Scribblings of the Metropolitician

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:

SeoulGlow #9 - Welcome, YouTube Korea!

Well, I just attended and participated in the YouTube Korea press conference – so you've probably read in the news that YouTube Korea has officially opened its doors in Korea and the site gone live.

YT Korea asked me (SeoulGlow) to make a welcome video, which you see above. I had little time to do it, but went with something that felt right, like a real greeting. Perhaps not too creative, but given my time schedule, surprising that I even pulled this much off.

With the attention that getting featured on YT Korea's front page will bring, it's time to get back to getting SeoulGlow back online. Next up is the final part of the Korean astronaut series, as well as new episodes. I've already gotten as many views on the Superkids episode TODAY as watched it since months ago. So we're going to have more viewers.

Anyone out there who'd like to help with subtitling, editing, or producing episodes, please get in touch at my email address at the top right of the page.

Let's get SeoulGlow going again! To do that, I need help. Care to join the team?

FMS With You #6: Insadong Audio Tour!

The FMS With You audio podcast, brought to you by FeetManSeoul.com, brings the spirit of moving feet and the street to your audio player, where you can hear informational audio tours of the coolest spots in Seoul, "soundscapes" that will take you to even more faraway places, and other kinds of integrated multimedia, including edgy commentary and a spirit of just plain fun. Since the tours are all bilingual, in both Korean and English, it's just like having your own personal tour with a good Korean friend.

Subscribe through iTunes | Download directly

Join Gomushin Girl, Vivian, and the Metropolitician in a this audio tour of Insadong, the second in a series of audio tours that will cover Seoul!

Now THIS Is the Shiznit

OK – I am prone to hyperbole and unequivocal assertions, I know. But this video literally blew my ass back into the chair and made me ponder the nature of my sooooul, baby. I just discovered Sharon Jones & the Dap King in a trip across the Internet I won't bother to explain here, and I must admit, it's got me in goose bumps and wondering how I've been missing out on this revival soul music movement that's been going on and apparently (hopefull) getting a little traction.

The song below – "100 Days, 100 Nights" – is not a remake or retread; it's a new song made in the old school genre that never got old – they just stopped making a lot of new songs, as happens when times change. But who knew? This is the song that's apparently going all over the 'net real fast, partially helped, I think, by the fact that the video was shot like a 50's TV performance, which made it looked extra real, enabled by shooting it with 2 old television studio cameras from the time purchase for $50 each on eBay. But that's just window dressing, since Jones could have been in a bathrobe sitting on her couch eating a pint of Ben & Jerry's and this song would have blown me away, still. DAMN.

Unbelievable. And does she got soul? Did she pay her dues? Read up, from the Boston Herald:

You've worked at Rikers Island and as an armored-car guard. Aren't those odd jobs for a female soul singer?

In the '80s they told me I didn’t have the look. They said I was too dark-skinned, too short, too fat and too old. So I just took various day jobs but I never stopped singing. I was working with choirs and wedding bands and doing occasional studio work. But from the late '70s through the '80s and '90s, I had to do all kinds of bad government jobs like working at Rikers.

Why did you keep trying after so many said you didn't fit the part?

I knew I had the voice but I didn't have the looks. They wanted me as a Milli Vanilli. They wanted to use my voice and have someone else up there on the stage. But I wasn't going to get involved in some mess like that. I felt that God gave me a gift and that's what kept me holding on.

You don't worry that you're too old at this point?

Maceo Parker is 64 and is still out there doing it and getting his career revived. I shared a stage with Charles Walker and his band, and he’s sounding great in his 60s. So I'm having a ball. Ben E. King even came out at one show and asked me, “Who are you and where have been?”

Dammit! I know what tune will be in MY head all day long.

Happy Teachers' Day!

And in celebration of that, we have a video made by "Notorious Joe" McPherson and his super group of special kids, whom he teaches in his school full of children with special powers.

The X-Men, you say?

Nay!

It's the "Clash of the Superkids" and the fight is ON, baby!

I think the budget and special effects in this podcast looks about like what they spent in X-Men 3. Ouch for them, good for Joe and the kids!

Now, that's entertainment!

Podcast #30 - Through a Glass, Sparkling

Welcome to Korea's new international tourism brand!

"Korea, Sparkling!?" Huh? Hmm. Someone's got some explainin' to do, and we've got just the person to do it. Listen to guest Tanya Van Soest of PR firm Fleishman and Hillard do some fancy talking that sounds kinda...convincing, actually.

