Scribblings of the Metropolitician

SeoulGlow #10 - Dinner With Soyeon (Part 3)

It's done. Now you can see the much-promised, much-delayed, final interview with Soyeon. I think that when you watch it, you might be able to see why I held onto it for so long -- one reason was that I thought it would be most relevant around the time she went up, and the other reason was because I didn't want to help publicly pigeonhole her into being the backup astronaut well before the decision was made.

For a long time, the video seemed particularly fitting because she indeed became the backup; now that she's sitting in the first chair, it's even more interesting. Enjoy, Marmot's Holers... I posted it there first. I haven't even upped it to YouTube yet, and KBS is coming to my house to interview me and get the original DV files of the vids for broadcast in 40 minutes. But I wanted you guys to get it first. I'll wax wordy and wise about all this on my own blog later.

Enjoy!

A Sad Day Has Come

This is the last time I will post here. My time as the "Metropolitician" is up.

I've realized a lot of things over the last week or so, since falling for a certain young lady of a more conservative persuasion, who has quite literally rocked my world. I realize that a lot of the liberal ideas I had formerly and formally adhered to were largely misconstrued notions I had held, distortions of ideological ramifications that simply had no precedence in either established fact, dilapidated fiction, or even (and not either) the demonstrated dialectics of most people's dystopic desires.

In short, a new kind of love has made me into a harder, more turgid man.

No longer will I carry the torch for a a deluded liberalism, nor be the voice for lefty illiberality. What I truly hanker for is a haughty helping of a hunk of cheese that isn't defined in terms of a mere neo-Freudian kitsch, but the kind of cheese one can count on, like money in the bank; indeed, one needs sustenance so solid and reliable one can literally stick it in a pipe and smoke it.

So I can no longer continue to write here, after having fallen for someone like the one who has learned to call me "oppa." Such is an experience I never thought I could have had, either as a black man, or a Star Trek fan, and her highly-developed sense of what I have previously called here mere "fetishized femininity" has caused in me an emotional rise that is quite epic in its tense and torpedo-like tautology. Indeed, they didn't call Moby a "Dick" for nothing, as they say. Unlike the proverbial Ahab, my little lady has actually caught her whale.

When wondering why I have decided to forgo any further forays into formalism and endorse not Barack "Aladdin" Obama, but rather John McCain, the answer becomes perfectly obvious, does it not?

When you ask yourselves these questions, as you struggle for the answers, yet still can't bring yourself to face the truth, realize that Tom Cruise once said, quite poignantly, that the "truth could not be handled" and that in a similar situation, Al Pacino pointed a finger and said that the entire Supreme Court was indeed, very much "out of order."

In the same way, I was once out of love, and was so lost without her, but believe you me -- I now realize that it's hip to be square. Or did not Huey Lewis not give you that news?

So, it is with heavy hands that I make my last entry here, since the Metropolitician that was me has completely and totally ceased to be he.

For Pak Geun-hye's youngest daughter knows how to hit me where it counts, and to not just do that to me once, but likes to hit me, baby one more time, all the time, if you catch my meaning, number one Negaroni! See, I don't shrink away from saying, loudly and proudly, what needs to be said. And if you didn't get it from the passage above, you need a double dose of dis doubletalk. April mothafuckin' fool's, bitches!

Word to your mother, yo!

Podcast #33 - That Guitar Kid: Unplugged!

I first posted this at the Marmot's Hole.

Ah, Pachabel's Canon in D. Done by a Korean kid on YouTube. To the tune of 38 million view and counting.

Oh, yeah. I remember watching that video and just thinking, "You rock, kid." Then The New York Times did a piece on him, his true identity unmasked (or un-hatted?), and he rocked all the more. He then made the rounds on Korean television, spoke and performed around the world (and he still is), and then I met him as a panelist in the YouTube Korea rollout that they inexplicably invited me to attend.

[source]

Then...came this podcast.

Well, OK, I'm sure Jay (Jeong-hyun Lim) isn't thinking "score!" as when a NYT reporter contacted him, but we had a good lunch and great talk at Shinchon's On the Border nonetheless. This is also the first actual English-language audio interview with Jay that you'll hear. Jay is frank, cool, and tells the WHOLE story behind the YouTube video that's now in the 38 million views range. He also tells us his REAL motivation for playing the guitar..

And the real reason for this announcement – the kid's got his own band and he's playing tonight in Hongdae at 7PM, at the Sapiens7 LiveHouse. Sorry for the late notice, but if you can get out there, it should be an experience! Here's the map:

Also, Paris Hilton

It's a bit late, but FeetManSeoul offers a photographer's breakdown of the Korean press corps' onerous omission of any decent shot of Paris Hilton in a hanbok. But they seemed to be pretty good at upskirt shots. Come on – it's Paris Hilton! Is there really anything left to the imagination? At least the press photographers should be able to focus on something besides that, especially given that we've seen it already, right?

Susan Eats MORE Jokbal!

Finally! The saga is complete. And the ending is brutal.

Susan finally finishes the jokbal she started in the previous episode. And no, she has not been continuously eating for weeks. And judging from the reactions to the first part of this feeding frenzy, I feel it my duty to warn you: don't watch this unless you have reasonable access to a dead pig of some type.

I'm going to go find some jokbal for lunch. Editing this stuff, as you can imagine, has been killing me.

Shooter is South Korean

[This was originally a Marmot's Hole post, but I saw too late that my news was already running behind. I post it here while I write something more substantive. I've been thinking about this issue for years.]

[Update #1: My more recent post, representative of my opinions, is here, to those being linked in from my immediate reaction to the revelation of the shooter's ethnicity, which I did suspect was Korean as soon as I heard he was Asian. The cultural contextualization is just that; it's not a causal argument, as you'll see in my full post. But I always leave my posts and comments as is, even when I sometimes post rashly or in a flurry of fingers on the keyboard. Thanks for reading.]

