PLN at KIS

I somehow find comfort in writing blogs. I have no idea why. Maybe. Maybe its because I find comfort in sitting alone typing away whatever comes to my mind. Maybe its because I live in a society obsessed living a certain way I find it fun to see blogging as an outlet. Maybe its because I just plain like it. Blogs have caught the world by the storm. It has obsessed people, indulged them, and sometimes completely changed their lives. There are “pro-bloggers”, books written about blogs, heck some people blog more than they sleep. Blogging has evolved into a revolution, a revolution I am slowly taking part in.

No one comes to my blog, that’s okay which means I can write whatever crap I want to write without anyone saying anything. But, I don’t want that to continue for much longer. You see, I love writing it’s like breathing for me - it comes naturally. I said that this project I wanted to be famous for being funny and a smartass, I think I limited myself into thinking that making videos was the only way to do that, I discovered it isn’t. I can make blog (posts) and express my sophomore year all alone in a far far magical land called America.

Kids nowadays are completely engrossed in video games or obsessed with sleeping, it’s a sad reality and the world has to accept a unfortunate fact: kids are all the same. In a sense, we kids choose to pick a conventional path in life, a life with a future destined of a $25,000 salary, a run down car, and a single room apartment. I choose not to walk that road, instead I want to be different - special. I don’t want to live like crap, I don’t want to waste my time playing games and sleeping, and I don’t want to waste the one life I am given. But, I want to write - and a blog allows me to write whatever the hell I want to. I may not be famous, I may not be funny, but I will be writing.

This blog is meant to be hopefully a better understanding of what I want to do in the imminent future. My seventh grade teacher said that we are never thinking about the present, we are always thinking about the past and the future - I rarely think about the past but I always find myself thinking about the future, a prospect that excites me. I have something called potential - although everyone has it whether a little or a lot, I have potential that would amount to every singe mountain in the Himalayas. I think different. I am different. I define different. While my friends are obsessing over video games, I pop in front of my computer screen reading the New York Times, CNN Politics (OBAMA 08′ btw), ESPN, and anything else that catches my attention - never do I play video games. My favorite channel is CNN, I don’t have a PSP, and I don’t find myself not knowing what the capital of France is (one idiot in my class thought it was Berlin, when we said it wasn’t he adamantly defended his position until he saw the world map). I have potential, that’s undeniable, but if you don’t let it out, there is absolutely no point of having it. I’m in that position. I have the potential to do anything I want yet I limit myself in every single way possible. This project is an example, but I’m in high school - I have to grow up, open my eyes, splash water on my face, slap myself, and ultimately wake up. It excites me I can do anything but it also disappoints me that I’m not doing anything. Although I think a lot has been expected of me in this project, I believe it to be true to say that I failed miserably. I was given a big project and failed to deliver. But that’s okay. It’s okay because I learned something. I learned that I’m a smartass. I learned I have potential waiting in the wings. And most importantly I learned it is okay to fail, as long as you learn from them.

Sincerely,

Won Chung

Photo Credit: joelogon, Wesley Danes, stelari

Photo by: Jarrellish

“It is a small world after all”. The past five months truly taught me what this quote meant.

As with most other cases, the start was not so great. I did not want to make this into a academic, insignificant project. Deliberating desperately to figure out a way to make this work, I came up with a risky idea of focusing on the stereotypes about basketball. Due to the relatively long time that took us to decide on what we are going to do , the group went on a slow start.

Connecting to the world.. It was not so far away from us after all. After I chose the focus, things started to work out for us rather quickly. Luckily for us, the Columbia University basketball star Keijuro Matsui accepted our interview request. “Maybe this could actually work“, I thought to myself. Then Ko Yada, then Kelvin Kim. In approximately 4 weeks, we had interviewed 3 basketball sensations. The empty parking lot started to fill when visitors started coming to see the show and naturally the show began to flourish..

