765, she basically recounted all of the fan-fare that followed the publication and rapid dissemination of her letter.
she gave accounts of various pieces of hate mail that she received,
she told us of the letter's republication by Abitare (republished in English and Italian).
she told of the polite hate mail she then received from Italy (paraphrased: "you suck, but I apologize for telling you in Italian").
evidently the letter has been translated to other languages as well, and therefore she now has hate mail in all of those languages.
then a huge Archinect appeared on the screen. she said something like, "then there is Archinect, which is basically a forum of douche bags..."
that garnered some pretty huge laughs. she showed an image of the thread where someone evidently broke down her letter line by line trying to discredit it.
the presentation went more or less like this, and was punctuated by laughter throughout. toward the end she mentioned something about a job offer to write for some corporate blog (?) about design, which she claimed to know nothing about. sorry for my less than stellar recap. too many Budweiser Selects by the time she presented.
'Thanks to everyone who came out to Pecha Kucha tonight. I understand that many were actually turned away at the door which totally sucks and I’m sorry. There’s nothing worse than dragging your shit out to rock, only to get totally denied from the rocking. Clearly people do not want you to rock. Listen, I have no control over this. If it were up to me everyone would rock. Rocking, in fact, would be some kind of requirement for just being a mammal.
I think the presentations went pretty well. I liked the dude from Snohetta because he seemed like a pretty jolly guy and also I like the idea that their employees get 5 weeks off and work 9 to 6, though I have a hard time believing that any office actually functions that way. I have a feeling that they “can” leave at 6 but never do. Kind of like how I “can” rob a bank, but I know I shouldn’t. I also liked the thing Israel (from 2×4) did with the t-shirts (though dude, Israel, you went way over the 400 second rule, you should be publicly flogged, but actually, there’s no such thing as private flogging is there? Flogging by nature is public so why do people always say public flogging? Whatever, English, you are vexing me again). There were about 800+ people there and it was so hot inside that I actually tried panting. I mean if it works for dogs, it could work for us right? Guess what, it doesn’t work, but I tried it so you don’t have to. So it’s confirmed. Panting doesn’t keep you cool. But you know what keeps you cool? MOVING AIR. Note to air: KEEP MOVING.
I was up till 5 this morning doing these slides–and there were three other people who took on a few slides themselves, so I’d like to give a shout-out to Marc, Lizzie, and John. Don’t ask me why I didn’t start making my slides last week, clearly I like to make my life really stupid. Basically up until the last minute I was frantically trying to figure out how I could make my slides as cheesy as possible, and believe it or not, it’s actually harder to make something look bad, than make it look good. Although I guess people make things that look bad all the time, but then again they think it looks good, but then if you really think about it, they probably worked really hard to make it look good to them, which is actually bad, so I guess people really do work hard to make things look bad, whether or not they think it looks good. Oh man I am tired. I think that makes sense in my head. It’ll make sense in your head too if you read it a few times or stay up long enough. Anyway, I am particularly fond of the slide with the cow that flew across and the ramen slide. Those are my two favorite. Though I also liked the one Marc made with the soldier that comes out and shoots hearts and the Egyptian pyramid one. When I first saw that I laughed so hard. It was about midnight and things were still funny to me. But then things stopped getting funny around 4. Anyway I’m glad I did it and I appreciate all those that came out.
mdler, annie bugs you? I think she's kinda funny personally even though what you posted wasn't that funny to me. I guess she's funniest when she's talking about architects.
i'm with mdler. while what she says is funny at first blush, she's all about mean-spirited snarky attack with no understanding of what she's attacking beyond her own reaction to it. completely self-involved/self-referential. complete waste of my energy reading it.
the funniest thing about her presentation was that all of the hate mail and negative responses she got by those that were offended just validated all of her points. there was one where a guy said something along the lines of "who created civilization, made the pyramids, ARCHITECTS, ARCHITECTS, ARCHITECTS!!!" it was hilarious.
Architects *can* be idiots, I certainly can agree with that. They can also be humorless. And they can also be intelligent, dedicated, and enormously creative.
this is strange that this comes up, as i was talking to a friend of lletdownl's on friday who was a sociology major... i referenced this letter and some of the very valid points choi brings to the table. so i basically begged her to study architects and why we're so fucked up. though i realize this reinforces the whole selfabsorbed architect image that choi presents.
anybody else feel we may be a bit out of touch?
so she didn't read any fan mail? any fan mail from architects?
i would have thought there would be quite a few of us who can appreciate her candid account of our social lives.
she has a very easy humor. and trust me, i'm from jersey, so i know humor. anyone can write like that. i've asked my friends, and they agree, anyone can write like that. i learned to write like that when i took acid as a teenager. everything's funny on acid. until your arm melts off. then acid is not so funny.
