[poll update: see sidebar to vote]
I got nothing to say about this one.
Below is top star Kim Tae Hee, for an ice cream phone, gives an interesting look at cute culture here in Korea -- I brushed on this in my post about soju ads. In Japan it's called "Kawaii" culture -- the obssession with cuteness. To Canuck Schmoe, the average Canadian, it looks babyish, but believe me, to many of my Korean friends and students, this is considered cool and even sexy! It's a clever move, because women can connect to the cuteness and say "she's like my little sister," and not complain about the ad for being sexist, while men can have their sexist, dominant fantasy of the submissive girl who baby-talks and makes puppy-dog eyes. (note especially the cutesified sexual position at 1:20: you can't wiggle your bum cutely when your feet are that far apart!)
"Melong" is what Korean kids say instead of "na na na na na" when they tease each other.
when does this one (Kim Tae Hee again) stop being cute and start being suggestive?
don't know.
This one got banned for being too suggestive. Wait for the punch line.
And two funny Dutch ads:
the difficult decisions we must make in life. . .
and this one is right off the hook. (Warning: this one has a very very bad word in it. It's funny, but rude. . . and it makes a very good case for what it's selling.)
I have some special family news to share. . . but that might have to wait until after the weekend, when the weather is this beautiful.
Until then, I posted these possible future post topics before, and wrote about the most-voted-for topics. I'm putting them up again so you can tell me, what do you want me to write about next? There's also a poll in the sidebar. Cast your vote on the sidebar. I took down the topics I've already covered, and one that I no longer feel motivated to discuss.
1. the goofiest urban legend ever (formerly titled: the silliest thing I've encountered so far in Korea)
2. the most entertaining internet phenomenon I've encountered in recent times
3. why reading Lord of the Rings comforts me
4. the top five list of "Things I'd Change About Korean Culture If I Had A Magic Wand (that worked)"
5. Great Korean movies you should track down and see. . .
suggest your own topic and I'll think about it.
(Links to the previously suggested topics I already wrote about:)
Why the Internet, as it is now, will never reach its full potential as an agent for social change.
and
Why Modern Religion Deserves Richard Dawkins.
one expat's life in Korea
Friday, April 18, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
New definition of Irony
Hat tip to occidentalism for this one.
A couple is divorcing because they each fell in love on line, went to meet their possible new partner/affair buddy, and met. . . each other.
They're using what would, under other circumstances, be called a "date" as proof that each was intending to cheat on the other.
This is why satirists are out a job: nobody could make stuff up that's more outrageous than real life!
A couple is divorcing because they each fell in love on line, went to meet their possible new partner/affair buddy, and met. . . each other.
They're using what would, under other circumstances, be called a "date" as proof that each was intending to cheat on the other.
This is why satirists are out a job: nobody could make stuff up that's more outrageous than real life!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Cleaning out the photo folder: the Random Ones
Soundtrack time: hit play and start reading.
Yo La Tengo
You Can Have It All
Here's a goofy Korean holiday for you to learn about.
So my Gmail account had a bunch of spam: all kinds of people seem to think I have various, um, manhood difficulties, and have decided that I deserve a personal e-mail with information on how to purchase viagra, other "love you long time" drugs, and even a few manhood, um, enhancing products.
They certainly didn't get that idea from those pictures I accidentally left in my shared folder in Dece. . . nevermind.
Anyway, the thing is, even though they want to sell me all kinds of nasty, look at the cool names they sport! I recommend that anyone who wants to be a fiction writer, scan the sender names in their e-mail spam folder before deleting. I know how hard it is to think up a good name for a character, but sometimes the spam folder is a veritable goldmine! Get a load of these (or if you don't care about junk like this, skip the next paragraph).
Madeline Crump; Dusty Bates; Helene Ladner (she's sent me a bunch now); Diego Yeager; Lakisha Henderson; Mai Conklin (love the last name Conlkin); Brandon Wood (great name for a viagra peddler); Flora Fink (great name for a spammer); Galen French; Damon Cole; Aimee Trotter; Madeline Daly; Clifton Koch; Enid Finley; Isaac M. Kiney; Celina Snyder; Anibal Hicks; Gabriel D. Kenney; Tristan Holt; Jay Cowan; Brian Grimm.
