Open Thread #252 – The Style Thread

by R. Elgin on July 21, 2012

in Open Thread

Tasty Style?

{ 93 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Charles Montgomery July 21, 2012 at 10:04 am: First, bro!
2 R. elgin July 21, 2012 at 10:07 am: last . . .
3 Robert Koehler July 21, 2012 at 10:25 am: You, too, Charles? Really?
4 Josh Perlstein July 21, 2012 at 10:26 am: So in my opinion, moving to America and living here for 10 years should nullify a Korean parent’s ability to stop his/her daughter from dating an American.

How wrong I am.
5 Josh Perlstein July 21, 2012 at 10:27 am: Maybe it was Charles all along.

>.>
<.<

edit: Why isn't this showing up as threaded and Robert's is?
6 Josh Perlstein July 21, 2012 at 10:27 am: I miss threaded comments already.

Double post. Mistake.
7 Joel Tait July 21, 2012 at 11:01 am: Has anyone seen “Gangnam Style” by Psy? My kids just showed it to me and I think it’s genius. There is some great satire coming out of Korea lately. I assume that it is satire, at least :/
8 pawikirogii July 21, 2012 at 11:06 am: another mass shooting. another snowflake on cho’s head.
9 Byeonguk Yook July 21, 2012 at 11:18 am: You mean this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0&list=PLE9C5C1AB30C41847&index=48&feature=plpp_video
Maybe it is a satire of those rich people around Gangnam. Now if I can stop my head from ringing to this tune. Maybe Hyuna needs to hire Psy as her choreographer, she looks a lot better in this one than the Troublemaker and bubble pop videos.
10 Byeonguk Yook July 21, 2012 at 11:21 am: How many people are buying what PGH about the 5.16 coup? That it was “unavoidable” or that it was the best out of a crappy situation in Korea.
11 Jang July 21, 2012 at 11:27 am: After hearing a witness say he was only a few feet away or the closest person from “The Joker” when he entered through the exit, saw him throw the smoke bomb then point and shoot the ceiling, I would’ve used my football skills to tackle the wimpy honor roll student who was also a paid employee of his university.
12 keyinjpop July 21, 2012 at 11:28 am: Enjoying this song a lot. May buy when I can get another iTunes card.
13 keyinjpop July 21, 2012 at 11:36 am: Mass shooting in a theater in Colorado:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/police-press-motive-denver-area-movie-massacre-232932177.html
(FYI, this is just one of the stories)
Sadomasochism, the Internet, and S. Korean teens:
http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/9572764.html
and the end of that battle between JYJ and SM will have to wait:
http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/9577210.html
Any Final Fantasy fans out here. Sad news about XIII Versus:
http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/4049699.html#comments#comments
14 Byeonguk Yook July 21, 2012 at 11:45 am: Here’s a nice weekend killer. Taking idols/celebs and based on their looks matching them to a hypothetical job.
http://www.soompi.com/2012/07/20/potential-jobs-for-girl-group-members-based-on-their-appearances/
15 R. elgin July 21, 2012 at 11:47 am: I noticed when I recently visited America after several years that there were signs in a Starbucks, Walgreens Drug store and elsewhere that had signs that read “support our troops” and wanted people to donate candy, coffee, etc. to them.
The signs reminded me of the war bond drives and patriotic advertising from WWII and I really wondered is America really at war or is it just a corporate attempt to take advantage of America’s latest bout of interventionism?
16 R. elgin July 21, 2012 at 11:49 am: If you were smart, you would be more concerned with what she thinks about running Korea in these times. Hindsight is an easy thing to indulge in and often too late to be of much use.
17 The_Korean July 21, 2012 at 11:56 am: If you look at Korean history the idea of democracy didn’t really sink in until the 70s and 80s.

