Last few Summer Vacation Pictures

Last set of my best pictures from my Canada trip.

I like pictures of airport hangars and stuff. This was (I believe) in Tokyo. Or maybe Toronto. Anyway, I like the tinted glass, and the way it makes the sky that much richer.


Liked this sign at the Vancouver bus terminal.
I've told you about my sunglasses curse, right? I've never been able to keep a pair of sunglasses: I always either lose, or break them. Fortunately, hats have worked out better for me so far (knock on wood).



My awesome friend Melissa's son is super-cool. We had a great time chatting about the kinds of things seven-year-olds chat about. . . some of my favorite topics.
My surrogate family lives in my old hometown: when I was back in Canada, taking care of my sick mom, they lived in the same town, and whenever I was down, I'd go over to their place, just show up at the door, and they'd invite me in for a recharge. The two daughters are like my younger sisters, and they're awesome, and growing up to be awesome human beings, both of them. One of them had a birthday party, and I got to attend.
They're wonderful and funny and all that stuff, and here's a video of them being cute and funny and sisterly.


We found some flowers while walking around Harrison Hot Springs. Heres' my youngest surrogate sister. She's as funny as she is beautiful, and smart to boot. I spent a day hanging around with her and her friends (they all graduated high school this year) and we had some good laughs. From having conversations with seven year olds, to conversations with seventeen year-olds, it was a real grab bag this summer.
In Korea, flowers in your hair is a symbol of madness (cf: Ophelia), but in Canada it doesn't mean anythings special except, "I put flowers in my hair."


I drove the rockies and took some videos: most of the "shoot from a moving car" shots didn't work out, but I took some video that turned out OK. Watch for the flocks of birds, the bugs, and FWAM! The flying eagle!

Yeh.



Then off to Ontario for the end of my trip. My dad's house is there, and my extended family. Instead of craggy mountains, you get this:
My dad's house's bathroom had this really really cool looking sink-drain-plug.


My Dad lives in Niagara Falls now. (sweet!) and by happenstance, my cousin was visiting my OTHER cousin not far from there, and they had the time to come out and spend a day hanging out with me and being awesome. Dang, but I miss them! Staying touch isn't always a strong point for me, so I hadn't actually seen one of them since we were practically kids, but Heather lived near my old hometown one summer, and we had some hoppin' good times. She's awesome.

Sucks butt that I missed both their weddings while I was in Korea. Seriously sucks. I want to meet their husbands, though. This is the part where it really stings to be so far away.
My cousin Heather is one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever met.
We went under the falls, where the bass thundered all through your body.


The falls were in fine form.



You've seen lots of pictures of niagara falls already. I won't bore you too much with mine.

At night, I went there again with Mary-anna, my step-mom. She's super cool, and bore with me as I took pictures that she'd taken dozens of times before, all the while regaling me with interesting stories.

Here camera's way better than mine.

Plus, there was a fireworks show.


And the music didn't suck, like other fireworks shows I've been to (second one's Andong mask festival. Sound got muted, but the lady was singing "You Raise Me Up" [cheesetravaganza]. No music is better than crappy music... especially when it'll just get overshadowed by the falls' thunder anyway.

I caught the end of the fireworks show on video, and I've also showed some other cool shots I took on video. It really started raining after the show, and we got totally drenched - so wet that my shoes were still damp when I returned to Korea and unpacked them. It was a fun adventure with Maryanna, though.

This video also includes some footage from behind the falls and at the bottom (I think it's called table rock) -- it's awesome down there, and the falls are so loud, and all the other usual adjectives (majestic, awe-inspiring, blah blah). To get an idea of what it was like being there, connect the youtube video with the biggest speaker you have, lay on your back, turn the volume on high, and lay the speaker down on your chest while you play the video.



The video, then.



