Seoul Tower in Lights

Hermit Hideaways draws our attention to these amazing pictures of Namsan, Seoul Tower, in downtown Seoul, washed in light. Here are two.

Ack! Busy

Hey folks. I haven't forgotten about you...I'm just busy as heck, and running all over Andong last weekend, while fun as anything (thanks to everyone who came out) wiped me out for the next week of balmy days, nights that cool down too much, maintenance at The Hub of Sparkle, and, you know, classes.

Happy birthday, Gord. Also you, Anila, my lovely little sister.

Matt VV: holy cow, man! Thanks for playing Spritualized for me: they've been rocking my planet every moment I've had to be near a pair of speakers or headphones!



Meanwhile, the write-up on the Andong trip is in the workings...but I'm not sure yet when it'll be finished. Here's a bunch of the bestest photos, though, to keep you interested.

Dosan Seowon (one of the most important confucian academies in Korean history: it's on the 1000 won bill, and prominent on the old 1000 won note).













In and around Hahoe Folk Village



This is the same place I took one of my favorite pictures ever, last October.
Remember this?


Some fake folk village near the Andong dam.

In and around downtown Andong:

Brick pagodas are special.

Good times, dear readers. Good times. To everyone who came out: thanks for showing up!

More later...if possible.

Got back from Andong.

It was great.

But until I have time to write up the trip, here's something to tide you over.

At The Hub Of Sparkle, Stafford mentioned the new Korean 50 000 won note coming out soon in Korea, and asked for readers to contribute humourous suggestions for what could be on the 50000 banknote.

Here is my own contribution. Why not this.



or maybe this
However, I have it on good authority that, never ones to be left behind, North Korea has responded to the bank of Korea's change in currency with a 50 000 won note of their own.

Here are the two designs under consideration

Here's for you, Melissa and Joy: Roboseyo Blogs Music

See, if I started writing about music, it'd take over the blog pretty easily... but Melissa inspired me, with her "25 Musical Facts About Me," to add my final word to that silly 25 Facts About You thing that's going around on Facebook... (and meanwhile, Joy always mentions that she and I ought to talk about music sometime)...

but not before I say this:

Listen, you goofballs (and I know it's the same people...plus a few of your younger counterparts). Remember seven years ago, when your friends staged an intervention, and told you to stop sending E-MAIL forwards to all of them, all the time? And how some of them threatened to cut ties with you entirely...

SENDING FACEBOOK NOTES AND ZOMBIE BITES IS EXACTLY THE SAME THING.

The difference between forwarding "Timmy the Brain Tumor" e-mails in 1997 and tagging people in facebook notes which require them to do something and tag others, or sending them zombie bites, vampire bites, pirate bites, or WHATEVER, is equal to the difference between taking a piece of crap and wrapping it in a PLASTIC box, and wrapping the same piece of crap in a CARDBOARD box. It's just as annoying, and I'm just as not going to do it.

OK. That being said...

Here are, not 25 stupid facts about myself, instead,
25 Songs that Make Rainbows Burst Out My Eyelids.


Here they are: in No Particular Order
Tom Waits - Hold On
Radiohead - Thinking About You
Propellorheads - History Repeating
Magnetic Fields - Busby Berkeley Dreams
Jens Lekman - Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death
The Polyphonic Spree - It's The Sun
The Arcade Fire - Neighbourhood #1 - Tunnels
Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes
Neko Case - I Wish I Was the Moon Tonight
Tegan and Sara - Call it Off
Buddy Rich (and his band) - The Beat Goes On
The Mountain Goats - This Year
String Quartet plays Radiohead - Motion Picture Soundtrack
White Stripes - I'm Slowly Turning Into You
Yeasayer - Red Cave
Jens Lekman - People Who Hate People
Do, Make, Say, Think - Frederica
Lucas - With the Lid Off
Antony & The Johnsons - Bird Gerhl
Angela McCluskey - Famous Blue Raincoat
Nina Simone - Suzanne
Blind Melon - Soup
Wolf Parade - I'll Believe in Anything
Feist - Mushaboom
Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers

Most of these were dependent on their availability on Youtube, and there are a hundred other songs I love which I could substitute in for any one of these, but those are twenty five songs that make me glee.



and I'm NOT TAGGING ANYONE.

Roboseyo's K-blog Of The Month for February '09...before it runs out. Dongchim.

Well, better toss one of these up before the month expires.

I'm going to Andong this weekend, and I'm preparing for that, while slogging through my two hardest workdays of the week (Turds day and Fried day suck for me).

However, I'll drop in a quick recommendation for the K-blog of the month before I go, and I'm pleased that this might actually be a very little-known one.

