German Traditional Christmas Market

UPDATE (11 Dec. 2010): It might be fun for people in the neighborhood, but the market was NOT worth a 90 minute subway ride. My friend Mark and I crossed Seoul to get to it, and found (to our immense dismay) a small stand of four tents with overpriced goulash, mulled wine, Krombacher beer, sausages, and such. The facepainting area looked dreary. I did pick up some pretty lace Xmas ornaments for Miss Jiwaku, but overall it was not worth going to this. ORIGINAL POST: I don’t know if it’s going to be any good, but I’m going with a …

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Clarion West Write-a-Thon, 2010: Sponsor Me!

Well, the Write-A-Thon has been going, and I’ve been writing like crazy — but it has been, and this is very appropriate, essentially “crits” for my students’ essays and Creative Writing portfolios. But I’ve also been wading through the last of my grading for final exams — final exams finished just a little under a week ago — and I’ve also been waiting for my Write-A-Thon profile to show up on the site, so that I could solilcit some sponsorships. Well, it’s up now, so if you feel like sponsoring me, here’s where to go! Basically, the deal is: I’m …

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Last Weekend’s Jazz Festival… and Some Thoughts On Improving For Next Time

By the way, last weekend I also took in an evening of jazz with my friend Nick. It was, in some ways, a disappointment, though I always have a good time with Nick so all was not lost. As a brief summary: 정성죠 Big Band, well, we mostly missed them, arriving only in time to see them back some vocal jazz. Not my thing, and more depressingly, they played some charts that I myself played in high school and university big bands… and not as well as we played those charts, back in the day. The Nana Quartet came next, …

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Where the Wild Beers Are…

A few brewing-related events lately warrant a post. First, I ended up supplying the beer for a party hosted by Soyeon Jeong and her husband Dongjin Lee. She posted about the party here, with a photo (though all the faces are blacked out for some reason… privacy, I guess). I haven’t said much about it here, so I’ll just say I had a great time, it was fun to geek out, talk SF (and other stuff) and it was fun to see so many people enjoying my beer. Anyway, there were a few bottles of IPA left over, which I …

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In Seoul? Love Jazz?

Here are two bits of news for you: This Friday and Saturday (June 11th/12th) there’s an international jazz festival on in Seoul. There are free shows in the park. Not sure if there are pay concerts also — I wish David Sanchez would have a giant 3 hour gig but I doubt it.  Maybe at some other venue, while he’s here? Seems like a shame to come just for 6 songs, no matter how extended the improvisations might be. I just found out about this on Marmot’s , need to look into it more. A jazz fan among my students …

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