Perpetually Curious

Amazingly, I managed to hit half of my reading goal for the year! Between a new baby and a global pandemic, I am firmly in camp "making it through each day is a success." I somehow wound up with MORE books on my TBR shelf than I started with, thanks in no small part to discovering BookOutlet, plus the library's super-convenient website ordering and curbside pickup. I still adore browsing through the stacks, but between email list and Bookstagram recs, and having the entire NC Cardinal system at my fingertips, it's too easy to get the exact book I'm looking for. I can't wait to be able to be pleasantly surprised again, though. My Four Favorite Books:  1. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson . "Beyond race, class, or other factors, a powerful caste system influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie cast...

2019 Reading was not quite as prolific as 2018 (which I didn't write a recap on because #moving), but contained quite a few stand-out books. I did manage to complete 42 books, plus a handful of magazines and tons of online articles/essays. I didn't read as many off of my To Be Read shelves as I'd hoped: dammit, Instagram, I'm looking at you! Too many authors I follow, too many readers I'm friends with who keep recommending interesting books. Couple that with the browser tab I keep open to my local library account, which also links up with over 50 other library systems across the state, so I can simply place holds at any time... Look, I'm not saying I have a problem, I'm just saying it's reallllly easy to give into ordering a new-to-me book at any time. For 2020, I'm trying to keep lists of "books to read", either as a saved collection in Instagram or on paper in my planner, that I can reference after I've finished the current stack. ...

Any time I read, well, practically anything, I always wonder how the lesson can be applied to live independent theater. A recent article from Nielsen Ratings proved no different. "Award Shows are Big Winners on Social Media"   got me thinking "How can live theater use social the way the awards shows do?" After all, the two events are very similar. For starters, they're both live events. Attendees are all in the same room together. There's often alcohol involved. There are distinct phases to the event: the pre-show, the live event itself, and post-show discussion. Secondly, like awards shows, theater productions should be culturally relevant, at least to the community in which the theater resides. These productions may even feature local celebrities or have other local cultural cache. I am a firm advocate that social engagement is but one leg of the three-legged online marketing stool. A regular email newsletter, a regularly updated website, and good...

Minimalism is everywhere these days. It's very in style, if getting rid of all your belongings and living with the bare necessities is your style. Don't get me wrong: I've toyed with the minimalism idea for several years now. Even as an extrovert who loves owning lots of "things that spark joy", there is still a threshold of "too much". I'd started paring down before we made the big move from the Triangle to the Coast and made sure to not RE-accumulate random things while we were in Morehead City. So when it came time to pack all our belongings again for moving, I embraced the opportunity to live with even less. I knew we'd be "in between" homes for a while and that what ever I kept had to be packed into two vehicles, along with my kid, dog, and cat. I looked up long-term travel on Pinterest, followed minimalist accounts on Instagram, and made sure I knew what self-care was non-negotiable for me during this time. And we'd a...

I read a great article in the December issue of Fast Company titled " Retail in the Age of Amazon. " Long-time readers know of my penchant for following retail conversations and seeing how they are applicable to the theater world and this article was no different. (New readers: hello! do you think retail and theater overlap, too?) I sat down to write notes on all the topics and details from the article that I wanted to flesh out on for theaters. I thought it would be 4 or 5, since the article itself had 4 sections to it. Instead, I had TWENTY-TWO points to hit. To flesh out each of those points, even a paragraph a piece, seems a tad much for a blog post. Some of them I've written about before, like defining success on your terms and using heretical ideas . A lot of them are about how going back to basics and focusing on differentiation rather than competing at the same game can help retail businesses survive and thrive in the age of click-and-buy. This is...

I read 37(ish) books in 2017. As usual, they were a bit all over the place. Some of the highlights: - being diagnosed with anxiety and depression and realizing your codependent tendencies makes you seek out book help. I read Melody Beattie's work, including the classic Codependent No More and the newer Stop Being Mean To Yourself . I have another one still on my TBR pile. Related: Never Good Enough; Drama of the Gifted Child; The Wisdom of Depression; Potatoes Not Prozac. - the business books included the fantastic Abundance by Peter Diamandis (older title) and Principles by Ray Dalio (new title). I'm enjoying branching out my business reading to forward-looking futurists. These are the folks who read science fiction as kids, made it come true, and are now looking ahead another forty years to see what will be next.  - in the "make my life better" Dewey Decimal section: You Already Know What To Do , about tapping into intuition, was phenomenal and fell into my...

success : 1. obsolete : outcome , result 2a : degree or measure of succeeding b : favorable or desired outcome; also : the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence 3: one that succeeds succeed : 2a : to turn out well b : to attain a desired object or end From the latin succedere : to come after, or up from below Why do we not do a better job--or any job at all--defining success for ourselves?  Why is the first definition of success one that Webster's qualifies as obsolete? An outcome or result . The first definition of succeed is literally "to come after another in rank or position, to follow after another in order". The second definition is to attain a desired end. Why don't we do more to delineate in any kind of terms what our desired end is? Why do we always default to "money" or "fame" or "status of some kind"?  I admit that I am a perfectionist with [insanely] high goals for every artistic event...