2010 HalfKorean.com Year in Review

Even though 2011 is already in full swing, we wanted to take a moment to look back at 2010.

HalfKorean.com Site Updates

The biggest move we made was reformatting the website in April. It is now powered by WordPress, like many other websites, and has made it much easier to update the website than the old method that had been used since the beginning (manually creating HTML pages). There are still some parts of the site that have not been completely transferred over but we hope to have that completed this year.

The Blog section is where site updates and assorted other updates regarding people or news are posted. I try to highlight a variety of things. I’m still sort of new to “blogging” but will try to use it even more in 2011.

One of the new sections we are proud to have started is Spotlight, which focuses on highlighting a variety of individuals, websites, organizations and businesses from within our community. If you would like to share with the community your accomplishments, please let us know and we’d like to feature you!

And last, but not least, we were able to start the ongoing feature The Mixed Korean Tattoo Project which features mixed Korean individuals and their Korean-themed tattoos. The general idea for this project is to collect and showcase various mixed Korean’s tattoos that represent their Korean background, culture and experiences. We have received quite a few but we know that there are a whole lot more out there so please send to us a picture and info if you have one!

One section that was removed prior to the website reformatting was the Picture section. I’ve had many people ask what happened to it and I figure this would be the best opportunity to explain. With the massive use of social networking sites I felt as though there wasn’t much need to add pictures on this site as a large majority of folks who want their picture online already have an online presence (e.g. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). It was becoming too much to keep up with and I actually had an extremely large queue of pictures that I just could never get around to posting from the years when I didn’t have any time to work on the site.

Here’s a slightly funny story related to the picture section. At our 2010 Los Angeles meet in October, Flip Cuddy was talking to our group and mentioned a friend of his who thought that I was an “asshole” because I never responded back to them about a picture to post on the site. He explained to his friend that I hadn’t been working on the site and it wasn’t on purpose. I still felt real bad hearing that! I apologize to anyone whom had submitted a picture and never saw it online. I’m not making excuses but I had a lot going on and during those years the site didn’t get many updates.

Interviews

The main content for HalfKorean.com has been our interviews with various prominent and notable mixed Koreans. We set out for 2010 with a goal to complete at least one interview a month and we accomplished that with 13 total! It was a milestone for us as that was the most content we had posted for one year and built upon the 8 interviews we completed in 2009.

We kicked off 2010 with stand-up comedian Steve Byrne. A genuinely funny guy, he was hard at work on his second Comedy Central special titled The Byrne Identity (which premiered on Comedy Central in July 2010) when we conducted our interview. He is constantly touring so be sure to catch him at your local comedy club if he is in your town!

Next up, in February, was hip hop recording artist Rakaa “Iriscience” Taylor. A hip hop veteran and one-third of the highly respected hip hop group Dilated Peoples, we were able to discuss his long-awaited forthcoming solo album, Crown of Thorns, and many different facets of his career and personal life. Crown of Thorns was released in July 2010.

In March we connected with professional MMA fighter Ben “Smooth” Henderson. At the time, he had just become undisputed WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting) Lightweight Champion at WEC 46 in January and was heavily preparing for his first title defense at WEC 48 in April. He succeeded in defending his title at WEC 48 and didn’t fight again until December at WEC 53, when he defended the title against Anthony Pettis in what was the final WEC event ever (WEC merged with UFC) . Unfortunately, Ben lost the fight by unanimous decision but we are sure he will be back better than ever as part of the UFC lightweight division.

We didn’t get to post one in April but came back in May with award-winning, world-renown tattoo artist Phillip Spearman. Not only is Phillip held in high regard as a tattoo artist but he also happens to be one of the pioneers in pushing Korean artwork and culture in the tattooing industry.

In June we came back with two interviews featuring professional MMA fighter Denis Kang and a follow-up interview with hip hop recording artist Carlos Galvan.

At the time of our interview, Denis was preparing for two upcoming fights. He successfully defeated Dae Won Kim at W-1 MMA: Judgement Day in Montreal, Canada on June 19, 2010 and followed up with a split-draw against Paulo Filho at Impact FC: The Uprising in Sydney, Australia on July 18, 2010. He is currently Canada’s #1 ranked middleweight and his next scheduled fight is on April 2, 2011 in Nanaimo, British Columbia for the Vancouver-based BFL promotion.

In our follow-up interview with Carlos Galvan we discussed his project album South Cide Volume 1 and the response he received after his first solo album Still Standin’ released in 2009. We also asked him about his thoughts on the new incarnation of Uptown, UPT, that he is not associated with.

In July, we doubled it up again with feature interviews with hip hop recording artist Anthony “Akim” Kim and professional fitness competitor Natalie Pennington.

Akim is one part of the independent duo Vox Merger and they plan to release their first album Mighty Ro Young & Akim Present… in the near future.

Natalie Pennington is a rising star in the professional fitness competition world who also happens to be a dentist by day. She competes in the bikini division of the International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB).

In August we featured a follow-up interview with professional basketball player Tony Akins. He was part of the historic first-ever KBL “Ethnic” draft and we checked in with him on how his first season in the KBL went along with his future ambitions with the Korean National team.

In September we interviewed dancer/entertainer/fitness model Steve Kim. He spent 6 years as a member of one of the most prominent male dance revues in the world, the Chippendales.

In October we interviewed animation director/producer Victor Cook. He is a veteran in the animation industry and has worked on many projects for major companies including Walt Disney Television Animation and Sony Entertainment Television. He is currently the supervising director for the WB animated series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated that can be seen on Cartoon Network.

In November we featured actress/model Jennifer Field. She is now widely known for being a part of the K-Town reality show cast. She is also a former Miss Asian America and Miss San Jose Grand Prix, winning both titles in 2006.

And, finally, in December we featured DJ and Radio/TV personality Kathleen “K-Sly” Taylor. Known as DJ K-Sly, she has had stints on major radio stations such as KKBT 100.3 The Beat in Los Angeles and WHTA Hot 107.9 (formerly Hot 97.5) in Atlanta.

I appreciate all of the interviewees for spending time with us and allowing us a look at their mixed Korean experience.

We will try our best to provide the community with even more insightful interviews in 2011!

2010 HalfKorean.com Meet

We held our annual meet on Saturday, October 16, 2010 at Dodam Restaurant in Los Angeles, California. Building upon the success of the 2009 meet, we had a great turnout which included attendees from the Los Angeles area, all over California as well as out of state including Minnesota and Arizona.

Something new we presented at the meet was a discussion panel that featured four notable mixed Koreans, all of whom coincidentally were interviewed in 2010. The panel featured Jennifer Field, Carlos Galvan, Victor Cook and Phillip Spearman. Flip Cuddy concluded the discussion panel by speaking about his family history and his experiences being mixed Korean.

Portions of the meet were included in the first episode of Arirang’s “I Am Korean American” docu-series that aired worldwide on their network at the end of 2010.

Read more about our annual meet here: 2010 HalfKorean.com Meet

Conclusion

So that about wraps up what we did in 2010. We look forward to bringing the community much more content. In fact, we just posted our second Interview of the year and have two Spotlight features that will be posted shortly.

Please provide us with comments so we know what we are doing good, bad or any other suggestions that you may have regarding the website.

Thank you to everyone out there who has helped me or the site over the years.