From Rin Tanaka

"Freedamn Heads" Unite again!

inspiration

Dear Freedamn Heads!

Standing atop a harbor viewpoint in San Pedro, California, I am looking over the huge Long Beach Port on a clear evening… Seeing such a beautiful bay sunset by the port filled with so many shipping container gave me a strong sense of “déjà vu,” since my hometown of Yokohama (located next to Tokyo, Japan) has very similar views…

My father used to take my brothers and I to the Yokohama Port frequently on the weekend, but one day in the mid-1970s (when I was only 7 or 8 years old) was very special. The Queen Elizabeth was just arriving in my town!! How wonderful it was to meet her there, since she would not return to Yokohama in the next 5-10 years. Why? She was very slowly cruising around the world’s big ports!!” “Wow,” I thought, “…traveling around the world?!! I hope I can do that someday.”

30 years later, my dream “to take a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth” still hasn’t come true, but I have actually visited so many big cities in the world by airplane during the last 20 years. Also, thanks to all my friends, I had an amazing “2nd Annual Vintage Gathering” with 2,500 fashion freaks from around the world on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California in Feb. 2011! When I was growing up in Japan during “cold war” times in 1970s-1980s, I never imagined I could have such a fantastic vintage experience aboard the Queen Elizabeth’s mother liner, “Queen Mary,” in my adult future!

You know, we have been entering a completely different new era since 1989. Once the cold war era ended, new types of technology like computers, the Internet and mobile phones had been quickly spreading out into our lifestyles by the early 2000s. World economic markets also started connecting with our daily business very strongly with the developments of e-mail and websites. Eventually, most of the 7 billion people on the earth may be on board the same giant ship together! But will it be easy for us to build such a big international economic society?

Through my last 20 years of international traveling experience, I finally reached one conclusion: every country has its different language, culture, history and customs, but everybody loves a “party”…. right?! American people call such adult behavior “socializing.”

OK, let us try to see what we can do! “Inspiration” projects since 2010 were one of my new experiments with close friends. And then, we already got double-success in having two big nice parties: an audience of 2,000 in 2010 and 2,500 in 2011. Not only many local freedamn heads, but also so many friends came from all over North America as well as from European and Asian countries!

You probably met many of your old buddies whom you hadn’t seen for a while at Inspiration 2010 & 2011. I got to have reunions with many old friends, too! “Wow, long time no see!!” Do you have any happier things than meeting your dearest friends again once a year??!! An “Annual reunion party,” involving an international audience, has been our basic concept, and we hold it under the name of VINTAGE.

On the other hand, I saw a very nice hand-painted slogan on a billboard the other day while driving in San Diego: “Think International, Buy Local!” I agreed with their message because localisms have strong effects on our basic daily life. So I hope the next Inspiration show will resemble “trading posts” like in the old Navajo Indian community. Please bring more local fashion items!!

Our 3rd Inspiration event will be held aboard the Queen Mary again from February 10 to February 11, 2012. Visiting So-Cal in February will allow us to enjoy very warm days in the wintertime again! So I am very much looking forward to seeing very large numbers of friends again before the Rose Bowl Flea Market Sunday and the MAGIC show week!

Rin Tanaka
San Clemente, California
November 2011