The President of South Korea, has a really funny laugh. It's akin to simultaneously tickling a fat kid and feeding him Twinkies. So imagine him at the six-party talks and someone cracks a diplomatic joke. Lee Myung-bak and his goofy fat kid laugh, President Bush and his "laughing at my own jokes" laugh, Vladimir Putin's scary-ass KGB laugh, Kim Jong-Il's too cool for school laugh, Hu Jintao and his "look whose going to have the last laugh now losers," and Yasuo Fukuda's "Sock it to me baby laugh." They are there at the table, and they are all laughing...Ah yes. And then there is Duk Ju L. Kim. I remember walking past her while she was staring into the sun. Didn't pay her much mind though. Then, at Maria's, John O'Malley talking my ear off about religion and morality, and me just nodding and drinking and agreeing and drinking some more while the Sox were playing literally "down the street." And then John O'Malley mumbled some sicko perveted dive bar talk under his breath and gave me his number and then it was Duk Ju's turn: "Do you know Ed?" "No i don't know Ed but I'm here for Version..." After that it was a lovefest, she telling me her life story, of being an outsider growning up in Texas, then SAIC, then RISD, then artist in Chicago and all the heartache and struggle and suicide attempts in between. And then John Salhus, her boyfriend showed up, and we were introduced. John is a fine fellow, of Minnesota stock and familial jizz issues. He bought me beer. John is a nice guy--
a couple days Later at Sonotheque, with a sheepishly mischievously she gave me an empty Estee Lauder lipstick tube fashioned in a faux-nail polish bottle. Elizabeth Pink. Platonic les liaisons dangereuses on the south-side of Chicago. Tevs...
And wow yeah how cute is the little Korean baby singer "Hey Jude." So cute.
Ah yes. Yes of course. I am forgetting Alexandra St. Germain, a grand upper-midwestern dame with an artistocratic surname and a majestic command of cello jamrocking. Simply put, "Untitled" is masterful and haunting: a beautiful amalgam of noise and grating bow and avant-garde rhapsody: Cacophonous dissonance on cassette tape. Very brief. 3 songs. Leaving you captivated. And wanting more...
And so. While there are books w/ such laudatory titles as The Gift of the Jews and How the Irish Saved Civilization, sadly, no one seems to have penned the monolithic tribute tome for Koreans. This is of course rather unfortunate. Nonetheless, Korean gifts are all-encompassing and ever-present, in real time. I say get you some Korean BBQ, throw this tape in the box, and hit the chill mode button on yr brain.
and you know if you are ever in Chicago...
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