Community Matters

(Community Matters) AAS quoting liberally from my friends Chad Bockius (CEO Socialware) and Jon Hockeynos:

This is a place where smart people want to be and work, and that has been the case independent of the overall economic environment.

(Community Matters) Steven loved the Richard Bean written farce directed by the Nicholas Hytner.

While the show was a bit too Monty Python-esq for me (which Steven absolutely loved), I’m glad to have seen it since Hytner is the Royal National Theatre’s Exec Director and it provides insight into his artistic direction for the enterprise. Since arriving in 2003, he’s shaken up offerings, transfused energy and edginess into the complex which had become stodgy. The show reminded me of the Rude Mechanical’s I’ve Never Been So Happy – slapstick, lots of double entendre, music, even cartoonish and a wildly laughing audience. I said it wasn’t my kind of show, but it certainly was most of the audiences’.

(Community Matters) The Tate Modern is always one of my favorite visits – though I’ve neglected to stop in recently.

A double treat as they had Cy Twombly’s works hanging. I met his sister this summer. Though I’d heard of him, I’d never known his work until after meeting Ann. The physical power (energy) of his work isn’t captured in a photograph.

First time I’ve ever seen clearly, Matisse beats Picasso. I’ve grappled with that ever since the Matisse Picasso exhibit

(Community Matters) While the GOP seems to promote men & women with great intellectual & character flaws hoping for practical achievement, do Democrats demand perfection from human  beings?

A journey I went on this summer – 14mm unemployed Americans, another 9mm involuntarily underemployed, another 3mm “marginally attached,” which means so long unemployed they’ve quit looking for work – I considered throwing in the towel. Is it right for me to continue fighting to elect a Democrat, to reelect a President when I know the other side is stepping on any efforts we promote for recovery?

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(Community Matters) Quick trip with ST who’ll be in London for the week. Met up in Newark (he’d been working in Princeton all week) and flew over together (an unexpected treat since originally were flying over on two different flights).

Saw One Man, Two Guvnors, Richard Bean’s play directed by the RNT’s Nicholas Hytner at the Royal National Theatre. ST loved it – a bit too Monty Pothon-ish humor for me. Yes, of course I know Charles Christie & Michael Mitchell would have loved it! 🙂

(Community Matters) To those who cheer “let him die” if a 30-yo man chose not to purchase health insurance but subsequently needed intensive care, I want to say something really bad & ugly but instead I think I better stop and listen. It’s more important that we heal what divides us than it is we shout back at each other.

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(Community Matters) quote from CA philanthropist Jim Steyer who w/ his brother, billionaire Tom Steyer, established the Center for the Next Generation to serve as an advocate in public policy debates.

“We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars on war over the last 10 years at the same time we’ve been spending less and less on kids. That’s fiscally insane and morally bankrupt, but no one is talking about it.”

Posted from my blackberry

(Community Matters) At breakfast this morning my friend Ken Ulman talked about Healthy Howard, “a community-supported health plan for uninsured residents of Howard County, the only place in the country with a plan like this.

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(Community Matters) Kirk’ Watson’s annual ACL kickoff last night at ACL. Kirk’s got to enjoy the broadest deepest support in Central Texas. List of sponsors is across the board (below). Thanks to Eric Copper for joining me.

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(Community Matters) I couldn’t find a link to today’s Dear Abby. While I’m not unsympathetic for Shirley . . . . Goldie “is my very best friend, constant companion and never nags.”

(Community Matters) I couldn’t agree more with the NYTimes editorial. Pres Obama has been & is a great friend to Israel and Jews worldwide. Good friends speak the truth and work hard for us. It’s easy to be the kind of friend who seems to agree with us on every matter but helps us achieve nothing. Continue reading →

(Community Matters) hopeful that our political leaders are seeing similarly about this