Scribblings of the Metropolitician

Spread the Word about Photo Classes in English!

Loyal readers and former photo classes participants, I'm asking you to help spread some of my official promotional materials in the form of quick, 1-page flyers you can print up andput up in your office, school, or institute. And if you do, get a 25,000 won discount on photo classes yourself, if you decide to take them!

And remember, if you can put together a group of at least 6 people, we can arrange on-site classes and special times to fit your needs. Again -- split-shift hagwon teachers, this is for you!

Download the flyer in PDF or Word formats.

PDF:
http://www.metropoliticking.com/blog_media/photo_classes.pdf

Word
http://www.metropoliticking.com/blog_media/photo_classes.doc

And here's a link to the main informational post about the classes -- "Photography Classes in Korea."

Korean Internet Needs to Get It Together, and By the Way, Facebook Is at Your Borders

As I've been teaching in one of my Media and Korean Internet classes, the Korean Internet is in big trouble. No one really buys anything I say at the time, like 2 years ago when I was saying that Facebook dominating Korea and Cyworld digging its own grave was an inevitablity, or that "UCC" would fall flat on its face, which I said even as it was being rolled out, so I said it again in 2007. This, as Korean pundits were predicting YouTube would die a quick and dirty death, or that iPhone would fall flat on its face when it launched in Korea. I told my classes that Cyworld was doomed in 2007, and I bet my media classes at the end of 2008 that Facebook would be breaching Korea's shores within two years. Everyone back then thought that was ridiculous. "Facebook isn't right for Korean users." Which was said about cheese, pizza, coffee, the INTERNET, Macs, iPods, YouTube, and over the past couple years, Facebook.

If you've been here a long time, you hear this ridiculous statement all the time -- "It's not right for Koreans." (한국 셩격에 안맞아요.") Why do people keep saying this, when cases upon cases, time and time again, show that not only do foreign ideas come into Korea and get adapted to what Koreans want, but also (and more importantly) Koreans bend over backwards to adapt themselves to many new foreign ideas, trends, and tastes. The prime example of this is Starbucks' entrance into Korea, which any marketer worth their salt should know about and which should have shut up forever this ridiculous notion that anything is impossible for Koreans to adapt themselves to, given the right impetus.

And in the big picture, I see Google increasing its presence in Korea and becoming a major player within the next 12-16 months. By the time 3 years has passed -- an eon in Internet time -- Naver will no longer be dominant. That's not even really an amazing prediction, actually, since you could see it a mile away, coming for "UCC" companies such as MNcast (which I happened to use and like very much, but still) or Cyworld now. Would you put money down on Cyworld or Facebook now?

The reasons? They're simple, obvious, and their force as inexorable as the inertia of slow-moving, but huge boulders or other immense objects. 

1) Korea is bizzaro-land, Monster Island, the "walled garden" to those who put it politely. Because of a huge language barrier, insular cultural habits, as well as technical aspects of the Korean Internet that don't play nice with any potential foreign users, the Korean Internet just exists all by itself in the online universe, subject to its own rules. New trends come in slowly, or parsed through by the big Internet jaebeol (conglomerates), which runs everything on the Korean Internet, another thing that stifles innovation, combined with a culture-based aversion to taking risks and doing new things. And no one wants to be the first and be different when it comes to Internet entrepreneaurship -- people would rather see something that works and copy. The phenomenon of online "shopping malls" (online boutiques that are really not much more than hobbyist fashion blogs posing as "stores") is a case-in-point. After the "$40,000 girl" made the first successful one years ago, it's all fashionistas do -- buy and sell trinkets on the Internet in a completely saturated market. But no one makes fashion content, for a lot of reasons, both mentioned above as well as others it would take another post to write about.

2) The entire Korean Internet -- in its pure, original forms -- is based on a pay-for-play model. Prime example? Naver. You simply have to pay for high placement. In the world's Internet terms, this is backwards. The entire online world is going in the direction of free, free, free, and Google's strength and reason for the high quality of its searches is that they're fair. They tell you who has the most traffic, links in (authority), and recency, etc. A Google search will tend to tell you who's the best in your search category -- Naver will tend to show you who paid the most for their high ranking. That reduces search quality, and that system is only maintained by old-fashioned, Korean-style, press-the-flesh business relationships. But the rest of the Internet isn't exclusive, plays well with others, is open-source, fair, and free. Naver is the opposite of these things. They're roller-skating uphill.

