Korean Amazing Race Contestants

I've always been a fan of the show The Amazing Race and have watched every single season except for the family one (lame!). While enjoying the show immensely, I've always griped that there was a lack of diversity in the cast. Of course, there's always one token black team but other than that, other races were rarely seen.

But this season, there's gonna be a Korean-American team! Booya! Erwin and Godwin Cho are brothers from San Francisco, CA. One is a financial analyst (yawn!) and the other is an insurance company manager (double yawn!). But hey, we got Asian representation!

In addition to the Cho brothers, there's also gonna be an Indian-American team, an Islamic team, and a gay team named Tom and Jerry! Wow, combine this with Survivor: Race Wars and you've got one really diverse universe down at CBS!

Already looking forward to the September 17th premiere!

Mini Movie Review: The Break Up

Saw the movie The Break-Up last night. Wasn't really anxious to see it, but couldn't fall asleep and had it available, so I figured a light romcom would be a good fit. First of all, I am not a Jennifer Aniston fan by any means, actually more of an anti-fan than anything so her presence in the film would automatically downgrade the film a few notches. But I figured Vince Vaughn would be funny enough to make up for Aniston's blandness. And that's pretty much exactly how it played out.

As usual, Aniston brought no flava at all to the table (she seriously has no charisma. ever seen her on a talk show? what a boring stuck up wet blanket!) But Vaughn was quick with the humor and made the film a worthy time killer. He was a typical guy's guy, playing video games, slugging beers, ignoring his significant other, and yet he was charming.

There was one line in particular that really had me rolling and laughing out loud as I lay in my bed at 1 in the morning:

Aniston: Don't you dare talk bad about my sister! She's been through a lot!
Vaughn: Of dick!

Genius! Or maybe I'm just liking it so much cuz it's something that I would say? Hmm.....

Anyways, despite Aniston, The Break-Up is a decent comedy good for a few laughs.

7/10.

Survivor: Race Wars?

I haven't watched the TV reality show Survivor since the All Stars edition. I've enjoyed this show in the past, but recently I've found it too repetitive to find interesting. They pretty much do the same things every season. Also, while not a huge reason for my disinterest, the show really wasn't too racially diverse in its casting. But I figured that was because it was mostly white people who applied for these shows anyway.

Well lo and behold! This season's Survivor will feature 4 teams of 5 members each...divided by race! That's right! You'll have a white team, a black team, a Latino team, and an Asian team! Needless to say, I was kind of shocked when I saw this news. I mean, with racial sensitivity in the US at such a high point and with political correctness ruling all media, to explicitly pit one race against another in a TV show is quite daring, to say the least.

The way Mark Burnett explains it, he's deciding to address the many complaints about his show regarding lack of minorities head on by featuring the most racially diverse TV cast and pitting them against each other. A very bold and risky decision.

And let's face it. After so many years, Survivor definitely needed a makeover to keep viewers. At least for me, it'll get me watching so Burnett has already succeeded.

This could be a very important footnote in TV history and I'm impressed with the decision. Now let's see if it works. Will race become an issue during the show and will stereotypes come forward? We'll see!

Link to article: Survivor Article

Ashley Lelie Traded

Well, former UH wide receiver and 1st round draft pick Ashely Lelie finally got his wish and was traded to the Atlanta Falcons in a 3 team trade. The funny thing is, Lelie's been complaining about how he wants to be the #1 WR on the team he's on and this article says that he'll be Atlanta's #3 WR behind guys like Michael Jenkins and Roddy White! Hmm...I think I'd rather be behind Rod Smith and Javon Walker than Jenkins and White! Plus, Vick's accuracy sucks. Good luck getting the ball downfield to Ashley!

In any case, I hope things work out for Lelie in Atlanta but I forsee more gripes and complaints coming out of his mouth sooner than later.

Going Under the Kinfe Tomorrow!

Well, tomorrow I go in for yet another knee surgery. I've already had ACL reconstruction done on both of my knees but I've been experiencing some stiffness, pain, and locking up in my left knee the last few months so I went to go check it out. Apparently, there's a loose calcium body floating around in my left knee that's causing the discomfort. So I'm having it removed tomorrow. Doc said that the surgery itself only takes about 15-20 minutes so it can't be that major. Also, I should be back on my feet in a day or two. But he did say that I'd probably have to abstain from physical activity for 2-4 weeks! That royally sucks. Hopefully I recover quickly and can go back to taekwondo and hapkido sooner than that. After all, I have a promotion test on Sep. 8!

