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)

Pictures and pictures and pictures and dumb commentary.

My friend Myungshin has magic hands: look what they can do! She can also make them pass through solid objects.

Met this guy out in Shinchon.   
Can't remember his name though. Might've been Brian.

Somebody has the job of writing those t-shirts.

And I want their job.

But bad.  REeeeeeel bad.

Met this guy out in Shinchon too. He found a hot dog stand he, uh, really liked. Street food. Aah, street food. He said it was nice: thick, juicy, and just spicy enough.  I...uh... don't eat hot dogs.

The bad economy's trickling down to the little guy now: those cheapie 3300 won samgyupsal places are now patchworking their signs to cover the budget.

Went to a bar.  It was rough.

You'd think, though, especially in a place like Hongdae, that they'd check SOMEBODY, just SOMEONE to veto signs like this one: "Club DD: We got all black music"

There's a bar called Boobi Boobi in Hongdae, too.  It has another meaning in Korea, but I don't have the background to give an exact translation.  It DOES seem like it must be a cool name for a bar, though.There's also a bar named "Ho Bar."  In fact, there are TWO of them...and more (three...maybe even four) in Hongdae, and another two, maybe three in Jongno.  These bars are a running gag to pretty much every foreigner in Korea.  'nuff said.
Hyori has another soju poster.  Those airbrushers are getting more and more involved in these soju ads. . . it's at the point now where they're not even trying to make it look like an actual person anymore.  It's like cartoon Hyori standing behind a cardboard frame.

Went to a little arboretum near my house with Girlfriendoseyo.  It was gorgeous: the sun was out shining through the leaf canopy and setting little trees aflame with sunlight.Purty.
Girlfriendoseyo made a friend.

Seen on a sign near Sinchon station:

??And English school where you learn to talk dirty??

Saw these in City Hall Subway Station.  A Korean artist had a really interesting take on the interactions between old Korean culture and modern pop culture.

Finally: a soju ad advertising that Soju is "Non-GMO".

Nope.  No genetically modified chemists were involved in mixing cooking alcohol with MSG and water to make this soju.
Advertising soju as non GMO is just weird to me -- isn't that kind of like selling "New Marlborough. . . 100% organic!" -- I mean, so what?  It's still soju.  That's like selling me a rottweiler and saying, "Don't worry.  This one only attacks adults without provocation, so your kids'll be safe."  Big deal.  

TrashCat is not amused.

(picture source)

Korean stereotypes of English teachers spreads all the way to ABC News.  

Completely not surprised to find a Korean name on the byline.

Here's the article. http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=5838267&page=1

Here's supersleuth Matt from PopularGusts, chronicling the Korean media's history of scapegoating English teachers.

See the resemblance?

Frankly, it's embarrassing for ABC to fall for this kind of junk, and allow it up on their page, without sending a fact-checker in.

You can read the comments I left on the article's comment board (or read the copy of one of them here:)

As an English teacher in Korea who works hard, obeys the law, and nevertheless is often judged according to the crass stereotypes presented in the article above, I resent being characterized this way. Using interviews with only two English teachers, and providing no comparative context for the statistics used (comparing drug arrests to the total population of expats, the Korean population, the Korean rate, or the rapid increase in foreigners living in Korea) is lazy and irresponsible, and far below the standards of an international outlet. 

Frankly, this article sounds like one of the intellectually lazy scapegoating smear-jobs frequently printed by domestic Korean media, which have been frequently and roundly criticized for bias, yellow journalism, distortion, and manufacturing news.

for example: http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/07/05/jieae.sk.whats.the.beef.cnn?iref=videosearch

As Mike Hurt says over on Hub of Sparkle:

This journalism is not even as bad as the stuff the Korean media usually trots out — it’s worse. The claims being made are even broader, made to an audience that can’t really know otherwise than to think our citizens really are coming over and influencing all of Korea to smoke out, and the actual focus of the article isn’t really even ABOUT what the title suggests.

For more of my thoughts on the Korean media shitting on English teachers' reputation, see here.

