Tons of younsters and superpower hero/heroine enthusiasts flocked together in groups to see who is attending to show off their super power this year. Some of them may not be living in the city. But the heck, Who cares? As long as you are here to make your presence, you’re part of the community.

Spotting some of these half-naked super heroes and Roman soldiers walking by on the street of LES (half way down in Manhattan) at chilly night was a big secretive amusement for a person who was a part of the super-hero group during the day.

Why don’t you join the festival next year? You’d better hurry. It might take a whole year to develop such a cool persona.

(Photos by Unjoo Na, Copyright @2011)

If you haven’t seen any in real life, then see Ryan Gosling in Drive.

A loner with a sensitive soul. Immensely suppressed anger with pure childlike innocence. His melancholy teary eyes contrast his skillfully firm grip on the steering wheel when he drives to protect his amorous connection. You’ll feel that you can lean on his firm back without much worry.

As you can guess from the 60-page-long final script reduced from its original script which took 6 years in development, there is very little dialogue, other than the characters’ succinct or non-verbal communications.

I feel like today I rediscovered Ryan Gosling and Director Nicolas Winding Refn. Ryan was handsome, charismatic, and sexy in Drive, unlike the first time I saw Ryan in person at the Blue Valentine screening from last year (don’t get me wrong, Ryan. I really like the movie, your performance and your witty conversations after the screening. I think you are handsome, charismatic and sexy in real life as well). At the last year’s screening, Ryan was to me like a guy living next door. When I saw him in person, he didn’t show off the movie star vibe. He was friendly, nice and seems like a compassionate easy-going next-door neighbor. I think He shines more on a big screen, then on he’s like a true star. In that sense, he is a good actor to me. It was also interesting to hear how they all got involved in the first place. Ryan Gosling got involved first with the movie script and called Nicolas to persuade him to join when the director was in LA, unhappy and high on fever reducing drug (?) he got from Harrison Ford. And then, much later Carey Mulligan called Nicolas to work with him after seeing the director’s next movie clips. Nice job, guys. A cool movie and a cool director.

All of sudden I wanted to check out Ryan Gosling’s other films, so I decided to go and see “Crazy, Stupid, Love” this weekend. And I’m gonna watch “The Notebook” again because I just realized that he was the main character in that movie, which I loved when I first watched and thought was the best romantic film. Are you that romantic and sensitive in real life, Ryan? ^^

Go and meet your Guardian Angel. Drive is not Fast and Furious. But, way cooler.

Loved the sound of the music.

I mean…

“Digitally Successful”?

About 10 days ago, a NYC band called “Atomic Tom” posted a video taken from their iphones on Youtube, shooting their live subway performance. Their musical instruments? iPhones and iPhones only! In about three days from posting their video, their album hit #38 on the iTunes album chart and their Youtube video marched toward 1,000,000 hits at a sweeping speed.

Their instant popularity surge is almost the level of a giga “Atomic Bomb”

As of today? They hit 2,775, 222 on Youtube. They became an official “HIT” band.

Looking at them, you have probably felt a big tingling on your spine that the game (whatever that is) has changed compared to 10 years ago. Before, to become a star, you wished upon a star either to be picked up by the main media or to have one-sided unfair employment contracts with major enterprises or agencies. So star wannabes used to be lurking around LA or NYC subways to be picked up or crazily networking around to make important connections. Or even the very talented were going through many years of their own underground period to build up their brand recognition.

Now, the game has changed. For better or for worse… Depending on where you stand. You can build up your brand right off from your computer, sitting in your room. I’m still in awe of how quickly and swiftly technology can connect the world, or the individuals. Hitting the “Enter” key on your computer can reach the whole world in a nano sec, if not reaching the whole stars in the universe. You can create hits by hitting on your computer. lol How amazing is that? The eye balls have been diversified from the mainstream media. I’m NOT just talking about stars in the entertainment sense and sensibility. I’m talking about YOU, YOUR CAREER and YOUR BIZ!. Whatever business or career you are building, you can be a STAR in whatever you do and build your brand equity digitally and in reality. That’s a big difference. Is this change a boon or a crisis to you? It’s up to you.

Are you ready to shoot your personal brand (Whatever that is) to the star? Have you been jealously searching and vying for the divine workplace? Search no more. The divine workplace is YOU! Are you ready to be a STAR? Then, Be Digitally Successful! The rest will talk.

Listen to what Gary Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneur and the author of “Crush It,” has to say. You are gonna realize that you are not the only one who saw the change. His words hit the bull’s eye.

“Take Me Out” by Atomic Tom.

Gary Vaynerchuk @ Web 2.0 Expo NY

Hmmm…

If I dare to summarize in one phrase, it would be “A Fantasy Trip to the Futuristic Past!” or “Retro to the Future!”

Steam Punk used to be underground culture here in New York. It has become more embraced by a large population.

But still… There are many New Yorkers who lead secret underground steam punk lives in the city. Traveling to the futuristic past, dressing up like a cutting-edgy science fiction novelist or a Victorian romantic idealist or a mad scientist who just invented an insane gadget that’s gonna change the world forever… These underground parties unbeknownst to many people in the city… When it’s getting dark at night… traveling farthest to the Brooklyn land…

A good friend of mine is one of the steam punk New Yorkers. (I would give him this credit even though he abandoned M-land and moved to Brooklyn-land and even though he claims he is Rochesterian, not a New Yorker)

His name is Andrew, a smart and creative IP lawyer. If you happen to be a mad scientist who invented the coolest gadget in the world or in trouble being chased by evil dictators, give him a telegraph call. He’s gonna be a smart ally for you. Check out his website @ SteamLawyer.com.

(Photos by Unjoo Na)

Many of these attractions are enticing and luring me to their decorated and aromatic dens on a daily basis while walking by, like the Sirens from Greek Mythology.

Despite these restaurants’ attractive group sing-alongs, I always feel like nothing is more delicious and satisfactory than cooking at home.

I grew up in an environment where my mom always cooked three meals a day starting from scratch everyday, always with fresh ingredients. My mom always used freshly squeezed homemade sesame oil from the best organic sesame available and she also made soy sauce and spicy pepper paste (so-called “gochujang”) herself, cooking without using sugar or any artificial ingredients. She even grew some fresh organic vegetables in the garden. And my grandmother always sent us boxes of juicy fruits harvested from her back-yard orchard every year. I still remember the sweet taste of all the apples, figs, pears, and persimmons around the harvest time each year.

Living and working busy in the city, surrounded by countless restaurants, is the kind of environment that pulls me back away from my childhood experience as farthest as possible. But there is one thing that keeps me on the ground and pushes me back to appetizing home cooking. It’s the farmers market that opens every week all over the city. My favorite usual destination is the Union Square Farmers Market which opens every Wednesday and Saturday, which encourages me to undertake more than 20 blocks of traveling northbound every Saturday. Since saving time is important to me, it has become my key strategy(?) to buy fresh ingredients at the Market as much as possible like mushrooms, apples, apple cider, fresh plain yogurt, vegetables, eggs, etc. and to cook a large amount of food during the weekend. I shamelessly admit that I don’t have many cooking skills and recipes, so I just cook a large amount of stew whatever I feel like making that weekend. If I have the cooked meal stored during the week, I always feel like very safe and sound, perhaps on cloud nine over the whole week, just by peeking inside my big refrigerator everyday.

I happened to know one New Yorker with a similar growing up experience of mine, whose name is Rocco Dispirito, a well known chef living in the city. I saw him at the 53rd New York Emmy Awards Gala earlier this year, who happened to take pictures and have interviews right next to my table. But frankly, I had no idea who he was at that time (sorry, Rocco~). Later I realized that he’s a famous chef who promotes healthy home cooking. I think it’s a real good thing to encourage people to do more home cooking and to have healthier lifestyle. I think I’m gonna say some good words to him when I see him next time, thanking him for his endeavors in promoting home cooking. Every human being really needs that kind of home cooking experience everyday like all moms would do for their kids~ ^^

Hope that you could explore locally grown fresh ingredients for your home cooking experiments this coming weekend…

(Photos, Copyright 2010 by Unjoo Na)

Once upon a time in 1980s, when the internet barely started…

There was a client for Jerry’s firm, whose business was unknown and puzzling to everybody at the firm. In order to understand their business and help them out with their legal matters, Jerry went down to their office on Broadway. When he entered their office, there were a bunch of Apple computers perching on the desks and a bunch of people were busy working on the computers. During the visit, the client was trying to explain to Jerry about what they were doing. Even though it was a new new thing to understand at first, Jerry quickly figured it out and helped them out with the first “IT hosting services agreement.” The company’s name was Baseline and it was the first online entertainment database service company. They were basically building up a movie database for their big Hollywood clients. Let’s say, it was a 1980′s version of IMDB.