So all the people who protested in the April Revolution of 1960 were just clamoring for a new dictator? Then why did PCH even need his tanks?
18 Liz July 21, 2012 at 12:02 pm: This was satirically funny, but I’m sure for readers of this blog ‘Itaewon Freedom’ from JYP and Co. really hit the spot. Easily the best Korean music video of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N8c1t1QTDI
19 Byeonguk Yook July 21, 2012 at 12:17 pm: No, but the way it happens is they protest for democracy and elect somebody else, but that somebody else ends up displaying the same dictatorial tendency of wanting to continue being in power and eliminating the opposition. That’s what I meant by democracy not sinking in. When not in power protest under guise of wanting democracy but once in power act like dictator. I’m sure not everybody was like this but this tendency would have been very common when trying to put a democratic system in place without really having the idea of it sink in.
20 Byeonguk Yook July 21, 2012 at 12:23 pm: As I said before she is probably the best of a so and so lot. I do cringe whenever candidates begin making welfare promises. That’s a good way to bust a budget. I’m not quite sure if she is going to be as capable as LMB internationally.
21 WMunny July 21, 2012 at 12:36 pm: “I’m Sexy and I Know it”, but in Korean.
I swear to God that Koreans simply listen to a hit song, and immediately think, “how can I copy that?”
It’s sickening.
22 SomeguyinKorea July 21, 2012 at 1:03 pm: Isn’t his family wealthy and very well-connected?
23 Byeonguk Yook July 21, 2012 at 1:10 pm: I listened to both. I think you are imagining the similarities.
24 hoju_saram July 21, 2012 at 1:26 pm: What cricket looks like to Americans?
25 hoju_saram July 21, 2012 at 1:58 pm: Cool song, almost posted it this morning, but Wmunny is right: it’s Im Sexy and I Know It repackaged.
26 Sperwer Accipiter July 21, 2012 at 2:16 pm: And JYP had the integrity to ackowledge “Harlem Desire”
27 Robert Koehler July 21, 2012 at 2:27 pm: God, I hate that song.
28 John Maple July 21, 2012 at 3:40 pm: I hope someone gets sued for that too.
29 Sperwer Accipiter July 21, 2012 at 5:11 pm
30 Dokdoforever July 21, 2012 at 5:23 pm: How many of us living in Korea would prefer a Korea with private gun ownership? It’s insanity. At the very least gun owners in the US should provide a compensation fund for the inevitable victims of gun ownership. They’re free riding - imposing a cost on the rest of society.
31 Liz July 21, 2012 at 10:56 pm: With Colorado, everyone’s saying — for one last tired time — the gun lobby and the NRA has too much power. Roger Ebert put it well here:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2012/07/the_body_count.html

47% of American households currently own a gun. That number is staggering. You can probably stack all those guns in a wobbly Leaning Tower of Pisa that pierces the stratosphere and then some.

Still for all the proselytizing, Ebert misses a key culprit in these mass murders: the motion picture industry. Ever since the demise of the production code in the late 1950s Hollywood has been locked in an arms race of ever more sensationalized violence and the graphic fetishization of human suffering, with each film more explosive than the previous feature, making a lasting impression on vulnerable children like Cho Seung Hui and James Holmes. (Needless to say, Korean films are part of this larger trend, with the bloodiest, sickest flicks always making the film festival circuit from Sydney to New York.)

Which is why I found director Christopher Nolan’s statement on the killings a bit sanctimonious.

http://www.hollywoodlife.com/2012/07/20/christopher-nolan-batman-dark-knight-shooting-colorado-movie-theater/

One more thing — I remember when this last happened — with Cho Seung Hui — many a commenters/bloggers pointed a finger at Cho’s Korean identity as culprit. I find it amusing this isn’t the case this time around — despite the fact there’s no place more morally vacuous right now than America’s well manicured suburbs.
32 Byeonguk Yook July 21, 2012 at 11:24 pm: Somehow I doubt a lawsuit in this case will fly.
33 Byeonguk Yook July 21, 2012 at 11:25 pm: I don’t know how many cases of that there have been in Kpop. Could you give me a list of songs that are suspeciously copies, repackaging of other songs?
34 imememememe July 22, 2012 at 1:03 am: i am sad to say that nothing in america is genuine anymore.
35 RolyPoly July 22, 2012 at 1:51 am: To old fogies: Remember the Charlie Tuna commercial?
That is what I want to say to the dog in the picture.
“Sorry, Marmot dog, we do not want a dog with good taste, we want a dog that tastes good”.
Oh, I am getting hungry.
36 RolyPoly July 22, 2012 at 1:55 am: Could this year be the end of Han River miracle (=Japan boost)?
Something may be brewing in NK and meanwhile in SK the same old Commies vs Dictator’s children battle goes on.
China is licking its chops.
37 imememememe July 22, 2012 at 1:59 am: so was this an act of terrorism?
how far are we willing to go to prevent something like this from happening again?
are we willing to put up with metal detectors wherever we go? TSA agents on every block?
does this call for more gov’t actions? TSA agents on every block?
38 imememememe July 22, 2012 at 2:00 am: it is, after all, for our own safety, right?
39 RolyPoly July 22, 2012 at 2:05 am: Korean soccer team beat Senegal 3-0. Great passing, reading of game, positioning, teamwork. Everything worked.
Can they beat Mexico on 26th? May happen. 대한민국!
40 dogbertt July 22, 2012 at 2:44 am: You may notice that the most recent shooting committed by a Korean gunman in the U.S. did not draw any fingers pointing at his Korean identity as a causative factor.

