Some Thoughts On Korean Indie Music To start with, this is NOT going to be a sweeping declaration, a wide survey, or anything. It’s just time I got some more content up, and this is something I’ve been finding a lot of resources on, while working on the dabang web page update. This is some musing about indie music in South Korea, just the music itself (since I know little or nothing about the labels, distribution, and, well, the tour circuit is currently close to nonexistent).
On Hand-Phones, as we call them in Korea…
Cell Phone Don’t have it yet, but I will soon. Quite the thing, getting one as a foreigner. It’s very involved. Dabang’s Website … is still coming soon. But this time I think it’s actually coming. Seong Hwan is calling the server people tomorrow to have them fix the bloody mess, as all the files are in the right place, but nothing points at that place when you type in www.dabangband.com. Hopefully soon I can edit that and make it a real link. Speaking of Links … cutting and pasting links is a mindless job, but it’s done. Now if …
More Rambling About Life
Life in General I was up late last night copying links for my sidebar. Ungh. Now I must go attempt to teach, and then it’s a lunch date with some old friends, writing up report cards (I had to peel your boy off the wall last week. Please feed him less sugar. or Your child is destined to become an evil genius. Whatever you do, do NOT let him start hanging out with Jedi Knights. If he does, it’s all gonna be downhill from there.), marking notebooks, and then going home for a quick bite and meeting my friend Young …
My Korean Studies
Studying Korean. It’s hard. But fun, at least. Yes, really. These days, I am working on things like: – being able to say things in the imperative, like “Stop the car over there please,” or “Give me a phone card, please,” or “You have a nice day, now, y’hear?” – being able to do negations with the greatest of ease in all forms of address, from the most informal to the most formal. There are lots of ways to do this. Too many. Imagine in English being able to say, “Don’t do that!” or “Do that don’t!” or “Not do!” …
The Big Sleep
These days, since my novel has taken the turn into somehow morphing into a kind of futuristic potboiler, I’ve taken it upon myself to read some mystery novels. During a trip to Seoul I managed to pick up an old, abused hardcover copy of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. I’m precisely halfway through it and in awe of the plotting and style. The story is just getting more and more convoluted and I’m finding it harder and harder to put down. Another thing that’s exceptionally well-done is the treatment of the culture… the underground P.I. culture, the local culture, the …
New President in Korea Knows His Fish…
I just had lunch with a co-worker, Thai, and we watched the (?) inauguration of the new South Korean President, Noh Mu Hyun. He looks pretty young, and fairly happy about his new job. I myself would be terrified, but then maybe his confidence is warranted. I hope so, considering the way things are going with Pyongyang. It seems his last gig was as the minister of fisheries, which is kind of interesting, innit? (That page might be updated soon, I don’t know. But it does contain bunches of lists of who’s in major government positions in every country in …
Colin Powell on North Korea
Woah. Colin Powell on North Korea. Hm.
BTW:::
By the way, I had a strange conversation with a middle-schooler student who, when he was informed (by me) that Dunkin’ Donuts is an American brand, retorted by insisting that Dunkin’ Donuts is an “Honour Brand”. I have no idea what that means. But we did, as a group, manage to correlate the increase in Korean waist sizes with the incursion of foreign food in their diets… though the kids in the class continued to insist that they like Dunkin’ Donuts’ donuts because they are “delicious”…
Getting Medical Attention in Korea (& A Movie Review)
Well, where to start? I have an ear infection, so swimming is out for a couple of weeks. The hospital experience here is a bit unusual. Thankfully I was helped by a friend of mine who is interning at the hospital but it was still a little weird. The doctor looked into one ear, and then the other, and said to himself when inspecting my (troublesome) left ear… “Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-HO!” It wasn’t all that reassuring. Then he pulled up a standardized presciption listing on his computer and sent it down to the main prescriptions desk of the hospital. I would hesitate …
Commencement
Today I’m creating the new page for my blog. For now it’ll be hosted at Blogspot, until I have a webspace of my own. I guess this is worth the practice, so I’ll try a few things here first.