Buttershug. Shutterbug. Shubbertug. Gubbershut.

Soundtrack: hit play and start reading. Mark Ronson

Just -- one of the best covers ever, of one of Radiohead's best songs.

This paintbrush monument at the top of Insadong (near Anguk Station)
reminded me of a similar Korean ink-brush in another prominent Korean monument:(Pyongyang.)


Got a haircut. Go widow's peaks!

Creepy Batman. Gives me strange thoughts.

To spur on a little more of the old "Are they or aren't they?" speculation. . . And in anticipation of the upcoming Dark Knight movie, which is gonna flippin RAWK!

A goofy T-shirt caption from "I Got Two Shoes," a blogger who collects pictures of such things.

One last poster I liked from the Beijing Olympic Torch Fiasco in Seoul, courtesy of DanB.
You never know when a building you used to use to keep your bearings might get gutted out. Ditto for restaurants you enjoyed. (From Sunday morning.) Six weeks (remodeling), or six months (new building) from now, you'll never be able to guess it hadn't been there all along.
The Bikkis randomly harassing cute girls in downtown Jongno. If they're going to treat women that way in public, I'm going to take pictures of them, I've decided. And post them. Because women deserve to be treated better than being physically grabbed and hauled into a night club. And maybe somebody (who has more influence than some weenie blogger) will see this and get upset and start complaining with me.
She's trying to get him to let go of her hand (above) and he follows her, still clutching, as she tries to walk away. (below) I really wish one of them did this to a NYC girl travelling in Seoul, and got a faceful of mace, or a knee to the groin. Or got their, and their boss's ass sued to high high heaven.

American Apparel is a popular brand among emo kids in North America. Now, at the American Apparel store in Myeongdong, you can get American Apparel pet accessories, too: in case you have an emo dog.

You can dress him in this emo dog sweater:And walk him around, dressed like this:
For those who love to resemble their pets.
I walk by this restaurant sign every morning and evening, and dear readers, I don't think I've ever seen an uglier person choose to blow up their photo as a way of making their restaurant seem more enticing. I wonder what the thinking was behind that.
I ate there once, and the very same lady served us. It was adorable: the first thing she did when we came in was make the classic "Oh shit! I don't speak English" face that I see so often when I enter a bank, convenience store, restaurant or shop, and then she scrambled around with her stumpy walk, from table to table, asking her patrons if any of them spoke enough English to help her out in taking our order.

Then I ordered in Korean (not fluently, but she got it), and everybody smiled.

Pretty good seafood stew, too.

It says gallery; I think they also sell frames here. Don't ask how I know: just call it a hunch.

Some spring pictures from Kelly Namechangedforprivacy (I blogged about her before).

These flowers are fake. Not quite as nice.
Coming to Korea: Japan's Morning Musume. . . I think this is another of those band/collectives with WAY too many members.

Korea's answer to Morning Musume is Girls Generation.
I'm telling you, for a manufactured pop band, five is the perfect number: enough to appeal to everyone, not so many that people start losing track of who's who. Oh, for the good old days when it didn't take memory exercises to learn the names of all the members of one's favourite MTV-style manufactured pop sensation.

Last weekend was one of the greatest in the history of Roboseyo. . . took about a jillion pictures, of which I'll try to only put the best half-jillion or so on the blog. . . possibly in stages, to keep stalling, while I write the first of my sidebar poll essays. I've dug into "5 Things I'd Change" but it might be a while before I'm satisfied that it's up to my usual standards (sloppy and half-assed, full of typos and sometimes even structural errors that I correct as I reread after publishing) and ready to publish.

hehehe


Have a great day, dear readers!

The final showdown, and some slightly, but not really naughty pictures:

First question: what is Hilary proving by staying in the race any longer? I mean, other than screwing her rival and fracturing the party to vindicate her ego?

