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I N  T H E  N I G H T  K I T C H E N

Community College

Community College is a whole different land. I have realized now that I've become one of those older students who gets irritated when the class gets off-track. As far as I know, however, I'm not the annoying older person who occupies the teacher's time with strange questions or comments designed to reveal that I have "real-world experience" and have been places and know things. Those people are other people and I loathe them, perhaps more than I did when I was a young, strapping undergrad.

Because, you see, I actually want to hear what the teacher has to say, not what you over there think about Frank Lloyed Wright and how wonderful he was. You see, it's not a new viewpoint and doesn't make you more interesting to anybody. Nobody cares that you like Wright or have seen a few of his constructs. You like Wright? Incredible. Have you ever heard of Dali? I like Dali. Are we mind-blowing art appreciators or what? (No.)

I get quite irritated when I feel like the professor is wasting my time. I get more irritated when people ask stupid questions and the professor answers them. The class I took last January for an intro to drawing class was full of stupid questions and stupid answers. There was a small number of students in that class that took special delight in derailing the class and the guy teaching it was so insufferable that I would be digging my nails into my palms and chewing on my lip.

During one lecture, the teacher and this stupid kid went off talking and talking and talking about some other drawing class and a good ten minutes into it, everyone is waiting to get back to the topic and people are falling asleep and people are starting to chat among themselves and I just couldn't stand it and blurted out, "Can we get back to the topic?" Everyone woke up and the teacher looked startled and we went on with the class.

The entertainment of stupid questions thing is somewhat understandable. I have some sympathy for teachers who get stupid questions and understand the reason they try to answer them. Having taught a few Flash classes, a stupid question can come out of nowhere and before you even know it you're trying to answer it. But when someone asks if they can listen to their walkman in class, the answer is 'no.' No explanation is necessary.

Several times during my class I find myself repeating internally: 'I am an academic snob.' And, actually, I don't think that's true in any other arena except Community College. I think some of this stems from the fact that CC is geared towards your academic misfits -- people that wouldn't or couldn't make the leap to a University and have settled into CC. Some of these people are very young and are probably being forced by their parents to do some kind of higher education. Many are people looking for technical skills to apply to a job and you're more likely to find that at a CC than a University.

I have mixed feelings on that. The typical four-year liberal arts University is based around study and theory without too much emphasis on application. Taking continuing education classes at CC is focused on application and skills. Both are valuable but they each need the other.

I have more thoughts on this but for now I'll regale you with the notes I made during my first two classes on the more interesting characters in my architecture class:

Ken - weathered-looking guy in flannel, sporting a Vietnam Veterans cap decorated with various pins and medals. A toothpick continuously dangles from his mouth. He's interested in building design.

Dana - wears an Abaya (head-scarf) but also Doc Martens, jeans, bright red lipstick and a tough I-could-kick-your-ass attitude.

Joe - likes to design cities from scratch and has two elaborate examples on beat-up paper that he brought to show. He's clearly an old-school Dungeons & Dragons fan. Early-to-mid 40s -- shaved head except for a short, four-inch long mohawk which ends at his shiny bald-spot. Acid-washed jeans.

Natasha - voice like a foghorn. She cannot whisper. Owns an art gallery but also works as a secretary.

Chuck - looks middle-aged but fit. He has a bad back and comments on it constantly as well as fidgeting and changing chairs at least three times in class. He has a tinny, loud voice and an appreciation for Frank Lloyed Wright.

Sing - looks mandarin but it could just be the wispy fu-man-chu facial hair. Angular face and long dready hair. He's wearing a pair of earrings made entirely of wood that I also have. His voice is that of someone born and raised in San Francisco.

Pat - older lady with bad uni-color Reeboks. She looks like a full-sized dwarf and talks throughout the class making little "uh-huhs" and "yeah" and "that's what I thought" comments as though the teacher is speaking specifically to her. If she threw in an "amen," I'd feel like we were in a church.

1:21 PM link

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It's not that I think commercial graphic design is Art. What the designer is tasked with is to communicate a message and to solve problems, not to create art. Anything remotely resembling art that is created during the process of communicating a message and solving problems is incidental to the commercial aspect. However, to the designer, that which is creative is most important. Yes, the message. Yes, the problem-solving. But, at the end of the day, we want to stand back and look at what we've created and not retch.

11:17 AM link

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The single worst thing about being a commercial graphic designer is working with people who have a very narrow creative vision and who think they are very creative when in actuality they are wrong.

10:54 AM link

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Entries are going to be a little sparse for the next few weeks. My brain is just going a mile a minute and it's spring and I just can't sit still long enough to compose anything remotely coherent.

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I've started an intro class for Architecture over at one of the community colleges. For Christmas, T. got me this smallish drafting table and I'm finally putting it to good use, working on my homework. Yesterday, we went by the art supply store and picked up white foam-core and a cutting mat. I'm sure that cutting foam core and gluing it into little model shapes will get dead dull over time but right now it's fun.

Actually, my understanding is that one of the consummate joys of the senior architect is having someone else do the drafting and the painstaking model making. I can relate to that. It was so wonderful to get to the point in an agency where I could do the site design and then hand it over to someone else for the html. That didn't happen too often, sadly, but it was nice when it did.

2:06 PM link

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Lexicon

Bicycle cop -- copcycle (Pronounced like popsicle.)
Number of cops in a given area -- copulation

11:40 AM link

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