The last day before I flew back to Korea, I finally saw my mom's parents, one of the two main reasons I'd decided to go back to Canada this summer (that, and attending the family get-together in Langley). At my grandparents' house, the site of most of my best childhood memories, I got this shot of Dad

and this one of my grandparents. They're awesome. I wrote about my grandfather here.
Here's the house where they live, from the back yard: it's way out in the country, so remote they still use dialup, and only got their road paved in the '90s.
My grandmother loves gardening: she maintains a huge vegetable garden, even in her '70s, and keeps a whole swack of gorgeous flowers, too.
This is my favorite picture of their house from the trip:
and more flowers:




In the woods in FRONT of their house, my grandmother has carved paths all over the place, and each curve of the path represents, for her, a different son, daughter, grand, or great-grandchild. I didn't think to ask her which part was mine, but this little patch here...
was my mothers, before she died. The rock on the bottom right is the rock under which her ashes are buried. This was the first time I had the chance to visit mom's burial place since 2005, the year of her passing.

This is the rock where she's buried.

and i can't think of anything to say after posting that picture.

Preach it, sister!

Interesting article in the expat living section of the Korea Herald:

Thanh Cam Nguyen, rightly argues that ugly people can spoil an attractive city, and names a few behaviours that all of us have seen, and suggests ways to improve those weak spots. The article's worth a read, and while she's almost certainly right that Westerners have an easier go facing discrimination, than South-Asians like herself do, I still had a smile at the line, "When Koreans meet us for the first time, they usually ask, "Did you come to Korea to get married?"... I am very sure that the same question would not be asked if we were white and blonde."

Nope. White and blonde females get asked if they're Russian. And all that goes with it.

[Yeah, that was a petty snipe, and yeah, wise-ass cracks like that are the reason Westerners who follow Korea online may well have an inaccurate view of Koreans -- one that's informed more by "wacky Korea" and "sparkling" stories from ESL Cafe and the like (where the weirdest and most extreme incidents run the highest chance of being passsed around, and so, the FrankenKorean mischaracterization perpetuates...) than reality, but still...]

And she was mostly right about the success of Beijing's awareness campaigns for the Olympics: I was there five months after the olympics, and even then, people were still standing aside when subway doors opened to let people off before pushing on. Not that spitting was gone entirely, but it sure wasn't as bad as a walk through Pimatgol toward Jongmyo park.

anyway, the article's worth a read. Git over there.

Why does Korea Keep Ruining its Good Parts?

Piano Street might have been my favorite feature of downtown Seoul. It was unique, distinctive, one-of-a-kind, and instantly identifiable - everybody knew "piano street". It was a reliable a meeting place, as automatically known, as City Hall Plaza, but without the occasionally awesome, but occasionally ham-handed Seoul Promotions. They dug it up a while ago, which blew my mind, and I thought, "They durn better replace it with something way cooler, because other than the broken glass panel thing, this little stretch has a good thing going. Well, they finished renovations. Get Scott Burgeson on the line, because now it's a groddy little strip where people sell crap, and what used to be one of the coolest features of the busiest part of Northern Seoul...now sucks.


Yeah. Seoul really needed another place where you can buy cheap crap. I was walking around Dongdaemun thinking that the other day. Or was it Namdaemun? Or was it ONE OF THE HUNDRED OTHER PLACES YOU CAN BUY CHEAP CRAP IN SEOUL (unlike the only Piano street in Seoul, which was, you know, singular). So, if this eyesore and pimatgol are any indication, it seem Korea's new strategy for urban renewal and revitalization is to take out cool stuff, and replace it with cookie-cutter stuff that sells crap, and has none of the character the original had. See, you know, I don't even have a problem with the idea that decrepit old buildings have to be dealt with... but the La Meilleur building is the bone you're going to toss those displaced restauranteurs on one of the tastiest strips of alley in Seoul? And a bunch of stalls selling useless crap is going to help tourists remember Seoul better than the awesome piano keys? Which yes-man has been whispering in Mayor Oh Se-hun's (오 세훈: I hope you find this on google and read it and cry) ear, and the supposed park space between Jongmyo and Namsan better be pretty goldurn awesome to win back my favor after this Pimat-Piano fiasco. (Oh yeah: not to mention almost getting away with trashing City Hall's lovely old building, as if it were his backyard shed and not ANOTHER of the city's most recognizable spots... in a city starving for recognizable images other than matchbox apartments. Discussion class after class tells me that Seoul, to join the ranks of the world-class cities, needs an instantly recognizable symbol -- an Eiffel Tower, a Statue of Liberty, a Golden Gate Bridge, a Shanghai Pearl, or a Sydney Opera House, to build the brand, so what the HELL are these people doing demolishing what few sweet landmarks there ARE?