Around that time, one of the Baseline’s clients was Penthouse. Basically their services were to provide online chatting services through mysterious and fantastic new French gadgets called “MINITEL,” which is a ‘videotext online service accessible through the telephone lines’ (Definition source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel) and which was by no means that ‘mini.’ Anyway, the service was charging people service fees per minute for the online chatting services. The chatting partners giving responses to customers were called “Butterflies,” who were actually all beer and smoke drenched middle aged men on the other side of the terminal, and who were fantastically and fantasizably(?) perceived as beautiful Penthouse pinup girls. Fools. Anyway, after all the interesting detailed episodes (it’s gonna be too much to reiterate everything here) and after pretty successful business operations, for some reason, the service was abruptly canceled by Penthouse. Jerry himself got one free minitel from the client for free communication tools with the client. After he discovered that the forgotten machine placed somewhere in his household was rediscovered and secretly played by his early teen son, he quickly got rid of the machine. And that was the end of the Minitel story in his memory.

The story was amazingly interesting. This is why I love New York. It’s always full of interesting stories like these… The mystique of history… Seeing how online social networking all started and how some services and technologies disappear as new comers emerge. And it also loosely proved an old theory again that the adult entertainment industry has been the big drive for technology and people pay online services only for 4Gs (Girls, Games, Gambling and God). ^^

The email said:
“Ha ha ha ha ha. RIAA paid its lawyers more than $16,000,000 in 2008 to recover only $391,000!!!” (Further Details: Recording Industry vs. The People – http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/)
What is wrong with this picture? What has happened to the music industry?

I remember several years ago an attorney told me that recording companies seriously consider suing its customers as a viable business model for the music industry (let’s say, several thousand dollars for each case settled). What a joke. But it was not a joke.

Why do I hear more news about RIAA suing people or organizations, rather than about some recording companies coming up with innovative products or services that are gonna amuse music lovers and change the future. Instead, they are suing John does, Jane does, dead people, computer-illiterate grandmas, Napster, Grokster, now Limewire, etc..

My friend Nicolas, who once got actively involved in the 90′s music scenes in the city, said “Napster was the best thing that ever happened to the music industry!” What?! Somebody from RIAA might try to kill him for saying that because Napster literally killed their once steady business model. Steady but probably was not that sustainable. Frankly, in some ways Napster was one of the very innovative music services we hadn’t seen quite in a while. It’s unfortunate that the music industry didn’t try hard (or didn’t know how) to turn that into new business opportunities.

So making a 9-year-old-free-downloader boy a criminal would be the only aid to resuscitate the music industry? Do you think it’s that simple? Think again.

How about the music video I accidentally posted below? Ok. Let’s talk about that. Let’s say I want to post music on my blog or want to use some music for my video to post online, how much I should pay for it? If I use the music I downloaded legally (so I paid for it and I own it), is it okay? Otherwise, Is it gonna be insanely expensive? Who should I contact to license? Is it even possible to license the music even if I find somebody to license it? A lot of people nowadays may not be that interested in downloading or physically owning the music. So it may not be about downloading any more. Then, do you know what kind of license is it required? Do you know that there are several different types of licensing: Mechanical Licensing, Performance Licensing, Synch Licensing, Blanket Licensing… Do you know what to get for what you wanna do? Do you know who to contact for each different kind of licensing? Do you know the difference among ASCAP, BMI, Harry Fox Agency, Publishers, Recording Companies, Sound Exchange? Do you know the difference in their licensing roles? Hmmmm… If you have no clue, then the music industry has no clue that you have no clue.