I had a game with one of my bright students where she'd make up a nonsense word and I'd make up a phony meaning for that word -- "greeble" - "Greeble sounds like a name for the bits of food that you can't quite get out of the pan when you serve your meal." It's fun to look at a name like "Mai Conlkin" and try to build a character around it. "Mai Conlkin sounds like the owner of a dance studio. In her free time she probably listens to classical music on the roof of her apartment building. . . (etc.)"
A recent development:
Actual large size drinks have started appearing in Korea! When I arrived in Korea, there were no smalls -- basically, a "large" was the size of a N. American "medium" drink, and a "regular" was the size of a N. American small. Look at this cup, the size of my whole hand! I could barely finish the thing! It was like when I first got back to Canada in 2004, stopped into A&W, and (because it can't be found here), ordered a large root beer, and gawked when they basically gave me two litres of fizzy liquid!
Burger Kings here have more atmosphere than a lot of the Korean food joints, where deco is very functional. It's kind of funny. Black and white pictures of celebrities and checkerboard tile floors aren't much, but they're more than soju posters.
You'd expect to find this sign at a restaurant by a beach. . . but instead it was not far from downtown Seoul. "Sand" seems to be a new Konglish/English loan word, an abbreviation of "sandwich" (which is pronounced send-wee-chee in Konglish)
Ddong-chim pencil holder.
Hmwahhahhah
The Empror's new fashion line.
There's a chunk of the Berlin wall near Chunggye stream in Seoul, right between Jongno and Myeong-dong. David Hasselhoff's picture is not on the wall. I wonder how he feels about that.
A couple bears wandered into downtown Seoul the other night. Fortunately, nobody was mauled; they posed for a lot of pictures, though, and handed out flyer ads.
I like this baby's goofy smile on the ad.
Across the street from the only place in Seoul I know to find soy ice cream: the weirdest park bench I've ever seen.
I posted once before about the supersaturation of Starbucks in Jongno, Jonggak, Insadong, Myeong-dong, and City Hall. . . but I missed this one.
Hee hee. I wonder if they pay a royalty for this one.
A little Konglish for ya.
For the sake of journalistic thoroughness in my previous discussion of overly sexy ads for soju. . . two more examples of soju posters.
These days, waffle houses are popping up all over Seoul, except that they seem to make them with cake batter instead of waffle batter (darn adapting western foods for the Korean palate. . . which is an entire post of its own. Ask if you wanna hear). Anyway, Samchungdong, an old/new stylish neighbourhood, has been sprouting waffle houses like zits on a tenth grader, and in an attempt to stay ahead of the curve, this waffle house offered some good-looking waffle options:
And also some, uhh, unconventional choices.
Because, last time I was eating a waffle, sifting through fruit and sugary glazes and maple syrup, I thought, "Gee, what this waffle really needs is some sausage, or maybe some cheese," didn't you?
This made me laugh.
Rather than letting the word of mouth spread, or making his decorations parenthetical, displaying them modestly somewhere in his restaurant, this dude decided to just flash them out as brightly as possible. (this was on the outside of his restaurant. . . and actually has the opposite effect from what he intended, decreasing my desire to try out his joint, because maybe he's a good cook, but now he also comes off as a kind of self-aggrandizing smarm-farmer.)
Are you that insecure, cook man, that you have to show around your, uh, attributes, in the crassest way possible?
Okayyyyy. . . moving right along.
In Park Chung-hee's days (Korea's old military dictator, plus the architect for Korea's current economic growth), he restored the Korean palaces, but built them out of concrete instead of the traditional wood.
He oriented them in relation to an administrative building the Japanese had built during the Japanese colonial period. . . I thought before that the Japanese had rearranged the temple buildings to mess up the topography and energy flow of Korea's power center, but those offending buildings in question were actually built by Koreans! (There goes that scapegoat!)
Note that beneath the traditional Korean paint, on these pieces of the old, gate, is solid concrete! (Gyungbokgung gate is currently being rebuilt in the correct place, according to archaeological evidence, out of original materials with original techniques -- authenticity over durability; take that, Park Chunghee!)
From the old, campy 1960s Batman: right over the top. does this ever happen to you?
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"
sweetness.
Goofy computer screens selling stuff today at lunchtime. I have no idea how they could see.
Yes, there are people inside.
Spotted them taking a break by Insa-dong. Their job must suck when it's hot.
There's a little alley like this near my house -- I've mentioned the good restaurants to be found in there before.
Now that it's spring, every night it's poppin' in there, full of people eating pieces of barbequed meat. (yaaaaayy redmeat!) The people always look really happy, and I love the ramshackle homeyness of the alley restaurants. Well on Sunday night I finally ate there.
