Psy (Gangnam Style) - Unexpected Asian American Superstar

If you've been living under a rock or some remote island without Internet access, it may be news to you that there's a major new dance sweeping the world by South Korean rapper Psy:

Gangnam Style - Psy

I had read about the song when it was released in July but I never really paid attention.  As much as I like reading things, I'm not the most up to date on the latest pop culture.   I finally gave in and checked the song / video when it had just hit over 100 million views.  I thought it was a bit silly but as a fan of dance music, it had a bit of charm that made me wanted to listen to it.

Initially, I admit that I compared Psy to American Idol's William Hung.   The only reason I noted that was no other Asian-American born individual performed has garnered as much attention as Psy did.   William Hung was liked (sort of) because of geeky nature and not because of he had great musical ability.

Upon further research though, I found that I was incorrect in my comparisons.  Psy is a well known rapper in South Korea and had released six total albums.   In watching some of his other videos lately, he has a bit of swagger about him and at least one of his other songs is pretty good.

What was most surprising to me was that Psy went to college in the United States.   Thus, his English is very good and he gives great interviews.   He is down to earth but has a great sense of humor and doesn't mind making fun of himself.

There has been a push by South Koreans to push K-POP into the United States but most of the efforts have been only mildly successful.  Psy probably doesn't fit the traditional mold of K-POP but that may be exactly the reason why he has broken through.  Gangnam Style has a charm that has obviously caught on.  But like Yao Ming in the NBA, Psy's ability to express himself in English will endear him greatly to the world.  For many Asian born performers, their lack of English skills hinder them a bit as something always gets lost in the translation.  Psy will not have that problem.

Psy doesn't quite realize it yet, but he has given Asian-Americans a face in the entertainment industry that has been sorely lacking.  The Far East Movement had succeeded previously but I don't think they have garnered world wide attention as Psy did in the past few months.

To be fair, Psy is Korean born and I doubt he will be speaking on Asian-American issues anytime soon.  But an Asian face hitting the top of the charts around the English speaking world is definitely note worthy.   Let's hope that Psy is not a one-hit wonder and he can continue to be in the public eye for years to come.

Facebook At It's Best

Facebook is definitely a popular social media website but it garners it's share of criticism for it's privacy policies.   From a personal perspective, I've had a Facebook account for many years now.  Originally, I thought it was cool to "check in", post status messages and various other things of interest.

These days, I do not "check in" anymore.   I found that friends don't really care where you are at.   Plus, by "checking in" you are exposing that you are NOT HOME.    Not that my friends are going to do anything, but if someone got into a friends account, you never know what might happen.

I will occasionally post a status message if I feel the need to.  But the only remaining thing I do frequently is post links to items of interest.  I may post videos, news articles or even my own blog articles.  I use Facebook as way to share things that others may be interested in.

One really cool thing that I found recently is the use of Facebook groups.  The groups have been around for a while but I think Facebook may some changes recently which made them more useful.  When you are a part of a group, you get notifications of people posting items in the group.  I've started a few different groups and part of a few others.

All of the groups have a specific theme that ties the people together.  For example, I started a group for a company that I used to work for.  I had a lot of former co-workers as my friends and added them to the group.  From the 80 or so people I started off with, the group jumped to some 150 members a few days later as other folks added more people.

There was a surprising amount of people contributing to the group with memories of their employment histories.  Plus, all of the postings were read by a significant amount of people.   I believe I have found the secret of Facebook.  It's not about reading all of your friend's news feed constantly.  It's not about playing Mafia Wars or other games.

It's about CONNECTING people, but not superficially.   Just having your timeline, reading the newsfeed and other things doesn't mean you're connected to others.  Using groups where people can share of their shared experiences is what Facebook should be about.

Beyond the group for my former company, I had some groups for several basketball leagues I was part of.  I had a chance to share some old photos that I had saved.  Thus the groups not only allow us to share memories but preserve some of the history of things as well.

Blackberry Playbook Redux

Tablet computers are quite popular these days.  To many users, the only tablet computer worthy of consideration is the iPad.  To me, I personally didn't feel the need to get a tablet.  I had an iPhone that served me well when I needed to get email, Internet access or other information on the run. 

I did pick up an iPad 2 for my mom as an entertainment / gaming device at home.  For the first time since I bought the iPad 2, my mom and I took it on the road for vacation.  I used the iPad to surf online a bit while at the hotel. 

What most people don't know if that I quietly picked up a Blackberry Playbook tablet computer a few months after buying the iPad 2.  There was an opportunity to pick up the Playbook for free which I took advantage of.   I didn't have any specific need for the Playbook but wanted to see what it could do. 

