Thanks, Harry Connick Jr.

Soundtrack: hit play and start scrolling and reading.

Harry Connick Jr.: It Had To Be You

So a few months ago, I started seeing this poster, advertising a concert for "Harry Connick Jr." -- now, while I DO enjoy it, and even prefer it for swing dancing, jazz/pop/big band isn't usually my very, tippy-top FIRST choice of musical styles (that honour would have to go to singer/songwriter; thanks, Nick Drake, Tom Waits and Micah P. Hinson); however, from what I know of Girlfriendoseyo, and from what I know of Harry Connick Jr., I had a feeling they might like each other, and considering he built his reputation in New Orleans, the birthplace of Jazz and all, and held his own opposite Sandra Bullock in the movie Hope Floats, I also had a feeling he'd have the charisma to put on a tootin' good show.



So the next time I was with Girlfriendoseyo, and we saw a sign for old Harry's show, I pointed it out to her. "Hey. This is an artist I like; I bet we'd really enjoy seeing his show together." (Sure, I should have tried harder to get tickets to see Bjork, too, but I just dropped the ball on that one. Still waiting for Radiohead to show up here; I'd skip a day of work to see THEM play.)

One of the first dates I went on with girlfriendoseyo was to see one of her favourite Korean pop singers, Kim Geon Mo, a beloved singalong popstar with a goofy grin and a really charming way of working a crowd -- between songs he had the whole Sejong Art Centre in stitches. The joy of live music is such a wonderful thing -- being part of a crowd, enjoying the same performance somehow connects people, and I feel like masks drop.

The band Wolf Parade
Even when I went to see Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, two indie-ish bands whose fans pride themselves on "Knowing more about music than YOU do," in Vancouver, a city with underground hipster-pride to rival Portland, Seattle, or Greenwich Village, where people say stuff like "I liked The Saber-Toothed Misanthrope BEFORE she sold out and made a CD," and where I saw a girl walking around in a tizzy of self-consciousness, trying to justify her presence at an INDIE ROCK SHOW by pointing at her shirt and saying, "I've got cred! I'm wearing an ironic T-Shirt!"

Yes, even at THAT show, once the bands started flying, there were a few moments where all (well, most) of those music snobs dropped their cooler-than-thou guards and actually shared something.
Eight months later, they might see each other in a record shop (vinyl, of course, NEVER *gasp* CD's), and realize, "Hey. I was at Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, too." And instead of saying something viciously critical of the show, they might just let their guard drop, meet eyes, and say, "cool. Me too."

Ironic t-shirts. For the emo in all of us.



At the Kim Geon Mo show, I saw something similar, some kind of communal joy, in Girlfriendoseyo's face as she sang along, off-key to the greatest hits and swayed her arms over her head, side to side for slow songs and forward and backward for fast songs (like everyone else in the crowd waving their goofy glow-sticks). It was charming, joyful, and sweet, even though I understand about 5% of the words being sung or spoken.

Kim Geon Mo's goofy smile.
So hell, yeah. I wanted to see a live show with Girlfriendoseyo! After a hiccup during planning: I had a brainfart, and rescheduled my last class for the Thursday BEFORE the actual show, and then had to make up classes THAT day AND the actual day of the concert, we went to see Harry Connick Jr. at the Seoul Art Center.

The man did not disappoint. He showed up with a full big band, and family in tow; the drummer was cooking, in all the right ways, and gave even a slow marching piece a kind of rhythmic drive. The band was tight as a pop-star tank top, and old Harry varied the pace, switched from big to small arrangements, and alternated between voice and piano as he ran the show.

He brought his daughters on stage and they talked about how much they enjoyed wandering around the Namdaemun market, and he made a funny face and groaned, "I wish somebody'd told me it's BAD to eat TOO much Kimchi." (Next time, if he and his family needs a guide around downtown Seoul, I'm in. Just get in touch with me on the comment board, Mr. C!) He said Korean women are beautiful, thanked the crowd for its warm welcome, riffed on how much he enjoys the Korean phrase for "thank you" (Kamsa'amnida), and by the time he sang a few lines from the Korean folk-song Arirang (which I've talked about here before), he had everyone in the palm of his hand.

His song selection was a tribute to his hometown, songs about New Orleans, written by New Orleaners, or (in one case) played in the New Orleans Jazz style. The sweetness and warmth of the man singing about his beleaguered hometown (sorry 'bout Katrina, eh?) was touching, and that emotion (in Korean it's called Han -- the melancholy wishing for a home to which we can never truly return) is one that's deeply embedded in Korean traditional art, so it's no surprise he connected with the crowd.

Between his daughters sailing across the stage on wheelies (shoes with wheels in the bottom) and cheering, "Go Korea!", and one of Harry's old buddies, who came out and wowed everyone with a trombone solo, and joked around with him on-stage for the rest of the show, even when he wasn't playing, the whole show had a feeling of a happy dude hanging out with his good friends, and when he danced as the big band carried the groove, he kept the crowd either swaying or laughing (the butt-shaking dance was goofy, but totally hilarious). By the climax of the show, and the encores, people were spontaneously standing up and dancing or swaying to the music, which is pretty surprising in Korea, where crowds are generally quite shy, even for local acts, and his ovation was wild. Harry himself was overwhelmed by the size of the crowd (he packed the place out, which he hadn't done at other venues on the Asian leg of his tour), and he was overwhelmed again when, by show of hands, the crowd revealed itself to be predominantly Korean (unlike in China, where most of the audience were North American expats, revealing that his local fan-base in China was still small).

(his daughters wore shoes like this)


Yes We Can Can - he sang this one at the show.


Girlfriendoseyo was beaming all through the last third of the show, and she was definitely charmed by Connick's fine, funny showmanship. It was great for me, too -- some musical styles are better on CD than live (things like mellow house, DIY indie rock (do it yourself can sometimes be pretty rough live), math rock or certain kinds of electronica where the layers and textures are the main point of the music, arguably classical) most musical styles are better live than in recording (rock, pop, songwriter stuff, arguably classical) by a reasonable margin, but big band and jazz in general is certainly right up there with the blues as musical styles where the live experience FAR FAR outstrips the recording -- enough so that I might even be inclined to argue you're wasting your time buying the CD. Girlfriendoseyo's been having a hella tough month with a handful of different kinds of stress flying at her all at once, but the show really got her mind off all the yucky stuff for an evening, and she told me she was so excited about Connick's performance that back at home, she put on one of the jazz CDs I gave her and danced around her apartment to it, imitating Junior's stylings.