Here's about what it looked like.
And it was one of those perfect evenings -- as good as wine on the rooftop terrace the night before. I love where I live. Really I do.
A guy came by selling little snacky things. It's a bit of ddeok (rice cake) wrapped in a fresh leaf, and they're great.
Eating them made coworker Dani make this face.
Here's another old tea room in Samchung dong (been stomping around there a lot lately. It's really fun at night, but pricey.)
This is one of the old, one of the original samchungdong establishments -- before it was hip to go there.
They served Nok'gak daebotang, deer antler tea (didn't know that's what it was when I ordered it; I basically shut my eyes and pointed at the menu because none of the items were known to me), that is the bitterest broth I have ever tasted, dear brothers and sisters. I still feel like I have tiger balm on my tongue, a day later. It was wildly different from anything I've had before.
anyway, there's a bit more of what's been keeping a grin on my grill lately. it's late now. Pray for girfriendoseyo if you pray: things at work continue getting curiouser and curiouser.
Yo La Tengo
You Can Have It All
Here's a goofy Korean holiday for you to learn about.
So my Gmail account had a bunch of spam: all kinds of people seem to think I have various, um, manhood difficulties, and have decided that I deserve a personal e-mail with information on how to purchase viagra, other "love you long time" drugs, and even a few manhood, um, enhancing products.
They certainly didn't get that idea from those pictures I accidentally left in my shared folder in Dece. . . nevermind.
Anyway, the thing is, even though they want to sell me all kinds of nasty, look at the cool names they sport! I recommend that anyone who wants to be a fiction writer, scan the sender names in their e-mail spam folder before deleting. I know how hard it is to think up a good name for a character, but sometimes the spam folder is a veritable goldmine! Get a load of these (or if you don't care about junk like this, skip the next paragraph).
Madeline Crump; Dusty Bates; Helene Ladner (she's sent me a bunch now); Diego Yeager; Lakisha Henderson; Mai Conklin (love the last name Conlkin); Brandon Wood (great name for a viagra peddler); Flora Fink (great name for a spammer); Galen French; Damon Cole; Aimee Trotter; Madeline Daly; Clifton Koch; Enid Finley; Isaac M. Kiney; Celina Snyder; Anibal Hicks; Gabriel D. Kenney; Tristan Holt; Jay Cowan; Brian Grimm.
I had a game with one of my bright students where she'd make up a nonsense word and I'd make up a phony meaning for that word -- "greeble" - "Greeble sounds like a name for the bits of food that you can't quite get out of the pan when you serve your meal." It's fun to look at a name like "Mai Conlkin" and try to build a character around it. "Mai Conlkin sounds like the owner of a dance studio. In her free time she probably listens to classical music on the roof of her apartment building. . . (etc.)"
A recent development:
Actual large size drinks have started appearing in Korea! When I arrived in Korea, there were no smalls -- basically, a "large" was the size of a N. American "medium" drink, and a "regular" was the size of a N. American small. Look at this cup, the size of my whole hand! I could barely finish the thing! It was like when I first got back to Canada in 2004, stopped into A&W, and (because it can't be found here), ordered a large root beer, and gawked when they basically gave me two litres of fizzy liquid!
Burger Kings here have more atmosphere than a lot of the Korean food joints, where deco is very functional. It's kind of funny. Black and white pictures of celebrities and checkerboard tile floors aren't much, but they're more than soju posters.
You'd expect to find this sign at a restaurant by a beach. . . but instead it was not far from downtown Seoul. "Sand" seems to be a new Konglish/English loan word, an abbreviation of "sandwich" (which is pronounced send-wee-chee in Konglish)
Ddong-chim pencil holder.Hmwahhahhah
The Empror's new fashion line.
There's a chunk of the Berlin wall near Chunggye stream in Seoul, right between Jongno and Myeong-dong. David Hasselhoff's picture is not on the wall. I wonder how he feels about that.
A couple bears wandered into downtown Seoul the other night. Fortunately, nobody was mauled; they posed for a lot of pictures, though, and handed out flyer ads.
I like this baby's goofy smile on the ad.
Across the street from the only place in Seoul I know to find soy ice cream: the weirdest park bench I've ever seen.
I posted once before about the supersaturation of Starbucks in Jongno, Jonggak, Insadong, Myeong-dong, and City Hall. . . but I missed this one.
Hee hee. I wonder if they pay a royalty for this one.
