"a bad joke or a good memory"

"The only thing promised in this world is that it will, oftentimes, be something that makes living seem impossible.  And I hope, then, that a child who blessedly knows less of the world's evils decides to laugh with his friends in a place that reaches your ears.  I hope it carries you back to the fight, as it has done for me.  Joy, in this way, can be a weapon -- that which carries us forward when we have been beaten back for days, or months, or years.

And what a year 2016 was.  Oh, friends, those of you who are still with us, what a year we survived together.  We are not done burying our heroes before we are asked to bury our friends.  Our mourning is eclipsed by a greater mourning.  I know nothing that will get us through this beyond whatever small pockets of happiness we make for each other in between the rage and the eulogies and the marching and the protesting and the demanding to be seen and accounted for.  I know nothing except that this grief is a river carrying us to another new grief, and along the way, let us hold a space for a bad joke or a good memory.  Something that will allow us to hold our breath under the water for a little bit longer.  Let the children have their world.  Their miraculous, impossible world where nothing hurts long enough to stop time.  Let them have it for as long as it will hold them.  When that world falls to pieces, maybe we can use whatever is left to build a better one for ourselves."

--Hanif Abdurraqib, "Surviving On Small Joys" from They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us

If you're interested in a collection of essays that will simultaneously make you understand why the rise of Trump is worse than you think, why you should take Carly Rae Jepsen's infectious pop more seriously, why Allen Iverson is more important than Michael Jordan, and why Johnny Cash and Vanilla Ice have a lot in common, this is the book for you.

It's Racism, Stupid Part Two

An American who was adopted from South Korea 40 years ago (Korean "foreign adoption boom"), who is married and has kids in the U.S., has been deported back to South Korea because Trump:

"Crapser’s case also highlights the shaky legal status of possibly thousands of South Korean adoptees in the United States whose parents may have failed to get them citizenship, potentially leaving them vulnerable to deportation if they acquire a criminal record in a country that’s becoming increasingly aggressive about going after undocumented immigrants.

Crapser, who was named Shin Seong-hyeok by his Korean mother, is one of five adoptees who the Seoul government confirms now live in South Korea after being deported from the United States. Several of the deportees have reportedly dealt with mental health issues and served jail time in South Korea for assault and other crimes.

Activists say the South Korean government has done a poor job tracking deported adoptees and that the real number is almost certainly larger. Officials wouldn’t provide details about the other deportees."

This is cruelty and white supremacism, pure and simple.  Crapser has brought the first lawsuit against a Korean adoption agency and while very much an uphill battle, here's hoping he wins.  It's beyond belief that international adoption agencies can operate without any mechanism to ensure the adoptees have full citizenship in their target countries.

In Lighter News, This Is Actually A Thing In South Korea

Dear Korea:

Stop trying to make fruit and whipped cream sandwiches happen.

They are not going to happen.

— Winter Wonder James (@wetcasements) January 23, 2019

It's Racism, Stupid

Here's a blog post from right after Trump got elected in November 2016, with a picture of the front page of The Chosun Ilbo, a conservative South Korean newspaper.  The translation is "Angry Whites, America Overthrown."

Here are a pack of Trump Youth in D.C. this past weekend surrounding, harassing, and terrorizing a Native American vet who was performing a song of remembrance.  As mentioned on The Splinter, "it's the smile that stays with you."

I can only add that while a right-wing South Korea paper called out Trump for what he was two years ago -- a product of potent and thoroughly toxic racism and white identity politics, the American media is still flailing and throwing out garbage excuses of "economic anxiety" for why a pack of rich, privileged young white men from a tony private school felt safe and assured in threatening and trying to silence a much older man of color.

Because it's racism, stupid.  It always has been and always will be.

Eating For The Planet

Going vegetarian or even vegan used to be considered as promoting a greener, healthier individual lifestyle.  With global warming coming in faster than anyone ever imagined, it now may be a moral imperative to save the planet and human civilization as well:

"'The planetary health diet is based on really hard epidemiological evidence, where researchers followed large cohorts of people for decades,' said Marco Springmann at Oxford University and part of the commission. 'It so happens that if you put all that evidence together you get a diet that looks similar to some of the healthiest diets that exist in the real world.'