That made me grin: she's almost ready for me to take her swing dancing!

So anyway, thanks a lot, Harry Connick Jr., for putting on a fantastic show, for giving your best and making my and my girlfriend's week; you made a new fan, and secured another one for life.

Here's Kim Geon Mo, the singer girlfriendoseyo really likes. . . the English version, no less!

Plus, lots of examples of his cute, goofy smile. He puts on a really good show, live.



From the website Japan Probe: There's a Ninja Festival in Mie Japan; your approaching death has never looked so cute.

And finally: survey of the day!
which bands would YOU skip a day of work to see live, and screw the consequences?

I'm gonna go with. . .
Radiohead
Modest Mouse
White Stripes
and Tom Waits. . . and that's about it.
And for Tom Waits, I'd probably even fly to Shanghai, if I had to.

I'd skip half a day to see U2, or reschedule all my classes, 'cos I've heard they put on a great live show, but I don't think I could bring myself to skip a full day for them, with all due respect. Ditto for Micah P. Hinson, Elvis, and Jimi Hendrix.

Happy Easter! here's someone to pray for.

No soundtrack. This is sad stuff.

the North Korean Arirang Games: a propaganda gala that might just be the biggest spectacle on earth, performed yearly.


The Ryugyong Hotel, maybe the ugliest building in the world, and certainly a contender, was never completed. It would be one of the world's tallest, and during one year of the 1990s, North Korea put a full 2% of its entire GNP into its building, but bad engineering, no money, and low-quality concrete doomed it to never being completed.


Things are getting worse in North Korea. The food shortage has reached the capital, and Kim Jong-il's reign might be entering its death throes. That throws a wildest of wildcards into East Asian geopolitics, and meanwhile, people in NK are starving.

I went there once. . . you can read about it if you like.

These kids were chosen for the propaganda video, and probably trained brutally, because they looked healthier than the other kids in Korea. This article might make you cry: the reporter describes a hospital in NK, and the health care adults and children receive.



Follow these links. Read them. Let them break your heart, and then go call your local government representative, write letters, and ask them what they're going, and what your government can do, to help these people.


http://freekorea.us/2008/03/22/china-arrests-40-more-north-korean-refugees/

http://freekorea.us/2008/03/20/the-beginning-of-the-end-food-shortages-reach-pyongyang/

http://freekorea.us/2008/03/20/must-read-wapo-predicts-food-situation-will-pressure-kim-jong-il/

http://freekorea.us/2008/03/19/most-of-the-film-had-to-be-kept-secret-for-the-past-years/

This is a series called "The Vice Guide to North Korea" -- an utterly fascinating account of a TV crew that entered North Korea as tourists, and poked around, surreptitiously recording things on camera (despite the risk of being arrested and detained for doing so). Their take on North Korea is really eye-opening, and sad as hell.

http://freekorea.us/2008/03/22/the-vice-guide-to-north-korea-ep-14/

http://www.vbs.tv/shows/north-korea/

http://freekorea.us/2008/03/19/the-vice-guide-to-north-korea-ep-13/

also, while you're writing letters:

Get mad, real mad, about the way China has stifled criticism about Darfur, Tibet, North Korean refugees, religious prisoners, rampant deforestation and pollution, and every other topic, in the lead up to these Olympics. It's EMBARRASSING that the Olympics are going to Beijing, given China's human rights record, and it's pathetic that no country is willing to step up, say "We're willing to pay more for cheap plastic toys, because China's behaviour is not fitting for a developed nation, and we will not send our athletes to such a violent, repressive, country, where groups and entire countries and cultures are dehumanized and repressed without accountability.


Every time China has been criticized, they're responded NOT by changing policies or improving the situation, but by counterattacking, smearing the critics, and increasing export tariffs to those countries, using its economic clout to stifle criticism.

Instead of discourse and reform, we get bullying and intimidation, and bullcrap like this.

The more I think about it, the more upset I get.

Ya gotta respect China for what they're doing (unheard of growth), but the way they're doing it just cooks my grill. And blaming the Dalai Lama for the violence in Tibet is the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard. . . this is a world leader, IOC? Seriously? (yep, that's right. I'm putting the SH-poop-word on here. I'm that fucking mad.)

This is an award-winning documentary about North Korea.

The Saturday before Easter.

Red Cave by Yeasayers

This is a live version of the song I wanted to play along with THIS post.

There was a recent story in the Korean papers about a family murdered. (actually, there's been a spate of kidnappings and murders and missing childrenings lately; it's getting so bad it's even being reported in the English newspapers in Korea, which usually kind of forget to print news that casts Korea in any kind of negative light -- "Korean Player Pitches Three Innings and gets One Strikeout in Major League Baseball's Spring Training" "murder? what murder?" "Korean Soap Operas are Popular in Indonesia!" "serial rapist on the loose in a suburb of the city where Anglophone female readers might want to use the buddy system for a while? oh. . . let's just bury that one and hope one of their Korean friends warns them. there's no more space after that full-page writeup on the popularity of Korean movies in Laos." [sigh] that's why I get my news from the Marmot.)

But back to the death of that family, on a very, extremely tangentially related, and much lighter note, I found this picture on the internet and it made me snicker.

I'm writing this on a subway, on my portable word processor (yay word processors!) and I just saw a group of three older ladies (ajummas) standing near the subway car door waiting to get off. . . but the exit was on the left, and they were standing on the right side. When these ladies get together, sometimes you'll have a pocket of ladies who gaggle exactly like a group of middle-school girls --that excited, high-speed yammer-- but with lower voices and more throaty hisses for emphasis. Anyway, the subway car stopped, and they in their gossiping, still hadn't noticed that there was no platform outside their door, and finally when the doors slid open, one of them realized their mistake and hauled the other three ladies out the right door with all the comic double-take timing of Buster Keaton.

Another old lady just came up to me and fixed my collar, which was tucked under my vest, before she got off the subway. I love Korea.

These are the dumplings I can by near my house for four dollars (less, now that the won is dropping)

They're filled with hot, savoury liquid, and they're made while you wait by two fat ladies from China who barely speak any Korean, even less English, and one of them has a permafrown. They're amazing.

