The Petty Foibles of Office Life are Universal

It's officially Fall, my favorite season and the beginning of a new TV line up to look forward to.  The show that's caught my eye is "Outsourced" a new comedy on NBC about an American guy that is forced to move to India because his management position at a call center has been outsourced to India.  There he encounters a parody of personalities and the quirky office culture of his new employees.  The show caught me instantly. Basically, any concept that explores and sometimes makes fun of cultural stereotypes, usually get me.  Harold & Kumar was a brave step and Modern Family is another of my favorites.  It is through observing, dissecting, and bringing to light this cultural hodgepodge of America(ns), that we can find understanding and hopefully laugh at ourselves.

I'm so glad that NBC took a chance with this show and I hope it does well.   God knows all we need is NOT another law or forensics or vampire-themed show.  " Outsourced" is refreshing and relevant to the issues of today yet most importantly funny and something we would want to end the day with.  The time slot after The Office draws a great comparison that, "Whether it's a paper company in Scranton, Pa., or a call center in Mumbai, the petty foibles of office life are universal( Washington EXPRESS)."  Maybe one day there will be room for an East Asian parody--and I mean something better than what Margaret Cho tried to do back in the '90s because let's face it, the All American Girl is never something we would ever want to be in this global society and her portrayal of Asian Americans were just down right two-dimensional and painful.

What's Old is New Again

Photos courtesy of DC Nine

It was Thursday night and my cousin and I were in need of a distraction.  As an avid reader, literary type--she always seems to know what's going on oppose to myself who usually exists in a bubble outside of my imposed list of responsibilities.   It's not that I actively buffer myself from the outside world, just that I know I am easily distracted and so the less irrelevant information the better.  That being said, I am not one that actively follows music or is even confident about her musical taste outside of satisfying myself.  However, on Thursday night we went to DC Nine (bar and music venue on 9th street) and saw April Smith and The Great Picture Show.  She was really good!   I believe they're based in Brooklyn now, but in all my years in NY I'd never heard of them until coming to DC.  

Smith's voice is unexpectedly powerful and although they've been classified from folk to country to swing, her musical style reminds me of Broadway musical performers.  It's got that energy and snappiness to it. Plus, she flirts with the audience and is a great showmen.  Her band, The Great Picture Show jams merrily behind her giving off that campy enthusiasm of the roaring 20s swing parties.  If you're a fan of the HBO series Weeds, you may already have heard their Terrible Things. If not, check it out here.  Hope you enjoy.

DC's More Soulful Side

Compared to New York, DC is not colored by the attitudes of fashion or the glitz of the financial industries. Instead DC is primarily a conservative city supported by the rational and scientific institutions like government, law, social non-profits, and so on.   In short, DC can be a little boring due to the nature of it's demographics and the fact that things close early.

However, as of late I discovered that DC does have a soulful, funky side behind the preppy cobblestone streets of Georgetown and the collegiate haunts of Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle.   The now revitalized hip areas of the U street and 14th Street corridors are historically and still presently Black American neighborhoods. The way I see it, the city is trying to preserve it's cultural heritage while still being cool and accessible to the public.  Maybe that's why there are such amazing little establishments like Bus Boys and Poets, a "restaurant, bookstore, fair trade market and gathering place where people can discuss issues of social justice and peace" so named after two opposing jobs held by Langston Hughes. And maybe that's why I was able to see free of charge the controversial Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio and local DC musician Matthew Hemmerlein.  The latter of which is amazingly talented acoustically or playing multiple instruments and managing the sound board as well with his toes.   His song No Fangs is a good example of this.  He's also kinda hot despite the Robert Pattinson-esque spray of untamed hair preceding him.  Check out his website here.

Matthew Hemmerlein on vocals and strings

They were really democratic about accommodating everyone to this free event so we were literally sitting at his feet on the steps to the stage.  This explains the weird angle of the photograph.

Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio

There are of course also speak-easies. This one is called The Gibson and is reservations only for crowd control purposes. It is nowhere as "secretive" as the New York ones though, hence the patio but they make really delicious cocktails. One of their specialties is a cocktail-gelato float like this cognac and champagne selection.  Maybe DC can be a soulful once it loosens it's collar a little.

Toto, I Think We're Back in Kansas

I haven't spent this much time at home since I was on summer break from college. Essentially this is what this is---summer break from work, right? Maybe. As much as I love my family, I spend a great deal of effort trying to be independent from them. No one wants to be like their mothers or be reminded of all the restrictions that youth once imposed before you were making your own money.  Aside from New York City being the best place for design in the US, this was the mindset that made me move away from home.

However, I did make the decision to stop working. I needed to reassess what I wanted in life; whether it was to trudge on as a slave to design for the sake of livelihood or locate my personal goals. Where was I headed and would time slip through my fingers before I had a chance to figure it out? Was New York City really the best place for me or was it a default location other than home?

