The World According to Dave: The Babysitter
by David Yoo
By the time our son Griffin turned 18 months old, we still had never used a babysitter, and I had serious cabin fever. Despite feeling it, too, my wife was leery about leaving our son in the hands of anyone not related to us by blood. She reasoned that her parents visited us all the time, but I argued that their visits didn’t qualify technically as “babysitting,” given that my wife refused to ask them to just sit in our house so we could venture out at night. To her that would feel like we were exploiting them, even though that’s the whole point of having grandparents in the first place—to exploit them! Alas, before I knew it, a year-and-a-half had passed, and we were chomping at the bit to leave the house past sundown for once.
My wife’s trepidation to let a stranger watch Griffin was topped by my desperation to get out of the house, just the two of us, and I finally convinced her to let me find a babysitter. The next afternoon I took Griffin for a stroll around the neighborhood and introduced myself to a really tall teenage girl sitting on her front stoop, reading a book. It turned out the girl, Rachel, was an experienced babysitter and seemed perfect—an old soul who loved math and science and was even in the Girl Scouts! Continue Reading »
TC Charton founder Alexandra Peng. Photos courtesy of TC Charton.
Seeing is Believing
Eyewear designer Alexandra Peng aims to give Asian Americans a fit of their own.
by Rebecca U. Cho
For the many Asian Americans who have known the disappointment of finding the perfect pair of sunglasses only to have them slide down their noses, emerging eyewear maker TC Charton could be the stylish solution.
TC Charton is the first eyewear line in North America designed exclusively for Asians, according to company founder Alexandra Peng, an eyewear industry veteran who spent 16 years in the optical industry designing glasses for luxury European brands that were sold in boutiques around the world.
“I came to realize all that stuff I was producing and designing were products I couldn’t wear myself,” Peng said from her office in Palo Alto, California.
So she embarked on a two-year effort to research and develop eyewear that would fit the Asian face and, in 2009, debuted the company’s first designs.
TC Charton’s eyewear takes into account common differences in Asian features from those of Caucasians, who are often used as the template for designs. “I don’t mean to generalize Asians. We’re a lot of us, and we all look very different from each other,” noted Peng. “But there are certain small characteristics we share in common, and those are the ones we’re trying to target in every style I offer.” Continue Reading »
Food Restoration
Edward Kim of Chicago’s Ruxbin uses his past to restore everything from hungry souls to childhood memories.
by Lola Pak
Nostalgia plays a big part in chef Edward Kim’s Chicago restaurant, Ruxbin. Taking a play on the name kids used to tease him with in school (think plush, story-telling teddy bear, Teddy Ruxpin), Kim has turned the namesake restaurant into a Chicago hotspot—a fact that hasn’t escaped Bon Appetit magazine, which placed Ruxbin on its Best New Restaurants list in 2011.
“It’s been surreal,” says the Windy City native, referring to his No. 5 spot on the list. “That could have easily gone to another restaurant. In the end, though, we would still be the same restaurant we were before.”
He’s talking about the 32-seat micro-establishment situated in West Town, where a two-hour wait is the norm. No, you can’t make reservations. No, you can’t have more than six people in your party. Yes, you do want to bring your favorite bottle of wine and $5 for the corkage fee.
“We definitely want people to feel special, but it’s actually the opposite of exclusive,” Kim counters. “We wanted to make it so that anyone walking by could come in and not need a reservation.” Continue Reading »
Posted: January 24th, 2012
Filed Under: BLOG , Back Issues , FEATURED ARTICLE , January 2012
Catching Up With SuChin
Pak lives the sweet life as the new face for Daily Candy.
story by David Yi
photos by Minnow Park
SuChin Pak is sitting, Zen-like, on a plush chair in a whimsically decorated office in New York’s trendy SoHo district. It’s almost superhuman that she is so calm and collected after the whirlwind 24 hours she’s just had.
First, she moderated a morning roundtable discussion with successful female CEOs. Then immediately after, she filmed MTV Iggy’s “Best New Band in the World” special, playing host to a concert that starred K-pop sensation, 2NE1. After wrapping that, she made her rounds with the media, doing interviews in her role as the talking head for Daily Candy, the trendsetting email newsletter and website.
With her brown locks swooping over her left shoulder, Pak is wearing a slouchy gray United Bamboo top paired with YSL stilettos. Her nails are decorated with stickers—black and white, Zebra-striped. “They’re just Sally Hansen, but aren’t they cool?” she quips, brushing off any presumption that she may possess even a hint of haughty sensibilities.
After all, this is the same Pak—once a face of the Girl Scouts—who organically became a role model to thousands of young girls. Through the affable personality she displayed on MTV News and the grounded sensibility she demonstrated with other shows like My Life (Translated)—a series that delved into themes of immigration—the 37 year old became a trailblazer for Asian Americans in entertainment television.
From the red carpet to the Planet Green Network, she’s tackled interviewing the likes of Jay-Z to washing her hair with floor soap for a TV segment.
Since moving on from her gig at MTV News, she’s opened a Pandora’s box of ventures. Like opening an outdoor market in the Lower East Side called the Hester Street Fair that has since become a weekend staple for New Yorkers. Profiled in the New York Times and New York magazine, the market—started with her brother Suhyun and two friends—is planning to expand to other cities. Through that, she’s also become a frontwoman for fashion retailer Uniqlo’s fall/winter campaign, with her face plastered on billboards throughout New York City. Continue Reading »
Posted: January 23rd, 2012
Filed Under: BLOG , Back Issues , FEATURED ARTICLE , January 2012
Photo by Reuters/Kyodo
The Young, Unproven ‘Great Successor’
Thoughts on the third-generation (third-choice) ruler, Kim Jong Un
by Julie Ha
As of late December, the North Korean leadership appeared to be putting its best foot forward to show a nation in mourning over the passing of its “Dear Leader” of 17 years, but still moving confidently to ensure a rapid transfer of power. Within days of the announcement of Kim Jong-il’s death, the North’s official newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, published a front-page editorial calling on the people to unite in support of Kim Jong-un, in keeping with his late father’s last wishes.
The newspaper referred to Kim Jong-un as the “successor to the revolutionary cause” and the “leader of the people.” He had been quickly elevated to the leadership post of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, and the military’s top brass swore their allegiance to him.
What exactly do we know about Kim Jong-un? Almost nothing, said Korea expert David C. Kang, director of USC’s Korean Studies Institute. “We know he’s younger than 30 years of age, but we don’t know his exact age. We know he went to school briefly in Switzerland while a child, but have almost no information beyond that. He is reputed to like sports, although this tells us very little about his personality or leadership abilities.”
We also know that he was third pick, as his older brothers, Kim Jongnam and Kim Jong-chul, were passed up for, respectively, an embarrassing attempt to visit Tokyo Disneyland under a false name, and alleged effeminacy. Continue Reading »
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Featured Event
It’s the new year, and Yim Jae Beum is coming to town! After a sold-out show in Los Angeles last October, he is coming back to hold two U.S. concerts for the 2012 Lunar New Year. Everyone already knows this man can sing! He’s got an impressive resume, debuting as a rock singer back in 1986, releasing Korean classics, such as “For You,” and most recently, joining and winning first place twice on the MBC show, “I am a Singer.”
Seattle and New Jersey, get ready! We are happy to announce that we will be giving away TWO (2) pairs of tickets! read more
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