Since 2009 was a great year for  HalfKorean.com, I felt a look back at the website updates and achievements made by prominent people in 2009 would be a worthwhile blog topic.

One of the first goals that I set for 2009 was to come up with more content for the site. I was able to accomplish that, for the most part, by completing interviews with a variety of notable and prominent people.  The plan was to complete at least one feature or interview per month and I ended up with 8 interviews total (close)!

I was very fortunate to be able to start the year off with the Carlos Galvan interview.  He is a hip hop recording artist in Korea that most will know from his time as an original member of Uptown.  In the interview he was very open about his career ups and downs and what it is like being mixed Korean and in the Korean music industry. He released a solo mini-album in early 2009, Still Standin’, and should have another album released sometime in 2010. He also became affiliated with the Jiggy Fellaz (another Korean hip hop crew) about midway through 2009.

This was followed up with an interview with international model Lisa Kim Fleming. Much love & respect to her for being down for HalfKorean.com and also for coming out to our October 2009 meet!

The rest of the year saw interviews with Chris Vann (2009 KBL draft pick), Steve Lee (recording artist), David No (actor/director/stuntman extraordinaire), Ida “Isak” Simmons (singer/recording artist & VJ/DJ for Arirang), Brian Tee (actor) and Johnny Yong Bosch (actor/voice actor & recording artist).

I appreciate each and every one of them for their honesty and time to let us know a little about themselves and sharing their take on being of mixed Korean descent.

HalfKorean.com 2009 Meet

Although content for the site was one major goal, the bigger achievement was being able to have another HalfKorean.com meet. I had heard from people over the years about having another get together and in 2009 the time was finally right. The ball started rolling in August when I re-connected with Philip “Flip” Cuddy and met Frankie & Tia Legoski. They became my co-hosts/planners and we decided on Los Angeles as the location and set October 10, 2009 as the date. It was a great opportunity for people to meet & network with other mixed Koreans and I personally was thrilled to see old friends and make new ones. We kept the meet pretty straightforward and Flip gave a guided tour of the Korean National Association building/museum (where the meet was held). Frankie & Tia discussed their group, Amerasian Unity Foundation, as well as introduced AUF’s main project Journey to Motherland. Our meet was covered by Korea Times (한국일보) and the story made the front page of the 10/13/2009 issue!

Now, there was a lot of exciting things being done by our prominent folks in 2009 and I wanted to share some highlights below.  Hopefully I’m not missing anything/anybody major; if I did, my apologies!

Music highlights:

Carlos Galvan – I already mentioned him and the interview we did earlier; he had one single and promo video released from Still Standin’,  U R My Girl

Rakaa (aka Iriscience) of Dilated Peoples – Appeared on two Korean hip hop tracks (English versions); Drunken Tiger’s “Monster” from the Feel Ghood Muzik : the 8th wonder album and Epik High’s “Rocksteady” from the [e] album. He also appeared at R16 which is an annual hip hop cultural festival in Korea that was held in Incheon from September 12-27, 2009. He’s hard at work on his own solo album to be released in 2010, Crown of Thorns, as well as various Dilated related material.  Here’s a couple clips from R16: Monster Live at R16 – 2009 & Backstage at R16 (Rakaa, Tiger JK, Roscoe Umali)

Insooni (인순이) – She released her 17th (!) album and featured the singles Fantasia & Cry.  She is an amazing person & artist and seems to just keep going strong in the Korean music industry.

Michael Horton (aka Maniac) of UPT – He is a member of the group Jiggy Fellaz and in 2009 became part of a new group, UPT, that was based off the original Uptown but with only singer Chris Jung remaining.  There were two videos released from UPT’s New Era album: Baby Baby & Black Knight (흑기사)

Tasha (aka Yoon Mirae) – Was featured on the tracks “Monster” (English version) & “True Romance” from her husband’s (Tiger JK) Drunken Tiger album Feel Ghood Muzik : the 8th wonder.