Well, after 5 months of producing window displays and retail merchandising; 3 months of moonlighting as a corporate caterer; and another 5 months of wandering and mentoring youth in China, I can confidently say that life is fundamentally the same everywhere. It is the person that affects the experience. No mater where you are or what you're doing--perception or mindset really is everything. The concept seems simple now as I write it, but the grass is not greener on the other side or will it magically be greener in the future.  It is the person that waters that grass to make it green.  I don't mean to turn this post in to a philosophy debate, but I do believe we generate our own happiness and that appreciating the present saves you a lot of anguish about the past or anxiety about the future.  Now is all we have.

And so now I am home. And so now while I try not to obsess and agonize over the future of my career and my life, I am grateful to be with my family who are the foundation for everything I am. I am grateful to observe the slight childhood quirks of my two nephews despite the fact they wake me up at 7am everyday pretending to be marauding pirates.  I am grateful for home-cooked meals despite the fact that my mother tends to be an eccentric, experimental cook; and for a roof over my head even though my parents are pack rats and I can never find anything among the piles of clutter.  Finally, I am grateful to live in the DC area and hopefully will unravel a little about this city as an adult that I did not see as a child.

A Change of Pace

Being back home in the US is great, although oddly disenchanting.  Sometimes I feel like someone that knows a secret she isn't supposed to tell. How do you return to ordinary life after having experienced something more? I don't want to resume business as usual. How do I maintain what I've learned? I'm still working on that answer whether it's getting a fresh start by acquiring a new apartment, a new job, or a new degree.  I should change my routine.
One main difference I've noticed within myself is that I really have achieved a broader perspective on things and do feel (gasp) more patient.  While I still try to take every opportunity I can--I understand that success is not achieved because of one or two magic moments, but a constant effort toward a goal.  Yes, single-mindedness and focus is hard work in this digitally, fast-paced modern era of ours but I'm damned glad to be surrounded by the diversity and resources of  the US of A.

One Last Look

Open-air cafe near Beixinqiao

China is one funky place I would like to return to. There's so much history but simultaneously so much development and both sides are struggling to preserve and create.  It's like the country's on one of those makeover TV shows and you want to see the follow up episode of "where are they now".  Did they get better or worse or stay the same?

I would like to see where everyone's lives take them. Rebecca, the Russian language teacher tells me she is planning to get pregnant next year and have a baby--maybe two since minorities aren't restricted by China's one child policy.

Rebecca and I at Beidaihe

 

 

Three of my students are going to study abroad. Vanessa and Tony are headed to Australia for college and Zhao Si Yue is going to live with a host-family in Canada for high school.  It will be the first any of them have ever set foot abroad.  I can't imagine taking a plunge like that and trying to somehow perform academically--but I am so excited for them. They're going to have such great stories.

Tony and I in Bedaihe

Vanessa and I in Beidaihe

Zhao Si Yue in Beijing's 798 Art District

Finally, I would like to see what new innovations and oddities the Chinese people turn up. Below is an elaborate fluorescent light fixture in the Beijing subway station. Fluorescent because of energy and cost-savings, but decorative because anything less would be too institutional. I like it.

Then there's also the nicotine patch vending machine at the Bird's Nest Stadium because that's one of the only rare places in China where smoking is actually prohibited. I think most societies would view the placement of such a machine as a bit tactless about a very serious addiction problem but not the Chinese. They locate it of course, right next to the other vending machines where any passer by--such as a kid may access nicotine patches.  I love China, and I hope to be able to come back many times over to see how she's doing.

The Next Big Thing

Freshmen Grade 1 Class 4

 So although my reasons are great and varied for going to China, teaching is the reason I was able to stay as long as I did.  I didn't think I would care as much as I did, but weeks after returning, I still think of my students.  There are just so many little things about American life that I wish I could teach them---show them.  I wish I could show them that life can be something else. It's not always regimented schooling, battered buildings, and the looming divide that gao kao---the college entrance exam creates for those left behind.

The average Chinese student is a robot.  They might as well live at school with the amount of time spent in the classroom studying and memorizing. Volunteering in the classroom is discouraged as it might create a disruption and so students wait to be called on.  Because most schools are over-crowded anyways, it is more orderly for students to remain in the same classroom and have teachers rotate.  I am assuming because the education levels of parents may vary that students are made to finish homework at school while supervised by a teacher.  All in all, students are in school probably a total of 10 hours a day Mondays through Fridays and usually Saturdays.  Furthermore, although my school was public, uniforms and short hair cuts were required and dating was forbidden.

High school is an awkward enough time as it is for teenagers, but to have all these restrictions is to create a prison for the mind and spirit. So much of their youth is encircled within the walls of academia.  It impedes independent thinking and creativity.  What does this mean for a generation of only children that already have two sets of grandparents and parents doting on them? I worry what this means for the country's desire to innovate and become the next super power.  They will need thinkers, activists, artists.  China needs to move beyond this mimicry and cultivate differences; innovation; change.

Most young people I think see this but are powerless to change it. They continue on this path established for them and those that can afford it choose to study abroad.  However in select students I see such hope and determination for a better future that I know something is stirring. While many will be limited by bureaucratic restrictions, I hope even more will find a way to surpass them and get to the other side.

Sophomore/Junior Grade 2 Class 5