Episode 01 - You Still Know Me
Ben and I recall our earliest childhood memories of immigrating from Korea to America, and highlight a few special people who impacted our lives.
I dug up some old photos and even a Hi-8 video related to both of our stories from this episode. (below)
Ben sculpting in his studio, 1992
[Time-Capsule] Hi-8 footage of Ben, Cristina, Maité, and me at our apartment that we all shared in Boston, 1993. Cristina and I were in our senior year at BU, Maité had graduated early from University of Vermont and was living in Boston to start her career in publishing, and Ben was… (Ben, what were you doing?)
Ben at the orphanage in Seoul, S. Korea
[Time-Capsule] My portrait drawing of Ben. I think I wrote at the bottom: “Ben - Reading Kafka and Elie Wiesel, Night, 02-20-92.” That sounds right. Ben would’ve been reading Kafka and Wiesel. : )
Sculpting a portrait of my friend Karl, 1992
Letting Ben put plaster on my face
Ben’s life cast of me
My maternal grandmother and me in Jinju, S. Korea
MacArthur Park, Los Angeles, 1975
Los Angeles with my sister and paternal grandfather, 1975
Me and Teddy (…and yes, of course, he’s still with me)
My essay about my best friend, Teddy, written when I was 10 years old. One of the few A+ marks I ever achieved in my entire academic career. Part of the high mark might have been for penmanship. I loved learning how to write in cursive. Even back then, my writing skills were better than my math skills because Teddy would have been 6 years old, not 4 as stated in the essay.
When I was teaching English in Korea and missing my friends back in Boston, I received an 8 page letter from Ben in the summer of 1996. He wrote about the work of Ingre, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Charles Despiau, with sprinklings of quotes from T.S. Eliot and Elie Wiesel.
Then, finally, on page 5, he wrote,
“O.K. I’ll get on with the news that you really want to hear about, Films. It is probably to your advantage that with everyone gone this summer, I have such a meager social life–yearns all too often for the escape of a dark chamber and luminous screen. Let me start by listing in order of most recent viewings first the movies I’ve seen since your departure. (ratings out of ****)
***1. Independence Day (A.K.A., I.D.4) Sci-Fi Drama
*2. Striptease; Comedy (Demi Moore + Burt Reynolds)
**1/2 3. Lone Star; Drama by John Sayles
*4. I Shot Andy Warhol; Drama
*1/2 5. Moll Flanders; Drama
***6. Nell and Monseur Artand; Drama
On Video
****1. Richard III; Drama (Ian MacKellen)”
He went on to describe his deep thoughts on Independence Day and then on page 7, I really appreciated reading about his appreciation for Saturday Night Fever. “That is an under-rated movie–remembered for all the wrong (or simply not enough) reasons.” I whole-heartedly agree!
Peter Hahm, who I met randomly on a subway in Seoul and with whom I later became pen pals.