her blog is boring, pedantic, and not really funny. i mean, it's funny-queer, not really funny-haha. now tom & jerry. that's funny.
annie choi...you're no tom & jerry.
i like that she says towers look like bongs, or glass cocks. these are things that interest me. architecture doesn't really interest me, and architects less so. but glass cocks and bongs really do. writers bore me too. maybe if more writers wrote like annie choi, about glass cocks and bongs, i would read more.
but i don't have time to read anyways, because i'm a banker. actually, i just say that because i would like to work banker's hours. but the only thing i bank on is the yankees going out in the first round. d'oh! that reminds me: annie choi - you're no homer simpson. but the simpsons are funny-haha, not like annie choi is is decidedly not.
but she is hungry. hungry to eat my brains. that would be a sight to behold. the snarky sarcastic oriental eating my jersey jew brains. now THAT would be funny. funny in a lisa simpson goes to duff gardens way, because if she really did eat my brains she'd have one helluva' trip brownie, considering all the acid i ate while learning to write like a fourteen year old girl.
it's true. all my friends say so.
thank you annie, for reminding me why i prefer glass cocks and bongs to architects and all the buildings they won't see or build.
maybe she'll make that transition, first to npr with a weekly commentary then perhaps to something like a guest spot on say wait wait don't tell me, then maybe she'll show up on late night cable someplace then she'll get hooked up with a network and do some cbs sunday morning and then as she ages she can replace andy rooney on 60 minutes. by this time she'll have learned to make a fucking nonretarded observation.
kind of like sarah vowell but at least sarah vowell is funny
and intelligent without putting anyone else down..except
for npr...and probably people from the midwest. but she
does research and writes about things that are interesting.
like the battle hymn of the republic.
actually...she reminds me of that character (and real life
comedian) on seinfeld that followed jerry around in hopes
of finding material for her act. isn't it a bit strange to hang
out with people that you hate being with?
of course pigeon-holing all architects into a snivelling, whiny
group of people that only talk about architect and don't know
how to spell 'subpoena' is convenient for her article...i imagine
the couldn't do the same article on say...oh writers?...or try
hanging out with a bunch of philosphy majors...(i used to have
one as a roommate)...very intelligent guy, but you get him
around a bunch of philosophers and it's archibabble in a
different language...which sort of makes me sympathetic
to some of what she's saying.
and why can't flogging be private? what do they call s&m?
1 a: to beat with or as if with a rod or whip b: to criticize harshly
2: to force or urge into action : drive
what part of that has to be public? (i've had a similar issue with
'raw sewage' though...but i guess there's sewage that isn't raw?)
mightylittle if you weren't my hero before today, you so totally are now. Brilliant, when coming from you as irony.
And the letter is absolutley not in the same league as Sarah Vowell, who is touching and relevant and honestly quirky, not trying to be quirky.
Also: I'm an architect, and I'm not a douche bag, and I'm no more self-absorbed about my possibilities for wreaking positive change in the world than are my friends who are doctors, writers, and engineers. I think I'm far more the norm - among architects - than are the black-wearing Derridas-spouting caricature that the media loves. Stereotypes are easy. Work that actually furthers culture isn't. But again...she's young. Let's not be too harsh.
Gosh, you guys really react that strongly to her, huh? I thought the letter was pretty funny, her blog is up and down, but it's a blog, you can't bring it everyday like that ...
... is it okay to think Annie Choi's funny, and still laugh at mightylittle™'s reply, too?
You know what's not funny? Getting personal with the sexual stuff, kinda over the line ...
shit put a chimpanzee in front of a typewriter and you;ll get a blog. cuz even if chimps don't know what literature is, they do have valid opinions worth blogging about.
When I worked at a drug store during high school, I once had a lady come up to me and ask if we had douchebags. I had to muster up everything I had in me to not laugh or point her in the direction of my esteemed co-workers.
Another Dear Architects letter
Second Is Here
this is the original letter (and i think this is where it was originally published...Pidgin Mag)...
her presentation at Pecha Kucha last week was freakin' hilarious...
haven't we already been through this?
AP - would love to hear more about A. Choi @ Pecha Kucha.
765, she basically recounted all of the fan-fare that followed the publication and rapid dissemination of her letter.
she gave accounts of various pieces of hate mail that she received,
she told us of the letter's republication by Abitare (republished in English and Italian).
she told of the polite hate mail she then received from Italy (paraphrased: "you suck, but I apologize for telling you in Italian").
evidently the letter has been translated to other languages as well, and therefore she now has hate mail in all of those languages.
then a huge Archinect appeared on the screen. she said something like, "then there is Archinect, which is basically a forum of douche bags..."
that garnered some pretty huge laughs. she showed an image of the thread where someone evidently broke down her letter line by line trying to discredit it.
the presentation went more or less like this, and was punctuated by laughter throughout. toward the end she mentioned something about a job offer to write for some corporate blog (?) about design, which she claimed to know nothing about. sorry for my less than stellar recap. too many Budweiser Selects by the time she presented.
i think just one bud select would be reason enough....