The Maxx: volume 4: "Besides, even if you COULD move a glass of water with your mind, you'd still be the same screwed-up person you were before, right?"

Now I understand waiting in line for something good, and I believe that some things are really delicious enough that it's worth it to wait a little longer. . . but there has to be a threshold, you know, where you have to say "Yeah, these steaks are better than steaks from GenericFamilyRestaurant (tm), but are they actually thirty five dollars better? Are they actually waiting in line for an hour better?" -- I mean, you have to draw a line somewhere, don't you?

And maybe the food in this Pomodoro restaurant is good, but is it really waiting forty minutes for a table and lining up out the door better than the lineup-free Italian restaurant around the corner? Maybe it's the old sunk cost fallacy: "I've waited twenty minutes; may as well wait thirty more and get what I came for."

At least it's spring; in the dead of winter, there was a special street-food stand in Insadong serving cinnamon-filled cakes (heott-deok) where the lineup would curl around the stand once, and halfway around again; people would wait forty-five minutes for these confections, and yeah, they were great, better than the other heott-deok available at other street-food stands, but forty-five minutes shivering in line in the winter cold better? Seriously? Why not come back in the early afternoon, or on a weekend, when the line is shorter? I guess they can do what they want, and sure, the longer line adds a little prestige or mystique to what you're consuming (I firmly believe roller-coasters would be half as fun if you just walked onto them without waiting in line: watching others get on and come off, seeing the cars rattle around on the tracks, builds up anticipation, and anticipation is a great experience-enhancer), but waiting forty-five minutes in the cold is a bit like paying the hundred-dollar extra "just because Koreans are so brand conscious, so we can, and screw you if you don't like it" prestige markup on brand name handbags in Korea. You can if you want, but I'm not biting, anyway.

Insooni is a pop-star, as far as I can tell. This picture of the singer is simultaneously both the best, and the worst popstar publicity photo I've ever seen. I'm still confused by what I'm seeing, and why it's both appealing and awful at the same time.
Let's look, and be confused together.

This restaurant has a giant mask on it. I kept waiting for it to puff steam out its nose and bellow, "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! i am the great and powerful o-juh" (which is how Koreans, unable to pronounce the "z" sound, say "Oz").


Three-piece band. Sometimes I walk by them on my way to work. Yeah, I'm rubbing it in, but. . . What do YOU walk by on YOUR way to work?

Hee hee hee.

Today Seoul smelled very good. Walking around Seoul can be a smell adventure -- anything from boiling pig fat to spilled soju, fresh tempura street-food, raw sewage, garbage, garlic farts, cigarette butts or fresh bread and charbroiled, marinated beef can waft by and startle your nostrils at any given time, depending on the wind and such, but this weekend so far has been nothing but roasted coffee grinds, fresh belgian waffles, barbeque chicken, scorched rice (nurungji) and green tea everywhere I turn.

(if there were a function whereby I could apply a scratch-and-sniff patch onto your screen here, I would. And I'll be the first to buy a computer featuring such a feature.)

Oh yeah. and also spring. It's been smelling like spring more and more.

Jooooyyyyyyyy!

Happy Easter, everyone. It's the most important day on the Christian Calendar, and weather permitting, I'm gonna read the passion story on the top of a mountain tomorrow. That failing, I might even go to church again.

love you all.

Crys out, I say! CRYS OUT!

[THE HIGH TIDE OF THE KOREAN WAVE(32)] Spain discovers Korea and crys [sic] out for more

In the last few years, Korean films, TV dramas and pop music have become immensely popular abroad, a phenomenon known as the Korean Wave. This is the 32nd in a series of essays by a select group of scholars and journalists looking at the spread of Korean pop culture in Southeast Asian countries and beyond. - Ed.

Korea -- both North and South -- has long been unfamiliar to most Spaniards. Rising tensions between the two Koreas, derived mainly from nuclear development by North Korea, was the only news they heard from Korea. Before that, they knew a little of the Korean War in the 1950s, but did not know the cause of the conflict.

In the 1960s, a famous comic describing the war led by the "good" Americans against the "bad" communists, was published and accepted by the anti-communist regime of Franco. This is how young generations of Spain remember the Korean War.

More straightforwardly, the majority of Spaniards may still have difficulty finding Korea on the world map. High-level visits from the King of Spain, politicians and members of parliament to Korea usually get little attention in the national media. However, Korea appeared in the front page of several major newspapers in Spain only a few months ago when then President of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun visited Madrid. Therefore, it is not surprising to note that there has not been a great deal of trade relations between Spain and Korea. Spain is the world's eighth largest economy, while Korea occupies the 12th. Yet these economic figures are not enough to represent any particular relationship between the two countries, not to mention the respective cultures do not have much in common.

Meanwhile, Korean companies chose not to label their products as "Made in Korea," instead veiling them among well-known Japanese products in Spain. This all combined to keep Korea a mystery except for those few who found the culture interesting.

Building relations with Korea

In 1996, the Autonomous University of Barcelona expanded Korean language classes, which were being developed by the School of Languages of Barcelona years prior. This effort was supported by Samsung, who initially helped introduce Korean studies to Spain. Later, Doosan also provided financial support to the UAB to develop Korean activities, in particular enabling the university to establish an exchange program between Korean and Spanish students. These Korea-related activities slowly succeeded in introducing Korea to Spain.

Furthermore, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, headed by President Antoni Negre, was one of the early pioneers to promote business relations between Spain and Korea. Enterprises spread in both countries. Then the Hispanic-Korean bilateral committee was established and the two countries engaged in various activities.

In 1999, the first Congress of Korean Studies was held by Spanish Korea experts, in Spanish, in the UAB, which included sessions such as Korea in Catalonia. This Congress led to the official launch of Korean studies in the Center for International and Intercultural Studies of the UAB.

The Korea Foundation also played a crucial role in promoting Korea in Spain. By that time, numerous activities on Korea had been in place. For example, official coursework for studying Korean language, economy, politics and history, as well as exhibitions on Korean art and cinema and two symposiums of Spanish sculpture in Korea.

