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| GET ON THE DCHO TRAIN!howdy faithful xanga readers!
i know it's been quiet for much too long in these parts, and so i wanted to write a very long overdue entry to help get the word out about an album i helped produce for a very very good friend of mine, by the name of DAVID CHO!
back in early fall, david flew all the way across from rainy land, seattle, to work on an album with me. as a good number of you might already know, dave has toured with me in the past, all around the west coast, and even the good old midwest! we had so much fun on the road that we decided to extend some of that CHO-CHUNG time by working on a sophomore release of sorts for the pluck-smacking wonder, David Cho. (pluck smack is a musical term that david cho coined, that refers to a way the guitar is played - you can ask him all about it - in fact, david if you're reading this, i think an instructional you tube video is in order).
as you can clearly see in this photograph, we had good times. look at that pouting lip!
ok, so yes, on a more serious note ("note", get it? like a musical "note"??), the final product came out to be something that both Dave and I are very proud of! (Probably one of my favorite projects I've worked on!)
Jinny Kim makes a guest appearance, and one of the songs was produced by good friend John Bonaventura who has played electric guitar with me on a few tours!
"THE VEIL" is now available at :
http://www.independentbands.com/cd/davidcho/theveil.html
(and of course, at live shows - so go catch a show already, if you haven't)
Since its release, it has been on the BEST SELLER'S LIST every month!!! So, this is where we need your help. Try listening to some of the samples.. if you enjoy his music, get yourself a copy! Buy your friends and loved ones copies! Let's keep him on that LIST! Otherwise, we might have that thing happend like it did on American Idol, where enough people didn't vote and Michael Johns and Carly Smithson got booted off the show way prematurely! Sad.
hmm, these are other places to visit if you want to get to know David a little:
http://www.davidchomusic.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/david-cho/8827032913
http://www.myspace.com/davidchomusic - LISTEN TO THE SONGS!
Thanks so much for reading, and in the words of Denise Williams, "let's hear it for the boy".
(and ... I just dated myself).
-koo
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| all or nothing..such a blur it's all been, with glimpses of hope for a shot at the top, to fit in, to be full, content, challenged, and rich in more ways than one. and somehow the tumble downwards happened much before tragedy hit, and now i watch them all run full force. but perhaps those lines were never sincere, and apologies were just to save face and to promote faith and form over heart and dedication. you do it so well, with your intentions i would support.. i'd probably be rambling on with you if i were still up to bat... and i'd beg for a chance but to the wrong crowd, to the "homogeneous" one, and perhaps that is reason all the more that reality struck like a boiling pot. i admit it's the thing so plain to see through this tint of green, and it eats away with its razor sharp teeth, and so i run for the latter where the ladder is fine, up or down, it's still with a frown..
"I can feel you... you're crying out..I can feel you.. you're touching me, you're healing me...my.."
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| missing you...someone reminded me about how i used to write in this thing so often (as well as my koochung.com journal), and so i hopped on the last train out to oh.. i think maybe 4 years ago??.. and decided to read all of my entries that i've made private. this is an excerpt that really stuck out.. it's not great or anything, but it caught my attention:
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koo from 2004:
only a stream
.. i was about to write. it was so incredibly peaceful... then i heard footsteps of someone walking to the bathroom... outside, the rain splatters against summer's thirsty ground, and inside i hear old wood sighing gently, creaking noisily as my father slowly walks across its upholding. i feel myself become tense, as i can't quite explain why those footsteps sounded like artificial noise, interrupting such a peaceful dimly lit night... each drop of rain, like a gentle massage against my uneasy soul.
these eyes are heavy.. having seen the hustle and bustle of dawn and the depressing drunken new york city at night... and nothing in between but four walls where only workaholics feel welcome... the only place they have to go... where you are not questioned... for who questions a hard worker? rather, who really bothers talking to one?
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i found it bizarre that i could barely tell that this was me writing. i sound so different. it was literally like looking at an old photo, but in writing form.. and it seems as though i used to THINK more... and now, i just feel like some old machine, waiting for its routine maintenance...
man, i need to wake up.
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| "YOU SPIT IN MY FACE"October 2007 was a big month for me... for 2 very big reasons.
