K-pop before it was K-pop

K-pop is.. I don’t know… just… well sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is just sad. I used to like K-pop back in high school and college, but I think that’s mainly because nobody else liked it. Yeah, call me a hipster if you want to… The reason I liked it was because few others did, and it still sounded cool. But when you live in an environment like me, you realize that K-pop is just as unoriginal and manufactured as the music in the US that I was trying desperately not to listen to back then. (And it turns out I missed a lot of the more poppier of pop musics.

Anyway, here is a decent list of Korean songs from yesteryear that I think are awesome but will never get any play because they aren’t sung by plastic surgery idols.

You can check out the rest of the songs after the jump.

Japanese nationalist argues for Okinawan independence?

Shuri Castle in Okinawa, from http://oki-park.jp

Now I have heard everything. Japanese nationalists are so quick to demand that Japan has a rightful claim to the Diaoyutai, Dokdo, and the Northern Territories, but in this article a Japanese nationalist argues for Okinawan independence from Japan. I am certain other Honshu based nationalists (creatively called people on the “mainland” in the article) would foam at the mouth over the very idea, but I have to admit, the idea is ingenuous. And I can’t say I totally disagree with it.

2011 year in Review

Image from scatterbrain.co.kr

Since I lack originality I am going to write a post about the statistics on my blog just like Roboseyo and Ask a Korean, though I am not anywhere near either of their leagues yet.

Remember, that this blog was started in April 2010, and I was being paid to write one or more posts per day. Now I’m lucky if I get one per week. For this reason it is pretty obvious that an overwhelming majority of my content comes from 2010, which is why many 2010 posts rank extremely high in 2011 rankings.

Top 5 Most read 2011 posts on Eugene is Huge!

I’ve crossed over!

Art shamelessly lifted from Nerdesque

I’ve crossed over! You may recall that post I did a few months ago that argued for Korean ownership of Dokdo? This was as a response to some Japanese nationalists who had gotten wind of my criticism for one Korean’s approach to the problem.

The post caused a debate with one Japanese person, Ken (who can be a very logical and effective debater when he doesn’t let his nationalism get the best of him). The debate raged on and on, and eventually someone caught wind of it and posted it on a Korean bbs, Gasengi.com. The response was rather limited as most of the people were unable to read what I wrote, but there were a lot of incoming inquiries from google translate. After a while the hits from Gasengi died down….

Until yesterday.

My site’s traffic saw a huge jump yesterday and I wanted to see why, so I checked where people were coming from. It was then that I noticed that someone named secret, on Gasengi took it upon himself to TRANSLATE MY ENTIRE BLOG POST… INCLUDING THE COMMENTS!

They’ve also published a picture of me there, and have to this extent not asceretained that I am of the persuasione of those not indivgenous to that which is localle amongst this doemain. The verbiation is cryptologically onsetted here because one protagoneist desires to as of yet assure the continued secrecey hence.

If you get it.. you get it. They could have figured it out easily by reading other posts.. but whatever, I want to keep it on the DEE ELLL for now. If you don’t get it. There are purposeful spelling mistakes there to inhibit easy translation, tho something tells me these people are smart and will figure it out anyway.

Well all I can say is that I am honored that I am receiving all this positive attention and I am glad that people on both sides of the argument are realizing that it is better to talk logically instead of using racism or nationalism to argue over something that can and should be solved through debate, and through my blog, these people have an avenue to interact with each other.

HOWEVER,

I want to reiterate again, that I don’t think it is right for people to use racial slurs, like “Japanese Monkey, Jap, Chotpali, Chinilpa, or even the suffix NOM” You may feel like it is okay to do that in your own language, but you never know who can read what you write. It makes the Korean side look weak when people do that. STOP.

I would also say to the Japanese side… you look exceedingly weak when you group your Takeshima argument with assertions of Korea’s attempts to steal the origin manga or karate or whatever from Japan, or even worse, try to explain that the colonial era was just and that Koreans wanted it. While it is true that we can say that the colonial era did plant the seeds of rapid Korean economic growth, it is not fair to say that Koreans ought to be thankful for this, as it was in place to serve the needs of Japanese, not Koreans. I have not read the Japanese nationalist boards, but I also think that I should say that it is important to remove any racial slurs that may be, or anything along the effect of “garlic smelling”, the term “Chosenjin” (without a “kita” in front of it) or any other language used in a derogatory way towards Koreans. Let’s talk about Dokdo or Takeshima here… not breed hate

I really hope that one day Koreans and Japanese can consider each other allies, friends, and brethren, not just on a personal level among specific individuals or on official diplomatic rhetoric, but the two societies as a whole. So much more is to be gained in this manner than to keep ripping scabs off of each other’s wounds.