In 2001 and 2003, Gyeonggi province organized the symposiums at a ceramic museum in Ichon. At least 40 Spanish sculptures, along with pieces from Koreans and foreign sculptors were displayed in the so-called Spanish Sculpture Park in Ichon. The open-air surroundings of this park, although affected by heavy rain and wind, gave a symbolic value to these sculptures.

One of the eminent sculptors, Mr. Subirach, is well-known among Koreans for his piece in the Olympic Park in Seoul. Mr. Samaranch, who took the presidency of the Olympic Committee when the Seoul Olympic was decided, is also well-known in Korea.

The President of the Government of Catalonia, then Molt Honorable President Jordi Pujol, visited Korea in 2000. He witnessed firsthand a country that had transformed its sluggish economy, especially following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which was exacerbated by scarce natural resources, into a democratic and technology advanced society. This significant transformation in a relatively short period of time was only possible from individuals who highly valued hard-work, education and nationalism.

In 2000, President Kim Dae-joong visited North Korea for the first time since the separation of the two Koreas. This historic news appeared in Spanish newspapers, which helped make Korea more familiar to Spain. Following that, various universities in Spain began to develop activities related to Korea as well as Korean language classes, and now the annual International Congress on Korea is celebrated.

Over time these efforts created a positive image of Korea among the Spanish people. Here it is worthwhile mentioning some major figures that represent today's closer relation between the two countries: The same water fountain around a luminous bridge both in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, and the Montjuich hill in Barcelona, the sister city relationship of Busan and Barcelona and the fact that the composer of the Korean national anthem married a Spanish woman from Catalonia who is currently living in Majorca.

These are a few of the concrete individual examples that have been slowly transformed to an institutionalized way of representing the development of the two countries' relation. Meanwhile, the Korean products of Samsung, LG, Hyundai and Daewoo, to name a few, have managed to penetrate effectively in the Spanish market clearly showing "Made in Korea."

The wave begins

1999 was a significant year for Korea. Korea paid back all the debts accrued in the financial crisis. It realized the vulnerability of a closed economy and joined the flow of globalization. Koreans began to give up the concept of permanent, life-long employment. Chaebol had to sacrifice their long-lasting immunity.

The year 1999 was the year of letting go of Korea's inefficient traditions and actively seeking ways forward. However, there were negative consequences such as higher suicide and divorce rates, which nobody could ever thought of in a traditional, Confucius society. Women became more independent in all aspects, and new ways to choose partners for marriage were put in place following the changes in the familial values. This naturally began to give less weight to family when it came to making a decision such as marriage.

In other words, Korean society has developed gradually and is continuously changing its traditional values, particularly in relation to family, business entities, political parties and Confucianist values. This even included opening up toward Japan.

As for Korean movies, it was in 1999 that they started gaining momentum among Koreans. (Until then, Korean viewers were biased toward Korean movies as low quality with uninteresting plots.) "Shiri" by Gang Je-gyu, which interestingly depicted the power of love over political differences between South Korea and North Korea, was seen by more people than "Titanic" in Korea. This was something refreshing for Korean viewers, although it was still a sensitive issue to be dealt with politically.

Also, the screen quota system that was considered unjust by many Koreans became hot potatoes in various social debates in Korean society. It was around that time when the concept of creating a multi-cinema complex was implemented, providing another way to spend time.

Some chaebol that controlled the distribution of movies began to streamline their business by giving more opportunities to small- and medium-sized businesses. Based on these significant changes, Korean movies finally could reach Spain, mainly through Barcelona, including the annual Asian Cine Festival, and Sitges.

The Korean Wave in Spain

The Korean Wave was introduced in Spain relatively rapidly, but only within the field of Asian studies. The movies "Island" in 2000, "Sang-woo and His Grandmother" in 2001 and "Bicheonmoo" in 2003 were seen in Spanish movie theaters, and they were quite successful at attracting audiences.

Now, Korean movies continue to be included in the Cine Festival of Sitges, where "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring" by Kim Ki-deok received a lot of attention from European movie experts. "Old Boy" by Park Chan-wook, was profiled in the CineAsia Magazine. (Korea used this channel actively to promote the image of Korean movies, as this magazine is distributed widely among various groups from movie experts to the embassies.) Since then, Korean movies have shown in public movie theaters in Spain and are becoming more popular among Spanish audiences.

The seats were almost empty during the very first annual Cine Festival in Barcelona, but in the past three years it was necessary to book a ticket in advance to be able to see a Korean movie selected for the Festival. In 2003, CasaAsia (literally meaning House of Asia) was established in Barcelona as a public institute by the central Government of Spain.

CasaAsia immediately implemented a range of activities involving Asia, including Korean movies, art exhibitions and music, to name a few. This initiated a new age of experiencing Korean culture in Spain. Cineasia, which is responsible for disseminating information on Asian movies through CasaAsia, facilitated a course on Korean cinema in the UAB, organized by the Center for International and Intercultural Studies.

This course aimed to increase the understanding of university students about Korean politics, economy and society through the lens of film.

Between 2004 and 2007, more than 13 Korean movies arrived in Spain, including "Memories of Murder," "Run Dim," "Two Sisters," "Samaritan Girl," and "The Host." During these four years, the percentage of Korean movies shown in theaters went up by 400 percent. This is a significant development within a short period of time, especially when Korea was hardly known in Spain several years ago.

Last year's "Arch of Madrid" fair subsequently invited Korea to represent more Korean values with its art, artists and movies as well as its advanced technological products. Today, there are academic dissertations on Korea, a good collection of Korean classic literature Spanish and books about Korean politics, economy and society of the past and present.

Korean movies have common elements that attract Spanish viewers. They often tell love stories accompanied by violence and sorrow, but always end happily and humorously. Also, they indirectly show Korean culinary habits that are quite different from that of Spain. Besides the different food, what is more interesting to the Spaniards is how the food is displayed in a table based on a combination of colors, size and portion. There is no single way to eat Korean food. People can enjoy the liberty of choosing what they want to eat and how much they want to eat.

The future of the Korean Wave

What can be done to insure the success of the Korean Wave in the future? First, it is necessary to establish connections and make official agreements between Korean and Spanish distributors of cultural products such as movies. The appropriate mediation by experts will help strengthen the future of the Korean Wave in the long run, given the current limited number of people interested in Korean culture in Spain. Second, it is necessary to bear in mind that there is not much room left for a new competitor to enter the market since North and South American movies or soap operas have already built a firm base in the market. Given the fact that Korea is so little known in Spain, it may be more effective to target more traditional, historical Korean values and images than to make it modern, since this tends to fail to impress upon the viewers with a particular, rememberable image. In addition, it might be useful if the Asian Cine Festival is expanded to other major cities in Spain besides Barcelona to attract a larger population.