See, I was thinking about giving it to Eat Your Kimchi, seeing as they took home a handful of Golden Klog Awards...but they already got lots of attention from me earlier this month, during Golden Klog Voting and such. They have a blog, a wildly popular youtube channel (maybe that's where all their votes came from: over 500 subscribers on Youtube), a podcast, and have been putting out some really top-notch stuff.

Instead, I lay before you, someone you probably HAVEN'T heard of, because it's a very new blog (almost too new to even have appeared on the golden Klogs), but has been putting some really funny stuff out: Ladies and Gentlemen, Dongchim

Now, Dongchim, any teacher of children knows, is when a kid (hopefully a kid: grown-ups who give dongchim are best avoided) makes a little two-handed gun shape with their two index fingers, sneaks up behind you, and tries to ram those fingers right up your bung. Like this.


Apparently, Dongchim is an important enough part of Korean culture to make a statue of it.

Yech.


You can play the game here, if you like, but I'm going to make you agree you're a weirdo to do it. "By clicking this link to play the dongchim game, I fully confess and acknowledge that I'm a weirdo. Weirdy weird weirdo."

But Dongchim the blog is more than just a pair of intrusive digits: it's a comedy site that's putting out some clever material so far.

My favorite so far is the report of Buddhists frustrated on their path to enlightenment flocking to Korean convenience chain store "Buy The Way" in order to purchase what they could not find through mediation and renunciation. "Desperate Buddhists Flock to Local Convenience Stores".

The site's only about two months old, so it won't take you long to go through the archives. I, for one, am glad to see new comedy blogs coming out on the K-blogosphere: as great as they are, one can only go through the Yangpa and the other Yangpa and the really old Yangpa's archives so often before wishing for new material. Fortunately Party Pooper still updates.

The other satiric K-blog I like these days is Dokdo Is Ours, but he/she/they have also had enough promotion from the golden Klogs, that it's Dongchim's turn.

In the Korea Herald Today

I'm in the Korea Herald today: if you are finding my blog for the first time, because you read the article there, welcome! Take a look around if you like. On the right sidebar, you will see a guide to some of my most popular posts, and some of the posts I'm proudest to show off.

If you can't get your hands on a paper copy of The Korea Herald, you can follow this link (I hope), or read the article I wrote, reprinted here.

Be a Nate instead of a nothing



Obviously, expats would function better and enjoy their time in Korea more if they lived in a community: all humans do. The hard part is knowing where to find it. Even in densely populated Korean cities, it can be difficult for expats to get connected, and along with the language, culture and schedule barriers preventing networks from forming, there is another impediment to community which is completely surmountable: the initiative block.

My friend Evan is new in Korea: we knew each other back in Canada, and here in Korea we once had an interesting conversation. Evan's church has a couple of English services each Sunday, which attract a couple hundred people. There were a handful of people Evan had met there, either during or after church. These people had enough interest in each other that it would be nice, Evan reflected, if they could meet in other contexts than just the usual chatting semi-circle, with the possibility of an after-service coffee shop meet and greet.

In a completely different context, during my second year in Korea, I lived in a suburb of Seoul where there was a foreigner bar - a bar that had been unofficially designated the place where foreigners from the district met on Friday or Saturday nights. At that bar, it was surprising how often the same faces showed up: we knew each other by name, and had good times together over drinks; sometimes we even got each other's phone numbers and such.

However, the only activity we ever did together was trade shots. While the conversations had over a brew or a cocktail can be interesting, drinking buddy gets to be a pretty one-dimensional relationship after a while. Yet, to our detriment, nobody ever collected those phone numbers, sent out a bulletin, and suggested a hike or a brunch, instead of the same old drinking.

Drinking buddies we remained, and nothing more. When somebody left Korea, they weren't much missed, and when somebody new arrived, we weren't much excited: The beer buzz probably mattered more to most of us after a week of tiring teaching.

Nice as they might have been, I am no longer in touch with any of the people I met at that bar.

For Evan's case, things turned out better. A guy named Nate gathered the phone numbers of all the people he'd met after church, set a time and place, and invited them to meet during the week. The group is now scheduling regular meetings in a couple of locations, and moreover, building and deepening friendships. Though anyone could have done the same, everyone is glad Nate picked up the ball.

The great thing is, it doesn't take much to be a Nate instead of a nothing. Most people are interested in improving their support systems and friendships. All it takes to be a Nate is to gather those phone numbers or e-mail addresses, and set a time and place. Starting a Facebook group is easier still. All involved will be on the way toward a viable community, and a better experience of Korea.

Sure, it's a bit scary to make those first calls, but the possible benefits far outweigh the risks of losing a little face. There is nothing stopping any expat in Korea from being a Nate, instead of waiting for one to come along. Setting a time and place isn't that hard, and everyone will remember, and thank, the one who finally got the ball rolling. That person could be you!

