Well, Fukuoka here I come. I guess my SF-writer credentials maybe came in handy this time, for one of my proposed papers — “Another Undiscovered Country: Understanding the Particularities of Reception and Adoption of the Science Fiction Genre in South Korea Through The Examination of 21st Century Korean SF Cinema” — got accepted for the 4th World Congress of Korean Studies (the site seems not to work in Firefox/Linux… I suspect you need Internet Explorer & Windows to load it, as I was able to get at it on my dual boot) which is happening late this September in Fukuoka, …
Category: TRAVELS
Drunken Suit + KTX = Not Fun
I’m on the KTX from Busan to Seoul now. The train actually offers an Internet connection for a flat rate of W1000 (a little less than a dollar US)… if you’re a Korean citizen running Internet Explorer on Windows, that is. Foreigners running Linux will have to have a dual boot and a Korean girlfriend to log them in. Yay for the Hub of Asia, I’m sure the whole Pacific Rim is just waiting eagerly to be denied basic access to most things! Not to mention drunken guys in suits on trains. Now, it’s one thing when you encounter a …
Stuff Going On
Been busy like mad, and traveling for the next few days, but briefly: I’m getting my students to release stuff (or let me release their stuff) online. The first in a series of projects is now up at YouTube: my Korean students considered popular stereotypes believed in Korea about foreign countries (like France, America, South and Southest Asia, China, and Japan) and then went out and asked people from those countries what they think and feel about those stereotypes. That’s how you turn a somewhat disturbing class discussion into a learning experience. More to come: remixes/creative work from my Media …
in bangkok
One thing I got to say — the raised pedestrian walkways make life a lot easier. I wish they were building that in Seoul, instead of a silly canal to Busan. (So we wouldn’t have to stand at every corner for five minutes waiting to cross the street.) Oh, and the VIP seats in the movie theaters? Well, maybe not VIP, but I saw Cloverfield (“Cleverfield,” I appropriately typoed) at the SFX cinema in Central World I think it’s call, and that was SO worth it. Airplane first-class style seats. Blanket because the aircon is so high. Fine time. Wish …
Going Soon to Thailand-Way…
Got my tickets booked up, and now I’m just trying to book places to stay in Bangkok and in Rai Leh. But to get myself in the Bangkok mood, I stopped by Somtow’s World, since he’s probably the most famous Thai I know of, aside from the King, of course. It’s odd I’ve never read any of his books — though I do have a copy of Spaceship & Haiku on my shelf at home — given the interests we have in common. He’s a composer, and I studied composition; he’s an author of spec-fic, and so am I. But …