akoostic journal

EAT IT

2009-03-17T00:30:00.001-04:00

on october 5th, 2008 - jinny and i got married :) what was supposed to be a simple substitute for your typical "reception slideshow" became a full-on video project. we showed it at our wedding, and it was a hit! i wasn't sure if i wanted to put it up online, but we've been getting lots of requests from our friends who wanted to see it again, and we thought it might be nice to have it up for folks who might not have been able to come to the wedding - or for those we wanted to invite but couldn't because of budget :( - so here it is. ENJOY!

my good friend moses and i put it together, and we had lots of fun working on it. moses lee/koo chung - hence "moo lung".

Eat It from Koo Chung on Vimeo.

new chapter

2009-03-17T00:28:00.000-04:00

holy poop. i'm so tired. been running around, like a chicken w/o a head! i think of all these cool things to write about during the day, and by the time i get home i either completely forget or it just doesn't seem like it's worth writing about.

also.. i'm changing. the old me would have at LEAST been at the store last week or something to get U2's latest album, and i still have yet to listen to it or buy it, even though i'm excited about it! i got a new macbook pro and i didn't open it until about 3 days in.

i'm gettin' old! i feel like an old cat who won't chase yarn anymore.

-- 10 minutes later --

i realized that for those few who might be reading this, you might be wondering what i meant by - chicken running around... for those i haven't spoke to in a long time, well basically - i recently got hired by my church "metro community church" out in new jersey as the creative arts director. so, basically, i oversee everything that has to do w/ arts, media, and music over at our church. before i took on the position, the one thing i wondered was - "will the amount of work i have really justify my..

-- intermission --

jinny just asked me to think of a food that i think would be weird if it had pumpkin in it -

so i responded:

pumpkin steak - and i guess that's not what she meant, so i started suggesting more:

pumpkin donuts, pumpkin croissant, pumpkin sandwich - and then she told me i can go back to blogging - i love my random wife.

-- talk about A.D.D., yah? --

full time salary?" - and well, let me tell you. i really believe it does now - things have been moving along! talk about creating a new position to adjust with the times! - and i think as time moves forward, this position will be a staple at most churches around the world. i'm thankful to be working, doing something i love - even if it isn't full time music/touring/recording.

while i feel like i might be the right "kind" of person for the job, i still feel inadequate on most days and extremely overwhelmed. i'm often told that this is a good thing by my pastor, and that it's the very thing that makes him feel that i am right for this. but again, it's quite daunting.

i just got back last week from newsong church in irvine, ca - i spent most of my time with the creative arts ministry over there, learning from what they do - and at the end of the day, i came home thinking - we just have to do what is relevant to us at our church. they might do really cool things, but at the end of the day, if these forms of art don't necessarily reach our congregation, what would be the point? i feel bad that the lesson learned was so simple and that perhaps someone could have just told me that over the phone and i could have saved our church several hundred dollars - but i am thankful for the experience, nonetheless. i am especially grateful for the time i spent w/ tony kim (along with dk and sam song and crew) who used to be for newsong what i am here at metro.

.. really cool guy.. super innovative and well - creative would be an understatement. here are a few more photos of the folks i met over there!

dk and his wife sadie and baby! - sweet family w/ way too much talent!! :) (dk is the worship director over at newsong) - and below is my counterpart sam song and fellow creative staff - crazy "gela"! what a team!

it was a real pleasure to hang out with and learn from these guys!

some folks are wondering if i'll continue doing my own music - and i assure you, this will be all the more reason to keep writing and recording! i'm excited about what lies ahead!!

speaking of recording, i'll be finishing up producing jinny's record next month (after easter). we're excited about wrapping this up, as it took a long unexpected hiatus when my laptop was stolen last year!

so that's the scoop!

running out of battery on the computer, and it's getting late!

till we meet again, interweb - take... luck! (please tell me someone knows who i'm quoting :))

california, conan, fallon, and the worst airline ever…

2009-03-03T01:25:00.000-05:00

yes, it’s been a long time since i’ve journaled anything, really. i used to love writing - maybe even more than watching tv. but that’s of course when TV took a turn for the worst (reality tv, etc.). xanga used to be my lifeline, and here and there i enjoyed the “thousand words” as opposed to a photograph. it’s a little bit late in the year, but still early enough for me to tack on the resolution of picking up the old habit of interweb journaling (and songwriting)! so here goes nothing!

