::A Geek in Korea::

I finally got around to finishing off the last season of The Wire like I had set out to do sometime at the beginning of my vacation a few months previous. I’d say the experience was highly rewarding. I liked the show for the entire run. It’s also fairly quotable. (Spoilers: Part 1 and Part 2.) The tale might have been an allegory for something more than just a police drama, but I don’t think I liked it on any other level than what was shown. I think I’ll skip the post modern deconstruction and just enjoy it for what it is for now. The simple truth served by watching the show weave the story of all these characters was fascinating. Every character seemed realized and true.

That is an amazing achievement in a drama set in a real city. The pace and flow of the story would have driven me crazy if I didn’t always have access to the next episode right away. I usually watched it in long chunks if I had any free time, and frequently I would get up to go to work a few hours short on sleep because I needed to see the next episode to see how it was going to work itself out. If I had watched it “spoiled” it wouldn’t have nearly the same impact on me. I managed to avoid the show entirely until I watched it this year, which was completely refreshing.

My favorite part of the show would be the arc of the fourth season which dealt with inner city youth and the problems in the school system. I’ve taught in dysfunctional schools before, but the chaos was inspired by greed and ignorance on the part of the management. The children in my classes deal with entirely different problems at home. Still, it was rough to watch school life in the inner city portrayed by some talented child actors with such heartbreaking stories. I’ve been at words with the upper management when I needed to “Teach to the test”; ignoring the students needs and betraying my duties as a teacher. My students might occasionally have a tough background, but it’s not like gangs and drugs are a way of life here. I’ve taught some messed up kids before, but I never felt physically threatened by students in all my time here.

I think I’ll let this one stew for a couple of years and revisit it.

This will be how I curse for the next few months.

Some friends of mine bought tickets to the 3D version of Pocahontas, who Dances with Wolves in Ferngully and is also the Last Samurai Avatar that was showing at a theater in town. They made the reservations a few days in advance, guaranteeing a good ticket for us. I’m too lazy to get to a theater to see a movie about blue cat people, but if someone else does the work I was willing to go see it with them. That being said, I’m glad I went. That movie in particular was only really worth seeing projected in 3D in a theater. It was beautiful, well made, and stylistically cool, despite starring giant furries. If I was a kid today, this is the movie that would make me a fanboy for science fiction.

The story was a well done take on something you’ve seen half a dozen times. How they packaged the story, the scenery of the world was presented in a novel manner thanks to the special effects and 3d. You weren’t there for the story, but the spectacle of it all. The bomb dropping left and right in the battles were heavy handed metaphors, but they blew up and looked so pretty! I had a hard time remembering that some it CGI some of the time, which is  rare. In 20 years time, when all movies look like this and are in 3D, people will laugh at how bad this movie is, but this is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, and that’s worth seeing in the theater.

I felt that the most interesting part of the entire premise was the technology they absolutely skipped right past. There was a vat grown creature linked to another that could somehow connect via a giant body coffin, allowing one wheelchair bound marine to become a capable furry cat guy. That was the entire premise of it being called “Avatar”. They don’t explain why this is possible, but the entire story builds off the idea that people infiltrate another society by wearing their bodies, learn their culture, then exploit their sympathies to gain their resources. Sometimes I feel that I am training people to do exactly that as a teacher. Not only that, but the entire planet had a symbiotic relationship, and creatures could control each other by linking minds. That was a fascinating concept.

The whole “got to get the resources that happen to be in a inconvenient place” aspect was only there to create the conflict. Any society with the level of technology the humans displayed would have been able to extract the resources without disrupting or alerting the alien culture to their presence. I have to give credit to having the balls to call a plot device “unobtainium”. Why didn’t they just call it “MacGuffinaium” instead.

The idea of wearing someone else, being able to replace your body with another, the idea of leaving yourself and acting remotely? All of that has been done, and better, by Dollhouse. While I was coming home on the subway, I watched the third to last episode of that stellar program (Title: Getting Closer). Avatar was gorgeous, with lots of spectacle, but the only thing that floored me, or made me say, “OH MY GOD!” in public today was the mind blowing twists on Dollhouse this episode. It doesn’t take 3D or blue cats to make me happy. All it takes is a well written and executed story with a good twist or two.

Holy shit, Dollhouse is being cancelled. There are only two episodes left, but it’s going out on top! I haven’t seen a show that has warped my mind as much as this one has for a long time. The twists in Dollhouse make Battlestar Galactica’s lame ending all that more infuriating. BSG had a stronger, longer run, but absolutely fell apart at the end. The poor ending made me think the less of the entire show for all the broken promises. You can’t have “…and they have a plan” in the credits for 4 seasons and not pay it off! The more you learn about “The Plan”, the more you want to punch all the Cylons in the face for being idiots. The mythology of BSG gets lessened the more you find out about the motivations of the characters. Up until the end of the show, this wasn’t true.

Dollhouse might have taken a few episodes to find its legs, but damn it kicks like a mule. Joss Whedon blew me away this past episode. Damn I’m going to miss it when it is gone, but at least it will go out telling a good story.

