I am in the plane heading to Paris, France. Korea, who has been requesting France incessantly to give back the Jikji, requested again one week ago. France had ignored those numerous requests, and this time Korea is formally sending an envoy to take care about the problem. I am one member of the envoy as a diplomat. The visit will be about a week long, and my little six-year-old son is sitting beside me.
“Paris, son.”
The plane had just taken off, and my son was being impatient. His name is Jin Kim, and he was adopted right after birth. I was not married, and my mom greatly opposed me adopting him because kid without being married will be just a burden in my life. However since I didn’t want to marry, I adopted Jin. Now my mom takes care about him even more than I do. He thinks I am his biological mother, and I am planning to tell him soon, because I think he may get shocked if he knows the truth suddenly. I adopted him maybe because I was just lonely, travelling around the world alone as a diplomat.
This visit to France would be my fifth visit, two times for trip-one with my boyfriend, one alone-two times for official visits as a diplomat, and this time a member of the president’s envoy. Paris is such a beautiful place: not only because of the beautiful sights, museums, streets but also because of the dream I have had as a girl. When I was young I always wanted to go to Paris, and that memory still makes me excited every time I go there.
I looked out the window. Lights were like small dots up the sky: it is my favorite sight. The no-electronic devices lights went off, so I took out the laptop from my bag. Jin is sleeping. On the screen I had contracts and texts I had to see. They were all about Soniafe. It’s a café that I will open in Korea, maybe next year. I have always been dreaming to start my own business, and also I have been dreaming about having my own café, so I decided to start my own café as a business. For the first five to six years as a diplomat I was in Africa and South America, and there I got to know many good coffee and chocolate farms. I visited there repeatedly, and the farmers there became friendly with me. When I first started to prepare for this company-café, my friend from high school told me she will help me. The contracts were mostly about the business between me and the farmers, but one of them was about me and her. My friend, a lawyer, would help me with the legal processes I have to take in order to establish a company, and also she would help me manage the café when I am in overseas.
I reviewed the contracts, wrote some things that I wanted to modify, and saved them in my laptop. I will send them as soon as I reach Korea. I opened the folder about the Jikji and started reviewing. This time, France will have to give the treasure back.
It is jet black outside the window: my clock shows eleven o’ clock Korean time. The plane is on its way.
*Jikji: short for Jikjisimchaeyojul, which is the oldest book printed in bronze type. It is essential evidence that Korea was the first country to invent the bronze type, not Gutenberg like most people know. It was invented in Korea long before Gutenberg. France took the book during Byeonginyangyo, the aggressive war-or just an invasion-of France in Korea in 1866.
I spent about two hours only watching and searching the TED videos because I couldn’t choose what I would like to write about. Nothing really triggered me to write an essay about the video: first I saw the video of ‘How games make kids smarter’ by Gabe Zichermann then ‘Experiments that hint of longer lives’, then‘We can avoid aging’ and then ‘A 12-year-old app developer’. Since I really didn’t like thehackneyed stories of young activists who call people to action in order to change the world, I avoided watching Natalie’s ‘Being young and making an impact’. Their stories are all the same, didactic, and they are all sozealousbecause they are just so idealistic. I thought Natalie's was just the same as Iinferred from the title. However, because I had not much choice left, it wasinevitable for me to watch Natalie’s which was large on the TED homepage.
For the first three to four minutes, I was bored out because of her talking about her mom and about the ‘anonymous extraordinaries’ which I quite expected to hear from a girl like her. But from the four minutes and after the whole thirteen minutes I was, vehemently, with her and the ‘invisible children’ she saved. Concise summary of the video is this: Natalie saw the film ‘invisible children’ which is about kids getting abducted by a rebel leader in Africa and forced to shoot people. The conflict, which the kids were fighting in, was happening for twenty-five years. Something fueled her into action, and when she found out that there’s a bill that can solve the whole problem, she fled to San Diego for internship and protested for the pass of the bill. She postponed college, and she was not paid but actually used up quite amount of money, but she wasresolutewith what she wanted to do. The protestsburgeoned, thousands of people and celebrities gathered in the movement. Finally, after getting introduced in Ophra Winfrey Show, the bill passed the Congressunanimously and President Obama signed it at last.
