Do you get used to Korea?

1. Yup. I know there's been a lot of talk about ATEK lately. I'll address it as soon as I'm able.

2.
http://imnopicasso.blogspot.com/2011/04/questions-are-you-getting-used-to-korea.html so I'm No Picasso wrote an interesting post about living in Korea, and all the things that start off mind-blowingly new aren't new after a while, and there comes a point where one has to just hit the "Zen" button when they get bumped on the subway, or get complimented on their chopstick use again or asked if they can eat spicy food again, because if they can't do that (at least most of the time - everybody has "bad Korea days" which are really just bad days with different ingredients than bad days back home), they're probably not going to make it.

The money shot, to me, is this:

...The S.O. knows all about my blogs.... He constantly bemoans the fact that I am too used to Korea, and that he can't explain anything, or guide me in anything, or show me anything new. Which isn't true at all. ...it confuses him that I'm still keeping the blog -- he says, "What else is there for you to write about? Haven't you written everything in nearly three years? What could you possibly still have to say about Korea?"

There's something I like to call "second year syndrome" which is the fallacy (common among certain groups of people) that once one's been here for a year or two, one is ready to hold forth as an expert on all aspects of Korea, the assumption, for example, that three years of blogging about Korea would be enough to explore every topic, or that a series of short declarative statements (here's a good sampling) would be all one needed to successfully navigate all of Korean culture and life, and I'd like to at least introduce that phrase today.  I'll talk about it more later...

But for now, I'd like to stand with INP and say that Korea, as a country, a culture, a people, and a history, is inexhaustible.  I've met people who, by the way they speak about Korea, have hedged their views of Korea in with so many shorthand conclusions about the country, the culture, and the people, that they've closed themselves off from finding anything interesting, fascinating, or new about the country, and I've even met Koreans who sell their own culture short, settling on the image of their country they learned in ethics class, and the places they like to visit, and the shows they watch on TV, and have their own set of shorthand conclusions about what the country, and the people are, such that they don't explore anymore.

And that's too bad, is all.

Anyway, I've been reading a lot (grad school, you know), and studying the language a lot (still slow going, that), and trying to find new ways to be re-amazed by Korea.

I'll keep you updated.

One place to start: http://koreanfilm.org/topten2000s.html KoreanFilm.Org.  Not all of them are, but Korean cinema has some pretty awesome films in its history.

I'm watching The Housemaid (the 1960 version) right now.  AWESOME movie... but the "Very Special Episode" ending was something else.

Between: The story of an Korean adoptee, opens April 8

Amy Mihyang from the Seoul Players, is staging a one-woman show about...

from the press release:

Combining adapted work by Asian and adoptee writers and Amy Mihyang's original writing, "between" encapsulates her experiences as a Korean American woman, a New Yorker, and most of all, a transracial adoptee. Bringing the audience with her on the plane en route from NYC to Korea, the author contrasts her journey with the echoes of other adoptees and those touched by the act of adoption. Mihyang makes us ask ourselves, “Do we need to know where we came from in order to know where we're going?”

The Press Release is here :

It's at "after mainstage" in Itaewon, and it runs from April 8-17.

Tickets are 15000 and funds raised go to KUMFA - Korean Unwed Mothers and Families Association, another issue I care a lot about.

There is a map to the venue included in the press photos, here.

Speaking of great singers... RIP Meat Loaf 1947-2011

RIP Meat Loaf: "I Would Do Anything For Love" was my favorite song like, in the world, ever, for a good year of my life.  I had the whole, 12 minute version memorized back in the day.



Never forget you, Meat.

And Paradise by the Dashboard Light ain't so bad, either.

(Great website for keeping up on who's dead, and who's not: http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/pages-nf/main)

And yeah. this IS an april fools hoax. Meat Loaf is still alive and rocking.

I Am A Singer 나는 가수다... A Ghastly Spectacle, or Survival in a Cutthroat Industry?