Everyone in the office at work was talking about “The Wire” for a long time. They were passing around the DVDs so that people could catch up on the first season. I hadn’t heard a bad thing about the show, but I didn’t get in on borrowing them because I didn’t have the time to watch a cop drama while managing all my new responsibilities. I’m always up for new materials to watch. Hearing people recommend the show was fine, but most of the people heaped on so much praise that it was hard to believe anything could live up to the hype involved. The Wire had been praised by everyone for so long that I just figured I’d get around to it eventually and I didn’t want anything spoiled for me. I wasn’t in a rush to see it, but I would watch it when I got the chance.

I’m currently watching the first season, and I’ll start on the second season not long after. It’s good stuff. It’s not as hard hitting as “The Shield” in my opinion, but it’s played way more real to life. They take their sweet time with their case, and it feels like each episode is a slow progression on a story of two sides playing a game of chess with one another. It’s all morally grey, but occasionally speaks a clear truth that comes from a good story. The characters feel self-motivated and self-interested in a very believable manner, which is where it has the upper hand on The Shield.

Anyway, I hope to finish at least the first season of the show so that I can have something to talk about in the office when I’m back there next week. While it isn’t my favorite show, it is a very good, well written show that I’ll watch more of in the future. I’ll have to listen to other people’s recommendations in the office since they proved right in this particular case.

Sunday is usually my day around the house. I don’t work, and I don’t have the opportunity to travel.  I get to sit around, catch up on sleep, or do whatever I need to get done before the week starts. Recently the routine has been walk the dog, then clean the house. Vacuum first, then steam clean. Once I’m finished with that, I set up a speaker and listen to some podcasts while I wash Yoshi. In total, that usually takes around two or three hours, depending on how far and how long I walk.

Today my routine was ruined by rain. We couldn’t walk. My whole routine was thrown off. I cleaned the house, washed the dog, then didn’t have anything else to do. My usual excuses for going out on a were all moot, and I had nothing big entertaining me.  I had  My television shows had been watched. My book, finished!

I eventually started watching Psych on our IPTV service. It’s a comedy/crime procedural/parody totally new to me. A guy pretends to solve crime by being a psychic, but is actually just very observant and clever. He’s not actually psychic, but has to pretend. That’s the gimmick of the show. They follow the Dexter model in the episodes I watch. There is always a flashback to the past, possibly to a lesson between a father who was a cop and a son in law enforcement about training the son has because he is special. The father wants to pass on his talents in crime solving to the son. Then an event in the current events of the show that directly ties into that long lost lesson.

I like how they treat superstitions as a silly thing and parody crime shows. I do not watch crime procedural shows, and this show has a very “case of the week” style plot that makes me weary. This one held my interest for two episodes. I fell asleep twice while watching, which is not something I do. I’m not sure if I’ll continue watching it simply because it is too episodic for my tastes. I might give it another chance if I have another lazy Sunday.

This is a commercial that is aired on Korean television as a music video.

It’s a song about AMOLED screens! Wow, a song about screens available on new phones! Who hasn’t been inspired by active-matrix organic light emiting diodes (AMOLED) so much that they needed to sing about it? The advertising in store and in short form is taken from the music video, which stars a Korean pop singer that also happens to be a spokesperson for Samsung, who makes the phone. How convenient that there was some synergy between a pop singer, an advertiser, a Samsung product, and music channels to pump out an advertisement produced and shown like music video.

Stealth advertising at its most profitable! I’ve never seen the long form video, and never heard the AWFUL song, but I was at a friend’s house who happened to turn on a Korean “Music” channel as background noise for a while. I was just surprised that he knew about this group, and followed Korean pop songs. I don’t watch Korean television, and I never, ever watch music on television, so I was completely out of the loop on this.

Here is some Autotune the News #8 to wash down the terrible Autotune on the last video.

It features T-Pain! (Lyrics in “More Info” section)

The Guild’s “Do you want to date my avatar” has gone viral. The Guild is funny, bringing MMO gaming into a comedy context. I like how they bring MMO addiction and it’s various side effects into a comedy and aren’t dismissive of the culture entirely. I don’t play MMO games, but I’ve had problems with games taking over my free time in the past. I get what that’s like, and I appreciate the humor. Some people don’t understand how you get involved in the lives of a virtual character sometimes.

The point where I started becoming a fan of Felicia Day herself was after the phenomenal “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog“. She wasn’t the strongest singer, but she came off as charming and someone you really wanted to root for. She was as charming as the rest of the cast. That event last summer redefined the way I looked at video.

I don’t watch very much television anymore, so perhaps that’s why everything I end up watching has Felicia Day in it. There is so much stuff on the Internet machine in one form or another. I’m not only talking about comedy. News and other formats are greatly enhanced by the “any time, any where format”. Sitting back and watching a passive video at some scheduled time seems so limiting. It also might be because I can bring everything from the computer with me that I don’t ever think about needing to sit down at a certain time for a program anymore.

