kip fulbeck

As many of you know, I’m onto working on my new book, Permanence: Tattoo Portraits by Kip Fulbeck.

Chronicle is a great publisher and I’m happy to work with them again. Of course, they did say some celebrity inclusion in the book is preferred. So off I go to the wild world of agents and publicists.

Some are really nice. But what I’ve found is, the bigger the celebrity, the worse their management.

As in Tiger Woods (who I tried to get for the Hapa book). By all accounts a very nice guy, and certainly in touch with his multiraciality — what better guy to get for the book, right?

And if I actually got to him, I think he might have done it.

ME: Hello, I’m a university professor publishing a book on multiracial people. I’d like to send an invitation to Mr. Woods.

AGENT AT IMG: Does he know you?

ME: Excuse me?

AGENT AT IMG: Does he know you?

ME: No.

AGENT AT IMG: Not interested. (hangs up)

And that’s the way it goes with some of these agents. In their eyes, if they’re not going to make some commission, why bother? So they don’t even pass on the requests. The celebrities don’t even see them. And that’s sad, because I know a lot of these celebrities are probably really good people.

In my experience, these are the agents for Nicolas Cage, Keanu Reeves, and David Spade. I won’t name them here, but it’s all surface all the time … the L.A. stereotype gone bad.

But, as always, there are good people to balance out the rude ones. Even in L.A.!

The agents for Henry Rollins, Mike Ness, and many others were very nice even if their talent did pass on Permanence.

Super shout outs to the agents for Chuck Liddell (Jervis), Jennifer Tilly (Chuck), Joan Jett (Carianne), Jenna Jameson (Jackie) and Ani DiFranco (Tracy) who actually talk to you like a human being who matters.

And especially to my friend Kellie at Seymour Duncan, who has helped me get Slash and Scott Ian to be in the book. Kellie is the best!

So, if anyone has contact to any celebrity with ink, please let me know!

Because sometimes all I want to do is make art and teach. This business stuff is for the birds!

Watch this video and tell me that if there really is a God, s/he didn’t create one too many species.

I’d make a dangerous omnipotent dictator because in my world … these seal-killing jerks would spontaneously combust along with every Paris Hilton wannabe fur-wearing idiot. Rodeos would let the bulls loose on the cowboys. Bull fighting would be one naked, swordless matador against one pissed off bull. Poachers would get gored by the rhinos and mauled by the tigers they illegally hunted. Dog fighters would have their pit bulls turned on them. Shark-finning fisherman would get their limbs cut off. Circus animal “trainers” would have to deal with the angry elephants and bears without their chains, clubs, whips, and electric prods (see you later!). People buying dogs from puppy farms would have to live a week in the puppy farm before buying. And anyone eating farmed beef, pork, chicken, or duck would have to visit the slaughterhouse and actually see their pre-meal getting tortured and killed.

And if they still wanted to eat it then, hey, it’s their right. Except for veal eaters. They just die.

Told you, I’d make a bad dictator.

Man, blogging is cathartic sometimes …

“Hola Amigos. I know it’s been a long time since I rapped atcha …” (10 points if you can name the quote)

Back in Santa Barbara getting ready for the wedding. House almost done. Training for Masters Worlds. Seems the 50 meter world record in my age group is a blistering 24.14. Yikes, so much for that idea. Be happy to get top 10.

Just read about Mr. Bush’s veto on stem cell research, and how he surrounded himself with kids who were born from invitro cells to make it seem like they wouldn’t be alive if not for this, his first (!) veto.

Not that the logic there makes any sense, since the bill wouldn’t have applied to any embryos that were slated for adoption. Hey, it’s all in the timing.

Bush is the worst president of my lifetime. And, I’d say, arguably the worst in history. I don’t know how any open-minded individual could support him given his hallacious record and obvious lack of intelligence. Then again, we live in a culture where books “for dummies” sell like hotcakes.

Here’s part of my perfect world:

People get tax credits for not having kids.

Sex education and birth control is readily available worldwide, and encouraged.

Developers in CA have to actually live in the “communities” they build. Maybe this will stop the 1000 people that move into this state EVERY DAY.

Open space is actually valued.

