Listening and Talking Art with Dante

I never thought I would find myself kicking off my Spring Break in this fashion. Two days ago, one of my favorite actors, Dante Basco, proposed a fan meet-up in Union Square in San Francisco. He was here in the Bay Area these last few days to attend screenings for the latest film he’s in, “Awesome Asian Bad Guys,” at the 2014 CAAMFest, and so he thought it would be a good idea to meet up with fans here in the area and just talk.

Sitting amongst cosplayers and other enthusiasts under cherry blossom trees on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon in Union Square, I adamantly listened to stories of Dante’s time as an actor and as an artist in general; from his early days as a member of the Street Freaks breakdancing crew, to the projects he worked on with Mako Iwamatsu prior to them both working on Avatar: The Last Airbender. He was also very interested in us and our endeavors, and he was psyched to see he was amongst art students, budding animators, future cover designers and what not. With that, he told us- not asked us- to keep doing what we do best; that we should focus our energy on our projects and get it out there to the world by any means necessary, especially since we live in such a time where we have that kind of technology available to us.

It was one of those experiences that was more than you could get than a simple college lecture. This was coming from someone who’s not only had a lot of experience under his belt as an artist of all types, but also that this was coming from someone who’s passionate for what he does too. If anything, a high level of passion for a specified trade tramples seniority any day in my opinion.

I took a lot away from the meet-up with Dante and the other fans and looking at the path ahead of me as a writer, it gives me a refreshed perspective on the book that I’m crafting together. I don’t know if it’s going to be one of those rare “successful overnight” cases and honestly, I don’t care if it is or not. I just want to put out there an interesting story to tell. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters, and Dante really put that in perspective for me.