Annals of facial hair, VI

Facial Hair (Men) – Asian men who sport a strong, thick facial hair (beard, goatee, etc.) tend not to be Koreans. (Confidence Level = 4) Those who do have facial hair tend to keep it trimmed short, and beards or stubble never extend to the neck. You will never, EVER see a Korean neckbeard. (Confidence Level = 4)

—Ask a Korean

Technique

Hmmm...

David Kirby, an American coach and a technical expert, said: “Clearly, [Kim Yu-na]’s the best girl, but it’s because she’s the best technician. She’s 70 percent sport, 30 percent art. Peggy Fleming was a real artist and real athlete. I don’t think that balance of art and sport is the Olympic champion this year.”
—"As Kim Raises the Bar, South Korea Delights," NYT, Feb. 27. 2010

[Sarah] Chang is a phenomenon. Her technique is almost intimidatingly brilliant. Her tone is lustrous. She has both temperament and uncanny control. And yet I missed the qualities of nobility, elegance and spontaneity that more mature artists have brought to the work.
—Anthony Tommasini, NYT, 1999

How Korean is it?

On Weds., July 1, I'll be speaking on a panel at The Korea Society ("New Currents in Korean American Literature: The Origin and the Distance") with Piano Teacher (not that Piano Teacher!) novelist Janice Y.K. Lee (whom I spoke to on the phone back in 1995) and Everything Asian author Sung J. Woo.

Him-dul-da

Flight of the Conchords...Korean karaoke...heyyy, I'll take it!

Dizzies Newsfeeds™ for Thursday, August 16

1. Via Weekend Stubble, a fun project by Keith Phipps over at the Onion's AV Club, in which he reads through a box of old paperbacks.

2. New Ghost later today...

3. Via Slate/Magnum, an eye-opening portfolio of photos of Korea in commemoration of 8/15/1945, marking the end of Japan's colonization of the peninsula.

4. Dizzyhead Benno on Resurrecting the Champ at L Magazine. I like the perverse praising of Hartnett's "averageness of intelligence and talent."

5. Levi has the lowdown on two of the three amazing Lawrence Block books (Grifter's Game and The Girl With the Long Green Heart) brought out by Hard Case Crime. Side note: I've Been Reading is one of the best written literary blogs out there, and I don't say this just because his tastes match mine (Block, Borges, Powell) in a lot of cases.

6. In Portland, I went to Powell's (and went to Powell's...and went to Powell's). Among the books bought: This one!

8. Dizzyhead Jen sends this ouroboros by Ryan McGinness:



9. And I will mysteriously add my own (c. 1996):

A/k/a a scene from every Korean movie made since the mid '90s

An evening out with colleagues here follows a predictable, alcohol-centered pattern: dinner, usually some grilled pork, washed down with soju, Korea’s national vodkalike drink; then a second round at a beer hall; then whiskey and singing at a “norae bang,” a Korean karaoke club. Exhorted by their bosses to drink, the corporate warriors bond, literally, so that the sight of dark-suited men holding hands, leaning on one another, staggering toward taxis, is part of this city’s nighttime streetscape. —NYT

The Future

Jane sends this news:

"When the Koreans start something, they have dedication and discipline so they get very good results," said Monica "Krazee Grandma" Masuda, a 67-year-old from Sweden who has been a B-girl for eight years — and pulled off a headspin of her own during an exhibition at Friday's group performance battle. "Korean breakers are top level in the world."

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Extra value for readers of Dizzyhead Paul's Birotron piece in The Believer: More photos of "what The Future looked like in 1977."

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Tonight's the night—I'll be at KGB with Rivka Galchen and Jill Bialosky, reading from . . . The Dizzies!