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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Wise & Proper: The Best Clothing Line Ever





Style and Sophistication have never been so harmonious than when her hands touch fabric. If a beautiful sonnet could be something to be held in the hand, I am certain that it would be any one of her creations from her fall and spring lines.

Who am I talking about? I am speaking of none other Wise &Proper’s very own, Ms. Elizabeth Law. An example of independence, she is at every stage of the creative process, and at the end of it there is a creation that is classy, sexy, and ready for the office. All without sacrificing a key ingredient to any ones clothing choices, style.

For women her clothing enables its owners an experience of class and sophistication that celebrates the feminine form. These clothes are chic, yet still leave something to the imagination. For men, we now have an all around winner for all things involving gifts ranging from birthdays to apologies and all things in-between.

Currently her designs are available at over nine boutiques in the Vancouver –British Colombia area. Soon her website http://www.wiseandproper.com/ will have an online store available so that people worldwide can experience the dream that she is living.

With education and world experience, Elizabeth Law has larger plans for Wise&Proper,
while donating a percentage of her profits to the Canadian breast cancer awareness foundation, an organization that she has participated in to raise money before she was a fashion designer, she hopes that she will be able to do more than make people look and feel pretty. Elizabeth Law’s designs are the perfect balance of style, sophistication, and consciousness, guilt free fashion is what this is all about.

http://www.wiseandproper.com/

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Frontline Vol.9: I can't make this stuff up

So, this past Saturday I decided to check out the new bar in Carrollton “The den” with my buddy Dolph, this bar is like most others of its kind: Booze, a band, an assortment of women from scary skinny to scary over weight and then any combination of the two with prison tats and missing teeth. Nothing to out of the ordinary, but I digress

I sat there drinking a pitcher with Dolph and our insanely gorgeous friend Gina whom was already there laughing and catching up on summer adventures in the weeks since the mansion closed. Since that lovely establishments closed its doors everyone has been struggling to find a place to lose the loves that they have and find new ones…at least for the evening at least. None the less, I always enjoy hanging with the bar crowd, hell they made a show about it (cheers reference).

So anyway, there are this townie’s that fancy themselves as a dance group. AS IF. At most they are a group of guys that come to the bar to not drink but demand space on the dance floor with the promise of cool dance moves, when all I have seen is a bunch of shake dancing and ticking…. They have one legit b-boy in the group but that is about all they have. So as we are discussing the above mentioned one of the bartenders comes over and advises us that “It is soooo about to be on”.

What’s about to be on?

This was the question on my mind, lately I am all about watching bouncers do their job and cosigning the bravery involved in wrestling drunken adults to the ground, but this was so not what “it” was. What it was has no real explanation, and I have to qualify this before I go any further by saying this:

You know me, I say a lot of funny things, but this shit I cannot make up.

The answer to the above question was that the group of guys dancing was in fact beefing with another group of dancers because….WELL WHO GIVES A FUCK REALLY

But, apparently they use to be one crew and there was a split and now there are two groups and they don’t like each other and they could get to fighting. I looked over the bartender at the two guys dancing on each other and only two words came to mind.

That’s gay.

So, the sociologist came out and it was time for my favorite game. Participant Observation with control factor KenNitro, I wanted to see just what all this beef was about and how could a guy that was vogue(ing) and another guy that was popping and locking could find a way to actually start fighting. So as I stood on the edge of the circle I realized that I need to get in with this core group…

What could I do?

I had limited options of space and I’m not equipped to handle a b-boy outside of the 1st round, I didn’t have a partner to put their hands under my arms from behind and do jazz hands while I move my head from left to right, no one was c-walking.

Ladies and Gents, I was in the shit! I am out there in the circle with no way out but my wits and my mad skills that I got from every 80’s dance movie. So I did what any one would do.

I did the bill cosby.

Oh, you don’t know what that is? YOUTUBE ACTIVATE!!!!!!



Well…Gina pulled me out but the fact still remains

Men in dance groups that are beefing with other men and Va jay jay are not a factor in it is gay…or at least fairly odd.