A little Konglish for ya.
For the sake of journalistic thoroughness in my previous discussion of overly sexy ads for soju. . . two more examples of soju posters.
These days, waffle houses are popping up all over Seoul, except that they seem to make them with cake batter instead of waffle batter (darn adapting western foods for the Korean palate. . . which is an entire post of its own. Ask if you wanna hear). Anyway, Samchungdong, an old/new stylish neighbourhood, has been sprouting waffle houses like zits on a tenth grader, and in an attempt to stay ahead of the curve, this waffle house offered some good-looking waffle options:
And also some, uhh, unconventional choices.
Because, last time I was eating a waffle, sifting through fruit and sugary glazes and maple syrup, I thought, "Gee, what this waffle really needs is some sausage, or maybe some cheese," didn't you?
This made me laugh.
Rather than letting the word of mouth spread, or making his decorations parenthetical, displaying them modestly somewhere in his restaurant, this dude decided to just flash them out as brightly as possible. (this was on the outside of his restaurant. . . and actually has the opposite effect from what he intended, decreasing my desire to try out his joint, because maybe he's a good cook, but now he also comes off as a kind of self-aggrandizing smarm-farmer.)
Are you that insecure, cook man, that you have to show around your, uh, attributes, in the crassest way possible?
Okayyyyy. . . moving right along.In Park Chung-hee's days (Korea's old military dictator, plus the architect for Korea's current economic growth), he restored the Korean palaces, but built them out of concrete instead of the traditional wood.
He oriented them in relation to an administrative building the Japanese had built during the Japanese colonial period. . . I thought before that the Japanese had rearranged the temple buildings to mess up the topography and energy flow of Korea's power center, but those offending buildings in question were actually built by Koreans! (There goes that scapegoat!)
Note that beneath the traditional Korean paint, on these pieces of the old, gate, is solid concrete! (Gyungbokgung gate is currently being rebuilt in the correct place, according to archaeological evidence, out of original materials with original techniques -- authenticity over durability; take that, Park Chunghee!)
From the old, campy 1960s Batman: right over the top. does this ever happen to you?
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"
sweetness.
Goofy computer screens selling stuff today at lunchtime. I have no idea how they could see.
Yes, there are people inside.
Spotted them taking a break by Insa-dong. Their job must suck when it's hot.
There's a little alley like this near my house -- I've mentioned the good restaurants to be found in there before.
Now that it's spring, every night it's poppin' in there, full of people eating pieces of barbequed meat. (yaaaaayy redmeat!) The people always look really happy, and I love the ramshackle homeyness of the alley restaurants. Well on Sunday night I finally ate there.
Here's about what it looked like.
And it was one of those perfect evenings -- as good as wine on the rooftop terrace the night before. I love where I live. Really I do.A guy came by selling little snacky things. It's a bit of ddeok (rice cake) wrapped in a fresh leaf, and they're great.
Eating them made coworker Dani make this face.
Here's another old tea room in Samchung dong (been stomping around there a lot lately. It's really fun at night, but pricey.)
This is one of the old, one of the original samchungdong establishments -- before it was hip to go there.
They served Nok'gak daebotang, deer antler tea (didn't know that's what it was when I ordered it; I basically shut my eyes and pointed at the menu because none of the items were known to me), that is the bitterest broth I have ever tasted, dear brothers and sisters. I still feel like I have tiger balm on my tongue, a day later. It was wildly different from anything I've had before.
anyway, there's a bit more of what's been keeping a grin on my grill lately. it's late now. Pray for girfriendoseyo if you pray: things at work continue getting curiouser and curiouser.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sweet! Where are the protestors?
Never one to harp on a topic (yeah, right). . .
here's an awesome online game where you can help the Olympic torch on its way through Hong Kong. I wish they had higher levels that included obstacles like protesters, paratroopers, changes of course and buckets of water -- level 2: San Francisco. Level 3: London. Level 4: Paris!
Does playing the game count as complicity? Or should you click on the link but not play the game, to cause maximum embarrassment, like Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, or do something else embarrassing, like conceal a Tibetan flag in your sleeve, a la Majora Carter? I think they should have buttons you can push to do such things in this game. They should also have cheap plastic toys and cheaply made clothes you can collect as you run down the street, I suppose.
