While I am going to continue writing about short cultural anecdotes, I decided, based on the (few) comments on my last post, to get into some more long-form stuff. Here are some topics I am working on, based in order of likely publication.

1. “What is it about 20-somethings”- in Korea. My take on the New York Times Magazine pieces about America’s youth and how it relates to being overseas as an English teacher. This should be finished in the next few days.

2. Trip to Mongolia. Most likely a play-by-play of all the things I did in the country. I wanted to wait until I finished tagging and naming all the photos on Flickr, but it just takes too damn long.

3. 60th Anniversary of the Incheon Invasion. This is left over from the anniversary of the beginning of the war, as I photos of my grandfather, a US Marine who fought here for a year. This should be ready on the day of the invasion, September 15.

4. Internet Explorer, Korea and You. Another left over. This is something I’ve been aching to write about, but I need drudge through a lot of technical research I’ve done that only techies and web developers would understand.

This question arises for me almost every month. It’s not that I have a problem with writing, it’s writing stuff that is going to get read by people.

I know that having a blog is mostly for the writer, but back when I was in college I wrote in two sections of a college newspaper and a public broadcasting website. I had deadlines, and was forced to write constantly.

Every week I would write an editorial/column giving my commentary on the news, politics and general thoughts of the day. It was fairly easy, fun and (in theory, based on circulation numbers) 10,000 people had a copy of the newspaper in their hand with my name printed on it.

So, it was usually read by somebody. People sometimes got passionate enough to write Letters to the Editor. One time, somebody basically called me a Nazi for proposing a 1 cent per ounce tax on soda.

Other times I did actual news stories on subjects ranging from travel, science technology for the newspaper, to small features pieces on media events for KPBS.

But now that I’m teaching, and not in the field of journalism, I have to write for myself and make my own deadlines (or start on freelancing for the few expat magazines out here). But what should I write about? What do you, dear reader, want me to discuss?

It basically boils down to:

1. Korea Anecdotes: A lot of people seem to really like these (especially those people either coming to Korea, or people who want to see what I’m up to). The problem with this, for me, is that this begins to turn into a public journal that is generally not that interesting or helpful to people in the long run. Right now, I have two posts in the works. One about the anniversary of the war (and subsequent invasion of Incheon) and the use of Internet Explorer for everything related to the web.

2. Korea, Long-form: This is writing specifically to people who are coming to teach in Korea, are looking for information about teaching in Korea, or aiding people who are already in Korea. This is stuff that obviously people will have to stumble across via Google or something, but at least it serves a purpose of being helpful to somebody.

3. Tumblr Style: As mentioned before, I think I want to make my blog look more like Tumblr (a short-form of blogging). With this method, I can post multiple times a day with an interesting link, funny picture or short thought on a subject. This is easy and kind of fun, but for me, I don’t find it too terribly interesting.

4. My Two Cents: This is where I would write about anything or everything that I feel like. This is easy for me, and can be quite fun. However, the readership dwindles to only people I know (or see me post of Facebook). Being too broad reduces your readership. Having a focused style or topic can really hone in who is going to read it.

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So, what do you think? Take a vote and I’ll figure it out. I’m at the behest of my readers. While I like writing for myself, I would like to know if someone is actually reading it. I do want to make my site more interesting, but I don’t want it to be like The Onion’s scathing parody of The Boston Globe’s “three remaining subscribers.”

Last Sunday there was a fairly large K-Pop concert in south Incheon. The Incheon Korean Music Wave Festival 2010 was held in the World Cup Soccer Stadium where the local team, Incheon United FC, also happens to play.  It’s something I would generally never pay money to see, but it was free for English teachers in the EPIK Program. Even if we did have to pay for it , it would have only been 5,000 won (I can’t imagine a show in the U.S. like this costing less than $50).

Something like 15 acts were on stage for three hours playing about two songs each. Well, they didn’t really “play” any songs because most of the bands are manufactured by big conglomerates and investors and are driven by drum machines and autotune. Most acts don’t have much skill beyond looking pretty and being able to dance. In fact, all the songs at the show sounded exactly as they do on YouTube or the radio.  It was a lot like when YouTube had the vuvuzela button during the World Cup. It was the same music, but with crowd noise.

I know the photo at the top is crappy (cameraphone), but you should be able to make out a tiny stage in front and the four glowing rectangles. Those are the stages. During each two-song set the next band/act gets into position. There’s really no delay; it was a pretty fluid experience.  A few bands actually play their own music, but most of them are boy/girl bands with 2-9 members that just dance with one or two who actually sing (or lipsync, sometimes they don’t even hide the fact that they don’t sing on stage.)  The one thing they all do well is look really attractive.

The crowds, mostly made up of young girls, was really into everything (as each group only played their two most popular songs). It was supposedly a sell-out crowd, but the rain earlier in the afternoon likely kept some people out.  I didn’t stay for the entire show (I had a long bus ride home), but I did see most of it.

K-Pop is like an extreme version of the Top 40 music scene in the US. Bands can come and go in a matter of weeks. Songs get overplayed  (worse than Ke$ha) everywhere. Grocery stores, bars, cell phone shops, restaurants, you name it. It’s musical junk food. It will fill you up now, but in 20 minutes you’ll be hungry for something more satisfying.

For an example, here is one band I saw, called “After School.” As you can probably see, it’s like the Pussycat Dolls, except the backup singers are even more superfluous.