Yeah Chris, sorry, I identify myself as a Korean-American as well mostly because I identify both with my Korean heritage and my American nationality. To be honest, most people in the US assume I can't be American anyways. People constantly ask me "Where are you from?" as an initial question. When I tell them "New York" as I was born in NY and have lived in NY for all of my life, I feel this is the appropriate answer. But guess what? That almost NEVER satisfies them, cos that's not what they want to hear. Guess what? My attempt to identify as just "American" is almost universally shot down. So my comment applies to the US as well and in some ways even more so. I just think with the migration of labor, Korea is going to have to re-evaluate everything. There is this whole brouhaha of the crazy Korean immigration laws, but NY Times, what about the US? How Chinese folk needed not one, but two good US citizen, aka white people, to sponsor them to become US citizens. Gotta love the naturalization process.

It's always interesting to see how economic changes challenge these notions of race and identity. I remember there were discussions of how European countries were more racially tolerant than the US in the last decade, but now that's being challenged as people from former colonies come back to the imperial motherland and those countries become more heterogenous. (Did I even spell that right?) But whatever, tying up your national identity with ethnicity is dangerous. And I totally believe that this is true, based on my interactions with my family and various Korean acquaintances. I hope things get better and this law is actually enforced and an impetus for social change!

Your studio looks super nice and I totally have the same 밥상 in my living room--square with that coloring. Hee.

omg, glamourshots watch out!!!! I have to admit, I'd be curious (read a little afraid) to see your styling skillz tho~

That was a really cute segment! And your parents are reee adorable. Great PR all around.

I love the slice of life photos and I love the Asian squat. Yus~ Why he felt the need to be on his phone is a bit beyond me tho.

Good on you for getting your groove back! Tho the fact that Korea is getting litigious over photography is sort of laughable. Really, of all the things....but you know, I'm a torts kind of chica ^_~ It's not surprising, given how obsessed people are with their reputations and public personas, but sad nonetheless. It's awesome too that the club scene is heating up, tho Kompackt has yet to book in Korea. So Europe for me to see Michael Mayer spin again or constant refreshing for my Kompackt goodness. I enjoyed your pictures and I think that Cobra Snake has a v. different sort of style and aesthetic from your pics, so don't get so down on yourself, M~ Keep shooting. Who knows, maybe some day you'll be able to release your book?

One can only imagine the joy in Chez Metropolitician~ So who do you think should be on the ticket then? Are you one of the Edwards peeps? I can't remember...

I feel like I'm in church!!! In a good way, of course. He totes sounds like a minister. Is he one? I also think I'm sort of in love too. ^_~

Oh this? Border Patrol has always had extraordinary powers. I was talking about this with an immigration attorney. It extends like 99 miles from the border, so they routinuely stop people on buses and trains in upstate New York, cos they're close to the border, with no warrant. RANDOM SEARCHES. NO SUSPICION. NO PROBABLE CAUSE, NADA. It makes me froth in the mouth, because they are clearly trying to target mostly undocumented migrant workers who are more likely to use buses and trains to move around the state looking for work. This is why I will prolly be a lawyer for a long time because someone stupid somewhere in this country will need to be put in their place. Even when I want to tear out my hair from the stress of the work, god, the crap people try to get away with. Hmmm. I'm going to try to find the case now and read it and see the reasoning, but I bet it's cos they're border patrol/agents.

O, Colbert, how I *heart* you. Tho why you would want to spoon with Bi is completely beyond me. There are cuter K-pop boys....or Korean boys in general, for that matter.

Oh, Korea, you are just so friggin DUMB, it's painful. People never believe me when I tell them that women have it tough in Korea, i.e it sucks being a woman. Actually, it's so bad the males in my family say that they think Korea is a blast, well okay they only went to Seoul, but it freaks them out how terribly women are treated, so they couldn't in good conscience force their wife to live there or raise their daughters there. And trust me, my brothers and cousins are not the most introspective or critical people in the world. I'm just going to point them to all this Soyeon brouhaha. I think you're right to get mad about your videos, and you'd really want to talk to a Korean copyright lawyer as copyright laws vary from country to country so what little I know about US copyright law would do little to help you, or so I've been told. Argh, so much law to know and so little brain. Buuuut, given how so much of Korean variety shows and media is just one giant montage of clips, I don't know that Koreans give a shiz about "context" and they prolly think montages are normal~ The irony of all this is I think Soyeon is SUPER Korean and has tons of pride and could potentially do so much for Korea's image. (I think it's really wrong that irony 말도안되 popped up in my head, no, Wondergirls bad! But it sort of fits here~) If anyone had actually watched your videos, they'd see that pretty quickly. Girl wants to give back to her school and she went to KASIT, hello? (Well okay, I don't think she said she went to KASIT in the videos but it's pretty clear from the videos her university was a Korean one.) She prolly could have gone abroad instead of to KASIT. She wants to DONATE money to KASIT. I mean come on, what Koreans go around saying shiz like that? Maybe this is a change brought on by capitalism and globalization or just the rat race of Korea, but way to take on the crappy shiz of the West and chucking out the "group-mind," Korea. Tho I wonder how much of it was Korea being concerned about the group as a whole or just succumbing to the powerful few. Whatever, we're talking to a bunch of people that make an anti-fan cafe with pictures and webpages pretty enough for fan cafes. Tho to be fair, sexism still exists in the US, it just manifests itself more subtly. I think the commodification of women always existed in Korean society, it's just now they're being sexualised with a Western twist without substantive rights that the West gives. If they had only known about miniskirts a hundred years ago, I think Korea would have made women wear them. I also have this horrible feeling that I'm going to start calling you 오빠 now, M. To be cheeky, of course~

Congrats to Soyeon. I was seriously sad when I heard she wasn't going, cos based on the videos, she totally deserved to go. So yay~