Saturday, October 30, 2010

On Restoring Sanity

Watched the highly entertaining Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear today at Brooklyn Bowl (best. venue. ever).  If you missed it, definitely catch some clips online (or seeing as Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, maybe they will replay it ad nauseum as is the MTV Awards model).

Jon Stewart's closing remarks summed up what I've been moving toward for awhile now - the need for us all to be more tolerant, patient, gentle with one another; to sensationalize less; to listen more.  I get very impatient with those who don't see things the same way I do sometimes, but that isn't logical, it's emotional.  So I think it's time to put a bit more effort into sharing this crazy country with my fellow patriots.

This would be a good time to cue that cheesy montage video they show at airport immigration.  No?  Okay.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Join me for viBenefit on October 19

In my series of nail-in-the-coffin moments in my journey from performer to former, one of the most positive was sitting in the audience of a play written & performed by the girls of viBe, which brought my revelation: I'd rather do all I can to support amazing efforts like this.

Co-founded by my friend and former collaborator Chandra Thomas, viBe gives inner-city teenage women a chance to use the performing arts as a way to express themselves. If you're anything like me, you know that the high school years are nearly impossible to navigate without some non-academic outlet... and with the recent attention on the severe lacks in our public schools, most notably explained in the film "Waiting for Superman," we are now understanding how vital it is that we all do something to support the people who decide our future.

So, I'm proud to be on the host committee for the viBenefit, and hope you'll join me. For the cost of a typical night out, you can support the amazing work that viBe is doing in the company of fellow fun NYC young professionals - with drinks & food & gift bags included. There's no reason NOT to!!

See you on October 19th - and if you are otherwise engaged, you're welcome to contribute whatever you can on the donation page at www.vibenefit.org.



Tuesday, October 5, 2010

"Fair and Balanced" Elections

I had to read this sentence four times to even begin to get my head around it:

...Every major contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination who isn’t currently holding office and isn’t named Mitt Romney is now a paid contributor to Fox News.

Full article.

I'd Like to Make a Return...

This post from Daniel Pink's blog is so good I had to repost it verbatim.  Too bad the government's return/exchange policy isn't modeled after Nordstrom.

Every once in awhile, you hear of an idea so blindingly obvious and inarguably wise that you wonder why in God’s name it’s still a notion and not a reality.


That happened to me this morning when I heard about the Taxpayer Receipt, the brainchild of the folks at Third Way.


In a brief and readable policy paper, David Kendall and Jim Kessler propose “providing each taxpayer with a receipt that shows them exactly how their money is spent to the penny.” That’s it.


Here’s what the receipt would look like: