Well, I claimed that I got a lot less done this past summer in terms of my writing than I’d hoped — since I’d been hoping to draft a novel — but in fact, I did pull off something in my writing that I’m very pleased with: a script for a short Korean film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann.” I’ve reflected in the past on how challenging it is to adapt Lovecraft to a Korean setting, but it’s less so with a story like this one, since the horror is more simply existential; there is, of …
Month: August 2011
Writing About What You Love
Notice, it says “what” you love, not “who” you love, which is another kettle of… well, fish? Hops? I am working on a short story about homebrewing, brewing, yeast, beer-mythology (there’s a lot of it), art, transformation… well, and finally I’ve come to think of it as my attempt to write something Zymurgico-Lovecraftian. (Zymurgy is the fancy-dancy word for the branch of applied chemistry related to fermentation — making beer, mead, wine, and the like using yeast. Lovecraftian is a term I expect I won’t have to explain to anyone reading this blog.) Anyway, I’m busily revising the story now …
And by the way…
School has started again. Apparently the start date was changed from Sept. 1st (which is what is has been for the last however many years) to the week of Sept. 1st, which this year began on August 29th. For some reason, not one of the foreign teachers I know (except one) was told about this, so when we got the text message on Friday — yeah, on Friday — we were all shocked. I’m sure it was on a calendar somewhere — in fact, I’m told it was — but as for actually communicating the change, well: communication is not …
Something Cheerful, and my Mazing Plans
Both of the other posts I drafted today were about gloomy things — bigotry, on a Korean bus and in an American TV show — but I figured, since it’s the first day of semester, I’d post something cheerful. Miss Jiwaku and I stumbled on something pretty surprising in the Hyundai Department Store tonight, on the way home from dinner: Yeah, that’s three Rogue brewery beers — Dead Guy Ale, Amber Ale, Mocha Porter — and three Lost Coast brewery beers — Indica, Great White, and Tangerine — shelved in the beer section of a department store in Bucheon. Yes, …
Back to the Primeval Forest of Story
I took music lessons from about the 8th grade on. For a long time, it was just saxophone lessons, but when I was a high school senior, I started taking jazz theory lessons as well. I had a friend or two who’d done so — a pianist and a guitarist — and they both recommended the local freelance jazz pianist, a guy named Bill Richards (who I see is still playing and composing, happily). Bill was an excellent, thoughtful, and engaging teacher, as well as a genuinely good person, and I got a lot out of our lessons. I remember …
This is Your Own Foot, In Which You Have Just Shot Yourself — or, Why TEFL Teachers Should Read The Inner Game of Music
Not long ago, I was riding the escalator up to the local subway station when I saw an ironic — but not very surprising — sight. I don’t know if it’s common outside of Korea, but around here, women who are wearing skirts — not even necessarily short ones — tend to hold their purse behind their legs, to hold the skirt down and, presumably, to fend off perverts trying to shoot upskirt images. (Yeah, it’s an issue here.) Well, on this particular day, a young woman doubtless acting on habit did exactly this. She slipped her purse behind her, …
The Cat’s Pajamas & Other Stories by James Morrow
I’ve been a fan of James Morrow’s work since 1995, when, in a small Edmonton bookstore on Whyte Avenue (this one) I stumbled upon a copy of the novel Only Begotten Daughter. At the time, I was just starting to become comfortable with having left the religion I’d been raised in, and admitted that, yes, indeed, I was an atheist. Morrow’s book reminded me that atheists still live in a world filled with people who are theists, and whose myths and beliefs (and fantasies) affect us all profoundly — but also that atheists could have something to say about those …
Girl Who Leapt Through Time by Yatsutaka Tsutsui
I’ll start off by saying I picked this book out simply because I was looking for something to read while pumping my legs on the stationary recumbent bike at the gym the other day. I figured it looked like a light read, and thought I might even be able to finish it in a one-hour cardio session. I was right. However, I may have been a little distracted while reading the book. That said, I found it enjoyable and compelling enough to keep reading, but I’m not sure I would have if I’d been at home, where tons of other …
Persepolis (the film)
Miss Jiwaku and I just watched the animated version of Persepolis last night, and I have to say, it was really very impressed. I’ve read only the first book — my friend Jean-Louis recommended it to me, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, even reading it in French. (Which was not so hard.) I haven’t managed to read the other volumes, but I am curious. I have Volume 2, and figure I can check out Volume 3 next time I’m in Canada. But the way the film was put together — using Satrapi’s characteristic style, but with a wonderful audio …
Subverting Democracy, One Vote at a Time
UPDATE (26 AUG 2011): So, the referendum failed due to low turnout. Er, hooray for talking people out of exercising their right to vote? Sigh. Well, at least the mayor resigned. Off, not doubt, to his fortified castle in Kangwon Province, to begin a long training session of necromantic rituals in preparation for the 2016 Presidential elections… ORIGINAL POST: There’s a referendum tomorrow, regarding with the lunches of schoolchildren should be subsidized by the government. This is an issue that has been building up, with the standard rhetoric on both sides: Right Wing: If we feed all the kids in …