Off for the weekend

I'm going to travel down to Jeollado this weekend, to see the Bamboo Forests. That will be good.

In the meantime, I really liked this photo essay over on Galbijim about Chilseong Market in Daegu: an amazing looking market of a type that's slowly vanishing from the cities, and also the kind which, if you don't know how to find it, you probably never will.

Go take a look!

Superheroes...real and fictional.

Video: Batman meets somebody with real superpowers. This is funny. Up there with "How Lord Of The Rings Should Have Ended" as movie-related viral videos go.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

And as far as actual human superpowers. . . last night, for my birthday, I went to see Cirque du Soleil's Alegria with girlfriendoseyo. Some of you might remember way back in April '07, when I saw Quidam and came back gushing that if Cirque comes to town, save up, borrow, beg, steal, and go see it, because you'll never regret the sheer wonder of the show...

and yeah. I think I'll just have to reiterate that.

somehow Cirque manages to take familiar elements and look at them in a new light, or combine elements in a way you'd never think of, and then top themselves, and top themselves again, and top themselves again, and again, and again.

Here were two highlights of the show -- who thinks up this stuff? "Hey... let's do something with hula-hoops. . . but instead of just doing hula-hoops, let's, like, use a contortionist! And then dress her like a frog!" It's like those comic book fan fictions where Superman teams up with The Incredible Hulk, and Batman borrows Iron Man's super-strength robot mecha shell and they all join James Bond to bring down the Evil Russian empire (ruled by astrally projected horror-wraith Hitler, military run by robot clone Napoleon), establish democracy in China (re-killing Zombie Chairman Mao), solve world hunger, and invent three new card games that are better than anything in existence, and then, since they ended crime anyway, they form a pop band that outsells the Beatles. (the one in our show was dressed like an angel, not a frog, but you get the point).



Adding the music and the dancing and the character clowns with the textures and interactions they bring, creates an experience that just goes beyond impressive.

This was another of the best parts, for the sheer thrill: as always, watching a video of a show like this compares to the real thing about the way a third-grade drawing of a flower compares to your wedding bouquet, but you'll just have to live with it, until you get a chance to see the show.


so, uh, go get your tickets and see the show, eh?

The only other performance company I can think of (though I'm sure there are others out there) that puts on such an impressive display is Stomp, which seems like it was formed by a pair of of jazz drummers and a dancer who found themselves working as janitors, and started composing rhythmic compositions using the tools and objects in their maintenance shed.

Be amazed, dear readers, at the things creative humans can do!


Girlfriendoseyo also gave me a nice sweater for my birthday, and after Cirque du Soleil, I bought a new set of juggling balls. I'm a happy old cat.

It's My Birthday!

More later.

Warning: Do Not Start a Brawl in The Korean Baseball League

This might happen.

ht to Zenkimchi

I Like Big Bibles, and thoughts on Sir Mixalot and Lee Hyori

Just watch it. It's funny as heaven.



Next...
Lee Hyori was in a soju ad that's been playing on loop at subway stations around Seoul for a while now.


Now sure, it's Hyori bringing her special brand of hypnotic, "You. . . will. . . buy.  . . this. . . product" CF queenieness and all. . . but what the heaven is up with the song choice?

Of all the songs to choose for a Hyori ad, why choose a schlock novelty from the early nineties, from a one-hit-wonder Dr. Demento crossover poster-boy -- and then running an ad with THAT song, fifteen years after it came out???

(PS: it creeps me out that there are kids who can rap that entire "baby got back" song, who were not even BORN when it came out...though the video is wildly hilarious)

adding to the weirdness of that song showing up in an ad, sorry, but the song fits Hyori like a baggy sweater.  Ass lovely as it is, I'm still looking for the "big ol'" part.  Unless she forgot the other cheek at home on the day she went in for this photo shoot:
Sorry.  While the word shapely is certainly apt, bootylicious just isn't the one for dear Lee Hyori. She's lovely, in that "dear god what a perfect stomach" sort of way,
and a big part of her appeal is the old "of all the K-pop stars, she actually seems like she's having fun instead of just pacing through her choreographer's routines" kind of charisma. . . but she doesn't have enough junk in the trunk to sell records on her big ol'juicy buh-tawcks (thanks, Forrest Gump) alone.

allow me to illustrate:

Big ass:
(courtesy of Nike; text here)

Happy Sir Mix-a-lot (he and his othabrothas can't deny they got sprung):

(lovely nonetheless, but) NOT big ass:
UNhappy Sir Mix-A-Lot: (his othabrothas and he can't deny: they AIN'T got sprung.)

Though with a little help, she might yet hold her own against J-Lo and the bootylicious gang. . .  Sir Mix-a-Lot and his fellas might like this augmented bitty-bit:

But I shall stick with admiring the assets Hyori pops best:

fun charisma, and a really great tummy.

To the choeum chorom music choosey-people who picked THAT song for their ad:

work harder.

How is the weather? The weather is yech today.

The last three days have seen a swanky haze flop down upon the city of Seoul and not let up.

It's gross, and usually air quality this poor is reserved for the spring, with the yellow dust from China, and Autumn is my favourite season because the skies are clearer then than other times.

But not right now.

Heh heh heh. That's exactly what I thought the first time I saw it. Roboseyo's Untimely Film Reviews, part II

"My Sassy Girl," Jeon Jihyun's breakthrough film role (though really, the Samsung commercial and the Giordano commercial will be the reasons she's remembered), was a huge hit in Korea, and remade into a Hollywood film staring Elisha Cuthbert and something something something.