Architectural diversity is actually valued.

People notice that driving by block after block of Circuit City, Olive Garden, Applebee’s, and Barnes & Noble separated only by track home lots with tiny greenbelts is just plain bad for the soul.

People support independent businesses, even though they might pay a buck or two more. Especially bookstores.

Cigarettes get banned. Come one … name one good thing they do for the world. One.

Mid-30’s women driving alone talking on their cell phone in enormous SUV’s that their much older husband/boyfriend bought for them get penalized everytime they drift over a lane and/or ignore a motorcyclist. Three strikes and it’s back to the Jetta.

Adolescent males are actually teens. Unfortunately, most adolescent men I meet are in their mid to late 20’s. The Go Nowhere Club is in full force.

Americans actually cared about how many people’s lives are being ruined every day by our horrendously embarrassing foreign policy.

Americans actually travelled. I mean to another country. I mean not Club Med or a cruise. I mean where people around you don’t speak English.

The Americans I did run into overseas wouldn’t make me cringe with their ethnocentrism.

People cared about education and healthcare instead of some idiotic oxymoronic soundbyte like “global war on terror.” Please.

Jet skis would be seen as the monsters they are.

Anyone tossing their cigarette butt on the ground would actually get fined. And if they dropped it within a mile of the beach they would spontaneously combust. Seriously, if you’re that careless about the world we’re better off without you.

Our country would stop seeing things in terms of race. That might sound funny coming from someone who makes so much art about race, but like I always say, I’d love to live in a colorblind society. And as long as they’re mislabeling me and making me choose between their insufficient box choices, I’ll keep making my work.

Rich people actually paid more in taxes.

Poachers get shot on site without penalty. Especially elephant ones.

Restaurants stopped serving veal and shark fin soup.

Chinese people stopped telling me I don’t look Chinese.

Insecure people would stop taking potshots at those more successful than them and just start working on themselves.

Dogs get to be on any beach at any time.

And people gradually realized drinking cow milk is gross. Put it this way, would you drink milk from a cat? A beaver? A horse? But make it from a cow and we’re somehow okay with that.

Oh, and it got twice as hard to become a teacher but it paid twice as much.

There, that’s better.

Okay, I’m finally recovered. That was an intense opening at the Japanese American National Museum last Saturday. The museum was free to the public for the opening so we don’t have any hard numbers, but from Lindsay & friends shooting almost 400 people for the interactive wall, we’re estimating between 800-1000 people came through that night. And I think I talked to almost all of them (well, it feels like it)!

Thanks to everyone for coming out in force. That was an amazing way to show how much Hapas are the changing face of Asian America, and also how much the story of Hapa identity is universal. I love how all sorts of people took part in the interactive wall photos & statements … young and old, all sorts of races, funny, serious, etc. Great stuff and really fun to read. Don’t forget to go out to JANM on Saturdays so Lindsay can photograph you and you can be part of the evolving project … the show runs through October.

Props as well to the spoken word artists. Heard many great things from lots of people.

I have never signed so many books for so many people in one day. I hope I got to everyone that wanted one. I know the bookstore ran out, but they’ve got more now and I’ll be there for most of the public programs so I can always sign there. I know the line goes slow, but I try to at least have a short interaction with each person. You are patient enough to stand in line, I at least owe you that. And sorry for my crazy Chinese Auntie who kept coming up to the side of the table for pics/kisses/no-waiting-in-line-signatures/etc. (Do I really need to put “crazy” in front of “Chinese Auntie”?)

It was a huge amount of work leading up to the show (big props to Clement and the preparatory team) so I’m still catching up on sleep.

Again, I wish I could have put everyone I’ve photographed in the show. I feel a certain attachment to each image and statement. Hopefully, if book sales go well we can continue with another edition. In the meantime, I’m still photographing people when I can. (Several of the JANM images were shot in New York just a couple weeks ago).

Mostly for the next two months though, I’m going to focus on training for FINA World Masters Swimming Championships in Stanford this August. I just started lifting this week and realize you get really sore AS YOU GET OLD.

One silver lining about getting older, is you age up into different Master’s age groups though.