If web-only stuff isn’t your thing, and you prefer the stamped DVD variety of entertainment, Dollhouse has an episode featuring Felicia Day too. It’s also the best episode of the entire series, and it hasn’t been aired on television at all. Epitaph One is great. Post-Apocalyptic future? Check. Interesting Premise? Check. Protagonists on the run? Check. Lots of twists and turns? Oh yeah. It’s great! Of course it doesn’t hurt that I think Dollhouse really turned itself into one of the “Must Watch SciFi Shows” of the year over the course of its season. I’m a bit biased.

Anyway, I’ve been part of the Joss Whedon fan club for the better part of 12 years (!) now, and I’m happy this universe of stars is thriving. I’m not a Browncoat, or a person that would harass someone at a NerdCon, but I’m happy to see success swing towards something I enjoy once in a while.

There is a new viral meme being spread about by short cartoons ads on television. They are clever little spots, like 15 second bursts of Korean micro-culture, complete with an annoying catch phrase. It’s advertising for KT, a giant telecomm, which has successfully gotten this meme into every students mind. They are powerless under its call. There is NO possible action that doesn’t garner a “OLLEH!” response in classes.

(The last one is a parody. At least someone is trying to spread this meme. It could be huge.)

The sad part is I actually LIKE this meme compared to some of the previous attrocities commited by telephone commercials. Students just don’t know when to give it a rest. I hear this dozens of times in each class. The scary part is that this ad campaign is relatively new. I’ve instituted quick punishments for anyone saying “Olleh” more than once in class to try to stiffle this becoming unbearable.  After the FIFTH warning to a single student, I kept him after school for an extra hour for being obnoxious with it. “Wow, you have detention. Olleh!”

Michael Jackson – Thriller (Official Music Video)

When I was a wee lad and had no money of my own, I spent most of my time listening to Sesame Street records on my personal record player. Sing-alongs and whatnot. I had gotten a cassette player as a gift sometime in the 1980’s, and my mother and I were shopping for cassettes. I don’t remember the particulars of the situation, but I do know that I was in a department store with my mother and happened to spy a Michael Jackson “Thriller” cassette. I begged and I pleaded. I might have even thrown a tantrum of some kind.

I really wanted the cassette version of “Thiller”. My mother resisted. I don’t know if it was cultural, generational, racial, or musical resistance to my request that initially caused her to say, “No!” Seeing as I was a little kid, I must have been determined to get this cassette because I remember this being one hell of a crying session. I think I got in big trouble afterwards.

After the long drag out fight, I got my mother to buy the cassette. I ran upstairs when we got home to my tape player in my room and popped in the cassette player. I’m not sure I was first exposed to Michael Jackson’s music, but I do remember seeing the video for “Thriller” around the height of it’s popularity. Perhaps it was shown on television for Halloween? It stuck with me for a long, long time, because it was more of an event than a song. This was before we had cable television or interactions with music outside of the radio in the car. Maybe my older cousins had talked about it at Thanksgiving or Christmas? Whatever happened, it left a mark on me that said, “That’s really awesome.” Also, zombies that vomit up their bowels were really, really scary. Now I had the cassette, and I could listen to it any time I wanted!

I only knew that one song, so it took me a long time to find it. I remember being ready to listen to the song and looking outside to see it was already dark outside. As soon as Vincent Price started rapping, I freaked out and stopped the tape! I couldn’t listen to the rest of that because it was too scary. I waited until the next day before I listened again, and only after I was sure there were no zombies going to chase me down and force me to dance with them before they ate me.

I’m pretty sure Michael Jackson was the first “real music” cassette I had. Thriller is still probably one of my top favorite videos of all time too. It’s a classic that has stood the testament of time. Regardless of what you think of the man, Thriller is still awesome, and always will be.

Battlestar Galactica is one of those experiences I’ve only had while in Korea. I started watching the show here, and would talk about it with all the coworker’s I’ve had since it started it’s run. It was my water cooler discussion, my speculative “what’ll happen next” show that kept me interested despite the long hiatuses. It’s one of the few shows that had long hiatuses that felt long and painful to wait through. I’ve got lots of time spent with the characters and ideas presented. I love the show a lot, and watching the finale was the highlight of my weekend, just like each other episode was something I looked forward to watching week after week.

For the last episode, I set up a block of time for myself and kept off the computer so that at no time I could have the story spoiled for me. My wife asked me to go on an errand for her, and a heartily volunteered because I had time to wait for the episode to be available. I was in no rush to get back either, and just enjoyed the fresh air knowing it was probably going to be waiting for me when I got back home. I had a few more shows in queue for me to watch today, but as always, Battlestar Galactica was always my weekend treat. It was the reward I kept for myself after working a hard week that I could look forward to enjoying.

Now that it’s gone, I don’t know what I’ll watch that will recapture that feeling of excitement and escape that it brought me week after week. I know people that felt that way about other shows. I felt that way myself when some other shows I’ve cared about went off the air, and things eventually new things fill the void. While I don’t know what that next thing might be, I’ll raise my glass and say a hearty “Thank you!” for Battlestar Galactica for the years of entertainment you’ve brought me.