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BABEWATCH: North Korean Footballer Jong Tae-se
Name: Jong Tae-se
Age: 26
Hails from: Japan
Occupation: Striker for North Korea’s 2010 World Cup Team
Y’all, I’m not gonna front. I am not a fan of The Other Football. It’s not that I don’t enjoy watching a soccer match, it’s just that I don’t feel compelled to. I didn’t grow up watching soccer in Texas–soccer was the sport you played at my high school if you were too small for football, basketball, baseball, swimming and even, trust me on this one, tennis–so I’ve never bothered to learn its nuances. I realize that this is considered by most of the world to be a personality defect, and I accept that.
But you don’t need to know much about the game to be intrigued by Jong Tae-se, star striker for North Korea’s 2010 World Cup team, who got pummeled 7-0 by Portugal yesterday, which got TIME magazine wondering if the loss was “A Fatal Loss of Face?” Jong was born and plays professionally in Japan, is third-generation South Korean, but attended North Korean sponsored-schools in Japan, and has chosen to represent North Korea in its first World Cup since 1966.
Continue reading BABEWATCH: North Korean Footballer Jong Tae-se
Filed under: Chong Tese, Dear Leader, Football, Footie, Jong Tae-se, Kim Jong Il, Men Who Cry In Public, Nationalism, North Korea, North Korea World Cup 2010, North Koreans, Soccer, South Koreans, The Other Football, World Cup
Revisiting Daul Kim’s “I Like to Fork Myself”
Celebrity death vultures have been busy the last week picking over the bones of 20 year-old, South Korean model Daul Kim, who was found hanged in her Paris apartment in an apparent suicide November 19, which may explain why her blog, I Like to Fork Myself–scoured by reporters as though it were a suicide note (before the alleged existence of an actual suicide note was revealed)–has since been switched to invite-only and is no longer available for public rubbernecking viewing.
I, too, have been guilty of participating in this scavenger hunt, the search for the why behind her death. A year-and-a-half ago, I wrote about Daul Kim and the things I liked about her: her goofy-cool factor, her bangs, and her blog, which I described as a “zany, irreverent diary of her fashism experiences.” When I read of her death, my first impulse was to return to the site and figure out what I had missed. I mean, zany and irreverent? Were these words one could really use to describe someone who had taken her own life? What dark thoughts and creeping shadows had I failed to see on the edges?
Continue reading Revisiting Daul Kim’s “I Like to Fork Myself”
Filed under: Asian Models, Bloggers, Daul Kim, Daul Kim Death, Daul Kim Suicide, Daul Kim Suicide Note, I Like to Fork Myself, RIP Daul Kim, South Koreans, Suicide, Untimely Deaths
AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Y.E. Yang
Tiger seems… happy for YangName: Y.E. Yang (a.k.a. Yang Yong-eun)
Age: 37
Hails from: South Korea
Occupation: Professional Golfer
Known for: Despite starting Sunday as a 20-1 underdog ranked #110 in the world, unleashing a shocking performance to ultimately best #1 Tiger Woods (previously 14 for 14 as a closer in majors) for the win in the 2009 PGA Championship.
Since the upset, Yang has been described as an almost mythical hero:
“Wearing all white, [a] ghost-like figure…““Y. E. Yang… took on No. 1 Tiger Woods and never blinked.”
“When the general public gets to know him, they will fall in love with him.“
…and we’re totally buying it. Besides possessing one truly astounding great win, Yang really does seem like a pretty great, humble guy–and wouldn’t you know it, also happens to be the very first male from Asia to win a major golf championship.
We can barely avoid tearing up while reading his own words of inspirasian for the peeps:
“’I hope this win would be as — if not as significant, something quite parallel to an impact both to golf in Korea as well as golf in Asia so that all the young golfers, Korean and Asian, would probably build their dreams and expand their horizons a bit with this win,’ he said.“
Can you? Didn’t think so. We’re so feeling the hype!
[LAT: Y.E. Yang Stuns Tiger Woods at PGA Championship]
[NYT: Y. E. Yang Shocks Woods to Win at P.G.A.]
Filed under: 2009 PGA Championship, Everybody Loves a Winner, First Asian Male to Win Major Golf Championship, Inspirasian, Reprzentasian, South Koreans, The PGA Tour, Tiger Woods, Upsets, Y.E. Yang
BIRTHDAY CELEBRASIAN!
Rain turns the ripe old age of 27 today, and I wish I didn’t have to tell him that he’s in for a friggin’ doozy of a year. Not so young anymore–not really old and wise, a person at 27 has only an internal misery, bout of identity confusion, and fragmented sense of self with to wallow in (um, so I hear) for about 365 days. Welcome to adulthood, homey. Oy.
So I wish him the best. Thankfully, he has those new, yummy muscles of his to console him and keep him warm.
Actually… maybe I need summa dat too.
Filed under: 27 is a Shitty Age By Any Standard, Adulthood, Confusion, Identity, Misery, Muscles, Pop Stars, Rain, Ripped Bodies, South Koreans, Transitionary Ages
BABEWATCH: James Kyson Lee
Name: James Kyson Lee
Hails from: Seoul, Korea and New York City (from age 10 on)
Occupation: Actor
Why He’s a Babe: Forget Hiro. Season 3 of Heroes is all about Ando, James’s character on the show who’s spent the previous two seasons totally underutilized as Hiro’s sidekick (as played by our favorite fister, Masi Oka). But this season’s premiere suggested that Ando is headed over to the dark side, and, as ladies, we’re genetically programmed to love bad boys. Especially one who murders the relentlessly-annoying, Engrish-spreaking Hiro, while wearing only his skivvies, no less! Okay, we made that last part up (about the underwear, not the murder)…but we can dare to dream.
Filed under: Ando, Asian-American Actors, Death to the Sidekick, Doing Stuff in Your Underwear, Heroes, Hiro Nakamura, James Kyson Lee, Masi Oka, South Koreans, The Dark Side, Villains