Roboseyo's K-Blog Of The Month: Kimchi IceCream

(crossposted at Hub Of Sparkle)

Yeah, I know you were all expecting me to tap The Hub of Sparkle for this month's blog of the month. . . and I probably would have, 'cept for this.

Kimchi Icecream just popped onto my radar with a drop-dead hilarious account of everything that could possibly go wrong at a Korean hospital's allegedly International Clinic. The post title gives a hint at what happens in the story: The Nurse Who Could Speak English (emphasis mine), but oh, dear readers, the dearth of English speaking nurses at the International clinic is just the beginning of the story, and his account of the "Oh shit! A foreigner! I'm terrified of using English!" face (a face I have seen all too many times myself), among other things, is hilarious, too.

It's a blog by a cat named "Jason," who according to the bio, has lived in Korea since 2005. His writing shows that he HAS paid his dues, but he doesn't get into the kinds of prescriptive or sweepingly generalized bullwinkle certain other K-bloggers do (cough cough). He peppers his posts with photos of characters from The Muppets, the Simpsons, and such, as a funnier way of adding emphasis than exclamation points and smileys. :)

(source)

He also uses humor to approach certain topics that other expats would use as an excuse to gripe (see his post on "the foreigner/chopsticks conversation" here).

He also likes putting up a. lot. of. pictures., of various places around Korea, which is fun, and from time to time (for example, check out the Jogye Temple series on this post) he reels off a little stretch of really lovely photography. And let's be honest: a blogger who throws a whole ton of photos at y'all is a lot more fun than a blogger who throws reams and reams of uninterrupted text out there.

Good job, Jason. Hope so see more of you around the K-blogs.

--Roboseyo

(hold everything!  

Update: Brian just reminded me that this was the same Jason who left a very kind and encouraging comment on Otto (of I, Foreigner)'s discouraged English teacher post.  

OK.  Let the inaguration continue.)

Head on over to The Hub

There's a new meta-blog on the radar, and if you come here for news about Korea, you should make it your next stop. As you know, Korean promoters aim for Korea to become the hub of everything; well, thanks to the "Korea, Sparkling" advertising campaign, The Hub of Sparkle (cheers, old party pooper) wants to get in on that Korean wave. It's a meta-blog, that is, a handful of established Korea bloggers have put their heads together and decided to create a space where they can collect their individual input and offer a diverse, interesting look at Korea and its wonderfulness, goofiness, and quirkiness, and occasional backwardness or suckiness or still-working-on-it-give-us-a-bit-more-time-iness. There are a whole buttload of foreigners living in Korea now, and it's time to get working on forming a positive, open community where we can look at Korea's ins and outs, for better and for worse.

You can reach it by typing in www.koreasparkle.com or www.hubofsparkle.com

There'll be some WTF stuff, some culture and events news, stuff to laugh about, helpful info for life in Korea, some social criticism (hell, I don't know what the other posters will put up there), and, we're hoping, a lively, friendly discussion board where people feel free to weigh in and hash things out without worrying about trolls or snipes.

There are some pretty awesome K-bloggers involved, and the material on the site so far is really interesting, and we've only just started: I hope as it gets established, it can become a helpful resource for people who need to get their bearings over here. Anyway, I think it'll be worth your while to add it to your blogroll, favorite it, and make it one of your regular visits.

Here's the "Welcome to The Hub of Sparkle" introduction, from the site itself.

Now: here's a cross-post of something of mine (yup, I'm in there, too) that's been up over there for a little while now. (here)

One Gripe about that Andong Festival

Yeah, I had a great, wonderful time last week, and the fireworks were one of the most unique aesthetic experiences I’ve ever had…

But then, between rounds of sheer wonder, they did this:



Now, Girlfriendoseyo defended it, saying that maybe they chose those songs for the sake of the foreigners in the crowd. . . except that as far as I’ve seen, both Sinatra’s “My Way” and Josh Groban/Westlife’s “You Raise Me Up” seem to be more popular with Koreans than with the foreigners living here.

Am I asking too much, and/or being some kind of Eastern culture-fetishizing orientalist by expecting to hear Korean music — or at least mostly Korean music, like the jazz adaptations of traditional arirang music that were playing before the fireworks show (similar to this) — when I go to a festival celebrating Korea’s traditional culture?

