Def Poetry: Mayda del Valle

I’m going to try to start posting as many of these as I can.

I love Mayda’s stuff.  Deeply.

Chicago and NYC: Meet Riz MC.

My boy Riz is in the country next week, straight from London.

The kid is dope. Check him out.

Mumbai.

From CNN.com:

Several people have been killed in a series of coordinated attacks targeting Mumbai sites popular with tourists and business people, according to police and CNN’s sister network in India.

Ongoing battles between police and gunmen were reported at two five-star hotels by CNN-IBN.

Gunmen armed with automatic weapons and grenades attacked targets including the hotels, a cafe, and a train station, police say.

Mumbai’s got a special place in my heart. Even without it, this is scary. Then there’s this:

One witness told local reporters gunmen had tried to find people with U.S. or British passports.

The world is scary right now.

EDIT/UDPATE: More from The Times.

I Want Shrek to Succeed.

Right now, I want every Broadway show to succeed.  (Well, not every show–I’ve seen a few that I wish would close.)  But I’ve got a particular rooting interest in Shrek.  I’m a big David Lindsay-Abaire fan (as an artist and as a person), and Jeanine Tesori has a ton of Caroline, Or Change good will built up as well.

That said, there’s a lot in this article that makes me a little nervous.  It’s never good when you’re canceling performances, especially when you’re making last minute changes.  Beyond that though, I’m looking at the song titles.  Obviously it’s hard to tell anything by song titles, but those song titles aren’t exactly inspiring a lot of confidence.  They’re pretty pedestrian.

Still, I’m hoping this one pulls through.  I’m looking forward to the reviews on December 15.  If American Buffalo has taught us a lesson, it’s that you can’t coast by on stars or reputation right now.  The reviews matter.

This Article Offends Me.

From CNN.com:

The problem with most white first ladies, with the exceptions of the uppity Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton, is that they’ve been so meek in their advocacy. I don’t begrudge the Bush ladies their values. What infuriates me is the collective societal pressure that makes their goody-two-shoes pablum palatable to others.

Former press secretary Perez also argued that first ladies have no power. Well, Barbara Bush may have backed away from change like a toddler near a hot stove, but not our Michelle.

First of all, the term “white first ladies” is redundant (for a few more months, at least).

More importantly, and I hate to use this as an argument, WHO THE HELL is this woman dictate (or even recommend) policy to Michelle Obama, particularly in terms of how to best serve the African-American community?  And with this advice?  Really?  REALLY?

(The hiatus isn’t quite over…but it didn’t last long, did it?)

I’m Taking A Hiatus.

Of course, this could mean I start posting again later today.

But be prepared for intermittent power outages over the next few weeks.

Cryptic.

You know when you see something, and you think it’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen, and then the reviews come out, and people think it’s the best they’ve ever seen, and sometimes it shakes the foundations of what you believe, and you wonder if you’re dumb and missed all the good points of it all, but other times you think the glowing reviewers are dumb, and they’ve missed it all, or privileged some silly awful thing that’s really not all that good but has some kind of connection to who they are or what they value and inflated the worth of what they saw, and then you think about if you do that with other work, like the work you saw not long ago in an ideal setting, then again in a less ideal setting (that should have been ideal, really, but somehow wasn’t), and you thought it was the best thing ever both times you saw it, but maybe that’s just because of how it speaks to your point of view, and maybe this other piece of garbage speaks directly to the glowing reviewers point of view, and maybe that’s why the review is glowing in the first place, and is that that bad really?

I’m having one of those times.

Even so, I’m pretty sure it just sucked.

American Buffalo. Whoa.

Closing. Already.

This is unexpected.  And scary.

100,000 Dead Nonprofits?

It’s a doomsday scenario for sure.  A little much, maybe, but it’s impossibly to predict right now.  Most interesting chunk to me:

Ms. Miller said the sector has to completely change the way it operates, most importantly reducing the amount of money it spends on fundraising. Executives on the panel acknowledged that nonprofits are reluctant to merge, but suggested they collaborate on back office support and health care plans to save money.

The idea of merging in certain areas certainly is worth investigating.  Here’s where it gets super intriguing though: the thought of lowering the amount of money spent on development and fundraising.  I’m not sure folks recognize quite how much time and effort goes into development at an average not-for-profit.  It’s a lot.  And yes, it brings in a good chunk of money.  But it costs a lot to bring that money in.  I’ve always seen it as a necessary evil, so it’s interesting to hear professionals calling for cuts.

Garfield Minus Garfield.

Pure genius.