OOOOOOh, i LOVE a good roast!
I want video of that presentation
forum of douche bags...
dear Annie Choi,
You bug the fucking shit out of me, dude...
(from her blog)
'Thanks to everyone who came out to Pecha Kucha tonight. I understand that many were actually turned away at the door which totally sucks and I’m sorry. There’s nothing worse than dragging your shit out to rock, only to get totally denied from the rocking. Clearly people do not want you to rock. Listen, I have no control over this. If it were up to me everyone would rock. Rocking, in fact, would be some kind of requirement for just being a mammal.
I think the presentations went pretty well. I liked the dude from Snohetta because he seemed like a pretty jolly guy and also I like the idea that their employees get 5 weeks off and work 9 to 6, though I have a hard time believing that any office actually functions that way. I have a feeling that they “can” leave at 6 but never do. Kind of like how I “can” rob a bank, but I know I shouldn’t. I also liked the thing Israel (from 2×4) did with the t-shirts (though dude, Israel, you went way over the 400 second rule, you should be publicly flogged, but actually, there’s no such thing as private flogging is there? Flogging by nature is public so why do people always say public flogging? Whatever, English, you are vexing me again). There were about 800+ people there and it was so hot inside that I actually tried panting. I mean if it works for dogs, it could work for us right? Guess what, it doesn’t work, but I tried it so you don’t have to. So it’s confirmed. Panting doesn’t keep you cool. But you know what keeps you cool? MOVING AIR. Note to air: KEEP MOVING.
I was up till 5 this morning doing these slides–and there were three other people who took on a few slides themselves, so I’d like to give a shout-out to Marc, Lizzie, and John. Don’t ask me why I didn’t start making my slides last week, clearly I like to make my life really stupid. Basically up until the last minute I was frantically trying to figure out how I could make my slides as cheesy as possible, and believe it or not, it’s actually harder to make something look bad, than make it look good. Although I guess people make things that look bad all the time, but then again they think it looks good, but then if you really think about it, they probably worked really hard to make it look good to them, which is actually bad, so I guess people really do work hard to make things look bad, whether or not they think it looks good. Oh man I am tired. I think that makes sense in my head. It’ll make sense in your head too if you read it a few times or stay up long enough. Anyway, I am particularly fond of the slide with the cow that flew across and the ramen slide. Those are my two favorite. Though I also liked the one Marc made with the soldier that comes out and shoots hearts and the Egyptian pyramid one. When I first saw that I laughed so hard. It was about midnight and things were still funny to me. But then things stopped getting funny around 4. Anyway I’m glad I did it and I appreciate all those that came out.
'
mdler, annie bugs you? I think she's kinda funny personally even though what you posted wasn't that funny to me. I guess she's funniest when she's talking about architects.
i'm with mdler. while what she says is funny at first blush, she's all about mean-spirited snarky attack with no understanding of what she's attacking beyond her own reaction to it. completely self-involved/self-referential. complete waste of my energy reading it.
the funniest thing about her presentation was that all of the hate mail and negative responses she got by those that were offended just validated all of her points. there was one where a guy said something along the lines of "who created civilization, made the pyramids, ARCHITECTS, ARCHITECTS, ARCHITECTS!!!" it was hilarious.
Architects *can* be idiots, I certainly can agree with that. They can also be humorless. And they can also be intelligent, dedicated, and enormously creative.
As for Annie's humor - she's young.
well i, a fellow douche bag, am glad to be recognized as such, i knew there was a reason for my existence...
I like the picture of her getting off on that mechanical horse
Im getting off on that picture right now...
not to mention the Fleetwood Mac on my I-tunes right now...Stevie Nicks, I want to be with you everywhere
mmmm... mechanical horse.
this is strange that this comes up, as i was talking to a friend of lletdownl's on friday who was a sociology major... i referenced this letter and some of the very valid points choi brings to the table. so i basically begged her to study architects and why we're so fucked up. though i realize this reinforces the whole selfabsorbed architect image that choi presents.
anybody else feel we may be a bit out of touch?
so she didn't read any fan mail? any fan mail from architects?
i would have thought there would be quite a few of us who can appreciate her candid account of our social lives.
