Random Notes and Whatnot

The godfather of Korean rock music, Shin Joong-hyun got a write-up in the New York Times this weekend, by Norimitsu Onishi. It is a nice enough piece, although slightly slight and not breaking any new ground. I would link to a story I wrote about Mr. Shin for the Asian Wall Street Journal in the summer, but like most WSJ stuff, you need a paid subscription to read it (as you will for the NYT story in a week). You can, however, read about my WSJ story in this Korean government website story.

How did I miss this bit of news? It looks like miniskirts and hot pants will no longer be illegal in South Korea. Hard to believe it, but technically both are still no-nos... weird morality-law holdovers from the 1970s, although this law has not been enforced in ages. Korea still has far too many unenforced laws like that one. Like that old saying "Everything is permitted, but nothing is legal." Now, if only the government would scrap the cabaret laws which destroy Korea's live music scene.

Asian movie companies are making a bigger presence at this year's American Film Mart (the biggest film market in North America), although the overall market seems to be rather slow this year.

Nothing to do with Korea or Asian culture, but here is a link where you can look at 100 Hubble telescope pictures of the galaxies. Very cool.