3) Exclusivity, closed-sourced coding and thinking, centralized portals and access, and a general unfriendliness with international markets (why didn't MNCast, a Korean-style YouTube and pretty cool channel, ever offer an English-language menu? likely because it never occurred to them that it doesn't matter if you're in Korea or the US or Zimbabwe if you want to attract as many users as possible) makes Korean ideas out-of-date or completely irrelevant to the outside world, and at worst, incompatible.

4) The hard-to-say and sensitive issue is that Koreans don't create content. Well, of course, they do, a little, and one or two ideas have made it past the Korean borders (OhMyNews, the best implementation of "citizen journalism" in the world and very much a function of Korean cultural habits and Internet usage style). But the Internet infrastructure here has been far more robust, a zillion times faster, and just plain cool since late 1998, when most Americans were still using modems. We actually haven't had that much of a head start as Americans on the Internet -- most people didn't even start making sense of "WWW" anything until 1996, and the Web hadn't really been commercialized even then. Assuming that structure enables an environment for innovation, as is the big assumption with most conversations talking about "creating infrastructure," then what happened? Where are the worldwide, international-level Korean Internet ideas? I mean, think about it. Korea has a highly-able population of kids raised on computers, schools and public institutions have been far better hooked up in Korea than in most places in the West, including and especially America (had you seen an American public school computer room in the late 1990's? I have, and it wasn't pretty), and most average Korean apartments have had the equivalent of a T3 connection on their home computers, with no upload or download caps. Most small offices in the States share such a connection between dozens of computers. Little Cheolsu and Yumi here in Korea are playing Maple Story while big brother downloads gigabytes of illegal movies, even as mom catches up on dramas, online, in the other room. Still, most of the big innovations and companies come from a few snot-nosed kids, starving grad students, and small operations in the US. Actually, even before the Internet, we've had college dropouts Bill Gates and Steve Jobs revolutionize an entire industry, and more dropout visionaries, garage outfits, and precocious college kids founded Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Digg, Twitter, Facebook, and a hundred others I could name. It wasn't the more robust infrastructure, the US didn't really have a head start on the Internet, and it's been EONS in Internet time for anyone else (especially an Internet utopia like Korea!) to play any catchup needed. So Korean Internet and entrepreneurs, why haven't we heard from you?

Why is Korea so....off when it comes to new media? Why is it such a strange little island?

The other parts of the equation aren't so pretty. There are a lot of cultural factors that I relate back to the specefic culture of the education system, negative reinforcement, and the active discouragement of creativity and critical thinking in pedagogical terms.

But that's the conclusion anyone can come to 2 weeks off the plane in Korea. The shit actually gets deeper than that.

There's an overall culture of conformity, vicious envy, and a huge averseness to risk-taking behavior that acts as one barrier. There's the lack of vision and patience that Korean VC's have had, until more recently, when Koreans have started looking to what needs to be done to turn a profit, and no, you're not going to successfully monetize even the most successful Internet idea in 6 months -- sorry. Success is measured in years, and also in failure. Yes, failure, and as my biz and tech friends always tell me, Korean companies don't realize that 9/10 of your startup investments will fail -- and that's alright! You're looking for the next Google, waiting out the better ideas longer, and taking more risks on some long-shot ideas.

But whatever.

Facebook is here, and got here against all the broken-record arguments that always followed everything else that came here and took over (Me2Day employees, are you packing your desks and freshening up your resumes? Twitter's already the standard), and in terms of apps ("The Web Is Dead -- Long Live the Internet!" -- did ya'll get the memo?), Google has some pretty damn good ones, even as pirating and copyright infringment are gutting the Korean android market.

And sign of the times?

When I watch commercials come on the big screen pushing smart phones, even Korean companies are showing the Twitter, Google, and Facebook apps prominently. Didn't even see Naver up there, even as news announcers, radio stations, and pretty much everyone is now giving out Twitter addresses to get user feedback.

And now, Facebook? With the movie, on TOP of the fact that it was about to hit critical mass and tip around now, ANYWAY?

Bye, bye Cyworld. For reals, now.

You know what? It's the user base, stupid. Why did YouTube finally become the standard, even in real-name law, YouTube-unfriendly Korea, back when domestic UCC portals had HD and faster streaming?

Duh. The content. Worldwide user base, and eventually better features.

Facebook? Check. Facebook? Check. Facebook? Check.

Same with the iPhone. Many (well, journalists in the pocket and on the payee list of Samsung) predicted its  failure at launch, and many of the same people with the same Schadenfreude are saying Android will demolish Apple's phone.