What grabbed my biased andparochialattention so much was her candidness. She really seemed to work just for what she thought was right without for any recognition. She was not for anything else but solely for what she wanted to do. For the last one minute she says: “Whatever you want, chase after what with everything you have, not because of the fame or fortune but solely because that’s what you believe in. Because that’s what makes your heart sing. That’s what your dance is.” Yes,clichéd stuff, but how could those statements came right into my heart? I could feel how this girl felt after watching the film, and how she really devoted everything into what she believed in. It was different with Steve Jobs, who had a speech at Stanford about doing what you love. He had said something similar with Natalie, but that didn’t really help me feel his words deep through. Anyway, the thing I wanted to tell was, this girl made me to really, deeply think about doing what I want and being the ‘anonymous extraordinary.’
The ‘anonymous extraordinary’: Natalie says during her speech, that what fuels the movement is not the moments like Ophra Winfrey moments she had but the people-the numerous anonymousextraordinarypeople, just like Harding who helped Martin Luther King Jr.significantly. Yes, the people who work forconvictionbut not because ofrecognitions: they are the ‘anonymous extraordinaries’ who made King’s movement possible, and what ended the twenty-five-year old war in Africa. People who work selflessly and vigorously, not for fame or fortune but just because they think what they are doing are right: they are the real heroes and they are the ones who change the world into a better place.
As a seventeen year old kid, just the age of when Natalie started her action, I thought: what am I doing here right now? Am I doing something I want, something I desire, and chase my dream with all I have? Not only with the big issues, but even with the small things, am I doing something in the way I think it is right, not caring about other’s attention? Aren’t I just condoning the irrationalities happening in this society? All these questions came up to my mind and it reminded me of living with fervor. I am young but still I can make changes in the world, and it doesn't have to be a big event what I am participating in like Natalie did but can be something small and something that seems to be meaningless. It would be just like, pushing the chairs at the cafeteria back into where they belonged to if someone missed to do it.
One last thing to consider, and probably something that I asked to myself for the most: should I do like Natalie if I was just in the same position with her? I will have a huge hindrance on graduating from KMLA in time; will need to spend money on things that I will never get paid backmaterially; and get innumerable disadvantages compared to others in my age because of the non-studying period. The answer was, after a lot of thought, no. Natalie was for college and she had her independence in the age of seventeen. I, a South Korean disparate from her, am still in high school-one of the most demanding schools in Korea-and still learning about basic stuff. This is not the right time for me to be in action.
It is a contentious issue: whether to get into action right now or prepare, waiting until one get the influence. The latter seems to be alameexcuse, but that is what I really think right now after a lot of vacillation: I can do my best in what I am doing right now, thus in the future ameliorating the situations much more effectively than a relatively powerless seventeen-year-old girl.
Thanks, Natalie, for reminding me to live passionately, and to live for what I want.
Ten years have passed, and the music video seems to be so old and behind times. This album was released in 2001, when I was in kindergarten. Back then hip-hop style was the big trend and Shinhwa, an idol group, followed that trend: that's why their clothes are all baggy. The music is old and little too much commercialized, but the stage itself is worth watching: their dance, performance, and songs altogether make a good mix. This fourth album was recorded, released and performed without one member in the group-Andy-because he was in the military.
1. Who is Shinhwa?
A lot of students nowadays in Korea don't really know much about Shinhwa, but most of them have heard of the name, at least. It is because Shinhwa is the team that was almost legendary from 1998 their debut till 2006~2007. These days, since they are all busy working individually, kids are not so familiar with them but still they are on the top of Korean idol groups. Their popularity was unimaginable because of their dance, songs, performance, looks, and so on. Shinhwa is most popular with their dance: their dance is really complicated, powerful, and wonderful on stage. For a good example, this fourth album they released in 2001 had the song 'Wild Eyes' and the dance of this song became a trend even until 2011, now, that present idol groups are re-performing the dance again and again. You'll see what's that dance in a minute.
