3월 9th, 2010
The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.
A day in the life of New York City, in miniature.
Original Music: composed by Human, co-written by Rosi Golan and Alex Wong.
Please view in HD and full screen for best effect.
또치
3월 3rd, 2010
도도한 녀석.
날 닮았다고들 한다.
신비주의 강아지로 잘 키워야지.
Sidney Crosby’s Top 10 Goals
3월 2nd, 2010
미국과의 결승전에서 극적인 오버타임 골을 성공시킨
Team Canada의 아이스하키 신동, a.k.a. “The Next One’
NYT article on Kim Yuna’s gold medal performance
2월 27th, 2010
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Dressed in azure, accompanied by Gershwin, Kim Yu-na of South Korea seemingly floated to the clouds with her soaring jumps and airy elegance Thursday night, winning an Olympic gold medal and her rightful place as one of the greatest women’s figure skaters of any era.
Demonstrating technical superiority and ethereal grace at 19, Kim delivered a world-record performance of 228.56 total points. Math alone cannot fully describe the resourcefulness, complexity and artistry of her skating, except in this context: Kim would have finished ninth in the men’s competition, nearly 10 points ahead of the American national champion, Jeremy Abbott.
Mao Asada of Japan became the first woman to land two triple axels in a free skate at the Winter Games, but she still finished a distant second by more than 20 points. Even before Asada skated, she knew that her chances for gold were futile after Kim’s refined and charming performance.
“I could hear the crowd going crazy,” Asada said.
What the audience of 11,771 at Pacific Coliseum had witnessed was an unprecedented combination of technical difficulty and willowy sophistication as Kim became the first South Korean skater to win an Olympic gold medal. She held up under enormous pressure to succeed as an athlete, a cultural icon and a vanquisher of competitors from Japan, which occupied the Korean peninsula for 35 years through the end of World War II.
“Today, I was more confident than ever,” Kim, the 2009 world champion, said.
It is impossible to precisely compare skaters from different eras. Rules change. Athleticism increasingly demands its place alongside artistry. But a number of Kim’s gold medal predecessors were present Thursday, and all seemed thoroughly impressed that Kim had been so poised and lissome in her presentation and vaulting in her jumps.
“How do you compare that to Sonja Henie?” said Kristi Yamaguchi, the 1992 Olympic champion, referring to the three-time gold medalist from Norway in the 1920s and ’30s. “Everything is relative to the time and era.”
Still, Yamaguchi added: “Certainly, it has taken women’s skating to another level. Technically. The whole package.”
Assured, serene, Kim opened with a triple lutz-triple toe combination, a triple flip and a double axel-double toe-double loop combination. Through four minutes of the challenging program, she skated with speed, lightness and engaging openness in a style that her coach, Brian Orser, calls unselfish and welcoming.
“She reaches the last row of the building,” Orser said beforehand. “People feel they’re invited to enjoy it as she is.”
On Thursday, Kim whisked like a feather across the ice.
“Technically, she’s the greatest of all time,” said Ted Barton, a Canadian who helped devise the new points-based scoring system. “If she skates a little longer and does this over the next three or four years, she will be the greatest skater of all time.”
Scott Hamilton, the 1984 men’s Olympic champion, compared Kim to Seabiscuit, the thoroughbred, as dominant athletes who broke their competitors’ will.
“Yu-na has only been at the top of her game for a couple of years,” Hamilton said. “But if she’s here another four years at this level, a lot of skaters would break down. They would try to up their games so much, there would be injuries. There’s no weakness there. Compare her with anybody; she’s got it all. Under any system, anywhere, any time, she’d win.”
Encomiums have been handed to Kim here in bouquets, like flowers. Michelle Kwan, the two-time Olympic medalist, said, “She’s the fastest skater I’ve ever seen.”
Katarina Witt, the 1984 and ’88 Olympic champion, said, “She has a lightness to her skating and her jumps are very high.”
Dorothy Hamill, the 1976 Olympic champion, said: “She’s the whole package. Her jumps are soaring and they’re equal. You don’t have one big one followed by a little tiny jump. I think she’s grown choreographically. She’s very musical. The whole thing is very beautiful and athletic, but not too athletic. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything when I watch her.”