Wrong. Again.

If anything, Apple has a huge cache of brand-name value, which is even more extreme than back in the States or other parts of the world, since Apple (Macs, specifically) were associated only with the super-elite and/or super-rich from the days when Elex Computers, the sheisty reseller for Macs until 2001, sold a $1200 Mac Classic for nearly $4000. The iPod in its first, disk-based iterations was simply too heavy for Koreans to use. Everyone said it was "안맞아" for Koreans. Until the flash-based Nano came out, when I also predicted Apple's Normandy into Korean territory. And market share went from 2% to 17% within a year, while I anecdotally noticed that amongst most women with MP3 players on the subway, over half were Nanos. Shall we calculate the market share of Apple in the the MP3 player field?

Yepp, Cowon, and iRiver -- where aaaaaaaarrrrre you?

Now, Facebook's invasion is well under way, and it seems like a no-brainer. After the film, which actually succeeded in making nerdy entrepreneaurial activities look like the shark feeding that went on in the movie Wall Street, and actually made a web site seem sexy, what is Facebook's brand cache in Korea now?

Yesterday, I was chatting with the new chatty girl who works the front desk of my apartment building lobby. She's not in college, she's a typical Korean girl who lives in a lower middle-class apartment complex in Seoul and has no foreign friends. Yesterday, I mentioned I was going out to see Social Network and had she heard of it? She was actually bubbling with excitement over it, and had actually already reserved tickets to see it on the weekend with her friends. They had all heard it's really good, Justin Timbaland's in it, and it's a really good drama.

And she also said that after the movie, her and her friend were gonna go register for Facebook. Something 95% of the students in my media class at a local university hadn't even heard of 1.5 years ago, and even 6 months ago was something only Koreans with foreign friends, a semester of exchange studenting under their belt, or who worked in international organizations had accounts in. Now, my domestic-Korean-only friends are adding me left and right.

All the models at Fashion Week -- and I mean nearly all -- have iPhones and were asking for my Twitter address for their show pics, and two added me to Facebook. Huh?

My 60+ year old Korean uncle, a hard-working pharmacist who's used a single email address for years, since his son probably set it up, just added me. Jigga-what?

And the girl who works the counter downstairs? She said that after she saw the movie, she would "Facebook" me.

Facebook's arrived in Korea.

And a year from now, it'll seem ridiculous that this was ever even an argument. And so it goes.

How to Never Lose Anything in a Korean Taxi

If you’re like me, you carry a lot of expensive gear around, take the taxi often because of it, and fear most the prospect of leaving something worth a month’s rent in the back seat.

Well, I’ve lived in Seoul for 8 years now and have never lost anything in a taxi. Ever. And it’s because I use a few anti-theft, anti-drunk, and anti-stupid tricks to prevent this from happening.

Follow these rules and you will also never lose anything in a taxi.

THE 3-SECOND CHECK
Get into the habit of opening the door, actively looking at the seat and floor before closing the door, and then going on your way. A courteous taxi driver will catch on that you’re double-checking and often turn on the light for you. An asshole taxi driver might actually yell at you for holding him up. Screw all other worldly concerns — be in the habit of stepping out, do a 3-second check, seat-and-floor, then closing the door — whether traffic’s bad and they’re honking, or your driver’s kvetching at you. 3 seconds! That’s all. You just might see your wallet, camera, or iPhone there. I’ve picked my dropped iPhone off the taxi floor at least 5-6 times, and seen it where it fell out of my pocket a few times as well. But you have to make it a habit. Once you do, you’re 90% loss-proof. I once had a secondary camera bag in the seat next to me, which I kinda forgot about because I was very tipsy. But since it was a habit, I did the check even when I wasn’t in my right mind. Saved me $3000.

BE CONSISTENT AND DON’T TRUST YOURSELF WHEN YOU’RE NOT
I could almost never lose the normal day bag I use all the time. My shoulder feels empty without it. So I’d never get out of the cab without it  on. But say it’s a day when I stick my big camera bag in the trunk and my normal bag in the car — it’s ludicrously easy to blank out for a minute (remember, you’re used to a routine when exiting the cab, and you’re exiting with your normal bag) and forget you have something extra in the trunk. And yeah, you’ll realize 5 seconds after the taxi has jetted off, but now, you’re already up the creek. Hope you have good eyesight and can see the taxi company written on the cab. Prevention? When you have extra gear and use the trunk, put ALL your crap in the trunk. Then you’ll have the empty shoulder feel, it’s obvious that something’s missing, and you’ll never have that absent-minded moment in which $4000 of gear is cruising around the city, forgotten about by even the driver himself until the next time he opens the trunk.

