Here's a holiday-ish story for you, Reader...

Why are there 40 pounds of toasted shredded coconut in my hallway?

Well, it all started with an innocent brainstorming session...

We've Got You: the era of overthinking

With as delicately constructed a music project as We've Got You, it seemed time for a new merch collection: one as clever and, well, overthought as the songs.

So we created some special limited-edition items, including one that just went up on the store: an engraved flash drive necklace, loaded with a custom video message and various audiovisual goodies, tailored to the recipient. (Patreon folks got first dibs, so there are only a few left!)

I also reached out to my favorite local candlemaker here in DC, who listened to the songs and crafted scented candles especially for "Spark" and "Comfort": notes of black tea + ginger and golden citrus + cardamom, respectively.

For t-shirts, we found Recover Brands, which spins discarded clothing into new thread, and whose hyper-local manufacturing keeps its carbon footprint low. Topiku makes hats out of excess upholstery fabric and plastic and metal sourced from local recyclers in Indonesia. My sustainability career took me to Latin America and Southeast Asia, so it's great to be working with companies doing innovative work in these places.

"What about tea blends?" Team VT member Karen Shih suggested. "Seems very you."

This is where things went a bit off the rails.

The Spark tea blend actually came together quite quickly. I liked how Ceylon black tea played together with the grassiness of yerba mate (another fond memory from Latin America). A bit of lapsang souchong added campfire vibes, and cacao shells lent a touch of chocolate. Jacob declared it delicious and habit-forming.

Comfort, on the other hand, baffled me. I wanted it to be caffeine-free, and it turns out herbal tisanes tend to rely heavily on added flavorings, "natural" or otherwise (peach and apple pieces in tea are just for show). So most of my experiments tasted like...hot water.

It was the midst of music video production and prepping for tour, and our cabinets were bursting with sample pouches of herbs, spices and tea varietals. My kitchen scale was covered in a fine dust, as was our tea kettle. Other We've Got You merch went on sale. Still no tea.

Coconut to the rescue?

Then I discovered toasted coconut, and it changed everything.

Lemongrass suddenly had depth and complexity! Cardamom was finally coming through! I added a bit of rooibos and chamomile, which balanced everything out. Weary taste-testers perked up, finally pleased. Whew.

Now, to order bulk ingredients to send to the co-packing plant. My sources for tea, herbs and spices don't offer toasted coconut. But what's this - a clearance sale, specifically on organic, shredded toasted coconut?!

The only catch: 25 pound bags only. And it was a buy-one-get-one-free offer, so I had to take two.

And that, my friends, is how I made the dubious decision to buy 50 pounds of toasted coconut. Of which I only needed 10 pounds. And the remaining 40 of which are sitting in my hallway.

So I've put a distress signal out to my neighborhood Facebook group.

Fortunately, it's a very active group, and I've gotten lots of responses already:

It's also sparked (ahem) a whole thread sharing comfort (ahem) food recipes from the world over. So it looks like my lovely neighbors will come to my rescue. And there will be coconut wafting throughout homes in northeast Washington DC this season.

Last-minute holiday gift ideas

In case you, like me, have looked at the calendar and gulped, here are some eleventh-hour gifting notions for you...

Merch of favorite artists

For some of us, this is an important piece of our livelihoods in the age of streaming - so it's a win-win for your recipient and an artist they love. I've recently gotten mementos from the online stores of Alex Wong, Carsie Blanton and Andrew Benincasa, among others.

​My own online store has a special offer going throughout December: Spend $50 or more and we'll include a free Aims CD; spend $100 or more and get 10% OFF your entire order.

Patreon & Substack gift subscriptions

Similarly, these are great both for the recipient and a creator whose work they enjoy. Plus digital gifts don't involve shipping - hooray for procrastinators and the eco-conscious alike!

My Patreon community has enabled, well, pretty much everything I've done over the past few years, and inspired many of the better ideas that I've worked to bring to life. A gift subscription starts at $5 and can be adjusted to any monthly amount.

I've also had a grand time being a Patreon supporter of comedian-journalists Climate Town and songwriter-organizer David LaMotte. And I just got Jacob a membership to writer & teacher George Saunders' Story Club on Substack.

Upcoming tour dates

Wow, you're still reading! Here, have a peek at a new song that I tried out in this month's Patreon livestream.

I'll be in Berkeley for my end-of-year shows at The Freight, and playing a special free show at the Kennedy Center in DC in mid January. And we've got the next Europe tour almost finished! More tour dates are in the works, as well as scheming for an extra-special live event to revisit a past album in its entirety.

* = livestream

DECEMBER

• ‍Fri 27 Dec @ 20:00 PST - Berkeley, CA - Freight & Salvage - with Alex Wong
• *Sat 28 Dec @ 20:00 PST - Berkeley, CA - Freight & Salvage - with Alex Wong

JANUARY

• *Sat 11 Jan @ 18:00 EST - Washington, D.C. - Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center
• *[Patreon] Sat 18 Jan @ 14:00 EST - Live@Home 29 + climate action hangout

APRIL 4-27: GERMANY, AUSTRIA, NETHERLANDS - full list on the tour page​

Happy holidays, my friends. Enjoy something cozy - with or without toasted coconut.

Love,
VT