The initial version of the operating systems was a little limited and buggy.  I got a decent experience going online but apps were lacking.  Since the Playbook was a WiFi only tablet, I was limited in the places I could use it (home or other places that had WiFi internet connections).  As many people heard, the Playbook lacked email apps at launch and that was a major limitation. 

With an updated operating system several months ago, the bugs were ironed out a bit and email apps were added.  I download the update and gave the new operating system a spin.  It was pretty interesting but I didn't have a major need to use the Playbook.  When I was home, I would use my computer.  When I was out, I would use my iPhone.  My needs on the road didn't require a tablet.   With that, my Playbook just sat on a table collecting dust until tonight. 

I participate in a fantasy football league and for the first time in a few years, we were drafting players in person at a friend's house.  The league had drafted online only the past few years so I could easily just use my computer.  I wasn't sure if we were still going to use the online system even though we were meeting in person.   It was with that thought that I decided to pull my Playbook out of the mothballs and bring it along to the draft. 

As it turned out, there was only me, my friend and another guy at the house drafting while the other folks were drafting online.  I asked my friend to grant me access to his wireless network and I powered up my Playbook. 

After logging in and going to our fantasy football draft website, I was able to get into the draft room successfully.  It was NOT the smoothest of experiences I've had though.  There were some hiccups with the draft room though it wasn't a deal breaker.  I figured out what I needed to do and just went with it.  At the end of the day, the fact that I was able to participate and complete the draft entirely from the Playbook was good enough for me!  

Since the draft room was Flash based,  I probably would not have been able to participate in the draft with my iPhone (or an iPad).  I was fortunate that the Playbook was around and had Flash support.  While I understand why Apple did not want to support Flash, there are some cases where it is useful as I found out tonight.  

So while the Playbook may not be used regularly by me, I did find one niche use case for it tonight.  I may use the Playbook for monitoring my fantasy football team during the season as well.  My iPhone is ok for that purpose but the bigger screen of the Playbook may be better.  

My blog post will not necessarily turn around Blackberry's fortunes in the business market.   However, hopefully anyone reading the posting will keep an open mind and find uses for the Playbook (and other tablets) that exist on the market. 

Pictures vs Videos / Archiving Memories

A few years ago, I realized that time was flying by and that I wasn't always capturing memories as much as I could be.  Thus, I put a concerted effort in taking photos of my various activities and tried to capture as much as I could.  This effort got me interested in photography so much that I did a "photo a day" project for the better part of a year though that has slowed down.  I've also purchased a Digital SLR camera and learned how to do some manual photography.

In regards to video, I personally didn't capture many video memories.  The only videos I had in my possession were from three trips to China.  I had purchased an old DV8 tape camcorder and used them all for the trips to China.  Otherwise, I had not used the camcorder for anything else. 

However, recently, my interest in video and video editing was kindled.  A friend of mine was taking video of a basketball league we both played in.  My friend was trying to do some stuff for the league.  His project got me into researching things and I realized that I had iMovie on my iMac at home.  

I also had TONS of old video (on VHS no less) from previous basketball leagues I had played in (1998, 2001, 2003).  

Put the two together and that formed an archival project the past month or so.  I still had a VCR at home and a Sony DVD recorder machine that could take input from various devices.  I popped in the various VHS tapes to the VCR, popped in a DVD in the Sony device and hit record to burn the videos onto DVD. 

I took the DVD to my iMac and covered the videos into digital form.  I still had to further convert the videos into a format that iMovie could use.  From there, I viewed, chopped and put together many highlight reels from these old VHS tapes.  I then uploaded these highlights to YouTube for preservation and sharing. 

The response to these highlights have been quite positive from everyone who were involved (teammates / fans).  The videos brought back a lot of positive memories and I was thanked a lot for doing them. 

In doing the video highlights,  I realized that videos do play a much different part than photos in preserving memories.  Videos show you what happened and show some of the emotion and the scenes during those moments in time. Photos capture the action and the scene to a certain extent but it's much more passive.  The memories you remember are left to your imagination.  

It's interesting that I have been doing these video highlights and "archiving" them to DVD / YouTube.  When I was unemployed for a time last year, I had looked into a program for a Master's Degree in Library Information Systems with a focus on digital archiving.  

Though I soon started working and have not focused on the Master's Degree, it is interesting that I am doing some archiving.  It may be something for me to consider for a future career.  