Not like other idol groups, Shinhwa had stayed really long-for thirteen years and they are having their fourteenth anniversary soon in 2012. They debuted on March 24th, 1998, and on March 24th, 2012, they are coming back with the tenth album. The tenth album is really special because they are coming up from their own made-up company named 'Shinhwa Company.' This means from now on the company can never intervene on what Shinhwa themselves want to do, and the music will be reflecting Shinhwa's color solely, not the color of the company by using the company hired composers(many idols don't have much chance to reflect their own musical color to their own music because the companies want income, and thus want commercialized songs, not music.).
2. What is an 'idol group'?
'Idol' in English means a figure which is respected and adored, even worshiped. Idol group in Korean means groups that are popular among teenagers: they are called 'idols' because the teenagers madly love them. Shinhwa, though their fans are now in the mid twenties, was one of the first idols, and thus they are still called as an 'idol group.'
Since teenagers are not so bright in real music, and they are more attracted by splendid performances and nice looks, idol groups are mostly handsome and pretty with their songs lacking quality. However there are some groups among them that have their own music and not only concentrate on money: Shinhwa is one of them. They wanted to concentrate on their own music further, and that is why they came out from their original company-the idol-producing, extremely commercialized company-SM.
3. The Songs
Track 01. Just 2 be with U
Track 02. (Title) Hey, Come On!
Track 03. Shinhwa Knight
Track 04. Wild Eyes
Track 05. Reminiscence
Track 06. Falling in Love
Track 07. Never Can Rewind
Track 08. Trippin'
Track 09. Sure I know
Track 10. Dark
Track 11. Egotism (97年 4月 1日)
Track 12. I swear... (바램)
1) Track 02. Hey, Come On! (Title song)
Hey, Come On! (2001) Live Stages
Hey, Come On! (2001) Official MV
Lyrics written by Hyesung in Shinhwa
Composed by Peter Rafelson & Jeff Vincent
Arranged by You Youngjin(SM employed composer) Rap making by Eric of Shinhwa Choreographed by Minwoo of Shinhwa
This song was popular for its refined rhythm (it was stylish in 2001) and powerful lyrics. The repeated lyrics are "Hey, come on, I won't stay in the cage for you anymore but from now on I will fly out!", translated. The music was arranged by You Youngjin, a famous SM employed composer who handle most of the songs SM produce, and thus the music has his particular style. Though his music is mostly the same, this song's rhythm is pretty fresh and addictive. The lyrics imply deep thoughts, too.
My favorite part is:
넌 항상 비슷해 홀린 투에 thing uh 내 말은 strategies 기억해라 (You are always the same possessed by someone else, my words are strategies remember.) 크게 세상의 속을 봐, 속에 네 모습을 지켜 (Look big look the heart of the world, and protect yourself in that heart) 참아야만 했어 나의 모든 걸 (I had to be patient for my everything)
내 나 지친, 숨가쁜, 이젠 나 쓰러 질 것 같은 (I am tired, breathless, and now I feel like I'm gonna collapse) 짧은 순간들 속에 지쳐 가는 나 내 모든걸 위해 참을 수 없어 (I am getting tired in short times me, I can't stop me for my everything)
The lyrics show the harsh time Shinhwa was having in SM. SM, a strict company, had many restrictions on the group. They could not go out with girls, and they could not go somewhere privately without the company's permission. Almost all of the money they earned went for SM's sake. They could not dive in music they wanted to, and they could not choose what TV or radio programs to do. They were just like money-earning machines of SM: just doing what the company want them to do. This song was like an indirect, implied expression of resistance by Shinhwa.
Dance/performance ★★★☆☆
Music ★★★☆☆
Rap ★★★★☆
Lyrics ★★★★☆
Overall
2) Track 04. Wild Eyes
Wild Eyes (2001) Official MV
Wild Eyes (2001) Live, on stage
Lyrics, Composed, Arranged by Yu Youngjin
Rap making by Eric of Shinhwa
Choreographed by Minwoo of Shinhwa
This was the innovative dance in 2001: since this song Koreans started to use chairs in their performances. When they performed this on stage, the reactions were huge. The dance, the hot topic of 2001 until now, was made by Minwoo of Shinhwa. It was actually made in thirty minutes because Hyesung(a member of Shinhwa), due to his knee injury(cruciate ligament, accurately), couldn't maintain the passionate dance which was the originally planned version. Minwoo, lacking enough time to change parts of the original dance, just created a new performance that has the chair which would help Hyesung dance. And the result was a immense, megaton hit.
