters, I thought it
might be a good idea to see family, In this case my dad, who lives in Colorado.
I remember chatting with him and his wife in their kitchen, me wearing a mask.
Strange times.
I spent a month in that beautiful state, visiting with my dad,
friends, and the girl whom I had the date with in Jackson Hole.
From there I spent ten days filming grizzly bears in a remote
corner of Yellowstone, away from people, at this point doing whatever I could
to center myself from recent experiences. I went on hikes, jotted down notes in
my phone, reflected on the state of things. I was high on all the national
forests I’d been visiting, my mind filled with grizzlies, forests, sunsets. But
I was also frazzled.
I spent the summer and fall in
Missoula, Montana working on The Puller screenplay and a new novel. And
walking. A lot of walking. It was a beautiful summer and fall, weirdly
smoke-free for western Montana.
So what will being in 2021 feel
like?
Honestly, it makes me wonder how
the hell I survived 2020. Covid. Shotguns. Car wrecks.
Damn.
But I can feel the winds of change
blowing. It’s probably time for me to find a new patch of ground to kick around
on. Time to spend more time with my head in my laptop, doing the things that
got me here. Maybe Oregon. Or Northern California. We’ll see.
What have I learned in all this?
What’s the takeaway? What is the core lesson?