Writing… This was an inevitable part of the class. The primary problem was not knowing my weaknesses. It wasn’t too long before Mr. Burell pointed out that my sentence structures are always the same. (Subject verb object). Clearly, I had to change this style to make people want to read me. As time went, luckily for me, my writing improved to a level where Mr. Burell said “That was good!”. I have not completely gasped the art of organic writing yet, but started to notice where to pause, where to put in the funny stuff. Looking back, my lack of confidence about writing was preventing me from trying out different things in my writing..

At this point, I can honestly say that the English Seminar Class has taught me two valuable experiences that I did not experience anywhere else. It has taught me the power of technology, and the techniques of creative writing.

For the ending, I want to thank Mr. Burell for having faith in us when we were lost in the Sahara Dessert and helping us find something that can be extended into the world Thanks.

Some of us have got it, but some of us are still wandering in the never-ending maze.

It’s been a while since second semester has started, which means that I’ve been in this class for about 5 months. Although the initial goal of this class was to connect with the world and to share variety of ideas, the plan did not quite work out. For the most part, it could have been due to all the new stuff that we encountered with as well as the confusion that came along with it.

I think I’m at a point where I see the way out, but not exactly there yet. Lately, I’ve been trying to write blogs frequently and make connections with others. Fortunately, I have been getting some feedbacks based on my posts on this blog as well as my other blog. I’ve contacted them as well and was able to hear more of what they thought of my writings.

Through the long journey, I wondered at times if I would be able to do something meaningful like others in this class. I began to think whether it was a mistake to break off with the group that I was in, in the beginning because figuring out the way out of the maze alone was too difficult for me. But, these are the times when one can feel motivated and think that he/she CAN do this alone with a little help from others.

What I’ve learned from making connections with the rest of the world is that I shouldn’t wait for them to find me and reach me. I have to be the one to step up and approach them first. It’s surprising how I haven’t thought of this earlier. It’s nice to hear from unknown people who visit my blogs of their own interests, but that doesn’t happen very often unless I yell it out to the world. Being active within this online network community is necessary and beneficial not only for the sake of grades, but also to improve my writing skills.

Even though I didn’t get as far with the project as much as I would have liked to, I think I’ll be able to accomplish something that I haven’t done yet: the interview. This is what really shows that I’m on my way out of this maze. I’m starting to get the hang of this whole project. The time is set up for Wednesday morning during class. I’m going to be interviewing Diane Cordell from New York. Her and I have been in contact for a couple days and she seems to have lots of interesting things in her minds.

Hopefully, one day I’ll be able to escape this maze and look back and say, “I’ve done it.”

Photo by: draftexpress

Not too long after the start of the 2007-2008 season, the ACC powerhouse University of Maryland Men’s Varsity Basketball Team received it’s first commitment of the class of 2009. His name is Jin Soo Kim. Standing 6-foot-9, weighing 170 pounds, Jin Soo Kim plays the shooting guard or small forward position, depending on the needs of his team. By signing with the Maryland, Jin Soo becomes the first Korean born player to every play in the NCAA division one basketball leagues.

Looking back, it was not an easy route that awaited Jin Soo who first came to America in 2004 as a freshmen in high school. After getting recruited at the Adidas All American Camp, Jin Soo’s quest to the promised land began. Despite risking many things, Jin Soo came to the US to achieve his goal of playing in the NBA. But let alone the NBA dream.. For a guy who has never lived in the US before, English was the primary problem. Not knowing the language, there was not much Jin Soo could do in the classroom. “The first year was one of the hardest times of my life”, confesses Jinsoo who states that he thought about going back to Korea countless times.

As a freshman, Jin Soo was a starting forward for Montclair Prep, a strong basketball school in California. But to fill his needs of playing at the highest level of high school basketball, Jin Soo transfered to South Kent School of Connecticut, one of the best basketball schools in the country. Now, Jin Soo ranks as one of the top 25 class of 08 shooting guard prospects and has verbally committed to play with the University of Maryland Terrapins.

“Many elite programs basketball programs recruited me. Yale University, Stanford University, Duke, University of North Carolina were interested in me. But coach Williams (Coach of Maryland) and the needs of the team seemed to fit me the best”, explains Jin Soo on his decision to attend University of Maryland.