What next? Han River Park Shopping Mall? Unesco Digital Market? Kyungju "Tomb" Underground Shopping Arcade? Starbucks in Changdeokgung? (Hey: there was one in the Forbidden City)

I mean, go ahead and make stuff better. You know. Tear down old stuff that isn't doing its job anymore, or that's uglifying the town... but replace it with something just as cool, wouldn't you? Sneak in some office buildings; I understand the need... but can you keep SOME of the winding alley-ways around? Fix up the buildings if need be, and see to it the coolest restaurants get spots in whatever preserved thingy remains... but do SOMETHING, would you? Instead of something unimpressive, modern (read: ugly and steel) and totally divorced from nature (isn't harmony with nature supposed to be the great thing about Gyungbokgung? By the way: nice trees in the plaza. Oh wait: they're NOT trees: they're shad-deficient metal dr-seuss abominations!)

How're those working out for you, then?
(image source... sorry for borrowing this gwn, but it's the only one I could find that illustrated my point about the tree-things)

Now Gord Sellar weighs in with the loss of Wonmisan. Seriously? Improving a mountain with stairs? And you're not allowed to take the other path, even if you WANT to? Yech.

Hand, meet forehead.

Hadn't thought of it that way... Suicide and Swine Flu

This Korea Times editorial brings together a few things:

You see, Korea's GNP (that's Gross National Product) is now 15th in the world. That's pretty tootin' high; however, its GNH (that's Gross National Happiness) is a dismal 68th. Now, the article trots out some of the usual statistics about the birthrate, the suicide rate, the economy, and job stability, but it also brings up this one:

Only four Koreans have died of swine flu so far. Just four. Yet despite only four Koreans dying from it, the response has been not far off from a national panic -- students getting their temperatures taken on their way into school, people flinching at every sniffle beside them on the subway, and government PSAs, contingency plans, and some big talk about canceling all kinds of things. No Korean children have died of swine flu so far, according to the article, yet teachers are making them all pass the ear-mometer test before they come to school.

On the other hand, hundreds of Korean youths commit suicide every year. How bad would the swine flu have to get to equal the number of Korean young people who have killed themselves in the last five years?

So the question of the day is: Wouldn't it be nice if Korea's leadership threw up their hands with equal urgency over a threat that has been killing, and will continue to kill, many, many more people than have been killed by the flu so far? What would that look like, and how would life change for the people at the highest suicide risk?

Asian Poses, and a picture of a friend, and an embarrassing picture of a nemesis

I love eating out with food bloggers (unlike Dan Gray, who likes the same thing, but without the "with"), because you get pictures like this, where everybody's forgotten that food is for eating, not photographing.



And I, for one, want to tell you about Asian Poses: it's a hilarious blog chronicling all the goofy poses that Asians make when somebody pulls out a camera. It's an awesome blog, and you should check it out.

And not only do I want to tell you about the blog, I want to demonstrate a few of the poses... so here goes.



Dammit, I'm awesome! I'm totally entering this video in their contest!

Next, it's good to hang out with food bloggers, because there's usually good food nearby if you keep them on your speed dial.

Plus, there's always the chance you'll get some embarrassing pictures of them. Especially when they pose for them. (I don't know why they pose for embarrassing pictures when a blogger's holding the camera... even the ATEK guys saved their really juicy stories for the second or third time I met them: not the first time.

But anyway, enjoy these pictures, because I never actually got permission to post these from Joe or Dan or Evan, so I might have to take them down. Even though once it's on the internet, taking it down is kind of moot... but whatcha gonna do?

So, without further ado, here's a picture Joe might not want you to see.