Oh, and as far as the results from my MRI, I have a partially torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder. So whenever I lift my arm above shoulder level, it rubs against the bone which causes the discomfort and pain. Doc said that surgery is an option but it may also heal through physical therapy. Damn, what on my body ISN'T broken? Hee hee....I just thought of something dirty but I'll keep this page rated PG! LOL

But I'm not gonna get surgery on my shoulder. Like the old joke goes....

Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this (makes motion)
Doctor: Then don't do that.

That's how it's gonna be for my shoulder.

Wish me luck on my knee surgery!

Background Dancer Has Seizure During Live Performance

As I do weekly, I downloaded this Korean music show called Inki Gayo (aka Popular Song) and watch it for the live (and lip synced) performances of current pop artists.

So I was watching one of my current favorite groups See Ya perform, when one of their back dancers just dropped and started having a seizure! It was really kind of disturbing. Since it was a live performance, it was happening in real time and it took like an eternity for anyone to react.

I found it amazing how the other back dancers did absolutely nothing as they saw one of their own writhing around on the floor like that. I know it's a live performance and the show must go on, but come on! Let common sense take over! When the stage hands finally realized what was happening, they literally dragged the dancer off stage and the group continued with its performance.

I can see how the performers might have been confused and not know what to do in a case like this but you would think that if someone was lying on the ground in pain right in front of you, you would stop what you were doing and try to help, whether it be a live show or not.

See Ya got the shit end of the deal cuz now they're gaining lots of "antis" or "anti-fans" due to their lack of judgement and action. Of course, they quickly issued an apology. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt in what they did, but I sure wish someone had taken action sooner. I blame the back dancers more cuz the 3 See Ya girls were at the front and couldn't really tell what was happening behind them (although 1 of them did see but she may have thought the dancer had just sprained her ankle or something). It was the other dancers who should've acted cuz this poor girl was flailing about literally 2 feet in front of them.

This item has been all over the Korean news and apparently the dancer had some sort of blood deficiency and all of the flickering lights probably didn't help either.

If anyone's interested in watching, someone put it up on Youtube:

Dancer Seizure on Stage

Funny

Andrew Young...WTF?!

Andrew Young, the civil rights leader and former Mayor of Atlanta and UN Ambassador really put his foot in his mouth yesterday when making comments about WalMart and the big retailer's relationship with mom-and-pop stores. Young is currently the head of a WalMart advocacy group where he tries to promote a positive image of the popular store.

But when he was asked about WalMart's role in displacing mom-and-pop stores all over the country, this is what he had to say:

"Well, I think they should; they ran the 'mom-and-pop' stores out of my neighborhood. But you see those are the people who have been overcharging us — selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs, very few black people own these stores."

It is quite shocking to see a man of Young's position and reputation as a civil rights leader to make such racist and stereotypical comments. He has since apologized and resigned from his WalMart position. But even his apology was not very satisfying. In his apology, he stated:

"I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles."

So it's okay to defame the minorities in Atlanta? What the hell?

I found this news to be quite disturbing and just continue to shake my head at the state of the USA in terms of race relations. I mean, come on! When one of your supposed leaders makes comments such as these, what's everyone going to think?

This is just sad.

RIP Bruno Kirby

One of my favorite character actors, Bruno Kiry past away on August 14th 2006 at the age of 57 due to complications from leukemia.

He was probably best known for his role as Billy Crystal's best friend in the City Slickers but he's also had memorable roles in films such as The Godfather, Part II (as a young Clemenza), Good Morning, Vietnam, Donnie Brasco, and When Harry Met Sally. He was always a welcome presence onscreen and will be missed.

Is the US Ready for Cyworld?

According to this article published in yesterday's Honolulu Adverstiser, the US has launched an American version of the mega-popular Korean internet socializing society called Cyworld. Cyworld is like Korea's version of the popular American MySpace where young people (and old - no one's discriminating) can set up personalized pages and interact with other people.

