Mark James Russell

Books, blog and other blather

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K-Pop D-Day

April 28, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Well, at long last, K-POP NOW is finally out on Amazon.com (and other major Western bookstores). Yes, the book has been available for a while, but these days Amazon feels so much more real…

Anyhow, Soompi, the great K-pop/culture website was nice enough to publish a long interview with me today. Plus they are giving away a bunch of books to readers. The comments at the end of the story are wonderful and so kind. I truly appreciate them all.

Thanks to the power of Soompi, my Amazon ranking is really shooting up. As you can see, I’m now in the 9,000th range, which is some pretty rare air for me. Again, huge thanks to everyone taking the time to check it out.

UPDATE: A few hours later, and we are now up to 8,000. Which is very cool. But for me, the coolest part is being one spot ahead on Amazon’s Popular Music Chart than a book about Leonard Cohen. Major nerd-out.

On the road again

April 11, 2014 / / 0 Comments

So, my little lecture tour through the United States is about half over already. And so far it has been quite a lot of fun. It was interesting to see Philadelphia again (for the first time in over a decade … and my first time on Penn campus since 1996, I think). At the moment I am in my hotel room on the  Ohio State campus, waiting to give yet another talk. Some thoughts so far:

  • In Philadelphia, I went to the same diner that I used to frequent 20 year’s ago, Little Pete’s. Amazingly, the same two women were working the night shift there. Of course they did not remember me, but I certainly remember them — as foul-mouthed and kind as they ever were.
  • Nice to see that Philadelphia is so much less stabby than it used to be. Penn campus in particular was looking good.
  • Bloomington, Indiana is a lovely town and the Indiana University campus is very pretty.
  • But I cannot believe I went to Kilroy, the student pub. Raucous place.
  • Ohio State, in Columbus, is also a very nice campus. Apparently Columbus is going through something of a revival, with several parts of town getting fixed up and gentrified (or hipsterfied, anyhow).
  • Thanks to Richard Vega at Myx and Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace for taking the time to interview me about K-Pop Now.
  • Thanks to Tuttle for getting copies of my book to all the locations.

Snowpiercer redux

April 4, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Over the last few weeks, there’s apparently been a big resurgence of people interested in my old Snowpiercer review (thanks to all for the comments, by the way). I guess that’s mostly a function of the film appearing in more and more territories around the world.

Of all the countries around the world, Snowpiercer is easily doing best in China. It opened there in mid-March in No. 2, then falling to No. 7 in its second weekend. After two weeks, it had made about $11 million.

In Italy, where it opened at the end of February, it made $1.2 million.

This weekend, the movie will be opening in Germany … and I gather by the incoming links to this website that there is some interest in the movie there. I have no idea how that will translate into box office, but it is interesting to see.

Of course, Snowpiercer does not come out in the United States — in a limited but unedited release — on June 27.

Captain America goes global

March 29, 2014 / / 0 Comments

I just watched the latest Marvel superhero film,  Captain America: The Winter Soldier — which was quite enjoyable — but what really jumped out at me was a scene when Steve Rogers (the Captain) writes in a little booklet about things he needed to check out, having spent 65+ years frozen. He added a Marvin Gaye album, and above that there was Thai food. But higher up on the list, I noticed there was the movie Oldboy and footballer Park Ji-sung.

Sure enough, in the United States, people saw a rather different list.

A pretty amusing little big of localization, I thought. I’m surprised Hollywood doesn’t do that sort of thing more. After all, when you are spending $150 million or whatever on a blockbuster, why not add a couple more dollars and CGI in something local for each market?

When the aliens destroy some city, I bet people in England would love to see London blown up, and people in France could see Paris blown up, people in Japan could see Tokyo blown up, and people in Korea could see Tokyo blown up (joking).

Anyhow, Captain America. I wonder how many countries got their own customized list. I’m sure sites like Comicbooknews will be tracking them all soon enough. It was a fun little idea.

More K-POP NOW stuff

March 23, 2014 / / 0 Comments

As K-POP NOW! gets closer to its international release (coming to Amazon on April 29), Tuttle is slowly ramping up its marketing push. And one cool thing they’re doing is holding a contest over on Goodreads, giving away 10 copies. So sign up and enter if you want to win a free copy.

I should also mention that I’ll be going on a mini lecture tour (kind of) in the second week of April. Actually, it’s mostly a coincidence that it synchronizes with the release of K-POP NOW, but I think the coincidence is kind of cool. Anyhow, I’ll be talking about K-pop and Korean culture at the University of Pennsylvania on April 7, Indiana University on April 8, Ohio State University on April 10 and the University of Michigan on April 11.

I think Tuttle is trying to organize some bookstore stuff at those schools, too, but I don’t have any details yet.

 

TheKorean on K-Pop Now

March 9, 2014 / / 2 Comments

The Korean (of Ask a Korean fame) has just posted a nice little review of K-POP NOW over on his book review blog. Aside from a couple of quibbles — and a very legitimate complaint about the lack of Lee Hyo-ri on the book — he was mostly quite complimentary.

For a taste of what he has to say:

K-Pop Now is not a treatise of everything there is to know about Korean pop music. Like the stars it covers, the book is glossy, thin and image-heavy. Russell’s insight is more readily available in the introductory passages, as the later parts of the book are not much more than a series of quick presentations about K-pop artists. None of this is meant as a criticism. The book is properly understood as a breezy introduction to a slice of Korean pop music scene, which is hardly a reason to complain: everyone needs an introduction to a given topic before they explore further.

Not a bad summary at all, imho.