This triumphant victory seems to mean a lot for the Korean basketball fans who have been desperate to see a Korean native in the big leagues. Japan’s had it’s KJ Matsui, China’s had it’s Derrick Low but Korea has never had a native make it to the promised land. By passing the last obstacle (the University of Maryland SAT cut off score of 650) , Jin Soo is now officially qualified to play in the big leagues, and maybe even more.

You will become a five year old child despite the fact that you are a grown up. You want this fun, I know. Then, come over to New Amsterdam Theater. You will be able to see real live animals on stage. Can you imagine them coming from the audience area at the beginning of the play? It will be up to you to bring some children you know and see the difference between a mere film and a live production. Come to watch The Lion King:

Commercial of The Lion King

The Circle of Life

Composed by Elton John of Aida, lyricized by Tim Rice of Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar, and directed by Julie Taymor, based loosely on Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, this production was created and named after Walt Disney Animation, The Lion King. How much more fun and realistic is this musical than the animation? Breathtaking views with various colorful backgrounds and grand of music and vocals come together in this production.

What is different about The Lion King from other musicals? It has animal characters. Moreover, it isn’t just focused on action, story, music, and actors and actresses, but gives a strong emphasis on making the amazing background setting of Africa with paper and wood material. The differences are that animated version is entirely differentiated by Julie Taymor and characters’ outfits are based on human looks; faces of lions and hyenas are mask. Body outfits of lions are based on attractive looks and personality. Those of hyenas are based on their monstrous looks and personality as well.

This production is so attractive. Do you want to feel the difference between the production from the video? Come over here to the New Amsterdam Theater and see the difference yourself!

Imagine that you are stuck in a dark and mysterious labyrinth and a ghost will never let you go until he really has to. You want to feel that desperate chill? Then, come over here to Majestic Theater on Monday and you will be able to feel the chill and face your deadly danger. I know that people love to feel scared through stories and this is one of those stories. Be ready to see two corpses and be ready to scream.

Commercial of The Phantom of the Opera

Angel of Music Second Part and The Phantom of the Opera

A team of visionaries created The Phantom of the Opera’s $40 million production; Maria Bjornson’s gothic set design, Harold Prince’s nicely and fantastically directed works, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s thorough and chilling musical masterpieces, Gillian Lynne’s powerful and energetic dance, Charles Hart’s sweetly written lyrics, and a team of actors and actresses made this production into a world famous musical.

Firstly, it is led by world famous soprano and popera singer Sarah Brightman as Christine Daae, followed by the famous baritone singer Michael Crawford as Phantom and Eric, and a tenor singer Steve Barton as Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. The beginning is important to each new production and they succeeded in becoming well-known more than twenty years ago.

Musicals do not let the music step aside. Chills always wonder inside some of the music, especially in ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, ‘The Point of No Return’, and in some moments, the music that is played when the Phantom takes Christine to his deep and mysterious shelter is very creepy. However, it is nicely chilling to hear this song, particularly at the part where Christine’s voice rises to high C.

Not just chilling effect, but romance, entertainment, and gloom are important and emphasized and mentioned. ‘Think of Me’, ‘Angel of Music’, ‘The Music of the Night’, ‘Prima Donna’, ‘All I Ask of You’, and ‘Masquerade’ are the songs that make this musical special. Christine loves Raoul instead of mysterious, scary, and murderous Phantom as songs ‘Think of Me’, ‘All I Ask of You’, and ‘Masquerade’ will tell you. Christine prefers him over Phantom because she doesn’t know much about him except he’s a great teacher as ‘Angel of Music’ shows you.

This musical is a number one among the Great Four; The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Les Miserables, and Miss Saigon and many people all over the world want to see. Ninety percent of the world population is thirsty to watch this and they want their waiting to be over right now. This production has a power to be greatly more popular than other productions. So, please, come over here to Majestic Theater on Monday, at opening night.

If the people of the world take a look at the history of the Chosun Period, Japan very cruelly went fox hunting in Korea. The fox was the last queen of the Chosun Period. But why was the world so inattentive at this moment? It was because they wanted to share benefits with Japan. I want to tell my feelings about the story of the Korean musical named The Last Empress.