Anyway, here's your chance! Do with it what you like! Just be careful, because if you don't play nice, you might run into roadblocks next time you want to outsource labour over there.
here's an awesome online game where you can help the Olympic torch on its way through Hong Kong. I wish they had higher levels that included obstacles like protesters, paratroopers, changes of course and buckets of water -- level 2: San Francisco. Level 3: London. Level 4: Paris!
Does playing the game count as complicity? Or should you click on the link but not play the game, to cause maximum embarrassment, like Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, or do something else embarrassing, like conceal a Tibetan flag in your sleeve, a la Majora Carter? I think they should have buttons you can push to do such things in this game. They should also have cheap plastic toys and cheaply made clothes you can collect as you run down the street, I suppose.
Anyway, here's your chance! Do with it what you like! Just be careful, because if you don't play nice, you might run into roadblocks next time you want to outsource labour over there.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Cleaning out the photo folder: the Beautiful Ones
Soundtrack time: hit play and start reading.
Mr. Grieves - A Capella cover of the Pixies song, by TV On The Radio
or, for fun, you can watch this goofball dance. It's kind of fun.
See, it's spring over here, and April and October in Korea are the country at its absolute best. In fact, it's a travesty that I'm in my apartment writing this post instead of lolling about in a park somewhere. It just goes to show how much I love you, my dear readers.
I've been taking bajillions of pictures on my junky little cellphone camera, running up my phone-bill by sending them to my e-mail address, and even beginning to sigh in dismay at their poor quality -- it's reaching the point where the things I see make me happy enough that I wish I had a better instrument for catching their visual gunchiness.
So anyway, somewhere in the last couple of weeks, Spring came! My buddy Chris planned a wine and cheese party in Olympic Park (near my old house) so I headed over, because Olympic Park is a wonderful place.
Lots of people were out lounging around on the grassy fields.
This is one of my favourite trees in all of Korea.
And the one behind it is another. It's hard to see with my low resolution camera, but it's all twisty.
Tons of people came out: it might have been the first real, outdoor-friendly day this spring.
My bud Chris was there sipping wine and eating cheese. I joined him and we just shot the breeze for a couple of hours. It was great -- one of those "I love Korea" or maybe just "I love life" days that I need to remember to write about, to balance out high horses, grinding axes, critical analyses, and rants, from time to time.
Also in Olympic Park, there was a photo shoot (the magnolia trees were blossoming, see?), and it was kind of funny to notice this trumped up model looking away from the cameras with this disinterested look, meanwhile playing to them with her body language at the same time.
All around her, clustered, were mostly unattractive, mostly approaching or middle-aged men with big cameras, huddling around her and taking a picture a second.
Honestly, watching the men fawn over this made-up little symbol of the beauty ideal was more fun than checking out the model -- her hip, disinterested face kind of turned me off.
However, I did get a picture I liked of the way she's ogled and idealized by the photographers: it makes me think of a musical.
Compare the above, with this:
Pictures from http://godusesbrokenvessels.blogspot.com/2007/05/bigfork-montana.html
And the most appropriate match:
Honestly, the guy below made me smile more than the model -- the photographers' fawning was more interesting to me than her posing, too -- I see people pose all the time (every time a camera comes out) but how often do you get to see some genuine fawning?
This guy, on the other hand, didn't CARE who was lookin'. He just parked himself on a bench overlooking a trail, and started singing to himself. He gave me a big old smile and a wave when he noticed me looking at him, and maybe if I'd known the song, I'd have sat next to him and sung along for a while. Got a kick out of him -- he was actually enjoying his time and showing it, instead of making a pouty face and pooching out his belly to emphasize his "S line" (S line is what Korean women call the idealized figure -- if you imagine a view of a woman from the side, the curves are supposed to form the shape of an "S")
So that was Saturday. Then on Monday, I met with Girlfriendoseyo, (who's way cooler than a model, because her heart, her intelligence, and her humour make me want to, you know, spend time with her, instead of just looking at her), in Samchungdong. Girlfriendoseyo's best friend Jueun joined us, too. I really like Jueun. She's funny, vivacious, smart, and just goofy enough. When I see her and Girlfriendoseyo together, I feel at peace, just by osmosis, because those two are so deeply happy to be around each other. Girlfriendoseyo has a special flavour of happiness and contentment that only comes out when Jueun is nearby, so I love seeing those two together. Fortunately, Jueun likes me, too. We ate some great lunch together:
And walked all over Samchungdong, Gyungbok Palace, and the street in front of Cheongwadae (the Blue House, where Korea's president lives).
The tree below is also twisty, and it has some magpie nests.
