Lisa Napoli's Blog, page 65
March 18, 2011
KPBS and Maureen Cavanaugh
What a gracious and wonderful conversationalist KPBS' Maureen Cavanaugh is.
On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of being on her show, These Days, in the legendary San Diego studio that Joan Kroc's hamburger fortunes help build….
Global healing meditation for Japan
…with Dr. Deepak Chopra. Monday. Sign up here.
I don't own a TV, but I've been in a number of hotels lately, where I've been (unhealthily) glued to the video from Japan. The events themselves are horrific and underscore how fragile our planet is, how interconnected we all are, how life can change in an instant. But the TV coverage, wow, that's a whole other matter and it's a different sort of horror….I wish they would just stop and take a moment of silence and not continue with that ceaseless hyperbolic drum ("MONSTER QUAKE"), that speculative din and patter. When it first happened there was a woman in Louisiana relaying what her husband in Japan had told her in a three-minute phone conversation, as if that were news.
Anyhow, a few moments of silence, collectively, will do us all some good.
March 17, 2011
What's wrong with our world and what can we do about it?
That's what film director Tom Shadyac was asking when he made the new documentary, I AM.
From the promotional website:
"Armed with nothing but his innate curiosity and a small crew to film his adventures, Shadyac set out on a twenty-first century quest for enlightenment. Meeting with a variety of thinkers and doers–remarkable men and women from the worlds of science, philosophy, academia, and faith–including such luminaries as David Suzuki, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lynne McTaggart, Ray Anderson, John Francis, Coleman Barks, and Marc Ian Barasch – Shadyac appears on-screen as character, commentator, guide, and even, at times, guinea pig. An irrepressible "Everyman" who asks tough questions, but offers no easy answers, he takes the audience to places it has never been before, and presents even familiar phenomena in completely new and different ways. The result is a fresh, energetic, and life-affirming film that challenges our preconceptions about human behavior while simultaneously celebrating the indomitable human spirit."
(Thanks, Timo!)
Country club lunch
The good people at the Santaluz Country Club had me over for lunch yesterday to talk about Shangri-La.
The chef there prepared a thematic meal—thankfully not filled with chiles, like authentic Bhutanese food, but more of an Indian flavor: lentil soup, mango chicken, and oh that creme brulee.
The tables were even decorated with the official flower of Bhutan, the poppy, and saffron silk napkins—gorgeous, tasteful, and best of all, people want to help us with Books To Bhutan.
That's Elizabeth, who chooses authors for the series in conjunction with Warwick's in La Jolla, holding up the handmade menu. A good meal is always a treat but this was on a whole different level.
In conversation with Meghan Daum
From the LA book launch of Radio Shangri-La at 
with LA Times columnist and author Meghan Daum. Thanks to Emily-Rose Wagner for shooting, editing, uploading, and of course, thanks to Meghan.
(And if you haven't read Meghan's books, you should! The Quality of Life Report is hilarious.)
#3goodthings
*hanging with Timo at the beach
*that lunch at Santaluz and how much thought and creativity went into preparing it *admiring the largesse of the sea lions
#3goodthings
March 16, 2011
KPBS green room and Cokie Roberts' driver
As i frantically searched for parking, the nice driver outside the studio, whom I correctly deduced was driving Cokie Roberts (who probably isnt on a self-financed book tour like moi,) waxed poetic about how he wished he could be driving *me. I think he dug my newly waxed Miata.
CNN.com
Not sure I ever posted this story on CNN.com, so, for the record, here it is:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/03/08/bhutan.author/index.html
Happy tweeters/unhappy tweeters
Is Twitter dividing the happy from the unhappy? A study by Cornell analyzed 102-thousand Twitter users and 129 million tweets (doesn't the idea of that make your eyes cross?) and found:
"…. the happy people have formed little Happy Twitter clubs. Meanwhile misery loves company in social media — as much as, if not more than, in real life.
"Beyond demographic features such as age, sex and race, even psychological states such as "loneliness" can be assortative in a social network," writes the study's lead author, Johan Bollen. But he admits that even he doesn't know why that should be the case.
So why is it so? Is it simply human nature, or a function peculiar to short-form virtual communication?
The answer depends on who you ask. Users on the "happy" side of the SWB equation will probably tell you they meant to respond to that depressive tweet from their Debbie Downer friend, but it was such a bummer they couldn't be bothered. Unhappy tweeters will grumble about the insufferably peppy quality of tweets from those shiny cheerleaders over in the happy corner."
Thanks to dear Kelly from the fabulous OnRamp (the good people who designed my website) for sending.