So in my Kimcheerleaders post, I mentioned the Stephen Colbert - Rain psuedo-feud, where ballot box stuffers stymied Stephen Colbert's coronation as the most influential person of 2007 (or was it 06?) He created a video that basically mocked Rain's style, to which Rain responded, "I saw your video. . . don't quit your day job" (Can't find the video. Sorry.) Colbert responded the best way he knows how: by challenging Rain to a dance-off.

Hilarity, of course, ensued.



Other stuff that made me laugh recently:

(soundtrack: Nat King Cole - hit play and start reading)

L-O-V-E

Girlfriendoseyo made these out of Vietnamese Noodle sweet and sour sauce.
A case of poor planning: Placing a motion-sensor-activated hand-dryer close enough to the urinal that it activates while a fella's trying to drain his main vein is a bad idea.

One ends up trying to find creative postures which allow for both accuracy and dry footwear.

Must have been cold in the mannequin factory that day.
Back to sexy soju ads. . . the post-coitality of this smile actually shocked me the first time I saw it. Her name, according to the lady in the restaurant, is Gu Ye-Seon (구 예선), but I can't confirm that.

Nerd humour:Wow.

For those who knew him: I don't know where I stumbled across this picture, but doesn't he look just like my old university buddy Jon?
The middle school girls in this window saw Girlfriendoseyo and me walking down an alley beside their building and did the usual middle-school-girls-with-their-friends thing: started shouting and caterwauling all the English they knew, "Hello! Nice to meet you! How are you! I love you! You handsome guy! Where are you from!" (hollering those phrases at any white person they see, quite frankly, reminds me of when I lived in Canada and I'd shout "MOO!" out the car window as we drove by a herd of cows on the highway). Then, when they noticed Girlfriendoseyo and I were holding hands, one of them started singing "L-O-V-E" (the song you're listening to right now) which must have been on a movie soundtrack here or something -- it's a well known song and even a popular ring-tone. Anyway, the ballyhoos kind of annoyed me, but the song made me laugh, so I took their picture while Girlfriendoseyo wanted to disappear around a corner as quickly as possible.

There they are:
Probably still shouting "Hello" "I love you" or "Where are you from" even as I take the picture.

Nice thought, but that wheelchair ramp needs work. (itaewon)
from Feetmanseoul, a fashion style you can ONLY find in Korea:

from XKCD, my favourite online comic:

Warning: if you don't like bad words, don't read past this point on the post. Sorry, Opa and Oma. Hoped you liked that comic. (bad word warning--my grandparents think putting swears on my blog is not like me, so I'll at least give them a heads' up. This time.)

A friend pointed out these trees
and told me that when she was in middle school, she called them "Fuck You Trees", because the way they grow makes it look like a raised middle finger. I was going to post a picture to help illustrate the similarity, but decided against it.


There's a restaurant behind City Hall called BMF, for Beer Meets Food.



The only problem is, anybody who enjoyed the movie "Pulp Fiction" knows that B.M.F. stands for the words embroidered into Jules' wallet in that movie: Every time I see the sign for the restaurant, which I pass on the way to Quiznos, one of my favourite lunch places, I giggle inside.

Still working on those serious posts.

take it easy, o blogosphere!

From the "Hire a Proofreader, you Dumb-nut!" files. . .

Also: found an ice cream shop advertising not 31 flavours, like some dumb chains we know about. . . But in the textbook definition of one-upmanship, these folks boasted thirty-two flavours!

Take that, you dirty Buskin Rubbers!

I'm trying to imagine the scene where they brainstormed this idea.
"What are the two things you love the most?"
"Beer and anything."
"Try again."
"Uhh, sausage and bacon."
"Hmm. I think we're onto something. . . "


In case you thought sausage, or bacon, couldn't get any LESS healthy, here comes street food to prove you wrong!

Working on my next substantive post. Until then, I'll be posting pictures from my amazing last weekend and randomness from the weeks before, to tide you over.

PS: Thanks, Brian in Jeollanamdo for the blog props. Right back at ya!

