Buddy Holly Curse?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 1:36 pm on Thursday, July 22, 2004

It’s vacation time. I’m going globe-trotting for the next couple of weeks. When I get back, I expect all of you Korean bloggers to have this silly blog block thing solved.

In the meantime, I present the following for your discussion:

Is the a curse surrounding Buddy Holly?

On February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly (22 yrs old), Richie Valens (17 yrs old), and the Big Bopper (29 yrs old) died in a plane crash.

On February 3, 1967, Joe Meek, Buddy Holly’s British manager committed suicide

Eddie Cochran was supposed to be on the plane with Buddy Holly. On Easter Sunday 1960, Eddie was killed in a taxi crash. The last song he recorded was with The Crickets (Buddy Holly’s back up group). The Crickets were also in England at the time of the crash.

After Buddy Holly’s death, The Crickets got a new singer, Ronnie Smith, who hung himself. The next signer with The Crickets, David Box, eventually went solo and, in 1964 died in a plane crash at the age of 22, the same age Buddy Holly was when he died in a plane crash.

The Cricket’s next singer, Bobby Fuller was beaten to death in 1966. The last song he recorded before his death was written by Buddy Holly.

Marc Bolan, Guitarist for T-Rex was killed in a car crash in 1977. There was a pen with Buddy Holly’s name on it in the car.

In 1978, The Buddy Holly Story, staring Gary Busey as Buddy Holly hit the theaters. The screen writer committed suicide. Gary Busey bought a guitar owned by Buddy Holly and was shortly thereafter involved in a near fatal motorcycle accident.

On September 6, 1978, Who drummer, Keith Moon, saw Buddy Holly’s movie and stayed overnight at Harry Nilsson house. He overdosed on medication and died the next day, September 7, which is Buddy Holly’s birthday. (As an aside, he died in the same room that Mama Cass died in 4 years previously)

In 1979, Ricky Nelson died in a plan crash. The final song he played was about Buddy Holly. (As an aside, Nelson bought the plane from Jerry Lee Lewis, who sold it because he had a premonition that he would die in a crash on that plane)

On February 3, 1990, the anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death, Del Shannon gave his last performance. He played with The Crickets in the same venue where Buddy Holly gave his last performance. Five days later, Del Shannon shot himself in the head.

On February 3, 2003, the anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death, Phil Spector, Buddy Holly’s US producer, was arrested and charged with the bloody murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

To be continued???

John Kerry Look-Alikes

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 3:58 am on Tuesday, July 20, 2004

If you stumble across a picture of someone/something that looks like John Kerry (Botox and natural versions are acceptable), send me the the link to the picture and the link to the John Kerry picture it resembles.

At first I thought John Kerry looked like Ardeth Bey (aka The Mummy):

Then, about 2:00 this morning, it hit me. The Botox Kerry looks much more like Commander Odo from Deep Space 9:

Or perhaps a Shar Pei:

Kerry: The Man of Many Faces

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 12:15 pm on Monday, July 19, 2004
Late 2003

“Does America need a younger looking president? I wonder if Botox would help me connect with voters…”
January 2004


“I do not use Botox.
I am always naturally this fresh-faced and young looking”
July 2004
“I never used Botox, but if I did, it might time for another treatment.”
Just as an aside…
Is it just me, or does the Botox version of John Kerry look like Karloff’s Ardeth Bey in the Mummy?

WHO THE FREAK FRIGGING GIVES A FREAKING CRAP????? - Revisited

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 7:56 pm on Friday, July 16, 2004

While I am on the subject of the horrible state of journalism in Korea, I did want to point out a surprising and refreshing bit of writing from Yahoo Korea. I wanted to mention it earlier, but the article came out on the same day as the start of the Blog Block. It got put on the back burner, but now is as good a time as any to dust it off.

About six weeks ago I wrote about the rediculously racist and sensationalilzing headline, “Pak Kyoung Lim Returns to Korea with White Boyfriend!”. The post generated 75 comments so far. A great many of them telling me that I was being too sensitive, that it wasn’t racist, that nothing was wrong with it. If this doesn’t ring any bells, perhaps this image will refresh you mind:

Anyway, on June 24, 2004, yahoo carried a story headlined, “Irritating ‘Pak Kyoung Lim’s White Boyfriend reports’”. In the article, the writer blasts a certain sports newspaper for carrying the headline, ‘박경림, 19세 백인 남친과 동반 입국’ (Pak Kyoung Lim Enters Korea Together With Her 19 Year Old White Boyfriend). The writer calls the headling unacceptable yellow journalism for contain four sensational words, “19 year-old,” “White,” “Boyfriend,” and “Together”.

She starts off by mentioning that the only reason his age was mentioned is because he was only 19 years old and it is implied that it is a taboo relationship with someone who is barely old enough to legally watch adult movies.