Some believe that the new scoring system, with its incessant technical demands on jumps and steps and spins, does not allow skaters the same charisma and signature artistry afforded Peggy Fleming and Hamill and other stars from previous eras.
“As far as being renowned as a legendary artist, I don’t think so,” said Frank Carroll, who coached the fourth-place finisher, Mirai Nagasu of the United States, of Kim. “As a really great skater, technically, yes.”
David Kirby, an American coach and a technical expert, said: “Clearly, she’s the best girl, but it’s because she’s the best technician. She’s 70 percent sport, 30 percent art. Peggy Fleming was a real artist and real athlete. I don’t think that balance of art and sport is the Olympic champion this year.”
This will be seen as needless quibbling in South Korea, where Kim is the country’s most popular athlete. So intense was the interest in the Kim-Asada rivalry that Korean reporters and photographers began arriving at the arena 12 hours before Thursday’s competition, only to find that some of their Japanese counterparts had spent the night at the rink.
“This is not sports, this is war,” Lee Jiseok, a reporter for the Daily Sports Seoul newspaper, said, laughing. He and his colleagues had already prepared stories on Kim, her mother and her coach. “If she loses, we’re dead,” Lee said. “We’ll have to explain why she lost.”
That would not be necessary; Kim won the most glamorous event at the Winter Games.
“I think the whole nation is in front of the television,” said John Moon, chief of staff of the South Korean Olympic Committee. “Kim Yu-na is the country’s special sister. Every athlete is important, but her medal is more important than the others. She is beautiful. She’s our pride. I think Koreans will have a lot of drinks.”
Sports Illustrated article on 김연아’s short program
2월 25th, 2010
Kim, Rochette made this short program unforgettable
The battle belonged to Korea’s exquisite Kim Yu-na and Japan’s sensational Mao Asada, who are the two best women skaters of their time. But the night belonged to Canada’s courageous and heartrending Joannie Rochette, who was competing just two days after her mother, Therese, died of an apparent heart attack early Sunday morning shortly after arriving in Vancouver to watch her daughter skate.
It was an unforgettable evening on several levels. The quality of the skating by Kim and Asada, whose rivalry lived up to its billing, was, honestly, without precedent. Adding to the drama, they took the ice back to back. First it was Asada, the 2008 World Champion, landing her huge triple axel-double toe combination with ease — the first triple axel by a woman in the Olympics since Japan’s Midori Ito in 1992. And she brought more than her jumping to these Games. On a night when the judges were very conservative in awarding positive Grade Of Execution (GOE) points, Asada’s spiral sequence was given a +2.00. She made no mistakes, and her artistry was masterful — her program component scores ranged from 7.40 to 8.40. Pumping her fist after her final spin, Asada burst into a huge smile, as if to say: Beat that, Yu-na! — as the Pacific Coliseum was suddenly aflutter in Japanese flags. Asada’s total was 73.78, the second highest mark for a short program this year.
Of course the highest mark was given to the next skater, Kim, the 2009 World Champion and a woman who had steamrolled the field this year in the Grand Prix series, winning every time she took the ice. The pressure on her was extraordinary — all of Korea expected her to win, and especially expected her to beat the Japanese women, because of cultural animosity between those two countries. Kim’s short program, to a medley of James Bond themes, had been received all season as one of the great shorts ever, filled with flirtation, spunk, speed, and technical difficulty. Her triple lutz-triple toe combination to open her program actually had a higher base value than Asada’s less common triple axel-double toe.
But Kim was equal to the pressure. She was absolutely breathtaking, both in her technique and in her artistry. Every single element she performed received a positive GOE, and two — her spiral sequence and her triple-triple — were given +2.00. Her artistic marks ranged between 7.90 and 8.75 — they were the highest of the night — and the whimsical shot from her pistol at the end of the program was aimed right toward the judges’ hearts. Bulls-eye. Her score: a monstrous 78.50 — a world record for a short program. “I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I’d be,” she said later. “I was aware that Mao had skated a good program — it was hard not to be aware of it. But I do have a lot of experience and I was able to do what I came here to do.”