I think almost all the people under 30 I know in Korea has a Cyworld "mini-hompi" or "mini homepage" and they're pretty impressive! Lots of features and as the article says, it's more use friendly and has more cool and interesting features. I would say that most of young Korea is hooked up to Cyworld and they even check their homepages through their cell phones throughout the day.

But will it hit it off in the US? Only time will tell! If you want to take a look at what a Cyworld page looks like, here's the photo album from singer Chae Yeon's page. (You have to turn off your pop-up blocker to view it though)

Canstruction 2006!

This past weekend the company I work for participated in the first ever Hawaii Canstruction competition. What is Canstruction? It is an event sponsored by the American Institute of Architects where Architectural and Engineering companies build structures using canned foods to raise awareness of hunger. After the competition is over, the cans used for construction will be donated to the Hawaiian Food Bank.

17 firms entered this year's competition held at Uptown Pearlridge. There were some very original ideas and some very lame ones, I must say. Our company's model was of a rubber slipper stamping on a cockroach which was our way of saying "Stamp Out Hunger". Here are the stages of construction....(Disclaimer: I had absolutely nothing to do with our company's model since I declined to join the team. I was just there giving support and to lift heavy things once in a while)

The paper layout of our masterpiece.
Building the foundation.....
The slipper takes shape...
The finished product! Notice the upside down parfait cups used as the "guts" of the cockroach!
Here were some of the other displays....

Some kind of Pokemon character? All Vienna Sausage cans...no creativity...
Spam = boring. I think these guys took like an only 2 hours out of the allowed 6. I wonder why...
The pineapple was pretty cool...
I thought this one of one of those good luck cat statues was pretty good...
I had to stare at this one for about a minute before I finally figured out what it was - Hokuleia?
Hula girl...
A fish...
Another fish...
A bed with Hawaiian quilt...
Our model won the Juror's Award for "Best Meal" because our combination of baked beans, olives, pineapples, sardines, Vienna Sausage, and parfaits represented the best overall and nutritous meal.

Some of the models...I had no idea what they were. And there were 2 companies that had 90% Vienna Sausage. Aw come on! You can do better than that! (By the way, if anyone reading this blog works for one of the companies I slammed here, sorry!) One of the models (*cough*Castle & Cooke!*cough*) actually collapsed about 10 minutes after the final horn sounded. I kind of felt sorry for them....kind of. Don't know if I wanna buy one of their homes now! LOL

These displays will be up for another 2 weeks at Pearlridge and you can vote for your favorite to determine the People's Choice Award! Just bring a can of food down the mall and you'll be able to cast your vote. So don't forget to vote for the slippah and the cock-a-roach!

Beard Papa's Grand Opening

This past weekend, Papa Beard's and The Coffee Bean had their grand openings in Salt Lake Shopping Center which is about a 5 minute walk from where I live.

I've read about the Beard Papa's cream puffs in the paper in the past and have seen the lines at Shirokiya so I was curious if they were really that good since I've heard that people waited up to 2 hours in line at Shirokiya for these sweet goodies.

I entered the store and there were about 5 people in line.
I discovered that the pastry parts of it are already pre-baked and they just stuff the pastries with the appropriate cream filling when you make your order. Those 2 metallic cylinders contain the cream and they puncture the pastry and squeeze the cream in.

The vanilla flavor is always available and the "premium" flavor changes every week. This week, the "premium" flavor was strawberry. Future offerings will be chocolate, green tea, and caramel. The vanilla cream puff is $1.50 each or $8.50 for a half dozen. The premium puff is $1.65 each or $9.50 for a half dozen.

Okay, so how did they taste? I have to say that they were very good! Not too overly sweet and the pastry part was light and flaky like how I was hoping. And they didn't skimp on the cream fillings. I did like the vanilla better than the strawberry however. The green tea should be interesting....

But at that price, I probably won't be visiting the store too often. I'll probably be buying it more as a gift for others rather than to eat at home myself.

Congratulations Kimberly!

What a great day for Hawaii golf. First, Dean Wilson wins his first PGA tournament and now Hilo girl Kimberly Kim wins the USGA Women's Amateur.

In the 36 hole match play final, Kim was down as much as 5 holes to German Katharina Schallengerg but finished the 1st 18 by winning the last 3 holes to close to just 2 down and then continued her strong play in the afternoon 18 to take a 2 up lead at one point and then finally winning 1 Up. Give Schallenberg credit though. She made some clutch putts on the last 2 holes to make Kim really earn it.

