November 2010
2 posts
How I spent my Saturday night →
I ran the TBDNight blog yesterday! Click to read about the concerts, bar specials, goth nights and bobblehead dolls that you missed out on.
July 2010
2 posts
June 2010
2 posts
Kuridstan's Indie Filmmakers →
My year spent in Seoul has been sponsored by Princeton in Asia, a fellowship program that sets people up with jobs all throughout the continent. I agreed to participate in a storytelling program they put together, and one thing I wound up recording was an interview with a few filmmakers from Kuridstan who were in Korea for the Pusan International Film Festival.
May be worth listening to if...
May 2010
2 posts
North Korea is the first country to figure out... →
From Reuters:
Its state media routinely makes claims about the laws of nature bending to coincide with the birthdays of its founder or his son and current leader, Kim Jong-il, that include the appearance of double rainbows and sunrises so brilliant that frost explodes with the sound of firecrackers.
“Maybe if two suns show up in the sky tomorrow, then people could believe the ...
But can you sue somebody for defamation for... →
Following up in the spirit of my post about the return of the pardoned-criminal chief of Samsung Electronics, the LA Times reports on an expat writer here who is being sued for breaking Korea’s libel law, which is notoriously anti-free speech.
The writer, Michael Breen, wrote satire that made references to Samsung’s hereditary structure and past allegations of widespread bribery. I...
April 2010
3 posts
Bombs Spreading Across North Korea →
Not what you think.
“Kim Jong Il is known to be fond of encouraging the drinking of such drinks at his gatherings, because he believes one of the signs of a good leader is alcohol tolerance.”
Reunification and our generation
South Korean people around my age - in their mid-20s - don’t feel strongly about unification with their neighbors to the North. That much you can find out when talking to pretty much anybody born in the 1980s, and so writes an Australian Ph.D. candidate Emma Campbell:
This is the first generation of South Koreans, who define themselves in terms of the southern part of the peninsula only....
March 2010
5 posts
On coverage of the Samsung chief's return
After reading the New York Times account of the former head of Samsung taking up his perch at Samsung Electronics again, I finally realized just how much my own paper’s coverage of the affair stunk.
Lee Kun-hee had to step down two years ago after being indicted for tax evasion, although apparently there were a lot of less savory charges he got away with. Duly, NYT refers to him as an...
Takin' Care of Business: DPRK →
Well, I just came across a most substantial gap in my North Korea education. Except for a little bit about the headache that the Kaesong Industrial Complex can be for the South Korean government - last year, the North detained a South Korean worker there for about four months, at the same time it was demanding a dramatic increase in payments from the companies looking to do business there - I...
February 2010
10 posts
It's like "What to Expect When You're Expecting,"... →
I reviewed a guide about Korea - not a travel guide, mind you, but a guide about actually moving and living here. I think my review came off more positively than I actually felt about it, which is to say that it’s kind of a waste of paper and you can find all of the information online. But that was hard to write explicitly without any hint of irony in a print newspaper.
Battle of the...
Another post about figure skating!
So, back in 1988, what would the media have done if either Brian Orser or Brian Boitano had spelled his name with a “Y”? Just one, not both.
The history of the Calgary Winter Olympics might have sounded a little less clever, that’s for sure.
Mao and Yu-na
I’ve been travelling a bit today. And between work early this afternoon, the bus terminal, the bus, my motel room and the restaurant I dined in tonight, I must have seen Kim Yu-na’sperformances at the Olympics more than half a dozen times, along with the highlights of her main competition.
My take-away from most of it? I feel really bad for Mao Asada.
Her short program looked...
James Fallows shout out →
Hey, check it out, an article I wrote was linked to by James Fallows of The Atlantic. Another friend passed it along to him in the first place, but still, kind of neat.
Given that he mostly writes about East Asia and, apparently, beer, I should probably start reading him more often.
Writing circa 2010
Catching myself up on putting links to the stuff I’ve written since the year started. Nothing of tremendous note.