But Rochette was still to come, the first skater of the final group, and everyone in the building — indeed, everyone in Canada and every skating fan the world over — was pulling for her to do well. The six-time Canadian champion had basically cocooned herself among family and close friends since her mother’s sudden death, training as usual but giving no interviews and making no statements to illuminate the public as to her frame of mind. It seemed unreasonable to expect her to be able to channel her grief into a great skate, especially since this season she had struggled with inconsistency, so the 11,700 spectators gave her a deafening ovation when her name was announced, as individual voices called out “We love you Joannie!” and the like. As Rochette struck her pose at the center of the ice, waiting for her music to start, her face looked composed and free of tension. Silence, finally, descended on the crowd. She’d have had their hearts if she’d never moved an inch.
But she did move, as surely and confidently as if it were just another day at the rink. All those years of training and muscle memory — Rochette is 24, and she’d finished 5th at the 2006 Olympics — took over, and she landed her opening triple lutz, double toe without a hitch. Then she nailed a triple flip, receiving all positive marks for her GOE. Then a flying sit spin, a double axel, a spiral sequence … check … check … check. With each successful element — Rochette received no deductions or negative grades from the judges — the excitement in the building rose. The music, La Cumparsita, probably the most recognizable tango song in the world, was light, bouncy, gay — the furthest possible mood from how she surely was feeling. Yet she stayed in the role, right up through the final combination spin, which ended with another pose and a smile … a smile she held for perhaps two seconds before, as the crowd rose and burst into mad, loving applause, the tension finally appeared on her face and she dissolved into tears. But even that was a brief blip in her composure, for it was just a few moments later that she was taking her bows at center ice, waving at the still roaring crowd, fighting back, successfully, the sobs that were doubtless trying to break through her smile.
When her scores came up — 71.36, just 2.42 behind Asada, and a whopping 6.60 ahead of the fourth place skater, Miki Ando of Japan — Rochette found herself firmly in third. The crowd never stopped clapping, and she put her hand over her heart and waved a thank you before she left. “It was hard to be precise. Ten years from now, I’d like to come back and do this again,” Rochette said afterward, declining to attend the press conference for the top three women. “It was hard to handle, but I appreciate the support.” How was she holding up? someone asked. “Words cannot describe,” she said.
All in all, it was just about everything one could ask for from a night of figure skating. Of course the free skate’s still to come, placements might change (the U.S. women, Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu, both skated clean programs, and stand 5th and 6th, respectively). But you wouldn’t have gotten too many arguments from people who were there if they’d handed out the medals on the basis of the short program alone. Gold to Kim Yu-na of Korea. Silver to Mao Asada of Japan. A Bronze for the ages to Joannie Rochette of Canada.
On Thursday my prediction is it will happen that way.
Agyness Deyn Mishap
2월 18th, 2010
She’s so cute!!
Well, that’s what happens when you try to walk on 17.8cm-heels.
Magnificent!! Bravo, Sung-Ha!
2월 16th, 2010
한국인 처음으로 유튜브 `1억’ 조회의 주인공이 탄생했다.
‘기타 신동’으로 유명한 핑거스타일 기타리스트 정성하(14)군.
16일 인터넷 동영상 사이트인 유튜브(YouTube)에 따르면 정군의 유튜브 동영상 조회수는 1억 1천만여 건이다.
2006년 9월 정군의 아버지 정우창 씨가 지인의 권유로 재미삼아 정군이 일본 유명 기타리스트의 연주곡인 ‘스플래시(Splash)’를 연주한 영상을 유튜브에 올린 이래240개 동영상을 등록해 총 조회수가 42개월 만에 ‘1억 뷰(view)’를 넘어선 것이다.
이는 국내 최고 인기 그룹들의 동영상을 제공하는 엔터테인먼트 업체들의 기록보다 1.5∼2배에 달하는 것이고, 매일 세계적으로 8만∼9만 번씩 정군의 영상을 `클릭’해야 달성할 수 있는 수치다.