At 14 years and 11 months, Kim is the youngest winner of this event, an event Michelle Wie has never won. Looking forward to a terrific future for this young golfer. Congratulations Kimberly!

Congratulations Dean!

Local boy Dean Wilson got his first PGA victory today as he held off veteran and Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman in a sudden death playoff at The International. The International is a unique tournament where a (+) score is good as birdies are awarded (+2) and bogeys are (-1). Both Wilson and Lehman finished with scores of (+34). After both parred the 1st playoff hole, Wilson stuck his approach shot on the 2nd playoff hole about 8 feet away. After Lehman missed his lengthy birdie, Wilson sank his putt to win the tournament and earn $990,000!

Dean has been playing great all year and it's awesome to see this local boy come through against a very strong field that included Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen, and Sergio Garcia. A very impressive victory. Way to go Dean!

How to Spot a Boob Job?

I'm linking this article just for Wayne's World cuz I know he's fascinated with them! ^^

Useful information if you decide to go to Korea with me! LOL

Wie Fires Caddy

Michelle Wie fired her caddy Greg Johnston today after her poor performance at the British Open last week.

A few things about this bother me. First of all, she was highly successful with him, finishing in the Top 5 of almost all of her events this year, including 3 of the majors. This is a guy who caddied for Hall of Famer Julie Inkster for 12 years and won 4 majors with her. You're gonna throw a guy with those kind of credentials out the door after one bad week?

Also, the way the firing was done was really tactless. Johnston got the news at the airport gate in England as he was about to leave the country and it wasn't Wie who gave him the news but a spokesman from Wie's entourage. That's just shameful. Wie should've been mature enough to face the man himself and let him go. Or at least her father.

I'm starting to become a little nervous about Michelle Wie's behavior. First, I heard from Korean singer Chae Yeon that while Michelle was in Korea shooting the X-Man game show (on which Chae Yeon also appears), she showed up with an entourage of 20 people and forced all of the other celebrities (all 16 of them) into a smaller green room area while Wie and her gang took up the main green room.

Then she says that she'll be reading putts on her own and not relying on the experience and knowledge or her caddy.

Now, she fires that caddy after one bad week. Hmm...I just hope her head isn't getting too big for her Nike hats. I'll probably always be a Michelle Wie fan but I don't want her image to get jaded after too many things like this. How about we win a tournament before we get all "dan-da-ra"?

Anyways, there may have a been a deeper reason behind this firing but I don't like the timing of it and the way it was executed. Come on girl! Don't let us down!

Batman vs. Wolverine!

Well, not really. But it's a movie starring the guys who played them!

Christian Bale (Batman Begins) and Hugh Jackman (X-Men movies) star as rivaling magicians in England in this really cool looking movie called The Prestige. It's directed by Christopher Nolan who also did Batman Begins, Insomnia, and Memento. The movie also stars Michael Caine, Scarlett Johanssen (yum!), and David Bowie.

Check out the trailer. Looks pretty cool!

Typical Timmy?

I'm not a Timmy Chang fan in any way. Even if he has all the NCAA records, I don't think he's even in the Top 5 of UH quarterbacks. But still, since he's a local boy and a UH grad of course I'm cheering for him to do well in the NFL.

Well, Timmy got his first ever taste of NFL action this past Sunday when his Philadelphia Eagles played the Oakland Raiders in the NFL Hall of Fame Game. Timmy entered the game at the beginning of the 4th quarter and went 9-17 for 84 yards and 1 INT. So how did he look?

Honestly, I'd grade his performance a C-. He was able to garner a few first downs but he didn't really look sharp. Of course it didn't help that his RB fumbled the ball away on 2 drives and that he was probably playing with a 2nd and 3rd string supporting cast. But as is typical with Timmy, his throws did not look accurate at all. Any throw other than a dump off (which were most of his throws) looked really shaky. He had one WR wide open in the middle of the field and threw it behind him so the receiver had to stop and dive backwards to make the catch for a small gain when it could've been a 20 yard gain if he had caught it on the run. And Timmy has always had trouble throwing the sideline out patterns and that showed too. And as Timmy threw an INT on the Eagles's last drive on another badly thrown sideline pass, I uttered to myself..."Typical Timmy".