As someone who has recently lived in the U.S.’s largest city and now lives in a very well-manicured suburb, I find your “judgment” on moral vacuity facile, condescending, and unsupported.
41 imememememe July 22, 2012 at 4:09 am: the press is having a huge bukkake session over this shooting incident which is funny in a ‘so sad i’m laughing to keep myself from crying’ way.
kill a few people you’re a mass murderer. but if you lie to justify going into a soverign nation and kill hundreds of thousands, you’re a war hero.
42 imememememe July 22, 2012 at 4:13 am: on the same token, if you steal a few hundred bucks they’ll throw you in jail but if you mess with trillions and steal billions, you get hired by baracko obamarama to run the economy.
43 Cloud July 22, 2012 at 4:26 am: Movies don’t kill people Liz. Unbalanced people with easy access to automatic weapons kill people en masse.
” I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared
experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and
joyful pastime.” Not sanctimonious but true.
Cinema is a great universal art form, not just American as British-born Nolan put it.
44 Byeonguk Yook July 22, 2012 at 4:41 am: JYP should just stick to singing instead of doing other stuff.
45 Byeonguk Yook July 22, 2012 at 4:42 am: Psy? I don’t know if he is coming from a wealthy background.
46 Byeonguk Yook July 22, 2012 at 5:39 am: China has its own set of problems. Japan won’t get any boost from Korea. This isn’t 1950s Japan you know.
47 R. elgin July 22, 2012 at 7:07 am: The killing of people sitting in a movie theatre *is* the new movie.
48 Dokdoforever July 22, 2012 at 9:05 am: My point is – there is a social cost to gun ownership, which is not being paid by the owners of guns. If they want their guns, gun owners, not the people in the theater, should pay the full price for them.
49 Byeonguk Yook July 22, 2012 at 9:20 am: I’d be impressed if they beat Mexico handily.
50 The_Korean July 22, 2012 at 1:17 pm: You may notice that the most recent shooting committed by a Korean
gunman in the U.S. did not draw any fingers pointing at his Korean
identity as a causative factor

It is hilarious that you can say this with a straight face while frequenting this blog.
51 The_Korean July 22, 2012 at 1:26 pm: Since this is a “Style” Open Thread, here is my $0.02 on style:

Recently, I have been in getting into interesting socks — the crazy colored hipster kind. Since I now wear a suit and tie every day, matching the tie with the socks gives an extra, interesting dimension. Since the socks are only momentarily visible to other people, their ridiculousness is like a private joke to myself.
52 imememememe July 22, 2012 at 2:37 pm: there’s a social cost to everything. leave gun owners alone. hell, leave everybody alone as long as they’re not
fucking with anybody. sheesh!
53 imememememe July 22, 2012 at 2:40 pm: i highly recommend Happy Socks.
54 Inkevitch July 22, 2012 at 4:01 pm: Pretty sure killing 12 people falls under “fucking with”
55 SomeguyinKorea July 22, 2012 at 4:47 pm: I heard that he is. His sister was/is also a TV host.
56 SomeguyinKorea July 22, 2012 at 4:50 pm: It’s ironic because he famously went off on a rant a few years back on how most Kpop singers don’t know a thing about music and that he wrote all his stuff himself.
57 Dokdoforever July 22, 2012 at 8:39 pm: The trend in crazed gun-man massacres is disturbing. 5 of the 10 largest death tolls by crazed shooting occurred since 2007. If the NRA wants these people to have guns, they can compensate the victims – $1 million per innocent victim of gun violence.
58 SomeguyinKorea July 22, 2012 at 10:12 pm: Well, ok. How about what she thinks about the fact that until recently she was president of a non-profit organization that was started with her father’s slush fund and that one of its main sources of revenue is MBC, which it owns a considerable percentage thanks to her father’s decision to force media company owners to sign over the ownership of their companies over to the government by putting a gun to their heads?
59 Byeonguk Yook July 22, 2012 at 10:15 pm: First time I saw and heard the music video I thought it was weird.
60 Byeonguk Yook July 22, 2012 at 10:17 pm: Well a lot of the Kpop stuff is manufactured, you know the girl band and boy band stuff.
61 imememememe July 22, 2012 at 11:50 pm: Our founding fathers wanted us to have the right to bear arms, not the NRA.
62 imememememe July 22, 2012 at 11:51 pm: So are you saying all gun owners are potential murderers?
63 The_Korean July 23, 2012 at 12:10 am: I am now a frequent customer of Happy Socks. Socks Appeal is alright, also.
64 dogbertt July 23, 2012 at 12:58 am: The Hayashi-MILF is back — lock up your closets!

http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_21128952
65 LazyassBruiser July 23, 2012 at 1:27 am: I personay take a middle ground approach when it comes to firearms.