That’s it for now. Let me know what you thought of the show … or think of the show if you can go see it. Park across the street and bring your parking ticket over for validation (they give you your $5 back), and hit up the great restaurants in the area.

Also, Heather and I fell in love with Waraku, a store across the street … trying to find a way for them to do a wedding registry!

I’ve been doing more interviews than I can count lately, which is a good thing (considering the alternative). But the hard part is I’m doing lots of these via phone for NPR radio affiliates on the east coast. Which means I’m doing them 7:00 AM pacific time.

I don’t know about you. But I’m not overly “chatty” in the morning. I’m more about getting the piglet dog to get the paper, drinking orange juice, and convincing myself I’m not retarded because I can’t get the first line of Jumble.

I mean come on: HOTYU???

That’s ridiculous. And then it gets harder.

But I digress. So I get these 5-10 min things we’re I’m supposed to song and dance the complexities of The Hapa Project into something sellable to an audience that’s switching channels as they drive to work. And for those of you who know me, you realize I’m very gestural (spazzy) and I get a bit limited on the phone. And I end up doing a lot of the monotone R2D2 kind of thing sometimes.

So anyway, I’ve got a bunch of cyber interviews floating around out there. Some are better than others.

Here’s one of the better ones from WBUR Boston.

Not bad eh? Not Howard Zinn, but not Farrah Fawcett on Letterman either.

Now compare that to one where I get to spazz out, i.e. video interview. Here’s a great profile done by Discover Nikkei

Finally, see what you think of it when I get to just type, like now. I like it a lot more. Less likely to say something stupid or blast someone I shouldn’t be blasting publically or doing a Turrets thing. Check out the FAQs here.

So, a week till the opening at JANM. Printing like crazy. Thank God for my crew they are amazing.

Hope to see you guys at the opening. Come say hi and tell me you like the show willya?

Oh, swam a rinky dink meet yesterday. 24.5 in the 50 fly (yards). Not bad. Not good. Two months till World Championships where I get to see all the Franken40+ guys out there who don’t age and still are buff. Fun.

Thanks for reading. Bye.

Oh, it’s “YOUTH” Duh.

I know, I’m lagging on the blogging scene. Sorry. Here’s the scoop.

Eight days and counting until the JANM opening. If you don’t know about the show, here’s the info.

We’ve got 40 prints done, 40 to go. Of course, the 40 to go are all new prints that aren’t in the book, which means compositing out the backgrounds, composing the overall composites with their statements, test printing, master printing, building frames, ordering archival window mattes (express shipping of course SINCE I LAG), cutting plexi, etc.

No problem? Add on mastering two compilation DVD’s with cover layouts/artwork for sale in the museum store, and do that on a Lacie harddrive that bites it every other time you try to use it. Add to that it’s bought from “Best” Buy in Ventura which is a store which bites in a city that bites worse.

Then have the museum store cancel the t-shirt idea after you spent forever designing the artwork. Fine, it’s a money thing and they might not all sell and they might get stuck with a box of shirts I get it I get it. So Plan B — put the designs up for sale on cafépress … and actually start selling some. Great! Things are going good. Then have some j*ckoff post a complaint on your myspace page saying $22 for a black t-shirt is too much for his cheap *ss when the company charges you $18 for the shirt to start with. Fun.

No one complains when their plumber fixes their toilet for $200 or a surgeon charges them $4000 to take out their appendix in half an hour. But when it comes to art, it’s all about the wallet sometimes. I mean it’s not your job or anything, right? God.

Oh, and speaking of self-riteous youngsters, got a new one for the all-timer list. Read on (from actual email … the writer is a student is in my 150 person “Introduction to Artmaking” class … which features one 2-hour lecture per week):

“Dear Professor,
I missed lecture this past Monday and was wondering if you can send me the notes and let me know what I missed and what I need to know for the final. Thanks ____.”

Wow.

And how’s this? I give a comic sequential narrative assignment in same class. Talk about a fun assignment that isn’t a neck-breaker. Make a comic … how hard is that? I would have LOVED this assignment. And what do I get? Some undergrad copying a comic verbatim off the internet.

Not only that, it was a bad original comic. Poorly drawn. Poorly written. Taken off some random chat thread and done by some randome chat thread guy. This is what you steal from?