The report acknowledges the radical change it advocates and the difficulty of achieving it: 'Humanity has never aimed to change the global food system on the scale envisioned. Achieving this goal will require rapid adoption of numerous changes and unprecedented global collaboration and commitment: nothing less than a Great Food Transformation.'”

My New Year's resolution was to cut down on meat and go up on fruit and veg intake.

And I'm not sure if there's a harder place to do this than in South Korea.  Especially outside of more progressive cities like Seoul, vegetarianism just isn't happening.  Daegu has a couple of vegan joints with mediocre food and terrible service that happen to be run by a literal cult, so that doesn't help much either.  Indeed, the idea of a "salad" as a whole meal unto itself rather than a side-dish is anathema.

Baby steps, I guess.  There is a really good juice bar near my office, and I've come to like plain tofu with kimchi on top for a quick and very cheap lunch or dinner.  (If we're getting technical, kimchi is not vegetarian, but I think the food gods will forgive me if it's that or a can of Spam.)

So like everyone and everything else, I'm workin' on it.

Where To Find The Good Stuff

DABDA, "Youth"

Kind of Sea and Cake-ish with some really excellent vocals and drums.

I used to hate K-pop.  These days, I find some of it tolerable if not perfectly disposable.  There is a lot of Korean hip-hop that I like, once you can ignore Psy.  That said, here's a great Youtube series featuring a ton of great South Korean indie-rock, sorta-jazz, electro, and even some experimental stuff: Onstage.

Highly recommended.

Dance Hall Crashers

Can you copyright an ancient dance?  A South Korea dance troupe thinks they can, and the ensuing Intellectual Property battle is just beginning:

"Lee Hyuk-ryeol, Ubong’s son-in-law and the head of Ubong Lee Mae-bang Art Company, argues that the reason the organization registered copyrights for the dances was the 'preservation of the original' and to make 'clear recognition of the original creator' when Ubong’s dances are being taught and performed. However, the Society for the Preservation of Ubong Lee Mae-bang’s Dance claimed it was 'the beginning of seeking profit.' 

The National Dance Company of Korea was the first organization to find itself having to deal with the repercussions of the copyright. The money first became an issue. The company’s successful show 'The Banquet' features various traditional dances including Ogomu as part of the performance. After last year’s performances of 'The Banquet,' the National Dance Company of Korea is said to have received a fine for copyright violation worth 9 million won ($8,000). However, Lee denied charging the National Dance Company of Korea for copyrights, arguing that his art company only insisted on specifying the original creator of some of the dances in the show’s program. Lee claims that the 'National Dance Company refuted my request by saying that they’ll pay the fine if we can prove that the dance is a ‘creative work.’ 

'We’ve never sought profit,' Lee claims, while the National Dance Company said they will 'put the decision on hold until the country’s dance industry makes a decision on whether Ogumo is a tradition or a creation.'”

My general opinion is that for the most part South Korea would benefit from stronger and stricter I.P. laws in general.  However, this sounds more like straight-up abuse of the entire concept.

True Detective Season Three, With Minor Spoilers!

So far I'm thinking True Detective season three is pretty good.  The performances are strong.  Speaking as an 80s kid, there was something viscerally relatable about a boy's bedroom with Playboy mags and a Dungeons and Dragons module (a fake one!).  The triple-framing of 80, 90, and 2015 has worked so far (but could become really confusing if not handled correctly).

Relative to season one though, it does feel like it's playing it a bit safe.  There's plenty of room to go in the strange directions of season one, and I hope it does so sooner rather than later.

Toxic Masculinity Is A Thing

The amount of denial it takes for any grown-ass man to say toxic masculinity doesn't exist is pretty incredible.