The Cherry blossoms were in full bloom in Gyungbok Palace, though the ones in front of Cheongwadae hadn't quite sprouted, yet.
There's Girlfriendoseyo averting her eyes. I still like her more than the Olympic Park model.
By some mysterious coincidence, every cherry and magnolia tree in downtown Seoul that I spotted had a pale background around it, so that there wasn't any contrast to highlight the colours of the flowers.
Really, to see some actually excellent cherry blossom pictures, go here -- the Marmot has a nice camera instead of a 400 pixel junker like mine.
I think these flowers are called Jindalae-ggott in Korean, or maybe those are only the darker purple ones, not the pink ones; I have no idea what they are in Canadese. (I really ought to learn tree and flower species names; it's embarrassing sometimes. I know almost as many different kinds of flower names in Korean as I do in English.)
This ain't a cherry blossom, but I don't know what it IS called. Go find out yourself. I'm not a journalist, I'm just a lazy-butt blogger. Leave a comment if you know, if you like.
There's girlfriendoseyo and bestfriend again. They were great together.
Tulips in Samchungdong. My friend Mel went to a tulip festival near her hometown in Canada and got some pretty good pics there.
Stolen from my bud Tom's facebook page: night, plus flash, equals the contrast I couldn't find all day Monday: These are from Yeouido, the island where Korea's national parliament buildings are found.
soundtrack part 2: hit play and keep reading.
"We Are Gonna Be Friends" by White Stripes
Once again, with the no-contrast-backgrounds for this nice Magnolia tree near Anguk station.
And this one near Namdaemun Market.
In Samchungdong, there's this awesome little coffee shop that has an awesome selection of herbal teas (it's where I discovered the joys of rosemary tea), and roasts its own beans (YEAH!), and plays cool jazz from its big vinyl records collection. I love it.
Well right next door to it, a new shop opened.
Yep. Coffee Bean, one of the biggest chains in Seoul, has decided to horn in right next door from the hip, cool little independent nonamer. This disappoints me, not because the franchise doesn't have the right to make money where money's to be made, but because I have a feeling a lot of people would choose the more familiar logo by default (in my experience, most humans are creatures of comfort, hardwired toward familiarity), and crowd out a really nifty little coffee shop.
Maybe I'm wrong, and if the little indie place pulls through, I'll be glad to admit I was, but I guess I don't have enough faith in human nature to go for the unique option instead of the familiar, safe one.
Again from my bud Tom's facebook page: Han River is gorgeous at night. Tom makes me want to buy a proper camera, too.
Cherry blossoms near girlfriendoseyo's house.
A magnolia tree near girlfriendoseyo's house. The first one I saw this year. See what I mean about backgrounds with bad contrast?
For some other nice pictures of spring in Korea, check out this guy's post from last year, out in Bucheon (a suburb of Seoul).
April 9th was election day in Korea. I did a little coaching to make sure my students said "Election Day" instead of "Erection Day", but other than that, Girlfriendoseyo and I both had a day off, so we went to her old alma mater, Seoul National University, and she walked me around campus. Other than a break to buy an umbrella (and, you know, rain), it was a really nice walkabout.
Except, Seoul National was built during the Park Chung-hee days of Korea's history. President Park valued results over methods, economic growth over individual or press freedom, and function over beauty. To wit, SNU's Library building:
Is ugly.
Their administrative building:
Is ugly, too.
There is a possibly apocryphal story that the Korean government hired a world-famous architect to design SNU's buildings, but he basically took the money, designed a single building, and split. In response, rather than spend the money to find another world-famous architect to do the other buildings, Korea just photocopied the blueprints and build the exact same building repeatedly, until they had enough classroom space to fit their needs.
Explains a bit, and also reveals a bit about that government's opinion toward aesthetics. You can see a legacy of that attitude that places function over form in any apartment block in Seoul.
Another way to get around the unattractive architecture: hide it behind pretty trees (a common practice in the above-type apartment blocks, too).
Or build ponds. This one was by the humanities building.
This is the best cherry tree I found all week -- it was huge!
"I'm Roboseyo, and I endorse this tree."
From another angle, you can see how big it is -- that's all one tree. . . and finally, one with a dark-coloured building behind it, so you can see the pinky pink properly!
More cherry blossom lanes.
The view from the terrace where we had lunch:
Some, uh, purple and, uh, yellow flowers. In bushes.
