Dean Young in a Bikini
I spent 12 years in the university, including majors, minors, and degrees in
economics, computer science, physics, and business (though mostly on the
quantitative side). I've been a professor of both business and computer
science, and after leaving academia, spent the rest of my life in the computer
industry. So, you can imagine how much exposure I had to The Arts prior to
my entry into the poetry world 10 years ago.
Like most of us in the "rational" disciplines, I thought people in the arts were
all advocates of aroma therapy and New Age doctrine. Imagine my surprise
to find colleagues in the poetry world who were formerly attorneys, physicians
and astrophysicists. Even that didn't prepare me for my recent gig as a
director of a county-wide arts support organization. I don't know what I
was expecting, but it certainly wasn't finding that this collection of current
and ex- dancers, visual artists, playwrights, musicians and film makers were
extremely competent and effective contributors to the funding and administration
of arts projects.
A good example is today, when I met with a half-dozen other committee members to
review 30+ grant applications. I was, by far, the least experienced of the
bunch, and tried to spend as much time as possible following my golden rule (if
you have nothing to say, don't say it). We had all scored the grant apps,
and I discovered a score of reasons why the other committee members knew more
than I do about the process and its goals. It seems that many successful
members of the arts community learn the hard way what it means to write a
compelling grant application: a) state your case succinctly, b) make sure
your goals match the intent of the grant scope, c) include supporting material,
d) show how much of your other expected revenue is secured (and not just
provisional), e) make sure your budget balances. We went around the table
for each application and had the opportunity to state our reasons for our
original score, and then were given the chance to revise our score number.
Other than championing one poet (the only one in the batch), I eventually
deferred to the wiser heads on almost all of the prospective grantees. I
can't go into details, of course, but suffice it to say that their long
experience in evaluating grants was evident in the sophistication of their
arguments.
~~~
Sandra has an interesting perspective on building a website.
~~~
I've always found it hard to take Harryette Mullen seriously.
This is probably a chromosomal defect on my part, but I did get to talk to her
at the Napa Valley Writer's thing I went to a while back, and I've read her
Sleeping with the Dictionary which I yawned my way through. It was
sort of like my reaction to Harvey's "Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the
Human Form" – novel and diverting, but at some point you just want to say "OK,
WE GET IT". But, I often am wrong on my
initial impulse about a poet, so I was intrigued by Mark's
post
on teaching Mullen. I'm also intrigued that Mark has taken up painting
(again). How many poets are also painters? I know of a few, but it
seems to be less common than even with singer/songwriters (think, Joni
Mitchell).
~~~
I mentioned Pride and Prejudice and Zombies some weeks back. Here's a (not
particularly kind)
review.
~~~
"Still
in terms of raw drama, the "fair-and-balanced" newsmen of dystopian future
sci-fi satirical shouting (unintelligible British) . . of Fox News win out every
time". (hat-tip to Andrew)
~~~
Travelocity send me an urgent message that 7 days and 6 nights in Paris, flying
economy on one of 5 different decent airlines, and staying in what looks like a
pretty nice hotel, is $1202 per person. Hmm. Tempting.
~~~
Mr. Clover would like
this one: "Among Americans making $20,000 a year or less, capitalism
leads socialism by only 8 points, 35-27."
~~~
Verse Daily
doubles up on Crab Creek Review.
~~~
Trish revels in
breaking the "no bikinis on a poetry blog".
~~~
I want to
see Dean Young everywhere, too.