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” …
Tag: MUSIC
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 …
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.
Ohrwurm: Capsule
Yeah, Japanese pop music. (“Shibuya-kei,” to be precise. Bsides its association with the district in Tokyo, I have no idea what this refers to…) Most of the songs on the album are a fair bit more ironic than the one below, or, well, maybe I’m mistaking earnestness in a foreign language for an arch tone and ironic sensibility? Anyway, this isn’t the best song on the album, but the only one I found and liked enough to post. This is today’s background music as I work on my most recent installment of my column for Cahoots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVBUwmq0yz0 Here’s another video, …
Black Hole Jazz
I’m not referring to any jazz/SF thing at the moment — though I like that title, maybe it could work in another context — but rather to Brad Mehldau Trio’s rendition of Black Hole Sun on their album Brad Mehldau Trio Live. I don’t know why I’m amazed it can be done: plenty of old jazz standards were cheesy Broadway showtunes. Still, I guess the shocker is that someone, post-Wynton Marsalis jazz-fascism-era, is actually daring to do it, and doing it well. The following aren’t the album version, as far as I can tell, but they give you some idea: …
Happy Birthday to G
Yes, March 4th was my birthday. I’m posting on the 5th, but only barely. I had no classes, but I hiked the mountain and the most entertaining moment was running into a crazy Christian lady who segued so suddenly to “Do you believe in Jesus? Believe in Jesus so you can go to Heaven!” than I was confused — I thought she was talking about art, as the Korean word for art sounds similar to how Koreans say the name “Jesus.” She thought I didn’t know who Jesus was, and immediately pantomimed the scouring, crown of thorns, and crucifixion. Finally, …
Got a Kick Out Of…
A few things I got a kick out of in the last few days: Seeing a drunken old man jogging in place on the express commuter train out of Seoul. He jogged for ten or fifteen minutes, stopped, rolled his head around for a while, then jogged some more. I seemed to be the only person taking any notice at all of his performance. It was amusing. Seeing my name on a few of the “Here’s who I nominated!” lists for the Hugos and Campbell Award. I didn’t see a lot of these, but I saw a few, which is …
Back in One Piece, More or Less
I’m back in Korea. I should have left my camera at home: Fukuoka was rainy and grey, and though being there was pleasant, I didn’t feel like shooting any pictures, so the camera was just unnecessary weight. Will never again travel with my big huge brown briefcase: it’s just too heavy. One other annoyance was that my netbook was useful for writing, but not for getting online. With the exception of my (landline, not wifi) hotel room, I couldn’t get online anywhere in town. Granted, when I got home I discovered that the wifi capacity on my iPod touch had …
Define “Big,” and Define “Butts” (Plus a Barrage of Amusing Youtube Videos)
The other day, while I was searching for the video “Soju Mama” in a recent post, I ran across this commercial: The fact they used this song, and this celebrity, in this commercial, suggests one of these two possibilities: They figured most people don’t know what “I like big butts” means. Which is maybe plausible, since I find most Koreans who aren’t really high-level in English translate whichever Korean word indicates both (is it 엉덩이? That’s the one I learned first and remembered because I heard it so often, so I assume it’s the most common) as “hip” to indicate …
Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians has long used that line to describe their music: “Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future” and their membership has, over the years, included people who I’d say deserve that appelation: music I hope is remembered, is fundamental to the interesting things that come in the future of innovative, intelligent music. But for the latter half of the phrase, “ancient to the future,” it’s always brought to mind Steve Coleman’s music. Coleman is a badass alto saxophonist, as you can see in this clip: … and with his various groups over the …