RIDE FAMILIAR IF YOU CAN
I always try to use “친절” company cabs because they have KT “Eggs” inside, which gives your wireless Internet inside (the network name always starts with “KWI-abcdefg” numbers and the password is “SHOW3382” and is case-sensitive. If you get into the habit of looking for a certain taxi company, then you’ll be more likely to be in that cab if you lose something. Same with the call taxi — I have 친절 in my phone and try to use them as call taxi when I have to. Whatever call taxi company you use, though, if you leave something in there, you can call them and they’ll be able to know where you got in, what your destination was, and thereby which car picked you up.

USE YOUR CARDS
Stick one of your name cards in the cover of each piece of equipment or badge you own. There are lots of honest people who surprisingly may call you if they have the means to. I stick a name card inside the rubber cover of my iPhone, have one in my iPad, and have also written my email and number in magic marker on the bottom of my Macbook. I have a name card in each gear bag I own. It’s easy to do and might just save your ass if you get forgetful with the above rules.

IF YOU’RE ANAL…
You can always take only call cabs, or always take a pic or make note of the license plate number, or ID plate in the front passenger’s seat.

But basically, if you just follow the first rule here — the 3-second check — you’ll never lose anything. But don’t listen to me and spend 3 seconds investing in easy-and-free insurance against leaving expensive stuff in the car — some people like to try it the hard way and just not think about it. 3 seconds can save you countless thousands more, expressed in the time it takes to make the money back to replace your lost iPhone, DSLR, or every credit card, ID, and discount in your clutch bag.

Photography Classes in Korea!

For those of you with the desire to learn photography in Korea, you've finally come to the right place.

Background
Michael Hurt, the main instructor, is an experienced photographer with a base in many areas of the photographic field, from street to documentary, everyday to runway fashion, weddings to studio portraiture. He is self-trained, having been an avid photographer since elementary school. As a graduate student, he was priveleged to have been accepted into a master class at the School of Journalism at UC Berkeley in photo documentary, having the chance to work with accomplished photojournalists such as Kenneth Light and Susan Meiselas, and meet photo dignitaries such as Sebastio Selgado and others. He is a published street and documentary photographer, in publications ranging from CNNGo.com, Lufthansa flight magazine, the Hangyeoreh, The Korea Herald, The Japan Times, and many commercial clients. Most recently, he has worked as one of the only foreign fashion and runway photographer coverings Seoul Fashion Week, University Fashion Week, and many other individual runway shows in Korea. He has been featured in Harper's Bazaar Korea and has worked with several top runway Korean models, including a 2009 Miss Korea (미). Most recently, he was become the head photographer for the new Korean fashion magazine Faddict.

First and foremost, besides being an experienced photographer, Michael is an experienced teacher of photography. He has taught in both English and Korean, and has conducted private photo classes for more than five years. He has also worked extensively in the Seoul alternative schools teaching documentary projects for at-risk Korean youth (The SSRO Media School), as well as creative projects at other schools and media centers (The School Within the City, The Haja Center). He was most recently a lecturer at Myongji University in the course "Understanding Korean History through Pictures" and is a regular lecturer for incoming Fulbright ETA grant recipients on "The Visual Culture of Seoul." He has also taught custom classes for such international organizations as the Seoul branch of Voice of America (VoA) and the Australian Embassy in Korea.

As photo classes, the approach is quite different from most other courses, in that it is extremely experientially based an centered around the camera's functions themselves. This is the "direct method" of photographic instruction, favored by legend Minor White when he founded the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts, which primarily had, as its first students, GI's going to college for the first time under the post-war GI bill, and whose first instructors included luminaries such as Minor White, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and others. The point was that committed students, even without the slightest background in the arts or photography (or even higher education) could be taught photography if they were taught by doing. This is the active assumption that makes our course very, very different from others.