So with the success of "Superstar K" (which I wrote about) and the ridiculous glut of Kpop bands that, as their numbers (and surgeries) increase, are becoming more and more indistinguishable (if you can explain to me how Sistar is different from Dal Shabet, such that you couldn't switch out their music, costumes, and choreography, and have pretty much the same product, I'll be impressed.  Name for me all the members of Sistar, Dal Shabet, AND Rainbow, without searching, and you win a waffle iron). A few are popular enough that I can recognize them one from another, and a few have made some pretty good songs (and especially videos), and even carved out something of a personality...

But while these starlets are dominating the airwaves with dances and images that more mature and adult-oriented singers couldn't compete with if they wanted to...


You've got to wonder... what happened to the singers and vocalists who actually sing their songs, who made a living on having great voices rather than yummy bitty bits and chocolate sixpacks.

And sadly, I have your answer:
"I am a singer" or "나는 가수다"
is a program on MBC which takes some of the most successful singers of the 1990s and early 2000s, and puts them up against each other in an audience voting, elimination-style revolving door showcase, where the singer with the fewest votes each episode is eliminated from the roster of (seven?) singers, and some other former luminary replaces them in the next episode.

I have really mixed feelings about this one, folks.

On the one hand... it's nice to see their faces and hear their voices on TV again, throwbacks to a time when singers in Korea could generally carry a tune, and some even wrote their own music.  Wifeoseyo remembers them well, and it's a small nostalgia kick to see them on TV...

but when these people, who have paid their dues and then some, are in some trashy fan-voting spectacle, just to compete for ratings...

it comes across as tawdry to me.  And when a controversy springs up about not voting off the oldest (and male) singer, after what Wifeoseyo reported was a half-hearted performance... I wonder if the controversy was engineered to kick up ratings and help these artists cover their tabs or something.  And I don't like having to have cynical thoughts like that when some of these singers are onstage.

So I don't begrudge them the paycheck, but I guess it just saddens me that these people, who should be enjoying some kind of living legend status, who should be doing duets with younger artists at music award shows, are instead doing the Korean equivalent of "Dancing With The Stars."

Lee Sora (whom I first heard about from The Korean), contributing. (the AAK link)  I can't imagine what's going through these singers' heads, but I sure wish there were something better for them than this, at the ends of their long careers.

So... some good voices and stuff.  Enjoy it.  If you can.


[Update]
For the record...
Wifeoseyo disagrees with me that this show is trotting Korea's dignified old legends out for display.  She says, first of all, that the show treats its singers with respect, and secondly, that the singers themselves have shown a great deal of pride in their craft, and lived up to their status, while sometimes expanding their range.  She said the singers are approaching the show as if it's their duty to reintroduce real songcraft in a landscape of manufactured plastic bands with interchangeable members, dances, and so-so singing talents overshadowed by sexydance.

(And The Korean is right in the comments: there's pretty much no chance many of Korea's living legends would put themselves through this elimination challenge: I doubt we'll be seeing demigods 이문세 [song by him, another - MAN he's good - and true proof he's a legend: a cover by Big Bang] or 신중현, who had a tribute guitar made for him by Fender [song by him] or 조용필 [song] on the show.)

Wifeoseyo also said Kim Geon Mo's performance on the latest show was really impressive, that he was nervous (for the first time in a long time I'm sure) after all the controversy about him being on the show, and you can see his hand fidgeting on the microphone: out of character for him, who's usually a very confident singer.

(more on Kim Geon Mo leaving the show from the K-gossip blogs)

Wifeoseyo also says his hand was shaking during this performance... out of character for him.
He certainly sings the lights out, though.  Attaboy, Kim Gun Mo.

One more thing before the weekend...

I have another magic pair I want to see in a movie together:

I want to see William Shatner and David Hasselhoff in a movie together.

Can you imagine this guy


and this guy


in a movie together?

They'd shatter the unintentional comedy scale.


And now, here's another one.

I want to see Stephen Segal and Kristen Stewart in a movie together, because...

(sources: here (stephen segal) and here (Kristen Stewart))