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 Saskatoon, Sasktchewan, the last time I was attending classical music concerts regularly. In Saskatoon, you would often see a contemporary composition open a concert — often enough that I had something to really look forward to most of the time. But in Korea, it’s …
Month: April 2008
Earthday
Happy Earthday. (It was celebrated on the weekend in Seoul. I missed it. Aiesh!)
허브
That title is Korean for “Herbs.” Predictably, it’s pronounced “Huh-beu.” Almost like the word “hub”, with an “eugh” added to the b at the end, to make it two syllables. (Have I ever mentioned that “crazy,” when pronounced with a Korean accent, has four syllables?) After a few years of my fruitlessly trying to score basil leaves and fresh oregano or lemongrass or any number of other things, I began begging Lime to get online and see if these things can be gotten in Korea. Online, because even years ago, I’d figured out that all kinds of stuff is available …
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 Korean popular culture, and what foreign influences have affected Korean popular culture. It’s written by a foreign student who had the following to say about her experiences of “culture crash” (ie. Culture Shock) and the shock of coming into contact with real-life Korean culture, in …
Watch Out For… Me?!?
Heads up! “Asimov’s SF: Next Issue” Gord Sellar, making a memorable Asimov’s debut, takes us on a long, strange trip around the Solar System with an unlikely cadre of jazz legends in “Lester Young and the Jupiter’s Moons’ Blues”… It’s coming soon, folks! I’m giddy. (Hat tip to reader.)