outbreak

happy shiny smiley people have always annoyed me. their cheeriness, their beaming faces, their jaunty i'm-walking-on-sunshine gaits, their uplifted attitudes. i'm not sure what in particular is so nauseating to me. it's just something about them makes me want to smack them in the face and scream, QUIT SMILING, THERE IS NOTHING TO SMILE ABOUT! and then march away with a superior scowl, holding my elitist negativity high and waving it around like the tattered black flag of a pirate ship set out to sink all the merry schooners and skiffs that don't belong on my ocean of darkness.

which makes this recent development as perplexing as it is terrible. it seems that i have been infected by the happy bug. i don't know how or when. but it's now raging through me like a plague. it's to the point where i actually annoy myself, but i can't help it. i am so happy, it's making me sick and it WILL. NOT. STOP.

:D :D :D :D

good god. i think i may have to quarantine myself until the joy devours every cell in my body and kills me to keep from infecting the rest of new york city.

the leap

i just quit my job. holy shit. i just quit my job.

eyes straight ahead. must not hyperventilate... as...
i...
fall...

The non-partisan Arts in the California Governor’s Race campaign recently launched! This campaign was started by a coalition of arts organizations around the state and already has broad support.

Our purpose is to raise public awareness and inform the 2010 gubernatorial candidates about the significance of California’s creative industries in fueling the world's 8th largest economy. (Legislative Analyst's Office, Cal Facts 2006).

Our goal is to educate both the public and the 2010 gubernatorial candidates about the important roles of quality public education, non-profit public/private partnerships, and small business in ensuring a robust creative economy.

The arts in California includes entertainment, fashion, toys, digital media, video games, books and music stores, architecture, interior design, industrial design, and communication arts, as well as fine and performing arts. Just to name a few.

The economic impact of the arts in California, in both for-profit and non-profit sectors, is paramount to California's success. California's creative economy ranks 3rd of all 50 states (California's Creative Vitality Index, WESTAF) yet California remains 50th out of all 50 states in per-capita funding for the arts (California Arts Advocates).

Here are just a few statistics about the creative sectors around Los Angeles:

* Nearly 1 million direct and indirect jobs ---one in every six in the area---- are creative-sector jobs.
* $121 billion in creative-sector sales/receipts were generated in Los Angeles County and $18 billion in Orange County.
* Over $5.1 billion in state and local tax revenues were generated from the creative sector.


With numbers like these, the importance of investing in the arts cannot be overstated. We are trying to spread the word far and wide to encourage voters and candidates alike that this is an issue that needs more attention. Please check out www.CAArts.org to find out more about the campaign. You can also find us on facebook and twitter!

If you are able to help spread the word (through your blog, facebook, twitter), it would be fantastic! If you have any questions about the campaign, please contact our field activist, Jackie Koppell, at jackie@CAArts.org or by phone at (917)817-4418,

i think i can i think i can i just dont wanna

i've been working from anywhere between 8:30am and 9pm these days. the nonprofit world is starting to look greener. yesterday we had a planning meeting from 2 to 7:30. yes, 5 and a half hours. thankfully we left the office to have the meeting at norwood club, which was an amazingly beautiful space with a never-ending supply of coffee and delicious food. if we had sat at the conference table for 5 and a half hours, i probably would have feigned an epileptic seizure to escape via ambulance.

i should not be blogging right now. i will probably be here until tomorrow morning.

5 more days until vacation. just gotta make it 5 more days. i'm going going back back to cali cali...