Spain, with a population of 45 million, receives 66 million tourists per year, while Korea only receives 7 million. Promoting Korean movies in Spain can be a way to penetrate European markets at large by targeting a number of European tourists who come to visit Spain on a regular basis.

The Korean Wave occurred in Spain without a specific strategy. It is now only enjoyed by those interested in movies as well as university students who have been exposed to new cultures from traveling and through efforts made by a few institutes such as CasaAsia, Cineasta and the UAB. It is necessary to come up with a delicate marketing strategy to reach out to a larger population in the long term. Korean people are known to be peace-loving, integrationists and nationalists. They deserve to be proud of their own country and of escaping from the extreme poverty in the 50s and 60s with hard work and individual motivation. Spain finds all of these factors interesting, once they are exposed to them.

There have been a number of Korean students who came to Spain and vice versa. Today, international marriage is becoming more common. As the activities between Korean and Spain are increasing, it would be a good idea to create a Hispanic-Korean movie which shows these connections between the two countries, incorporating stories of both countries in the past and today. This will require a good scriptwriter who can express key elements well, investors, directors and good marketing strategies.

We hope that Korea will become more active in acknowledging the importance of exporting its culture as a way to introduce the country. The Spanish people who love Korea expect to see and learn more of authentic Korea in the days to come.

By Josep Manuel Branas i Espineira and Kim Boram

2008.04.22
from:
http://koreaherald.com/

Does this make me simpleminded?

Soundtrack: hit play and start reading.
Ambulance, by TV on the Radio, live.

Great song, fantastic arrangement, cool video, really interesting band. They sing with imperative and authority that makes me really enjoy them. Also totally unique: I haven't heard anything like them elsewhere.

As always, the littlest things make me the happiest. It's spring now, and spring is nice (though fall is still my favourite). I'm reading the third draft of my best friend's novel, and it's friggin' good, and I'm doing the third draft revisions on my own novella, as well as the two plays I wrote last year; soon they'll be ready to put into circulation.

Meanwhile, I've said it before, but I love this about Seoul: behind the main street of Jongno, there's a little back-alley network full of little mom and pop restaurants and winding "head-in-there-drunk-and-you'll-never-find-your-way-out" pathways and things.


You get a little alley like this, (above and below) where the average age for the owner/operators of the restaurants is about 59. . .
Then take five more steps, point the camera the other way, and this is what you have across the street.
What a wonder Seoul can be! (Especially north of the river, where the history goes back longer.)

by the way: I named the the picture above "alleyotherside," which sounds like a great name for the protagonist of a children's book. I love good names. "Alley Otherside" is a winner.

Check the end of the handrail here, above Chunggye Stream in downtown Seoul -- the little stuff you notice out the corner of your eye. . .
Get in a little closer. . .
I suppose it's good they didn't flick their cigarettes onto the pedestrians walking by below. . . but it's still a little tiresome when so many people use the city as an ashtray. It's just ridiculous how many men smoke in Korea (though women are starting to catch up, as the taboo against women being caught puffing slowly fades).

Anyway, this creative disposal method make me snicker, even if the principle behind it is kind of. . . whatever you call the opposite of civic-minded.


But even when something like that chokes me up, all it takes to cheer me up again. . .

is an olive tomato ciabatta. Sweet Goliath's sandal-goo, those things are great. Wood and Brick (by Gwanghwamun station) serves up the best ciabatta breads I've found in Seoul, though I still haven't found anything to match the focaccia breads or bagels my mom's old boss, Martin served over in Agassiz.

One for the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks.



I found these comics, uncredited, on a random website, and liked them. . . but I wish I knew who to blame for their awesomeness. If any of my readers recognizes the style, or can connect me with the source, please let me know! Meanwhile. . . topical. I like these ones. Especially after all my harping on moral authority on this blog in the last year.

from the movie Munich, re: Israel's answering violence with more violence: "We are supposed to be righteous. That's a beautiful thing. And we're losing it. If I lose that, that's everything. That's my soul."

If you don't like the "F" word, don't look at these next two pictures, but they sure made ME laugh out loud.

Actual shop sign I saw in Itaewon (and you know it's me because who else posts such bad quality pictures from his dumb cameraphone?)


His mom probably went out and said "My son's going to an English afterschool academy; maybe I should get him some English-language T-shirts so he'll fit in."

(found this in a collection of random, submitted photos from a "crazy konglish koreans" facebook group.)Look a little closer at this Starbucks "Hey! We do fair trade now, too!" poster:
Isn't that guy a dead ringer for a young George W. Bush?I wonder what the story is here:
This shop seems empty, it looks like it's been empty for a while.

The volume of ads that have been slid under the door by advertisers implies at least a month since anyone took any kind of care of the shop. . .
and there might have been somebody sleeping inside: saw a lump behind a wooden lattice, but didn't want to investigate too closely; being chased by a hobo is not my idea of a good time.

Meanwhile, I'm a happy cat, generally. Send your good wishes and prayers out to Girlfriendoseyo, as she's in a stressful time at work; a slowly souring situation just started quickly souring, and we hope we can make the best of it, but that means she'll be pretty busy for a little while, and poor old Roboseyo will have to gather scraps of time togetheroseyo where he can, until things are back stable again.

Another simple pleasure for this simple mind:


Lindt 70% dark chocolate (milk-free, and therefore non deadlyoseyo for me and my milk allergy) is available at Starbucks (which also serves soy milk, still the only coffee shop to do so in Seoul, and therefore recipient of my dogged loyalty, despite being a global conglomerate and therefore the antichrist, and despite spreading like a virus in downtown Seoul). Get the dark, bitter chocolate for 1500 won, and then a caramel maquillado (maybe with an extra espresso shot if it's too sweet on its own, and soy milk for the allergy, if you're me) for [more than I'd like to admit paying for a single drink of anything less than Guinness, or a Belgian lager], and sip the maquillado while you have a bit of chocolate in your mouth: the bitter rich chocolate gets molten by the hot sweet maquillado and makes a tasty combination. It's like a liquid tootsie roll, with caffeine! Really, how could it get better than that, short of giving you really awesome dreams the night after drinking it, where you can breathe underwater, or fly, or grow into a giant with ninja skills and get back at Jason Moesker for picking on you in grade school!