speaking of TV - i’m watching fallon’s first late night episode, and he’s not half bad considering it’s his first show. i know people probably want to rip him apart already and criticize him to an early cancellation, but i want to give him a chance. the opening segment with conan was great, props for having the roots (don’t know if this is permanent?) - slow jam news was cool - and he’s likeable even if he’s not quirky enough for me. the overall similarity to SNL in theme kinda bugs me (the set looks great though), and he seems nervous, but who wouldn’t be? again - 1st show. even conan had a rough start - conan was my hero and i was beyond bummed when i found out he was going to leave NY - in fact, it was a dream to get onto his show one day as a musical guest - you know, somehow on a random friday night when he had a filler guest and no one was watching anyway. this would have been a dream come true. but alas, he’s moved on to cali and unless i hit it big somehow, i think my chances are dramatically decreased now (as if they weren’t low before).

speaking of california (my segues are on point tonight! - although unintended), i spent a week out here getting some training for my new job (creative arts pastor at metro community church - more on that later) over at newsong church. some highlights - hanging out with newsong crew - dave gibbons, tony kim (one of my new heroes) and the CAM team over there (dk, sam, gela and many more) - seeing my family - hanging out with bobby, james and peter - and catching up with an old friend from high school days, steve - seeing eugene cho at ideacamp (who alongside with pastor peter has reminded me about the importance of journaling) - and last but not least, staying with my good good friends lynne and candy tsugawa over here at east bay.

it was supposed to be a 3 hour layover in san fran, which thanks to the weather in jersey and the incompetency of united airlines employees, transformed into 2 extra days in california. tomrrow’s flight home will be my 3rd rebooking of a flight! don’t get me wrong, it was GREAT to see everyone up in northern california, and i was lucky enough to stay with them, but it just isn’t the same as being young and single anymore. missed my wife terribly and missed my own bed and missed all the great folks i work with at metro. i was craving the daily routines i started setting for myself.

it’s 1:40am now, and i need to catch a flight early in the morning, so i should get going. - farewell sunshine, hello snow!

google, fires, etc.

2007-05-02T16:38:00.000-04:00

i know this sounds dumb, but the reason i haven't written a journal entry this whole time is because when my macbook pro got destroyed in the fire, i simply never put this site in my new bookmark tab.. and i forgot all about it.. that is until i saw mike schmid's blog and wanted to reply to him and realized i had to sign into this account to do it.. then i realized that google took over blogger. figures...

anyway, so things are, well... not the greatest but then again life can always be worse.

and then it's funny, i want to elaborate, then realize anyone in the world can read this and then i erase about 2 paragraphs worth of honest thoughts because it is simply not that easy to be open anymore.

the word that keeps coming back to me over and over is "intercede". and it's a plea of some sort for things to change..

rigatoni girl says "i do"

2006-07-24T02:49:00.000-04:00

my good old friend monica (the rigatoni girl) got married today, and i should technically be VERY tired at this point, but for some reason am wide awake. oh the curse of the musician lifestyle kicks in hard at 2:46 am for me tonight.

so, the reason why i should be so tired is because tonight, i did something i haven't done in years. that is... i danced my butt off. literally. take a look, i have no butt. haha. i'm not sure if it fits in the asian disadvantage category or whatnot, but it's seriously a straight line down from my upper back to the floor. i form a 90% angle with the earth. but i digress, and about my rear at that, so i shall get back to the original point, which was about dancing like it was 1999 (that's a reference to the old song by the artist that was formerly known as prince and is now known as prince again because people got tired of that dumb symbol).

right out of college, i began attending many weddings and i've been "the wedding singer" more than my fair share of times, and tonight was no exception. now, i've never been the clubbing type.. in fact, i've never been even once... and so wedding receptions became my outlet... it wasn't because i looked down upon it necessarily, but i just don't think i could do the whole "flaunt it" act and dress up and well, be cool.. i grew up watching tons of michael jackson and korean singers/dancers who wanted to be michael jackson and i learned some moves by watching those guys. it was quite the sight, if you could imagine a 13 year old me in my basement in front of my mirror practicing these routines that should never enter the world of group dancing. kind of like when "hitch" is teaching that dude to "NEVER do that again", and that he should just keep it cool. i never had a "q-tip" move per se, but i could sure go all out and shake the junk i don't have. really, it's a comedy act.. and meant to entertain people when i jump into the circle. in fact, i think that soul train stuff is boring. too cool for school if you ask me.

so yeah, i was that guy. but over the years, i noticed something. i started sitting it out more often than not. 2 songs, and i was done... or sometimes, not even a song at all... i'd soon join my non-dancing friends and would have people try to pull me out to the floor, only to respond with a very disinterested "maybe later". i suppose it's a sign of getting older...