Next: here's my buddy Evan.

Doesn't he resemble this guy?

Finally: here's G-dragon.

Doesn't my buddy Dan resemble him?


Yeah I thought so, too.
Dan is trying to dig up some dirt he can use to embarrass me, but unfortunately for him, last time we hung out, he got so drunk he couldn't remember all the scandalous secrets I told him, and the Asian Poses video is the best he could do. Shouldn't have finished that first beer, Dan!

Really, I should be posting this video once a year.

After yesterday's post, I might have trouble convincing you this lives up to its name, "The most terrifying video you'll ever see"... but it's also an important video to see and think about, explained really clearly and simply.

Yeah, I posted it at Roboseyo before... back when nobody read me.

In other "save the world" news, I've gotten involved with the KIVA loan thingy, and it's awesome. You can sponsor micro-loans that help people improve their lives in clear, tangible ways, for as little as $25.00USD.

Been busy and stuff. More on Community building

first of all, posts are taking longer now that I resize photos to take up less space. Blogger only gives me a finite amount of space for posting pictures.

Second: been busy preparing logic and rhetoric and public speaking curricula for a really cool class who wants to learn about the art of persuasion. It's been interesting reading up on that stuff. It's also interesting how, back in the days of the greeks, logic and rhetoric were considered part of the same field, where now, logic is usually considered the domain of philosophy or sometimes science, and rhetoric would more likely be found on a languages, composition, communications or media course calendar. Plus, logic is generally trusted, but rhetoric has that slight taint of mistrust.

Anyway, it's been interesting reading up on it. Really interesting. Like, "I might want to pursue something like this in a postgraduate way" interesting, but hard packaging that in a way that will get my students to talk about it, rather than in a way that gets ME lecturing about it.

So, until then... saw this really cool video on facebook. Turns out they totally captured Michael Jackson's ghost on camera when Larry King Live sent some cameras to the jackson mansion.

Warning: not for the jittery. Dad, don't watch this. Everybody else: the audio's a bit low on the clip, so it's better if you turn the volume up.


next:

After being a bit disappointed by the level of response I had to the Community posts I seriously spent all month writing, it looks like things are looking up. Chris in SK responded with a great post, and now Ask the Expat has picked up the ball, and has proposed getting the K-bloggers together, to start with, in order to position ourselves to have a larger and more positive impact in the community at large. He also suggested in a comment that some of the long-termers living in various regions take on a more prominent role in getting the expats in their areas involved in community reachouts at a more organized, formalized level, in order to build up some goodwill and positive PR to counteract the negative press (that's right: he's not just starting an exclusive bloggers-only club: there's an endgame here that's more inclusive, if I'm reading correctly, and if that's not part of the plan, if elected as president, I'll push for it). By that same token, I remember hearing (though I can't remember where) that AFEK was working on pulling together an outreach-type event involving AFEK members and their families, and maybe inviting the press. If Mike Y or other AFEK members read this, would you care to share a progress report with the rest of KBlogLand? I for one, would love to hear how your community is developing.

In other community news, ATEK is having presidential elections. I'll write more about that when I have some time, at The Hub of Sparkle. There are currently two candidates for president, unless things have changed since before. I have more to say about that, but I'll save it for the full write-up.

Aaaaaand... some of those resized pictures for you.

Rather than get into hot water by commenting on the way this ad pretty egregiously uses sex to sell... wine, I think... though it might be engine oil... I'll just wait for Gomushin girl to explain why it's better than the other ads that use sex to sell in the comments.

Been taking nice pictures lately.
Around the blue house compound, west of Gyungbok palace:
this was actually the square where Park Chung-hee was assassinated.

Next: you may or may not have seen the Kim Yuna ads at Smoothie King. I don't know how being white ties in with drinking the yuna smoothie, but several people bought one while I waited in line.