Student start the class, even the theory-based first session, by understanding things through the specific functions of their own cameras. All DSLR's work essentially the same way, and traditionally share the same nomenclature for even the most advanced functions; however, there is still the specifics of the individual camera, which students need to get to know. By the second session, we're outdoors and applying camera-specific theory from the first class to the real situations we find outside. We also add in the use of external flash as a means of further understanding concepts already learned. The assumption is that, once students get one level of things, adding another level of complexity simply offers another dimension of understanding -- not a greater hindrance to it. That is the working assumption for the third session as well, in which a model is brought in and the students learn the basics of studio photography, which further deepens understanding of the basic concepts of shutter, aperture, light strength, distance from the subject, etc. In fact, the basics of studio photography have already been conceptually learned in the second session -- the studio is just a variation, again. By the fourth session, we are working with advanced exposure techniques, multiple flashes, and many other techniques that basically define all one can do with a camera.

In short, it's a chance to try as much as possible as a means of understanding just a few key concepts.

Courtesy of CNNGo.com

The Course
There are 4 consecutive 3-hour sessions usually spread over the course of a month, conducted in the instructor's actual studio, which is right outside Namyeong Station on the #1 line. Desired class sizes range from 4-6 people.The only real requirement is having a DSLR or an extremely advanced all-in-one camera. The course offers enough depth to total beginners, especially from the first session (the basics of aperture, shutter, depth-of-field), to truly get a basis in photography by the end of the course. But there is also enough breadth and a range of new experiences (outdoor flash, studio work, complex lighting situations) in the course's second, third, and fourth sessions, such that even the intermediate or advanced amateur will benefit greatly. Anyone short of being an experienced, regulalarly working photographer, with advanced technical skills from natural to flash to studio lighting -- you will learn something significant in this course, and it's small and flexible enough to meet your greater needs or more advanced equipment, if you bring that along. Dealing with your advanced issue or question will actually help the class, not hurt it. It just makes the experience set of the group broader, and everyone benefits. Broken down:

Session 1: Fundamentals
Explaining the relationship between shutter, aperture, and depth-of-field. Going through the basic settings of the camera, including ISO, white balance, the meanings of different program modes, autofocus and exposure settings, etc. Understanding the mechanics of proper exposure is emphasis. Homework is assigned, to be uploaded through Flickr.

Session 2: Practicals I
On an outing, usually to Hongdae, we emphasize proper outdoor exposure, the use of fill flash, and the mechanics that limit its use, such as maximum flash-sync speed, compensating for that through aperture and ISO, as well as the use of manual flash, especially an external one. There is also an element of street photography and candids on this outing.

Session 3: The Studio
Shooting a subject with studio lights offers another dimension on the subject of distance and flash power, except the light source is now no longer on the camera. It also demonstrates how aperture affects flash power, without being affected by shutter speed, as well as composition, distance from the subject, etc. By this time, most students are really "getting" the technical aspects of photogaphy.

Session 4: Practicals II
Back outdoors, usually at the Han River or Myeongdong, we experiment with extreme background and fill flash lighting, multiple remote flashes, and other extreme lighting conditions that make for interesting casual outdoor shots and portraits.

Other side benefits to the course include many discussions about equipment choice, the best lenses, flashes, and other buys that can enhance one's photography, and which a professional shooter can offer some good advice about.

Payment and Times
The course is 250,000 won for the entire 4 weeks. It's a pretty penny, but worth it, as most of my students are exteremely satisfied, and the success of the class depends on the recommendations and referrals of satisfied former students. So, bring all your photo equipment, a notebook, and sense of adventure. In addition, for every friend you bring into a class to sign up with you, you receive a 25,000 won discount. You can take the discount or split it between yourselves. If you bring in several people, the class can be quite cheap for you!

Except for the first class, the classes afterwards are fairly modular. If you have to miss one, you can take that session again on another cycle of the class, although I don't encourage it as an attendance strategy (for your sake, not mine). If you miss session #2 and then come to studio session #3, it's not a huge loss. The knowledge isn't directly cumulative, although it does help to come in order -- the class is structured the way it is for a reason. But there are no refunds. So, if your work schedule suddenly changes that month, for example, you're free to come again on another cycle. This makes it easier to live my life, as well as encourage you to make sure to treat this as a class you've paid good money for, not an optional activity.

Photo classes generally are offered one at least one weekday and the weekend. All announcements, directions, and payment info are run on the Studio 11 Facebook site. If you do not use Facebook, you can email directly for information from the link at the top right of the page.

And for Those Outside of Seoul...
We know that many of you don't live in Seoul. If you can gather a group of 6+ people for a course outside of Seoul, we can make special arrangements for an intensive session, which I have done before. One thing that worked previously was having  the first two sessions over one day (say 11-2, followed by a long lunch and break, filled with camera conversation and other good banter, and the last two in Seoul, so non-Seoul people have to only make one trip, not four. If you're really way out there and it would be better for me to make two trips for two intensive sessions, we can work something out for a slight hike in the signup price. In any case, we can work something out, and it has worked out well in the past.