I think people should be granted the right to buy guns, provided all these requirements are satisfied:

1)They have at least an IQ of 110 (retards don’t need guns)

2) They completed high-schol succesfully (bums and pathetic losers don’t need guns)

3) They’re not obese (you can’t take care of yourself and you want a gun ? Fuck off)

4) Completed some kind of military service (want a gun ? Learn how to fuckin’ use it correctly)

5) They’re citizens (multi-culti works so much better when locals are armed and immigrants are not)

Gun ownership shouldn’t be a taboo, it shouldn’t be a right either: it should be a privilege
66 LazyassBruiser July 23, 2012 at 1:41 am: How would you explain Japan: one of the sickest entertainment industries in the world and one of the lowest crime rate ?

Also if anything violence in American movies is nothing but scary: it’s generally stylished and/or childish, lots of boom boom kaboom and very little graphic details.

As you mentioned, Korean movies can be way more extreme
67 inkevitch July 23, 2012 at 5:53 am: Do I need to be saying that? Gun control is not that same as oputlawing all gauns. Most gun owners in US just have small hand guns. These large massacres require semi automatics and automatic rifles. Bit much for the whole self defense thing. It is your country, do what you want, but if you can’t see the common sense in gun control I pity you.
68 inkevitch July 23, 2012 at 5:56 am: When they wrote that guns were not as accurate or fast firing. There was a lot more dangerous wild life and there was war on your lands. Gun control doesn’t take the right “to bare arms” away it just gets rid over overly dangerous weapons.

The problem with NRA supporters is that all of their arguments are so infantile and can be easily refuted.
69 dogbertt July 23, 2012 at 7:32 am: I don’t know what to tell you … I live in the area and didn’t hear anyone tie the shooting to his ethnicity. Even the local newspaper comment boards were tame on that account. Or do you have some evidence that those of us in the Bay Area immediately blamed his “Koreanness”?
70 R. Elgin July 23, 2012 at 8:25 am: That’s the spirit TK but, if you wear crazy socks, you have to buy a dryer so you can fluff them up since line drying doesn’t work so well and then there is fabric content. If you line dry, socks with too much cotton content dry like cardboard, especially in the current season.
71 R. Elgin July 23, 2012 at 8:37 am: Korean film directors could do much better than the current Batman film screening in Arizona. Who says America does it better than anyone else?

A Korean director could have a nice, big theatre and have two guys come in as North Korean soldiers – from the rear of the theatre – and commence shooting viewers in the back during the pre-film advertising. Two more shooters could then shoot people in the back as they fled the theatre exits.

For the finale, the police could show up thirty minutes later and arrest the lone protestor walking around dressed as a mummy while a mosquito-fogging truck circles the cast, spewing smoke.

I don’t think that sort of film would do well in the US but the European screening would probably do well since it is not an American effort.
72 dlbarch July 23, 2012 at 9:21 am: Well, as someone with a weakness for fashion, let me just throw out the name Lee Geon Maan for those handful of MHers who might not yet know of him.

The last time I was in Seoul, the dude had two stores in Insa-dong (one at each end of the main strip) with a little something for everyone…neckties and leather goods for guys, and scarves and handbags for their girlfriends. (Or the other way around, if one prefers.)

And, no, not THOSE kind of leather goods, mi compadre!

I think I still have half a dozen of his neckties, and to this day am still using one of his leather wallets I bought in 2007! He’s big on using stylized hangeul as a repeating design motif, so if you like that sort of cross-over thing, he’s at the top of his genre.

Sad to say, he has a very sucky website that’s not even work linking to. Best to seek him out. His stuff’s also available at the major department stores, and in Japan, too.

Given the events over the weekend, he does, regrettably, have a rather unfortunate name. But that’s not his fault!

DLB
73 dlbarch July 23, 2012 at 9:44 am: Oh, and was someone defending ethnic jokes? GOOD!

A Jewish guy is complaining to his friend about his fiancee:

“Well, last night we finally did it, but I’m not sure Ester is really a virgin. She complained afterward that I was a lousy lover. I mean, really, how can you make a judgment like that after only 30 seconds?!”