That tree again. (just humour me; I'm almost done)
Now I've said it before and I'll say it again. The two best times to come to Korea are April and October. Spring and fall are paradise in this country, and should be enjoyed. In fact, I'm mad at myself now for staying in to write this post, instead of going out to enjoy the jaw-dropping day outdoors.
I have some other news, but I'll save it for another post, when I haven't exhausted you all with so many pictures.
Take care, wonderful people! Stay tuned, because there's more where this came from!
Mr. Grieves - A Capella cover of the Pixies song, by TV On The Radio
or, for fun, you can watch this goofball dance. It's kind of fun.
See, it's spring over here, and April and October in Korea are the country at its absolute best. In fact, it's a travesty that I'm in my apartment writing this post instead of lolling about in a park somewhere. It just goes to show how much I love you, my dear readers.
I've been taking bajillions of pictures on my junky little cellphone camera, running up my phone-bill by sending them to my e-mail address, and even beginning to sigh in dismay at their poor quality -- it's reaching the point where the things I see make me happy enough that I wish I had a better instrument for catching their visual gunchiness.
So anyway, somewhere in the last couple of weeks, Spring came! My buddy Chris planned a wine and cheese party in Olympic Park (near my old house) so I headed over, because Olympic Park is a wonderful place.
Lots of people were out lounging around on the grassy fields.
This is one of my favourite trees in all of Korea.
And the one behind it is another. It's hard to see with my low resolution camera, but it's all twisty.
Tons of people came out: it might have been the first real, outdoor-friendly day this spring.
My bud Chris was there sipping wine and eating cheese. I joined him and we just shot the breeze for a couple of hours. It was great -- one of those "I love Korea" or maybe just "I love life" days that I need to remember to write about, to balance out high horses, grinding axes, critical analyses, and rants, from time to time.
Also in Olympic Park, there was a photo shoot (the magnolia trees were blossoming, see?), and it was kind of funny to notice this trumped up model looking away from the cameras with this disinterested look, meanwhile playing to them with her body language at the same time.All around her, clustered, were mostly unattractive, mostly approaching or middle-aged men with big cameras, huddling around her and taking a picture a second.
Honestly, watching the men fawn over this made-up little symbol of the beauty ideal was more fun than checking out the model -- her hip, disinterested face kind of turned me off.
However, I did get a picture I liked of the way she's ogled and idealized by the photographers: it makes me think of a musical.
Compare the above, with this:Pictures from http://godusesbrokenvessels.blogspot.com/2007/05/bigfork-montana.html
And the most appropriate match:
Honestly, the guy below made me smile more than the model -- the photographers' fawning was more interesting to me than her posing, too -- I see people pose all the time (every time a camera comes out) but how often do you get to see some genuine fawning?
This guy, on the other hand, didn't CARE who was lookin'. He just parked himself on a bench overlooking a trail, and started singing to himself. He gave me a big old smile and a wave when he noticed me looking at him, and maybe if I'd known the song, I'd have sat next to him and sung along for a while. Got a kick out of him -- he was actually enjoying his time and showing it, instead of making a pouty face and pooching out his belly to emphasize his "S line" (S line is what Korean women call the idealized figure -- if you imagine a view of a woman from the side, the curves are supposed to form the shape of an "S")
So that was Saturday. Then on Monday, I met with Girlfriendoseyo, (who's way cooler than a model, because her heart, her intelligence, and her humour make me want to, you know, spend time with her, instead of just looking at her), in Samchungdong. Girlfriendoseyo's best friend Jueun joined us, too. I really like Jueun. She's funny, vivacious, smart, and just goofy enough. When I see her and Girlfriendoseyo together, I feel at peace, just by osmosis, because those two are so deeply happy to be around each other. Girlfriendoseyo has a special flavour of happiness and contentment that only comes out when Jueun is nearby, so I love seeing those two together. Fortunately, Jueun likes me, too. We ate some great lunch together:
And walked all over Samchungdong, Gyungbok Palace, and the street in front of Cheongwadae (the Blue House, where Korea's president lives).The tree below is also twisty, and it has some magpie nests.
The Cherry blossoms were in full bloom in Gyungbok Palace, though the ones in front of Cheongwadae hadn't quite sprouted, yet.
There's Girlfriendoseyo averting her eyes. I still like her more than the Olympic Park model.
By some mysterious coincidence, every cherry and magnolia tree in downtown Seoul that I spotted had a pale background around it, so that there wasn't any contrast to highlight the colours of the flowers.Really, to see some actually excellent cherry blossom pictures, go here -- the Marmot has a nice camera instead of a 400 pixel junker like mine.
