New Beginnings, Portugal and More

Now that I am not living in Korea and POP GOES KOREA has been published, I have been wondering how much sense it makes to continue a blog called Korea Pop Wars. So I have been slowly developing a new blog, that is more general and reflects the things I am working these days -- www.markjamesrussell.com.

If you are interested, feel free to check it out. If you are only interested in Korea things ... Well, I might cross-post Korea-related content here, at least for a while. Or I might not. I am not sure yet.

Many thanks, though, to everyone who lent their eyeballs here over the years. When I started this blog, it was primarily done to work up interest for the book (then titled Pop Wars: The Koreans Strike Back, which is why this blog is called Korea Pop Wars). I thought about talking about the latest Korean celebrity news, but around the same time all those K-Pop blogs got started, and no need to be redundant, so that idea fell by the wayside.

I also thought about talking about some of the more fun things I saw and heard about from the Korean entertainment scene, but I was a journalist back then, and if I talked about all the off-the-record stuff, it would not be long before no one told me anything anymore. So that idea did not go anywhere. So eventually the blog became what it was. Maybe not as dynamic as I hoped for, but judging by the traffic, there were a few of you out there who liked it. Thanks much.

Anyhow, I am currently in Porto, Portugal, at the Fantasporto Film Festival. So far, it has been great fun, and I hope to talk more about it over at the new blog.