Even ten years have passed and idols still mimic this dance. Almost every top idols have performed this dance, and those are not assessed by the audience(online and offline) to be better than the original Shinhwa's, even ten years have passed. The dance have showed how Shinhwa is the best in dancing.
The strong beat of the song always makes me want to dance. The lyrics basically mean the situation of a man who wants to be wild, because that is the type of a man his girl want. Followings are three top idol groups (SHINee, After School, and Infinite) mimicking the Wild Eyes. They miss several motions because the dance is complicated and requires keen sense of balance.
SHINee - Live Performance of Wild Eyes (2009)
After School -Wild Eyes Performance (2009)
Infinite - Wild Eyes Performance (2010)
My favorite Parts:
You need a true rugged type figure, I be holin the key gootta be me, all in the sheets- 달라졌어 나는 강해졌어 ( I changed- became stronger) 두고보면 너도 알게 될꺼야- (You will see)
What you really want from a guy like me, I be rollin the streets hitten my peak, alway complete
…
Diamond briguette- rolex on your wrists Say you wanna man who can do work with his firsts A new millennium type figure here! Only wanted to show you the light side, the bright side of life But if it ain’t so let me show you some more
The lyrics of this song is quite evident and overused, but the rap here made by Eric (of Shinhwa) is pretty good, in my opinion. The rap rhymes well, and the lyrics match up with Eric's voice harmoniously: the last part, especially, goes well with the melody-it sounds like whispering.
Dance/performance ★★★★★
Music ★★★★☆ : loved the beat!
Rap ★★★★☆
Lyrics ★★★☆☆
Overall
minus half a circle
If you want any further information, please contact kimsol0211@naver.com ! A lot of Shinhwa-related stuffs are ready. Copyright@Sol Sonia Kim in KMLA
‘Change’ is the word every politician seems to emphasize in their speeches and pledges. Actually not only politicians, but every single human being is working to change the world, even right now, to make the place somewhere better. Among those people, there are ones who made the big changes that actually drove the whole human society into a particular way. Those are the ‘heroes,’ and there are several of them, changing the world in many ways such as technologically and spiritually. They are the ones who will be remembered forever: it is because people always trace their backs, how the place they are stepping on got to happen, and without those people the story will never go on.
The significant change in technology can start from Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison, who invented electricity and therefore a light bulb, is the person that will be remembered forever. Human beings could work in nights and in the dark much more conveniently than the fire lamp when the light bulb was invented, and therefore people could work much longer after the light bulb. If the light bulb was not invented, there would have been no available observations on organisms in biology. Then the science wouldn’t have developed much further.
Not only technology, but the spirit plays a big role to change the world: and there are two notable heroes among the numerous spiritual leaders. They are Henry David Thoreau and Rene Descartes. Henry David Thoreau, who wrote the ‘Walden’ and insisted on ‘Civil Disobedience’, brought Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. into action. The nonviolent resistance term Thoreau introduced to the world is one of the most significant spiritual ideas because it provides a solution to the classic philosophy. Socrates, the hero of classic philosophy, could have his solution from Thoreau’s idea. He could have chosen to resist on drinking the poison without breaking out from his jail.
Another leader in the spiritual field is Rene Descartes, the father of modern philosophy. He introduced the idea of dualism, which insists the separation between the spirit and the body. That theory was the basis for almost all modern philosophy ideas. Also, he was a significant leader in the field of geometry: he is credited to find the Cartesian coordinates, the important columns of math.
Thomas Edison, who invented the electricity, light bulb and many other numerous items, played an important role in modern science. If the electricity was not invented, science could never develop like nowadays since they would not be able to see. Henry David Thoreau, who put Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. into action, played a significant role in the spiritual field of the modern world by providing the idea of ‘civil disobedience.’ Rene Descartes, who founded the basic shape of modern philosophy, the dualism, and also the Cartesian coordinates which is a fundamental term of geometry and overall, mathematics. These people are the three among the many heroes that won’t be forgotten forever, because the changes they made in the world are so powerful, that the history will not be explained without them.