I attended the pretty spiffy event put on by the Korean National Tourism Organization and got to enjoy some of the spread (lobster tails – they must've really been wanting us to be happy), listen to some non-traditional traditional drumming, and there was even some audience participation.

My attention span and math skills were no match for the trivia game, but a friend from our table did get some recognition as she beat the hell out of the drums in perfect sync with the expert Korean drumming guy.

Does the ability the beat the big buk run in the blood, written in the genes? Sometimes, my dedication to non-essentialist logic bows a bit to such wishy-washy ideas. Well, not really. Hehe.

And despite whatever criticism the brand campaign and slogan may be receiving, the one thing I can say is the KNTO sure knows how to throw a good party. I left wined, dined, and entertained, and I must say that even at my most cynical, I can't deny the good show and effort that KNTO put on. I hope the brand does well, although I'm certainly not one of its biggest fans; but it was a pretty "sparkling" night.

And as for that brand, which many bloggers, including myself, had real fun publicly pooh-poohing – perhaps there is more to the question of context? I mean, add some Enya to the background and sit back with some ginger ale on ice...you just might get in the mood.

Oh, and in the podcast, I would apologize for the Enya, but I know that, deep deep down somewhere, you love Enya. Yes, you do. Come on – we both know the truth. Stop lying. SOMEONE bought her albums, and it wasn't...m...well, OK – I did buy one. And I liked it.

Enjoy the podcast! (To subscribe via iTunes, simply click here!)

Running Time: 14:16
File Size: 6.5 MB

SeoulGlow #6 - Susan Eats Jokbal!

Finally! In this 6th episode of SeoulGlow, Susan treats us to her second installment of "Seoul Food," in which she eats jokbal naked. Ahem. Er, umm, perhaps it's better to say she eats naked jokbal, that being without the sauce and, erm...condiments.

Umm, I think I'm digging a hole here. Help? Anyway, we warn our viewers, however -- if you watch this video without reasonable access to large amounts of freshly cut pork, you may end up hurting someone close to you. Do NOT watch on an empty stomach. Unless you want to start knawing on the flesh of other sentient beings, of course, since pigs and humans are such genetically close cousins.

I apologize for the spotty releases of our SeoulGlow video podcasts, but I am beholden to being "lost in translation" when it comes to the subtitling stage, especially when going from English to Korean. We need interns! And we're paying!

If you have any Korean friends who are looking for something, just send them over to this link (I put together a Korean description as well) and let them get in touch.

Also, for the Korean speakers out there who might want to practice their English and listening comprehension, we've provided the transcript (thanks, Dylan!) for their use, available after the jump.

And don't forget to let your Seooooooooul glow!

Salon's Take On The Host

I'd been looking forward to The Host for years. Well, that's an exaggeration, but yet kind of true – I've been a Bong Joon Ho fan since I first laid eyes on Barking Dogs Never Bite for a Korean cinema class at Berkeley in early 2002. You can read all about it in my post "The Monster Cometh," from June last year.

I'd always shown Bong's first film to friends who'd asked to see a "representative" Korean film, and they'd always been very satisfied – much more so than Korean audiences, who "ho-hummed" and shrugged their shoulders at it when it came out. At the time, Koreans were generally still wigging out that there were Korean films with big budgets that looked like Hollywood films – Shiri, oh masterful piece of derivative crap that it was, being the first of them.

I still say that if I want to watch The Rock, I'll watch The Rock, not a movie named after a fish. If I want to watch Saving Private Ryan again, I'll watch that, and not Taegugki. To me, the success of Korean films was actually sabotaging their creativity; now used to chasing after the big bucks against Hollywood movies, it seemed like they were trying to out-Hollywood Hollywood itself. Suddenly, Korean film fan that I had been, I was no longer interested. Again, if I want to see Hollywood films, I'll see the originals, not Korean versions of them. Ho-hum.

But The Host brought me back, and I was happy to hear from Darcy Paquet (of KoreanFilm.org fame) about it, which he talked about (in episode #19, available to the left) way back in one of my early podcasts, but had to remain pretty tight-lipped about. But I was happy to hear that my favorite director was making a monster movie about some slimy thing that came up out of the Han River and acted as the foil against which to look at a slice of Korean society.