Dave the Customer, I feel you! (Ocean Marketting/Stratagy)

So today I went on facebook to find a link to Penny Arcade shared by my brother. Penny Arcade is a webcomic that I used to read a long time ago. I have not kept up with it however, but apparently the creators run one of the biggest video game trade fairs in the US. Their website is pretty popular in the gaming community and this particular blog post that my brother shared still has me laughing Read it. It certainly is entertaining.

But why am I talking about it in this blog?

This song sucks (Brian Melo – Anything Like Me)

I don’t normally critique songs, I simply don’t listen to those that I don’t like, but this one is just bad. The singer is a good singer, and the song is arranged very well. I’m not certain that the singer wrote the lyrics, so perhaps I am not beefing with him, but for whoever wrote the song… I’m glad you have a hit. Please remember though that those who will want to buy this song are idiots. Find out why I don’t like it after the jump.

NEWS FLASH: I LIVE IN SOUTH KOREA: It may even be a separate country!

Image apparently shows the stark contrast between North and South Korea, though reports that north is in fact up on this map could not be verified.

Information indicating that Korea is a divided country has surfaced recently among the intelligence community. There are even rumors that South Korea, also known as the “Republic of Korea,” is actually run by a government that is almost totally separate from the government formerly headed by the late Kim Jong-Il. Apparently two governments resulted from the cold war division of the peninsula, with the southern government actually an ally of the United States.

Jesus Ramon Franco de Rodriguez, Director of the Spain’s CNI (Centro Nacional de Inteligencia) elaborated when questioned about the subject pointing out that the official name of North Korea is the “Ray Poob Lick Aw Pope Ooh Lar Day Moh Kra Tea Caw  Day Core Ay Ah.” But our Spanish translator told us that this is untranslatable gibberish. The director then switched into English, saying “They call it the DPRK… the Democratic… uh.. People’s Repubic…” Realizing that he didn’t know what he was talking about, because Democracy  means the good guys, we decided to explore this theory further.

After a visit to George Mason University in Washington DC, Maryland, we realized that there is even speculation among experts that the South fought alongside the U.S. in the Korean War, and that it would be inaccurate to suggest that the U.S. fought the war against “the Koreans”.

Major Sven Daniels, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and a war history professor at GMU explained that the war had Koreans on both sides, and that the North was actually aided by China. “We shouldn’t say we fought against the Koreans” he said, making the quotations gesture with his index and middle fingers, “It would be more correct to say that we fought the war against some Koreans, or more accurately, Communist forces that included the Chinese.”

A student aide appeared confused with that revelation, saying “Aren’t the Koreans basically Chinese? What difference does it make? They all look the same anyway.”

James Longley 82, of Newark, New York, who claims to be a  Korean War veteran, corroborates this story, explaining that the southern government had actually raised an army and was fighting against the north. “When I try to tell my grandchildren about it though,” he explains, “they don’t seem to understand. They see pictures of Kim Jong-Il on TV and they ask me how the Dear Leader came to power if we won the Vietnam War. I want to explain that I fought in Korea, and that the war ended in a ceasefire, and the Vietnam War was later, and we didn’t win in Vietnam, but my head just begins to hurt,” he said. “The grandkids quickly lose interest anyway, going to watch their Saxophone in the City concert or that American Eye Doll whosiwhatsit,” he added.

There is also a high probability that most Korean immigrants to the U.S. came from South Korea, though no known study exists to prove that the self-reported statistics collected in the census are indeed accurate.

With the recent death of Dear Leader Kim, a blogger living in Korea, using the pen name “Yujinishuge” explained that several of his acquaintances and several other unknown people who have sent him e-mail messages have expressed their concern over his well being, given that the country could erupt in revolution at any given moment.

“I live in South Korea! It isn’t the same as North Korea! People can’t easily move between the two countries!” he exclaimed, appearing annoyed by the questions. He began foaming at the mouth when we asked him if his father had emigrated to the U.S. from North or South Korea. Later, his head exploded when asked if his last name, legally spelled “Whong” was Chinese. No charges were filed in the incident.

Okay joke over.  I LIVE IN SOUTH KOREA AND IT IS A DIFFERENT COUNTRY THAN NORTH KOREA! Yes, I heard the news about Kim Jong Il, but honestly my life is almost exactly the same. I really wish some people would pick up a book every now and then, or at least watch M*A*S*H. I can’t believe the severe lack of news that reaches some people back home… you’d think they were living in North Korea or something.