DLB
74 gbnhj July 23, 2012 at 9:51 am: Wow – so she had a brain tumor that her attorney states may have affected her judgement with regards to making payment at the store, yet isn’t anything that would have caused impairment during the course of her duties as councilwoman. That, friends, is a hell of a specific malady. Kudos to her and her doctors for identifying its properties so quickly.
75 Brendon Carr July 23, 2012 at 11:16 am: You may be a bit too free with the MILF appellation.
76 jg29a July 23, 2012 at 11:44 am: Cool. And how about non-gun owners pay a fund for the gun owners in their jurisdiction, whose presence deters the criminally-inclined from committing as many crimes in the area? If a woman gets raped by an unarmed (or knife-armed) stranger, and she can show that she had thought about getting a concealed carry permit, but the law didn’t allow her to, then she should get a nice chunk of cash from your pocket.
77 Brendon Carr July 23, 2012 at 12:07 pm: Your position is the National Rifle Association wants crazed gunmen to have guns?
78 dogbertt July 23, 2012 at 12:39 pm: “Leather pants”
79 Brendon Carr July 23, 2012 at 12:48 pm: You’d have to pull them over her face.
80 hoju_saram July 23, 2012 at 1:04 pm: I’d be impressed if they beat them, period. I hope the ROK wins, but Mexico are favourites.
81 dogbertt July 23, 2012 at 1:12 pm: It’s like you’re a mindreader.
82 Dokdoforever July 23, 2012 at 1:44 pm: The NRA wants people like the James the Joker guy in Denver to legally have the right to purchase as many guns and as much ammunition.as they please.
83 Dokdoforever July 23, 2012 at 2:01 pm: This looks kind of funny, it looks like a combination of curling and lawn bowling.
84 Brendon Carr July 23, 2012 at 2:42 pm: You mean, James Holmes, the graduate student with no criminal record and no record of metal-health treatment? Your position is that because somebody might use a dangerous tool in a dangerous manner, everyone should lose the right to possess that tool.

What about kitchen knives? Their only use is to hack away at meat and bone, like the meat and bone in a human body.
85 Dokdoforever July 23, 2012 at 3:07 pm: Yeah, you’re right. The U.S. military should stop wasting money on automatic weapons and assault rifles and just outfit the forces with kitchen knives. The Kitchen Knife Batallion will instill fear in the enemies of freedom throughout the globe.
86 Brendon Carr July 23, 2012 at 4:03 pm: The fact is, our Founding Fathers wanted Americans to have an unlimited right to keep and bear arms for two reasons: (i) self-defense, which is a human right dating back to the Law of Moses; and (ii) armed insurrection. The right to violently overthrow the government is protected by the Constitution.
87 Brendon Carr July 23, 2012 at 5:12 pm: Gun ownership shouldn’t be a taboo, it shouldn’t be a right either: it should be a privilege

Well, it’s a right. You want to make it a privilege, find a way to amend the Constitution.
88 R. Elgin July 24, 2012 at 9:36 am: . . . The right to violently overthrow the government is protected by the Constitution

That part seems to be lost on our government, however, its perineal blindness to its own faults, the increasing reliance upon Stazi-style suppression of dissent and the increasing number of citizens that are alienated by its machinations increase the chances of this sort of scenario to occur.
89 thekorean July 24, 2012 at 9:53 am: The fact is, our Founding Fathers wanted Americans to have an unlimited right to keep and bear arms . . .

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

That’s an awful lot of limitations, considering that the First Amendment begins with “Congress shall make no law . . .”
90 Sperwer July 24, 2012 at 11:49 am: Please explicate how these are any more “limitations” than the words of the Declaration pf Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” The framers of the Bill of Rights were only stating what would have been equally self-evident to their contemporaries about the indispensability of the right to bear arms in enabling the colonies to have commenced and sustained their fight for liberty against the armed might of the greatest empire and military power of the age.
91 Brendon Carr July 24, 2012 at 1:41 pm: Perineal blindness.
92 MikeWC July 24, 2012 at 4:06 pm: The right to violently overthrow the government is protected by the Constitution.

I’m really, really curious. How exactly would “armed insurrection” work against stealth bombers? Isn’t those whole line of reasoning hopelessly archaic? Quaint? And when used as an argument, complete bullshit?
93 dww July 25, 2012 at 3:35 pm: Has this been posted yet?
From today’s NY Times about Koreans, booze, and the po-lice!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/world/asia/tired-of-being-abused-by-drunks-south-korean-police-start-to-push-back.html?_r=1&hp