I was also even happier to get the chance to meet the director in person, as I helped do the subtitling for the translation job that Darcy had done. That was eminently cool. Too cool. I was too sheepish to ask for a picture, even though I could have easily done so after one of our sessions. Doh!

Now that the film has come out in the States, I must say I'm pretty happy at what sounds like a good first reception, and a good review – that "gets" the film – from Salon, no less. And they "get" the fact that film is far, far bigger than the label "anti-American" (which I addressed in a previous blog post as well), since its agenda had a few more fish to fry – well, broil a bit.

Yes, the fishy, flippery, 60-foot-long thingummy who emerges from the polluted waters of the Han River in central Seoul to terrorize the populace in "The Host" is the result of poison from an American military facility. Well, what the hell else would cause such a horrible mutation? The fertilizer off Uncle Hang-soo's farm? I don't think so.

There it is.

There's no question that Bong Joon-ho's film, which is the most satisfying monster movie in many years, takes some easy shots at the American military-technological colossus, and at the Korean government's sheepdog-like subservience to it. I'm inclined to interpret pretty much any junky old movie as a dialectical critique of whateverness, but in this case both the sanctimonious leftists and the contrarian critics are reading way too much into this simultaneously big-hearted and farcical adventure...The Americans are diabolical Strangeloves and the Koreans are two-faced sycophants. His hero, on the other hand, is Gang-du (Song Kang-ho), a middle-aged loser with a bad blond 'do who slumbers away the days at his dad's riverside squid shack. (That isn't any kind of a joke: Koreans really, really like squid.)

Hey. I like squid. You know you've been in Korea too long when you go to the Aquarium in Monterey and salivate when you look at the blue squid tanks. Or you see a picture of the first-ever picture of the giant squid they caught and you fantasize about how well it would go with beer. Beeeeeeer.

In the end, I'm just happy my name is in the film, in the end. Yep – that's right, uh-huh, uh-huh, my name's in a fiiiiiilm. Go crazy! It's ya birthday! Go crazy, it's –

But they spelled my name wrong. Michael H-U-N-T. Doh! Such is my life – get your name in the biggest film in Korean cinematic history, and...

DOH!

Go see it, ma. At least I know you know my name. And for those of you really interested in going hardcore, listen to the audio commentary that Darcy, a couple friends, and I made.

Sync up them iPods and go see the movie twice. And look for my name!

SeoulGlow #4 - Dinner With Soyeon (1 of 3)

I've technically not broken SeoulGlow's Tuesday deadline for uploading, as the iTunes podcast version of the podcast went up some minutes ago, well before midnight. And the video's on YouTube now, but these days, the old 'Tube has been taking hours to actually process and stream the video, even after it has gone live.

I apologize for the delay, but this was one tough podcast to put together, because it's a good story, a good interview, and lots of subtitling. Carpal tunnel syndrome is in the stars for me.

This podcast has actually been in the works for the longest of any of them, from all the way back in the summer, when my friend Soyeon was still getting through the major weeding-out rounds of the Korean Astronaut program. I had a feeling she was a strong contender, so I just decided to start filming her, since she was already a winner in my book.

So I did two interviews before the big Christmas Day announcement that she had made it, and one a few weeks ago, as she prepares to leave the country for Russia, where she will train for a year before just maybe being the first Korean to go into space, and one of only a fraction of human beings on the planet who ever has.

I tried to have fun with the editing, fun with the space theme, and slog through the subtitling. I personally liked the direct, first-person style interview, and the goal was to be casual, let Soyeon's charm and personality shine through, and to make the viewer feel like they are having the conversation with her. I hope I was able to accomplish those things.

In other news, I've decided that I need a student intern. More on that later, but if you know any smart and motivated students going to Yeondae, Idae, Hongdae, or Seogang (all in my area, and the latter in walking distance of my house), I've got a desire to teach a motivated person video editing on a fast Mac, subtitling, and many other aspects of video production. Being pretty good at English is a must, not so much for communication with me, but because of subtitling. I still plan on doing the English=>Korean translations myself, but need a lot of other help.

We've got other shows coming down the pipe, so the greater our production capacity, the better. I'll be putting up a blurb in an upcoming episode.

And be sure to watch the next two parts to this video – I plan to get these out maybe Thursday or Friday nights, but don't be surprised if these are about 1/2 a day late. It's a one-man production show here.

Subscribe through iTunes directly, or download an MP4 directly.

Enjoy the series, and don't forget to let your Seoooooooul glow!