sweeney todd

wow, what a movie. I just came back from watching it. The visual, music, acting...the whole production was amazing from start to finish. Tim Burton is not the most narrative-oriented directors out there but in this film he plunges in and erupts out with a handful of golden fish.

What made the movie work was the tone, the mood. It fused nicely with the music. Though originally from the musical, which borrowed its story and music, Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd” is, it seems, a perfect match between his style and the genre, musical. It neither is too horror to make audiences cringe their faces nor is it too comedic to dilute the horror element. It makes that delicate balance. Tim Burton here, at last, is himself once again.

I’m thinking of going back and watching it again.

obama

It's really interesting to see Obama’s strong finish in Iowa. It think his win took everybody by surprise. It did for me. He’s won cross-section of Iowa even in rural areas where white population is dominant. What’s more interesting about his win is that the margin between the second and the first is huge. About 7.5 percentage point, that a black candidate winning by that margin is really jaw-dropping in a state where black population is merely 2 percent. This makes the contest in New Hampshire much more fascinating. I’m interested to know what the Clinton camp will decide to do against Obama. His win will no doubt give him a big boost to his popularity in New Hampshire.

The Koreans: who they are, what they want, where their future lies.

This book is by Michael Breen, a formal British journalist who lived in Korea, my motherland, for 15 years. As the title suggests the book attempts to dissect and explain who Koreans are. From the history to their everyday manners, Breen culls enormous amount of data and personal observations to disqualify and confirm some of the held belief and prejudiced view by the foreigners about Koreans.

I’m in the middle of the book and all I can say is that it’s a damn good book. He nails almost all the themes he touches. I never knew a foreigner could get into so deep the psyche of Koreans. I myself have been wondering about the subject but, being too complex, gave up analyzing them. It like a quicksand, the more you think about study them, the more it will confound you.

I’m going to finish the book by tomorrow.

the new year

well, it finally came as it always does. Unlike previous year, I stayed home the last night of year by myself. I didn't feel like getting out celebrating what seemed like a dull repeat of what I had been doing, only to see nothing much had changed. I'm hoping this year is different. I have made no promises to myself what I must do (no new year resolutions or anything of that kind) since I think it just puts more pressure on myself and so gives myself more reason to procrastinate. I can afford to do that anymore. Next year is too important a year for me to waste and drink away like I did this year. Let's see what this years brings. 

story

I've finally come up with a story line that would work quite well with the character I'm writing about, or is it the other way. Anyways, I'm so happy that its working out fine. It came to me last night while having a drink. I don't how it came...I think it was something I saw on TV that led me to it. I don't know but I"m glad I finally found the missing piece.

I just need a good central story to wrapped it. 

nick Hornby

I'm reading "the complete polysyllabic spree" by Nick Hornby. I had no idea who he was until I picked up the book at a second-hand book dealer nearby my house. On the flap of the cover it says the author wrote High Fidelity, apparently a bestseller when it came out, and other popular books. I think I heard High Fidelity but I'm not so sure about other books he wrote. 

I read a few pages. So far it's pretty interesting.  In the introduction he mentions that the thought of reading too-literary-minded books are, well, put off by most people because those books tend to be too difficult and highbrow, although there are exceptions like Dickens and um...Dickens. So, his mission is, through this book, to make these books and other popular novels, books, brochures etc...accessible, without making people feel guilty of not having read the books they ought to have, and make them more book-reading-friendly.

This is not a book so much as a compilation of columns he wrote for the literary magazine whose board he sits on. 

Well, I wouldn't say that his prose, as he admits, is one of the most engaging I have ever read, but it's his honesty that matters the most in this book, and not bullshit around and be pretentious. 

Atonement: the movie

Just finished watching the movie. I hadn't read the book so I'm not entirely sure what liberty was taken by the filmmakers in making this movie. Though the movie isn't that apealing to me (only the beginning third is good), it reminded me of another British film based on a book by another British novelist Virginia Woolf. The movie, of course, is "The Hours." Both of these movies share simililarities, in terms of filmmaking at least, in that they both rely heavily on the sound and rythm to advance the narrative. I'm not sure if this is always a good idea. Although, it kind of worked in The Hours, it nonetheless isn't so effective in Atonement. I think it's becuase, intead of betting their filmmaking skills on the telling of the story, they overly rely on the atmosphere of the story. Unless this is music video or documentary, nothing can take the place of good storytelling. One thing it accomplishes, however, is that it's making this viewer want to rush out and buy the book. I'll post another one for the book next time.

cool widget

I'm posting this blog from my blooger widget. Wow, this is pretty cool. I can now blog anything on a whim anytime I use computer, instead of launchingn the browser and logging onto the blogger to do it. 

