GR Talk at CSULA

When I agreed to give a classroom talk at Cal State Los Angeles, I thought GR60 would be done by tonight. No such luck, but I left the office a couple hours early to battle traffic, arrive on campus on time, and do the talk, and am really glad I did.


I've driven by CSULA a million times on the way to and from the San Gabriel Valley for Chinese food, but this is my first time to actually check it out. It's pretty nice. With just a few weeks before the end of the semester (quarter?), there's a palpable mix of academic dread and summer-itis. I even saw some familiar faces. One of them is below.


The course was called National Identity, Race, and Popular Culture. The way I wound up going was from answering the phone when the class's instructor was ordering magazines for her students' required reading. Not only did I take down her information, but I mentioned that Eric and I give talks to classes like hers... Of course, she took me up on it. I was relieved that not only did her students stay awake and alert throughout the talk about GR, Asian and Asian American culture, and the role/responsibility of media regarding ethnic identity, but they were actually quite engaged and asked interesting questions afterward. They even clapped when I split! (Wait, is that good?)


Here's the other familiar face--as well as my ulterior motive for wanting to visit CSULA. My friend Mike is a professor of American Studies there. Back in the early '80s, he and I used to skate Bronson Ditch on a weekly basis, and once we even skated with TA there. We went to quite a few punk rock shows as well, and I distinctly remember us seeing L7 one New Year's Eve. I haven't seen him for ages--maybe since Wendy and I got married--and this was a great excuse to say hi.


So tonight was great, but perhaps the best part is that talking about GR always makes me extra appreciative of my work and motivates me to make the most of it. Now the night is young, and it's time to dig back into mag work with gusto...