"There's no law against poor people being on Boards of Trustees."

(Cross-posted from Musings on Arts Management)

A professor of mine posted this delightful Pinky Show video and asked readers (ostensibly, arts managers):

"Who creates value?  How?  What is the role of the arts manager (perhaps more than you might think?) in creating value and in deciding what we want to remember and what we want to forget?"

In all areas of the arts, I think the most responsive organizations are changing the subtle indictments charged in the video. Just because we want alternatives to the behemoths, does not mean the behemoths shouldn't exist. (Though, when they show they value these alternatives, it does bestow added value to them, for better or worse.) Still, whatever one is curating (museums, a concert, a literary festival), the thing is only going to be as good as the goals and chosen aesthetic of the person behind it. (And the artists whose schedules you can wrangle to coincide with one's own. But that's another story.)

On one hand, with the democratizing influence of the Internet, of course more people can reach more people, on every subject. On the other hand, arts funding often sucks. This is not news. Organizations with funding have more options than a person with neither a sheltering organization nor funding.

When Kim (in the video) talks about education teaching one what to think and what to value, of course there is some truth to that. But before one can change the system, one should be well-versed in it. (Duh.)

I am encouraged by the variety of art and artists who are showing up in DC these days. Some of it is weird and great. Some of it is weird and crap. These are my judgments. Support what you love.

Of course we create value when we stick a microphone in front of someone, or put them under a spotlight. That's why the more people get involved in creating that value, the better.  I will likely never be able to open a wing of museum or donate a million dollars, but I can - from my own specific, culturally-situated perspective - choose which voices I want others to hear.

Which is the gay one?

science lesson

Heard on my walk home:

"That's why tornadoes rarely rip through the middle of cities, but just kind of bounce around them."

I have no idea what the "why" is. So this is less of a lesson than an opportunity to make up science.

I imagined the city like a mountain, and the tornado bouncing off of it as some immovable bit of topography, like the Appalachians, and the tornado spun off in another direction.

Maybe the tornadoes bounce around the cities because all our collective energy, concentrated in this concrete pocket, is more than any tornado wants to deal with.

Feed Shelter Dogs in 125 words

(Thanks, Stephanie, for sending this along. And thanks for being such a pal to pups.)

Mention the Pedigree Adoption Drive in a blog post (by 9/19), and Pedigree will donate a bag of food to shelter dogs. Just for this they'll give 20 lbs of food to a shelter. (Wish I'd known sooner.)



Also, become a fan of Pedigree on Facebook, and they'll donate a bowl of food (and you'll hear about new cool things they're doing to help dogs).

Dogs rule.

Is this why writers shouldn't date outside the writer species?

(cross-posted from: here)

offended by rank OBJECTIFICATION of writers

There is this thing currently going around tumblr about why dating a writer is good. I think it’s nice that this thing is going around, because I like writers, and lots of us could use more dates. As a writer who has dated people, though — including other writers — I would like to offer some correctives to this list.
The items in bold are the alleged reasons to date a writer. I have replaced the original commentary with my bleak corrective, in lightface.

1. Writers will romance you with words. We probably won’t. We write for ourselves or for money and by the time we’re done we’re sick of it. If we have to write you something there’s a good chance it’ll take us two days and we’ll be really snippy and grumpy about the process.
2. Writers will write about you. You don’t want this. Trust me.
3. Writers will take you to interesting events. No. We will not. We are busy writing. Leave us alone about these “interesting events.” I know one person who dates a terrific writer. He goes out alone. She is busy writing.
4. Writers will remind you that money doesn’t matter so much. Yes. We will do this by borrowing money from you. Constantly.
5. Writers will acknowledge you and dedicate things to you. A better way to ensure this would be to become an agent. That way you’d actually make money off of talking people through their neuroses.
6. Writers will offer you an interesting perspective on things. Yes. Constantly. While you’re trying to watch TV or take a shower. You will have to listen to observations all day long, in addition to being asked to read the observations we wrote about when you were at work and unavailable for bothering. It will be almost as annoying as dating a stand-up comedian, except if you don’t find these observations scintillating we will think you’re dumb, instead of uptight.
7. Writers are smart. The moment you realize this is not true, your relationship with a writer will develop a significant problem.
8. Writers are really passionate. About writing. Not necessarily about you. Are you writing?
9. Writers can think through their feelings. So don’t start an argument unless you’re ready for a very, very lengthy explication of our position, our feelings about your position, and what scenes from our recent fiction the whole thing is reminding us of.
10. Writers enjoy their solitude. So get lost, will you?
11. Writers are creative. This is why we have such good reasons why you should lend us $300 and/or leave us alone, we’re writing.
12. Writers wear their hearts on their sleeves. Serious advice: if you meet a writer who’s actually demonstrative, be careful.
13. Writers will teach you cool new words. This is possibly true! We may also expect you to remember them, correct your grammar, and look pained after reading mundane notes you’ve left for us.
14. Writers may be able to adjust their schedules for you. Writers may be able to adjust their schedules for writing. Are you writing? Get in line, then.
15. Writers can find 1000 ways to tell you why they like you. By the 108th you’ll be pretty sure we’re just making them up for fun.
16. Writers communicate in a bunch of different ways. But mostly writing. Hope you don’t like talking on the phone — that shit is rough.
17. Writers can work from anywhere. So you might want to pass on that tandem bike rental when you’re on vacation.
18. Writers are surrounded by interesting people. Every last one of whom is imaginary.
19. Writers are easy to buy gifts for. This is true. Keep it in mind when your birthday rolls around, okay?
20. Writers are sexy. No argument. Some people think this about heroin addicts, too.