I once had a brunch with a well-known music licensing attorney. He whispered that if anybody tries, they are gonna demand a large sum to scare people away. Also, when I visited an office of a big music publisher before, they had a very complex licensing map that was divided into certain percentages depending on the regions. But how can you deal with that? Nowadays, when you put it up online, that’s instantly global. How come you have very meticulous, complex, incomprehensible division in the licensing rights and then expect people to geniusly figure out how to comply? How are you gonna solve that? How and when are you gonna return the pleasure of enjoying music back to people? I wanna know the answer.

Oh, how about this?: the music industry can give me a portion of the money spent on or to be wasted on the law suits. Let’s say, $3 million. Then, I’m gonna turn that into a very interesting business that could change the future. How about that? Are you interested?

I love Flight of the Conchords because they are real music lovers. Unlike some manufactured pop stars who are more obsessed with their styles and cheesy outfits than with creating real music, Flight of the Conchords knows how to create and enjoy real musical delights, bringing up real emotions from people. When they talk about global issues or their daily lives, they don’t do lecture in a condescending way. They don’t claim that “we are the world.” They are just “one of us,” talking about their experience as we all do. They don’t claim that they are big stars with the power to gather everybody and heal the world. To the audiences, ironically, they are real stars because they know how to reach to us and really touch our heart with their music and lyrics.

I love Flight of the Conchords because in their music I find something similar to my experience in the city. It just feels like I have known them for a loooong time. Flight of the Conchords is a music duo coming from New Zealand to New York, trying to find their place in the music business. I also came from a foreign land to make my presence in the entertainment and media industry. Let’s say, it’s kinda a sense of empathy. It’s great amusement to share their experience and compare theirs with mine with a lot of laughs.

I bumped into Bret a few weeks ago in my neighborhood and had a moment with a jolt of excitement, along with a brief conversation with him. Ahhhh. I was feeling like a teenager groupie girl and turned the conversation into a total nervous awkward encounter. I hope that I would do better and different next time I talk to him or Jemaine.

Just check out their videos. You will know what I mean. You are gonna be very amused. My favorite songs are “Business Time” “Mutha ‘Uckas” “Foux Du Fafa” “Think about it” “Robots” “Inner City Pressure.”

Their second season starting today on HBO January 18th Sunday at 10PM. Tune in. Gonna love them.

—————————–

I often get requests from friends and their friends who are looking for jobs to take a look at their resume. It always surprises me by the number of mistakes or perhaps assumptions that people sometimes make with their resume. There are some pretty well “Do’s” and “Don’ts” (at least I think there are).

So here my quick rules regarding a great resume.