I think she's trolling the profession a bit imo, and we are a very easy group to troll.
i'm out of time
i'm out of my head when you're not around...
she has a very easy humor. and trust me, i'm from jersey, so i know humor. anyone can write like that. i've asked my friends, and they agree, anyone can write like that. i learned to write like that when i took acid as a teenager. everything's funny on acid. until your arm melts off. then acid is not so funny.
her blog is boring, pedantic, and not really funny. i mean, it's funny-queer, not really funny-haha. now tom & jerry. that's funny.
annie choi...you're no tom & jerry.
i like that she says towers look like bongs, or glass cocks. these are things that interest me. architecture doesn't really interest me, and architects less so. but glass cocks and bongs really do. writers bore me too. maybe if more writers wrote like annie choi, about glass cocks and bongs, i would read more.
but i don't have time to read anyways, because i'm a banker. actually, i just say that because i would like to work banker's hours. but the only thing i bank on is the yankees going out in the first round. d'oh! that reminds me: annie choi - you're no homer simpson. but the simpsons are funny-haha, not like annie choi is is decidedly not.
but she is hungry. hungry to eat my brains. that would be a sight to behold. the snarky sarcastic oriental eating my jersey jew brains. now THAT would be funny. funny in a lisa simpson goes to duff gardens way, because if she really did eat my brains she'd have one helluva' trip brownie, considering all the acid i ate while learning to write like a fourteen year old girl.
it's true. all my friends say so.
thank you annie, for reminding me why i prefer glass cocks and bongs to architects and all the buildings they won't see or build.
;-)
maybe she'll make that transition, first to npr with a weekly commentary then perhaps to something like a guest spot on say wait wait don't tell me, then maybe she'll show up on late night cable someplace then she'll get hooked up with a network and do some cbs sunday morning and then as she ages she can replace andy rooney on 60 minutes. by this time she'll have learned to make a fucking nonretarded observation.
kind of like sarah vowell but at least sarah vowell is funny
and intelligent without putting anyone else down..except
for npr...and probably people from the midwest. but she
does research and writes about things that are interesting.
like the battle hymn of the republic.
actually...she reminds me of that character (and real life
comedian) on seinfeld that followed jerry around in hopes
of finding material for her act. isn't it a bit strange to hang
out with people that you hate being with?
of course pigeon-holing all architects into a snivelling, whiny
group of people that only talk about architect and don't know
how to spell 'subpoena' is convenient for her article...i imagine
the couldn't do the same article on say...oh writers?...or try
hanging out with a bunch of philosphy majors...(i used to have
one as a roommate)...very intelligent guy, but you get him
around a bunch of philosophers and it's archibabble in a
different language...which sort of makes me sympathetic
to some of what she's saying.
and why can't flogging be private? what do they call s&m?
1 a: to beat with or as if with a rod or whip b: to criticize harshly
2: to force or urge into action : drive
what part of that has to be public? (i've had a similar issue with
'raw sewage' though...but i guess there's sewage that isn't raw?)
only talk about 'architecture'..
, that is some brilliance you posted there.
I fear this whole thing will show up on This American Life
her work reminds me of Mark Leyner's early 90's stuff in that it leaves me feeling oddly hollow.
mightylittle if you weren't my hero before today, you so totally are now. Brilliant, when coming from you as irony.
And the letter is absolutley not in the same league as Sarah Vowell, who is touching and relevant and honestly quirky, not trying to be quirky.
Also: I'm an architect, and I'm not a douche bag, and I'm no more self-absorbed about my possibilities for wreaking positive change in the world than are my friends who are doctors, writers, and engineers. I think I'm far more the norm - among architects - than are the black-wearing Derridas-spouting caricature that the media loves. Stereotypes are easy. Work that actually furthers culture isn't. But again...she's young. Let's not be too harsh.
Gosh, you guys really react that strongly to her, huh? I thought the letter was pretty funny, her blog is up and down, but it's a blog, you can't bring it everyday like that ...
... is it okay to think Annie Choi's funny, and still laugh at mightylittle™'s reply, too?
You know what's not funny? Getting personal with the sexual stuff, kinda over the line ...
765 - i think it's okay to laugh both at her work, and at mine.
shit put a chimpanzee in front of a typewriter and you;ll get a blog. cuz even if chimps don't know what literature is, they do have valid opinions worth blogging about.
good point!
Note: Please replace "irony" above with "satire". Otherwise match to existing.
certainly rings true...certainly does...of course, i've noticed that it takes a certain type of non-architect to hang out with architects
I think Archinect's next tshirt should read:
Archinect - Forum of Douche Bags
^i'd buy that
is there such a thing as a douchebag? i mean can you find it a douchebag at the cvs?
When I worked at a drug store during high school, I once had a lady come up to me and ask if we had douchebags. I had to muster up everything I had in me to not laugh or point her in the direction of my esteemed co-workers.
Name that movie:
'Douchebags are a hygenic product. I take that as a compliment.'
wet hot american summer.
the eckerds that was close to me when i went to school in the south had a douche aisle. yes, an entire aisle.
Ding, Ding. You won.
PS. Best. Movie. Ever.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.