The Korean movie's Trailer:


The Hollywood Remake's Trailer:

(IMDB page)

The Hollywood version tested so poorly with audiences they cut their losses and sent it straight to video. Article here.

"My Sassy Girl" — a smash hit in its native South Korea in 2001 — went straight to video in the US because men rejected its premise of a male character putting up with a bossy love interest in American test screenings, Lee said Friday.

Here's my summary of the movie:

Guy meets beautiful girl.
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!*
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!**
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!***
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
Jeon Jihyun dances. She's hawt.
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
A limp excuse for her ridiculously self-absorbed behavior is half-heartedly presented.
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!****
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
She treats him horribly, but he dotes on her dutifully, because she's just THAT DARN BEAUTIFUL!
Some sad stuff happens. They can't be together for some stupid reason.
Long after he's given up hope of meeting her again, they meet again, through a coincidence that strains credulity, then bursts it, stomps it, and poops on it.
She finally realizes he's the man for her.
Movie over.

* at this point, I'd stopped buying the film.
** by this point, I had not even a single shred of respect for the male lead anymore, and wanted to punch him and tell him to grow a pair.
*** beauty nothin': by this point it could have been Audrey Hepburn and I'd have kicked her to the curb for constantly treating me like a turd
**** heavens to betsy they're still stretching this garbage out?

I KNEW this movie wouldn't fly in North America. Knew it. No man would watch another man be treated like such a sap for the entire duration of a movie. Meanwhile, many Korean women I've met love this movie, and think it's touching how the guy dotes on the girl, without ever thinking about how completely emasculated he's been -- degraded to a level reserved for discarded cellphone accessories -- and wish a guy would dote on THEM like that. To them, I usually answer, "Do you want a boyfriend, or a puppy?"

And every once in a while, I meet a young lady who seems to have taken this movie as a how-to-guide on how to attract a man. And I lose interest about the way you do when you realize that the chocolate bar you saw on the table is actually cat poop.

(kinda like this)


Doesn't. Work. (unless you want a man you can't respect)

There's another movie that sets an even WORSE pattern for young women's behaviour in Korean society. . . but only one I can think of, and I'm saving my write-up on that one up for a proper, spittle-flying frothing rant-down.  

Sure, there are cultural reasons why Korean women might gain some vicarious pleasure from seeing a woman treating a man like poop for ninety minutes, in a culture that is still recovering from having sexism institutionalized pretty much at every level possible, and if a movie like this is part of the recovery process, fair enough. . . I don't have enough sociological background to explore that in depth, but I can understand the movie's existence, from that perspective.

(update: on the comment board, James Turnbull, who is eminently qualified to expand upon these points, provides some context for what I mean, but ultimately dodge, here.)

However, I still don't have to like it, and whatever the movie represents aside, as a matter of personal taste, I found the movie charmless, and the characters unlikeable (the cardinal sin for me watching movies).  I just didn't want to spend time with these people.

Anyway: here's to North American girls NOT having this crap model of femininity foisted upon them.

(PS: For another rant/review I wrote back when nobody read my blog: Here's what I said about D-War back in January!)

Korean Traditional Baby Washer

This is how we do it in the R.O.K.!  (taken while wandering around my hood)

For the people back home:

If you know this girl, you know which of the "friends and family" sidebar links leads to her blog.  If, if, IF you know her, you should go click on her name, and send her a bit of emotional support today.  She's a wonderful lady, and she lost her Papa to cancer early this morning.   (if you don't know her. . . kindly ignore this post; grief is a bad time for hits and comments from curious strangers).

Get on her facebook page, or her blog, write a note, leave a comment, look up her old e-mail address in your contacts list.  Get in touch with her and send her some moral support somehow.

-Rob

Today is Blog Action Day; Topic: Poverty

Last year, I participated in "Blog Action Day," a project aimed at getting as many bloggers as possible to write about a single topic, to raise awareness. The topic then was environment, and you can see my post here.

This year, the topic is poverty, an especially pertinent one, as oil and food prices have been increasing all year, and corn-fuel experimentation basically boils down to rich countries taking food out of the mouths of the world's poorest people and putting it in their cars.

Now I'll be honest and say that I don't know a whole lot about the myriad complexities of world poverty, and I'm sure others here at the Blog Action Day site have better things to say about what we can do for world poverty, other than giving regularly and generously to aid organizations.

One thing you CAN do, that's free, and only takes five seconds, is to put The Hunger Site on your sidebar or your front page, and visit it every day, and (if you blog) tell your readers to visit it every day. It takes five seconds to upload a page with ads for Hunger Site sponsors, and just for spending half a second looking at ads, they'll feed starving person. There's no reason you shouldn't do this every darn day of your life, even if you're too cheap to give money or too lazy to volunteer.

Once you're at the Hunger Site page, you can toggle and support a few other groups with your eyeballs: Breast Cancer, Child Health, Literacy, Rainforest Preservation, and Animal Rescue. Sometimes, because I'm a horrible person, I visit all of them except animal rescue, because screw those stupid animals!

Now you can be a horrible person like me, and choose which cause NOT to support for free, as well.

(photo source)

Have fun excluding one!

from: Roboseyo the horrible
(more puppy hate)