1. Keep it Simple! Repeat, Keep it Simple!
2. Only 1 Column! This is a resume, not a newspaper or brochure.
3. Use 1 and only One, Uno, Eins, Ichiban, Yi, Typeface or Font!
4. Make sure that the Typeface you use is EASY TO READ! A Sans is usually best.
5. NEVER MAKE YOUR TYPE FACE SMALLER THEN 10 or 11 POINT. We are getting older and don’t want to bring out a magnifying glass to read a resume.
6. Make sure your Typeface is compatible with Macs and Windows.
7. Sending a resume as a PDF is fine, but be prepared to immediately send the same resume as a word document on request. If you are sending your resume to a recruiter or HR department at a corporation, always send a Word version and include a PDF of the same document (just to be safe).
8. Get rid of anything that doesn’t apply. It’s just noise, and I certainly don’t need more in my life. Remember, Keep It Simple.
9. DO NOT REPEAT YOURSELF – I can’t tell you how many resumes I’ve seen that say the same thing 20 times – they are the ones that immediately go into the Bin (the one under my desk marked “Shredder”).
10. Eliminate anything that is obvious, redundant or overly general. For example, saying that you have Experience with writing doesn’t tell me anything. I expect everyone to have experience writing. But if you have “Experience Writing, Editing and Proofing Scripts” or “Copywriting Experience”, that’s a SKILL that can be used.
11. Unless you performed a job that required your travel, I have no interest in knowing what countries you have been to. Vacation is not part of work! On the other hand, If your job required that you travel to Antarctica, Kenya and Tibet as Foley, then I’m interested. Feel free to tell me during the interview if you feel that it’s relevant.
12. Don’t tell me that you have a skill that you can no longer perform. For example, if you used to work with machinery and lost an arm, don’t make it seem that you are still capable of doing the same job, unless you really can. For example, I’ve had a woman who give me a resume that was great, indicated that she could work on location just about anywhere, but when she came in for an interview, she revealed that she was a single mom with two small kids, so having her go to the jungle in Ecuador for 6 weeks was out of the question.
13. If you can fit your resume on one page, then by all means please do so. If you have an extensive background that spans pages, then have two resumes. Call the longer one your “CV” or “Curriculum Vitae”. Use the short one as your default resume and have your CV ready to produce on demand. If you resume must span more then one or two pages, make sure that the important stuff fits on the first page. I realize that a lot of people in entertainment usually have many credits. Try to list these, but be brief with them. I don’t need to know, in detail, every thing that you did in the past 40 films, television shows and commercials you worked on.
14. Read it again. What can you remove? What did you describe twice or more times? Did you forget anything? Are there grammar or spelling mistakes?
15. If your resume is going to be longer then one page, ALWAYS put a footer with your NAME, Phone Number and Page Number.
16. ALWAYS put your first and last name on your resume. A resume that is called RESUME.PDF usually ends up in the trash.
17. Don’t stress that you can multitask. This is such an overused resume “word” and frankly, nothing more then a bunch of crap. Most people can’t multitask very well, and those who claim to be able to do 25 times at the same time usually do none well, and frankly scare me.
18. One more time, Simplify! This is a resume, it is designed to get me interested in you and your potential to fit into a job that I may have. I am not interested in reading your Biography.
19. Make sure your structure follows this:
    • NAME & CONTACT INFO
      I need your name, your phone(s), your email and your city, state and zipcode. I don’t need your street address. If you have a blogs/reel/portfolio/website online, put that here as well, don’t make me hunt for it because it’s buried someplace else. If you have an IMDB or Linkedin page you can also list the url here. But never put more then 3 url’s in this section. It’s also OK to split this section (and only this section) into two columns. I’d rather have 2 columns of 3 lines each then have you use up 6 or 7 lines with your contact info.
    • CARRER OBJECTIVES
      I want to know what you want to do, where do you see yourself in 5 years?
    • SUMMARY OF YOUR SKILLS/QUALIFICATIONS
      I will read this first and determine if your skills match what I need).
    • JOB HISTORY & DESCRIPTIONS
      This backs up your Skills Summary above. Keep your descriptions to short, relevant bullet points. I don’t need a “How To” on using After Effects, just that you used it, and maybe 1 (one!) example of the use. Tell me the name of the company, the date range, and your job title in the first line. As a rule of thumb, try to limit the number of items. I don’t need to know every single thing you did, even though you might think that your 25 different things from maintaining the website to cleaning the toilets will somehow enhance my view of your abilities.
    • RELEVANT SKILLS
      If you are applying for a job as a Graphics Designer, then put down Computer Software you use, but your ability to field strip an M16 blindfolded probably doesn’t apply
    • PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
      If you are any, list them. Some organizations, such as the PGA or the WGA have high standards and a comprehensive vetting process, and membership carries extra weight.
    • EDUCATION
      Unless you are in high school, only tell me what College(s) you went to and what degrees you received. DO tell me of any special training you have received, either on the job or as part of a program. If you have taken a weapons wrangling course and have an FFL certification, then I’m interested. Don’t EVER exaggerate or lie or misstate your education and training. If you only completed 3 years of college, it’s usually OK based on your experience as described in your Job History and Skills. If you tell me that you have Weapons Certification and it turns out you don’t, well, that’s a felony almost everywhere and I won’t bail you out when you get arrested.
    • LANGUAGES
      I’m always interested in your language skills, especially if you are a fluent speaker and bonus points if you can read and write.
    • EXTRA STUFF
      If there is some extra items that you feel someone might be interested in knowing about you, then you can list it here, and only assuming that you have space to do so. Also don’t go overboard. I probably won’t read this part, but if I do, I don’t want to see more then 2-3 lines. Remember, you always have the interview to tell me more about yourself.
    • REFERENCES
      When I get a resume, I don’t care to have references listed. When I’m ready to hire you I will ask for them. However, it’s usually a good idea to just put a notice at the very end of your resume that states: “REFERENCES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST”

So there you have it. These are my quick and dirty rules for resumes.