In other "be white" news, I needed something for a bit of razor burn I got from shaving too closely one morning before I went to meet Girlfriendoseyo. When I got to her house, I asked Girlfriendoseyo if she had anything for dry or irritated skin, and she couldn't find one bottle of balm or lotion WITHOUT whitener in it.
More nice clouds. This time near samchungdong.
And the last thing I'll share today: I've always loved the way a bright sun filters through layered tree leaves. Always. Well, I was bopping around Ewha Women's University with Girlfriendoseyo, and stopped under some absolutely perfect trees, on what might have been the brightest and hottest day of the summer, and snagged these amazing pictures. The original files are maximum size, and they're amazing, and we're totally blowing them up and framing them to put up and reflect upon, on those days when the busy city and smoggy traffic is just too much to handle.




have a good one, readers.

US Healthcare Has Taken Over The World

I got an e-mail from Blogger saying they'll cancel my blog if I don't discuss US Healthcare at least once - apparently this is what blogs are for this year, not unlike last year when I was required to write about New Zealand electing its new pope at least once.

Seriously, though:

The last time the entire world got swept up in the U.S. Media cycle was the Election '08 - it's happened before that as well, and will happen again, I'm sure. But I've got to just say that it was a lot more fun having every world news site monopolized by McCain, Billary, Obama and Giuliani than it is now having BBC talking about whether or not U.S. should socialize health care.

Few reasons for that: with the campaigning thing, it was fun to pick a horse and root for it. Each had strengths and weaknesses, and the polls were changing -- it was fluid and interesting and it was a character-driven narrative. With this healthcare thing, it's issue oriented, and it's super-polarized, and the compelling thing is not a McCain blunder causing a hit in the polls or "Did Hillary play the race card or not?" but it's "How shrill have the republicans gotten this week?" and "How many times was Obama compared to Hitler yesterday?" -- ROK Drop even suggested that the US political landscape is starting to look as shrill and polarized as the Korean one.


When stuff like this happens, I die inside a little. Is this REALLY how people engage relevant issues?



Anyway, my dear blog-friend/friend in real life Tamie has written an interesting blog post asking how Christians in America can quote scripture as they basically assert that they don't think the poor should be helped...when helping the poor has been one of the basic tenets of Christianity, pretty much... all the way until the political party that had co-opted Christianity wanted to oppose socialized health care. You should read what she wrote, if you care about the way religion and politics so often bleed into each other in the US.

For me, I feel like socialized health care is something that every country's going to eventually end up doing, as its infrastructure becomes able to accomodate it. "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice" (MLK Jr.) (and also toward societies figuring out how to help their own out). It's more a question of whether US will come up with some form of socialized health care this year, or in 2026, after being made a laughingstock by other, smaller, poorer countries, who HAVE managed to help out the little person (by which I mean the working poor, not the vertically challenged) sooner than they, because some rich people didn't like to share, and the health insurance lobby was too successful protecting their income.
But that's just me, and my political leanings have been made pretty clear by now, so you don't have to believe or agree with what I say... just don't compare me to Hitler.

Bliss-out of the week: Two Irresistably Happy Songs about Nookie

Dunno why sex would be the subject of so many bliss-out. (actually, on second thought, I do) but two absolute glee-freak-outs that always bring me joy: Art Brut's "Good Weekend," which I've written about before, and now "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" - neither is very sophisticated, either lyrically or musically, the songwriting is pretty by-the-numbers, open chords and major keys, but absolutely joyous vocalists and totally silly lyrics, in both cases.

Ida Maria: I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked reminds me of early No Doubt at its most joyous, except a voice with a little more gut rather than a wobbly shiny thing like Gwen Stefani's -- more Janis Joplin than Laura Branigan. Fun fun fun. As always with bliss-outs, the louder you play it, the more you'll like it.

I kinda blogged myself out with that Music post, so sorry about the light posting this week. Kinda sorry. That music post was a good one, so go read it again before you hold this against me. And if you're still upset, write me a letter and I'll send you a refund for your reading fee.

To all the people freaking out about swine flu...

others have been talking about this: Brian and Jason, for starters.

Now, I don't teach Kids, and if I did, I might be among you... however, we're also seeing an unprecedented wave of health and contagion awareness spread across Korea right now. Hopefully the sanitary behavior will persist even after the swine flu abates.