To think, I was all but done with the frontline series. I guess I needed another bar to go to.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Han-gul people in Migu

I had a great conversation about one of my favorite topics


What I would do if…

This time the if was what if the Korean people that I know and love were to come visit me in the U.S. what I would do to keep them entertained. I imagine the first thing I would do is pick them up from the airport and take them out to get some Korean food. I assure you, that would be the last Korean meal they would have, but it would reassure my guest that there is food available is everything else disagrees with them.

First we would go to the Georgia Aquarium,http://www.georgiaaquarium.org, It is the largest one in the world with over with over 8 million gallons of water and whale sharks!!!! Depending on the persons attention span for sea creatures this could take up the better part of the day, but luckily there are tons of things to do at night.

Now since we are already in the downtown area, we might as well stop by the “World of Coke”www.worldofcoca-cola.com , here my Korean guest would learn the history of such a wonderful creation such as coca-cola and there they will learn to hate the vile pepsi and all of it’s evil offspring. I have never been here, so it would be an adventure for all involved, I think things are more fun that way.

No trip to the ATL can even begin to be had unless you go to The Varsity, www.thevarsity.com, the food is guaranteed to fill up your guts and destroy them all at once, but it’s about the adventure, so even though the food is horrible for you it still taste good going down.

Also, a visit to little five points, , it is a place that kind of exists in its own world, unlike any that you have seen. Who’s homeless or hipster is a game that I like to play while there, but there are tons of shops that have things you really couldn’t find anywhere else. Awesome restaurants www.l5p.com, even cooler bars surround you. Even just walking around is entertainment enough.

Centennial park, www.centennialpark.com, is also a gym of the city of Atlanta, there is always something to do and it is most likely always free. It is an awesome place to people watch and any visitor would have awesome time taking pictures and things of that sort.

What would a trip to Georgia be without going to a Braves game, http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=atl people put their lives on hold to watch this team play and the game is only half of the fun. Seeing it live you get to participate in events such as the Dance “Cam” where if the camera is on you, you have to get up and dance. The real game is to see how long you can keep the dance camera on you. Oh, and it is a site to see. As well as the Kiss “Cam”…well you get the picture

Now before we leave ATL, we got to go to the strip club. That would be an event within itself, showing my Korean friends some of the intrinsic differences between Booking rooms in Korea and Strip Clubs in the U.S. Then I would take it a little further and bring them to Strokers, www.strokersclub.com, or Magic City, http://magiccity.com, to give one aspect of Atlanta.

Now of course, I would have to bring them to Carrollton, in order to visit the place where I live, which would be more important to my guest than me(ask anyone that lives here). Here we would visit the university that gave me the piece of paper that enabled me to leave the country and teach in the first place The University of West Georgia, www.wesga.edu, and then we would venture to the square hopefully on a happening evening and demonstrate how the bar scene is really “Same Same, but Different” in the U.S. Of course, whomever that is with me will be immensely popular because they will be completely exotic to all those around and will spend lots of time answering dumb questions like, “Are you from North Korea?” and “How would you say my name in Korean?”(ok I made the last one up, but you get it).

Friends from abroad can’t the whole picture until you come to south Georgia, things are way different and a lot slower, and the air is better too, so a mini road trip would be in order to Waycross, Ga . Here not only would they be able to see where I lived, but I could seriously take them to see things such as an “American” farm and GATORS!!!!

That is right, I said GATORS, and Waycross has a national wildlife refuge called the Okefenokee Swamp. It is 700 square miles of un fragmented intact wilderness. People come from all over to camp, Kayak, and site see in this place. The kicker is that live gators still walk around, not trained by any means, but they are use to people walking around. Seriously, these gators roam freely through the park and this is what really gives the park something that other places like it don’t, A CHANCE YOU COULD DIE!!!! A person really can’t buy that anywhere else.

I think I have the site seeing covered.

As far as food goes, there are thousands of different places to eat, but I know of a few industries that we would have to partake of in order to truly give my guest a trip to remember.

BUFFETS!!!!!!!

Yes, I don’t know who invented it, but I am sure Georgia perfected it, there are so many of them , a person could be over-whelmed by the aspect of ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT. So a person has to have someone with them to guide them, and that would defiantly be me!

We would have breakfast at Golden Corral, www.goldencorral.com, the breakfast here is completely off the chain! They make Omelets right in front of you will everything you could ever want on them. The food display is also done very well and the servers almost make you forget that you actually had to go and get the food yourself this place is kinda of like V.I.P.s, except that you don’t have to buy a set in order to truly enjoy it.

