All last summer, I kept checking in on my buddy Kristoffer Diaz’s blog. I saw his Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates about the Chicago production of his play, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. His play garnered a lot of well-deserved attention in Chicago which led to a short run in Philadelphia. Now you can catch a production in Minneapolis. Sadly, I’ve yet to see the play

None of this surprised me. I’ve been telling Kris for a long time (at least since ’04) that I thought he was a genius. On okayplayer.com he’d ask, “give me something to write about.” I’d offer up a word or two and he’d come back with a clever haiku or three. He called them “hailu,” because, you know I’m Cindylu. That summer, I took a three-week trip to Mexico. Kris asked me to write a haiku for him. I wrote 34 in 23 days. Later, he wrote the best thing anyone has ever written for me, “for cindylu (hailunares)”.

Needless to say, any news of Kris’ success makes me happy. I’m not like Morrissey at all, I love it when my friends become successful. This morning, I caught up on some news from yesterday and learned that Kris was a finalist of the Pulitzer.

Whoa!

LAT theater critic Charles McNulty weighs in on the board’s decision, lamenting that the finalists’ distance from NY (“Bengal” was initially produced in Culver City, “Chad Deity” in Chicago, and “In the Next Room” in Berkeley) ultimately hurt them.

Perhaps I should just be grateful for the board’s magnanimity in bestowing a drama prize at all. But though I’m not at liberty to disclose anything about our private deliberations, I haven’t signed a gag order as a theater critic. I’ll grant you it’s a strange job, but what’s the point of having it if you can’t advocate for finalists as talented as Rajiv Joseph’s “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” Kristoffer Diaz’s “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity” and Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play”?

These works represent the new guard of American playwriting. And their authors — diverse in background and courageous in style — are discovering fresh ways of connecting politics and poetry onstage. They take their place with writers such as Christopher Shinn, Will Eno, Young Jean Lee and Tarell Alvin McCraney, to name just a few of those contemporary dramatists who care about theater as an art rather than as an expensive diversion. [link]

Congratulations, Kris!

Not sure which makes me happier, to see my friend become [even more] successful or that’s it’s opening day at Dodger Stadium.

10 things I really like these days (aside from spring, sunshine and longer days):

1. Brightly colored tights and leggings (with short skirts and dresses, of course)
2. Stacia’s essays on pre-motherhood
3. Food Gawker, even if it is curiously lacking in photos of any Mexican or Latin American food. I was inspired to try a simple recipe for a lentil soup.
4. Speaking of Mexican food, I’m still a big fan of Taza de Chocolate and her easy to follow recipes. I need to make mole al estilo zacatecano.
5. Jordan! I’ve been sort of obsessed with my neighbor’s chubby toddler. Last year he ignored me when I’d say hello. Now he tells his mom that I’m his friend. He also calls me “pictures” because I was more than willing to indulge him and take pictures of his toy cars.
6. Group photos and impromptu photo sessions with the cousins.
7. Love and Rockets by los hermanos Hernández. I received three books of Jaime’s comics from Sean for Christmas and read through them faster than he expected.
8. Watching Danny at work. He recently started culinary school. So far it’s fun to talk to him about his classes and even more fun to eat what he makes. Even the simple stuff looks pretty.
9. Collaborating with Sean to make a bicoastal mixtape.
10. PostBourgie has been one of my favorite blogs for a while now. Thus, I was more than a little geeked to learn that they’d be starting a podcast. They’re only four episodes in. You should check it out too.

Yes, I’m still in school
I had a set deadline for making solid progress academically. I missed it. I’m actually okay with it because I have made progress thanks to my writing group. In my head, my dissertation sounds great, it even sounds great when I explain it to people. A friend joked, “I’d actually read that, not just skim it.”

Baseball is over, but I still pay attention to my LA teams
I went to my first NBA game on Saturday night. I watched the Clippers beat the Indiana Pacers. Not very exciting, right? Not for me. The game was a match up of two late ’90s UCLA standouts and current/former crushes Baron Davis (owner of my second favorite beard) and Earl Watson. Alan joked that what was an insignificant game to most was my dream match up.

Airborne
I still travel a lot. These days, my trips are much less taxing. After spending a good chunk of Friday either on a plane (listening to an interview with Jason Reitman), on the way to/from an airport, or in the airport, I returned to a chilly LA. That evening, I started my mini-George Clooney movie weekend with Up In the Air. The next day, I watched The Men Who Stare at Goats. I recommend both films.

Let’s go shopping (my sister had this board game… oh gender roles)
I thought I’d like shopping more now that clothes fits. I don’t. Don’t get me wrong, I love looking at clothes online, but just don’t like being in stores, trying to find my size (or figure out my size as it changes a lot these days), trying on clothes, etc. I also simply dislike a lot of current trends. I completely understand why celebrities have stylists. I’d find it a lot easier to dress myself if someone just told me what to wear (and bought it for me too). [Hint, hint.]

Back to tumbling, many, many years later
I’m posting photos, songs, videos, links and other bits at my tumblr blog, 31 and other mini obsessions. See what I like. (I was inspired by Sean’s tumblr blog Sean Loves This.)