So, IS That Nigga Crazy?

Well, no. 

But I did feel angry about only one thing, to those paying attention -- I was mad at Robert, whom I consider a friend and colleague. For those who remarked I was "proving him right," actually, not. I didn't think much in particular about the statistic or the survey in question besides, "Oh, that's interesting." There's nothing to get angry about, from where I sit. 

Me and Robert hung out last night, as planned because of an overlapping engagement, and drank makkoli with a bunch of other blogger folks. While we joshed around about it, I did express in person what the whole thing was about -- I don't appreciate the comments in his peanut gallery, many of which are outright racist, although most of the frat boys over there engaging in it pat themselves on the back, thinking their comments pass as some sort of incisive wit, e.g. "Yeah, Metro was conceived out of the same slime that the dude fucking that Korean chick on video probably had running out of her pussy!" Metropolitician rant in 3...2...1...

Witty. See, it's just plain old racist locker room banter, with the boys going "Let's see if we get a rise out of him." Well, yeah, you're being a racist prick. For example, in the post with the video with the black dude who filmed a Korean chick having sex with him, that man has nothing to do whatsoever with my father except he's BLACK. The dumbass Korean chick in the video with him has nothing to do with my mother except she's KOREAN. I'm not in the conversation, have nothing to do with this situation other than my parents' RACES. And making jokes about my deceased father, who never made sex tapes of hapless Korean women, or my mother, who worked hard to re-attend college and get her bachelor's degree in the US after her Korean degree didn't transfer over, become a registered nurse and become one of the senior staff in the intensive care unit at one of the biggest hospitals in the Ohio tri-state area -- yeah, I get to brag about my mama -- she has a strong a logical relationship to some whore some black dude picked up for a one-night stand and put on the Internet as the topic of human rights does to a discussion of Chinese politics. Other than the obvious fact that "Duurgh, they're black and Korean." 

Which is racist as a motherfucker -- period. It's not funny. None of those white motherfuckers on the Hole would ever say that to my face, because they know they'd leave my face minus an eye or two. But it passes as witty banter on the Hole, as does any random discussion in which people want to bring up random, irrelevant bullshit and then attach my name to it, as if my name was Bennett and I was all all innit.

That's why, to the unobservant, I seem "sensitive." To those who listen to what I say and know me in person, they know I say shit, and respond to shit, because I treat what people say to me as what they SAY, and I don't say shit in writing that I wouldn't say to someone's face. 

Back to Robert, I'm not mad at him for him saying anything racist himself, nor do I consider him a racist. But, given the fact that he DOES often police his comments, and that he HAS been known to ban people, it has bothered me that out-and-out racist assholes get to act their worst on the Hole, as do outright sexist pricks, but nothing is ever said, not a word gets spoken to be cautious. I'm not talking about censorship, but plain old racial slurring. 

It's not condoning the behavior, but it certainly not sanctioning against it. And in 1) bringing me up from out-of-the-blue, and 2) expressing such a fundamental misunderstanding of my personality as to think that particular news story would at all get me "angry" -- I was pretty surprised and disappointed with The Marmot at that point in time. 

Of course, we hashed it out over makkoli and noodles, two literally big bloggers having at it, as it were. But I think he got -- and I said this in person -- that I didn't appreciate him encouraging the exact kind of behavior, even if not in degree, but in type, that his dumbest commenters engage in. 

This is more of a personal beef, with a longer context than most casual readers here are aware of. Back to even that psychopath Scott Burgeson, who contacted me via email from out-of-the-blue, yelling and screaming about why I was avoiding him and not reacting to some proposal I'd never heard of, and then cursing me out even further for asking him to clarify himself, before finally getting irritated and telling him to go fuck himself after the fifth time-wasting exchange. On the Marmot, he published my last, irritated email in which I told him to go fuck himself, as if he wasn't being a complete psychopath by yelling and screaming at me in his own emails from 9:04 in the morning. I simply countered by publishing the entire exchange, which was brought on my Scott crossing that line, at which point The Marmot deleted the entire exchange, and I was known as having had a non-existent "public breakdown" online, an impression the Hole didn't counter or clear up. Of course, I should have just stopped publishing on the Hole and taken it home to here, but I didn't. And anyway, after that, I never published anything worth discussing on the Hole again. Although the commenters didn't forget about it. 

