Beyond Borders

"Today the weather is perfect" Sannah said to me when I first noticed her outside the front gate of campus. She was right.

Sannah and I worked on a film piece together today. I've done several of these types of pieces already on Korean university students, and I was excited to do another since I'm starting to get better at them. We drove to a park not too far from the school, and spent the afternoon filming and becoming more acquainted. It's really a pleasure to work with some of these students in this capacity outside the classroom.

When I approached her earlier this year about possibly doing a short piece on her educational background, she instantly agreed. I love that sort of confidence. You can also see it in the photo above. And you'll surely see it if you watch her piece on www.krtv.tv when it's released.

We enjoyed a cup of coffee afterwards, while the weather was still perfect.

Keep the faith.

Long Overdue

The van I own and drive in Korea is a Kia Towner. Best name of any vehicle ever.

I originally bought it for two reasons only: Road trippin, and toting furniture. At the time, I was taking the bus to work. Nearly 6 months after I purchased it I was still taking the bus to work, or riding the motorcycle. Now every winter I can't live without the Towner.

At the time of purchase, it had a cassette deck. That obviously had to go. I had a nice Pioneer detachable face CD player with USB option installed, and it's been the most convenient, easy to use head deck I've ever owned. Just copy some MP3s onto a thumb drive. Car music has never been easier to listen to.

About a month later I returned to the same shop to have speakers installed, but the man who originally took care of me must been having a bad day, because he sent me away with the guidance to go to Kia if I wanted new speakers. Who in their right mind would ever desire to replace stock speakers with stock speakers?

Approximately two years have passed, and so have my speakers. I've been running on 1 blown front speaker for about 6 months now, so I decided the time had come to get some ones.

Getting them installed right now. Yippee ki-yay muthahuckers!

Keep the faith.

Mac in Korea

I recently crossed the threshold of smartphone land. This is a place many people already reside, especially in Korea.

I'm not special. I'm not special at all because of this. I am, however, more glued to a phone now. I slide that little touch screen lever across the bottom portion of the phone, punch in my 4 digit security code, and in my heart of hearts I know deep down this is better for me, though I still haven't convinced myself.

One of my former students who has more recently become a friend went with me to purchase the thing. Without her it would have cost me more. I'm convinced. I just know I received some special Korean discount, and even if I didn't, I still feel like that's what happened. She showed me how she was given this free case from the Apple customer care center for her Iphone which she had had for awhile. After seeing some of the other more bulky cases, I became set on the sleek one she had gotten for free.

I had another friend (Korean of course, what would I do without them?) who went with me to help me find a customer care center in Seoul. This second friend also conveniently has an Iphone. And not surprisingly, the place was packed with customers. What did strike me (though it shouldn't have) was how all the Korean employees were mostly using Macbooks to service these customers. Anyone who knows Korea at all knows how PC this place is, and how anti-Mac they've built their internet. (I can't even check my online banking from my Macbook.) Apparently, Korea is starting to catch on. Who knew.

So anyhow, I can tweet, kakao chat, and check my email all from the little device in my pocket. Am I special? No. But it sure feels like I am.

Keep the faith.

No free rides

Steph and I rode so many trains on this recent 1 month excursion through Europe that I felt like I became a train master by the end of it all.

There’s really nothing to riding a train if you think about it. Simply buy your ticket, arrive to the station on time, find the proper platform, make sure your ticket is printed, find your car and seat, and then hope no one is sitting in it. How hard could that possibly be?

In one case, we had purchased tickets online returning to Tuscany from Rome, but didn’t have them printed. On the way to Rome a day earlier we skated by not having them printed, and we weren’t the only ones. When ticket-checkers came around, I provided them information I had written down, and we were fine. But on the way back, however, they didn’t even check our tickets. Deep down that troubled me, because these tickets weren’t cheap. Out of all our train rides, attendants may have checked and punched our tickets maybe 50% of the time at best.

So, near the end of the trip (after well over a dozen train rides), I got this wild idea of riding the train from Bologna to Rome for free. Bologna was in between Firenze and Rome, and from my previous experience train attendants only do a walk through checking bookings right after leaving Firenze (Florence). I hadn’t seen anyone check tickets the previous trip through Bologna, so why was I to believe they were planning to do so this time around?

Steph was strictly against my (not so) evil plan. Moments before we left our hotel for the train station we ordered tickets on the web. Good thing we did. I ended up having a reserved seat next to the only person I would have wanted to chat with on the train anyway. I spoke with a gentleman (an Italian) more or less the entire way from Bologna to Rome who had lived several years in NY (where I’m from), and in San Diego where I’ve also lived. We hit it off.

Near the end of the ride he asked me if I’ve ever been to a bar in San Diego called Alibi. If you’ve ever been there, then you’ll probably agree with me that it’s one of the sneakiest, coolest bars in all of California that hardly anyone knows about. He also mentioned that he liked my project I'm filming about Marco's story, and that he may be able to put me in contact with someone in Italy who may be able to have it broadcasted on national TV there. If it's good enough of course.

Good thing we purchased tickets.

Keep the faith.

Old Friends

Who knew a student of mine from only two years ago would become an old friend. That's what she told me we were as we parted ways yesterday after sharing a cup of coffee. With the exception of Facebook, I hadn't seen her for more than two years.

Se Hee was a student of mine who almost failed my class over two years ago. I remember her well from those days, but not for the usual reasons. Most students at my university aspire for an A+, and Se Hee had given up on the prospect of passing due to an illness that kept her from coming to class for about two weeks. What I secretly believed happened at the time was she was just tired of a system that asks too much of her, and doesn't give much back.

After that semester she decided to take some time off from school. She visited me in my office to ask about studying abroad in the U.S. I doubted at the time I was much help. She called me days before she had planned to leave that summer to tell me she was actually doing it. I couldn't have been happier for her. That was the summer of 2009.

She spent two full years in Champagne-Urbana, Illinois.

The woman I met yesterday for coffee was nothing, NOTHING, NOTHING like the young student I once had in class. She had grown up, looked confident, and above all seemed happy.

She gave me a hug as we said goodbye yesterday, and university students in this country never hug me. EVER.

Keep the faith.

It’s not all peaches and cream

As a child I didn’t receive everything I wanted. I wasn’t allowed to get goodies while waiting in line at the grocery store, for example, just because they looked good on the shelf and I wanted them. This was directly due to an attempt by my parents to instill a sense of working hard to get what you want in me.

As I grew, I quickly developed a sense for what my parents could and could not afford. By 8th grade, for instance, ‘Air Jordans’ were the coolest new sneakers on earth. That was 1989, and those were the early edition Jordans if I remember correctly. (I checked, and the ones I distinctly remember were the Air Jordan IVs) I knew my parents couldn’t afford them priced at over 100 dollars a pair. I also had to be picky regarding what 8th grade formal suit I chose since not all of them were priced accordingly. I seriously doubt this sort of understanding by teenagers at this age is in any way special.

As an adult, these two very different philosophies are now very much intertwined for me. I would really like to know the difference between teaching a child they have to work hard for what they want, and allowing children to know that you (as parents) can’t afford something. Does that mean the child should go out, find a part-time job, save, and then buy the item themselves?

Come to think of it, what are we really working so hard for? Material goods? For our bosses? What if you work super hard, and still cant afford something you would really like, like a private jet? Most people will never own a private a jet. I sure would like one, how cool would that be? (To my friends in San Diego: Yeah, I'll be there on Saturday, you know for the beach party. I'll just hop in my private jet.) Are there really that many people out there working so hard just to be middle class?

And, do the people who make $250,000 or more actually give a shit at all about the middle class? I would like to think they do, but then again I’ve been known to be wrong.

Keep the faith.

Elizabeth Warren

Though some of you reading this may not have even heard of her, I'm super excited to hear that Elizabeth Warren is running for Senator in the state of Massachusetts. This is welcome news for anyone who cares about America.

I was so excited when I heard the news that I made a video response. (I know, I know - excitement over someone running for office is a little out there. She's that honest and sincere about what she believes, something almost the entire federal government is lacking at this point.)

Anyway, here is the video response I made upon receiving the good news.



Here is your video proclaiming that she is running.



You be the judge.

Keep the faith.

Chuseok

Chuseok = Korean Thanksgiving. They have written an entire wikipedia to tell you about it here. It's a festival that's about as exciting as American Thanksgiving. Or maybe a little less.

This is a time when Koreans say thanks by getting together to eat rice cakes, and foreigners in Korea travel or just enjoy time off. But not me. As they say, no rest for those who dream big.

I filmed a total of 3 really worthwhile projects in less than 48 hours this past Chuseok. Steph was there right by my side for two of them. God bless her heart.

Saturday was spent all day with these folks:

Zal Slim is the make-up artist who arranged the shoot. I had worked with him once before on a project, and we decided then that we would collaborate the first chance we had. More on this later.

Sat. evening after dinner, Steph and I ended up meeting a few friends in Seoul, and hitting a club. While there, we ran into Black Ilumin, a local artist who I originally met in 2008, and who is now beginning to make a name for himself.

Since I had my camera, I whipped it out and filmed him right there in the club. Really good footage considering I hadn't planned it.

The following day I followed one of Korea's best English speaking comedians, and good friend Albert Escobedo around a neighborhood in Seoul doing street interviews. Dude's hilarious to work with. After that we headed to Hongdae (club central) to see Black Ilumin once again, this time premiering one of his brand new tracks with Jake Pains.

Can't wait for next Chuseok.

Keep the faith.

The freshness of Tuscany

It would be a mistake if I avoided writing about seeing my parents this summer in Italy. My father 67, and my mother seven years his junior, both made their very first trip across the pond to the old country. It goes without saying that it was a memorable experience for all of us.

Mom was noticeably nervous when we Skyped just hours before they left for the airport. Nevertheless, she and my father arrived without a hitch, and spent their first few days in Rome on their own.

We arranged to meet on a Friday in Firenze (Florence) outside their hotel at 6pm . I made sure to wear the only pair of pants I had brought with me, to appear more ‘European’ if you will. My trick worked. One of the first things my pops blurted out was how well he thought I fit right in there. That’s what I secretly always go for when I’m in Europe, tho I don’t always pull it off as well as I like to make myself believe.

The vacation ‘plan’ was to spend a week in a Tuscan Villa, in the beautiful vine-covered rolling hills of Tuscany. When we finally did arrive on Sat. to the villa, it was a bit more in the countryside than I had expected. Not in a bad way, but we were more or less disconnected from everything but the wifi the villa provided. The closest village was only a kilometer away, on foot of course since I refused to let my parents rent a car for the week. This made settling in extra easy.

When we did finally settle in a bit, that first night was probably the most surreal moment of the whole trip. Because we all admittedly indulged in a little too much wine that night, we decided to stay in. And since we had nothing but wine, we sent moms down the the garden to pick some fresh tomatoes. With a bit of olive oil and salt, a tomato dinner was served. Tomatoes only. None of us could believe what she had concocted. It was as if the land had provided everything we needed to be happy and fed. We were in amazement how delicious it tasted.

One of the last things I remember from that first night was my father holding firm on how he wasn’t drunk, quibbling how he never gets drunk, and then catching him accidentally cheating in Euchre because he was drunk. And he never gets drunk.

Keep the faith.

PS- Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of 9/11/01, & my thoughts go out to anyone in or from my country and around the world who lost a loved one that day. We'll never forget.

Paris

We were on our layover between Amsterdam and Spain when we spent a single afternoon in Paris. For anyone who’s been to this city before, you know that beautiful, well constructed 19th century buildings line the streets, and are still in impeccable condition for their age. The coffee is over-priced, and the tourists stand out like sore thumbs. Locals walking about and minding their business generally look very good, and that their lifestyle is potentially (probably) healthy. Fresh produce markets can be found conveniently except in tourist destinations. And most cafes have cute little chalkboards placed perfectly outside their entrances, with daily specials written immaculately.

No detail is overlooked in Paris. Those who have previously visited know this.

I’ve been there at least one day in each of the last three summers, which of course at this point makes me a foregone expert. And truth be told, if I only had one day next summer to go out and spend in one of the most well known cities in the world, it sure as hell wouldn’t be Paris.

It’s not the Paris of old like in the movies. In my personal experience, the idea that Paris is the epicenter of romance and French kissing is far more exotic than what one can reasonably expect to see when visiting. Residents there, as most people throughout the world, are simply trying to ‘live their lives’, or just ‘get ahead’ with hard work. You know, make a decent living.

There is really nothing that special about Paris, other than the feeling I got that living there seems way cooler than visiting. The French fries are recognizable, seeing the iconic images in person provides only a momentary rush, and photo-ops are in full supply. Other than that, prepare to shell out a mint for dinner for two.

But what do I know, maybe I’ve overlooked something. If you’re an American who has never been to Europe, you’ll probably love the place. Or hate it.

Keep the faith.

Rome is Burning

I don’t think I’ve ever been to Rome when it wasn’t sunny and blazing hot out. Our most recent experience was no exception.

We woke up this morning to our last day in Italy. Our flight to Copenhagen was scheduled to leave in the evening, and therefore the morning and afternoon were mine to carouse Rome any way I chose. I needed to claim as much b-footage for Marco’s piece as I could possibly film by 4pm. My solution: rent a scooter. There’s really nothing ground-breaking about this decision, except that I hadn’t given it any thought at all until shortly before walking toward the rental place.

By late morning Steph was on the back of a 100cc automatic rented scooter, and feeling every bump of the cobblestone streets just like I was.

Every time I’ve ever visited Thailand, I’ve rented scooters. I’ve done it so many times at this point that I’ve ended up in some sort of (dare I say minor) accident each trip. I hate telling the public that sort of thing, that I had a motorized bike accident. Makes me feel embarrassed, like I’ve really done something wrong. But since not many of you are reading, I'm going out on a limb for once.

