Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
After touring and playing guitar for Firefall for just shy of 50 years, founding member Jock Bartley knows a thing or two about making travel more pleasant: “Don’t fight what’s going on, accept and deal with whatever comes on the road and be polite and mild-mannered – but have good boundaries.”
The 79 Best K-Pop Songs of 2022, according to 79 journalists and pop culture writers … including me! My pick of the year? Jin’s “The Astronaut,” which preceded the BTS member’s military enlistment on Tuesday (December 13).
The Spanish TV phenomenon gets remade and reset in an imagined North and South Korea, complete with charged political commentary and BTS namedropping. My latest review for Rolling Stone.
The very nature of Twitter is that tweets roll by and then disappear — or, rather, get hidden by a mountain of more recent tweets. These are some of the tweets that I would like to remember.
Teen Vogue asked 49 journalists to write about the best K-pop moments of 2020. I wrote about how BTS’ No. 1 hit single “Life Goes On” brought the Korean language to the forefront.
Musician Russell Dickerson says one of the perks of touring is getting to explore. “I’ve learned so much about history on my travels, even to smaller towns around America,” says the Nashville resident. “Whenever we pull into a new city, we usually look up a little history on that place. It’s cool to learn why this town came to be, like was it coal or oil or a certain good that made this city what it is today? I’ve definitely been getting some history lessons.” Dickerson, who is part of the Summer Plays On Tour with Lady Antebellum and Darius Rucker — is promoting his album “Yours” and his single, “Blue Tacoma.”
More like A to Y, actually. 😂
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jonny Moseley first saw snow when his family moved to Northern California. The mogul skier would go on to compete at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, where he won the first American gold of the Games. Since then, he’s hosted shows for MTV, was named one of People magazine’s most eligible bachelors, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, got married and became a father. He has also added the title of “guru” to his resume. Moseley is one of ZOZI.com’s celebrity guides, who lead everyday folks on adventures.
Young K-pop fans may have killed for the chance that we’ve had: to walk backstage on M Countdown, a popular cable television music program. Stepping inside Thursday, we saw immaculately-styled Sung Min, a member of Super Junior, whiz by us. Then up ahead, in the room with a paper sign showing the group’s name on the door, there was Shin Dong having his violet-colored hair styled up, as Si Won stepped out and with a manner worthy of a world star said hello to his interviewers.
“People who say Lin is an opportunist expected him to be a meek, quiet Asian man who wouldn’t cause waves,” says Jae-Ha Kim, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. “This discussion about what he’s worth is insulting. Clearly these teams aren’t offering him this money out of the goodness of their hearts. And for what it’s worth, I’m a Bulls fan — I’ll just miss seeing Spike Lee go nuts over Lin.”