[Update #2: I'm closing comments for this page, because people seem to be skipping over these updates and going off before even reading the full post. So if you'd like to respond, do so at the link indicated above, which is the very next post after this one. I guess my mistake here is not erasing my posts or comments, even if I didn't contextualize things adequately, or even when I make a mistake. What I write stays up. That's my policy. I'd appreciate a little leeway in the fact that my reaction to this incident is poured out all over the Internet. At least take the time to read my complete thoughts on the matter, as opposed to a placeholder post that contains only a fraction of my thoughts on the matter.]

The original post:

I'd been waiting for it.

The shooter is South Korean.

I'd been suspecting it all day, for a lot of reasons, which is why I was sitting by the computer. Not the least of which was because a group of American university administrators whom Fulbright hosted nearly 10 years ago, when being a tour of Korean universities, asked the staff, "Why is it that out of all our international students, Korean males have so much trouble?"

To my surprise, all of the university officials cited incident after incident of Korean male graduate students who seemed to have trouble adjusting, often got into fights with other students in the living spaces, and were often the source of trouble in dealing with romantic relationships gone bad or women in general, especially when they involved Korean females dating non-Koreans.

Anyway, my little bit of uninformed analysis will be just the beginning. I'm sure we'll see all sorts of explanations from the Korean media. And for what it's worth, perhaps now the South Korean media and people will be faced with the question of stereotyping, media, and how treating individual incidents as evidence of various "national characters" leads down roads we don't want to travel.

All in all, a tragic story. But the conversation will prove...interesting, I'm sure.

Let the shitstorm – and social experiment – begin.

There. If you want to yell at me, then do it after reading my complete post on the matter.

"Korea, Sparkling!"

OK, the cat's officially out of the bag and I don't have to hold my tongue anymore, even though it had been leaked already by others. But not even wild horses got it out of me, a fact of which I am very proud.

So, Korea's official tourism brand is fresh out the box from the Korean Tourism Organization, and ready for your comments.

A key excerpt from the press release:

For the first time in its history, Korea has officially adopted national a tourism brand to nurture the tourism industry. Many countries, in fact, have already developed tourism brands to promote various aspects of their tourism resources and leverage them effectively to entice global tourists. Examples include, 100% Pure New Zealand (New Zealand), Yokoso Japan (Japan), Visit Britain (the U.K) Keep Exploring (Canada), Uniquely Singapore (Singapore), Truly Asia (Malaysia). It is expected that “Korea, Sparkling” will similarly serve Korea’s tourism industry in communicating the country’s redefined image around the world.

Okie dokie. To explain the logo:

The word “Sparkling” is synonymous with shining and dazzling. Additionally, it conveys a sense of revitalizing energy and freshness. In sum, “Korea, Sparkling” intends to denote the concept of “vital refreshment,” – a unique experience available to tourists traveling to Korea and being exposed to the incredible passion of both Koreans and Korean culture. The brand also delivers the message that experiencing Korea offers unique emotional rewards unlike any other.

I'm gonna leave it at that. So, what do you all think? Chime in with your comments.

ADDENDUM: Here's the guy who masterminded the campaign, info about which was on the Korea ESL Cafe, and linked in from Dogbertt at the Marmot.

He seems none too "sparkling" himself. Kind of somber looking for a publicity shot. In any case, his bio reads:

Simon Anholt is an independent policy advisor to the governments of numerous countries, cities and regions on the branding aspects of public diplomacy, economic development, public affairs, cultural relations and trade, tourism and export promotion.

He has written many books, papers and articles on the image and reputation of places and is a well-known public speaker, editor and broadcaster.

He is Editor of the quarterly journal, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, published by Palgrave Macmillan Journals.

He is the founder and author of three major global surveys of the reputations of places - the Anholt Nation Brands Index, City Brands Index and State Brands Index. These surveys are carried out quarterly on his behalf by Global Market Insite, Inc., in Seattle and are used by many national and city governments to monitor their international standing.

He's an expert, I guess. And apparently, really expensive. Apparently, he didn't spend so much on his 1998-era web site.

SeoulGlow #5 – The Art of Daechuri

Sorry for the lull last week – the video project had taken a bit of a toll. But I'm getting back into the swing of things, have a new monitor to stop the headaches, and have our first user submission for you here, done by Bum Lee, the creator of the SeoulGlow animation intro, no less. The final part of the "Dinner with Soyeon" series will be up in the near future, by the way. From Bum:

"The farming village of Daechuri is being evicted by the Korean government for the expansion of a nearby U.S. military base. For several years, the villagers and activists have resisted the forceful eviction, but the residents of Daechuri recently signed an agreement with the government to leave their village by the end of March.

I visited Daechuri on Saturday March 3. Behind the perimeter of fences guarded by police, many of the homes had been demolished and the unharvested fields were trenched off with barbed wire. But there was art everywhere amidst the ruin – murals, sculptures, junk art, and a gallery filled with paintings. The villagers held their nightly candlelight vigil in a hall surrounded by painted portraits, and in the evening they sang songs around a bonfire.

This video is a tribute to the art of Daechuri."

"South Korea Reviews Its Dark Past, But the Pace Is Slow"

An interesting piece from the The New York Times about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the fact that with the hot potato politics of late, neither an agreement on "truth" or coming to "reconciliation" seem possible soon. (HT to Vacilando)

"How Korea Embraced Christianity"

Here's a short and sweet little piece from The Christian Science Monitor on the history of Christianity on the peninsula, with an interview with Rev. Samuel Moffett, who was born in Pyeongyang in 1916.