Have you noticed these all over the place? I have:

Yep. How to wash your hands.
And remember having your relatives send you these, and guarding them like Gollum?


I bought that one at a GS Mart. (Now sure, the sudden disinfectant binge might well make Korea a petri dish for breeding that new, disinfectant-resistant super-virus... but

And yesterday, between my workplace and my house, there was a little "get your temperature taken/fill out this symptom questionnaire" station set up. I'm fine: just a sore throat from the air conditioners. I've noticed a real upswing in contagion containment awareness, haven't you? (sure, sick people are still going to work, though I almost sent someone home yesterday, but it's getting better, isn't it?)

Other bloggers on Swine Flu: places and words (HT brian) Gangwon notes, The View from Over Here, and according to Korea Beat, an article about hand washing was the most-read Naver article last week.

Meanwhile, I've created a new post label to commemorate the Swine Flu.

Only You Can Save Roboseyo from Hating Korean Music!

Lovefool, by The Cardigans: a foreign band made a Korean pop-song, without even knowing it.

So, in a comment, Samedi (who runs a great blog which you should be reading) challenged my flip dismissal of the Brown Eyed Gulls and their uber-sexy-but-possibly-trying-too-hard and not-actually-different-enough-from-the-other-all-girl-k-pop-bands-for-me-to-give-too-much-of-a-rip "Abracadabra" video, which I'd only posted anyway because a bunch of K-pop boys then sent it up hilariously, and asked whether the only Korean music I hear is what I come across when I walk into, or past, ABC Mart and girly accessory stores.

Well, first of all, I have to differentiate between Korean music, and K-pop: I may not have made it clear in that post that I consider K-pop only one subcategory of Korean music... probably the most profitable one, certainly the most ubiquitous one, but only one. In the same way that there are a lot of music lovers who never listen to top-40 radio in N. America, I'm sure there are lots of Korean music fans who loathe the Gee Gee Generation of K-pop.

And secondly, Samedi asked whether I actively seek out good Korean music, or whether I just passively wait for recommendations.

Well... since you asked... I don't talk about music too often here, because it wouldn't take much for me to geek out about my favorite albums and turn this into a music blog, but I'll take a moment and tell you how I get my hands on new music.

A few things about Korean music in general -- obstacles to me going native on the tunes front, if you will:

1. Why would I limit myself to one country, when right now I'm listening to music from about a dozen countries? Sweden's Jens Lekman, Canada's Do Make Say Think, England's Radiohead, USA's Tom Waits, Iceland's Mugison, Japan's Shiina Ringo, and Tibet's Tuvan Throat Singers are all rocking my world; if Korea produces artists who can run with those cats, I'll listen to them. (Jang Sa-ik holds his own in that crowd: no doubt)

2. Why would I listen to "Korea's Justin Timberlake" when I can listen to Justin Timberlake's Justin Timberlake? Sometimes it seems like we're dealing with an equivalency chart ("If you like R.E.M., you might like ---" - which I had a lot of experience with back when I listened to more Christian rock music [and Jars Of Clay would be the band you should try if you like REM, according to the chart]. And some of those Jesus tunes are pretty good, in fact,) but if a band doesn't have its own voice, I'm honestly not too interested, and if you are at risk of appearing on an equivalency chart, you'd better friggin' wow me when I DO give you that cautious, hesitant listen. I'd just rather listen to Take That! than to the Female Christian Take That!

2.5 Here's the other, probably biggest thing I dislike about KMTV K-pop (particularly the hip-hop) - See, when a woman with a Korean figure tries to be sexy the way J-Lo or Beyonce can be sexy -- you know, with the boom! pop! pow! that they bring to the table, it doesn't work, (Beyonce does it better) and they shouldn't try. Korean females have plenty of ways they can be super-hot without using dance-moves more suitable for people with different body-types. As a matter of fact, the cutesy stuff in your average SNSD video, as candy-floss as it is, works better. Hyori pops it better than anyone else though: she's just got the charisma. Korean male rappers can be cool...but they can't be cool in the same way that 50 Cent is cool. I just don't buy it seeing some skinny Korean guy in a pink shirt wearing mad gold chains and rings. I'd buy it more if he were wearing geeky horn-rimmed glasses, and didn't take himself quite so seriously. MC Mong wins on this count. He's actually starting to grow on me. YG Family doesn't quite make it. Epik High isn't trying to be from South Central LA, and it works for them: the video's cute and goofy.