I think these flowers are called Jindalae-ggott in Korean, or maybe those are only the darker purple ones, not the pink ones; I have no idea what they are in Canadese. (I really ought to learn tree and flower species names; it's embarrassing sometimes. I know almost as many different kinds of flower names in Korean as I do in English.)
This ain't a cherry blossom, but I don't know what it IS called. Go find out yourself. I'm not a journalist, I'm just a lazy-butt blogger. Leave a comment if you know, if you like.
There's girlfriendoseyo and bestfriend again. They were great together.
Tulips in Samchungdong. My friend Mel went to a tulip festival near her hometown in Canada and got some pretty good pics there.
Stolen from my bud Tom's facebook page: night, plus flash, equals the contrast I couldn't find all day Monday: These are from Yeouido, the island where Korea's national parliament buildings are found.
soundtrack part 2: hit play and keep reading.
"We Are Gonna Be Friends" by White Stripes
Once again, with the no-contrast-backgrounds for this nice Magnolia tree near Anguk station.
And this one near Namdaemun Market.
In Samchungdong, there's this awesome little coffee shop that has an awesome selection of herbal teas (it's where I discovered the joys of rosemary tea), and roasts its own beans (YEAH!), and plays cool jazz from its big vinyl records collection. I love it.
Well right next door to it, a new shop opened.
Yep. Coffee Bean, one of the biggest chains in Seoul, has decided to horn in right next door from the hip, cool little independent nonamer. This disappoints me, not because the franchise doesn't have the right to make money where money's to be made, but because I have a feeling a lot of people would choose the more familiar logo by default (in my experience, most humans are creatures of comfort, hardwired toward familiarity), and crowd out a really nifty little coffee shop.Maybe I'm wrong, and if the little indie place pulls through, I'll be glad to admit I was, but I guess I don't have enough faith in human nature to go for the unique option instead of the familiar, safe one.
Again from my bud Tom's facebook page: Han River is gorgeous at night. Tom makes me want to buy a proper camera, too.
Cherry blossoms near girlfriendoseyo's house.
A magnolia tree near girlfriendoseyo's house. The first one I saw this year. See what I mean about backgrounds with bad contrast?
For some other nice pictures of spring in Korea, check out this guy's post from last year, out in Bucheon (a suburb of Seoul).April 9th was election day in Korea. I did a little coaching to make sure my students said "Election Day" instead of "Erection Day", but other than that, Girlfriendoseyo and I both had a day off, so we went to her old alma mater, Seoul National University, and she walked me around campus. Other than a break to buy an umbrella (and, you know, rain), it was a really nice walkabout.
Except, Seoul National was built during the Park Chung-hee days of Korea's history. President Park valued results over methods, economic growth over individual or press freedom, and function over beauty. To wit, SNU's Library building:
Is ugly.Their administrative building:
Is ugly, too.There is a possibly apocryphal story that the Korean government hired a world-famous architect to design SNU's buildings, but he basically took the money, designed a single building, and split. In response, rather than spend the money to find another world-famous architect to do the other buildings, Korea just photocopied the blueprints and build the exact same building repeatedly, until they had enough classroom space to fit their needs.
Explains a bit, and also reveals a bit about that government's opinion toward aesthetics. You can see a legacy of that attitude that places function over form in any apartment block in Seoul.
Another way to get around the unattractive architecture: hide it behind pretty trees (a common practice in the above-type apartment blocks, too).
Or build ponds. This one was by the humanities building.
This is the best cherry tree I found all week -- it was huge!
"I'm Roboseyo, and I endorse this tree."From another angle, you can see how big it is -- that's all one tree. . . and finally, one with a dark-coloured building behind it, so you can see the pinky pink properly!
More cherry blossom lanes.
The view from the terrace where we had lunch:
Some, uh, purple and, uh, yellow flowers. In bushes.
That tree again. (just humour me; I'm almost done)
Now I've said it before and I'll say it again. The two best times to come to Korea are April and October. Spring and fall are paradise in this country, and should be enjoyed. In fact, I'm mad at myself now for staying in to write this post, instead of going out to enjoy the jaw-dropping day outdoors.
I have some other news, but I'll save it for another post, when I haven't exhausted you all with so many pictures.
Take care, wonderful people! Stay tuned, because there's more where this came from!
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