Amerie – She released a new album, In Love & War, and had two videos Why R U & Heard ‘Em All

Johnny Yong Bosch (of Eyeshine) – released a new album My Paper Kingdom. Here is the video of the single, Fighting

Dok2 (도끼) – Don’t know too much about this rapper, but his real name is Lee Joon Kyung and he is Korean/Spanish/Filipino (according to what I’ve read online).  He has been featured in a lot of Movement Crew related albums (Drunken Tiger, Epik High, etc.).  He’s formerly of the group All Black and released a solo EP, Thunderground, in late 2009. Here’s a video for the first single It’s Me.

Anthony Kim (aka Akim of Vox Merger) – He is an independent rapper based out of Southern California and has put out some great singles and is someone to keep an eye on if you are into hip hop music.  Here’s some of his group’s videos Reasons & American Pie

Alexander Lee Eusebio – A member of the K-pop boy band U-KISS who released their 3rd single album, Man Man Ha Ni (만만하니).  He is of Korean & Portuguese/Chinese descent.

Steve Lee – Released his second album, Dirty South Korea, which is a comedic/autobiographical look at being Korean in Arkansas (& the South).  It featured the funny song & video Say Herro

Karen O (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs) –  Released the album It’s Blitz! and has been nominated for the Grammy’s Best Alternative Music Album of 2009 (winner to be determined at the 52^nd Grammy Awards ceremony on January 31, 2010).

And to wrap up; although not a musician/recording artist, Lisa Kim Fleming was featured in the Far-East Movement music video Fetish. It’s a cool song/video and it doesn’t hurt that the track is a lyrical ode to the many “fetishes” of young males (clothes, kicks, girls, etc.).

Sports highlights:

I’ll start off with football (since it’s my favorite sport… haha)

Hines Ward (of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers) – He captured his 2^nd Super Bowl ring as the Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. Although he didn’t have a great game due to injuries, the Super Bowl XL MVP still was an integral part of the Steelers championship season. He followed it up with a great 2009 season but unfortunately the Steelers were unable to make the playoffs to attempt a repeat.

Ben Leber (of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings) – He continued to have a prominent role in the Vikings defense as a starting linebacker. The Vikings had a great run in 2009 that unfortunately ended in the NFC Championship game vs. the New Orleans Saints (1/24/2010). If the Vikings had made the Super Bowl, he would have become the 2^nd mixed Korean or any type of Korean for that matter (that I know of) to play in a Super Bowl.

Emmanuel Moody (of the University of Florida Gators) – He completed another season with the Gators. He put up decent stats considering he was not the starting running back. Since transferring to the University of Florida from USC in 2007 he has won one BCS national championship (on 1/8/2009). The 2009 season ended with a Sugar Bowl victory on 1/1/2010 in which Emmanuel had two rushing touchdowns. I believe that he will be a Senior for the 2010 season so we’ll continue to monitor his progress.

Marcus Freeman (of the NFL’s Houston Texans) – Coming out of Ohio State University he was considered a decent linebacker prospect and was drafted in the 5^th round of the 2009 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears. He didn’t end up making the Bears final roster and signed with the Buffalo Bills practice squad for a short period of time and eventually ended up on the Houston Texans practice squad until the end of the 2009 season. Here’s hoping that he catches on with a team for the 2010 season whether it be the Texans or elsewhere.

CJ Bacher (of the UFL’s New York Sentinels) – After a great career as quarterback at Northwester University, CJ went undrafted. He participated in a post-draft workout for the Chicago Bears but did not end up getting invited to camp. He joined the UFL’s New York Sentinels for the inaugural 2009 UFL season.

Will Demps (formerly of the NFL’s Houston Texans) – He sat out the 2009 NFL season after being released by the Houston Texans at the end of the 2008 season. Unsure if he plans to continue his NFL career or what he plans to pursue (if outside of football), but hopefully we’ll find out soon!