3. I've always been verbally oriented. (hence writing hundreds of pages for free on a blog) - journaling, writing, reading - I respond strongly to a good turn of phrase. I adore Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits and Joni Mitchell and artists who can wow you with a literary verse and a poetic bridge. This is an area where the language gap means I can only respond to Korean music the way I respond to instrumentals -- emotionally and intuitively, to the soundscape and the atmosphere, where a voice is just another instrument, which is legitimate, to be sure: that's how I respond to Eminem music, even though he uses my native language -- but let's just say one of the major avenues by which I enjoy music is currently closed, and all the Korean artists who focus on that part of the art of songcraft (who, if my English music tastes are any indication, are probably the ones I'd appreciate the most) are either partially or totally closed to me. And yeah, it's my fault they're closed to me. I could be studying the language hard enough to grapple with their lyrics... but I listen to music for diversion, not for language study or my own edification, and I sure don't listen to it for my blog readers' edification (as much as I love you all: don't get me wrong -- I pull out my camera three times more often than I normally would for your benefit, [sometimes to the annoyance of girlfriendoseyo] so kindly don't ask me to ALSO change my music listening habits, unless you start sending me presents. An external hard drive, Rosetta Stone Korean, or a nice leather portfolio would be nice, for starters). So I'm not listening to music in order to blog about it, or I WOULD listen to more Korean music, this being a Korea blog.

So those are the obstacles... now what's the upside?

Well, K-pop at its best is cute. There's not a lot wrong with that, as long as you don't mind sugar-highs. The non-bubble-gum stuff is still mostly gentle, and cute as well, but not in that "lollipops in my hair" way, but in that "charming kid next door with a devilish grin" way: there's a charming style to it that's not as gripping as a lot of other music I listen to, but is very accessible. A lot of it would fit in at a folk rock festival, or at Lilith Fair, on a festivals' second stage, though not always the headliner, and that's not a bad thing by ANY measure. Here's one of the videos Samedi linked, which I liked quite a lot. It's fun and winsome. Enjoy it. Mostly harmless, but certainly worthy of a closer look. Plus, the English phrase in the chorus is "Rocket Punch Generation!" I mean, how cool is that?


If you ARE into candy floss, and you don't mind asian poses, The WonderGirls and SNSD and Hyori and them are fun as heck! K-pop is a veritable bubble-gum pop goldmine, so dig in! It's like Hanson and The Mickey Mouse Club got stuck in a blender with a bunch of jelly-bellies (and some really short skirts)! On the other hand, if BSB, N-Sync, Britney X-tina and Avril weren't your bag back home, you probably won't like these cats and kittens much either.

But I've never been a music snob: Hanson's Mmm-bop is a bliss-out, just as surely as the Buck Futtons track I posted a week ago. Abba's Dancing Queen is pure joy, as is Thunder Road and Lazy Line Painter Jane and Avril's Girlfriend. I'll take my bliss-outs wherever I can find them. I'll also take music that has a unique voice, a cool style, a fun feeling, wherever it comes at me. I don't discriminate too much anymore: there's just too much good stuff out there.

