• I just received my copy of THE KOREAN WAVE: AS VIEWED THROUGH THE PAGES OF THE NEW YORK TIMES IN 2006… which was sent to me because I have a story in it. Actually, I have the very first story (my May 28 feature on Bong Joon-ho’s THE HOST), which made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Published by the Korean Cultural Service New York, THE KOREAN WAVE is a fairly handsome volume, full of some really good stories (if I do say so myself) by a wide variety of writers. In fact, of the 52 stories in the book, only three are by local correspondent Norimitsu Onishi.
  • One funny point/criticism about the book, though. It does not contain my other feature that appeared in the NYT last year — the one about North Korea. I wrote a feature on the documentary CROSSING THE LINE (which you can read on my blog here). In fact, in the index in the back of all the Korea-related cultural stories in the NYT over 2006, it did not get mentioned. Was Daniel Gordon’s little documentary about am American defector to North Korea not “Korean” enough? I don’t think so. There were stories on Korean-Americans in America and a whole bunch of things only tangentially related to Korea. My guess is that the subject matter was too sensitive. Oh well.
  • The Party Pooper’s play-by-play about the Rain vs. King Bhumibal, Korea vs. Thailand feud over some Time magazine online poll is too funny.
  • Whatever happened to the big plans for Seoul City Hall? The City announced this grandiose plan for a giant new building, tore down the old City Hall side building and put up a big, construction-like fence… and now, from the best I can tell, they are installing a parking lot and small park.
  • Good news — Hongdae is about to get its very own Quiznos sandwich shop in May. I will mention the location as soon as I find out where it will be myself.