Where Dead Voices Gather, by Nick Tosches

I have a couple of novels I haven’t reviewed, but I’m going to leave off discussing those till I have my thoughts gathered. For now, I want to write about the book I finished today, which is <i>Where Dead Voices Gather</i>, by Nick Tosches.
It’s been a funny week, one of those weeks where whatever [...]

What in the World?!?

So I was looking around for Hwang Sin Hae videos on Youtube, and found this bizarre Korean remake of that song Venus, by Shocking Blue. (I think of it as “by Bananarama” but that just shows my age and ignorance.) What the hell is this from?
Video pasted in below for you non-LJers.

Why Can’t Korean Pop Culture Be This Bizarre?

I like the guy, and his writing, but the_flea_king is evil. Not as evil as some people, but still evil, for having done this to me (LJers, just click here instead, and then, if you’re still note satisfied, here):

UPDATE: slightly less odd, but still bizarre, video for the same song:

Seoul Audiences: or, How to Buy Seats for a Classical Music Concert in Seoul, and What I’ve Seen of Late

Over the last couple of months, I’ve seen an unusual number of orchestra concerts, and mostly they’ve been quite good. I’ll get to all that in a bit, but I want to generalize a little about concertgoing in Korea first.
The programs here tend to be even more conservative than what I was used to in [...]

From a Student Paper

I’m grading at the moment, and I ran across something so priceless I couldn’t NOT share. (I am not mentioning the student’s name, so it’s anonymous, but as a piece of observation by someone from another part of Northeast Asia, it’s fascinating and made me laugh aloud!) It’s from a paper discussing the hybridity of [...]

Thank You, Gim Hyung Tae

I don’t know whether he’d like or approve of any of my fictional depictions of Korea, but I find Gim Hyung Tae a great inspiration in that area. Whenever I’m writing anything trippy, weird, or odd about this country in my fiction, I turn to his music for inspiration. It’s a strange combination of trance, [...]

Bananagirl Wins the Prize

Back in the days when I still played with Dabang Band, we used to joke about hiring telephone girls to dance for one of our shows. You know, the girls in vinyl skirts who get hired to dnace when new phone shops or hardware outlets open. (See here or here for examples. There’s girls with [...]

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