Tuesday, July 7, 2009

kimchi mancake project

how is that 23 years later, a crush is still a crush?

perhaps i should rephrase that (because after a visit today from a childhood friend who also happened to be the boy for whom i had designed, created, and reserved a turkish-opium-den -desert sunset hued velvet cushions, hand-loomed kilims, breeze moving silk curtains, smokey haze a blend of frankincense and hookah-shaped space in the corner of my little 10,11,12,13- year-old heart, the last thing i felt was crushed) and perhaps i should explain myself.

i reconnected with saul a couple of years ago when the tall person with the penis with whom i live told me about burning man. when i looked into the event, my eyes were drawn to a sculpture in the website's margin. underneath was the name saul melman. do you know how many saul melmans there are in the world?

one.

thanks to alphabet deities saul sat next to me in homeroom when he moved to our town in fifth grade and our lockers were next to each other throughout high school. he was the first boy who invited me to a party at his house. in the last 20-odd years since we graduated high school he has become an emergency surgeon to support his artistic habit, explored the planet, and most of all grown to be a very cool Man. thus proving that i was a very wise 10 year old.

adding to his list of Very Impressive Things, he has been chosen by culture push to participate in the genesis project. we got together today to (try to) catch up, and not so much to discuss his latest project, but rather to be it. i won't try to explain any of this in detail for a couple of reasons. first, because the links are there for your use.

second, because when saul came by this morning it seemed that every time we began talking about the artist's residency, the organization which created it, or the fundraising project which he shared with me and my neighbor today, the conversation turned corners, meandered over hills and dales(i was wrong saul), rummaged through childhood memories as well as teenage discovery, illuminated dreams, and became something bigger than the kimchi pancake that inspired it.

which, i think, is his whole point.

at the end of what felt like too few hours and not enough conversation, saul asked us to come up with one word, without thinking, to describe the experience. the 'without thinking' part i can do, easy. i've got that down pat. but the 'one word' part? not so much my forte.

i stumbled, first saying 'embarrassing', which was entirely misleading. then 'too short', which is actually two words. the truth is a whole lot of words come to mind...

rich, fun, inspiring, flirt, imagine, nostalgia, cathy?!, growth, play, participate, provocative, biology, fences(broken and mended), easy, sheep, share, work, actualize, blush, sweet, comfort, return, become, think.

please pick your favorite.

if i had to choose one word (on pain of death or having to traverse another 20 years before connecting again) to describe my kimchi pancake project experience, it would be this:

de*crusha*licious.





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