After that, we would go work it all off at a gym somewhere, while I know I can eat buffet food all day and not break a sweat, My guest may feel the need to burn off some calories, because the carbohydrate load starts at CiCi’s Pizza, www.cicispizza.com. Unfortunately, there is no sweet potato on pizza’s in the U.S. but they have just about everything else and pizza is really expensive in Korea (at least I thought so),so an opportunity to gorge oneself on such things is always appreciated.

Wing night, MAN (and women), weekly put their issues aside for one thing, WINGS!!!! This would be great for the guys because they would be able to do some participant observation of a really big part of male culture in the U.S., the consumption of large amounts of wings and beer! Every man worth a damn has a story of how they ate more wings than anyone else or at least how they tried too. And now, you will too!

Sushi, this delightful dish is aplenty in the ATL and I have two places where I eat on the regular Hong Kong on Mondays for the dollar sushi night and Rusan’s www.ru-sans.com (this is the Nashville restaurant, but it is the same everywhere). It is the loudest sushi place ever and they have an all you can eat buffet for a few hours every day. The deal is that you have to eat the rice. You can even purchase a set of chopsticks that you can leave there for when you come back.

Of course there will be other meals involved, but these are the ones that my friends would have to have in order to get the full experience.

And to End the trip, we would do the only thing that could really end this trip, SIX FLAG, www.sixflags.com, Now I have been to songdo and I have rode the Viking, but I promise you the experience of outdoor rollercoaster’s at this location will be worth it. This would defiantly be an all day event because my friends would want to ride everything at least twice.

Now, if my guest happened to be some of the beautiful ladies that I met while abroad, then I imagine that I could take off the strip clubs or NOT, you know I’m flexible.


So this could be the KenNitro vacation package that changes your life. Now, I know I have friends literally all over the world(non-korean) and I don’t want you all to feel left out either, I promise if you come and visit me all this and more could be yours!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Frontline VOL 8: Trapped in the Matrix

Wow, three blog post in one week. I’m just saying, normally I try to spend some time out in the field doing some participant observation in order to get something to write about, but to be honest I can stay in and just read the paper and see that the world is fucked seven ways from Sunday, and I don’t think any sane person can disagree with me.

You know I was reading an article that someone wrote about the inherent differences between Stallworths DUI murder and Michael Vicks Ultimate Dog fighting league. The technicalities come out like thieves in the night when you get lawyers talking about the differences in the two cases.

Here is one excerpt:


“"It's hard to compare apples and oranges," …"You're dealing with two different systems. You're dealing with a federal system in Vick's case; you're dealing with the state system in Florida."


Can I go on record and say that in Florida a DUI is a second degree felony with most people getting at least 10 years for every death. And we all know that federal cases are a much better route to run than state ones

NOT!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously Michael Vick’s case was a federal court and he still got more time that what normal people get for a DUI in state court.

Sure, I will go so far as to say that with money comes privilege, but to have such a blatant show of the power of the dollar still astonishes me. He killed a man and cut a deal that keeps him out of jail and the family suing him in civil court…for an undisclosed amount of money. The best part of the whole charade is that the media keeps harping on the fact that his 15 year old daughter wanted the whole thing to be over with.

So far, we got one man with a death of a human and he gets 30 days in jail and an undisclosed paycheck

Ok, so what’s next

A woman in Minnesota is being forced to pay out 1.9 million for downloading music? Seriously the RIAA is still upset about people being able to try before you by music. First off, there is no good music going around right now, so how can stealing garbage be a crime. Second, the average person may make a million dollars over their lifetime so I have no idea where the beast is going to get the other 900k, and third, this is the best part

The stupid songs are only 99 cent on Itunes in the first place.

Then we got PETA.

You know, I am ok with people doing whatever they want, as long as they do it with sincerity and consistency. What I don’t get is PETA crawling up the President’s ass over swatting a fly and chuckling about how awesome it was to be able to do that. Seriously, the president is answering questions about N. Korea and the cache(supposed)of chemical weapons, our struggling economy, the Asian chicks in N.Korea jail, and who knows what, and PETA finds it necessary to complain about that? I went to PETA’s website and I noticed that there was jack about the cat killings in Florida on their message boards, and I even checked the first five pages. No, I didn’t look until I found one, because this story is so new it really should jump at you.