Hence, my extreme irritation at the "taking my pills" comment, because I've been pissed about that implication of having "lost my marbles" simply because I decided to call Scott Bug's lying bluff and show what was said, from the very beginning. Because again, HE was buzzing in MY ear -- I've never met Scott Burgeson, I've never contacted him, and I could give a fuck as to whether he lives or dies. But he, figureatively, picked up the phone and called ME, not the other way around. And then decided to act like I went buck wild on HIM. A clear sign of paranoid schizophrenia, by the way. 

Anyway, I call shit as I see it, and always have been. And since then, I'm sick of my name being brought up in shit I ain't in, then being called to task for reminding them that I ain't got nothing to do with the conversation. Then, when I say that, it's like, "Aha! We got him!"

Fucking juvenile.

And from where I sat, eating my oatmeal and going through Digg and other blog feeds, I was pretty irritated to see that Robert was seemingly encouraging it by example. 

And yeah, I can see why people think I "overreacted." I myself hesitated for minutes, thinking about whether to hit "Publish" or not. But I wanted to publicly say -- while expressing my irritation directly to that friend -- that my reputation for jumping into conversations and being THAT guy is so unearned. I keep any ranting I do to HERE -- I don't know why Marmot's Holers have such a boner for me that they keep bringing me up, having fantasy conversations about what they think I WOULD say in all kinds of situations. The only thing I post about over there  in YEARS has been a video about Korea's first astronaut (including completely uncalled for banter about whether I "banged" her or not -- WTF?!), free movie tickets to a Tarantino premiere here in Seoul (to which commenter Whitey once again brought up the non-issue of me mentioning my school names or other lines on my resume, something that seems to bother only him and a few other commenters, since they seem to remember my resume details better than me), or about Seoul Fashion Week, which also brought another attempt at a jab, which I didn't grace with an angry rant, either.

I was just pissed to see the Marmot himself, in my eyes, encouraging his own peanut gallery. And I've expressed as much in person. 

So, there's no battle, no war, no Godzilla vs. Mothra showdown in Seoul going to happen. From one blogger to another, I got mad at something I thought was inappropriate. I get Robert's point and true intention that it was light ribbing -- I truly do, and there are not lingering hard feelings about it. I can take a lot of ribbing, and do in person -- how can you be fat, black, and look like a Samoan while living in Korea if you can't? 

I was just pissed at Robert for a minute, and basically told him what I'd tell him in person, had he been around to be on the receiving end of me spitting up my oatmeal. "Dude -- WTF?!" Anyway, I don't regret it -- that's how I felt at the time, and there's a LOT of context around it, to me. Now, Robert knows about it. He can do what he wants -- it's his blog. I'm just saying that, as a friend and colleague, I wouldn't tolerate people constantly attacking, say, his or his wife's racial or ethnic origins, nor his future kids, or allow them to be compared to some slime running out of blah, blah, blah. You get it. 

And since I'd draw the line at that, I kind of hoped that Robert could draw his own lines about how to deal with his many racist and sexist commenters, in addition to the tendency for his commenters to drag the conversation down to the lowest levels possible a lot of the time. 

That Nigga Crazy!

Here I am, eating a late-night bowl of oatmeal for dinner, checking out the blogs that I've missed out on reading for the last couple weeks. So, no matter what you think, remember who started this shit -- and it ain't ME.

Sooooo -- over at The Marmot, it's now not just belligerent commenters, but the founder himself, who suggests that I must be crazy (hence, the pill-taking, I assume) because 1) I report that I am regularly harrassed in places such as the subway in Korea, along with dozens of other instances I can cite, as well as countless other people whom I know and 2) he implies that I either bring it upon myself or, alternatively, must be crazy to report it back to others as a pattern. 

This is the same ribbing (and source of doubtful stares) that I get from most of my white male friends who constantly counter with, "Well, nothing ever happens to ME" but then go on to either doubt or discount my experience with harrassment as somehow not being reflective of reality. Because the white man's experience is obviously the valid one, or those of the majority. Same with Koreans who counter with, "Well, no one ever harrasses ME." Uh, duh?

Well, Robert, I'm not a white man who walks around the city wearing a white hanbok. That might make our experiences a tad different.

And as for the report, I don't see why it's assumed that its mere existence would send me into some kind of rage, or a bout of apopleptic writing rage. I don't doubt at all that a good number or Koreans welcome multiculturalism and are open to new ways of doing things in society, as reflected in that survey. It still doesn't change the fact that a good number of angry, drunk men constantly single me (and certain kinds of other people whom they seem to be bothered by) on the subway and other places for harrassment.

