Shaun Kardinal

Shaun Kardinal is a Seattle-based artist who embroiders old postcards, among other things, that I came across in my blog browsing. There's something dreamcatcher-y and folk-artsy about them that makes me feel like I'm in some southwestern desert climate, isolated from the rest of the world and squinting at things from my dusty porch, instead of a perpetually adolescent dissatisfied corporate pawn who finds freedom in looking at things on the internet and drinking.

Project!

Awhile back, I had been inspired by this 2011 International Year of Chemistry poster. Inspired to do what? I didn't know yet.

Sometime later on a project, I was doing infographic research for work and came across Nick Felton's personal annual reports and bookmarked them. Among them was this cool kitty:

And then sometime after that, I had a little light bulb moment. What if I made a travel map? With pins and string, so it was like 3-D wall art? String is so in right now. (Tape is over, I think.)

After a few more weeks, I saw that Schoolhouse Electric sells giant maps for a totally reasonable price. I ordered the global one, and then the issue became how to start pinning. Because we live in the city and have moved every couple of years, I didn't want to just start hammering tacks into the walls – I wanted it to be a solid piece that could be moved easily. So I ended up spending hours and hours googling for a 3 ft by 5 ft frameless cork board. If you know anything about googling, you know that how you google makes a huge difference. Cork board that big is 1) incredibly hard to find, and 2) super expensive. Cork sheets, on the other hand...

So I bought a giant roll of 6mm cork sheet. (It's recommended to use a quarter-inch or thicker if you would like to pin things to it.) Right now, it's flattening with my map under some heavy books in our dining room. Will post photos when it's up!

Racism

Yesterday, I went to the local bar by my workplace that we go to pretty frequently. I went as part of a group, but most of the group was distracted by a certain Waffle truck, so only two of us walked in together. The bar has a strange layout, sort of long and narrow along the bar and hard to get through when it's full. As we squeezed by to find a spot to order at the bar, I passed a guy who looked at me, turned to his friend next to him, and said "I'm so sick of all these fucking asians at this place."

I had been in a good mood, and was pretty blitzed, but I was so taken aback and off guard that I laughed and we kept moving. "I didn't mean you!" he yelled, although it was pretty fucking clear that he did.

I sat there with my friend getting madder and madder at myself for not putting the douche in his place. The rest of our friends showed up, so I told them all, partially to hype myself up. Finally, powered by everyone and all the alcohol, I found him with his friends (they had moved to a table) and proceeded to lecture him on why making a racist "joke" comment to a stranger is super fucking rude and not cool.

He was pretty much a douche the entire time, insisting that he makes racist jokes all the time (??) about all different kinds of people (!!!) and it's not a big deal. And then my awesome colleague Bryan came over and got in his face, and I was worried it was going to get ugly but the guy backed down pretty quickly and admitted he was wrong and apologized.

It was funny in a way, and a great story to tell people, but I still feel a little astonished about the whole thing. It's so easy, especially in a place like NYC, to forget how other people can perceive your racial identity. Maybe it's shitty of me as a Korean, but I honestly forget I'm that Asian, and forget that I'm a minority here. Or that some people don't like "my people," who are basically millions of other people I look like and don't relate to at all. Being aware and sensitive of this difference is a really uncomfortable feeling. I'll always be different because I look different to some people, even if I grew up here, watched the same movies and had the same music, voted in elections and pay a shit ton of taxes. So, thank you, and fuck you, you douchebag. You win.

Things I learned in LA

1. "Classic" rap radio stations are the shit and NYC should have one.
2. Palm trees that have a gray beard-like thing on them are old.
3. Nobody will cross a street with a "Don't Walk" sign, even if there are no cars around.
4. Everyone drunk drives all the time.
5. Outside of NYC, people's friends are the douches they grew up with, and they never make new friends, they just get married and have babies.

Shangri-LA