but tonight i would display the fact that old habits die hard. i told myself that i'd reserve the dance floor invading koo for special occasions where it's a good friend getting married with all the right friends to be a fool in front of. tonight was the night. (and i think i have a few left in me... including my own wedding when it happens)

and since it'd been years, i realized i had picked up moves solely by watching them on tv. all kinds of weird moves were coming out, and i noticed that so many dance moves had become raunchier in the past decade that i never dared trying them... but subconsciously, i guess i memorized the moves and tried them out on my friend jisoo tonight... only because my s.o. wasn't there, but now that i think about it, i don't even think i can do them to/with her because people might think i'm freaky and never listen to my music again. and i wouldn't subject my s.o. to tasteless butt slapping. no no, that is only for my good male friends who are secure about their manhood. :)

a few mishaps though, from tonight:

i think i kicked my buddy moses in the leg while he was videotaping, and he said that i was lucky that i was his friend, because otherwise he would have knocked me out, saying "i don't care how happy this guy is".

another friend, mary got knocked over when i ran into her by accident, and her shoe fell off. the worst part is, i kept dancing and turned around and realized there was a small crowd surrounding her because it looked like she hurt herself, and i wondered what happened.. and when someone told me that it was because of me... i went up to her and said "I DID THAT???", and she glanced up at me with a sad "yes". hahha.. SO SORRY, MARY!

i told you.. i is not smooth..

well, i think the next big wedding where i might need to bust the moves is at moses' (the friend i just mentioned up there). this time, i will be accompanied by my s.o., so i can actually slow dance... and i think my good friends jisoo, and dave cho are gonna be there as well, so all the more reasons to get jiggy with it.

it's been weeks since i've written a blog and i've wasted this entry on my dancing antics. my apologies..

this is mostly a reminder to myself, but my next entry will be about comic book heroes.

till then, good night, and pump up the jam, pump it up...

why immigrant moms are cute

2006-06-12T19:28:00.000-04:00

my mom came back home from work, and she sat down in the living room, munching on watermelon cubes she had cut up previously. my sister is plopped on the couch watching a re-run episode of "friends" : the episode where joey catches his dad cheating on his wife.

joey's mom calls her son "cookie" at one point, and my mother seems perplexed.

"did she call him 'cookie'"? she asks. calling someone an edible good is strange, although she's heard people calling others "sweety", "sugar", and "honey" in the past. this was new to her.

"yeah, it's just another thing people call each other if they're close", i explain.

"oh, you mean cuz it's sweet?"

"yup".

she looks at me and says "hi cookie".
"hi mom", i reply, with a grin on my face, recognizing that it's funny to practice american dialogue in a very koreanized home.
and then as i walk away, she glances over at my sister and says:

"hi ice cream".

mom and sis chung

bee... definition please? thank you.. B-E-E

2006-06-12T01:25:00.000-04:00

i was at uno's a few days ago with my sister and noticed that the news was covering yet another intense round of some important spelling bee going on in the US. young girl, must have been i dunno.. 12? 14? nervous, and an absolute mess. why? to get the spelling of some german word correct. "what is the language of origin"? ... and the thing is, she actually gets it right. but in the end, there is all the drama and tears as she loses to this other blonde girl, who will end up getting some scholarship for college, thanks to her impeccable spelling skills, great phonetical instincts, and hours of reading the dictionary when she could have been outside playing stickball with her friends. wait, that's mostly for guys. what do girls do outside for fun anyway? (stereotypically speaking, of course. :-)

i just don't understand the buzz of the bee. HA!

but seriously. how did this come to bee?? HA! sorry again.

there are all these movies out there about spelling bees. there's that one with richard gere, then the akeelah one. or are they the same one? i guess i can understand the fascination with other kinds of fads, even if i think they might be silly. but the bee, i just never got.

maybe this entry is entirely inconsequential. yes. but you know, one day i'll look back on this and look at the date and year of this and say "oh yeah, what was up with that one time in 06 with the spelling bee craze"? .. and i'll chuckle and feel nostalgic. and THAT's important.

poor kid at his wit's end

duragesic patches

2006-06-07T02:11:00.000-04:00

it was one of those "all over the place" kind of days...

the one thing i'll miss about doing music full time if i ever stop doing it is the ability to create my own schedule on non-music days. everything outside of tours and practice days are considered non-music days. there are admin days, errand days, booking days, and reading days... but these all somehow fill up my time, and i'm not sure exactly how to describe it to other people. while in nashville, i asked jason (of building 429) the very same question a lot of people ask me: "so... what do you.... do.. when you're not performing". and he said, "i probably do what you do, man", and i instantly understood what he meant.

working at home has not been very productive for me in the past few months because i ended up living with my parents temporarily. when i hear "koo yull ah"... (my dad calling out my name in korean) that means i probably lost another hour to running some sort of errand for my father, and today was no exception. they are actually moving out to the west coast soon, and we'll end up being on opposite sides of the country in probably less than a month, so i'm actually learning to soak up the little time i have left with them, living under the same roof, and in the same house that i grew up in since 2nd grade. it's actually a bit depressing, and i try not to think about it much because i don't think i was ever good at saying goodbyes. and when my folks and sis move out... i don't plan on spending much of the day times at home by myself until some people move in.