Woolf and her lighthouse

It’s been more than a decade since I read “To The Lighthouse.” Although I read many books then and since, no reading experience has ever come quite as close as reading this one. Though young and unworldly, I knew, after finishing the novel, I had just read a work that would stay with me for a long time. Even now, some of the passages from the book bubble up from the bottom of my numbed awareness, waking me out of my dead consciousness, as if I’ve never left reading it.

I still remember how I felt when I read it for the first time. I was unprepared for what I was about to embark on, taking days before finally ploughing through one third of the book. What makes the book so difficult at first reading is that the perspective shifts from person to person, the scene and the time along with it. I found myself flipping back and forth between the pages just to make sure if I’d not missed a page or so. At times, the perspective changes in a matter of a sentence without warning, confounding the reader. It was and still is a very difficult novel, and patience is the only sure way to get through this book, at least it was for me.

Though the story unfolds surrounding the Ramsey family, the book is not so much about them as it is about the internal monologues these different characters exert onto the page. It is the language what Virginia Woolf convinces the reader to feel for. What takes the center stage is the words themselves. Through words the readers are thrown about into the turmoils of characters’ psychology, where everything is at once real and elusive, this minute as calm as still water, the next the roaring sea.

I’m reading it again just to remind myself what words alone can accomplish, reliving the rapturous moments I had with the novel at my first encounter.

about Obama

I like him. Period. End of story.

But then again, he’s a risky one, as far as pitting him against a republican candidate, whoever it’ll be, in the general election. Nevertheless, I’d like to see him compete against those republican machines that have hijacked American ideals. Although I have to admit Hillary is a much more shrewder politician than Obama is but I’m disturbed, as the election day approaches, by the way she has carried out her campaign. I am afraid she would cause the republicans to revert to their old hate attacks on the democrats, which was so prevalent in the 90’s. It won’t help the country, nor get us out of this deep hole.

Obama, on the other hand, gives us a hope, though very tenuous, nonetheless a hope. I’m old and wise enough to know that in this modern age we live no one politician can completely alter the course we are on, though Obama can make people believe that people can come together, left or right, for the greater good. I can envision Obama doing this, but not, much to my dismay, Hillary, seeing that, along with her husband, she has been the made object of republican hate, becoming unfortunately for her both a victim and cause of much of the US politics now. it is so hard to believe she can end it. Obama, through not his own making, escaped this perilous period of American politics; he’s not part of it, therefore he can safely dismiss it out of hand.

It’s not fair to vote, especially for Hillary, based on assumption rather than the candidate’s ability as a leader, but I think this election is different in that we have seen much of what can happen in the politics of hate. I want someone with a fresh approach; and the leadership that can both show the world that whatever has caused the water to become muddy is now behind us and only thing we have to worry about is the future.

a new start

I’ve been gone for a long time. I have no idea why but I thought I needed to take some rest, though my entries up until my last one did not amount to much.

I live in a small place with a window taking up more than one half of one of the walls. It is not a big window but it is big enough, though it does not allow in enough light as much as its size. Why? i do not know. I always wanted to live in a place with lots of light flowing in through the windows. So much for my wish I never, so far, lived in one of them.

Wake up and smell the coffee

When I first visited Korea in 2001, there were only a couple of Starbucks outlets, one in Apgujeong-dong and the other in Ehwha University. I was told then it had just crossed the Pacific. Not that Korea needed another coffee shop, most street corners in Seoul are literally saturated with coffee shops, then and now, but it has become curious to me, after relocating here a year go, what made Starbucks so popular here that many Koreans now enjoy their coffee in more than, by one count, 200 stores just in Seoul. I don’t have any idea how many Starbucks there are on the island of Manhattan alone, but I’m guessing probably around 200. In Japan there are more than 500 Starbucks outlets nationwide. So, going just by the number, Korea is one big piece of pie to Starbucks, or, at least, becoming one.

Just a quick glance at the company fact sheet reveals that Starbucks has just more than 6,000 company-operated stores in the United States. But worldwide, it has 1,511 and 2,256 stores, both company-operated and joint-venture, respectively. It’s not so difficult to find a Starbucks on a busy street in Seoul anymore. One would find one just as easily as in Manhattan.

