Where Did The Time Go?

I haven't updated in quite a while, and so much as changed in my life in the past year +.

I no longer don the title, "Professional Ballroom Dancer/Instructor" as of April 2009. I miss it, but what it taught me was well worth the experience. And since then, I now have 8 tattoos, with more to come!

I work as a server/bartender at Sake Tumi in Downtown MKE & live nearby in Bay View.

I am slowly, yet surely making progress on my painting, and after getting my beautiful Canon 20D SLR stolen in April, I am renewing my interest in film photography.

After many trials & tribulations concerning my romantic life, I have (for the hundreth time), come to the conclusion that love can wait. I have many years to live & many countries & cities to experience.

I am finally going back to NYC for a couple of days with my lovely roommate, Catey, for her 22nd Birthday in September! I know it will be very inspiring & I probably won't want to leave, so obviously, I'm quite excited!

I'm finding it hard to ignore the little "clues" I encounter over the idea of finding my birth parents in South Korea. It is something I've thought about on & off for years. I plan on heavily documenting the experience, because I feel it will be long & emotional. I won't be ready for such a step for probably a couple of years, when I'm ready to leave Wisconsin for however long I can afford, but I have been advised that it will be a positive experience & until then, I plan on learning as much about my culture as possible.

K.

A Random Update...Finally...

Many people have been asking me about updates on my art, music & dancing.

I've been very bad at keeping up with just about everything since getting into a SECOND car accident last month. To clarify what happened, I hit the smallest patch of black ice known to man on one of the nicest mornings out in December & crashed my car into both median walls on the Marquette interchange...so the 2007 Honda Fit is no more & while I am now the proud owner of a 2005 Acura RL, the checkbook is a little tight & so are my shoulders...

I have not been painting at all during the last couple of months (I know, shame on me), and rehearsals & recording for the music project I'm involved in has had to take the back burner for just as long, until NOW that is! We're waiting a while until we reveal any of the music that we're working on, but I may post up some video of me playing some covers I know in the near future.

But what I DO have to show are 2 videos of me dancing. The first one is of me with a student of mine at a competition back in October 2008. We had a routine choreographed to the song, "This is How a Heart Breaks" by Rob Thomas for him to perform & compete. His next routine is going to be even BETTER.

Fred Astaire Oktoberfest Competition 2008
Hyatt Hotel
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

This next video is of me & one of the other instructors at my studio. We had a Valentine's Day party for our students with a little show at the end, so we put together this routine from past choreography we've done together...very last minute. We chose the song, "No One" by Alicia Keys (which represents my feelings as of late), and the dance we are doing is called the Bolero, which is most romantic dance of the 13+ that I teach. It's usually danced to slower-sounding music & is defined by its close-body contact & slow dramatic movements & poses. It's one of my favourites!

So I hope you enjoy & I will attempt to do a better job at updating in the future.

KL.

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!

I Unclogged the Artists' Block!

It's been a couple of years since I've produced a piece of work I've thought highly of & so I've been trying to find the motivation to start painting again & I think I've finally found it! I'm a big fan of Toronto DJ Michael Morton/displacer (http://www.dsplcr.com/) & have always loved this photograph of him, so I decided to paint it! I'm still developing it, but want to keep records of my progress. I'm hoping this starts off a snowball effect of more to come! I got into a musician kick back in high school, so who knows, I may develop a series as well!

10.23.08

11.4.08

Feel free to comment & thanks for taking the time view my posts & artwork. And a very special thanks to Michael for allowing me to produce his first piece of "fan art." :)

KL.

What the Hell is wrong with MTV?

I started this blog with the intentions of sharing my artistic endeavours with the World. At the moment, I am definitely hard at work dancing & painting, with music on the close horizon, but I am not quite ready to share anything of real worth for the time being.
So instead, I'll open with a simple rant:

I'm quite prone to staying up into the wee hours of the morn, and yesterday morning, before finally falling asleep, I was doing a bit of the classic channel surfing. It being probably around 5:00am, the only things that were on were infomercials, "Transformers," and MTV's late night/early morning showing of music videos...or lack thereof.

I think I noticed it when Beyonce's newest single was playing, when suddenly it switched to a different video before her song was even finished. Then another minute goes by & it switches again...then again. Confused & a bit annoyed, I sat through a few crappy videos to make sure I wasn't just sleep deprived & that yes, MTV is cutting short video after video.

So first, I hear they're retiring "TRL," which we all know stopped playing full versions of music videos years ago, and now this...not even to those suffering from insomnia can enjoy a full 3-5 minutes of a music video. It's total bullshit in my books. It felt like someone kept changing the channel on me after I'd get sucked into 10 minutes of a television show. The only difference here is that I can't yell at the person next to me for doing it.

If I were a recording artist, I'd be even more pissed that all of my time, effort & money is being wasted because MTV doesn't play the full version of my freaking music video! I grew up in the MTV generation & I love music videos. You get to see the vision behind the music & lyrics your favourite artists created, or get to see some great dance moves, or just get to watch something that's so incredibly stupid, it's awesome.

Imagine a World without seeing the Beastie Boys running around in aviators & mustaches in the "Sabatoge" video. Or Blink 182 running naked in the "What's My Age Again" video. Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" video. Madonna's controversial video for "Like a Prayer." Jamiroquai's ''Virtual Insanity'' video. And any Michael Jackson video for that matter.

I just don't get it. So seriously MTV...what the Hell?

KL.