i am very scared to do this but i'm even more scared not to do it so here we go

you can now support Both Are True with your love and also more specifically your money

Alex Dobrenko`

Jul 26, 2022

i told the AI to draw “winnie the pooh on boat to ellis island” and honestly? heck ya

Announcement:

I am ~~terrified~~ thrilled to announce that you can now support Both Are True by becoming a paid subscriber!!!!

Let me make one thing clear: ALL OF MY WRITING will stay free to everyone, so life for those who cannot pay / would not like to pay / are repulsed by the idea of paying, nothing changes. You will still get all that good good Both Are True content delivered to your email inbox, just like before.

But if you want to support my work and my career as a guy who writes and thinks and goofs for a living, I am now gladly and without hesitation accepting said contributions.

Below is a full run down of my fears, my tears, and even a few cheers.

I am nothing if not grateful to all of you for your love and support so far.

ways to support

my dad said the annual should be 50.50 cause subscribers become 50/50 partners. I like that.

my promise to you

In 2017 while starting work on my digital series Distance, I posted the below to Facebook explaining why I was making the show:

I want to tell intimate stories that in some tiny way might help people feel less alone. And less crazy. Cause that's what happens when I watch shows like Togetherness, Transparent, High Maintenance, Seinfeld, and all the others - I laugh because my subconscious sees a part of myself in that situation / character / world and then my brain goes "yes! life is strange / sad / funny / whatever." That's a small thing, but it's so damn powerful.

This is a perfect encapsulation of what I promise to all of you: to help me and hopefully you feel less alone through a shared recognition of how absurd and beautiful and weird life really is.

here’s what some real people have said about Both Are True:

“Alex is hilarious, thoughtful, and prolific. I'm a big fan” - Chris (writes Bright Spots)

“Honest, funny, and relatable AF reads from Alex you can consume with a bite.” - Nia (writes Not Controversial)

“Your post about going paid feels too ‘wah wah poor me’ - you should cut a bunch of that out.” - Lauren, my wife

why I am asking for help

Look it’s pretty simple: I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

Wait no, that's the line from the popular film Notting Hill.

No, my ask is a little different (please watch this video I spent WAY too long editing it):

Amanda Palmer wrote a whole book on asking for help called “The Art of Asking”. I read it a few years ago and highlighted the shit out of it because it made me feel alive. Like this passage:

When you accept somebody’s offer for help, whether it’s in the form of food, crash space, money, or love, you have to trust the help offered. You can’t accept things halfway and walk through the door with your guard up. When you openly, radically trust people, they not only take care of you, they become your allies, your family.

That sums it up better than anything I could say, mostly because I am too scared to say it.

But no actually fuck it here goes: I am asking for your help. Financially, sure, but more so because this thing exists in the space between us1 - a conversation that I feel like I’m having with you all and yes that is corny but it can also be true. It would seem as though, yes, Both Are True!

I love writing, I love figuring out how I feel and what I think through writing, and most of all I love the response I get from you all. And I would be lying if I didn't mention that I love how Both Are True is growing. I mean look at this frikkin chart -three months ago there were about 100 of you, now there are over 400 of you!!

What is this, bitcoin?? (note: check to see how bitcoin has been doing this past year before making this claim).

In September of 2021 I wrote about quitting my full time job and here’s what I said:

For the longest time I’ve felt like I was on the outside of my life, looking in, changing my exterior to make sure that everyone liked it, everyone liked me.
Why does writing this feel like a diary entry from 5th grade?
Now though, I feel for the first time in a long time that I am on the inside looking out.
What does that mean? I don’t know. Here’s what I do know -
I want to write more
I’m afraid to write more
There are a 27 people subscribed to this thing which frankly is a lot. I’m glad you are all here.
So I’m going to keep writing. Cataloging my little journey, and worrying a lot less about how it all appears, how it will be perceived by the outside, and more on how I am experiencing it from the inside.

All of that is still true except for one thing - there’s a whole lot more than 27 of you here!! I don’t even think the mathematicians can figure out how big of a percentage increase that is so let’s not even try!

tangent because asking for help makes me uncomfortable

Yesterday I realized that we've never actually told baby Wilder our first names. So I introduced ourselves and said "I'm Alex and your mom is named "bless you"". This will work out well, I am most sure.

Know what’s just as cool as becoming a paid subscriber? Sharing Both Are True with your people!

so what will you get?

As subscribers? My unending love. And I will of course fly to meet each of you in person (note from lawyer: delete this).

I can tell you though that I’m working on new stuff about being an actor in LA, more stories about my immigrant upbringing as a lil Ukrainian jew in America, how to articles like “how to get your wife to give you a kiss on the lips” and so much more.

Oh like this: I just started reading Genesis, the first book of The Bible. Anyone heard of this? Very indie lil book, old as shit but there’s some cool stuff in there. I wanna write about that. I feel like it’d be funny.

Oh also I have been creating a Banksy-esque public art exhibit on LinkedIn by posting stuff like this and I wanna write about that / figure out what the goal of all this trolling is:

promotion: let’s get to fifty subscribers

I just got off the phone with Steve Haswell - the almost 6th grader who wrote a long and touching essay about how Lauren and I met. He’s loving jewish sleepaway camp, says he has 3 girlfriends, and is VERY DOWN to write another essay for you guys.

But he also said he’ll only do it once Both Are True gets to fifty paid subscribers. And the topic he’ll write will be decided by those fifty subscribers.

I was like ‘Steve, you really think we can get to fifty subscribers?’ and he was like ‘fuck yea you little dildo, you gotta ask for you what and stop being such a lil baby” and then hung up and I was like whoa, jewish sleepaway camp has changed Steve.

But he’s not wrong. So let’s do it.

in summation

I am turning on paid subscriptions to Both Are True. Everything that I write will be available to everyone - there's nothing special you get that lives behind the paywall. Instead I am simply saying this:

If you love Both Are True and would like to support my work as a writer, consider paying for it. If that isn't something you want to do or can do or anything else, that is cool. That's more than cool it's actually dope. You don't have to change anything and you will still get all the good stuff you used to get.

One day soon maybe I’ll start doing subscriber only content but not yet. Not for a while. I’ve got too much to say and I don’t want anyone to not be able to read it for lack of funds.