— Baby New James (@wetcasements) January 15, 2019

The Favourite Is Really Good

I saw The Favourite this past weekend and it was incredible.  It's definitely Lanthimos' most "straight" film, and it really feels like he knew he had three incredible actresses here and he was willing to step back from his usual weirdness and just let them do their thing.

I'm wondering in what direction he goes from here.  This will definitely put him into the big time, and I'm sure tamer, more mainstream, and bigger budget opportunities will come knocking for him.

It'd be a shame if he ever let up on his unique vision and deprived us of the absurd brilliance of The Lobster or the genuine familial darkness of Sacred Deer, but who knows where he goes from here.

Deep, Insightful NFL Playoff Thoughts

There are three interesting teams left in the NFL playoffs and then there are the Patriots, who are peaking at just the right time.

Fuck the Patriots.

The Perfect Is (Still) The Enemy Of The Good

Eva Wiseman thoughtfully deconstructs the cult of New Year's Resolutions and the greater Self-Help Industry:

"Is there a compromise? We could cut down on meat, drink mindfully, jog around the park, but with no ambitions of perfecting ourselves. That might be nice? What about if this year we seek approval, not from the internet, but instead only from those we love? What if this year, we forget about trying to live longer, and instead enjoy the moments of glee in our existing day-to-days? What if, instead of cutting all alcohol from our lives for a month, we instead interrogate the things that make us want to drink too much? What if, instead of looking inwards, we stare cleanly out across this cold landscape of gentrified possibility, making sure the annual efforts to fix ourselves don’t distract us from fixing the world? What if the change we make is the realisation… we might not be the problem?"

Amen, sister.

"keep that volume high"

XXX, "Yves"

When Trump took office I mentioned that he had come to punish, not to govern.

It sucks being right sometimes.

Anyhow, here's some excellent Korean hip-hop from XXX.

Snooze Patrol

South Korea and Japan are notorious for employers demanding insane work hours from all employees.  While South Korea has officially ("officially" mind you, with intentional scare quotes) limited the work week to 52 hours Japan is trying something different -- nap time:

"Last year, Nextbeat, an IT service provider, went as far as setting up two 'strategic sleeping rooms' – one for men, the other for women – at its headquarters in Tokyo. The aroma-infused rooms feature devices that block out background noise, allowing workers to stretch out on sofas for an undisturbed kip. Mobile phones, tablets and laptops are banned.

'Napping can do as much to improve someone’s efficiency as a balanced diet and exercise,' Emiko Sumikawa, a member of the Nextbeat board, told Kyodo news agency.

Nextbeat also asks employees leave work by 9pm and to refrain from doing excessive overtime, which has been blamed on a rising incidence of karoshi, or death from overwork."

Naps are second only to daytime drinking and good tacos in terms of awesomeness, so let's keep this up.

2019 Starting Off The Right Way

I mean, is there anything other to say than that Trump and the Republican Party (one and the same) are holding the country hostage over a stupid wall that nobody actually wants?

Feminism And Food In South Korea

South Korean men love to talk about how certain Korean foods and alcohols give "stamina" to all the dudes.  And by "stamina," of course they mean great big boners:

"'It is popular to talk about stamina foods,' said Jung Seo-young, a chef and founder of Bburi Kitchen, a traditional Korean cooking school. '[Korean] society is very conservative, and talking about one’s sex life is taboo,' so talking about 'stamin' is a subtle way to broach the subject.

Besides associations with traditional concepts of healing, male-oriented foods are often touted for their anthropomorphic qualities, said Jung.'For example, an octopus’s [phallus-shaped] tentacles moves vigorously. In [texts] from the Chosun dynasty [1392–1910], they advised people to eat it for stamina.'

Jenna Park, a 26-year-old recent graduate in Seoul, said that her ex-boyfriend would tell her not to eat all of the eel when they went out for dinner together. 'He said the tails, which are said to be the most powerful part of the eel, were better to be eaten by men like him.'

Female sexuality, however, remains a major taboo, and foods in Korea that are catered to women usually focus on beauty or motherhood."

