There's a lotta fashion action going down right now, as I've started streamlining my efforts into a proper fashion magazine called Yahae!, which you should visit right this second. It's the same kind of commentary that you might find here, except in shorter form and it's focused more on fashion and the bright/shiny sides of Korean culture. Oh, and you should follow me personally @metropolitician and the magazine @yahaemag. There are my shameless plugs.
Even our editorial spreads reflect a bit of social commentary and edgy subjects, although not exclusively so. We're still gonna take pretty pictures of a whole lotta things, and we've got all the major content coming at you in English and Korean. And the street stuff is still going on there, too, more than at Feetmanseoul.com.
Pretty sporty, eh? And we have access to major designers, through the help of my own connections and TINNews, Korea's leading fashion/textile industry newspaper. Check out IMseonoc's F/W 2011-12 collection, which she emailed me a clean copy of yesterday.
And there's all kinds of other content as well.
Some people have made the criticism on this site -- albeit, I think without much thought -- that I am just "critical" and don't do anything "productive" or "positive." Besides the point that I think being critical is inherently productive, I never understood why people never seem to include my Metropoliticking in Seoul podcast series, the first audio podcast in or about Korea (by the way, I lost the server for that one, so I am still in the process of moving the files -- they'll be back up soon), or the SeoulGlow video podcast, Korea's first video podcast, or BombEnglish (still, a good idea that I'd like to revive soon, when I have more time) or Feetmanseoul.com, which was another overwhelmingly "positive" blog that dealt with Korean fashion culture.
I mean, these culture-related projects were flattering of Korea, to a fault, for the most part. To me, I simply compartmentalized out my interest in fashion and photography to one area, my desire to see English taught another way to another, my interest, back in the day, in podcasting to another, etc. I never got why people seemed to only take this blog as the only thing that represented me.
And that's another thing -- this is a blog. I also never quite got why people would get all up in arms about this blog being "biased" or too "subjective" or even, seeming to mark me as "self-absorbed."
It's a blog!
I'm not CNN or The New York Times. I'm just a guy with some experience and some academic perspectives on Korea. And depending on when you catch me, the US. Or perhaps I'll talk about science fiction, or whatever.
I'm streamlining, so I'm going to continue blogging and putting stuff up here, and these days, I'm interested in nation branding (or the folly thereof), photography, and the Korean Internet. Over at Yahae!, I'm trying to get a real "social networked magazine" going about fashion, a step up from my street fashion blog that is a mere function of me.
And so it goes. See you 'round here more often for commentary, both ranty and measured, and over at Yahae! for more, better contemporary Korean culture content.