The Mike Collective

A zine by me.

KN95 (or higher) rated, well-fitted respirator masks are revolutionary.

May 10 2026

I'm trying to learn more about butterflies and moths and how they relate to plants, and in general trying to appreciate them more. North Carolina is very fortunate in that there's some EXTREMELY dedicated people out there who've made some astounding amounts of information freely available, and the rise of iNaturalist is just amping all that up.

Butterflies of North Carolina - look up what they use for host plants and nectar plants!

Jeff Pippen's Butterflies of NC - photo heavy

Moths of North Carolina - look up what they use for host plants!

Common Moths of North Carolina poster (PDF)

BAMONA - North Carolina

iNat Moths and Butterflies of NC

North Carolina has ~200 species of butterflies. There's really only a handful of these that are big and showy and colorful. Most butterflies are actually pretty small.

NC also has ~3100 moths. Most of them aren't showy or particularly striking to the human eye, either. You've got your superstar Luna Moths (my fave by far, and who I very very very very rarely see around here), and then mostly little beings in natural camouflage. Although we've seen some Virgin Tiger Moths get stuck in our Solarium.

As Doug Tallamy has been teaching everyone, it's the rabid plant-eating caterpillars of these butterflies and moths who make the ecological difference as the bridge between the sun-gathered plant energies to birds and the rest of the food web. I really don't know anything about birds other than the fact that the #1 baby bird food is all these caterpillars, and where native plant populations crash, so do the insects like the butterflies and moths, and then so do the birds. It's all connected.

I'm still planting my Dahlias and such close to the house, but I did pick up a few more native plants this weekend to try to continue my ecological restoration project out in the woods. But not too many, they were expensive AF and we are most definitely still in an extreme drought.

Fast forward to six weeks ago—I receive an email from her husband, explaining he broke the mug (lol) and asking if I’d be willing to take on a commission to replace it. He reiterates how she has arthritis but also shares she used to make pottery, herself, but can only really paint, now. I say of course! Come to find out, he wants a WHOLE SET of mugs to replace the broken one. Even better! I end up making the whole set twice (I wasn’t satisfied with the first attempt), but finally get them packed up and sent off across the country.

I just received the kindest message from the husband, saying “It is not often in today's world that someone does 100% of what they have promised,” thanking me profusely, and sharing that his wife is already happily using the new mugs.

'course ya do!

In the spirit of being annoying and niche in broad daylight, I helped our local queer advocacy group put on a drag show themed around Ides of March. If I know anything about our local drag scene, its that they love a theme. I expanded the theme to include themes of betrayal and backstabbing.

It was a fundraiser for our pride festival, but it was also a food drive for the food pantry that our community runs.

I was so excited! (And also scared! Every time I'm running a drag show I have a nightmare that someone is going to show up with a gun. I was at a show once where some nazis showed up but they chickened out before anything could happen. But we're not talking about the Steampunk themed Drag Murder Mystery Theater Dinner. We are talking about the Ides of March themed Drag Brunch and Toga Party. Two completely different things.)

Every time I throw one of these parties, I decorate the tables with a million gay stickers and something to tie the theme together. So I had some custom bookmarks made... and some tiny knives.

The event was well-attended! A very generous donor bought ten tickets and told me that if someone wanted in at the door but couldn't pay we could pass those tickets on to them and it was SO NICE!

So I had this idea to have donuts available for a slight markup to help raise money. I was gonna be so nice and buy from a local bakery because its right next door to the winery that's hosting the event and we know that they're a queer-accepting place. I walk up and find out the hard way that the bakery is closed on Sundays.

In keeping with the theme of betrayal...

So I go in to set up and try to figure out what I'm gonna do. One of the volunteers arrives and I tell them to take the card and get enough donuts for 25-ish people. They head out and I start directing people.

"Hey, I'm gonna go get some stuff from my car. The emcee should be showing up soon, feel free to let them in. You'll know who they are because... well... they're blue."

"...ah." You can't just ask people why they're blue.

Get back, start setting up, people start arriving. The emcee (MisSir Wat, who is blue) informs me that they may be a little on the sluggish side today because they broke two toes last week.

I look down at their shoes.

Girl (gender-neutral) why?

(I do not care if they don't give their 100%. They are giving the 100% they have at that moment. I care that they have broken toes. Good god.)

The volunteer arrives with... an ungodly number of pastries. Like... enough for 40 people. Like more pastries than we could ever sell.

I was gonna go with two dozen donuts.

In keeping with the theme of betrayal... (even if the pastries were delicious.)

"Okay, who is gonna stab me in the first number," MisSir asks, while dressed as Goth Caesar.

Five of four volunteers raised their hands (the fifth was my wife). (Knives, get your knives here for no particular reason!)

"You gotta stab me during the drum solo in the first 40 seconds of the song." (We should all just STAB CAESAR. )

So the show starts. And as it is starting, for reasons still unknown to us there were emergency vehicles blocking the road.

Anyways, the show continued!

Everyone stabbed Caesar mostly on cue. (Not yet, Ferb)

(Now, Ferb!) (Look who just got MURDERED.) (You've been hit by- you've been struck by- a butch lesbian) (What's that you got there? A KNIFE! NOOO!) (Some other meme that I can't remember right now.)

Something to know about drag is that it is a performance art and as such you get to have artistic license with the theme, costume, and song choices. Haus of Summer (the drag troupe these performers belong to) is a little wild.

Such as "Flowers" by Bowling for Soup. (MisSir Wat) (See? Blue.)

"Elastic Hearts" by Sia. (Fishy Fish)

"Mascara" by Megan Nicole (Stella Stargayzer)

"Daisy" by Ashnikko (Oop C Daisy)

And a bunch of other songs i dont remember. (In keeping with the theme of betrayal... my memory.)

Remember, this was a toga party and there was a prize for best toga. The only person that showed up in a toga (apart from myself)... was my wife.

"Hey babe, you won the prize for best toga!"

"Keep it, I want it out of our house!"

In keeping with the theme of betrayal...

The show continued. Despite their two broken toes, MisSir was able to go through four costume changes and also do this.

At the very last number, a man walks by, sees the 'closed for private event,' and decided to come in anyway.

The entire room of 20+ people chimed in with " Hi there!"

"Here for the Drag show?"

"No, I was just curious what was happening."

"We're having an Ides of March Drag Brunch. You're kind of at the end of it and someone that bought a ticket didn't show. So go ahead, have a glass of wine and have a seat!" (Maybe the real point of the Ides of March is the friends we made along the way.)

And that's how we met Stranger Dave, who is now Friend Dave.

And that was it for the show. We raised about $400 for our Pride festival and about 30 pounds of canned food for our community pantry.

And now we have Friend Dave!

Thank you to everyone that dealt with me while I freaked out about promoting this show (getting people to go to a thing is the hardest part of doing the thing.)

And that's how we celebrated the ides of march- a week early so our volunteers could attend. I hope you all enjoyed this fun romp through our mid-sized town's only drag show- this tiny dot of purple in a very red Ohio.

(I took some of the leftover pastries to work and watched four dudes try to divide up three cinnamon rolls fairly. Truly an example of democracy at work. Its not about stabbing a senator, its about coming together to stab in groups.)

Please take these extra knives for the road:

also my sister is beading earrings this summer, and has these shoulder dusters for sale!! i’ll be helping them plug their earrings, bc whew the algorithm 😮‍💨

their beading ig page is below: