Entries Tagged as ‘Korean life’

May 15, 2009

The Kogi Taco Truck of LA

The search for the legendary Kogi taco truck of LA. The disembodied book comes of age? “The key thing to understand about Korean Mom punishments is that they will not make sense. Ever. It will not teach you that you have done something awful, or that you have made bad life decisions, and it will [...]

January 9, 2009

Books You Have Waited For Late At Night When You Had Nothing To Read

Miles From Nowhere, Nami Mun, Riverhead – Nami Mun’s novel in stories, Miles From Here,  the life of a Korean American runaway in the Bronx , is the book I hoped existed after I finished reading Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son in 1994. So, that’s a long time, but, it’s here. The Torturer’s Wife, Thomas Glave, [...]

June 20, 2008

Korean Enough

I teach a class in the novel for three days at the Wesleyan Writer’s Conference, and then drive to New Haven to take the train into New York City Wednesday night, headed to an event co-hosted by Guernica Magazine and the Asian American Writers Workshop, a reading/party for the June fiction issue that I guest-edited. [...]

May 13, 2008

Tomorrow’s Koreanish Stars Today

People Magazine is catching a certain amount of flack this morning for having published an item that misidentifies a photo of Karl Yune as Rain, in the new Speed Racer film. Speed Racer, it’s worth pointing out, has 3 young attractive men of Korean descent on the cast, setting what might be a record for [...]

November 18, 2007

The Dollar Is The New Peso, etc.

I am working to get the rest of my LWC diaries up but while you wait, some miscellaneous items for your perusal: For the last month, I’ve been saying, “The dollar is the new peso”. But look, it was just the zeitgeist, bubbling up inside my brain: “Pay attention as you watch the catchy new [...]

August 9, 2007

Stephen Colbert vs. Rain

Thanks to Sue Pierce for sending it to me.

June 7, 2007

bROKe in Korea

The star of this week’s Google Image-search Custom Header is an anonymous Korean punk rocker found through bROKe In Korea, a message board for Korean punk rockers. I’m researching Korean speed metal bands for my third novel. If anyone can help or wants to help, leave me a message here or email me at emperor [...]

June 7, 2007

Actually, the film is 3 years old

Dialogue approximate, from 3 days ago. Me: We could watch this film I rented, a hot new South Korean director. Anston: Is it really violent Anime or Science Fiction? Me: No. Anston: Is it an incredibly dark and depressing— Me: Yes. Anston: [laughter] Me: It’s called The Future of Man is Woman. It’s about a [...]

June 2, 2007

Sangju

One of the best things I read this last year was a short post by Peter over at one thousand secret kings, which is a blog title so beautiful I wish I’d thought of it. This post is beautifully written and could be the start of a novel or a memoir. He’s not been updating [...]

May 26, 2007

The Rails of Korea

Tonight I’m searching for images of the Korean War. I don’t really know why, I’m just sort of following a feeling. Last week my friend Shauna sent me this link to an article about North Korea and South Korea allowing rail travel again between the two countries. For some reason I thought of the comics [...]