The Eglinton Brothers have started a web project they've dubbed Calling America, which gathers real stories from real people around the USA. The Eglintons are English, and as they say on the project's about page, they've grown up as "American children by proxy", fed by a steady stream of exported American TV, videos, music, and movies. And this youthful exposure has created something of an cultural identity conflict:
[they felt as if they were] American without ever having been to the United States. American without ever having met an American person face to face. More intimate with America than perhaps with our own native England. But soon came the New Millennium, and with it a great shock. We had reached maturity and had begun to think for ourselves. And in analyzing our youth, we had grown critical of America: it was all a construct, a figment of some wealthy Hollywood director’s imagination, a lie greater than the myth of Santa Claus! – And indeed the source of our malaise. We had built the foundations of our youth on an imaginary land and the cracks were beginning to show.
I find this a fascinating project because it aims to collect the "real stories from real people" across America. Not just for Americans either, but for people outside the country who seek to understand, drawing their own conclusions from our personal stories, not the mass media.
I also find the feeling of cultural identity conflict to be a familiar one. If you've never lived outside of the country, being American is one of those comfortable uniforms that you've always worn and never had to take off. You've probably never had to question it.
My earliest memories of childhood are of living in rural New Jersey where my Dad was the minister of a small Presbyterian church surrounded by farmland.
When I was growing up in NJ, being "Chinese" was the most distinguishing physical feature I possessed, and there were not many. Seeing another Asian family was like getting a surprise glimpse of David Hasselhoff sitting down to enjoy a Grand Slam Breakfast at Denny's: there's a mild shock of recognition that there's someone you sorta know in a place you didn't expect to find them. If the initial vibe is good, the tentative question, "Are you Thai?" or "Are you Korean?" or "Are you Chinese?" would come up, a slight tone of hope lacing the words. The real question was, "Are you like me, trying to figure out this place of our dreams and the place where we want our children to grow? Are you on the same journey, in this strange but compelling land?"
Most of the time, the answer is negative; I myself have trouble telling the difference between asians so I guess wrong all the time. But I imagine that when the answer was "Yes, I'm also from CountyX!", there's that surge of joy that you've found a potential comrade to journey with, even for a few minutes. I should ask Dad about the experience from his perspective...Dad, if you are reading this, leave a comment! He tells me that he used to get mistaken for being Latino actually, which is a whole 'nother story :-)
In 1976, the family moved to Taiwan...going home, really, for my Mom and Dad, though they had not planned on returning. For me, a new adventure and a new culture, to which I didn't take. I don't know what it was that prevented this, perhaps I was already a shy kid and wasn't comfortable meeting people. Maybe it was the highly judgmental nature of some of my relatives, or that I sucked at learning the language, and quickly withdrew into my own shell. Was I American or was I Taiwanese? I was in the country, and I was born of Taiwanese parents, and surrounded by Taiwanese family, so you'd think that it would take, especially since there was nothing to watch on TV. But it probably was that I became incredibly stubborn; I remember one day, angry and hurt about some slight I have long since forgotten, that I decided I was American, not Taiwanese. If I was going to be rejected by this culture, then SCREW THEM. I've mellowed out since then, thankfully; reintegrating into a culture that will probably always be foreign to us is a topic of conversation my cousins and I often talk about. It was the food, of course, that started bringing us back into the fold. And for me, it was family and community of any kind, and my increasing appreciation of my own family members as people, that has re-engaged me.
But I digress. When I returned to the US for college, I was so excited about being back in a country where I could speak the language, buy books that covered my interests, eat food that I'd missed for 10 years, and just be back in an environment that seemed like it offered opportunity, not more constraints. But then I had forgotten---and this still happens to me a lot---that I am Asian. And I also had 10 years of pop culture to catch up on, though I'd experienced some of it in Taiwan through the magic of Betamax, the importation of Dallas and Heart to Heart into Taiwan before they started dubbing it into Mandarin Chinese, and our school's library subscriptions to Byte and Creative Computing.
I think it's only in the past 5 years that I've started to catch up as the 80s become more of memory for people, but I am still getting re-acquainted with America. And I find that the best way to do that is to just listen to stories of people who come from different places. The best part is that you can find good people everywhere, people with a similar heart, and even though you have hugely different backgrounds you really are coming from "the same place", somewhere in America.
Check out the Eglinton's site: Calling America. This is a great idea.
UPDATE: Fixed my atrocious mangling of the Eglinton name...1 g, not 3! :-)
James Bicker just shot me an email telling me about his Majency Oracle Cards:
The Majency Oracle is a 169-card deck of original prompts or "matches" to spark the imagination of writers, poets, or any creative individual that needs inspiration.