What's the name of that darn song? (also: I was right.)

(update on my Kimcheerleaders post & "I Was Right" in the title: call me a hater if you want, and nothing against Korea, but THIS does not happen to the world's most influential person.)

Soundtrack: Mr Brightside

By The Killers

I'm a bit pissy and out of sorts today. Comes of dealing with banks -- not that I enjoyed Canadian banks or anything, but adding a language gap to the already mood-killing combination of money stress + bureaucratic paperwork is a perfect recipe for a headache and a big, glaring grumposeyo. Yech.

However, I have a happy thing to share. After making a random online comment about "that darn song running through my head," I got an equally random message from a waybackdays friend named Sparky (blog here - same topic I'm writing about today), suggesting I try out a site called watzatsong which is basically exactly what you're looking for if you always get songs in your head and you don't know where they're from. All you need is a microphone that hooks up to your computer, and you can sing the part you know (as best you can), or upload the tv commercial jingle or whatever, add all the info you can about the song, and post it anonymously on the site. Then other people will listen to it and make guesses about which song it is, suggesting song titles and artists, until you find the right one.

I hummed into the mike, added some info about this darn song with a catchy chorus that always gets stuck in my head (and for me, a song won't get UNSTUCK until I know where it's from -- that's just my way), which my friends all knew well enough to sing along, even though I somehow hadn't heard it before that night I went to the club, and went to work. By the time I got home that night, somebody had posted an artist and song title, and by gum, they had nailed it! It was the song you're listening to right now -- "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers, one of the more singalongable songs I've heard.

So, if you can't place the tune stuck in your head, go there and they'll help you out. In the spirit of sharing, you can also listen to other people's sound clips and make guesses. It's great!

I had one complaint from my sister that the poll on my sidebar kept sending annoying popups across her browser, and taking control of her mouse, and other obnoxious tricks like that. Did any of my other readers have that trouble, or was it just Becca? If it causes trouble, I'll drop the polls, but if it isn't, I kinda like the interactive thing. Comment -- let me know.

(here's another song that I had in my head, that I finally found.)

Hush, by Kula Shaker

cover of a Deep Purple (who themselves were covering another artist. . . but that's how it goes sometimes.)

Another song genealogy:
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen,
covered by John Cale,
Jeff Buckley (imitating Cale)
and finally Rufus Wainwright (imitating Buckley and Cale on the Shreck soundtrack),

then a bunch of other people (including American Idol, who will go to hell for co-opting such a lovely song) decided to send it up the "most slaughtered song ever" list --

though it has a lot of ground to gain on Amazing Grace (second place) this one hurts.

and The Star Spangled Banner (first place)

Speaking of national anthems, how about Canada's Edmonton Oilers fans taking it home during the Stanley Cup Finals -- gives me chills every time.

Finally, our sidebar poll winners for next blog topics are "the five things I'd change about Korea if I had a magic wand (that worked)" and "the goofiest urban legend ever" -- stay posted and I'll put those up as soon as I can. Next, you might find "Great Korean Movies you should track down and see" and "the movie I hate the most" combined into one post. . . or maybe two, if I'm just not up to that kind of a mega-post, or if I decide my "movie I hate" rant deserves a post of it's own (it's gonna get ugly, dear readers. Uuuug-leeee).

Way uglier than this.

Uglier than this, too. Turkeys are cute -- come on!
Uglier than this.Try harder, Roboseyo! What about . . .
Now we're on the trail! Maybe. . .

Yeah, I'm feeling it. What about this one. . . Yikes! Maybe not that bad.


After all that skeezy scary, let's cool down a bit. . . My friend's friend's little sister (above)
And my other friend's friend's baby -- just to finish on a cute note. (I hope she doesn't mind I borrowed it.)

If anybody's still reading, though -- let me know if the sidebar poll was harassing your web-browsing/blog-reading experience. I'll drop'em if they do.