when it rains, it pours

Having just slapped Dr. Burgess-Jackson onto my blogroll, I turn around and BOOM-- another entrant!

Charlie Reeder, a.k.a. KimcheeGI, has been a commenter on several Koreablogs. He bought some of my art at the Huimang Shijang (Hope Market), and got me on base to indulge in a gigantic Mexican dinner. He's starting up his own blog (finally!), and of course it goes right onto the blogroll. Charlie has lived many years in Korea and can provide a crucial active military perspective on current events. He's also brimming with religious insights, so I'm sure you'll enjoy his blog. Plus-- unlike yours truly, the control freak, Charlie's blog has a "comments" function.

The URL is

http://kimcheegi.blogs.com/

Go give Budae Chigae a visit.

Welcome to the cybershit, man. The first time you get hate mail, we need to party.

Here's one of the KimcheeGI's initial posts, re: the drunk driving incident that, so far, hasn't exploded into anything serious. Charlie remarks:

I'm quite suprised that Tongil News can be so fair and balanced. As a "progressive" site, one would expect them to have an axe to grind. The other thing that amuses me is that thruout the reports, both on the net, and on TV is that the Korean Identites are protected by the -mo ssi, but the US identities are broadcasted and printed in full. Or, am I being too sensitive and the perpetrators are always identified by name, and the victims' identification always protected?

I swung by the Oranckay blog to see Peter's post on the incident, but got distracted by a different post of his re: the "Korean wave" of pop culture. Peter links to a Chosun Ilbo article about how North Korea (well, certain locations in North Korea that enjoy slightly less oppression than the rest of the country) is catching the South Korean pop cultural wave as South Korean TV soap operas-- and their soundtracks!-- make it into Pyongyang, Shinuiju (the abortive joke of a "free-trade" zone), and Cheongjin.

Will Korean pop culture (which I find completely shitty, making American pop culture look good in comparison) become the opiate for the suffering NK masses? Will it cause the people to realize they're trapped in a huge, shit-clogged colon? You decide:

The eagerness for South Korean culture is also spreading to the market, where South Korean products are becoming more popular than relatively cheap Chinese products. The conceptions that South Korean clothes are best, and that South Korean electronics are as good as Japanese electronics, is spreading to North Korea’s upper class.

The popularity of South Korean culture is a source of concern for the authorities, who are trying to crack down on the trend. The search and confiscation of videos are photos of Korean stars are becoming prevalent in big cities, and supervision and regulations of South Korean products are becoming stricter, one North Korean refugee said.

Always an uphill battle. I can't wait for when the racier Korean movies hit the market in NK. Or a politically charged action flick like "Shiri." Oooooh, yes.
_