I know it’s on the horizon now. It was brought up in the context of a goodbye party for my co-worker and friend Gwen, who will be leaving for the States soon. If it’s not at her party, it’s still bound to happen eventually — me and the profs I work with will eventually end up in a noraebang (a karaoke room). I don’t think they have songs by Cam’Ron at these places: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/qbzYXQpdUfU” width=”425″ height=”344″ allowfullscreen=”true” fvars=”fs=1″ /] … so I suppose I’ll have to settle for a good old standby from my teenaged headbanger days: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/IYRC4H64EFk” …
Month: May 2009
I Want to See You in Jakarta
If you’d told me in 1999 that a decade hence someone would be hugging me in an Indian restaurant in a suburb of Seoul, and then saying that sentence to me, “Please try… I want to see you in Jakarta…” I’d have laughed in your face and said, “What?!?” Well, ona good day I would have laughed. Isn’t life just wonderfully bizarre? And so it goes… another ex-student of mine (since turned friend) ventures out into the world, and I dare to nurture some small but bright nugget of faith in her ability to change it in some small but …
On Roh’s Death, Steve Reich, and the Tao of Imagining Sisyphus Happy
I’ve been saddened by what happened recently in regard to ex-President Roh’s suicide. Not the suicide itself, or all of the political wrangling related to it.I’m saddened because I fear suicides will worsen here, for the next while. Korea has a serious suicide problem. It’s the number one killer of people in their twenties, as many blogs are eager to state. It’s the kind of thing many people think about in their youth, of course. But suicide is tragically common here, and in recent days a number of people have talked about it with me. Korean people, I mean. Young …
In Jeju
That’s a touristy island in South Korea. So I’m not responding to comments much for a reasons. Having fun, even if it is raining like nobody’s business. Should clear up tomorrow, and in the meantime, I got some necessary work done. Two stories down, a few more to go. If I’m slow replying to emails, you know why. Feel free to call me if you like.
마력
Okay, universe. I got the message, loud and clear. I believe in magic again. Also, in Jpop. I was telling someone how my experience of Japanese pop culture media is something like what I’d expect a group of alien children might make if they were trying to fake their way through American pop culture production.Which, no, is not to call the Japanese children. It’s just that there’s a funny kind of sweetness, even innocence, in some of it that really surprises me. And which I find refreshing, as in this example (though sorry for the audio problems): [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/-WHkiaXE4ao” width=”425″ …
Seoul International Book Fair 2009, and Mike’s Visit
So my friend Mike was in town this weekend, and after he arrived (and I arrived at CoEx Mall pathetically late), our first stop (after food) was the Seoul International Book Fair. From the website, I thought it might be a little more trade/professional than it was, but we had a good time wandering, chatting with people occasionally, and checking out some of the art and books that were on display. I got some posters by a photographer named Choi Young Jin — stupid me, I should have gotten him to sign them — and Mike had a good chat …
I’m’na Teach Yo Ass, and Yeah, You Welcome…
Friday last week was Teacher’s Day, but the day always takes me by surprise. Actually, it would have taken me by surprise anyway — my students sprung the biggest ambush on Thursday. We were in my office, setting up for a video shoot for that class of mine that’s making a mockumentary about an English cult operating in Korea (yes, a metaphor for the hakwon system and English-mania in general) and suddenly a pack of students I’d never met — freshmen, I guess — burst into the room with a chocolate cake and exploded into song. If you don’t teach …
Conchords Again, This Time Korea-Relevant
Seriously: New Zealander singing Korean Karaoke, out of nowhere, on this TV show I’ve just torn through. Strangely brilliant in the episode, since it is, as I said, out of nowhere: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EzusqpeMdf8 (For comparison, most of the videos are like this:) I love this show so much.
Hiromi & FOTC
Music of the day, suddenly accessible as I reordered tags and crap on my iPod. It really sucks that everything is so dependent on tagging and so on — my cheaper-but-non-haptic MP3 Player is at least bright enough to pay attention to folder structures. Anyway, listen up: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ggL_2hk9DyI” width=”425″ height=”344″ allowfullscreen=”true” fvars=”fs=1″ /] It’s a bit, I don’t know… I don’t have a word for what I’m thinking. I used to life very “out” music, stuff that was atonal, free, wild; this music isn’t like that. But it’s really damned good for what it is, just the same, and …
All Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Future Shock (1970) by Alvin Toffler
(Note: The “today” I mentioned at the beginning of this post was on April 21st. This has sat in the drafts pile for a while.) Today, I happened to pick up a copy of the 1970 futurist classic Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler. This being Korea, there’s never a shortage of Toffler books around: the author’s tenure as an advisor to Kim Dae Jung seems to have ensured an enduring reputation here. (The library where I work even has a Korean translation of the book! I wonder how faithful the translation was, as well as how some of the, er, …