Worse still, THE COPY WAS WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL. If you’re gonna plagiarize, at least have the pride to do it well. God. One more student off to the Dean.

Then, today I find out one of our students has been stealing bicycles to use as “material” for his sculpture project. He gets cited by the police and released. Not good, but fine. We make mistakes. THEN THE GUY GOES OUT AND DOES IT AGAIN. He ends up getting arrested in the sculpture yard of my own building. Nice. I love being Chair.

Meanwhile, why do some students sleep in my class? It’s not as if I’m not an entertaining lecturer or the work I’m showing isn’t interesting. Can you at least fake being awake? I’m fine with that concept, because at least they’re trying something. I mean, last week I watched a girl sleeping with her head laying back and face straight up to the ceiling. I stopped the lecture, asked her to wake up, and she looked at me for a second groggily, then layed her head back and went back to sleep.

In my day, I wore sunglasses to hide it. How hard is that? Yes, the academy of Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato is alive and well.

(Random racial note. Of the four times I have watched students blatantly sleep in lecture this quarter, three times the student has been Asian. So, the silver lining of the story is they’re doing their part to break the model minority myth. I mean, 75% is pretty solid I have to admit.)

But, I digress. The JANM show is gonna rock. The staff at the museum have been wonderful and supportive. And it’s gonna be the biggest Hapa art show in history. I hope everyone can come out to the opening party on Saturday, June 10th from 7:00-10:00. It’s free and features some amazing spoken word performers/comedians, great deejays, food & drink, and of course Hapas as far as the eyes can see. What more could you ask for?

And for you laggers, the show’s up for 5 months. That means NO excuses!

I’ll be more on the blogs once this show is cruising. Thanks, K

Part of being in a small group (and though we’d like to think otherwise, being Hapa together combined with being aware of being Hapa is a small group) is we tend to get a bit insular sometimes. As in sometimes people get to know each other’s business too much and lose focus on the big picture. Big picture as in working together to expand Hapa awareness, recognition, and celebration.

I remember “back in the day” when it was a fairly small O.G. crew (or O.H. crew if you prefer) … Teresa Williams (now Williams-Léon), Cindie Nakashima, Valina Houston, Steve Kich, Curtiss Rooks, Reg Daniels, Paul Spickard, Steve Ropp, Amy Hill, … many others. We didn’t always agree on things, but we got along and pretty much always supported each other because we knew anything anyone did was better than what we had before (which was nothing). Then came the other HIF co-founders, supporters, academics, and artists … Greg Mayeda, Eric Tate, Sheila Chung, Wei Ming Dariotis, Mika Tanner, Dede Howard, Erika Anderson, Anthony Yuen, Claire Light … on and on. Then the east coast and mid-west orgs stepped in, more and more people. Filmmakers like Greg Pak, Eric Byler, Stuart Gaffney … many others I could go on forever with. And I haven’t even touched on the writers, playwrites, artists, and actors. All good.

Now we’re at a point where our critical mass has been somewhat achieved, yet our notoriety in mainstream awareness hasn’t. Yet. We have websites, student groups, social networks, clubs, community organizations, some literature, some film, some new media, and now finally — we sit at the cusp of mainstream awareness regarding multiracial issues. That rocks. And I wish everybody else pushing for this in their respective ways all the luck in the world in getting their own particular message across. I wish everyone else felt the same about that support.

Which brings me to the point of this blog. Thank you, Ben Sloat.

If you don’t know Ben Sloat, you should, as I consider him a quality guy. And I barely know him. Ben and Steve Aishman have been working on the 1/2 Asian Project out on the east coast. It’s pretty cool and a nice idea. Check it out here:

1/2 Asian Project

Ben is an accomplished artist and photographer, an he recently contacted me after seeing my new book Part Asian, 100% Hapa in a bookstore in Boston. Now, I know what it’s like to be working in the same field as someone else. Academics do it all the time, and the petty jealousies and raging insecurities surrounding them (well … us — as I’m one too) is legendary. Really, many academics could stand going back to kindergarten and learning some basic golden rules over. I wish I could assign that to some in particular.