Sorry. No pictures of my lindt chockillado: tastes just don't translate into pictures. . . though you gotta see how they use image and sound to explain tastes in the pixar movie Ratatouille, my favourite, and possibly the best, movie of 2007 (in my opinion). Couldn't find a clip of that, but I recommend you go see it.

later!

Why Modern Religion Deserves Richard Dawkins, Part 4: Why Should I Listen To You? or The Crisis in Moral Authority

Soundtrack time: hit play and start reading. I'm intentionally choosing religious music outside my own culture for this essay.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, luminary of Quawwali singing, a form of worship from Sufi Mystic Islam, where they repeat lines praising God until they reach a nearly ecstatic state. If you give it a chance, it's actually quite amazing. Our man Nusrat has an amazing voice; Quawwali singing is a tradition that's been passed down through his family for six hundred years! Even Jeff Buckley paid his respects to him.

To read this essay in the context of the other parts, go to the previous essay, or the table of contents.

There's a babble of voices these days, see, where so much information is coming at us from every direction that it becomes difficult to even look at most of it, much less investigate, inquire, and discern spirits. While wading through such an overload of input, the difference between a voice I attend and a voice I ignore can be razor thin. When competing with so many other voices for people's attention (to say nothing of trust), the voice of faith and spirituality needs every bit of help it can get, and can barely afford any clutter before it starts losing credibility.

There are different ways a voice can gain influence: the threat of violence, the potential for profit, the sheer power or extremity of the rhetoric, the sheer number (or wealth, or might) of the group speaking (a billion Catholics can't be wrong, can they? What if a billion and three Muslims say they are?), the potential to help one/many/the world toward some goal (world peace, environmental sustainability, personal profit, peace of mind), the qualifications and history of the speaker (when the Dalai Lama speaks on human rights, more people listen than when Kim Jong-il does). All these things can increase the volume of one's voice in the babble. Some of them increase the volume at the cost of credibility (like people who use violence to demonstrate their beliefs), while others increase their volume through credibility.

With so many voices out there, the voice for faith must actually be what it claims to be: this is the first step toward legitimate moral authority. Every time religion gets mixed up in politics, or money, every time any religion attacks something it doesn't understand (science and art come to mind) instead of engaging, it loses credibility: we appear stubborn and disingenuous, angling our spiritual claims into political or financial power, to protect our interests, or to suppress ideas that make us uncomfortable. I would never trust a church which had a tithing chart on the wall to shame members into giving the full 10% (as one of my students' mothers' church does): how could I know whether the pastor gave me godly counsel, or just flattered me to maintain his meal ticket? When Korea's new President names Somang Church deacons to important positions in his government, or George Bush says stuff like this, it makes religion look like a way to get ahead, a card to play for political points, rather than a worthy pursuit of holiness, or an example of the kingdom of heaven on earth. It's at the point, here in Korea, that when church leaders start talking, a lot of people automatically start looking for the angle. In a country with so many Christians, having a church that often seems more interested in political influence, publicity, money, outperforming other churches, and inflated membership numbers, over community, integrity, and help for the helpless is an outright tragedy!

Faith gets dragged through the mud when people tack religion onto their agendas in a play for a little extra legitimacy. Religion's credibility and moral authority is in tatters, when it should be the very engine of our claim to legitimacy, and the longer we let all this agenda-poisoned, disingenuous angling pass for religion, the less religion will be able to compete with other influential voices, that are what they say they are.

It's no wonder Dawkins wants to picture religion as a disease in human society, of which humanity is slowly curing itself. Imagining that the aforementioned duplicity will eventually end is a hopeful, cheerful wish for the future indeed! Baby nothing, this bathwater is emitting mustard gas!

So what's to be done, eh?


Well, here's the ten point list for restoring our credibility. Yes, I'm gonna be prescriptive.

1. Head for the front-lines: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, help the sick, visit the prisoner, fight for social justice everywhere. Don't wait for video cameras to show up: just do it. While I don't know enough to speak for the other major religions, the most respected Christians of the last century were Mother Theresa, who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, helped the sick, and visited the prisoner, and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who fought for social justice. Pope John-Paul II and Billy Graham might come next, and both of them may have faced criticism for this and that, but they also both were exactly who they said they were.

2. If we don't understand it, don't talk about it. There are very smart religious people in every field of knowledge, who have well-informed and worthwhile views on everything from Harry Potter to Creation to the moral questions raised by medical technology that can keep a person alive long after they would have died back in the days when religious positions on euthanasia were originally formed. Let's listen to them, and support them, instead of wading in over our heads! If I meet another Christian who says "I haven't read them, but I'm sure the Harry Potter books are all about the occult, so you shouldn’t read them, either," I'm gonna scream. (Also: respect other fields of knowledge for what they do. If I meet another Christian who flatly says, "I'd never see a counselor: I'm a believer!" I'll scream, too.)

3. Stop being satisfied with "well, that's what I believe." Nobody else is satisfied with that answer, so if we want to get beyond, "I guess we'll have to agree to disagree," we'll need to dig up something a little more convincing.

4. Recognize that fundamentalism is not only off-putting, but too inflexible to respond to a quickly-changing world. (See here if you disagree) -- fundamentalism turns faith into a foxhole where we hide, when a framework of belief ought to be a hill on which we stand to get a better view of things. Once faith began repudiating society, rather than working in and with it, we started the long march toward irrelevance.

5. Find a positive definition for who we are and what we believe, instead of a negative one. Instead of focusing on how the others are wrong, or bad, let's create and maintain a positive community, where the communal and spiritual benefits of membership are so obvious that recruiting is unnecessary. Instead of writing hate letters to Richard Dawkins, let's get our butts into the community and help so many people, in such tangible ways, that non-religious people stop nodding their heads in assent with Dawkins, and start exclaiming, "Who is this clown? Has he ever actually met a Christian? Why doesn't he attack groups that deserve to be taken down a notch?"

6. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, help the sick, visit the prisoner, fight for social justice everywhere.

