Malibu morning picture of the day - Friday, April 9, 2014

Good morning all,

Blue with streaks of white today.

Diagonal lines drawing your eyes to ... nothing in particular. And here's the secondary shot.

Hope you have a nice weekend. Tomorrow evening, the school where I work will have its annual black-tie event at LA Live--right by Staples Center, the home of the now very famous Clippers. I have a work duty to perform at the event, so I'll be there.

They were originally having Maya Angelou come out--presumably to read us some of her poems and talk on the topic of "story." But she's on the east coast, is elderly, and her doctor ordered her to not travel, so we have someone else speaking instead. Can you imagine being the "sub" for Maya Angelou?  That's GOT to be a hard act. I won't tell you this person's name be since I would prone to make a snide comment, but it makes me wonder what I would say in such a situation.

This is the school's second big-name cancellation. There was an event last year at which renowned megachurch pastor Rick Warren was to speak but he had to cancel. These cancels are not because we're bad people here--we're great! We did get Supreme Court Justice Alito out for us this year. Famous men and women have interesting things to say (sometimes), but in the nonprofit world, we get to provide photo opps with these celebs with our not-so-famous-but-famous-to-us supporters, and that's important too.

One of the most interesting things that Alito shared when he was here was why he doesn't go to State of the Union addresses anymore. He said they are highly partisan events despite the name, and highly choreographed. The Supreme Court and the Joint Chief are nonpartisan and they have to be very careful at what they clap for, stand up for, smile at, or smirk at.

The nearest I've ever been to a superceleb was when I opened the backstage gate for Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers when I was working part-time security at the Gibson Amphitheatre years ago. But I think Reba McIntire had way more "presence" than anyone I've ever seen at the Gib or anywhere--it's like the sun coming up in whatever room she enters, and quite frankly I had never been a fan or even half paid attention to anything in her career. She's pretty tiny too, but BIG nonetheless.

I'm rambling ... get on with your weekend folks.

Love,
Pops