1. I turned 30
2. I got engaged!
"30? No way, you look 20" is what i've been getting a lot from people... ok, that's a lie. a FEW kind people have said that i look only about mid twenties.. and that's good enough for me..  really!
that's that about my age i guess.. i mean, other than that, i know that turning 30 is kind of a big deal, and that in many cases, it might cause one to reflect upon their lives and think of everything they've been through.. think of successes and failures... things they've accomplished and things they wish they've accomplished.. and trust me, my mind was filled with thoughts like those for the past half year, and perhaps i will share more in detail as the months pass by.. but if there was one word that came to mind that summarizes everything i feel having reached this age.. it would be: thankful.
it really is easy, especially at this age, to be thinking onward and upward towards bigger and better things.. but honestly, for me it has been a season of slowing down for a bit and counting my blessings.. a time to catch my breath from all that's happened..
i'm sure i'll ramble on in future entries on related thoughts..
but right now.. on to details about big reason #2 up there!
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so i'm guessing that about...
85% of you guys either knew for sure or had a hunch that...
10% wondered if...
5% had no idea whatsoever that...
jinny and i have been in a dating relationship for about close to 3 years now!
to be honest, it's a bit of a relief to mention it on here because i happen to operate best when i'm able to be completely open and honest about my life... i also mean this from an artistic viewpoint as well.. i'm not one of those writers who are able to write in metaphors about everything that's happening with me..
but of course i dropped a big hint with the song "cardboard pickle", and for those who have listened carefully, you might have even guessed that "everything but you" is also about our relationship :)
the reason why it has never been mentioned in the past is twofold:
1 - we didn't want it to be a point of focus in our own careers and have that color how people listened to our music...
2 - since we weren't even engaged/married yet, it felt premature to talk about it in public...
so.. now that that's out of the way... here's how the proposal went down!!
for those who know jinny very well, you'll know that she's quite a unique one :) and i wish that everyone reading this had a better idea of what her personality (outside of "jinny kim the singer/songwriter") was like because things would make more sense as you read forward :) but jinny LOVES halloween because of all the fun memories she had from childhood during that particular season.. she LOVES scary movies, etc... so much so that i thought it would be fun to incorporate those themes into my proposal!
i'm not necessarily a fan of halloween, and i'm a terrible wuss when it comes to scary movies, so it set things up very well to be a nice surprise.. since early summer she had been asking me if i wanted to go to a haunted forrest when halloween came along and i always acted very dissinterested and gave her vague answers like "i'll think about it"...
when october came, i got in touch with one of her best friends lorraine and it turns out that she had gone to this thing called "Nightmare in NYC" a few times in the past and said that it was really fun and that they'd been thinking about going together.. so i purposely filled out a fake calendar saying that i was busy every night during halloween week... because if i didn't, i was sure jinny would try very hard to get me to go out to it with her... so to her disappointment she found that i was "busy" and so lorraine was able to plan for them to go by themselves...
meanwhile, i got in touch with the producers of "Nightmare.." and asked if there would be an interesting way in which i could propose to jinny... they were really awesome and were willing to let me dress up as a character and propose right there in the haunted maze! hahah.. "really romantic" you're thinking, huh? :)
but i had a plan! i would ask them to play our song "love me tender" (don't ask.. it's more of an inside joke than an attachment to that particular song) in the maze... when i saw her, i'd scare her really good!! and when the time came to "reveal" myself to her, i'd do so by showing her that underneath the costume, i was wearing yet another mask... a luchador spider-man mask that she bought for me in mexico earlier this year! it's such a unique mask, so she's bound to recognize this is me... she would say "KOO??!" then i would say "they're playing our song"... and then i'd get on one knee and propose.. then she'd cry because she finally realized that i really GET her!! she's say "YES".. and we'd hug.. THE END
but of course, we're talking about jinny here... so here's what ACTUALLY happened :) you'll see at the end of this story why it is that all her close friends and i often say to her "oh jinny..."