This, however, comes to me as a surprise because, as I see it, Korea is not an easy country to crack. Winning the hearts and minds of its people has been one tough business strategy for any foreign business. A year go Walmart declared a battle lost and took its business out of the country completely, losing it to E-Mart, a Korean supermarket business modeled after Walmart and Cosco. Of course, one is easily tempted to explain the phenomenon by attributing it to the trend currently sweeping the entire globe by Starbucks. A friend of mine who regularly visits France told me that Starbucks is also making inroads into the highly caffeinated French market. In France! Could anybody have guessed that the capital of cafes can come to its knees on their own turf?

Of course, it’s really less about the coffee than about its experience and culture. I’m not really sure what this culture is but it seems a lot has to do with a fundamental human desire: to come together with other people. Because brands promote social cohesion it imposes a certain participation on the part of customers. This explains in part why Koreans and Asian countries at large are especially sensitive to this global trend.

Sleep

I’ve been trying to get some sleep last few days but I failed to squeeze out more than 4 hours a day. I don’t know why. I just can’t. It’s my body that’s resistant to sleep. My mind tells me I need to sleep more, but my body feels otherwise. One day I woke up in the middle of night for no apparent reason. I involuntarily opened my eyes and couldn’t relax. I would just like to get enough to function normally the next day - normally as in not feeling groggy in the morning.

As this ongoing fight against insomnia continued, I traced the cause of this sleep deprivation. I realized that it started when I moved to this new place about a couple of months ago. I have no idea why it started about the same time I moved but one guess is that my mind is probably having a hard time getting used to the new surroundings, getting adjusted to its ambience. Even then, it’s been two months. It normally takes about a month to get fully acclimated to new surroundings. I don’t even remember if I ever had this problem in my previous place. I doubt I did. I probably didn’t if I can remember it right now.

I even tried to do some light work out before going to bed, to no avail. Maybe I just need to relax. Or maybe a few minutes of meditation would do the job. I don’t know. I heard from my friends that there are some teas that make you relax, slipping you into sleep. I’ll probably try that.

In the mean time, I can only hope tonight is better than the last night.

Giuliani

I've been a New Yorker for most of my life. So I've had experiences with most of recent NYC mayors up until Bloomberg (I think he's been a great major.) Although I'm in my early thirties, I remember distinctly about the Giuliani administration, and my recollection of his administration is not a favorable one.


I consider myself a liberal whose breakfast is usually accompanied by NY Times, reading first from the Op-Ed section. At the same time, I make every attempt to be pragmatic on most issues and see from the point of view of the other side. It's not always easy but the upshot is that I learn tremendously, and it allows me to engage in debate with the other side more successfully.

The reason for all this exposition is that I've tried to see Giuliani’s run for the highest office in that same light that I see all the issues. After my struggle with his candidacy, I still can't imagine him being a good President should he become one. Here are my reasons.

First, I cannot shake off the image he indelibly left in my mind during his Brooklyn Museum incident, where he made every effort to cut off the city funding for the museum because it'd been exhibiting an art piece that seemed to him to be desecrating his religion - his argument being that any public funding should only be directed towards to those occasions that do not “offend” any specific group.

Now, I don't know about you but I do not think it is the role of a major, whose job is to represent all people in the city, to decide what to show and not to show in a museum based on his own belief or conviction, let alone about an art piece whose very existence is to broaden the horizon of one’s understanding of the world.

To my knowledge, he hasn't said anything remotely regretting his action. If anything, he probably still believes that he did the right thing and will probably do the same in the future. This is what frightens me the most - the prospect of doing this kind of thing again. How is this any different from the current Bush administration, which justifies its ill-conceived actions by rationalizing it - getting rid of habeas corpus, torturing of the prisoners in Iraq and Git-mo, using homosexuality and religion to divide the country for political gains (the list can go on but I'll stop.)

Second reason is that Giuliani is, in some ways, using 911 to ascent to the top political office. Many people may feel that this is fine as long as it's done respectfully, however, being a New Yorker who knew someone who passed on that day it only makes my blood boil to see a politician taking advantage of one of this nation's great tragedies. His campaign might not imply or suggest it's running the campaign on that idea but only a fool would think that Giuliani's not banking on it. After all, when 911 is evoked, the images of the twin tower being collapsed and Giuliani, in Bush's absence, giving press conferences as the makeshift leader of the country would immediately come to the minds of most Americans. I understand it'd be very difficult for any candidate to resist the impulse to use that as the basis for one’s platform but being a New Yorker I cannot give him the nod on this one. If this is so, he is no better than the current administration, which rings the 911 bell every time it tries to achieve something politically, not to mention using it to go to war in Iraq.