As James mentions, it's similar in spirit to Brian Eno's famed Oblique Strategies. This one, though, is a free download...why are you still here? :-)
Google has been teaming up with public transit authorities around the country; I just read on Austinist that they've gotten the Austin Capital Metro database in, so you can now plan your public transit bus trip complete with maps and walking guides. Just in time for SXSW! Awesome! Here's an example: the route from my hotel to the BlogHer meetup.
Unfortunately they don't cover Boston for when I get home---good luck with that mess! There are also some caveats for public transit noobs like me. The last time I rode a bus was when I was living as a non-Chinese speaking kid in Taiwan, and I used to memorize routes by landmarks and cross my fingers. I had a few scary (for a kid) adventures, and as a result I have the tendency to over-prepare my travel plans as an adult. So here's what I learned the hard way as a kid:
- The return trip may not be the same bus or road
- There are alternate bus routes. Google Transit just picks what it thinks is the best one, and I've noticed small differences in how it picks the starting bus stand on the route. Nothing big.
- Buses tend to have hours of operation, so best check what they are. I am still looking into this.
Capital Metro, the city transit authority, also runs these free trolleys called the 'Dillo, which I may ride today to just get a feel for the city if I don't run into someone first. This is the first time I've arrived early enough in a city to explore it. According to this map I grabbed from the hotel lobby, the following Dillo routes seem to cover the nearby area:
- 470 - Tour the Town - Goes as far north as the university of Texas (21st St), circles the State House along the way, and then comes back down south over the river on Congress Ave to "Spyglass Road", whatever that is.
- 450 - Orange 'Dillo
- 451 - Silver 'Dillo
- 455 - Red 'Dillo
- 461 - Gold 'Dillo
- 462 - Blue 'Dillo
- 463 - Starlight 'Dillo
So grab the maps and schedules and go for a ride!
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Hey, I just got the word that the 9rules Network is having another round of submissions on November 14! You'll have 24 hours, starting at midnight, to submit your website for consideration. I'd like to see more New Media and Flash sites, personally :-)
You can read about the 9rules philosophy here, but you might be wondering what the Network is actually like...like, what's the real dirt on it? So far, it's been remarkably cool...the basic premise behind the Network is that when you get a bunch of content-conscious, quality-driven people into the same place, great things happen. It's a network for passionate, creative people; having a quality website is the price of admission.
In a way, it's a kind of club. 9rules doesn't own your site, or your content, or tell you how to run your site. The legal agreement itself is a remarkable bit of writing...where's the catch? There isn't one...at least that's the intention as I see it.
The experience has been like going to a good school: it's not so much the facilities or the institution itself that's important, it's the people you meet. The member forum has a lot of active discussion on all manner of topics. It's one of the best forums I've ever been part of, and the entrepreneurial energy is incredibly infectious; it's the kind of place that a solopreneur would feel comfortable in. And, it's nice to know that should I go to an event like SXSW, I would actually know other people there ;-)
So check the Network out and submit your website on November 14! Good luck!
I stumbled upon Peter Flaschner's post regarded his one-year blog anniversary over on Almost Cool. I had just celebrated my own anniversary, so I was curious about Peter's experience.
It's an inspiring tale of losing everything and starting from scratch to build a burgeoning design practice, of connecting with new people, and doing what you are meant to do. He has this cool list of repeatable steps that has contributed to his amazing year:
- find a subject you care passionately about (really, wildly passionate)
- learn everything you can about it
- find a way to apply your passion to a narrow field. For example, rather than saying “I’m a web designer”, I said “I’m a blog designer”. While in theory this shrinks the pool of potential clients by a huge margin, the reality is that my market is global. There may be only a tiny percentage of people looking for blog design, but it’s a tiny percentage of a HUGE number. Make it your business to become the default go to person in your field. (here’s a secret that they don’t usually tell you: you can be an expert in more than one field)
- network, network, network. Use email, IM and skype to connect with people. I’ve met the most amazing people this year. Most of whom I’ve never “met”.
- above all, be honest and forthright
- treat your clients, suppliers, and everyone you meet as well as you can
- work your ass off. I work a stupid number of hours per week. But I’m doing something I love. So most of the time it doesn’t actually feel like work.
Just awesome. So true.
I was particularly struck by his advice on "applying passion to a narrow field". I'll have to think about what field(s) that could be. I recently figured out what I was passionate about, but haven't been able to come up with a nice easy-to-understand niche.
On a side note: I've been stumbling upon lots of interesting blogs from Canada lately, particularly from the Toronto and Vancouver areas. What's going on up there? How can I get some of that down here in New Hampshire?
