The Answers to All of Your Questions

Last week, I invited readers to AMA (ask me anything) and got a random assortment of questions. But a promise is a promise, so here goes. From the comments to last week’s post:

Do you have any experience with LLCs for a production company creating animated musical shows and live theatre?

I don’t have specific experience setting up LLCs for a production company but I have set up 501c3s for non-profits and I did consider setting up an LLC for my arbitration practice. I decided against an LLC because it was costlier than being a sole practitioner and offered too few benefits to be worthwhile. I’ve been a sole proprietor for almost ten years and it’s a good structure for my work. A sole proprietorship isn’t going to work for a production company unless that production company is really just one person doing production work.

My first thought when I read this question was: is this a single entity that is a production company for animated musical shows AND a live theatre company? I think a live theater company would appropriately be a non-profit 501c3 arts organization, which is distinct from an LLC (which is a for-profit entity), but, if there’s a production company component that was not geared toward some public purpose, it might make sense to form two separate entities. Long story short, I think you need to talk to an attorney in your state to figure out the right form for your business(es). Or get a book from NOLO Press about setting up a company.

Congrats on 20 weeks! You are more consistent than I am with Storyworth. What is my deadline for that, by the way?

Full disclosure, this is my mom’s question. For Christmas last year, I got Mom a subscription to Storyworth, which sends the recipient one question each week, and at the end of the year, compiles the stories into a book for the writer and whoever else they would like to receive the stories. I got this for my mom because she has great stories and an interesting life, but I appreciate that it might feel a little like homework sometimes. Anyhoo, Ma, I found this in their FAQs.

When your subscription ends, you will receive an email with the option to renew for another year, or to print your book. We do not print the books automatically, and usually give people a few months to edit their stories.  You will not lose access to your account or your stories when your subscription ends.  We just ask that you order your included book within 3 months or renew for another year if you want to write more stories.

Tell me, exactly when where how, and why you drew that apple. Extreme details are imperative.

I’m not completely sure what an extreme detail is, but I’ll do my best. I imagine it’s granular or atomic or something beyond my descriptive powers. I painted the apple on the afternoon of Sunday, September 18 in the dining room of my home in Oakland, California. Specifically, I was sitting in the right-hand seat on the long side of the dining room table, facing the window. The shade was drawn. It’s a semi-opaque white roller shade.

I used watercolor paints from a little travel kit I bought my kids which interested them exactly once. The paints: I bought them at Blick (5301 Broadway, Oakland, CA), an art store around the corner from our house. The paper is from a discarded watercolor sketchbook that came from the Easter Bunny in 2014.

Why? There are a lot of answers to that question. I fancy myself creative and like to keep the juices flowing. I was probably a little bored and didn’t want to do any housework-type activities. Mid-afternoon on a Sunday isn’t really a “hang-out with friends” time of the week, and my sons avoid hanging out with me in general. My husband and younger son were at a baseball game I didn’t want to attend. I like painting. It’s good to try stuff that you used to do as a kid but then forgot how to do but can learn again. That being said, I used to suck my thumb as a kid and I’m not going to start doing that again.

Why an apple? Apples are the sort of objects that lend themselves to being painted by novices. They are simple, yet colorful and pretty. That particular apple was especially interesting. I also painted a banana that wasn’t as good. I’ve shared some other paintings I’ve done in the last below.

I hope this has been a satisfactory level of detail.

From my texts: I would like to see someone write a piece about how martial arts are irrelevant in real street fights (maybe in life in general?) it’s something I think about a lot. Nunchuks, throwing stars, karate kicks, etc. all pointless in real life.

Okay, this is more a question than a comment but what I take from this is that this reader is asking me to write this piece. Kung-fu fighting is this person’s Roman Empire. But I have a lot of questions in response. Are we talking about a person who is skilled in martial arts or the use of martial arts weapons? Because I do think that person would have a distinct advantage in a street fight against a person who was not similarly skilled, even if they had the same level of physical fitness. Unless their martial art is tai chi or falun gong or some other slow-moving martial art where it’s all about the flow.

My son takes jujitsu, which seems (based on my observations of him flinging himself around the kitchen, fighting ghosts) to involve lots of kicking and putting people in a position where you could break their elbow. I think that might be helpful in a street fight. But in general, yes, you don’t hear about a lot of situations where someone kicked their mugger’s ass because the mugger was unaware they were fighting an Aikido blue belt. I don’t think nunchucks or throwing stars would be useful unless you were the right distance away from your combatant foe and knew how to deploy them correctly. I can see myself cutting my own palm with a star, or the other person grabbing the nunchuck and hitting me over the head with it. So, to answer your question, dear reader: Martial arts are irrelevant to me in real street fights, primarily because like any great sensei, I know that the best fighting tactic is to stay out of fights.

Any other questions? My comments remain open. Go ahead, AMA.