If you want to pre-order K-POP NOW, you can do so on Amazon.com, Indigo, and of course at Tuttle Books. In most of the world, it should be getting released in April, so if you pre-order, you won’t have long to wait.

Windy walk around Hongdae

March 9, 2014 / / 1 Comment

It’s been a really nice weekend here in Korea — sunny, if a bit cool and windy. But it was nice enough I though I would do some walking this weekend.

Saturday, I just went exploring randomly in the area between Hongik University and Sangsu Station and Hapjeong Station. I knew it had built up, but I’m always surprised at just how built up it is. After a disappointing Thai lunch a place that will remain anonymous (I think it is the Hongdae spinoff of a famous Gyeongnidan restaurant), we just went walking at random.

I mean, I can remember when all these roads were basically residential. And now they are endless cafes, restaurants, and shops.

Ironically, one of the dorkiest parts in the area used to be the coolest:

This spot, which has long been a terrible-looking noraebang, used to be home to Sangsudo, the first “real” techno club in Seoul. Or the nastiest one. Or something like that. Anyhow, it used to get hopping around 3 or 4am and go until sun-up. Until the police decided it was a den of iniquity and drugs, and started raiding it all the time. Soon it closed and was turned into a noraebang.

Back when Sangsudo was at its peak, this area was nearly all residential and there was nothing else around at all. So I find it pretty funny to see how built up that area is now, with shops everywhere. But this is one of the few buildings that is still not gentrified.

This building has seen better days:

Then I found this:

Yay, Record Forum is still around. It used to be located in the middle of Hongdae, beside what is now Monster Pizza and the Eat Your Kimchi Studios. But its tiny location was torn down and replaced with a garish monstrosity that now houses a Bennigans. I was worried it was lost, but apparently it just move down the street, closer to Hapjeong.

It felt like every time I tried out a new street, there was something interesting to discover — a jerk chicken reggae place, a Portuguese restaurant, a funky little clothing shop (I actually stumbled across a shop run by the girlfriend of a friend of mine, totally by accident).

These days, a lot of people are worried that the gentrification of Hongdae will bring in a lot of chain clothing stores, restaurants and other mainstream franchises. But I think that’s just not really a problem for Hongdae — because Hongdae is just too big for the franchises to take over. Whenever they come to one part of Hongdae, jacking up rents, the cool people that make Hongdae interesting just move somewhere else — Donggyo-dong, Yeonnam-dong, or south of Sangsu Station.

Speaking of Yeonnam-dong, after a disappointing Thai restaurant experience yesterday, today my wife and I returned to Tuk Tuk Noodles, probably the best Thai place in town. And once again, we were very happy with our lunch. I screwed up the reservation, so we had to wait an hour, but it was worth it.

Happiness is a yellow curry full of giant prawns.

Here’s a pic of the restaurant’s entrance (stolen from here):

So, that was my little weekend exploring Hongdae. Nothing revelatory, but I do find it amazing how this part of town just keeps growing and changing. It really is one of my favorite places.

 

K-Pop Now Reviews

March 8, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Some early reviews are coming in for K-POP NOW. Very exciting.

Just a few minutes ago, The Korean (of Ask a Korean fame) posted a review over on his book blog Reading Korea. And he was nice enough to say a lot of nice things about it. For example:

 Keen-eyed and resourceful, Russell has regularly provided valuable insight into today’s Korean pop music that is both historical and comparative. Russell’s celebration of K-pop is jubilant but sober.

Another review I found was from a more obscure site, this blog that reviews young adult books for libraries. But it was also very positive.

Russell has put together a fantastic volume of information regarding the K-Pop history and industry. This is relevant to the current K-Pop craze phenomena and interest to those who are reading it for the first time or have a deep concern about their favorite groups. It will also make a great complementary addition to any classroom curriculum on the topic of Korean Culture.

It is so nice when the first reviews for a new book come back positive. I’m sure there’s a bashing coming before too long, but I really appreciate these positive and interesting early reviews.

 

 

Whining and dining

March 5, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Apparently there’s an online controversy-du-jour going on in the expat community in Korea about the evolving restaurant scene in greater Itaewon. The source of the fretting came from this amusing cartoon by Chris Kwon Lewis. Some people thought it a good takedown of gentrification and hipsters in Korea. Others called it racist. In general, it looks like a pretty insufferable debate.

For a smarter take on the issue, check out these wise words that were recently written by Joe McPherson, of Zen Kimchi fame.

The way I see it, this is basically a fight between rival hipsters. Expat hipsters versus Korean hipsters. And, let’s face it, that is a fight that nobody wins. (Although, as this is Korea, if I had to pick a side, it would be with the Koreans. I don’t see the expat scene in Korea get upset when they ruin a perfectly nice local hangout, which has happened more than once).

Personally, I like that there is more Korean-foreigner interaction going on these days. And gentrification is a problem that is as old as capitalism, so it does not really annoy me. I’ve seen my favorite shops move around multiple times over the years in Korea. What’s one more time?

I think it is also worth pointing out that the cartoon can totally apply to a purely Korean context, too. Korean restaurant opens, does well with good prices, gets picks up by bloggers, becomes popular, prices goes up, quality goes down, rinse repeat. You might want to add a step about how the original owners sell the restaurant for a lot, too. It happens to Korean restaurants, it happens to foreign restaurants.

All I know is, when I look around Korea, I see a lot more diversity and cool stuff going on than ever. Music, food, art, life is all really interesting here, and for each negative change, there must be a dozen positive changes. I’ll take that over some sclerotic alternative any day.

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