She criticizes the use of the word “white.” She questions why the headline couldn’t have said, “American” or “Foreigner.”

The writer goes on to point out that the headline was vastly different from the content of the article. According to the article, they were just school friends and they were actually coming with several of the guys friends.

She concludes by suggesting that the headline ‘박경림, 뉴욕 친구들과 방학맞아 일시 귀국’ (Pak Kyoung Lim and Her Friends From New York Come to Korea for Vacation) She ends with a call for people grasp the situation accurately and to report accurately.

I couldn’t agree more.

Headlines and Journalistic Integrity

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 12:28 am on Friday, July 16, 2004
I have always been highly critical of Korean journalism, particularly the journalism found in the Korean English-language media. Far too much of it, from the headlines on down, is misleading, ill-researched, deliberately twisted, exaggerated, or fabricated outright.

As I said last November about an article headlined “Iraqis Oppose ROK Troop Dispatch”: ” While this headline is technically accurate, in that two or more Iraqis are opposed to ROK Troop Dispatch, it is nothing short of misleading, as are most headlines in Korea’s English-language media. You constantly see headlines such as “Korean Government to do … ,” but after reading the article, you realize that the headline should have actually said, “Korean Government briefly mentioned the possibility of maybe one day considering whether or not it might be useful to give some thought to looking further into the matter of deciding whether or not they should try to do …” Whoever wrote the headline to this article should be ashamed of themselves. Clearly, the headline is misleading at best and an outright lie in an attempt to deceive at worst.”

A week or so ago, there was a big flap around the country about the president of Harvard University allegedly saying that “all girls in Seoul in 1970s were prostitutes”. I read the related article on Daum and was disgusted by how utterly wrong and misleading the headline was. Of course he didn’t say that. I was going to say something about it earlier, but that was right in the middle of my ultra-busy period. It looks as though I was beaten to the punch by a Korean, Joshua Park, who seems to feel the same as I do about the headline, accompanying article, and Korean journalism in general. In the “Crimson Report” in the Korea Times, Park says:

Last Friday, July 9, as I was browsing through the day’s news on Daum, I was met with a shocking news headline. It blared: “Harvard University President: `All girls in Seoul during the 1970s were prostitutes.’ ” Half-doubting its validity and cursing myself for perhaps falling for more “click”-inducing sensationalism, I clicked on the link for the story.


I was momentarily taken aback. A cynical, skeptical Korean. In a country where far too many people place such an irrational reliance and trust in the veracity of the media that they believe the headlines and don’t bother even reading the article (Forget about critically analyzing the article), this was a breath of fresh air. He knew before he clicked on the article that he probably wouldn’t like what he saw.

Of course, I was not very surprised to find that Larry Summers had not actually uttered the words found within quotes in the title _ I have learned from several personal experiences that some Korean reporters are rather liberal with the use of quotation marks.


Several years ago, I ceased having anything to do with Korean media because of my bad experiences with having television segments selectively edited and my newspaper qutations either heavily altered or completely invented. I don’t know if reporters, editors, etc. are fully aware that what goes between quotation marks should be an exact quote.

His actual words, which, according to the report, were uttered during a speech at a public, official forum, were the following: “In Seoul, Korea, in 1970, it is estimated that there were close to a million child prostitutes.”


I would agree that saying a million girls were prostitutes and saying all girls in Seoul were prostitutes are quite different statements. But who wants to let such a huge difference get in the way of a good, scandalous headline.

Upon mentioning this quote, the reporter proceeded to rant about his disappointment over the ignorance that Summers showed about Korea. According to the reporter’s estimates, the total number of teenage girls in Seoul during the 1970s could not have been much more than a million _ therefore, Summers’ words could be interpreted as meaning that all girls in Seoul during the 1970s were prostitutes. The reporter also mentioned that child prostitution is a recent phenomenon and was very rare in the 1970s. The reporter then went on to lament how no one in the audience at this public forum spoke up and called Summers on his mischaracterization of Korea.


This is another problem that I have with Korean newspapers. There is a distinct lack of straight reporting on the facts of a story. Far too often the article reads like and editorial, opinion, or advertisment rather than a straight news story. I don’t care about the opinions of the reporter. Save it for the editorial. I just want the cold, bare, facts as best they are understood.

