Sunday, October 2, 2005

October 02, 2005

HESSENIUS GROUP 2 - TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11th

Table of Contents:
I. Hessenius Group #2 - October 11th
II. Computer Advice


Hello everyone.

"And the beat goes on.........."

Tooting my own horn indirectly:
"You're still the one............."


A personal note: Last week the New York Dance Community awarded Alonzo King - the creative director of the organization I now run - Alonzo King's LINES Ballet - its coveted BESSIE Award in the Choreography / Creation category:

"For building a graceful bridge between tradition and innovation in LINES Ballet and other companies, and for infusing classical ballet with cultural expansiveness and a contemporary slant on human vulnerability."
--Bessie Awards Committee, 2004-05

Congratulations Alonzo.

ARTS DAY in CALIFORNIA is FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7th. Write your local newspapers and call your local television and radio stations and leave a ten second message urging them to "cover" ARTS DAY. And celebrate the rich, diverse cultural heritage and legacy that is yours.

I. HESSENIUS GROUP #2 - OCTOBER 11th
"Do it to me one more time, once is never enough.........."


The second HESSENIUS GROUP will go online at 9:00 am Pacific Time on Tuesday, October 11th. Slated for the panel are:

Sandra Gibson
Wayne Lawson
Diane Mataraza
Sam Miller
Cora Mirikitani
Andrew Taylor
Jerry Yoshitomi


and maybe, subject to availablility,
Ben Cameron
Bob Lynch


Bookmark the blog site now - www.westaf.org/blog - and then follow the Group that week. Enter your comments and thoughts by clicking on the "comments" button.

Ideas for topics? Email me at barryarts@comcast.net - hit "reply" button in your toolbar.

II. COMPUTER ADVICE
"Here's my story, it's sad but true..........."


My computer crashed last week. No apparent reason. A Dell Laptop(NOT recommended, particularly in light of their virtually useless and, unfortunately, often times completely erroneous technical support - which takes anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours to connect to - so much for "customer service"). After countless hours of their 'help', it was finally identified as a hard drive problem - but not until they incorrectly had me reinstall Windows XP thus making possible retrieval of data virtually impossible without recourse to specialists. I spent almost all of last week trying to identify the problem and get it fixed. Still working on it. Lost a lot of data - due to the bad "technical advice" from Dell. Fortunately for me, I can recover most of it - though it will take more time out, and some out of pocket expense.

The reason I bring this up, is that I didn't back up all of the data as I should. Most of us do this at the office (though not all - and those of you who don't are courting disaster), but fewer of us do this at home. Save yourself a lot of time and a huge hassle - back up your most important documents and files on a regular basis. Use a Zip Drive, make CD copies - email it to your office - doesn't matter - just do it. You don't think your computer will crash, but it is a far more common occurance than you might suppose. Do it now. You'll be glad you did.

Just when I was thinking the fates were singling me out to "dump" on me, I saw a great bumper sticker on a car. It read:

"Only one-sixth billionth of life on planet earth, is about YOU!"

Put it all into perspective.

Short Update this week - back to the computer problem. Please pass the word to your colleagues about next Tuesday's Hessenius Group.

Have a great week.

Don't Quit!

Barry