Anyway, just to remind you: other than that hiccup, the other 98% of the fireworks show was unbelievably cool, and the music was a bit jarring, but not enough to be a turd in the punchbowl, and ruin the whole experience.

New Phone, Correction Plus Jo Gwon; also, Expats and the DEAR LEADER HIMSELF!

First: Dear Readers in Korea: I've heard that there are phone services which will allow me to get a phone account in my own name. Which ones (as in, which service providers? What do I have to do/bring, and where can I go?) More importantly: my current phone is in the name of a friend, and I want to get a new phone that has the same number as my current phone. . . does she have to be there for me to do that, or what are the necessary details for making that switch-over? Anyone who's done the switch, or could point me to some helpful information, would get a gold star of appreciation from Roboseyo.)


Second: this is beyond belief.

Spotted in an Athens, Georgia record store

He looks healthy to me.
(HT to these guys, via these guys. Why don't MY readers send me awesome links like that?)

OK, I have an announcement, but it's just going to have to become a post of its own, because Jo Kwon will make you laugh.


So third, as an update on the old JYP Post from Sunday...

I'm an idiot.

I looked at the post date, not the original air date of the Jo Kwon Youtube video on my PopSeoul post, and blundered badly enough to prove PopSeoul clearly does it better than ol' Roboseyo, chasing me back into my corner. I'll just have to keep giving you this goofiness (which I do well), because obviously fact-checking (an important part of celebrity gossip writing, and life in general, too) ain't my strong point.

So that Jo Kwon kid from the video 1. was that age back in 2001, and 2. is a boy. Not that you'd know it from that old video...

But 2. he's now grown up (a bit), looking older (though not a lot more masculine), old enough to be promoted (according to the linked article) as the male counterpart to female Korean Wave star Choi Ji Woo:

What do you think, readers?  See any resemblance?

And despite (or maybe because of) being promoted as the male doppleganger of a major female star, our buddy Jo went out and got himself....

A FLIPPIN' SIXPACK!!!

He's lucky to have that sixpack, and can also rest content in knowing that he's still at best, the third prettiest male star in K-pop (as well as at worst, third most androgynous) thanks to Lee Jun Ki:

(remember lee jun-ki from this totally commentary-free post?)

And Bae Yong Joon.



Finally on a slightly more serious note, Kesumo of K-ROK added a little something to the "Why do Expats Complain" discussion which I found worth reading, appropriately titled, "Wah wah wah."

She discusses Korea's rapid development, and the way it leaves the older Koreans, basically, living in a country they no longer recognize as theirs: here are my favourite lines:

Can you imagine coming of age eating tree bark to survive and consulting shamans, and then in the number of years M*A*S*H was on the air, people around you –including your children and grandchildren -- are talking on cell phones, drinking overpriced coffee, and worshipping Prada? You haven’t just been left behind in the dust. You’ve been left behind on another freakin’ planet.

Thanks for adding your thoughts, Kesumo.

But everybody: don't forget about that phone thing. Help me out. I'm too busy with midterms to look it all up myself.

Katie I'd Like To Use One Of My Lifelines. BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Tina Fey returns to SNL, just to tear Sarah Palin a new one with satire

Saturday Night Live doesn't like to share, so you have to go watch it on NBC's site:
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/couric-palin-open/704042/

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4iQ

Holy cow, that was closer than I even realized.

Hold on... does this work?
It just gets funnier and funnier...right to the last minute, which is as funny as all but a few of Saturday Night Live's magic moments (more cowbell, anyone?) Satire, bar none, is the best way to eviscerate someone... maybe even better than one of these. (how do you like THAT, Gomushin Girl? Who's evil now?)

If Saturday Night Live did this to me, I don't know how I'd look at myself in the mirror.

Move over, PopSeoul!