There were several problems with this report. First, the context under which the statements were uttered was unclear. The report merely stated that it was a “public” or “official” occasion on July 1, and failed to mention where and to whom the address was given. Second, the accuracy of the reporter’s statistics and reasoning was questionable. The reporter did not mention where his own estimate of the population of female children in Seoul during the 1970s came from, nor did he mention any supporting documents for his assertion that child prostitution was rarer then than now. It seemed as though the entire article was based on the assumption that Summers had uttered the words with the intentional meaning that all girls at that time, which would include many of our mothers and sisters, were prostitutes. Because without this assumption, Summers’ statement could just be passed over as a simple mistake, rather than an insult to the nation. After seeing the article was from an offbeat Internet news portal (dkbnews.com) and that the reporter himself was not even identified with a real name (choosing to use the ID “Winter Vagabond” instead), I initially dismissed this report as nothing more than a cheap tabloid article, sure that it would hardly receive any serious attention.


This is what passes for journalism in Korea today. There is no elaborate deception involved here. It is quite simply bias run amok in an editor-free environment. Statements taken out of context, refuting statements with even more dubious statements, and irrational extrapolation of meaning are all elements that can be found too easily in the media. Combine this with the fact that it comes from a dodgey news “agency” and from a reporter hiding behind an anonymous ID, and you have a complete waste of time and effort spent reading the garbage.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. As I said, there is very little critical analysis of headlines and news stories here. Shame on you in Korean and anywhere else in the world if you accept any news story at face value without bothering to at least find another source. Park goes on to discuss another huge social problem, the knee-jerk, over-reaction of the government and ordinary citizens. As I have said many times, any little comment about Korea and its problems by an outsider is immediately viewed as an attack on the Korean psyche and the nations pride. Protests, internet attacks, petitions, apology demands and the like begin flying around.

But boy, was I wrong _ not about the article’s worth but about the response that it would generate. Soon, the three major Korean newspapers had reported on the issue. Then, Kim Gun-tae, minister of health and public welfare, chimed in, formally expressing his disappointment and regret over Summers’ statements published in the news report. “Netizens” were outraged, viewing it as a personal and national insult, and movements to send letters of protest to the president’s office were being organized. This prompted me to look further into the issue. I was more than a little disappointed that none of the major news bureaus nor the government official had bothered to do any additional, independent investigation into the issue to clarify the matter, and even though newspapers, weekly journals, and Internet Web sites were littered with reports and comments on the issue, they were all nothing more than restatements of the original report and personal interpretations of it. So I sent an email to the president’s office for clarification on the issue, and I received an immediate response.


Rather than a single person in the entire country taking 5 minutes to check a single fact you have a story from a completely unreliable source under a bogus headling spreading like wildfire across the country. It gets picked up by other news outlets, government officals, NGO’s etc. who do not simply parrot the erroneous details, but they, in turn, interpret and expand on the flawed information.

So what did happen?

It turns out that the speech was not given at a “public” or “official” forum after all. Larry Summers had spoken at an internal event on July 1 to welcome Harvard Summer School students, a non-selective program open to high school students who wish to get a sample of Harvard education. Summers gave short welcoming remarks at the event, and his speech was not published. Furthermore, the office issued an apology as soon as it realized the mistake, on Friday, July 9. The apology was as follows:


“President Summers acknowledges that he misremembered a statistic outlining the numbers of child prostitutes in Seoul in 1970 in his remarks to Harvard Summer School students, July 1. He had intended to illustrate the comparatively rapid progress made in lowering the number of child prostitutes over a generation. He would like to apologize for any offence caused.”


Much less dramatic that reported. And the apology was issued immediately.

I found it incredibly refreshing that a Korean took the initiative of questioning the media and taking the time to do a little investigating on his own. I was equally impressed to see Park take the Korean media to task for their negligence and even to raise the issue of the possibility that the story, headline, and suppression of the apology may have been a deliberate attempt to stir up controversy.

A few points to mention, the first being the irresponsibility of Korean news bureaus on the matter. Any one of them could have easily contacted the office and received an explanation that would have made their stories more accurate, but they chose to merely parrot the words from an offbeat report. The speech was at an internal gathering, not during a public conference, and the spirit of the message was not to insinuate that all Korean girls during the ’70s were prostitutes. It was merely to illustrate what kind of benefits economic developments can have on a society. The failure of the Korean media to look into the issue is inexcusable.


Or perhaps it was not mere negligence. The apology was issued on July 9, the same day that I had read the initial report on the matter. That was two days before the news bureaus reported on Minister Kim’s statement of protest, two days before JoongAng Daily’s New York branch reported that they received this apology via fax, and three days before news of the apology was made known to the Korean public. What if these news services had shown some initiative and looked into the matter on their own? They could have easily discovered that an apology had already been issued and much of this public uproar could have been clipped in the bud. Or did they want to stir the pot of the Korean public mind?


President Summers made a misstatement. It may be argued that a man of his stature should be careful with his words regardless of the situation. However, as one proverb states, “the tongue, not one of mankind can get it tamed.” And in this case, Summers’ tongue, or his memory, failed him. But the transgression committed by the Korean media in this case is something much worse. Whether their action (or inaction) was due to negligence or was calculated, it caused much unnecessary bad blood and infighting among the public. I believe it’s time for an apology _ not from President Summers but from the media to the public for its failure to do its job right.