The first thirty pages of the book are not so interesting, rather dragging on. Gordon, Teddy, Chris, and Vern are kids playing along. Gordon, and other kids too, was twelve going on thirteen, and it was summer-‘the driest and hottest since 1907 according to newspapers (p.294)’. Three of them: Gordon, Teddy, and Chris were playing cards in their treehouse in Castle Rock, and Gordon got out first. He was reading his detective magazines when Vern hurriedly had ran more than two miles and hurriedly rushed into the treehouse. Vern suggests the other three boys to come over to his house, and go see a dead body. The dead body is Ray Brower, a kid their age, who was from Chamberlain and was missing. Vern, who was digging under the porch to find his jar of pennies, overheard the talks his brother Billy and his brother Charlie had without getting noticed. Billy and Charlie, tough guys in town, stole a car and went to Harlow with the girls they used to go out with, and saw dead Ray Brower there, torn out on the railroad. Afraid of getting caught of boosting a car, they decide not to tell anyone but Vern heard it, and suggests an expedition that night to the three boys. Interested, the three boys agree, and then the story what Gordon Lachance wrote begins.
Gordon is a kid that has a brother ten years older than him. His mother was forty-two when she had him, and his parents really didn’t care about Gordon but always cared about Dennis, his brother. In April Dennis died because of a Jeep accident, and his parents were into pieces. Gordon was like the invisible kid in his house. Teddy had a crazy father who burnt Teddy’s all two ears when Teddy was eight, and Teddy was not that bright either, slightly crazy. Chris, who was the smart one among the boys, had a father who beats him up after getting drunk. He played truant a lot, mostly because getting beaten by his dad. Vern had a fair family compared to others, but he was a ‘feeb’ according to Gordon’s dad.
The story inserted in the middle of the novel was a ‘pretty fucking melodramatic’ one according to Gordon, the writer himself. The story was published in 1970, ten years after the main experience of the whole novella. Chico has a brother named Johnny who died in a car accident, and he had a stepmother, Virginia. Chico breaks a girl in on Johnny’s bed, where Johnny and Virginia used to make out, in order to stir up Virginia. He thinks Virginia killed Johnny: if Virginia did not have such affair with Johnny, Johnny could have worked in a different place-Gates Mills & Weaving, not where he had the accident. He couldn’t because if he did, Gates Mills & Weaving made him work at night and thus he would have to stay in the house alone with Virginia for days, when his dad is out working. Johnny couldn’t stand it, and that was how he killed. The story ends with Chico getting out of the house.
What was this all about? After reading the small story, I asked this question and couldn’t find the answer. Expecting to find something else later on, I tried to find the relationship between the whole novella and the inserted story. Gordon lost his brother in a car accident, and Chico also did. Gordon was afraid of going to Dennis’ room because he always imagined of the closet getting opened and bleeding Dennis coming out. Chico also imagines that in the middle of the story, Johnny whispering not to put a hand on his Dodge. Virginia, Jane-the girl Chico broke in on Johnny’s bed-and Chico’s dad were all made-up. Still the story shared some similarities with Gordon. Chico keeps on mentioning ‘knobs of Johnny’s spine (p.325)’, describing the scene of Johnny getting crushed by the car. This, in my expectation, seems to be the description of what he will see from the dead Ray Brower later in the novella.
I just summarized the whole thirty pages because I couldn’t find any theme of the story yet. To choose my favorite part, still, I would pick the first two paragraphs, especially the first sentence. ‘The most important things are the hardest things to say (p.293).’ The writer then says this: ‘That’s the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear (p.293).’ Yes, I completely agreed with these sentences: there are important things that shrink its significance when it is out in air. It seemed to me that the writer ‘I’, Gordon in the story, tried to explain that important thing by giving the whole story because he couldn’t explain it in just few words. Stephen King, or Gordon, wanted us to fully understand how his world has changed, how his childhood has ended by seeing a dead body, and The Body may deliver the message to us.
