The Hyundai Genesis is the new most expensive domestic car/status symbol in Korea, meaning that, short of buying a Mercedes or BMW, effectually saying, "I'm so successful, I don't even CARE that I'm not supporting my country's economy anymore!", the Genesis is the biggest freudian compensation kit status symbol you can drive around Korea.
The sign says, according to Girlfriendoseyo, "Don't park here. If you park here again, we'll let the air out of your tires."
Not only is he parking where he shouldn't, but he's done it often enough to be threatened.
I'm told by students who work in the service industry that the most obnoxious customers aren't the really rich, but the upper-middle class people -- the ones who go into debt to buy the mercedes, because their neighbours have one. The ones knocking on the door, but not quite in the club yet. There's an old Korean saying that translates, "An empty can makes the most noise," which might apply.
in case you haven't already had the conversation about the bad effects cram schools and private institutions have on Korean kids a hundred times, or want to hear about it, or just like reading a succinct summary of a conversation many English teachers in Korea have stretched out over hours on end. . . here.
If you're a lover of literature, you might want to check out an accidental poem that blogger Schwim, of Sink of Schwim received from a student. I took a crack at unpacking its vivid imagery and fascinating progression of symbols, and some of you might want to take a shot at it, too. If not, just read that thing: it truly is a work of art.
In case you were wondering about what Dark Matter is, and what the Large Hadron Collider built under France and Switzerland actually does, but can't read the science-ese in science quarterlies. . .
Another picture of my university campus: I don't know what the green lights are for, but they sure do some nice things when you set them next to the orange lights.
My best friend is taking a Masters' in Applied Linguistics. I'm watching in slow motion as the language he speaks slowly morphs from English to. . . English-ish. Academian. Scholarish. I'm reading Korean folk tales again. I might be hooked. I may even blog some of them.
So anyway, last weekend I went to city hall to hang out. Met girlfriendoseyo and we stomped around the downtown for a while and saw some cool stuff.
I had to bear this on the way downtown. . . the things I do to entertain you with pictures, dear readers. The things I do!
People were scattered across the City Hall lawn like paper cups.
Some ladies in Hanbok. Just because.
And, of course, kids were playing in the water fountain.
More kids playing.
This little one was having an especially good time.
He was my favourite.
I like this picture, maybe third best.
As a picture, I think this is the best one. From a photographer's point of view, that is.
Maybe the cutest picture of the lot. . . wait a minute. . . maybe not.
there it is. gonna grow up to be a plumber.
Hope all your weekends were as happy as this little boy's. Hope you were a bit better covered up, though (unless that was the reason you had so much fun. . .)
I'm reading one of the greatest graphic novels ever written, the watershed "Watchmen" right now, for the second time, in anticipation of the Watchmen Movie coming soon. This is a ridiculously layered, complex and intriguing story, developing characters in ways that stretched the comic medium (back in the '80s when it was written) into unrecognizable dimensions. It's awesome. . . a bit wooly, and it takes a while to get going, but awesome.
and I have quotes from Conor Oberst, also known as Bright Eyes. You're entitled to your opinion on him, and I'm not going to get an emo haircut or start wearing ironic t-shirts or anything,
but here are some great lines from a few of the songs on "Lifted"
Waste Of Paint (Sorry. Can't embed two Bright Eyes songs in one blog. The whole thing'd implode.)
Bright Eyes
two verses of this song are just so lovely. . . but then there are. . . a lot . . . of words. . . between the lovely parts.
everybody: YyyyaaaaaaAAAAYYYY EXCESS!
. . . lots of words. . .
The last few months I have been living with this couple. Yeah, you know, the kind who buy everything in doubles. They fit together, like a puzzle. And I love their love and I am thankful that someone actually receives the prize that was promised by all those fairy tales that drugged us.
. . . too many words. . .
. . . but these lines are lovely . . .
So now I park my car down by the cathedral, where the floodlights point up at the steeples. Choir practice was filling up with people. I hear the sound escaping as an echo. Sloping off the ceiling at an angle. When the voices blend they sound like angels. I hope there’s some room still in the middle. But when I lift my voice up now to reach them. The range is too high,
. . . more words. . .
Finally, the best line on the whole album:
-from "Laura Laurent" But you should never be embarrassed by your trouble with living because it's the ones with the sorest throats, Laura, who have done the most singing.
You can click on this link, and watch the first segment -- it's more about two other Korea bloggers. . . but they show my face! And my voice is in there at one point. I show up about seven minutes in, and you can distinctly hear me say, "a lot of hits on my blog are. . . "
Too bad they edited out just about everything I said, you know, because now that it's on the cutting room floor, I'll swear to high heaven I have NEVER, repeat, NEVER been more clever, insightful, and entertaining than in all that stuff they edited out. Just boil down all the not-sucky parts of my blog into nine minutes of talking, and that's what it was like, I SWEAR.
snicker.
If you follow the link, you either have to sign up for the site, to get a login name and see the video on demand stuff, or if I know you personally, you can e-mail me at the address on the sidebar, and ask really nicely, and I'll e-mail you the username password I used to see it.
Zenkimchi kindly put the pertinent segment on Youtube. (Thanks, Joe.) So now you can see it here.
If you ONLY care about old Roboseyo, skip to the eight minute mark. . . but if you want to get a look at bloggers in Korea in GENERAL, watch the whole thing. Mike and Joe are worth knowing about, too.