I keep these facts clear as a summer day in Rome day every time now when I step onto a motorized 2 wheel vehicle and hit the streets. However, I’ve never experienced anything like today. A quick synapsis of our afternoon on the scooter looked like this:

Ride the scooter to an area near the Colosseum. Finding parking. Park, and heave the kick stand into position. Sweat balls. Grab the camera and tripod. Find a location to film. Set up the equipment. Film a few shots. Watch Steph snap still photos with the DSLR. Watch tourists with (mostly) little cameras attempt to snap perfect photos of their vacation. Break everything down quickly and head back to the scooter. Apply more sun screen. Finally get back on, start it (was having trouble starting it b/c it was so hot) and then head to a new location, like the Pantheon.

I’ve been to Rome 4 times now. From a scooter, it’s never looked prettier.

Keep the faith.

Filming Marco

For anyone reading this who is not familiar with Marco Ienna, he is a Italian living in Korea who has dedicated himself to training in Taekwondo. And to be fair in my explanation of him, he’s made himself into the most recognizable foreigner studying the sport in Korea. He’s been on Korean national TV regularly by now, and he speaks perfectly in Korean language. And he’s handsome with recognizable authentic Italian swagger.

I finally met Marco at GSN, the film studio on campus where I work and he studies when he came to fill out an application for the reality show I used to work on a little over a year ago. The reality show gig never panned out for Marco, and I decided to take his piece, which has now turned into a very large one, into my own hands. I’ve been working on it for almost a full year now and it's still not finished. As documentary films go, I suppose this is not unusual.

The latest chapter of Marco’s piece took place in Rome where he’s from. I was invited by his parents into their home to film and interview them, and to interview friends of his family as well. Seems simple enough right? It would have been if I spoke Italian fluently. Thank goodness I do speak Spanish and have at least limited ability with that language to communicate with Italians.

Being invited into anyone’s home is a special event, and this invitation was no exception. Particular consideration went into our one night stay with them, because I was coming all the way from Korea, and did not speak Italian. Questions for them, for instance, needed to be written in advance, and translated.

Boy did that Spanish come in handy. We were able to communicate efficiently over the course of two meals, and I think I learned more Italian language in a single 24 hour period than any language I’ve ever learned in the same amount of time. I can exclusively thank Mario his father for that, as he is one of the friendliest in the business.

Did I mention his mother makes a super-delicious carbonara. I felt as if I couldn’t have been treated better if they tried.

Keep the faith.

'You See These ROKs' Response

The following was filmed yesterday, Sat. Sept 3rd, 2011:



Four days ago I posted a video in my blog of an American behaving poorly a public bus in Korea.

This video rocked many of us who work and live in Korea. While many of us agree that residing in Korea is not without its challenges, an incidence like this hinders any attempt by the Expat community to demonstrate we belong here. While I understand there are those Koreans who see us as individuals, there are still many Koreans out there who believe that, for example, all black people behave this way. Such a belief is ludicrous indeed.

The backlash of this incident is simmering down, but still has not disappeared by any stretch. So with the assistance of my good friends Albert Escobedo, a local American comedian, and Elliott Ashby, an American radio DJ in Seoul, we decided to create a response to set the record straight. I believe these two do an excellent job of pointing out the particulars of living here as foreigners, and as Americans. I highly recommend you check out the video if you're at all interested in what it's like to live in Korea as an American, or as a person from a western country.

Keep the faith.

Small Town Europe

While visiting Trury in northern Italy, I just couldn’t help but notice the human kindness I endured. It may be nothing different than what a visitor from Europe may very well experience in small town America, but none the less it charmed my pants off.

We had driven to the center of Castiglione Olona with Trury and Masi (her husband) to film and capture the essence of Trury. The town was so small I didn’t even know we were in the center of it when we parked. I hadn’t much battery left in my camera due to my own shortcomings, so we filmed a little and decided to hit up the only local pub/restaurant in the vicinity to have a cold drink and charge the camera. After all, we weren’t finished shooting, the battery was practically dead, and it was hot as the devil that day.

Though the camera was purchased in the U.S., I have all the necessary equipment to charge it anywhere in the world..... except (apparently) in Italy. Anyone familiar with how Italy’s plugs are mildly different from the rest of Europe’s can feel my frustration. In certain hotels, however, they may have both Italian and European plugs for travelers. In Italy, the outlet holes are the same space apart, but are ever so slightly smaller. This throws everything off.

We ordered beers, and I tried to plug my camera into the only socket available according to the bar owner. When I told my friends it wouldn’t fit, they instantly knew why. They mentioned this to the owner, and he disappeared into the back room. Minutes later he reappeared with a brand new power strip for all European plugs straight out of the package. All this while he was serving the rest of the restaurant.

When I approached to pay the bill afterwards, he undercharged me. I know so because the till was much more than the amount he accepted. In other words, he saved the day and saved me money. Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Keep the faith.