L'Amour

My friend Sam is doing this thing where he and his acting friend rent out a small theater and show movies they like. The first installment of this activity was Saturday night, and it was quite the classy affair. Invitations, RSVPs, free popcorn, and Fiji water. Some people simply organize events, some people throw events; Sam is of the latter sort. The screening room Sam rented turned out to be at a very nice hotel, and the whole thing had the feel of a movie premiere, even as we were just getting together to essentially watch a DVD. Before the film, Sam and his friend screened some of the video series they'd been making over the past year. Watching the clips on a giant movie screen was very different, and it looked really great.

Before we were in the same friend group, Sam and his party crew were hired by our college Asian organization to throw a beginning of the year party at the student center for us. I remember meeting this outrageously energetic guy, who was a bit intimidating with his energy, in the computer lab in order to print out fliers and discuss details. The party ended up being a total dud -- we had no social pull -- and we kept wondering what had gone wrong. Three hundred dollars spent on promotions and a DJ and I think we had maybe twenty people attend. That's unrelated to all this, but I just remembered this Sam story and don't think we've ever talked about it. I'll have to bring it up.

Anyway, the movie selection tonight was La Haine, a film about some troubled youth in Paris' projects, and one of Sam's favorites. Earlier in the week, the two of us had the chance to get together and talk over a project we both want to do. We spent a few hours sitting in his living room, Giants versus Vikings in the background, huddled over our laptops, trading ideas and trying to nail down the scope of what we hoped to accomplish. Both of us are collaborators at heart, and we talked about how hard it is to find actual collaboration, a true 50-50 split. People say they'll do more than they will; enthusiasm for shared projects tend to peter out quickly.

I don't know where our conversations and efforts will go, but it's fun to be be creative with a friend. Just hanging out and engaging and challenging each other to make something tangible is a pretty exciting experience. Now toward results.

When we were young, George and I used to organize our playmates into assembly lines to create little children's books, all drawn out on half-sized pieces of yellow legal paper. One person would pencil, one person would ink, the next person would color, one person would staple, one person would write the words, etc. Later on, George also was on the editorial team of a Chinese school gossip rag ("The Chinese School Gazette") that would be written and assembled all in the span of one week. The printing would be done at home on our dot matrix printer Friday night and then George would bring in the stack of papers to class Saturday morning. While the teacher was futilely trying to educate everyone, half the girls in our room would be involved in the production of the latest news and views from Chinese school.

George, do you remember that? I bet we can still dig up some copies. There was an advice column, fashion tips, and of course, lots of talk about our fellow classmates. I guess in that way George has been more a part of a creative team than I have. She published before I published!