April 1, 2008

Radio Silence Alert

As you may have guessed from my relative absence from the blog world, this show is kicking my . . .

Of course the client has only given me 2 out of 40 deliverables. Production files (i.e. READY TO PRINT) are due on Friday. Call me crazy, but I bet the in-house designers at Client from Heck aren't going to set things up properly. I'm promised files by Friday. UGH.

All that is to say, I may not be able to check-in very often. I'll be reading, but not really able to comment.

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On a Facebook, trivial note, one of my buddies from high school 'found' me. I had two distinct crowds that I hung with back in the day. One group was from the Honors core classes. Though not the geek crowd that evokes--we were at a total college prep school, so that was the popular crowd. My (now gay) Sadie Hawkins date was from that scene. The other crew huddled around the tables in the art room. We wandered around, swapped backrubs and concert stories, showed sketches and were the alternative crowd. It was the '80s; black was required. Dock Martins. Men's shirts worn baggy over peg-leg jeans. This friend was from that crowd.

The funny thing to me now is that by his last name I know he's Japanese. I also know that in high school I didn't think about his ethnicity at all. I was joking with Jrex that for most caucasians, Asians are 'the other white meat'. If there's no accent, an Asian isn't perceived as any different. Knowing what I know now, I look back and wonder what his life has been like from an Asian framework. When he wrote and asked about my "Most Common Korean Last Name", he mentioned he'd married a Korean woman. I wrote back in shock, "How was it possible for you as a Japanese man to end up married to a Korean?!" He also ended up as a CAD jewelry designer for Tiffany. I'm so much more curious about family support (or lack thereof) for a career in the arts. So many questions! It's strange to see what I knew then superimposed with what I know now.

5 comments:

Rachel said...

Hope the work situation improves. How cool that your former classmate got in touch with you. I had a half-Japanese classmate, and thinking about it now, she was probably the only Asian classmate in our whole school. In retrospect I think about how hard that must have been for her.

Mama Nabi said...

Agh. You are missed... Hope things don't get more hectic - and that the project unfolds without too many hiccups.

Having gone to an international school, I am fascinated to hear about high school days here in the U.S., the popular crowd, the in crowd, the outcasts, the rebels... (SO 'Breakfast Club', huh?) but especially about different racia/ethnic groups. I was fortunate that I was never told I was inferior due to my skin color - at least not by my peers... we did have a few white teachers who made some comments.

Anonymous said...

ooohh jewelry designer for tiffany? that sounds fab. he he

hope your crazy project is done soon!

Beloved said...

Yes, it's very interesting how Asian students are perceived...as long as (like you say) they have no accent. I just had a situation with a half Filipina girl who called out a fellow student when he told her she should use chopsticks to eat some perfectly Western food. She told him he was being racist and asked me to verify. Of course, I gladly did.

OTRgirl said...

He wrote back to say that it was actually no problem with his wife's family. Her grandfather, who'd lived through the occupation, actually spoke to him in Japanese! Wow. I'm impressed.