현재 청심국제중 1학년인 정군이 기타를 처음 잡은 것은 5년 전. 음악을 좋아했던 아버지 영향으로 기타 연습을 시작한 정군은 독학이나 다름없는 꾸준한 연습과 노력으로 짧은 시간에 기타 신동으로 명성을 떨치기 시작했다.
특히 정군의 기타 주법인 ‘핑거스타일’은 곡의 멜로디와 리듬, 박자를 동시에 기타 한 대로 연주하는 것으로 세계적으로도 이런 주법을 사용하는 기타리스트는 많지 않은 것으로 알려져 있다.
어린 정군이 자신의 몸 만한 크기의 기타를 들고서 현란한 손동작으로 연주해 내는 모습을 인터넷으로 접한 누리꾼들의 반응은 폭발적이었고, 곧이어 음악가들의 러브콜이 쇄도했다.
이름이 본격적으로 알려지기 시작한 2008년부터 음악적 교감을 나누거나 협연한외국 유명 연주자들만도 토미 임마누엘(Tommy Emmanuel), 미셸 오몽(Michel Haumont), 트레이스 번디(Trace Bundy), 코타로 오시오(Kotaro Oshio) 등 화려한 면면을 자랑한다.
또 2008년 9월에는 정군이 비틀스의 명곡 ‘올 유 니드 이즈 러브(All You Need is Love)’를 기타로 연주한 모습을 담은 영상에 존 레넌의 미망인 오노 요코가 “정말 아름다운 연주였다. 당신이 이렇게 연주하는 것을 존 레넌이 봤으면 참 좋아했을것”이라는 댓글을 달아 화제가 되기도 했다. 지난해 2월 서울에서 열린 첫 독주회를 시작으로 본격적인 공연 활동을 시작한 정군은 4월 독일 프랑크푸르트에서 열리는 세계 최대 뮤직쇼 ‘무지크 메세’, 10월 태국 방콕 어쿠스틱 기타 페스티벌 등에 참가해 세계를 상대로 솜씨를 뽐냈다. 최근 미국 기획사의 주관으로 트레이스 번디와 함께 미국 5개 도시 투어를 마친정군은 이달 19일부터 6일간 핀란드 기획사가 추진한 ‘핀란드 5개 도시 단독 공연’을 펼친다. 공연 관계자는 “최연소는 물론이고 한국인 뮤지션이 핀란드에서 투어 형식의 단독 공연을 하는 것 자체가 아마 최초일 것”이라고 말했다.
이제 본격적으로 세계 속에서 자신의 재능을 꽃피우기 시작한 정군의 목표는 곳곳을 누비며 많은 음악가와 함께 무대에 서는 것. 정군은 “내가 좋아서 치는 기타인데 많은 사람이 좋아해 줘서 기분도 좋고 뿌듯하다. 앞으로도 계속 전 세계의 음악을 사랑하는 사람들과 만나고 싶다”라고 말했다.
“Fireflies” – Owl City
2월 9th, 2010
You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep
‘Cause they’d fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You’d think me rude
But I would just stand and stare
I’d like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay
Awake when I’m asleep
‘Cause everything is never as it seems
‘Cause I’d get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance
A foxtrot above my head
A sock hop beneath my bed
A disco ball is just hanging by a thread
I’d like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay
Awake when I’m asleep
‘Cause everything is never as it seems
When I fall asleep
Leave my door open just a crack
(Please take me away from here)
‘Cause I feel like such an insomniac
(Please take me away from here)
Why do I tire of counting sheep
(Please take me away from here)
When I’m far too tired to fall asleep
To ten million fireflies
I’m weird ’cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell
But I’ll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre
‘Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar
I’d like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay
Awake when I’m asleep
‘Cause everything is never as it seems
When I fall asleep
I’d like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay
Awake when I’m asleep
‘Cause everything is never as it seems
When I fall asleep
I’d like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay
Awake when I’m asleep
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams
2월 5th, 2010
Wow.