I also didn't care for Timmy's onfield behavior. He had his heada down after each play and not because he was studying a cheat sheet on his wrist as I had originally thought. He just looked like he was lacking confidence out there. Where's the fire?

But to his credit, he did throw a pretty nice ball downfield but the WR short handed the catch cuz he was afraid of the hit and he dropped the ball.

In any case, I hope he does well and can improve on this performance. I thought I heard Al Michaels say something like Koy Detmer is likely not to be on the roster when the season starts so does that mean that Timmy is in as the #3? Let's see!

Definition of the Word "Failure"

I don't know if this is old news but Google the word "failure" and you get a very interesting link to a certain individual as the #1 search result.

Can't say that I disagree!

K-Fest Lineup Announced

HIFF has just announced its film lineup for KFest2 which will run from August 25 to August 27. They will be screening 7 films from South Korea during this mini film festival. Here is the lineup:

Barefoot Ki Bong - A Forrest Gump like film where a mentally handicapped adult overcomes his shortcomings to achieve amazing feats. Actually, this film is more like another Korean film called Marathon which I believe was shown in a previous HIFF Festival. Ki Bong (Shin Hyeon Joon) is a grown man who has the mental age of a child but he is able to run really well. So Ki Bong enters a half marathon race because he intends to use the prize money to buy a set of dentures for his poor mother (Kim Su Mi). I haven't seen this film yet but it's got a great cast and an inspiring story so I will try to check this one out.

My Boss, My Teacher - A sequel to the mega popular film My Boss, My Hero. This is another gangster comedy film, a very popular genre in Korean cinema. My Boss, My Hero still stands as one of my favorite Korean films so of course I was excited to see the sequel. I am happy to say that it totally lives up to the original and I really enjoyed this film a lot. It's full of laugh out loud moments and some nice gang style fights as well. This is the type of film only Korea can make.

The premise of the first film was that gangster Doo Sik had to go back to high school to get his diploma before he could get promoted to being a big boss. Of course, laughter and comedy ensues as he tries to adapt. In this sequel, Doo Sik is now a college student but needs to go to a high school to teach a class in order to graduate college. When he gets to high school, he finds his boss as a student there! Trust me, this film is hilarious!

Jeong Joon Ho, the owner of the Hawaiiana Hotel in Waikiki and who also came to Hawaii earlier this year for the Andre Kim fashion show stars as Doo Sik.

Flying Boys - Don't really know too much about this film except that it stars Lee Joon Ki the very girlish looking actor who boomed in popularity after The King's Man.

See You After School - If you liked the 80s Hollywood film Three O'Clock High, you'll love this film cuz it's like the Korean twin of that film. Bong Tae Gyu plays a high school student who has the worst luck in the world. When he transfers to a new high school, he gets into to trouble with the school's BMOC (Big Man on Campus) and has to fight him on the rooftop after school. Bong spends the rest of day trying to figure out how to get out of this mess.

I thought this film was okay. Not bad, and not great either. There are some funny moments and other moments where it drags a bit. I'd give it a 6/10.

You Are My Sunshine - Excellent film starring 2 great lead actors, Hwang Jeong Min and Jeon Do Yeon. Hwang stars as a country bumpkin who desperately wants to get married. Jeon stars as a teahouse girl in Hwang's small town. In small towns like these, teahouse girls are known to provide sexual services as they deliver coffee or tea to your room. Hwang falls in love with Jeon but of course there are obstacles they need to overcome.

This is a film that won numerous acting awards in Korea for both Hwang and Jeon and deservedly so. Both give superb performances. One key scene at the end of the film will really get your heart moving. A highly recommended film.

Forbidden Quest - Haven't seen this film, but it got decent reviews and box office numbers. From what I hear, it's set in historical times and involves some sexual comedy. Not positive though. It stars Han Seok Gyu (Shiri), Lee Beom Su, and Kim Min Jeong (Fashion 70s).

Wedding Campaign - Another movie about a man from the country side who wants to get married. This time, the man travels to Uzbekistan to find a wife through a service that provides Uzbeki-Korean women as wife prospects.

This is a very funny and touching film with great actors. Jeong Jae Yeong (Welcome to Dongmakgol) is great as always and Soo Ae (Emperor of the Sea) is also very good as the matchmaker. Another recommended film.