The conundrum of Asian-Americans in sports and entertainment

With Jeremy Lin bursting onto the scene, there is a lot of focus already on the NEXT Jeremy Lin.  For example, there is some buzz over Chris Tang, a 6'3' high school sophomore.  Tang was born in China though has lived in the US for the past three years.  He is currently playing basketball in Virginia and high on scouts radars:

Meet Chris Tang:  The Next Jeremy Lin?

It is quite unfortunate, but until Asian Americans start regularly playing in the NBA, almost every good Asian-American player will be looked as the "next Jeremy Lin".   As has been explained many times over, Jeremy Lin was overlooked.  Some may call it racism or stereotyping.  Whatever is was, the fact is that scouts / coaches had no frame of reference for an Asian-American basketball players.  Now that Jeremy Lin has shown up, there is a frame of reference and that will be (at least in the short term) what future players will be measured against.

That is definitely NOT a good thing if you look at the entertainment industries.  For example, the biggest ever Asian-American movie star today is still probably Bruce Lee.  Even thought Lee's been dead for years, he remains as the standard with which Asian / Asian-American actors are measured against.  Asian stars such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li have been unfairly measured against Bruce Lee due to their martial arts backgrounds.   The fact is that Hollywood has been looking for the next Bruce Lee for years and still has not found him.   Yet they continue on the search while Asian-Americans languish in supporting roles.

It is somewhat the same in the music arena.  Before the Far East Movement broke out last year, there had been no major Asian-American music stars.  However, after having two solid songs, Far East Movement has faded somewhat into the background though their single with Justin Biebber is set to break into the Billboard Top 100 next week.

This reminds me of something I saw a few years ago.  There was an Asian American band called At Last.  They were competing on the show America's Got Talent:

At Last - American's Got Talent Semi-Final

As you can see on the video, they are pretty good.  Ultimately they didn't win the competition but had a small following and even released a few independent albums.   After the competition, I followed the band to see how they were doing.  The band kept busy with new albums and tours but otherwise were not signed by any major labels.

I remember reading something online where one of the band members stated:  "Producers told us they didn't know how to market us".  The implication was that Asians aren't seen as music stars and American audiences wouldn't support them.

That indeed is the conundrum that faces Asian-Americans wishing to pursue careers in sports, music, movies and TV.  Jeremy Lin forced the NBA (and  now the basketball world at large) to take a second look at Asian-Americans who may have been previously ignored.  Now, the entertainment industries need to do the same.

I firmly believe American audiences are not dummies.  Like the many different ethnicities that support Jeremy Lin, I believe American audiences CAN and WILL support Asian-American stars in movies, music and TV.  The problem is the entertainment industry wasn't willing to take a chance in the past.  Jeremy Lin's success may have some indirect impact. Once the door is open, it cannot be closed again.

In the meantime, Asian-Americans should continue to pursue their dreams.  It may not be the easiest or smoothest ride but as Jeremy Lin showed, your opportunity may just be around the corner.

How Could Bay Area Colleges pass on Jeremy Lin

(This was a response to something on a Jeremy Lin blog):  


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You know, getting passed by all 300+ schools is an interesting point that has been noted over and over again. However, it never dawned on me until Anonymous / Sydney posted just how big a deal that was. But let's take a step back and only tackle certain schools (to be fair). 

Jeremy Lin sent tapes to the Patriot and Ivy league schools. Only Brown and Harvard showed interest so boo to all the other schools. Jeremy himself said he was interested in UCLA, Stanford and Cal which all didn't work out. I personally wouldn't discount most of the other schools not on this initial list. It seems that Jeremy was looking for good academic schools with athletic programs and not just basketball powerhouses. There may have been lower tier schools that could have used Jeremy but who knows if Jeremy would have attended just because a school offered a scholarship. 

But I don't gave the other Bay Area colleges a pass. Among the Bay Area schools that are Division I, how many of them are "good"? University of San Francisco (USF) and Santa Clara have been mediocre in the WCC. San Jose State is not that good in the WAC. The only team that has been pretty good is St. Mary's. If Jeremy Lin has broken out while playing in the Bay Area, imagine all the attention he would have brought to the programs (then and now that he is in the NBA). 

There are other smaller colleges in CA (UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, etc) that probably could have used Jeremy. But there's always complaints about how CA loses it's star basketball players to other schools. They had a chance to keep one and missed badly. Now that is pretty inexcusable.


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Still Here.........

I realized I hadn't blogged on this domain in quite some time.  In fact. I was thinking of merging this blog with my more "personal blog".  However, it appears I have a decent amount of readership here so will maintain this for the near future.  Much of my Jeremy Lin thoughts have been on my personal blog but I will put in some additional thoughts here as well.

See you all soon.