Instead there is link to a Michael Vick article about how they don’t think he is truly remorseful for what he did, and that he is in fact the scum of the earth blah blah blah

Meanwhile the guy who actually killed a human being is going to be speaking to kids about how sorry he is for what he did.

Does anyone else see something wrong here.

Sources

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/200407-donte-stallworth-vs-mike-vick-its-better-to-kill-people-than-dogs

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/18/minnesota.music.download.fine/index.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31422688/ns/us_news-weird_news/?GT1=43001

http://www.examiner.com/x-5919-Norfolk-Crime-Examiner~y2009m5d21-Like-most-criminals-Michael-Vick-is-only-sorry-he-got-caught

http://www.peta.org/index.asp

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Frontline Vol 7: I Can't Call it

I like to think that I am above the craziness off the world we live in…just like everyone else in the world. So if I think I can’t be effected by the world around us, then I am sure we all think the same thing, which means we are all wrong as fuck.

Plain and simple, folks are still seriously trapped in the matrix and anyone willing to proclaim that the emperor has no clothes is locked away in the deepest darkest dungeon with the key lost like a prom dates virginity…a year ago.

I have two things to exhibit the first is a story that I found on CNN about a kid who has been arrested for killing cats in the Miami-Dade county area.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/15/florida.cat.killer.arrest/index.html

Now, before anyone here jumps the gun, I don’t support the reckless killing of any animal (ask me about hunting when you get a chance). But I hardly think calling this guy a “serial killer” is hardly appropriate. To call this kid a serial killer puts him in a category with the likes of John Gacy, Jim Jones, Ted Bundy, and the multitude of lesser known serial killers.

I seriously doubt that the killing of kittens qualifies him for such a title or punishment by our justice system

“He could face a maximum of 158 years in state prison if convicted on all counts, said Terry Shavez, spokeswoman for the state attorney's”

Really?

Did I seriously read this correctly? Hell O.J. didn’t even get that much and they had to wait to catch him fuck’in up before they were able to get him for the murders that he was aquitted for.

158 years!!!!

Brian Nichols Showed the world that he will go to jail when he damn well pleases and killed 5 people on the way to his surrender and he just got life

158 years

Michael Vick was actually fighting dogs for profit and he is already out and regardless of what anyone says all he has to do is perform as if it never happened and he will be forgiven

Don’t believe me, I got two words for you: Kobe Bryant

He went from being guilty of rape to being guilty of getting caught cheating on his wife

158 years!!!!!!

Now in another area of Miami this is going on

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/16/florida.nfl.player.plea/index.html


So let me make sure I got this right. This guy was drunk and hit someone with his car and killed him. And he was able to plea down 15 years to 30 days in jail, revoked drivers license for life, 2,500 dollars to MADD(mothers against drunk driving), eight years probation, and an undisclosed settlement to the family of the victim.

If I am reading these articles correctly a man has lost his life and his family has lost a brother, husband, and father, and some family’s have lost their pets and while traumatized by the loss they still are able to go and get another animal eventually. Then again, the humans were actually able to put a price on their loss.

Honestly, if the science is correct, then they caught this kid before it was too late, before he went and actually took a human life. There is still hope for him, somewhere in this bizarre world there is a help group and medicine cocktail that will keep all unsuspecting kittens and possibly people from being under this kids knife. The other guy is going to be able to tell other people about how this mistake has affected his ability to drive a car for the rest of his life, and how he is inconvenienced with additional drug testing for the next dozen or so years.

Go figure

Frontline Vol 6: BACK IN THE WORK FORCE

So six or seven months back from Korea and I finally found myself a job. There is a saying that has been around for years or so that goes, “Desperate times call for desperate measures” and they are right, but I think that sometimes people lose sight of what that really means. My family, whom I love with all my heart honestly would have been content for me to work at a fast food restaurant. Under the guise of the above mentioned ideal.

Seriously, WTF

This is what I know:

I am smart, ambitious, industrious, and patient. I have a wealth of experience in real world and academia and I have a real world understanding of myself worth.