Basketball/KBL Draft “Ethnic” Draft:

The Korean Basketball League (KBL) instituted the first ever “Ethnic” or “Half Korean” draft in 2009 which was on the same weekend as the standard KBL draft. It was quite controversial due to some questionable rules that the KBL placed for this supplemental draft but could definitely be seen as a step in the right direction in terms of allowing mixed Koreans to play in the KBL. A total of 5 players were picked (out of 7 who entered the draft): Tony Akins (전태풍/KCC Egis), Eric Sandrin (이승준/Samsung Thunders), Greg Stevenson (문태영/LG Sakers), Kevin Mitchell (원하준/KT&G Kites) and Chris Vann (박태양/KT Sonic Boom). There were already two existing mixed Korean players in the KBL: Julian Fernandez (김민수/SK Knights), Daniel Sandrin (이동준/Daegu Orions).

There will be another mixed Korean draft in early February 2010 so we will see how the KBL approaches the process in the second go-round.

MMA:

BJ Penn (UFC) – Although his most notable 2009 match was probably the one he lost (which was controversial) to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 94 (1/31/2009) he did have two other well-regarded matches. He successfully defended his Lightweight title at UFC 107 (12/12/2009) against Diego Sanchez and at UFC 101 (8/8/2009) against Kenny Florian. BJ is still considered one of the premier MMA fighters in the world.

Benson Henderson (WEC) – Benson (aka “Smooth”) won the interim WEC lightweight title at WEC 43 against Donald Cerrone on 10/10/2009. He is now the undisputed champ after his victory at WEC 46 against Jamie Varner on 1/10/2010. He also had victories WEC 38 and WEC 40 in 2009. His victory at WEC 43 won Sherdog.com’s 2009 Fight of the Year award and cemented him as one of the top up and coming MMA fighters.

Movies/TV/Entertainment/Etc. highlights:

There were many entertainers making moves in 2009. Leading the way for actors was Moon Bloodgood who was featured in the film Terminator Salvation and Daniel Henney who made the transition from the Korean to American market with feature roles in the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the CBS TV series Three Rivers (which has now been canceled).

Denyce Lawton continues to appear on the sitcom Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (we interviewed her back in early 2004).

Brian Tee can be seen on the TV series Crash (which is based on the film of the same name) and was also in the independent film Deadland.  Make sure to check out the interview we had with him (link above).

Lindsay Price was seen on the TV shows Lipstick Jungle and Eastwick (unfortunately both series are now canceled).

Of course, just about everyone knows the outcome of the reality series Jon & Kate plus 8; the family’s breakup played out and Jon Gosselin eventually became a popular tabloid target. Jon & Kate officially divorced in December 2009. Here’s hoping that the children come out of this whole mess unscathed and stay out of the public eye for the immediate future.

Comedian Steve Byrne was busy touring all year long and taped a new Comedy Central special titled The Byrne Identity.  It should be shown on Comedy Central sometime in 2010.  I personally saw two of his shows last year and he is well worth seeing live if he comes to your town!  We posted an interview with him in January 2010; it was started in 2009 but we didn’t finish in time to post it before the end of 2009.

Kimberly Gittings was Miss Georgia USA 2009 and placed in the top 15 for Miss USA 2009.

Martina Lee was Miss Germany 2009 and competed in Miss Universe 2009 (not completely confirmed but from what I’ve read online is that she is Korean/German).

Marilyn Strickland became Mayor of Tacoma, Washington.  She was sworn in to office on 1/5/2010 and is the 2nd woman of Korean descent to become a Mayor in the USA!

Whew, hope that wasn’t too much information!  I’m sure I might have missed some achievements from 2009 but I think I covered the majority of them.  If I missed something that you feel should be mentioned here, please comment on this post and/or message me.

2010

So, to wrap up, the goals for HalfKorean.com in 2010 are to continue adding content (such as interviews, etc.), keep connecting with like-minded organizations & websites, fix broken links or non-working parts of the website (a thorough “clean-up” is definitely needed) and possibly some sort of re-design (hopefully).  But, the biggest goal is to make sure that we do have another HalfKorean.com meet in 2010.

Well, hope everyone continues to visit and enjoy the website.  Please remember that I’m always open to suggestions/ideas so holler at me!  It’s amazing that this is the 13th year for the site (started in 1997) and how far along it has come.  I was still in my teens when I started the site and am now in my early 30’s (yeah I’ll admit my age… haha) and married with two young children. 🙂

Best wishes to everyone in 2010!