Alternate solution: it will be pretty much like dating anyone else who likes to do a particular thing, you know?

In DC Drag

I saw my people today.
Lots of them, milling around the lobby of the Center.
I smiled, but they did not recognize me as one of theirs.
I was confused and then I remembered what I was wearing, what I generally looked like today. Most days.
It made more sense, but still.
Fuck DC.

Or maybe they were just bitches.

The "where were you" post

Note: I don't think my story is particularly special, but there's something to be valued in having many experiences of the day entering into a collected, public mass of stories. A group story.

When the second plane hits at 9:03 am, I am still in my apartment in Hyde Park, at 51st and Dorchester.
8:03 am Central Standard Time.
I am up early (for me) because it is the second day of my first grad program.
(I had turned on the TV to help wake up.)
I watch the second plane hit, live. It is not surreal.
I call the school to see if it is still open.
The Pentagon has not yet been hit.
The woman gives me attitude, as if I'm some whiny freshman trying to get out of class. "Of course we're still open." "But the planes." "We're open."
Either she hasn't heard yet or the whole thing is still just some freak accident in New York.
I go to school.
We sit in a lecture hall and are told if we need to leave, it's okay.
A new friend without a TV hadn't heard anything.
I hear myself say, "Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York." "Oh my god." "I know."
Our conversation is quiet and sounds idiotic to me.
I feel generally safe where I am because, who would attack the south side of Chicago?
Unless they were aiming for the Sears Tower and missed.

The next night, watching the endlessly-looping news, I see Diane Sawyer in a rumpled white dress shirt. Her hair is a small mess.
I think how attractive she looks.
I think I am a terrible person for having dirty thoughts about Diane Sawyer right now.
I stop watching television, or only put on children's shows because everything else is news.
All alternative images are welcome.
I don't remember calling anyone to talk about it, and definitely not anyone one from my program because we hardly know each other and I am feeling shy, though most of us live nearby.
In the month between the attack and the start of war, it seems everyone here signs petitions to stop it, knowing our signatures will do no good.

Truth on torture

(marriedtothesea)

Where everybody knows your name

One of the "uses" of the new year (if we're going to look at it as a thing, and as a thing who we measure by its functions) is as a time of self-reflection. What we have done. Who we have wronged. What challenges have been met. How we can serve ourselves, our families, our communities better.

Go inside and seek our unspoken thoughts.

I am not someone who has to be told to go inside. I could be accused (by myself) of often living inside. I am such a regular guest inside my own head, they have a cocktail waiting for me in front of my bar stool when I arrive.

If you have prayers that float your boat, great. Everyone's relationship to all those things that could be labeled "faith" is, of course, different. What is most useful and resonant to me is mindfulness. Take a law and use it for what it reminds me to be aware of: kindness, justice, peace for all other living beings - all in practical ways that sound significantly less floaty and foofy when one stops eating animals and pretending not to see homeless people. It is not about divine pronouncements, as written by men. I think traditions can be equally functional on multiple levels.

So in these days where I spend hours in services with family, not particularly paying attention though still participating, it seems wrong to follow the advice of taking these days to go inside. If this time is supposed to be different or special, going inside does not make it so. I could use those days to stay out of my head by being further engaged in the service for those few hours. That seems like a false solution, though.

Perfect practice (of any kind) isn't my goal.
But.
If I'm going to maintain that I celebrate these holidays, something more functional has to emerge. Or else, it's just one more moment to press the "reset" button - something we can do at any time, anyway.

Happy new year - may you all figure out what you want to use it for.

The WTF file: Politics & Prose and Market Day

I loved Market Day.

It is a beautiful and moving graphic novel. I wanted to bring it to the LitFest, but it just didn't fit, ultimately, for the available slots.

So when I saw Politics & Prose, local independent bookstore extraordinaire, was bringing the author and his book to do a reading, I was chuffed. If we can't have him, I'm glad someone else appreciated the book as much as I did and wants to showcase it.

The story centers around an Eastern European craftsman, Jewish, who provides for his family as a weaver of beautiful rugs. His vision of the world, even in the shtetl, is through that lens.

Life turned to patterns turned to rugs.

He struggles; the Industrial Revolution looms large, so to speak. What to do when what one values doesn't feed one's family?

But WTF, Politics & Prose?! You schedule this book on Rosh Hashana?! (It's after the second day of services, technically after sundown, but still.) You don't even have the excuse of not being Jewish to say you didn't know.

First of all, that's just dumb planning. Plenty of your audience will be at big, family dinners.

Second, you're jerks. I'm a bit crushed.

Unless...

Unless this is some kind of commentary on how other, contemporary kinds of lifestyles are also no longer observed or adhered to or are hard to maintain. The assimilation of American Jews. Who would therefore now be free to come to a bookstore reading on Rosh Hashana.

I tend to doubt it, though.

The evolution of what I wanted to be when I grew up

1. Butterfly - There is a photo of little me on Halloween, arms out, drawing the attached streamers into the wind. Chicago Halloweens almost always mean thick, winter coats, but at least my streamers matched the extra layers. A winter butterfly in yellow and red and green.

2. Ballerina - Except I couldn't say my 'l's, so I'd tell people, my name is Haddey and I wanna be a badderina.

3. International Animal Rights/Women's Rights Lawyer - I'm sure this shocks no one. I first became vegetarian at age three when I refused to eat anything made of animal. And I got sent to 'time out' in preschool for arguing back to the teacher that you can't say boys have to be one thing in make believe and girls something else. And I kept arguing from the time-out table.

Turns out, I'm none of these things. Though if made to choose, I'd probably pick butterfly lawyer.


(Me and Ruth Bader, we go way back.)