It doesn't change the fact that, if you're black in Korea, you either need major personal connections or a golden resume just to get the same shitty hagwon jobs they hand out to any white folks with a pulse here.

Or, regarding how the report talks about there being few reports on attacks against foreigners here, it might be because a police officer actually TOLD me that a foreigner's testimony has no meaning against a Korean's, when I was arrested for calling the police on the drunk man who was harassing ME. They just don't keep those statistics, Bob.

What's most annoying is the fact that people who read about my irritation with these things assume it's because I "hate Korea" -- rather than look at all the things I like to do here, from photography to podcasts to all kinds of personal reasons I like living here, and see that it really, really, really irritates me that a few assholes can ruin the entire party. 

I like living in Korea, and it's BECAUSE of that fact that little things like being called a nigger on the train, being verbally attacked in Seoul Station in front of a cop who does nothing, or having a good friend have to go back to the States last month because her recruiter straight up TOLD her that it was too hard to get her another job because she was black -- shit like that can ruin your day.

It's BECAUSE I like Korea, because I've worked hard to learn the culture and language and society, that stuff like this bothers me, Bob.

You want to bring up my blog out-of-the-blue, based on a random news peg? What about the many reports that now reflect the fact that yes, random violence against women is on a major rise, another thing I've been anectdotally arguing is the case, for about 4 years now, and which cell phone cameras and YouTube videos are also starting to bear witness to. It's funny how, from when the police started keeping those kinds of stats, this violence has been on the rise. So, it's crazy to say that this might also be the case with foriegners? Does this make me a person in need of taking "his pills?"

You don't seem to consider any of the OTHER shit I say, which ain't too crazy -- I guess now you just like to pick and choose fights with the personality, much like your commenters.

Remember, Robert, YOU brought this shit up, brought my name into this, and implied in front of thousands of readers that I would have an extremely violent reaction and a specific opinion to this topic (which I don't) -- all completely UNSOLICITED by me, out-of-the-blue. Just like your commenters, I'm not only not even talking about any of this within earshot of you people, I'm not even THERE for the conversation -- YET YA'LL KEEP BRINGING ME UP.

My reaction to something like that isn't unreasonable, nor unexpected. I'm not in your grill, nor on your blog, talking about race, violence, or anything else -- I've been wise enough not to even broach any serious topic on your blog, what with the puerile nature of your commenters. Even with that, I've always either linked to or written on your blog respectfully, and spoken of you in the same way. We don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but I thought there was at least respect as colleagues.

So I don't see the need, or how it's at all appropriate to be talking about me going into histrionics, needing to "take my pills," or some such shit, basically making me the unsolicited whipping boy for all that is liberal, related to race, or blackness in your part of the blogosphere. Like the post about the black dude who filmed himself fucking some Korean chick on secret camera, where some commenter started talking about my MOTHER and something to do with the slime or other bodily fluids that your commenters guffawed about me being the result of. And I know you DO sometimes intervene and police your commenters -- just not for unsolicited, disgustingly racist comments. You tacitly approve them, and probably find them as funny as your peanuts gallery apparently does.

Because now, you're apparently participating in the baiting. Because that's what it is when I'm sitting over here eating my fucking oatmeal only to read about how you apparently think, like your readers, that I'm some fucking comic book character who's lost his marbles, is going to go vitriolic batshit over anything touching the subject of race, or is constantly engaging in self-serving name-dropping when YOU people are the only ones bringing either me, or that shit, UP.

I expect as much from your commenters, but not from you. I was pretty goddamn surprised, actually.

So, a very hearty "fuck you" to you, Bob.

Now, of course, I expect criticism that I'm overreacting, or that I'm being sensitive, or some such. But the bottom line is that your little post steps over the line of reasonableness and just plain level of professional regard that I'VE always kept up, no matter what bilious bilge your comments section brought up, no matter how much we disagreed occasionally on political shit or issues. Now you're engaging in the same immature baiting that I made the conscious decision in my head to just blame your COMMENTERS for. Now, after not having had anywhere near a serious discussion within miles of you or your peeps, you wanna just start randomly calling me out, implying I'm the same Loony Tune I thought just your commenters like to think of me as? That shit was uncalled for, Robert.

As they say on the playgrounds where black folks go, "Don't start no shit, won't be none."