7. Get mad, real mad, and loud, when people use religion and religious language for personal, political, social, or financial gain.

(by the way, if religion must get political, we need to pick our battles better: it is an outrage that the Christian lobby in America is fighting against gay marriage and supporting the war in Iraq, rather than lobbying with every ounce for universal health care in America, help for the poor, and social freedoms everywhere. So what if Christians were called "bleeding heart liberals" when they opposed slavery -- it's better than getting tied in with Bush's oil crusade.)

8. Get mad, real mad, and loud, when people preach hate, murder or fear, while waving religious flags. The world needs to know that we are just as offended as they are by Fred Phelps, and his ilk, and that they are a lunatic fringe, in no way representative of the majority of religious people, who are decent, moral, and helpful, and loving: these people are the straw man I mentioned in part three. Instead, we need to get behind people like the writer of this letter, and represent. If we don't hold the wackos accountable in-house, we'll be grouped with them.

9. Get on the right side in the LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender/Transsexual) debate. Every other time a group was oppressed, disenfranchised, or in need, Christians were on their side offering compassion, love and support, until this one, and it’s hurting us. As my friend Mel said in an e-mail once, "We're on the wrong side on this one." Doesn't "I cried for hours when I heard about that gay teenager who got beaten to death" sound a little closer to the Godly compassion we're told to have than "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals." (Jerry Falwell) or "[Homosexuals] want to come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers." (Pat Robertson) Who are these guys and what have they done with my faith?

10. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, help the sick, visit the prisoner, fight for social justice everywhere.

Soundtrack: hit play on Huun Huur Tu, the Tuvan Throat Singers who are like nothing you've EVER heard before.

Yeh.


On Modern Religion's To Do List for finding a way spirituality can jive with the Global Village and the Information Age: Here's where things get harder. We have to do something about these dilemmas; if we bend too far, then we don't really stand for anything, but if we're unwilling to bend, we're irrelevant, because we can't contribute anything to a dialogue if we aren't also listening.

Engage with: art, other religions, humanities and science in a way that doesn't condemn, condescend to, inherently repudiate, or attempt to establish primacy over any of them, and that is more meaningful than simply "agree to disagree." Religion is no longer the core value of society, and the faster we adjust to this, the better off we'll be.

Recognize that the polemical passages in the holy books were written at times when religious groups needed to band together in the face of persecution, or to create a good strong "in-group" feeling that helped them fight off the raiders from the hills, and do not fit in a global village with quickly dissolving borders. It's a new world, where "us" meets "them" every day, such Amish-style segregation or cloistered fear of the "other" no longer washes. Think really carefully about such passages, and how they ARE used vs. how they SHOULD be used, if at all (we've stopped following other parts of the bible; I'm sure it's the same for the Quran). The world will allow us to keep repeating the same "we're right, they're wrong" points. . . but our audience will shrink with each repetition, until religion as we know it will remain only in quaint little pockets, neatly segregated like the Pennsylvanian Amish now, and ignored except as a novelty.



Recognize that the world is very different than it was when the holy books were written and when the organized religions' infrastructures were designed. We must adapt or fade away: an overly rigid top-down model is too cumbersome for the quick shifts of the information age. We need to recognize and empower grass roots movements, and make information freely available. In the age of transparency, being authoritarian and mysterious breeds mistrust instead of a sense of sacred awe.

Think very carefully about the arrogance inherent in any claim to be the "one, true religion," and how often one's religion mostly depends on one's birthplace and family. Think long and hard about what kind of creator would send all Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Jews, Christians, Atheists (basically, all Notmygroupians), to hell, basically because they had the misfortune of being born in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, India, China, Israel, America, or France, instead of in Myculturesville. Think long and hard about how the claim God would send every Muslim to hell for the sin of being born in the Middle East or North Africa, makes God look a little arbitrary and capricious, and also kind of reeks of 19th century colonial arrogance. Think about the possibility (and the hope) that God is subtle enough to see beyond a checklist of signifiers ("Baptized? Check. Communion? Check. Sinner’s prayer? Check. Went to church every Sunday? Check. OK, You’re in." "You? Sorry. My name's God, not Allah. You wanted to serve me, but you were reading the wrong book. Tough nuts for you!") and actually read the heart. Think about the parable of the blind men and the elephant.

(a sidenote tangentially related to the previous point:

One final thought about Richard Dawkins and his book:

I must say that I respect Dawkins' integrity in qualifying even the chapter that "has contained the central argument of [his] book" (187), by titling it "Why there Almost Certainly Is No God" (my emphasis) rather than "Why There Is Definitely No God" -- to qualify even the statement he most passionately believes to be true shows an impressive accountability to the other side, to the possibility that he might yet be wrong. One of the things I respect about the scientific method is that scientists always know exactly what it would take to change their mind about a topic: compelling evidence. If faced with that evidence, any self-respecting scientist WOULD change sides.

This might sound like a petty swipe, but I sincerely wish I saw such "I don't think I am, but I still might be wrong" intellectual integrity and humility in more religious debates and inter-faith dialogues; things might go a little more smoothly if we did.

sidenote over.)

Create a framework that is integrated and useful. By integrated I mean NOT saying "Here's the sphere of religion; here's the sphere of art; here's the sphere of science, and never the twain shall meet," but one that acknowledges all aspects of being a human, alive and learning, in the modern world, and finds useful ways that each aspect can enhance and inform the others.

See, I think organized religion can be really good. It can offer people a chance at connection and community; it offers a hope for the future that'll get you through the deep valley, when applied properly and compassionately. It provides a concrete moral compass as well as a community that can be around, ready to help when the things get confusing, or when the feces hit the fan. It can connect people with opportunities to make a difference in others' lives, to help others in concrete ways, and it can inspire them to get involved. These are all good things, and I (unlike Mr. Dawkins) am convinced that despite having been abused, and despite some hiccups of intolerance and ugliness, the world IS better because of religion's influence through history.

Yeah, things look bad right now, and it's time for a splash of cold water and an honest look in the mirror for pastors, priests, imams, rabbis, monks and everyone else who is responsible for saying of religion, "This is what we are." It's time for a calling to account of those who are manipulating religion and the religious for their own ends. It's not too late.