As I finished the article, the big questions of who is Joshua Park and why is he so different than most other consumers who shamble through news sucking up everything like a mind-numbed robot were answered. I saw his email address:

joshuapark@post.harvard.edu


Oh… That explains it. Now, rather than submitting his critique to an English-language paper with such a limited readership, he should forward it to every media outlet and government official that he knows repeated this garbage.

My Resonating Life Needs Help

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 6:48 pm on Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Jae over at My Resonating Life is in the final few days before sitting for all four parts of her CPA exam. She is leaving on July 17th for Guam, where the test will be administered. Unfortunately, she has been suffering from something that has kept her fevered and bedridden for two days. She was just told by a doctor that the “something” is actually acute tonsilitis.

She is quite sick, sad, and depressed about the whole thing. At this point, the test fees, hotel reservations, and airline tickets are all non-refundable. She has not choice but to take the CPA exam now.

If you have a few seconds or minutes, send your thoughts, prayers, wishes, positive vibes, or whatever to her, a/the High Power, the collective consciousness, the Infinity, or whoever or whatever to help her out and help get her through this.

Ships Going Bump

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 6:16 pm on Friday, July 9, 2004

What’s been keeping me so busy these past few days? The past couple of 20-hour workdays have been spent investigating exactly how THIS happened.

A Few Shotgun Posts.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 1:03 pm on Thursday, July 8, 2004

Right now, I am suffering from way too much to do, a way overbooked schedule, and an unhealthy dose of apathy. Hopefully, things will be settled by Monday. In the meantime, there are a few things that have been on my mind. I will add them as time allows.

Kim Jong Il Invents Hamburgers

Apparently, at some point in the year 2,000, Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leader, invented a product called “gogigyeopbbang” or “double bread with meat.” In the west, they are called “hamburgers.”

Kim reportedly said, “I’ve made up my mind to feed quality bread and french fries to university students, professors and researchers even if we are in (economic) hardship.” Despite this wonderful invention, don’t expect the Kim Jong Il to invest Coke anytime soon… Cola is apparently still considered the “cesspool water of American capitalism.”

South Korean Military Should Not Be Hostile To Enemies

In a speach at the military academy South Korea’s National Security Council Secretary Gen. Yi Chong-Sok recently told South Korean military officers “It will make a stronger military when soldiers serve along the barbed-wire fences [in the Demilitarized Zone] with enhanced sense of citizenship and pride and affection for the country, rather than with hostile feelings toward enemy forces, will it not?”

Oddly enough, he was challeneged by a general who asked, “In that case, how can we educate our men on their perspectives toward the enemy in the reality where the North and South are confronting each other?”

Yi then sought to clarify his statement: “I only mentioned a general idea. I did not say it with North Korea in mind.”

uhhhh.. ok….what enemy other than North Korea is there along the DMZ that the South Korean can demonstrate an enhanced sense of citizenship, pride, and affection toward? Perhaps we can ask some prominent West-European countries how wonderful and successful a military strategy of citizenship, pride, and affection towards their “enemies”, the Nazi war machine, turned out to be.

This statement will won’t dispell people’s ideas that Pres. Roh is pro-Nork.

The Blog Block Day 15

A deep and heartfelt thanks goes out to Jae of My Resonating Life for her tip off on a great proxy service that allows full, free, clear, and allegedly untraceable access to websites. Thanks to Jae, the MIC’s block of websites has been rendered completely useless and meaningless to me. I am now in a better mood.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 2:53 pm on Monday, July 5, 2004

Taking a break to celebrate my birthday today.

Thanks to everyone who has sent messages, sent emails, bought food, and given gifts!

It Ought To Be In Pictures

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jeff in Korea at 7:04 pm on Thursday, July 1, 2004

Despite the governmental idiocy that continues to fill this country in the wake of the Kim Son Il murder, there are other things going on in the world.

As I was driving down the road the other day, I came up on this car. I am not sure what this means or why it is on the car, but I found it amusing.

On my way to lunch one day, this shirt caught my eye. Its message of optimism in this recently dark society was appealing to me. I guess if you are getting a virus, it may as well be a sweet, happy virus…and make it ice-cream flavored.

On a more serious note, If any of you, particularly you readers in Pusan, have ever had a chance to go to “Song’s” on Texas Street and sample the best cheeseburgers in Asia or to partake of any other food that you can think of and explain how to make, you may want to know that Ms. Song has closed up her shop (hopefully temporarily). She was diagnosed last week with liver cancer and is undergoing treatment at a hospital here in Pusan.

God bless you Ms. Song, and get well soon!