The Beautiful Treemy Awards Statuettes by Justin Davies (and Upcoming Events!)
Yes, they are wildly phallic. Yes, we are leaning into it.
If you don’t know Justin Davies—who goes by @justindavies on Instagram and @justinthetrees on Tiktok and who I’ve talked about ad nauseam ever since we became real-life friends during our search for Methuselah—now you do. He’s obsessed like trees like I am but also has the skills to tell us about them while working with the wood they produce. He’s the greatest.
He just finished our statuettes for the second annual Treemy Awards—the only awards show for trees in pop culture—that we will be holding live in Los Angeles on Earth Day, April 22nd at 10pm. This year I’m co-hosting and co-producing with Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson, hosts of Completely Arbortrary, the podcast about trees and other related topics. Buy your tickets here.
(BTW, we got a write-up in the Radiolab newsletter this week. Uh, hell yeah?)
The ten Treemy statuettes, which have yet to bronze plated for their respective awards, are a product of three events: 1. “Justin, can you make a statuette look like a thin tree, rather subalpine fir-like?” 2. “Yes, Tobin, but they will be quite phallic. Is that okay?” 3. “That’s terrific. I love publicity.”
Anywho, now they’re both beautiful AND phallic, which is just a massive, massive achievement. Justin made each one from a different, special tree. The Mountain Mahogany is by far my favorite, but of course the English Walnut is nothing to sniff at:
Upcoming Events
First off, the book launch at the Skirball Center for Must Love Trees: An Unconventional Guide was a smash hit. Thank you so much to everyone who came. What a rare joy to share an evening like that with all of you. If you’ve bought the book, make sure to review it on Amazon and Goodreads, even if you hated it. I will use your spite as creative gasoline.
Tyler Gaca was wonderful reading from Gentle Chaos, and I made sure to mispronounce his last name at least twice, which is what you do when you host an amazing guest—not sure if you knew.
Anyway, if you missed it, be sure to attend one of the following upcoming events for Must Love Trees!
April 18th, 7pm EST, 4pm PST, Virtual talk with Anita Morzillo (who is an actual professor and I am nervous), hosted by the Mark Twain House and Museum. I’m really excited about this—this is the one to go to if you’re out of state and want to ask a Q!
April 19th, 7pm, at POWELL’S CITY OF BOOKS in Portland with Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson of Completely Arbortary! Man I’m pumped for this. Powell’s!
Back in LA on Friday, April 28th at 7:30pm at The Village Well in Culver City, to chat with my awesome pal Stephanie Carrie, whose instagram account @treesofla is one of my favorite things on the internet. Can’t freaking wait.
April is the yule-est month,
Tobin