- 14 minutes 30 secondsSign Your Name
I found myself in tears looking at the signatures on the paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck at her show at The Met. There was one where her name loomed very large in the corner. It was "H. Schjerfbeck" but still, it was bold and it was her name on the painting. Most of her work was signed with a discrete "HS" or not at all. So I was moved to see this a woman sign her name with verve, her signature hung right at eye level.
To read Sign Your Name visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
Episode 498
Song: Sign Your Name
Image by/of Helene Schjerfbeck
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26 May 2026, 1:39 am - 13 minutes 51 secondsWhy I Got Weird About Medusa
At the café, two young women were having an animated meeting about something they were making. I realized very quickly that I’d made a mistake in sitting at the table next to them, despite my affection for people doing creative things together, because they seemed to be working on a piece about Medusa.
To read Why I Got Weird About Medusa visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
Episode 497
Song: Medusa
Image by Claudia Salamone via Unsplash
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19 May 2026, 12:13 am - 12 minutes 23 secondsInside a Big Win
I almost didn’t go. If the wind had blown just a little harder in any direction, I would not have been there. But I went. And for the first time in a long time, it was worth the effort because I won big. Like biggest font at the end of the award list big. And it was an extraordinary change of pace.
To read Inside a Big Win visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
Episode 496
Song: King for a Day
Image by Jacki Jing
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12 May 2026, 2:09 am - 20 minutes 10 secondsRe-Broadcast of Awards Cost Money
I'm in Los Angeles for LA WebFest so this is a re-broadcast of Episode 347. I'm posting this now so I don't say any of this out loud this week!
Well – I paid $175 to be considered for an Ambie award for The Dragoning (in the DIY category for low budget productions). The Ambies are the podcast awards that the entertainment business seem to take seriously. They’re discussed in publications like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. Was it a smart investment to spend $175 to try and get nominated? If we’d gotten selected for the finals, it definitely would have been. But for a return of absolutely bupkiss, it feels like it’s not. It feels like a lot of money to lose just to lose.
But then there’s the Oscars. This is why I decided to apply and spend the $175, because of how the Oscars work. The average person imagines that the Oscars are chosen by groups of people getting together, evaluating all the movies and then nominating the best ones. I used to imagine that they watched all the movies that came out that year and awarded the ones the group liked best.
It doesn’t work like that, come to find out.
To read more of Awards Cost Money visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 347
Song: Participation Award
Image: AxxLC via Pixabay
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As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
5 May 2026, 12:34 am - 19 minutes 26 secondsA Decade of Podcasting
Two old podcast episodes were missing. In my search for them, I started to realize that I’d recorded them in 2016. Which means they were almost a decade old. I looked up the date of my first episode and discovered it was EXACTLY ten years ago. To the day. What kind of date magic is that? I recorded my first episode on March 20th 2016. And there we were ten years later.
To read A Decade of Podcasting visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
Episode 495
Song: Anniversary
Image from Spotify Wrapped
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28 April 2026, 1:17 am - 14 minutes 43 secondsWhat Happened to First Night?
Every New Year’s Eve, my friend and I wish we had a First Night celebration to go to. We both went to many First Nights in our youth and wish such a thing were happening here in NYC. It was a great way to spend the last night of the year and take in a lot of local arts culture in one big burst. It was a lovely way to bring a community together.
To read What Happened to First Night? visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
Episode 494
Song: What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
Image from the First Night Boston site
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20 April 2026, 11:25 pm - 12 minutes 18 secondsRe-Broadcast of Episode Three - Why Going Away for Inspiration Is a Good Idea
My allergies have stolen my voice for the day so I'm re-posting this episode from ten years ago, in honor of a decade of podcasting. This early episode has no song and the sound quality is a little chaotic. (No mic yet!) But if you want to hear what this sounded like in the beginning, here you go!
To read Why Going Away for Inspiration Is a Good Idea visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
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13 April 2026, 11:30 pm - 15 minutes 6 secondsPronounce "Queens"
The voice of the GPS sounds like a British man, with an RP accent, and he gives his instructions to turn right or left like he’s a butler guiding the staff. He mispronounces some things funny because he does not have local knowledge. For example, he’ll tell us to take the Ed Cock Bridge when everyone knows that, our former mayor, Ed Koch’s name is pronounced with a clear “CH”.
To read Pronounce "Queens" visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
Episode 493
Song: A New England
Image by Samuel Regan-Asante via Unsplash
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7 April 2026, 1:29 am - 12 minutes 31 secondsChalamet Gate
This Timothée Chalamet story about his dismissal of opera and ballet, calling them arts nobody cares about might be too up my street to resist. Art that nobody cares about is kind of my beat! I am also an artist that “nobody” cares about so I’m well placed to discuss this particular controversy.
To read Chalamet Gate visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
Episode 492
Song: Opera Singer
Image by Kazuo Ota via Unsplash
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*Explicit due to dumb-a**ery
31 March 2026, 12:56 am - 15 minutes 42 secondsActing Is Embarrassing
We had some men in the class but that day we were all women and we were playing a ball game of tossing the ball around the room, to music, trying to find the pleasure and searching for complicity in our classmates. Then our teacher, Jane, gave us the next task. When we caught the ball, we had to hold it up and say, “Look at me! I’m an actress in New York City!”
To read Acting Is Embarrassing visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
Episode 491
Song: Looking at Me
Image by Jason Vail
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*Explicit due to Eltaway's book title
24 March 2026, 12:17 am - 16 minutes 27 secondsThe Credulous and the Scammed
Scammers know their scams are not believable. They know most of us we know that the Prince of Nigeria has not emailed us to help with his fortune. They don’t want to scam everyone. They’re looking for the most credulous people they can find and the Prince of Nigeria is a filter. They don’t want anyone who’s going to ask too many questions. They make these things hard to believe on purpose. They want only the extremely credulous.
To keep reading The Credulous and the Scammed visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
Episode 490
Song: Scam Song
Image by Yuliya Strizhkina via Unsplash
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*Explicit due to Sweary Song
17 March 2026, 2:35 am - More Episodes? Get the App