What all that means is that there are just some jobs I am not going to do because on the hiring end I would be considered “Over qualified” and on my end I would consider myself “above” it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my peoples working at such culinary nexuses such as Burger King, McDonalds’, and Wendy’s, and I support them by purchasing items off the 99 cent menu whenever possible.

But I am not going to work for you.

I think that even in this economic downturn a person should choose wisely the odd job they take. Unless you have a plan, you can probably see yourself working at a job of your own choosing for at least 2-3 years before you decide to move on to something else. So I would suggest that you find something that you would not resent showing up to work to. After all, if you cannot come to work with the plan to do the best job possible, then you should find a job that you do.

Let me switch gears, now I know what I said about not working for food service, but sometimes life makes you a hypocrite and I recognize that as well as anyone. I almost went back to Airtran. Now, I left that company to seek my fortune elsewhere, I left people that I know were happy to see me leave, people that were sad to see me go, and people that were envious of my ability to get up and leave the country. Oh, there are also the people that could have given two shits.

But if I went back to that place, what would have been the point of leaving in the first place? So even in the face of personal financial disaster, you have to push forward. I can’t work any old job, and I know there are hundreds upon thousands of people that feel the same way about their resume’s and work history.

I say to these people, “Keep your head up”. Take a day here and there to lament to yourself your woes, have a good cry every now and again, it cleanses your soul. Hell, take a day off from the job search. But don’t give up.

Am I doing what I want to be doing? No I am not, but now I have the ability to continue looking for what I really want to do with the comfort of a paycheck, without the resentment of working a job that I believe to be “beneath” me.

Go figure, I guess you can have your cake and eat it too…eventually.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Kenneth and Korean Kulture vol 12 : Holy Reverse Culture Shock (repost from myspace)




Look at this picture and tell me what you see. Looks like a club right. Looks like your average Saturday at anywhere USA right.

WRONG



This shit is happening in Bucheon South Korea.



AND I DON'T LIKE IT.



Well that is not fair, I actually wasn't ready for it. This bar is called Rhythm and Booze and it is nothing that you would expect from a western bar in Korea…because these people got it right.



Most "western" bars in Korea have a cowboys and Indians type of theme going on and the décor is almost always wood and the beer selection is always shitty and but the thing is, these types of bars are their(Korean people's)interpretation of the American bar scene while at the same time keeping it as close to the Korean social dynamic as possible. This place on the other hand had everything that a person that just got to Korea or a person that has never been to the U.S. would need for a jolt of American culture straight in your face!



Over crowded



Hot



Overpriced drinks



And for what is certainly going to be the hardest thing for me to get over when I get back to the states, which is the first thing I was surprised about when I got here. This place had a line to get a fucking drink.



Really, that shit got on my nerves for real. Call me spoiled, but the places that I frequent here have buttons on the table. You press the button and the server comes over and takes your drink order and brings it to you. Real fast too! I have actually been in bars where it is crowded and when I press the button I still get my drink really fast.



Needless to say, there were no buttons on the tables, but you had everything else. A shitty cover band, people smoking all over the place, old creepy dudes looking at the hot Asian girls, young creepy dudes, looking at the hot Asian girls.

And it was fucking loud.



When I saw what this place was I realized that I wasn't ready for this. And when I get back home there are prolly going to be a lot of things that are going to hit me all of a sudden and I am not going to be ready for. I think I am going to need like a halfway house or something.



Now when I go to places like Itawon or Hongdae, I expect this kind of atmosphere, I expect to see a bunch of drunk foreigners acting rowdy. Honestly I think places like that are strictly designed for that kind of behavior. Seriously, Itawon was buit for Waygookins and that is why it has such a bad rap for fighting, crime, and prostitution(well crime in the Korean sense of the word) Now bringing that kind of party to other places in Korea require some work and some effort, and paying off the right cops.



No really, cops are sooooooooo fucking dirty over here, but that isn't the point.



Actually what makes hongdae and Itawon different and ok is the amount of Koreans present at the clubs. This one had non Koreans, only the Gyppo's(Koreans that have lost their citizenship due to immigration or adoption). Not that that means anything, but you can be assured that the western club scene is not what the normative Korean would consider fun. I think that as more Koreans meet other waygookins clubs like this will become more popular. Where else will the korean people learn to do things like the "Stanky Leg" and what not



I don't think I am going back there…well maybe….I dunno.