Mr. Moon's Three Words Describing Myself (P.S. The first, previous in-class assignment was done on paper and Mr. Moon took it with him, therefore there is no post of that on the blog.)
Black, Chocolate, Fire
Black, a color of perfectness, glows everywhere, even in the pitch-dark glows on my eyes, my hair, my mind a color of mastery
Brown stickiness crawled under the throat water is poured, but the stickiness never ends: because I keep on gulping the brown Eden's Apple, And is the snake guilty?
The life I want, and that is all I want: Flames, to Ashes
A nice meal in KMLA means not only the tasty menu but also the pain: pain of eating up everything on the dish, and pain of suppressing oneself to eat fast not to late. Eat fast and eat everything-that is what the ‘leftover policy’ requires students in their daily lives. This Halloween Mr. Sung have announced in the morning assembly that he will intensify the policy by sending the students with leftovers right away to the court. The policy called on a debate between students: should the policy continue? Basic need, efficiency, and justification are the main issues.
The policy here means this: a student goes to court if he has leftovers on his plate and get two penalty points. It therefore enforces students to eat up all they got. Students, who can never know exactly how much they will eat, especially when there is something new on the menu, always struggle before they go pass the ‘checkers’. They have to eat even though they get surprised by the bad taste of something in the dish. For the whole mealtime students have the pressure on their shoulders that they have to eat everything on their plate. When the menu is fabulous the line gets longer, and then when the students finally get the food they do not get to eat and appreciate the nice meal because they have to eat everything in such short time, shortened due to waiting. If there was no such policy, there can be some leftovers but the students will be much more fulfilled for appreciating the food slowly. Eating is one of the three basic needs of happiness, and the leftover policy suppresses students to eat fast and eat everything, which takes the students away from fulfilling that basic need.
Efficiency: there are better alternatives-better because it solves the previous problem-and thus there is no need to pursue the policy. The alternatives here are two kinds: first, collect the leftovers separately in grades, weigh them and compare them publicly, and second, to check not the leftovers but the amount the students get on their dish. The first suggestion is actually proven by Mr. Sung itself to be effective. He, about one month ago at the morning assembly, announced that the amount of leftovers decreased outstandingly when the first alternative was going on. That way promotes the students to minimize leftovers voluntarily, not coercively like the current leftover policy does. It definitely solves the previous problem mentioned, because then it is the students who have their choice-freedom-and no suppression with the penalty points. The second proposition is checking before eating. The purpose of leftover policy is to prevent students from getting more of the certain tasty menu than the students can actually eat, eventually leading the students after them to wait or not able to have that dish. Checking before eating is to check if the student extended the amount for one person-such as, one yogurt per person. This would allow the students to have a relief from eating-fast-and-all stress while eating, and also fulfill the purpose of the leftover policy.
Moreover, last but not least, the justification problem is the hot issue. Student self government, what KMLA is or is supposed to be, means students take care of themselves. Administration, Legislative and Judiciary branches exist for students’ own sake and students have authority over them. Of course teachers may intervene in some parts, in order to help the self-governing system work well, but they cannot meddle in the system itself. Mr. Sung’s policy infringes the authority of the legislative, which is actually infringing the rights of students, because his policy never went through the student council but he just directly had it in action. That is actually dictatorship: especially because the policy actually sends students to the court. The court, which is supposed to be moved by the students, should not convict the students caught from the new policy guilty because what they violated is not a valid law-not something that is passed by the student legislative. However Mr. Sung misused his authority to convict them as guilty, which makes KMLA not a student self-governing school but a society under the dictator Mr. Sung.
There are millions of conditions needed to make a person happy, but there are three main, basic needs. Those three basics are needed to be fulfilled to allow people to live like humans, and thus eating, which is one of them, is needed to be fulfilled. The leftover policy obstructs that fulfillment by suppressing the students to eat everything and eat fast. Also the efficiency matters: there are better alternatives that do not result in the problem previously mentioned, which are competing between grades and checking the amount on the plate before eating. Most of all, the policy cannot be justified because only the student legislative can pass the law that is applied to students. No matter how delicious the meal is, if the student cannot have it relaxed the meal does not worth much: just like one not able to enjoy good books if they are assigned for exams.