Connors.. McEnroe.. Graf.. Seles.. Sabatini.. Capriati.. Edberg.. Becker.. Chang.. Agassi.. Navratilova.. Lendl.. Courier.. Krichstein..
Those were the good times to watch, and play, this wonderful game.
고교시절 학교대표팀에 뽑힐만큼 사랑했던 게임이었는데..
지나간 세월과 함께 잃어버린 수많은 것들 중 하나가 되어버렸다.
I don’t want to lose anything anymore.
2월 4th, 2010
I am a simple man, and I sing a simple song.
Never been so much in love and never hurt so bad at the same time.
I am a simple man and I play a simple tune.
I wish that I could see you once again across the room like the first time.
I just want to hold you, I don’t want to hold you down.
I hear what you’re saying, and you’re spinning my head around,
and I can’t make it alone.
The ending of the tale is the singing of the song.
Make me proud to be your man, only you can make me strong like the last time.
I just want to hold you, I don’t want to hold you down.
I hear what you’re saying, and you’re spinning my head around,
and I can’t make it alone.
Watch and learn, Lady Gaga
2월 3rd, 2010
Boy, did I love this woman!
That voice… the hair… the make-up…
She was just so far ahead of her time.
“Sweet Disposition” – The Temper Trap
1월 30th, 2010
다시 생각해보는 쓰촨
1월 30th, 2010류우익 신임 주중 한국대사가 지난 1월 22일부터 24일까지 2박3일간 2008년 대지진 피해를 입었던 쓰촨(四川)성을 방문했다. 대사 부임 후 첫 지방 방문이다. 2008년 5월 당시 이명박 대통령은 외국 국가 원수로는 처음으로 쓰촨 대지진 피해 현장을 찾았었다. 류 대사는 류치바오(劉奇�l) 쓰촨성 당서기와 면담을 갖고 이 대통령이 방문했던 두장옌(都江堰)시를 둘러봤다.
두장옌에서는 지진으로 부모가 숨지거나 중상을 입은 어린이, 불구의 몸이 된 피해 주민 등 10여명이 류 대사 일행을 맞았다. 그중 초등학교 5학년생 웨이웨하오(魏月濠)군은 이 대통령이 직접 안고 위로해줬던 어린이다. 이 어린이는 지난해 청와대의 초청을 받아 한국을 방문했었다. 류 대사는 이들에게 구호품을 전달하고 위로했다. 류 대사는 현지 언론 인터뷰에서 이번 방문에 대해 “양국이 궁극적으로 추구해야 할 마음의 교류(心的交流)를 위한 것”이라고 말했다.
류 대사가 첫 지방 방문지로 쓰촨을 택한 것은 이곳과 인연이 있기 때문이다. 이 대통령이 방중(訪中) 도중 예정에 없이 쓰촨성을 방문한 것은 당시 대통령 비서실장이던 류 대사가 직접 기획한 일이었다. 그 때문에 이 대통령도 중국으로 떠나는 류 대사에게 “부임하면 쓰촨 지진 피해 현장을 챙겨보라”고 지시했다고 한다. 류 대사는 이런 곳을 양국 친선 교류의 상징으로 삼고 싶었을 것이다.
하지만 이런 우리의 뜻과 달리 이 대통령의 쓰촨 방문 사실을 아는 중국인은 그리 많지 않다. 류 대사의 쓰촨 방문만 해도 현지 언론을 제외하고는 보도한 곳이 거의 없었다. 대지진 당시 외국의 도움과 관련해 상당수 중국인이 잊지 않고 기억하는 것은 일본 구조대의 활약이다.
지진 발생 6일째인 2008년 5월 17일 오전 7시 30분, 일본 구조대원 31명은 쓰촨성 최북부에 있는 칭촨(靑川)현 관좡(關莊)진의 한 병원에서 16시간 이상 계속된 밤샘 작업 끝에 모녀의 시신을 찾아냈다. 이 병원 기숙사에서 산후 휴가를 보내다 지진으로 건물이 붕괴되면서 숨진 쑹쉐메이(宋雪梅)와 강보에 싸인 그의 75일 된 어린 딸이었다.
