Blood: Keep it Clean

Now that I am back on the East Coast of N. America, I can only look at the other East from a-far.

Christopher Hitchens offers some of his own views on North Korea in Slate in an article subtly entitled "A Nation of Racist Dwarfs." (The thing I admire most about 'Hitch his discriminating and suggestive use of language.) The article is a favorable commentary on a recent book by an American university professor who currently lives in Pusan, S. Korea.

Hitchens' column focuses in on N. Korea's ideological obsession with the racial purity of the Korean nation, something that he had noticed himself during a visit to Pyongyang.

Anyone who has lived in S. Korea for any length of time, as I have, knows that this is also a fixation of those south of the 38th. However, the southern half of the peninsula is an open society and much more pluralistic than most would be willing to admit, so it is a hang-up only of a segment of the society, one that is usually male and middle-aged.

Of course, this does present a demographic problem for the south, which currently has a lopsided generation. In 1990, the ratio of new births was 116.5 boys for 100 girls. This generation is now moving into marrying age, and statistically it means many South Korean young men will not be able to find a South Korean bride just like Mom. So, they will be forced to look beyond their borders into neighboring countries such as China, which is also facing a similar problem.

Wouldn't that be a weakening of the stock and dirtying of the blood?

Not at all!

The good news is that the children of such marriages would still be 100% Korean since the pure blood is carried only through the patrilineal line. The nationality of the mother matters not a whit! As a result, the Korean bloodlines in the south will remain unpolluted and pure to everyone's relief, especially Kim Jong-il's. I mean, The Dear Leader wouldn't want to be ruling over a race of mongrels following reunification, now would he?

(Don't ask me to explain the mechanism by which this all happens: I am merely the scribe.)

Favorite Actress

Whenever I am asked who my favorite actress is, I answer Tura Satana.

(It was during my dying days in Japan that I was first exposed to Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and The Astro-Zombies.)

Their eyebrows knot and eyeballs roll back as they try to retrieve the name from their memory and as they cannot, they become more and more alarmed and wish for me to clarify and I just shrug and say google it.

Why should I do all the work for you? You will only learn by completing the task yourself.

(I know have an internet connection at home for the first time since 2003. It could prove to be dangerous.)

Quentin Tarantino deserves a fatwa

It was during my dying days in Japan that I was given a copy of a Russ Meyer's 1965 film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. It was a gift from a student, a journalist in his 50's who was studying Anthropology at the time. We discovered that we shared a common delight in B-movies--moreover, at the time we were near the area of Tokyo where the Showa Godzillas had been filmed.

As an aside, let me say the thing that I love about Japan is that I experienced and was exposed to cultural forms from B-movies to Andy Warhol that I would never have learned to appreciate if I had stayed mired at home; and it was the natives who were my mentors. I learned from them and developed as a result. In Korea or China, whatever I learned was in spite of the natives. One point for the Japanese.

Currently, rumors on the internet say the a remake of the movie is being pushed by Hollywood's pissant-in-chief Quentin Tarantino. This is further evidence that Tarantino has absolute no imagination or even the slightest scintilla of experience to draw upon to create anything original, so he is left to ransack the past like a kid playing dress-up in his grandparents basement.

This is what happens when the suburban wankers become big shot Hollywood directors/producers, and why Tarantino is an idol to said wankers. It is easy to image the teen Tarantino borrowing video after video from his local Blockbuster, locking himself into his parents' basement for hours after hours of viewing them. I knew--and still know--people who go through six movies on the weekend--although I will admit that the TV series DVD marathon is more in vogue these days.

Movies were young Tarantino's life and now that all his dreams have come true and he is Mr. Hotshot-Big-Time-Hollywood-Director-Slash-Producer, he has no life to draw upon to create original films from.

I have seen post-modernism defined as what happens when you run out of ideas and pastiche the genius of the past all in the name of "originality".

In this sense then, Tarantino the EXEMPLAR OF THE AGE and the REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DEATH OF THE IMAGINATION.

It's all over, boys. Culture came to an end in 1968. There's nothing more to see. Nothing left but to pack it all up and head home...

UNPACKED

Chinese tea, a cup from Korea (Paekche style), a teapot from China (a gift from a special friend),a bowl and postcards of Frida Kahlo from her show at Bunkamura in Shibuya. I am now unpacked and at home.

BANG! goes Seoul

A house blew up behind me into a giant fireball. I didn’t mind, except that I couldn’t hear my interlocutor on the other end of the cell phone. I was trying to get from Tokyo to Shanghai but found myself stranded in Seoul, which looked like a North American suburb with shady tree-lined streets and wooden framed buildings. I needed a place to stay for the night. I was confident that I could get a ticket to fly out in the morning, but I needed a place to crash; so, I was calling around trying to get place and the houses all up and down the street kept exploding. I didn’t feel any danger, but the constant concussions and explosions was getting under my skin, especially when I was trying to talk someone on the phone.

Jeez!

Work Ethic

In spite of a blinding snowstorm, the beggar was in his usual position in front of Tim Horton’s on Spring Garden Rd. Hey, this guy has a really good work ethic for a bum! Most people with legitimate jobs are using this storm as an excuse to stay home, and this guy has his usual place staked out in the midst of a Canadian blizzard in January. That shows gumption and dedication. I thought about dropping a coin just to show support but decided against it—that would only encourage him.

Does anyone really understand what is going on?

Friday morning was blustery and cold; the high winds blowing gusts of snow and tiny ice pellets made it hard to see. I was almost blown off my feet at the corner of Morris and South Park and had to stop to wait for the gust to pass.

A teenage girl in a Muslim-style headscarf materialized out the ice and snow on Spring Garden Rd. The scarf looked like it was silk and had a silver foil trim and a decorated pin holding it in place. She struggled to keep it on in the wind.

As she past, I realized that she was wearing a plaid skirt from the Catholic school up the street, and she had it hitched up like a Japanese schoolgirl. She was wearing tights to protect her legs from the cold.

Muslim headscarf? Catholic school uniform? Skirt hitched up like a Shibuya Walker? What's going on here?

A lot more than you'll ever see on TV.

Time to Tune out and drop in.

See you at Ground Zero.