Tag: memories

I Really Want To Return To Asia For A Little Lookie-Loo

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Barring something I simply can not predict at the moment, I’m not going to South Korea or Asia anytime soon. But that doesn’t stop me from really wanting to return for a few weeks.

Me, (background), in the bad old day of Seoul.

I think, in all honesty, what’s going on is I just want to visit A Real City and I’m either too broke (NYC) or it’s too far away AND I’m broke (LA). So, I idly muse about going to Asia again.

It’s been so long since I was in Asia that I think the whole thing would be a rather meh experience. There are a few people in Asia that if I specifically tracked them down there would be drama…but it’s just not worth it. I just want to swoop in for a few weeks, see some of my old stomping grounds then head home.

That’s it.

There is, of course, always a risk that some people will demand that I absolutely stay for this or that great job opportunity they would love for me to fill. That would be…existential…for more reasons than one.

But that’s a serious amount of hopeful daydreaming on my part. I think I could probably sneak into Seoul and leave without too much drama. Of course, there would probably be at least one Korean who would stop cold in their tracks if they saw me and freak the fuck out.

Anyway.

That’s not happening anytime soon.

A Return To South Korea


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

On or about July 24, 2004, I arrived in South Korea for the first time. I was a down on my luck drunk American at the time. Little did I know the adventures that would await me.

It’s fast approaching 20 years since that fateful day, and I find myself wanting to return to South Korea (specifically Incheon, Seoul and Busan) one last time before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

While I think I can pull it off, the whole issue of when it might happen is still very much up in the air. I’d like to do it in 2024 as close to 20 years to the date as I could get, but that’s highly unlikely. More likely, I’ll be happy if I can accomplish this goal a few years on either side of the exact anniversary.

My favorite ROKon Magazine cover.

If I did do such a trip, it would be part of a Japan – ROK – Southeast Asia trip of about two weeks. Now, one issue I’m well aware of is there both a lot of love and a lot of hate for me floating around Asia, even to this day. For every person who would flip out seeing me for a good reason, there would likely be two or three who would do the same but out of anger.

I was a very interesting person in Asia.

Anyway, it’s all very up in the air. I just have a general desire to return one last time to my old stomping grounds in South Korea. I’ve changed a lot — a whole lot — and know that but for the mutual distaste between myself and little Korean kids, I would still be there.

Sometime in 2004.

But there is always the very small chance that I will sell these four novels I’m working on and will make enough money that way that going to Asia won’t be that big a deal anymore for me. That, of course, is at the moment just another instance of me being very, very, VERY delusional.

One man’s hope is another man’s delusion.

A Most Interesting Person


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For some reason, I find myself thinking about the late Annie Shapiro a lot of late. I think it’s probably because I’m getting psyched up with a second creative track: that of a (fashion?) photographer.

Anyway, it was Annie who revolutionized how I saw myself. Before I met her, I was a drunk failed journalists. After I met her, I was a drunk creative person who realized I had a lot of untapped creative abilities.

The late Annie Shapiro / Photo by Shelt Garner

But there are some caveats to any romanticized depiction of Ms. Shapiro. She was very, very strange in her own way and she terrorized me on an emotional level. Yet, of course, in all honesty, I have to admit that I gave back as much as I got when ROKon Magazine came back without me.

And, yet, I also have to admit that Annie was able to pull of a hatrick when she got the magazine going again without me — in secret! I don’t know what to tell you. All I got is, things are beginning to fall into place on a creative level for me.

Do I miss Annie? That’s a very good question.

I think I definitely miss the lack of an opportunity for us to talk to each other every once in a while. But she was so mysterious and secretive that it’s dubious that even that would have happened if she was still alive.

Anyway. I need to stop wallowing in the past. Time to look forward.