시신을 수습한 일본 구조대원들은 시신을 가운데에 두고 2열로 정렬한 뒤 추도의 묵념을 올렸다. “최선을 다했지만…”이라며 고개를 떨어뜨린 구조팀장에게 쑹쉐메이의 어머니는 “수고했다. 정말 수고했다”며 연방 감사의 인사를 전했다. 그 이후도 마찬가지였다. 베이촨(北川)현 등지에서 잠을 잊고 구조에 매달린 일본 구조대원들은 시신을 발굴할 때마다 경건한 묵념 의식으로 숨진 이들을 애도했다. 그들이 보여준 헌신과 생명에 대한 외경(畏敬)은 중국인들에게 머리 위로 찬물을 끼얹은 듯한 신선한 충격을 던져줬다.
5월 19일 밤, 3박4일의 구조작업을 마치고 쓰촨성 청두(成都)로 돌아온 일본 구조대원들은 연도에 늘어선 시민의 열렬한 박수를 받았다. 중국인들의 일본에 대한 시각이 바뀌었다는 얘기까지 나왔다.
‘외국 국가 원수의 첫 지진 피해 현장 방문’이라는 명분에도 불구하고 중국인들이 이 대통령의 방문보다 일본 구조대의 활동을 더 기억하는 것은 무엇 때문일까. 중국은 역사적으로 일본에 의해 큰 피해를 입은 나라인데도 그렇다. 중국인들이 일본 구조대에게서 진정(眞情)을 느꼈기 때문일 것이다. 류 대사가 말한 ‘마음의 교류’가 어떤 외교 이벤트보다 중요하다는 것을 일본 구조대가 보여주고 있다.
최유식 조선일보 베이징특파원
“it” girl of the moment
1월 20th, 2010
‘Entourage’ star Emmanuelle Chriqui has seen off competition from stars including Eva Mendes, Jessica Alba and Beyonce to be named the world’s most attractive woman in a new poll.
The actress came top in the survey by AskMen.com, which named the 99 most beautiful females, ahead of model Marisa Miller and British actress Kate Beckinsale who landed second and third place respectively.
The top five is rounded out by catwalk beauty Alessandra Ambrosio and Hollywood actress Jessica Alba.
Beyonce, Eva Mendes and Penelope Cruz all featured in the top 10, while sexy star Megan Fox failed to make the cut, slinking in at number 11.
JK’s Wedding Entrance Dance
12월 30th, 2009
My favorite Youtube upload of 2009
결혼은 이렇게 해야하는거야!!!!
12월 29th, 2009
긴팔원숭이 지미페이지…
Thank god these guys came out in the early 70s rather than today. Otherwise we’d never hear of them. The rap and gay DJ disco dance mafia shit today would all but shut them out of mass attention. “Oh, get these guys outta the way! Lady Ga Ga is the shit!”
말실수
12월 29th, 2009
1. 슈퍼에 같이 간 친구가
라면있는 코너에서 한참을 뒤지더니 아줌마한테 하는말:
“아줌마! 여기 너구리 순진한맛 없어요?”
2. “치킨집이죠? 치킨이름이…”
그거 뭐지 생각하다가… 문득 떠올랐던 그 말.
“살없는 치킨 있죠?”
3. 어느 중국집에 탕수육과 쟁반짜장 시킨후…
한참이 지나도 오지않자 짜증난 친구가 다시 전화를 걸었다.
중국집: 예~
내친구: 아까 배달한 사람인데요!
4. 어떤 여자가 혼자 걸어가는데 불량소년들이 저쪽에서 “야! 너 이리와”
이 소리를 “야! 날라와”로 알아듣고 어떻게 날아갈 방법이 없으니까
손으로 날개짓하면서 “훨~훨~”하며 갔더니 미친X인줄 알고 다 도망갔다는…
5. 삼겹살집에서 사장님을 부른다는게 “주인님~~ 여기 2인분 더 주세요” 했다.
앞에 앉은 친구가, “니 삼겹살집 주인 종이냐?”
from blogsoul