So how does Ben react seeing a book out by a potentially competitive artist done in a similar strategy to his own work? He emails me and tells me how excited and supportive he is. And he’s genuine. No bullsh*t, no fakeness, just support. And I get introduced to his fine work as well. Nice. Then the guy shows up to my opening at Space180 Gallery and introduces himself. Very, very cool.

The more public you get as an artist, the more share of weirdos, detractors, and hecklers you’re gonna get. Most just don’t have much going on in their lives and you hit some button for them, or they happen to stumble across your work when they’re looking for a target. I know it’s a part of the price of getting out there, and I know the old adage: the more successful you get, the more people come after you.

But sometimes still, I get jaded. And for all the hundreds of wonderful supportive emails from Hapas around the country regarding The Hapa Project, the occassional loose cannon freak email still hits me. I know I’m pretty sensitive to begin with (ask my fiancé), but this is about something more here simply because this project and book mean so much to me on a personal level. I really did make the book and project I wish I had as a kid. And that should be enought. That’s what I tell my students regarding their own work.

Yet sometimes, I still can’t get away from caring too much about what some people think. Sometimes I still wonder how-come-so-and-so-didn’t-come-to-the-opening rather than celebrate the 300 people who did show up and support the work. And I still fervently believe that we have to stick together to make Hapa identity something the rest of the country outsdie our little fishbowl actually recognize.

So Ben — thanks. You gave me some faith.

So I’m recovering from a fantastic opening at space 180. Thanks to everyone who came out to support!

I was sweltering hot and nervous, so apologies for anyone I didn’t get to talk to (I’m fine on a microhone, but get me in the randomness of a mill-about crowd and I’m like the dog without a crate that can’t handle the whole house to himself without getting into tearing the carpet up and scratching the couch and eating the shoes). Speaking of dogs, here’s one of mine in all his glory:

*click here*

Yes, quite the show dog he.

I quite dug meeting everyone and was touched by all the kind comments. I’m glad the work is reaching people, and especially liked hanging with my little talk-show co-host:

*click here*

Thanks to Derek Chung for the photos (At least the opening ones … You can’t have credit for the Bugsy shot. That one is all me.) Here are the rest:

*click here*

Wish we could have had more books on hand, but definitely better to sell out too few than doing the walk of shame down the stairs afterward with a cartload of extras.

Okay, just a short one today. Have to go see my nephew run. Opinions: The Family Guy is the funniest thing on television. America’s Next Top Model seems to share the same judge-casting formula with American Idol (i.e. Acidic English Guy, Flamboyant Black Guy, Prima Donna Hottie with Heart of Gold, etc.). And Hapas at openings really check each other out. All good. Bye.

So I swam a swim meet a couple weeks back. For those of you unfamiliar with the sport of swimming, it’s incredibly white, pretty middle to upper-class, and highly individualistic. Maybe in Australia star swimmers are the equivalent of Kobe Bryant fame-wise, but here in the U.S. we’re just a bunch of people wearing Speedos looking at a black line on the bottom of a pool all day for the most part. Anyway, I dig it. Keeps me sane. Somewhat.

So this meet is a Masters meet, which means it’s for those of us past a prime age where you get to compete against other folks in the same age group who also happen to be getting slower every year as well (which is fine by me — might even put me in the top 10 this year since I aged up into the 40-44 bracket … yikes those #’s are hard to write.)

I get to the meet with Heather and we realize quick that 1) the ratio of men to women is 10 to 1 … at least. And 2), no one looks like me. Well, there was ONE other brown guy … I think he was Mulatto but he was only 25 and just finished his college career so he was a ringer. Everyone else is white. And there was no one sporting much, if any, ink … let alone full sleeves and a back piece (remember, no hiding in Speedos). Not a lot of tattoos in swimming. So walking around I got my dose of new-kid-from-other-world set of stares.

Anyway, I swim the meet and did well. Cool. Then a couple days ago I run into my old college swim buddy Dave, who tells me he heard about my races.

“How did you hear all the way up in Santa Barbara?” I ask.

And he tells me people were all talking about this new black guy who showed up out of nowhere wearing all these tattoos that could sprint real fast but died like a pig in the longer races.