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moses, HJ, and i get ready to decorate the koomobile into the halloweenmobile.. this is for post-proposal when jinny gets into my car obviously :) moses is my longtime multimedia friend who pretty much documents most important things in my life on video.. this time was no exception :) thanks again moses!!!
i love these things...
we got to the place and met some of the people on staff... most of our help came from the director of the house, JOHN.. (forgot his last name)
this is john showing me a map of the maze and where i'll be hiding...
she's one of the actresses in the maze.. helping me put on my costume.. she (as well as the rest of the actors) is so nice that it was virtually impossible to be scared in that place anymore..
talking with one of the other actors about the game plan.. which was to basically scare off lorraine and jinny into ZONE 3, which was where i'd be hiding.. wearing a costume underneath a costume... this is the spiderman luchador mask i spoke of earlier.. very distinct.. jinny should recognize that it's me the minute she sees me :) (ps - love that sign up there that says "scare everyone not just girls")
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SHOW TIME!!
so, when the actors scared lorraine and jinny into zone 3, one of the actors were going to knock on the wall very loud to let me know they were about to enter my area...
moses and i were "practicing", and scaring other people who walked into zone 3. i have to admit, it was pretty fun.. and i got a couple of people really good! :) so, we were planning and discussing where exactly to position ourselves.. when all of a sudden, i heard the loud knocking about 15 minutes earlier than i had been expecting!!!!
so, moses and i panicked and scrambled to our positions that we didn't even settle on yet... this is when i saw jinny and lorraine enter our area, and then i froze when i saw jinny and she looked at me and walked right past me to where moses was....
the pictures below will be in "infrared mode", that's why we're all green!
this is lorraine screaming (from moses' perspective)
jinny on the other hand was perfectly calm and was about to walk right past me yet again, and so i had to do something.. so i stuck out my finger.. and said "wait".. 3 times! hahaha.. in some weird supposedly intimidating voice...
jinny, again unphased, says "ok" and waits for me to awkwardly take off my first mask to reveal "spiderman luchador mask"...
so this is when jinny's supposed to say "KOO??"... instead, she makes conversation with me not knowing that it's me...
"hey! i got that mask in mexico" - jinny
so i stare blankly at her.. completely confused.. and decide that it's time to reveal that it's me..
some background info: the whole time, i was wearing one of those mouthpieces that can hold a glow in the dark stick.. you know.. for added effect.. so that when i proposed, my mouth would be glowing...
but the thing about mouthpieces (boxers who wear mouthguards probably understand this) is that it causes you to lose control of the flow of saliva in your mouth....
now. back to the story.... she sees my face, and makes this hilarious cartoon like shocked facial expression.. and after having that dumb glow in the dark piece in my mouth for over 20 minutes .. having lost saliva control.. laughed a little too suddenly...
then this happened...
... "YOU SPIT IN MY FACE!!!" - jinny
now that i've completely ruined, i leaned over and whispered something completely incoherent to her.. but it definitely wasn't "they're playing our song"...
it was something like "hey.. i knew.. sorry i spit.. oh man.."
then i valiantly moved forward with everything :)
    
"will you marry me" - koo
she said "awww", but i took that as a "yes".. and assumed we were good to go :)
the actors came out and applauded.. jinny kept asking everyone "but how.. but how"
as we walked out of the maze, i asked if she had heard the song.. it was only then that she realized that our song had been playing that whole time of utter confusion....
later she told me in private that when she saw my face, the thought that entered her mind first was "wait, does koo own this place?"
amazing :)
so, we got to the car, where i had some more surprises waiting for her.. the halloweenmobile with fully functional glow sticks.. and a necklace i slyly took notice of her taking notice of :)
   
after this i took her to a restaurant in city island that we consider (our spot).. i told her we'd celebrate w/ another couple and that her brother would be coming out... but what she didn't know was that i'd invited all of our closest friends to come out and celebrate with us!
TADA!!!
the girls took a closer look at the ring :)
and i took a closer look at my lobster ...
and that's how it happened
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thanks again to everyone who came out.. you made the night so special and memorable! we love you guys!!
i only we wish we could have invited many more people to come, but i guess that's what the wedding is for! :)
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if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading! more updates to come..
photos courtesy of moses lee and fernando huh and.. my iPhone :)
koo
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