In English, there's no good word for "male slut" because sexually adventurous men are considered virile, handsome, and capable.

You can see the transposition here to Korean food -- there are no female stamina foods, because sexual ability isn't something women are supposed to enjoy, let alone compare and revel in with their female friends.

And it is shocking to live in a country that is known for being so sexually conservative (repressed?) but routinely walking into a noodle restaurant decorated with thick wooden cocks (no accident -- the glans have all been lovingly polished) or, as mentioned and pictured, being invited to end a rigorous hike with a few shots of Erection Wine.

Hell, I don't even react to the double-barber pole handjob parlors any more.

Cultural coding is for real.

Anyhow, it seems like I've been bringing in some pretty mine-laden topics to my adult classes recently, but they've responded well and more openly than I expected.  And there are still plenty of "neutral" topics I bring in for them, but I think for a long time I've underestimated their willingness to talk about their personal experiences as Koreans.

Making The Wave Inclusive

As the Korean cosmetics industry, a branch of the larger "Hallyu" or South Korean cultural wave, begins to make inroads into the US and Europe there are concerns that darker skinned folk are being left out, intentionally or otherwise:

"Though, one subject that troubles her is the lack of K-beauty options for darker skin.

'As western consumers begin to hold domestic brands accountable for completely excluding darker-skinned people from their consumer base, I noticed that Korean brands were entering into the international market and not expanding their ranges to fit the new market,' she told the Korea JoongAng Daily. 

'As a darker-skinned K-beauty enthusiast, I find the most frustrating part of participating in the international K-beauty phenomenon is the idea that I do not have the right as a prospective consumer to request shades that will match people who look like me, even though the products are being sold in my backyard. There are Korean brands being sold in major U.S. supermarkets and cosmetic stores, in areas with highly diverse populations, and people with dark skin are completely excluded from enjoying that expansion. Dark skin is not exclusive to a particular race. You can be any race or ethnicity and have dark skin. It’s just interesting to see how dark skin is constantly seen as an unreliable consumer base when that is not at all the case.'”

Knowing as little as I do about fashion and beauty in general, I was content to just listen to my adult students talk about their experiences traveling abroad and what they thought of the issues involved.  It is, however, undeniably a huge business (especially in China and to a lesser extent Japan) and there's something non-Koreans seem to find especially attractive about South Korean women, or at least the products they use.

"walk that walk alone"

"I see life differently now.  I can't ever go back to the well side, I've crossed over.  And I'm glad.  Now I have patience and compassion and I'm not scared of ill or dying people.  People who haven't been to the other side, or aren't close to someone who has -- they seem a bit half-baked to me, lifeless.

At the end of the radio- and chemotherapy, I have one last treatment to go through.  Brachytherapy.  This involves the doctors shoving a stick of radioactive material inside my vagina (it looks like that glowing green bar that Homer Simpson gets caught in his shirt in the title sequence of The Simpsons), then they all scoot out of the room and lock the nuclear-attack-proof door behind them, peering through a triple-glazed window at me as I lie on a trolley, legs in the air, green thing up my whatsit.  I spend most of the week after this treatment on the polished wooden floor of our bathroom, writhing in agony and vomiting bright green liquid as blood pours of of my arse, which feels like it has been slashed with a razor.

I write a long letter to Baby in case I don't make it.  I've read that's a good thing to do.  I'm so angry with myself; what kind of a mother are you, to bring a child into the world and then immediately go and die on her?  I vacillate between damning myself for dying and thinking I'm a burden to Hubby and Baby and should top myself.  Do them both a favour.

Night-time is the worst though.  Death waiting patiently just outside the half-open bedroom door.  I know he's out there, and he knows I'm in here.  Even if I beat him and get through another night, he's not bothered, he knows his time will come.  'I'm scared,' I whisper to Hubby.  'I know,' he says.  What else can he say?

When you're facing death, you have to walk that walk alone."

-- Viv Albertine, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys