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| Lisa Napoli |
I Love L.A.
There is always something going on. A movie premier, a car chase, "unusual weather"(aka: light rain), and of course, celebrity sightings. It's always fun to spot "publicly successful" people. This is common for everyone. Even the ones who act like it's "no big deal" are probably squealing internally with delight.
When I first moved here, I wondered if geeking out when meeting someone who is "known" would be a unique, embarrassing reaction, reserved for newbie-LA residents. It's not. Everyone here, whether they have been living in Hollywood for 6 months or 12 years, gets excited the minute a member of the film and television elite enters a room.
So I get why it's really amusing when someone has that same enthusiasm for NPR writers, or any other member of the Literati. Successful writers do make me want to squeal with envious adoration. If I saw David Sedaris just casually browsing at Borders, I would totally go through a panic in my mind as to whether or not it would be "appropriate" for me to approach him with a simple,
"Thank you so much for being YOU!'"
Case in point: One time, I met a guy at a party who writes for "This American Life."
You would have thought I was meeting one of the kids from Twilight, I was so freakin' excited! So you can imagine how thrilled I was yesterday, when I opened up the blog of Lisa Napoli, reporter for Marketplace on American Public Media, as well as the Huffington Post, and saw a picture of Moi.
I met Lisa this past Sunday at the Temple where I performed, and she blogged about 38 Ways to Change the World Through Music! So exciting!!
After reading Lisa's blog, I found out that she spent some time in Bhutan, a small Kingdom between India and China, where she helped start the first non-government radio station! Amazing! She has written about her experience in a book titled "Radio SHANGRI-LA: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth." It will be released in February 2011.
Her story makes me want to add a 39th idea to our musical community service list: "Go to a small country, and teach them how to start their own radio station that is NOT government-run."
Yes. That is VERY 38-Ways style.
Just when I think I’ve exhausted the possibilities of cool, interesting, change-oriented people in this giant city of Los Angeles, something happens to remind me how dumb and short-sighted that feeling is. To wit: I had the pleasure of meeting Michelle Payne yesterday, who keeps a blog called 38 Ways to Change the World Through Music but in the dimensional world teaches kids about music, yoga, and Buddhism. She actually sang two beautiful songs for the kids at the Temple we visited with my favorite monk, the Rev. Kusala (who himself plays a mean uke, but that’s a whole other story.)
A lot of what she’s talking about (the discipline and focus of learning music) has to do with the world at large, not just music.
I’ve pasted her “manifesto” here below but a clearer version is on her site, which I hope you’ll visit.
That is so cool, Michelle! And I'm sure members of the Literati would love to be gushed over like celebrities!
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