coehlic conspiracy

art directors club's saturday career workshops (2004)

im not sure quite exactly how paulo coehlo put it—that thing about the universe conspiring to help you get things that you really want—but however that inspirational quote goes, it seems to be happening. the world is somewhat finding its way to lead me into places ive always wanted to go.

i got a call from a certain susan mayer yesterday morning. turns out she's the program director of the saturday career workshops of the art director's club (ADC), a global organization i am a part of that consists mainly of, yes, art directors, and graphic designers, photographers, and illustrators throughout the world. i remember having written in my application to the club long time ago that i'd love to be able to coordinate a joint project between the ADC and free arts (for abused children, NYC), another organization i am a part of. and so, susan had been trying to reach me for the longest time (through my now-dead cellphone which took a bad swimming pool dive in florida) to discuss the idea.

it was a great conversation and it seemed as though we were immediately on the same page. she recently finished her thesis on the healing and transforming powers of the arts and i on my part had written my thesis on marketing for non-profits when i was still in NYU. the similarities in vision were there and we'd quite naturally thought of several possible joint projects to benefit the kids that we serve. nothing finalized yet but one concrete idea is an invitation from susan that i hold one of the saturday workshops for the kids. of course, i said yes immediately.

and wow, is that huge. the saturday workshops is a series of seminars given to some 50 new york city public high school juniors to introduce them to careers in visual communications and also to help them build competitive portfolios for art school application. old workshops had been led before by various greats from the industry—jayson atienza & frank anselmo (award-winning creative team from BBDO), bill oberlander (executive creative director at mccann, and before that senior partner and ecd at ogilvy), stephen kroninger (only illustrator to have had a one-man show at the museum of modern art) and several others (one of whom runs a human rights publication which i said id love to be able to meet immediately).

the program starts in october. and i cant wait. not sure yet how id run the workshop but im sure it will take care of itself. it's something i have always wanted to do—to share the (little) knowledge that i have with kids/students who'll hopefully find it useful—and im sure ill think of something worthwhile sharing, at least i hope so.

i dont know what it is or who it is that is responsible for making these opportunities possible (fair enough, some people say god) but it just feels great when things happen almost effortlessly (not necessarily immediately, but somewhat effortlessly) as though according to plan.

i guess i owe the universe big time for this one.

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roger federer, world #1

received another great call the other day. was on my way out of the office at 5:30 to head down to a class in soho, when my office phone rings. was really tempted not to pick it up coz who calls at that time of day!?! but thankfully, i picked it up. turns out its the great il cone, calling all the way from the netherlands. testing his new global phone provided for by 180 amsterdam. nothing life-changing from the call though. just the same old "everything is going well. how's the city?" bullsh*t. but great bullsh*t nonetheless—as it is always great receiving pleasant surprises every so often.

frustrated david breaks racket

no suprise in last night's us open quarterfinals match though (let's see if i could get away with that pseudo seamless transition)—federer, the world's number 1 beat nalbandian in straight sets (6-2, 6-4, 6-1). it was a bit of a one-sided match coz roger was just too good for david (pronounced dah-vid coz he's argentinian) but it was great to watch a live us open tennis match nonetheless. even more so, a match featuring the man who'd probably end up winning the tournament eventually. hmmm, maybe i could be one of those ball boys some day.