it's strange to imagine this house void of the old familiar furniture... family photos in non-matching frames.. and the bits of clutter around the living room that we like to blame each other for. 20 years of memories will be packed up and shipped off to california, and the only remaining part of it will be its shell here in its old bayside house form, with 1/4 of its family living in the basement. it makes me wonder about the previous owners of this house, even though i never got to meet them... and how it might feel for them to drive by the house (if they ever had the chance to) and see who occupies it now...

parts of today were lent to business.. making calls, booking shows, writing emails... another part was spent going to my dad's doctor's office to pick up a prescription for his meds (long story), and the rest felt like i was back in high school, as i ventured out into the city in the middle of the day on the 7 train with my friend moses to visit the new apple store. our good buddy, big phony.. or as we call him, bobby works there. so we waited around looking around at this museum like store and hung out a bit with him after he was done. this mr. phony all tired after work:

we then watched District B13 which in some odd way reminded me of "rumble in the bronx"... and well, it was good fighting with a dumb plot... you know how those go.

the evening felt like what it might feel like one day eventually when we're all married and we're having a boy's night out. although i can never know for sure where i'll end up living, i hope it wouldn't be too far from some of my closest friends... these are two of them:

jisoo. one of those quiet guys who always have the best one liner jokes when hanging out with his closest friends... we were at dunkin donuts. one minute we were just talking and he was normal, and the next minute his hair looked like that. i don't know what happened, but it was funny enough i had to take a picture with my camera phone.

moses. good laughs. good conversations about art, music, religion, life, etc. a natural at film-making. our way of decompressing is watching movies... sometimes even those movies two grown men shouldn't go watch together, like semi-chick-flicks, and animated films. good ol' moses...

and well, now it's close to stinkin' 3am again, and pretty much on cue, i'm starting to feel the heaviness of my eyelids take over... which reminds me... some people are working ungodly hours at the new apple store right now... can you believe it's a 24 hour store??

good night bloggerland.

4 15 16 18 23 42

2006-06-06T02:23:00.000-04:00

if you examine the history of my journal writing, you'll discover that there's a missing chunk, as though i've forgotten to enter "the numbers" (LOST) for a specific period of time. i've understimated the importance of documenting the unique chapters of my life... the occasional glance back at what i've been through and how i've changed.

i'm a songwriter, and i haven't written a song in way too long. it can be for many reasons, but one of them, i'm certain, is the lack of writing regularly in my journal. the other is that i hardly read anymore. i can actually FEEL myself getting dumber, and i desperately need to break the cycle that has overstayed its welcome.

for those who know me well, you would figure that i have so much to write about since my lifestyle is the way it is. but the truth is, i found it easier to write when i used to work at my old job, commuting everyday. i'd people watch as i went to work, and i'd find myself relating to just about everyone, finding the common link between me and the rest of the world out there a few chain rings at a time. i would walk down the same block every morning after getting out of the N train, and stand in line waiting for a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich at the deli in the middle of 15th St. i'd get to my cubicle eventually and sit down and stare at the computer monitor in front of me and take one bite at a time and listen to co-workers trickle in and gradually disturb the freeing 15 minutes of silence i'd have each day... only because my train schedule running from bayside would land me at work either 15 minutes or early or 15 minutes late. and well, i suppose if i'm being paid to come to work, i might as well get there a little earlier, and eat. and check email.

today, i had a taste of that. and i am able to have it more often now that the BFG office is in manhattan and i've moved back to bayside. there's something about that commute. it puts me somewhere else - minus the times i use the train ride to return phone calls and catch up with friends i get to speak to twice a year. besides those spurts of social calls, i am usually lost in thought, worrying about my life and wondering if the old man sitting adjacent to me, wearing his tan oversized suit, has had a meaningful life.

i digress, but i won't apologize for it going forward. after all, it's my blog. my journal. :-)

but i am getting sleepy. it's 3:03 am, and it's my 11pm. but as i shut down my laptop for the night, i can tell you this much. i will most likely be haunted by my inability to be wide-eyed anymore. it has been on my mind all day long and that would only be an extension of yesterday, and that an extension of many days and weeks. it affects movie watching, music listening, song creating... and just about everything else important. i suppose 28 is not that old, but the "i've seen it all" syndrome seems to kick in at a much younger age as of late, very much like how kids know way more than they should when they're 8 years old nowadays, and junior high schoolers can probably out-computer-skill the likes of me in their sleep. they're just too dang smart. i'm afraid i'm going to be one of those parents who give their children blank stares when they ask for help with their algebra and bio homework... for 2ND GRADE!

alright, well, i'm fresh out of rant.