So I randomly stumbled across this on Youtube (I SWEAR I was not searching for Wonder Girls)

Super-Pop-Producer JYP has been taking online auditions for his next manufactured pop band, including this 13-year old kid (meaning 11 or 12 western age), Jo Gwon, who (especially in her first dance audition in the video) shows off a pretty good voice (for a kid) a really fantastically goofy knack for rocking up a crowd with wacky dances. With a little polish (see 5:40 - 6:40), I'm sure she could be the next product off the JYP shelf.

Meanwhile, the dance lesson part of the video (starting at 3:38) is just. plain. weird. at 4:48, you get to watch JYP, a big grown-up male, teaching a bunch of eleven and twelve year-old possible future products, all girls, how to twist their torsos like sexybacks (a skill he successfully imparted to his most successful proteges)...and it's just weird, is all. (Though when Jo Gwon, who's obviously there for her pipes and not her steps, tries to do these kinds of moves. . . it's really really funny in a cute, not-yet-perverted-or-commodified-youth, i-don't-understand-the-suggestions-this-dance-move-makes-so-i'm-just-imitating-my-dance-coach sort of way.)

Youtube is loaded with JYP Audition videos, ranging from pretty impressive to kinda cringeworthy, QUITE cringeworthy, even MORE cringeworthy, to, uh, this. As always, there are a few young girls who seem to have taught themselves to sing by watching The Little Mermaid over and over.

In other I Wanna Be A Star news, there's a new star getting a pretty big buildup these days. . . with one problem.

Her name: 혜나 or "Hye-na" in Korean, is being written on the posters in a way that could cause some, uh, confusion, if she ever goes international.

Does anybody else here spot the problem?


Anyway, here's one of her videos from youtube...this one gets kinda crazy in the middle.


And here's another. This one's pretty hot.


So, uh, good luck, Hyena.

"Thanks, Rob."

(A Very Special Update: Otto, of "I, Foreigner", in linking to this page, said some of the nicest things I've had said about my blog so far: (and he hasn't even read the stuff I deleted, thinking "too bizarre")  From the write-up:

If you are looking for a blog ... that will make you say “WTF!” before you burst out laughing, a blog that will make you wonder if this man even has a job to have time to find stuff like this, then look no further.

Thanks Otto. You just made my day, and possibly my week.

Ring a bell? Good lord I hate money stress

So what happens next?


this one's hat tip to schwim,

Duck Tales explains the financial crisis:

The won is dropping like a bag of unwanted kittens in a river.  I'm not sure whether I should send everything to Canada now, before it drops now, or send the minimum possible and hold onto my won until things get better.  Yup.  Things are bad enough that I'm actually THINKING about stuff like this.  In 2004 or so, 870 won bought a Canadian dollar.  Now, it takes a bit over 1100.  If I send a thousand dollars home, I'm losing about $300. 

Yech.

In Case You Missed It...

This video was buried near the end of the really long Andong Mask Festival post. . . and I wanted to bring more attention to it, because this was one of the loveliest experiences I've had in all my travels, and I'd like to share the wonder.

In case you said "Post too long already. Will not watch." -- if you did that, you made a mistake, missing out on this one.



Skip the rest if you like, but watch this video. (Hang on to the end, too: there's more.)

In Seoul on Saturday?

On Saturday October 4th at 1PM, I'm gonna be in the Starbucks near Kyungbok Station (Subway line 3). I'm gonna climb Inwang Mountain, a great little mountain right next to downtown Seoul, with important history in Korea's Shamanistic past. On the way down, we're gonna walk through a cool little preserved mountainside village, and end of in one of the nicest, tastiest coffee shops I've ever been to.

The climb's not too long, and not too difficult, so you shouldn't have much trouble. . . don't wear high heels or flip-flops, of course, and maybe bring an extra T-shirt to change into if it's hot, and a water bottle. I'd like to head out at about 1:30.

If you want to join me, come on! The best way to enjoy Korea is to get out and do stuff like this. Come to the Starbucks instructions, with pictures, in this video clip.


It helps if you send me an e-mail at roboseyo (at) gmail (dot) com, or send me a note on facebook (search for Roboseyo) so that I can expect you, and we don't leave anyone behind who wanted to come. Come and enjoy one of my favourite parts of Seoul with me.

-Roboseyo