“And you knew it was me?”

“Of course.”

I haven’t been black for awhile. Not since I had a shaved head in college. Wait, I take that back. About 10 years ago I was getting my hair straightened (because I’m an idiot) in some mall in West Covina (because I’m really bored) and I’m sitting there all foiled and flattened with plastic squares all over my head sitting next to a black woman who’s doing the same thing.

After about 5 mins, she says to me,

“Ain’t nappy hair a bitch?”

“Well, I wouldn’t really know because my hair is …”

“You’re black — what do you mean you don’t know?”

“Actually, I’m not, I’m …”

“Well you’re part black.”

“No, I’m actually not, I’m …”

“You can not start with me denying your black culture! What gives you the right to pick and choose? Are you embarrassed? How can you …”

etc.

Anyway, we finally worked it out (no other choice really when you’re tied to medieval hair straightening devices for 20 minutes next to each other … you better work it out). Shared some laughs together. Nice lady.

So that was the last time. Occasionally black. Figure this time it must have been the swim cap that hides my hair. Either that or showing up to a swim meet in Santa Clarita in a different uniform.

And yes, as I told her, I would be very proud of my black culture.

Just when I thought I’d seen it all …

click here

Digitally blended composite faces? Typical features of each race? Eurasians appear healthier?

Yeah, that’s great. Don’t give us a place to call home and make us pick Mom or Dad on ethnicity questionairres for a couple decades, then come out and tell us we’re all supposed to be beautiful and healthy. If you’re not, then I guess you’re out.

Now don’t get me wrong, I find a lot of Hapas drop-dead gorgeous. A lot. But then again, I find pictures of Jennifer Love Hewitt gorgeous (probably because she’s not talking or singing, so I can imagine she’s amazingly smart, with a cutting, informed, yet subtly smoldering innocence she can turn on and off at will … but I digress). In short, attraction is obviously more than a picture. How many times do you find someone hot until they open their mouth?

So first off, this study reduces us to reacting to static images as a litmus for attraction. Problem #1.

Then, they theorize Hapas are hot because we’re supposedly healthier looking. Problem #2. Because attraction standards continually change based on media and culture. You think supermodels look healthy? Kate Moss is about to keel over, and that’s before the cocaine. A couple years ago, I dated a girl who did swimsuit modeling and she just kept fainting all the time. Like while walking. That got old quick. How big would a 50’s Marilyn Monroe be now … a size 10? A 12? Seems healthy to me, but she’d be a plus size model at best today. I wish I could say I’m above the pop cultures influence, but I’m just as influenced as anyone else. I mean I still think Calista Flockheart is beautiful, and you can’t tell me she looks healthy.

So yeah. You want some good looking Hapas? They’re there. You want some butt-ass ugly Hapas? They’re there. You want some healthy and unhealthy ones? There too. Just don’t start dropping your hybrid vigor expectations on me. Or at least use some real science. Sometimes I get sick, you know?

***

I’ve got bugs. Ever heard of powderpost beetles? Be happy if you didn’t. These little pieces of sh*t started coming out of my custom ash railings a few weeks ago and haven’t stopped. They’re basically unkillable (unless you squash them … highly recommended for short-term high btw). This company came in and heated up my stairs and landing to 180 degrees and they still lived. Then they came back and shocked 90,000 volts into the wood. Nothing. Then boric acid into their holes. These little f*cks just laugh. At least I imagine they do. Holed up in their dens drinking Bug Beer and watching Family Guy and yucking it up with their little mandibles clacking, all six legs propped up on various retro-style imitation 70’s shag footstools like some tiny Jabba the Hut.

So here’s my life. Now I sit on the floor next to these little burrow holes, holding a flashlight and a pair of tweezers waiting for these little suckers to stick their little antennae out so I can grab ‘em and squash ‘em. Unfortunately, they’re pretty fast at the atennae-retracting business so I’m basically like 0 for 50. But giving up? Are you kidding? Who do you think you’re talking to? I put the O in OCD. BTY, not a recommended activity for short term high.

Ah, life is glamorous.

***

So how about those Hapas submitting pics? Pretty damn cool if you ask me.

click here