The commercial will be added soon…

Rise People of Chosun, The Last Empress

It starts in 1866 when Japan progressed to take benefits from Korea and China during what is now known as Japanese Imperialism. Koreans experienced horror; weak and powerless rulers had to fight against strong empirical powers. In spite of a smart royal family, they could not help the country. And so, Japan takes power and resources only for the Japanese. After a ninja assassinated the smart queen, Emperor Kojong despairs but had to be attentive about reparations. He sent out letters for foreign help, but was ignored completely.

Lee Mon Yeol, Kim Hee Gap, and Yang In Ja, and the actors described the situation well. Passion, patriotism, terror, misery, desire, and unawareness about the future are the top conceptual themes of all the songs. Overture about the misery of the last queen sounds destitute and warlike and it makes you sad. Also, power fights, rulers who married at the wrong age at the wrong time and grownup rulers happy at the imports of new western inventions constitute the themes of the other songs. After the Koreans lost the fight, the last song that desperately called to the Korean people to rise up and hungrily open a new age really relieved and inspired me.

Those who feel sympathetic about this story, I am sure that they will come and watch this if this production visits the city. Most of the songs are not familiar but the story is. I hope that the world people enjoys this and appreciates it. We still can spread the story around through international tours. This production opens in Broadway, London, LA, many regions in South Korea, and Toronto.

Although it makes you unhappy to hear a story of war, you must know about how your ancestors were murdered. Foreign powers committed murders unjustly and just did not care about the deaths they caused. But a certain couple had a different attitude about this. Who are they? The musical Miss Saigon will tell their story.

Miss Saigon Commercial

Sun and Moon, Miss Saigon

If I tell the production history briefly, Claude Michel Schonberg, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Alain Boubil composed, produced, and lyricized this musical and it became one of the Four Great Musicals of all time. Also, the famous Lea Salong took the leading role of Kim in the first 1990 production.

The story runs this way. A main character wanders in a crossroad in her life, whether to stay in communist Vietnam with her evil fiancé or move to a liberal democracy where she can live happily ever after with her other love. It is between the Vietcong or the American. Both men fight for her and the former dies. After that, the City of Saigon began to split, so the remaining GIs had to go back home and they cannot take all of Vietnamese with them including Kim, the main character. Kim waits for her love with her son, Tam. But shockingly, her American lover married another woman when he returned to the US without Kim. Kim had no choice but to commit suicide for Tam.

Vietnamese folk melodies make up the overture, finale, “Sun and Moon”, and “Dju Vay Vai” and western styles make up the rest of songs because the orchestra has both Western and Vietnamese folk instruments. How amazing it is that both can be magically synthesized and create great music with various themes! The various themes and expressions are based on the moods of curiosity, gloom, joy, love, evil, shock, desperation, and obsession.

Is this making you want to watch this production one day? It will be good to know the history of the Vietnam War and feel the pain of a nation and two star-crossed lovers.

Walt Disney Animation first presented it in 1991 and Broadway and West End then released it as musical productions. Scientifically, in the next one hundred years, nothing will be impossible in the world. Animals cannot love humans now but it will become possible. In the production of The Beauty and Beast, it tells the key to this.

The Beauty and Beast Commercial

The Part of the Beauty and Beast in Italian

Alan Menken composed and Howard Ashman and Tim Rice lyricized it based on the video animation and the book by Linda Woolverton. Terrence Mann and Brad Little starred as Beast, Susan Egan and Toni Braxton as Belle, and Burke Moses as Gaston. Just like The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the amazing clarity of the skill of the Walt Disney artists reveals itself in every single performance, video animation, poster, and music. The imagination turns magically into reality like a dream come true.

The story is the same and I do not need to retell it to the reader because it is well-known, but one difference is the rose that in the bell jar. A human takes the role of the rose in a glass exhibition wall and speaks to Belle. I think that the producer had the idea of personification. Humans can easily spread philosophy and thoughts, much better than a rose. Another difference is that the furniture and kitchen stuff do not move their mouths at all, opposite from the case of the rose. Third, a fog machine helps the transfiguration from a prince into a beast. The prince turned and turned and hid through the underground of the gate of his castle and popped out of the fog as a beast.