If you know about, or are a member of a community where expats meet, connect, or support each other, drop me a line at roboseyo@gmail.com with the word "community" in the subject line. Tell me when and where you meet, and why you think I should feature your group.

To contact Rob, e-mail roboseyo@gmail.com or go to roboseyo.blogspot.com - Ed.



2009.02.25

Thanks to Matt, the expat living editor, for giving me the chance to hold forth in the print media, and thanks to everyone reading: I've never met many of you, but I bet you're swell.

-Roboseyo

Roboseyo's Bliss-Out Of The Week: Lover's Day, TV On The Radio

TV On The Radio has so far not let me down once. That's pretty unprecedented, as I have a pretty high bar to clear, when it comes to bands I really, really like.

The album of theirs I heard, "Return to Cookie Mountain" was superduper cool, with a handful of tracks that approached bliss-out territory. While the album was extremely strong, song-for-song, none of them quite made The Leap into bliss-out territory. However, they sing with authority, with charisma, and with depth.

Their new album is called "Dear Science," which was just as good, maybe even better.

This song is the last track: of all places, I love albums that put a strong track last on the playlist -- give you something serious to walk away with. Too many albums are front-loaded, putting all the best songs on the beginning of the album, counting on short attention spans not to notice the suckiness at the end, but then a roboseyo who DOES listen to the end doesn't want to listen to it again. I like albums that give quality content right through. Radiohead has a few really really good last tracks on their albums: especially Kid-A, Amnesiac, and Hail To The Thief. Dear Science, is one of the strongest albums I've heard, top to bottom, in a long time. Here's another song I really like from that album. The rhythmic complexity and shifts in pace and force make the film a really interesting dynamic experience.

TV on The Radio: Dear Science,: one of the best albums of 2008, sez Roboseyo.

Shout Me Out: my second favorite song on the album. If I put a third one on, I'll have to post the whole album, though. It's just that solid.


Here's a super-cool video of one of their coolest earlier songs, performed live, a capella ('cept with bass), with hand clapping beatboxing. I've posted it here before.

Seriously, make a point of watching it.

Roboseyo's Bliss-Out One: Jens Lekman: People Who Hate People

So, Jens usually does these croony things...but then he pops of a b-side like this on a rare/unreleased whatchamacallit, and makes me bliss right out. The snappy rhythm might be what's doing it... I'm not totally sure, but this is the second wackiest bliss-out I have in my collection.



Interestingly enough, the wackiest one is ALSO by Jens Lekman. Might give you that one later.

Melissa, from Expatriate Games, did a "25 Musical Things About Me" post which inspired me to turn that stupid "25 Random Things About You" meme into "25 Songs That Make Rainbows Burst From My Eyelids" (because who really cares if I'm addicted to chocolate brownies?)

I'm working on the Youtube playlist. Bear with me.

(ps: meanwhile, Gord Sellar is also posting some really cool music these days. Don't forget to check the comments on the second one.)

By the way: saw this online... your nominees for weirdest combination of music/vocal/video ever are: Eminem, Benny Hill, and Dr. Who... huh?
(warning: it's eminem. you know. language.)

Bwahahaha! Korean Drug-Related Language Mishap

Had a good weekend. Did lots of fun stuff with cool people, and saw my sweet friend Danielle get married.

Then, bumming around at COEX, I saw this at the megabox:
There's apparently a movie called "Marley and Me," which is fine.

Except, in Korean, "Me" is "na" and "and" can translate into "wa". . .

and the name Marley, because of the trouble with r's and l's, sometimes gets mixed up and pronounced, "Mari" instead of having distinct sounds for the "r" and the "l"


So that this movie's name, in Korean, sounds exactly the same as the word
"Marijuana". Reading the movie listings on the chart in Korean, and coming across the word "Marijuana" in hangeul was sure startling, let me tell you.

In other news, I just saw a cute Korean comedy involving a marijuana subplot, except the "marijuana" field didn't look anything like marijuana. I don't want to name the movie, because the marijuana thing's supposed to be a hilariously surprising plot twist, but the marijuana plants looked like this:

(That's a soy crop), and . . .

well, let's just say it was pretty obvious that neither the filmmakers nor the writers knew a darn thing about marijuana, and leave it at that.

Good thing they didn't, too: wouldn't want them to be deported, you know.

A Shout Out To Our Readers (and non-readers) in Australia

"Australia Mourns Bushfire Victims"

Today is the day of mourning for Australia's bushfire victims.

To all those mourning in Australia, and the Australians abroad who wish they could be home to participate in this tragedy: may the diety of your choice be with you and your family, and also the families of those who lost their lives in the fire, and may each of you be surrounded by the people you care about on this day of mourning.

The world mourns with you.