I reviewed the film “Nine.” Didn’t feel too positively about this one. Penelope Cruz’s Oscar nomination might be a bit of a stretch, but she is one of the bright spots among of a lot of duds.
Seoul microbrews! You typically can find about 5 kinds of...
Battle of the Personality Cults! →
Samaraput Niyazov vs. Kim Il-sung!
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow vs. Kim Jong-il!
Who will emerge victorious?
(It was a draw, actually.)
January 2010
5 posts
I went to the Bank of Korea Museum today
And I learned some things about the history of Korea’s federal reserve and currency systems, not to mention systems the world over. [link]
My most interesting takeaway was that in the 1950s, shortly after the modern Bank of Korea was established, all of the currency printed had pictures of incumbent President Syngman Rhee, the first in a long line of controversial and/or unpopular...
Korean Vocabulary Lesson No. 2
흡연하다, pronounced “huhb yeon ha da,” is an adjective that means to be satisfactory or gratifying. It is also a verb that means to have a smoke.
Note: these vocabulary lessons are provided by my cell phone’s “E-dictionary.”
December 2009
5 posts
Home is where the Nexus is
tumbemployment:
As sometimes happen on lazy holiday weekends, my parents and I found ourselves with nothing to do this evening and began flipping through the channels, where we settled on watching “Star Trek: Generations”.
A few important things to note before I go further with this story - My parents, specifically my Mom, introduced me to and raised me on Star Trek. Next Generation was maybe...
Review of an actual Korean film →
Finally, the timing was such that I was able to review a new Korean release with English subtitles - and I proceed to write about how it’s probably going to be remade in English.
Korean Vocabulary Lesson
The Korean word for cartoons is the same as the Korean word for the “spleen and pancreas of a mature animal.” It’s 만화 - pronounced “manhwa.”
November 2009
10 posts
My editor wouldn't let me review 2012 so I saw... →
If you’ve seen the 2008 U.S. film “Tropic Thunder,” starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr., you know that the film begins with some fake movie trailers, helping establish the backgrounds of the characters in that film as actors involved in some of the most contrived action movies, gross-out flicks, and Oscar-bait coming out of Hollywood. The U.S. DVD release of Tropic Thunder also...
Having a laugh with the L.A. Times →
This story about the one-hole golf “course” in South Korea next to the DMZ is a good read not just for the combined weight of golf *and* military cliches, nor the fact that it’s actually interesting subject matter. No, it really stands out because it seems like our country’s finest managed to do a pretty damn good job taking the piss with the L.A. Times Seoul...
NYT: Euna Lee gets book deal →
According to the NYT, Euna Lee, one of the two journalists held in North Korea earlier this year, has landed a book deal, and Laura Ling, her partner, is working on securing one.
I’ve made my feelings about this known in the past, so all I’m going to do is say that I think it would really serve them well to be upfront about how much they’re making for the books, and then give...
More hard hitting journalism by this guy →
It’s about Seoul’s version of the 48 Hour Film Project.
But none of them, as far as I know, had music by Elroy Jefferson and the Space Cadets.
Of course Kim Jong-il is friends with a magician... →
Fairly interesting story in the Christian Science Monitor quoting experts claiming that in Kim Jong-il’s public appearances over the past few months, it hasn’t really been him, but one of his doubles. The last line I’m quoting really did it for me:
No one here, however, is ready to go as far as Japanese writer Toshimitsu Shigemura, who has written two books and numerous ...
October 2009
5 posts
Basterds: Nasty Guys →
“Inglourious Basterds,” - or “Basterds: Nasty Guys,” as the Korean title translates - finally came out here! My review.
Assassanniversary (Don't let the awful title...
On October 26th, 1909, Korea was less than a year away from being fully annexed by Japan. At the time, there was already a Japanese resident general in place overseeing the Korean peninsula. His name was Hirobumi Ito, and he had been Japan’s first prime minister during the late 19th century. One hundred years ago today, he was gunned down at the train station in Harbin, China, by Korean...
