Six Degrees

So this is Kim Yoo Bin, the rapper from the Korean pop group Wonder Girls. And apparently they are really popular now, because not only did I find their PV on Youtube, but you can find dozens of fan sites devoted to them on the internet. There are even sites dedicated exclusively to Yoo Bin herself.

No, I have not decided to become an Asian Music Blogger; it is just a coincidence that my past few posts have been about An Cafe and Anna Tsuchiya. The only reason I even found out and bothered to look up the Wonder Girls is because Yoo Bin went to my high school two years ago. I don't remember her very distinctly -- I was only a freshman, completely overwhelmed with the new high school life -- but her junior picture is in my freshman yearbook. Apparently she moved back to korea before her senior year, so she is not in my sophomore yearbook.

So, I cannot really claim anything like, "Oh my high school buddy is now a star!" and whatnot. It seems terribly superficial, now that I am writing it out, but there's a strangely pleasant feeling that comes with being connected to somebody famous, somebody people dedicate entire fansites to. I guess somehow, you feel just a litle more significant in this gigantic world.

Six Degrees is an interesting idea, and it complements well with our obsession with celebrity. We naturally play our own games of Six Degrees, figuring out how we're related to that guy in the newspaper or that girl at the storm of a rumor. This can pretty much be proven by my incredibly precise memory for these sort of connections, as opposed to my absent-minded condition when my mother tells me to take out the garbage, for example. And beyond the fact that Yoo Bin went to my high school...

- My cousin's friend is the nephew of Ralph and Joseph Fiennes
- Classmate and former neighbor's grandmother is friends with Jay Chou's grandmother
- Speaking of Jay Chou, my friend's father met him in Taiwan but had no idea who he was until he mentioned the story to his children (who are Jay Chou fanatics) after they went to watch Curse of the Golden Flower.
- The screenplay writer of the Korean drama My Name is Kim Samsoon is the cousin of my close friend's cousin's girlfriend. Apparently the relationship between the two lead characters was based on G's cousin and his girlfriend.
- My French teacher talked to Sting at a bar one night many years ago; she had no idea he was Sting until after he had left. She was also accquainted with John Steinbeck's (step?)daughter.
- John Elway (retired Hall of Fame quarterback)'s twin sister was a teacher at my elementary school. She died in 2002 of lung cancer.
- As everyone at my school is aware of, my high school is the same one Pat Tillman (the football player who gave up his million-dollar career and fought in the army) attended. His mother taught at my middle school.




If there are others, I cannot remember them off the top of my head, but I think this list proves my point. It may be sad, but I think many people out there develop this type of mindset. And who knows? Maybe I will end up in the spotlight one day.

... not likely.