Please Happy

Heard a guest speaker at Annenberg yesterday: Mark S. Luckie of 10,000 Words. At 27-years-old, he’s the new National Innovations Editor for the Washington Post.

He spoke to a roomful of new Master’s students. He told them about how they can use text, photography, video and audio to tell stories in new ways. The most compelling part of the presentation for me was when he ran around the room, stopping at random in front of students demanding: “What is Your Passion?” “What are you doing to promote it online?”

Everyone he asked had a passion. But, hardly anyone was doing anything about it.

From Mark:
“I have found out what my passion is and I had to put it out there for the world to see.”

Then, last night, I picked up the Best American Short Stories 1989 from Carey’s bookshelf.
Editor: Margaret Atwood (my fave!).

In the introduction, Atwood talked about storytelling at its most basic:

This is the story I must tell; this is the story you must hear.

I have been doing that personally on PleaseHappy for family and friends. And, in a few weeks, I hope to be doing it more professionally as an official Multimedia Journalist.

Thank you, Mark S. Luckie, for being an example of a dream follower who has melded professional and personal.

And thank you, Margaret Atwood, for being in my life.

“…you’re a different person than you were just then. And we’ll never get this chance again.”

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Luke Reynolds has a new website: LukeReynoldsMusic.com.

He played an acoustic set at a bar on Pico last night. We heard about it last minute. Like, last last minute. Arrived at 9:52 for the 10 p.m. show. Chatted with Luke, met his old pal from Blue Merle who just moved to L.A. and was there to spectate. We all watched and listened and got into it. Luke played old songs, newer songs (like the one I quoted above – Forever to Reach – that got me through some seriously long bus rides in Asia) and some new new ones off his latest album Maps.

I felt so fortunate to be there watching my friend, my sweetie pie next to me, swaying to the passionate guitarist, songwriter, vocalist Luke Reynolds.

When presented with such opportunities, even (especially) after a long day of craziness, you just gotta say yes. Woohoo!!

My new friend told me she wants to be a plant scientist when she grows up. This carrot came from her garden.

Still reeling from the big loss on Thursday, I quenched my sports woes and went to a bar for the first game of the 2010 World Cup! Met a lot of characters. Loved saying the word vuvuzela over and over. Made a short little radio piece (forthcoming post). And fell in love all over again with group spectating. Insta-friends! And here’s one them. Shot this at 6:30 a.m. outside a bar called Barney’s Beanery in Santa Monica. Viva México!

Sending this song to my brother and his wife. Made me cry.

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with Jake and Axel at a 7 a.m. SXSW concert held in the Four Seasons lobby.

Thank you, Grace. I’m so grateful that I get to listen to this song over and over. Please come to Los Angeles soon.

Yesterday, I wrote about Grace Potter: diva, goddess, belter-outer, rock star. While wandering the streets of Austin yesterday, I saw many other instrument-strumming women with Grace hair-dos. Long bangs shading their eyes, thick hair flying out behind.

We also saw other musicians without bangs: British band The xx and Wu Tang’s GZA, among others. But, just as the night was winding down for us around 10 p.m. (our day had started with a 6:30 a.m. show), we wandered into one of the fanciest hotels in Austin. We felt like we were playing dress-up and sneaking, uninvited, into a party.

The room with the music was carpeted, with huge windows looking out on to the crazy 6th Street swarm. The stage was small. And we scooched up close, sitting in front. On stage were three violins, a keyboard, a piano, a xylophone, a drumkit, and four people.

Wow.

Julia Marcell and her team blew us away. She sounded like a mixture of Björk, Tori Amos and Regina Spektor — ballads, punk, show tunes. Whispery lyrics, then all out wailing. Staccato violin and epic piano solos. The violinist girl with the red mohawk sang as well as she played. The drummer tapped the cymbals and drums with fingernails, sticks and mallets. The violinist boy tapped the mic with his bow. And Julia strummed her violin like a banjo.

From her accent, and her words saying this was the band’s first trip to the U.S., we took bets on her hometown. Paris? Brussels? Iceland? They’re from Poland. And they’re awesome.

We missed our ride home so we could watch the end of the show. And, I stood in line to get a free CD “It Might Like You” and signed postcard. The guy in line behind me, Bruce from Boston, suggested that we each pay $10 for the CD since they were so good. Money was flying. The CD, by the way, is written on with Sharpie, by Julia. “They’re homemade,” she said. “Sorry!” She seemed surprised to see people grabbing for them. Surprised the stack had to be replenished twice.

I’m hoping to catch a glimpse of this banged beauty on stage tomorrow.

And we’re definitely putting one of her songs on the mix for our CD of the month club.