I know nothing about potteries and antiques, especially with their prices. However, I do know that something old is generally worth more than something modern. However, I don’t know if I’d be willing to pay almost $4.2 million bucks on a jar through an auction. Sure, it’s from the Joseon period, sure it’s old, but for a jar? If I was the buyer, knowing how I am a klutz, I’d have that jar damaged the second I have it in my hand. I guess it’s a good thing I cannot afford such antiques!

This is an interesting tidbit, though. To see that such a jar managed to survive this long. Though, I find the artwork on the jar fairly ugly. Maybe it’s just the picture, but it’s not exactly appealing to me. But man, if I had $4.2 million bucks . . . I’d travel the world with that fund.

Tags: antique, auction, baekja, joseon, pottery, south korea, united states

Several years ago, a video blogger by the name of Josh Wolf was imprisoned for not handing over his video to the federal authorities. The video dealt with the G8 protest in San Francisco, and Wolf wanted to protect the people in the video, so he refused to give the video. He spent seven month in prison before he was released.

His story captured Donna Lee’s attention, and she decided to make a documentary out of it. The documentary is called Adventures of Josh Wolf: Activist Video Blogger. The documentary was shown last month at the Mill Valley Film Festival and received great reviews. This is Lee’s first film project, a project she decided to do for a class.

In the future, she plans to submit this documentary to Korean film festivals next year. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see and hear about this like at Pusan International Film Festival!

Tags: california, donna lee, g8 protest, josh wolf, korean-american, mill valley film festival, pusan international film festival, south korea, united states

A man in Iowa has been arrested for being in possessions of “obscene mangas”, those of lolicon and yaoi in nature. His trial will happen on December 2, 2008, and who of all people’s backing him up? Neil Gaiman is, that’s who! He happens to be representing the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund.

Big kudos to Gaiman, who has the strength and the courage to speak out against such violations like these and for supporting someone who’s probably being trialled for all the wrong reasons. Yes, children and youth needs to be protected, but unless this guy actually did molest children and copied the acts he learned from these mangas, by owning such obscene mangas doesn’t automatically make him a “bad” person.

I will admit that I love my yaoi mangas. This news frightens me in ways that shouldn’t be possible. This kind of news makes me realize just how oppressive the world can be on individual freedom. I understand the reasoning for having these obscenity laws. I work with children and youth, so I understand completely! But should they be applied to comics? To literature? To arts?

Tags: comic book legal defence fund, iowa, lolicon, manga, neil gaiman, obscenity law, united states, yaoi

That would explain all these construction workers digging all over Seoul lately! Honestly, couple of Sundays ago, when I went out with my friend, we were in Hongdae, Itaewon, and my neighbourhood, and it was construction hell. Actually, they were redoing the roads, but still. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Korean government decided to dig random holes in the ground to discover more ruins like they discovered this one.

This was discovered, part of the Gyeongbok Palace, a wall or something. Though it doesn’t look like a wall. It looks more like a cobblestone path of some sort. However, if you click on the link, there’s a video at the bottom of the article that shows you more of the discovery.

I think it’s kind of neat that they discovered this. Yet to read that they were so surprised by the discovery . . . it kind of cracks me up!

Tags: archaeology, gyeongbok goong, hongdae, itaewon-dong, mapo-gu, seoul, south korea, yongsan-gu

I’m impressed. Not only is Obama’s new economic committee head advisor a Korean-American, but the advisor’s a woman. WOO HOO. That just added double kudos in my book. Added to that is the fact that she’s only forty years old. Hah! Sometimes age is nothing but a number. Who says you need to be anciently old to know how to get the job done? Well, providing she does get the job done, I hope she’ll do a fine job with her new position.
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Tags: audrey choi, barack obama, choi sook nyul, east germany, fulbright scholarship, harvard, korean-american, pyongnyang, united states, wall street journal, west germany, white house fellows

This article brought back the incident of the February 10, 2008 Namdaemun or Sungnyemun Arson. More than half a year has gone by, and I still can’t believe that this arson happened to the Namdaemun gate. This whole incident feels very surreal. Even when I heard the news back in February, I was in a state of a dream-like shock at how someone would do such a thing to Korea’s National Treasure #1.

Couple weeks after the fire, I was with my best friend. We rode a bus from Myeong-dong back to my place. The bus, #143, has a route that goes around Namdaemun. We were on it, and when it first went past the area where the gate should have been, we didn’t see it. I grew confused. I was wondering how it was possible to miss seeing something big like that. But then bus turned around to head back to where we first came from. That was when we saw just what threw me off for a loop. They had one of those gigantic construction walls around the gate, preventing us from seeing the burnt down gate.
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Tags: arson, jung-gu, myeong-dong, namdaemun, seoul, south korea, sungnyemun

A few months ago, I was shocked by the US dollar to Korean won exchange rate when it was actually less than 900 KRW to $1. After having the exchange rate at a steady 1,000 KRW to $1 for the last decade, that low rate really hit me in the face. It’s kind of ironic that it did, though. I grew up in the mid-90s, where it was 800 KRW to $1. But then the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis aka IMF Crisis occurred, and I remember the won rate going up high as 1,800 KRW to $1. Of course I didn’t really understand the implication of such things. All I know is that it was good for us Americans to exchange USD to KRW. Sadly to say, I still do believe in that since my main source of income are in dollars. However, today proved to be an insane day in the monetary world. At least for me.
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Tags: 1997 asian financial crisis, ahjumma, dollar, economy, finance, imf crisis, seoul, south korea, won

To say that I have never driven in Seoul, South Korea is a lie. To say that I have driven on the US military bases in Seoul, South Korea is the truth. However, to say that I have never driven on South Korean soil is the truth. Confused? Bottom line: I have yet to drive outside of the US military bases in Seoul or anywhere in South Korea. Why? Here’s why:

1) Public transportation is cheap and effective.
2) I live near the base so I can easily walk to and from there.
3) I think I’d rather jump off of the Seoul Tower before even attempting to drive in the dreaded traffic.
4) I usually do not go anywhere far to need a car.
5) I have a personal chauffeur by the name of Daddy, and I’ll take advantage of that as long as I can.
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Tags: han river, military, seoul, seoul tower, south korea, traffic, transportation, united states