There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers.
Captain Beefheart
Jul 8
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statistics are true and tasty
Jul 7
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Assessments
“Mrs. Lund, you just love to laugh, don’t you?”
-An assessment from Alexis, age 11-almost-12. If that’s the vibe a student gets from me, then I feel okay about who I am. She’s absolutely right, also. I mean, what else would I love to do? Grimace? Stare blankly into space? The alternatives to laughing through my day seem miserable.
Jun 20
Jun 2
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flat, bread
Scanwiches
This is the rare sort of thing that makes me jealous of New Yorkers. (Thanks, Joel.)
May 25
Apr 24
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From the Desk of Barkley Q. Barkerton
Dear Outdoors Place:
Thank you for your compliance with my repeated requests for an end to winter. Your attention to this matter is appreciated. All is forgiven. I look forward to working with you again in the near future.
Sincerely,
BQB:vkl
Dictated, but not read.
Apr 21
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apocalypso
The end may be coming but it’s going to be a party and there will be snacks.
Andrew Bird
Apr 19
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so, look out
The Fat Boy Burger is half pound hamburger, Norwegian cheese, bacon, fried egg, mayonnaise, catsup, tomato, lettuce and I’m not sure if there’s avocado on there but I’m going to put avocado on there too, and then a whole plate of French fries on the side. And I have thought a lot about that Fat Boy Burger. And I want one. So, when I get off the North Pole, I’ll probably have lost 20 to 30 pounds, and I’m going to be coming for that Fat Boy Burger. So, look out.
John Huston
Apr 9
Mar 24
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Inspiring Eighth Grader
Melissa, a fourteen year old girl in dramagirls, wrote this poem inspired by Nikki Giovanni’s “The Drum”. I can’t stop reading it, it is so beautiful and perfect for a day like today that feels a little colder and a little rainier than I want it to.
World by Melissa
The world told my mama
That the dirt ain’t
No good unless it rains
And I said I’m gonna
Tap my feet till the skies pour down.
I had some frustrating news about our space this morning, that it will be unavailable to us next year (not the end of the world, we’ve already been looking at other spaces but it was nice to know we had somewhere), and vague hints around work yesterday with words like “reassess” and “reevaluate” in regards to dramagirls. Everyone is so afraid of programs that rely upon grants for funding, and it seems like the board at the Theater is advising seeking corporate partners who can bring money to the partnership to sustain it. Schools like Chase can’t do that in the same way that the Parks District or a school in a wealthier district can.
Our program doesn’t serve many girls — eighteen a year. It’s expensive to run in proportion to the number of girls we serve– I get paid, the arts project leader gets paid, we rent space, we buy materials, we pay our volunteers a pitiful stipend to reimburse them for gas and hot chocolate money. But I look at a girl like Melissa, whom I’ve known since she was a fourth grader, and who has grown into such a powerful young woman. In her first show with Dramagirls nearly five years ago, she read a poem about coming to Chicago from Guerrero by way of Texas. It was sweet and beautiful. Having her poem chosen, reading it for an audience — she became a Poet then. She reads her world with her writing — and I feel good knowing she is going into High School, into the world, with that power. I hope we can still make that happen for other girls like her.