So where is the good Korean stuff? Well, its' out there to be found, if you pay attention. It's certainly not on the charts, and the guy at Hot Tracks in Kyobo bookstore is more likely to point you to the Top Ten rack than to know what I mean when I ask them about, say, Singer/Songwriter Twee pop, or stripped-down acoustic roots folk, even less if I ask her, "Do you have any bands like Broken Social Scene in Korean?" ("Broken Social Scene? Are they more like Pushiket Dorrs, or Breck Eyet Peejuh?" [somehow Korea always goes for the cheesiest of OUR music, too]) And record shop owners I met in Hongdae who were really passionate about great music...well, I got a few good Korean underground bands from them before the shop went under itself, but if I just came in and said "what's good?" he'd slip me Aphex Twin, rather than leaning hard on the Korean sounds. (though he DID slide me some Kim Doo Soo, who is linked in the comments)

And, again, like with Christian music (sorry if I offend any CCM fans out there) I've had my hopes disappointed by enough of the popular/acclaimed/promising bands out there that, while there ARE some good ones, "Hansel: he's so hot right now!" isn't enough to win me over anymore. But if you tell me I ought to listen to someone... hey, I'm all ears.


With non-Korean bands, the process of finding a new one's pretty intuitive. I look stuff up, give it a listen, get rid of it, or sit on it for a while, keep my feelers out, ask friends, "Who's that singer on that cool TV commercial?" (it's happened) see if the same names come up again and again... THEN I listen a bit more closely, and by relying on the word of a few people and a few sources I trust, I can skip most of the music that wouldn't get through my filter anyway, and go straight to the stuff that'll make me glee.

And there IS Korean music I like. Not all, and certainly not what's popular, though I'll go to any live show I can find, and enjoy Bobby Kim and Kim Geon Mo (who are both fine entertainers, though neither are my first choice when I'm picking the tunes). But here are a few I like.

The two kings:
Kim Kwang Seok
Jang Sa-ik

Other strong contenders
Yozoh
Park HyeGyung 박혜경 (her album Seraphim is a solid one), and so far what I've seen on Youtube has her knocking on the pantheon's door.
자전거 탄 풍경 is also pretty great: best known for this song: 너에게 난, 나에게 넌, but the rest of their album doesn't sound like Fastball. (My best friend's wife got me into those two.)
I've mentioned Jang Gi Ha
Jaurim
And what's not to love about Cherry Filter (or Chaeli Pilto, depending who you ask...but dang, can that woman sing!)

The genre to love: I love the stuff from the '70s and the '80s: the singer-songwriter acoustic stuff. If you can ever get your hands on some 통기타 music, this is where Korean music really shines. Park Sangmin Sori Sae - Keudae, Keurigo Na - you can get this kind of music at rest stops on highway roadsides, in fact, that might be the BEST place to get it. I bough my set from a peddler who came by on the subway, and I wish I'd bought the double instead of the single (6cds for 10 000 instead of 3 for 6000). Man that stuff is great.

So yeah. Once I start looking around at my collection, there's a TON of Korean pop music I like. Just not packaged boy-bands or girl-bands. And hopefully you can find something in there to get into as well. There are others I haven't even mentioned, but seriously, don't write K-pop off after watching a few overplayed videos, all the sarcasm in my previous post aside.

How's that, Gomushin Girl? Samedi?

So I've given a start, and as per the post title, here's your chance to stop me from hating Korean music: Who are the other Korean bands I should be listening to, to restore my faith that Korean music is NOT just a bunch of bubble-gum jailbait bands going through the paces their managers told them to?

ps: just in case you think Korea's the only country with cheesy bubble-gum pop...

Memo to People Putting Up Signs for "Live Jazz Show" outside their coffee shop/bar:

1. If Maroon 5 appears on your "jazz" band's set list, it probably isn't jazz.
2. If Celine Dion or Mariah Carey appears on your "jazz" band's set list, it definitely isn't jazz. Just write "live music" on the signboard instead of live jazz, KTHX.

I have a longer post on Korean music coming up, thanks to some comments made by Gomushin Girl and Samedi on this post, but you'll just have to wait, because 1. my good computer's internet isn't working, so I'm writing this on my crappy backup, and need to go out and take care of this, and 2. it's far to lovely a day to stay in and blog.

In other Korean music news: have I told you about OrienKorean's music channel on Youtube? Great place to find out about Korean indie music.

and in "help a sister out" news: Foreigner Joy has a friend who needs a stopgap teacher either in, or able to go to the bundang area to fill in while she deals with a family crisis back in the US. See Joy's post for more info.