Since this production has similarities to The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Little Mermaid, kids under five will love this musical. First opened in Palace Theater in 1994, it recorded up to 5464 performances between 1994 and 2007. How lovely that it became popular. Please, come over to the theater to watch the performance with great enjoyment and pleasure!

I want to become a movie director. My thoughts have grown too. When I first wanted to become a movie director, I was inspired by fabulous movies such as Tranformers, Scoop, My Father, Herb, and May 18, but I also wanted to meet the cute and famous actors as well. Now, I think that there is something more that. I want to put in my opinions and thoughts in the movie and use it as one of the ways to express myself.

Movies are beautiful. I am saying that it is something more than a DVD  you bought for 4,000 won or a ticket that costs 6,000 won. You can know more about the world, and what people with different tastes might enjoy, and what people with disabilities might suffer. The only movie when I was ever close to crying was Herb, because when the main character’s mother was dying, the girl at first did not know that her mother was dying, and begged for her to get up. When she finally realized that her mother was dead, she was mourning and there was nobody to help her, because they were on their way to a herb field on a bike, in the middle of a pouring rain. Movies are one of the ways to see the world without having to travel, in fact, one of the best ways.

In a movie called Secret Sunshine, a woman who loses her husband who was having an affair (she didn’t admit it) to an accident moves to his hometown called Milyang with her son. She is already depressed, but then she also loses her son to a local who kidnapped and killed her son. She then becomes furious for a while, but joins the church and becomes an enthusiastic church-member. To forgive the man who killed the son, when she visited the prison, the prisoner says that he was already forgiven by God. Confused and angry, she says that God cannot forgive him without her consent and quits church. She becomes crazy and does things that God forbids; having an affair with a married man, interrupting a religious ceremony with a song called ‘It’s a Lie’. All this time, another local she knows stands by her all the time and tries to help her. The clever part of this movie is that it makes viewers think that the local who stands by her side loves her, but it is actually because he is a good man and wants to help her, because she is in a devastating state. This is one of the movies which got some awards outside of Korea, such as 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the Best Actress Award for Jun Do Yeon. Personally, I wasn’t exactly crazy about this movie, but its depth of human mind was amazing. I also thought that the actress acting for this movie had to be Jun Do Yeon, because she is a phenomenal actress. It pictured her when she was in pain, when she was angry, and when she was confused. I want to produce movies that are in depth. I want to produce movies that may not necessarily receive awards, but deserve to receive one. Maybe not from the beginning, but later in my career as a movie director.

I am a greedy person. People who saw me eating may know. I never eat foods that I don’t like, but I eat anything that I like without any limits, so that is, till my stomach bursts. It is the same with my dreams. I don’t just want to make movies. I also want to make soap operas. I also watched a lot of amazing soap operas in my life, such as I’m Sorry, I Love You, Dae Jang Geum, Full House, and My Lovely Samsoon. I was especially moved by I’m Sorry, I Love You, because it was like Romeo and Juliet, where two lovers died. It was foreshadowed in the beginning because the female main character, Eun Chae (Im Su Jeong, pictured in the photo below), always dreamed of a love like Romeo and Juliet. I also want to make influential soap operas that can make people laugh and cry, something like I’m Sorry, I Love You.
I’m not just interested in making movie and soap operas, I’m also interested in making music videos with storylines. That is why I wanted to make a parody of the music video ‘Lie’ by Big Bang (which is not in a good shape, or in fact, doesn’t have any shape because I haven’t filmed it at all). Some music videos I like are ‘Irony’ by Wondergirls, and ‘As We Live’ by SG Wannabe. I want to make music videos because I like music, and it is also similar to films, more like a mini film.

I have not yet reasoned why a person like me would want to become a movie director. I have an interest in movies, soap operas and music videos. I want to become famous for producing good movies like Park Chan Wook, Lee Chang Dong, and Heo In Moo. I want to become successful at presenting my thoughts and views, and getting credit for it.