The last but the most important reason - his tendency to reward people based on their loyalty. One example, his record on crime in NYC is a very good one, and it's clear enough that he's counting on that record to boost his image as the marshall President who can safely guard and control the border from the torrorists within and without. However, I must take issue with this as well. Most NYPD believe that the credit for the low crime rate should really go to the former NYC Police Commissioner William Bratton, now LA Chief of Police. I'm told Bratton had done much to change the NYC police before he got the boot from Giuliani as Bratton was becoming more popular than Giuliani.

Bratton instinctively knew the streets of NYC, especially the ghettos. He was able to understand the sentiments of the neighborhoods during that time, which Giuliani had no idea as his response to Diallo case and other similiar incidents showed (what a contrast to Bloomberg.) If it weren’t for the green-eyed monster, why would he fire a well-respected Police Commissioner? A recent New York Times article reports that Giuliani, due to his acrimonious relationship with Bratton and the effect it might have on his campaign, might be mending fences with Bratton as he intensifies his push for Presidency. Politically very calculated move I'd say but, nonetheless, a clear mark of an opportunist.

As opposed to rewarding people for their skills and hard work, he showed a tendency that's reminiscent of the Bush administration – prize people for their loyalty, even if their qualification is questionable ("Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job," "Rumsfeld is the greatest Secretary of Defence in history...," Alberto Gonzales - who authorized the use of torture, the firing of eight well-respected US attorneys on unspecified and unreasonable ground only to be replaced by his loyalists who are not qualified to be on the job, many of his cabinet members who are made up of ideologues, and giving out no-bid contracts to his biggest campaign donors and close associates etc...)

Giuliani’s tendency to prize his loyalists showed itself prominently with Bernard Kerik, who, as we all know by now, is a crook. Giuliani, to his credit, explained that he was not aware of Kerik's past doings. But let’s be honest here, does anybody believe that for a second? After all, Kerik was Giuliani's point-men during his administration. Most of Kerik's connections were made because of his connection with Giuliani. Either Giuliani was stupid or he just ignored it, the two attributes that I can, very conveniently, associate with the Bush administration.

However, even more astonishing is that he pushed Kerik for Homeland Security's top position knowing Kerik was clearly not qualified for it. After 911, Giuliani, being a former NYC major, should have known better than anybody else the importance of that position, but he pushed Kerik anyway because Kerik had the quality Giuliani deemed highest - loyalty.

Although, this is very early in the race, Giuliani has not done much to distill his old image from what is being portrayed. In fact, some of his positions now are in direct contrast to much more socially liberal positions he held in the past - women’s right to choose, civil union, religion etc... May be he will show more sensitivity to these issues and all the others as his campaign slowly rolls out. Thus far, however, I'm not convinced of his qualities as a sound leader. He may be a social liberal, but he hasn't shown the leadership quality that last six years America sorely needed in its top political office. After all, why would we want another Bush in the office?

Nonetheless I’m very open-minded about his campaign. If he can somehow prove that he’s of different species than Bush, I will be more than willing to lend my ear. After all, he has done many wonderful things for NYC especially during when the planes hit the towers, although some of his actions are thrown into doubt. I am just not comfortable with a few issues that have shaped his image. Unlike some people, I am not at all concerned about his private life. His life behind the scene has nothing to do with his ability to become an effective leader. After all, Presidential elections is not a soap opera, although it may look like one. However, as his presidential ambitions go, I’m hoping that he can prove me wrong.

My Self

It's been awhile since I updated anything. Though, I've been busy with nothing, I just couldn't put together a sentence that meant anything to me. As this hiatus seems to drag on too long, so does my motivation not to. There were, at times, when, walking, I thought to myself if blogging had any meaning beyond merely reflecting hazily, in words, a part of me, which had seemed to me utterly, downright useless. Is it, or not? If it is, I may start updating it again soon.

Korean Blog List

My blog has just been added to the list on the Korean Blog List. It's a webiste dedicated to maintaining the list of blogs related to things Korean. If you're curious about what foreigners or natives of Korea have to say about Korea, this would be the first stop.