What I'm Working On Now

I've decided that it's okay to stay up until 3am as long as I'm doing something constructive and defined. For example, reviewing graduation criteria or writing my first blogger post in a week. For certain, in not having posted anything new my two readers have been alienated, but perhaps they will be forgiving once they discover how busy I've been.

First, I should tell you about my new discovery. Last year, I found Urban Soul Nation on Internet radio. It was run by one person back East. I even chatted with him for a bit on Yahoo! Messenger and he told me about his struggles in running an Internet radio station: startup equipment costs, maintaining a website, paying royalties. He also sent me the mp3s for Prince's Money Don't Matter 2Night and Brownstone's 5 Miles to Empty. That alone is more than I could have asked for. Anyway, earlier this week I ran across Virgin Radio Groove. It's broadcast out of the UK, classic soul and disco. Absolutely phenomenal. Absolute classics mixed in with shit I've never heard before. Marvin Gaye, Jackson 5, SOS Band, Gladys Knight, Dennis Edwards, Average White Band and SHALAMAR. Come on, now...freakin' Shalamar. Not many people know this, but I've named my left arm Shalamar (and my right arm Excalibur). I would like to name my little boy Shalamar (and my little girl Cassandra...for short, she could be called either Sandy or Cassie!).

Wow, what an aside! Now to make my title relevant. At work, each of the five staff members was supposed to come up with and execute a project for our Culture Series. After a couple of weeks to mull it over we had a meeting to discuss our ideas. My coworkers' ideas were as follows: host a Chicano theatre group, hold a reception for women of color on campus, host a performance by a Broadway actor and host a well-known comedian. My idea was to write book synopses and post them around the Ethnic Cultural Center. I did execute my project, and while everyone raved about it, it just wasn't the dynamic or entertaining impact of a performance or a party. It was called a reception but there were so many women of color, I treated it like a party. Plus, my boss is the one bringing the comedian. It's Dat Phan, and he is pretty fucking funny. Jeff, my boss, is incredible and I know it's not a competition, but it's possible to feel just a little inadequate when I'm writing book reports and he's booking heavyweight comics.

Perhaps out of pity, the ECC director passed his project off onto me, so I'm responsible for promoting that "performance by a Broadway actor" (see above). His name is Charles Holt, he was in The Lion King...those seem like credentials enough. Now he's touring a one-man show based on Richard Wright's autobiography Black Boy. So, I've been going wild trying to promote and as soon as I get our badass poster online I'll link to it, but for now here's this. So it's been a ton of printing, calling, flyering, emailing, postering, chatting, convincing and stressing to make sure I get 500 butts in seats to check out this play. It's supposed to be a real gem, so there's no conning anyone. Plus, it's a free show. But scheduling an event and making it a success are two very different creatures. So, that's that. If you're reading this and you live in Seattle, you need to be in the HUB Auditorium on Tuesday, April 19. It's late, I'll fill stuff in later.