You know, the only time in the Bible that we see Jesus fly into a full-blown rage is when he was cleaning the money-changers and crooks out of the temple: the people who used the name of God for their own personal business made Christ himself see red! When religion has become a lever for financial or political gain to many, let's ask again, "What would Jesus do"? He would have stormed into those bastards' offices and started flipping tables!

To survive this atheist attack, faithful readers, it's time our religious institutions did the same.

Update: My friend tamie is a beautiful human being, in all the important senses of the word, and she writes beautifully about why religion, why going to a church (or a temple, or a mosque) IS a good thing. Don't take it from me; Here's why faith can still be relevant.

To read the other essays in my Richard Dawkins series:
The previous essay. Table of contents.

SpringAndStuff...and EVIL DEAD!!!

So yesterday the air quality was butt, with a chance of awful.
But it rained in the evening, effectively rinsing the sky out.
And today was flamb-tastic! The sky was blue, the temperature was mild, and everybody and their pet duck walked around the Chunggye Stream at lunch break.



I like the way the sky, and another building, are reflected in the windows of this building. And look at this! Not only is there an "Evil Dead" musical, but it's coming to SEOUL!


Evil Dead's sequel, Army Of Darkness, is the funniest bad movie I've ever seen, and the first two, Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2, are pretty incredible, themselves -- it's a low-budget horror trilogy with such cheesy special effects and goofy catch-phrase lines it's become a cult classic.
I'm interested to know how the musical turns out. . . but I wonder how they'll do scenes like this:
(warning: bloody. . .but extremely funny. Gotta watch out for those demon-possessed hands.)

Thanks, Reuters. . .

For my biggest laugh of the day.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL0854496320080310

Excerpt From the Save Bill Kapoun Facebook Page

soundtrack: hit play and start reading.
Scroll down. Please. Seriously -- the images with the song are . . . not related. But "Send Me On My Way" by Rusted Root is one of the best road songs I know, and more appropriate to the tone of the passage I'm posting than another sad song.



Bill (or Will) Kapoun was the English teacher in Seoul who was hospitalized after an apartment fire and later died from his injuries. These words are from the Save Bill Kapoun Facebook group: Bill's sister, Laura posted some of Bill's writings on the site, as a kind of tribute and thank you to those who have (and still are) helping Bill's family. I, and a lot of the other expats in Korea, have gotten kind of involved in this guy's story; he's been on my mind all week.

While the inciting event is a terrible tragedy, it's kind of beautiful to see such an outpouring of concern for a fellow human, and it's really restored my faith in the expat community in Korea, which can sometimes come across as a bunch of privileged (predominantly) whiteys pointing condescending fingers at the flaws in Korea's culture as a way of dealing with culture-shock (all the while getting paid handsomely by the same ones whom we judge and criticize) and then sometimes taking aim at each other instead, for variety. I'm guilty of it too.

Anyway, seeing this kind of communication reminds me why we're overseas to begin with, and it's a refreshing look at that so, so human search for meaning:

excerpted from the Save Bill Kapoun Facebook Group, written by Bill (or Will) Kapoun, posted by Laura Kapoun.

Preach it, Bill.

"...The semester before I went to Ireland I had been living the life of a typical frat guy in a typical American college and was dealing with my first serious break-up. Going to Europe was nothing like what I had expected. I thought I was going to be partying and meeting girls all the time. I thought I would be taking the life I had been leading in America to a new level. Instead I started a completely different life. I met almost no girls during those five months, I had almost no friends and I had almost no fun. At the end of that time I started reflecting on my entire life, on my past and on my future and I realized that there were many parts of it that were not at all how I had planned or how I wanted them to be. I saw large chunks of my earthly days completely wasted, unappreciated and unused and it sickened me. I started writing about it. My writing was then immature as was my outlook on my life. I do not claim maturity or ability in either life or writing now, but I see myself going in the right direction in both attempts. When I first started travelling I spent a few days walking around capital cities with a stupid look on my face and a guide book in my hands. Today I spent my morning digging for clams in a mud bank on the Algarvan coast of southern Portugal before spending my morning trying to sell tickets to go dolphin sightseeing. Afterwards I went on a hike to collect almonds, oranges and sage to cook the mussels I collected off the shore (mussels are much easier to find than clams), which I cooked on a hotplate in my rented room which overlooks the bay of a small fishing town. So I have come a long way, as a writer, as a traveler and as a person. Or at least I hope. . . .

"That was life, when I wrote that. I was really living. Despair is life, pain is life. . . . Happiness is life, laughter is life, there are so many kinds of life, but I, like so many of us, did hardly any living, instead I spent most of my time looking forward, always anticipating, one day, yeah, one day, if I just keep waiting, planning, one day, I'll be happy, I'll be living.

". . . In retrospect, we remember, we give credence to our waiting, proof that living life is possible, but if we are truthful to ourselves, we remember, most of those past days were either days we had wished had gone sooner at the time, or were just the beginning of the list of days hoping.

"It wasn't until I started traveling that I realized that not only does life not have to be that way; it isn't meant to be that way. . . . The natural world we spent most of existence alongside, already physically distant becomes emotionally even further when we don't celebrate and enjoy it.
. . .I have become a better person by seeing the world; there is much more that I hope to see and experience, but above all, I hope that by sharing my experiences, others will feel compelled to push themselves; and be reborn into a world without limits, where everything is possible and the pursuit of the new and beautiful takes the place of security and seclusion.

"On its most superficial level traveling allows us to see and discover new and beautiful things, on a slightly deeper level it allows us to know more about our neighbors in the rest of the world, which is one of the things America needs the most right now, but at its deepest level the greatest gift of traveling is the personal journey that allows us to see our own likes and dislikes, passions and perversions, history and future, under a completely different light. Only then can we be truly satisfied for; truly, many will shed a tear when we pass from this world, but besides our nearest loved ones, our days on this earth are quickly forgotten. Few will remember us a year later. The things we do, the attainment of the goals we spend so much time striving for, all mean little beyond the here and now. That is why, when I die, all I hope people to say of me is he lived life. The good, the bad, he took it all in, and relished it. Yes, he lived life for life. Which is how we should all live our lives, never letting a precious moment slip by.

William Kapoun

Enough said. Thanks for that, Bill.

Sincerely:
Roboseyo


Remember: you can still help his family with the huge hospital bills.