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.
one expat's life in Korea
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, September 07, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, September 05, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
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.
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.
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, 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?
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.
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.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Canada Trip Pictures: Driving Around Western Canada
So I went to Canada and stuff, but never posted the pictures I'd promised.
Now, a good bunch of them are on my primary computer, which is currently suffering an IP address error which I must wait until monday to resolve, but I uploaded all these a while ago, so you can see them.
And what else did you do this weekend, Roboseyo?
I was sick, so I mostly just stayed home and bummed around. Watched some sweet Alfred Hitchcock Movies: Cracked Rear Window, The Birds, and Psycho were all pretty awesome. Hostel was terrible. If I'm going to see so many movies, I might get my hands on the AFI top 100 or somesuch. Or watch more Korean movies, seeing as I owe alls'y'all a rundown of Korean movies well worth your time to see.
But here are some pictures of my trip to Canada.
Pictures of Niagara Falls, Southern Ontario, and who knows what else, coming ... soon? Whenever.
Now, a good bunch of them are on my primary computer, which is currently suffering an IP address error which I must wait until monday to resolve, but I uploaded all these a while ago, so you can see them.
And what else did you do this weekend, Roboseyo?
I was sick, so I mostly just stayed home and bummed around. Watched some sweet Alfred Hitchcock Movies: Cracked Rear Window, The Birds, and Psycho were all pretty awesome. Hostel was terrible. If I'm going to see so many movies, I might get my hands on the AFI top 100 or somesuch. Or watch more Korean movies, seeing as I owe alls'y'all a rundown of Korean movies well worth your time to see.
But here are some pictures of my trip to Canada.
Vancouver, downtown.
The night sky on the way home from white rock.
Many of the side streets in vancouver were vitually car free; maybe I missed something, but it seemed like they were reserved, either legally or tacitly, for bicyclers.
Near Grand Forks, British Columbia. The Rocky Mountains were in especially fine form this trip, and a good thing, as I drove across them twice, stretched over three days: one day from Langley to Red Deer, my sister's hometown to my brother's, eight from Red Deer to Creston, where my other sister lives, and eight more from Creston back to Langley again: a triangle punctuated by stops to stretch my legs, drive throughs, an epic seven hour stretch without finding a single Tim Hortons, lots of coffee, fewer pee breaks than usual, because of careful liquid intake (I'm a bit of a road-trip badass, after so many times needing to skooch all over the place so often).
I tried taking pictures of some nice stuff without stopping the car, by pointing the camera out the window, but it didn't really work out as often as I'd hoped it would.
I stopped at this bridge right before the sun went down: it was right in my windshield, making it dangerous to negotiate corners and stuff, so I just got out of the car and took pictures until the sun was low enough not to bother me anymore. This shaft of sunlight caught tons of bugs... few enough of them mosquitoes, that it didn't bother me much at all.
I also saw eagles circling above the river.
Other pictures of random vistas around the rockies.
Mist rolled in around Hope... not long after I took this picture, I couldn't see a hundred yards ahead of the car.
This looks like a KIA ad.
Harrison Hot Springs is a little resort town near my old hometown. Harrison Lake is an awesome freshwater lake. The resort town means my hometown is pretty as anything, but the cheesy tourists all go to harrison, which is close enough to enjoy, but not so close that I have to hear cheesy new-age music every time I walk to the pharmacy in my old hometown.
That there's Mount Cheam. My old house had a view of that mountain (from a different angle) right out my bedroom window.
Highway 7 between Mission and Harrison Mills is another of the prettiest patches of driving I've ever seen.
My sister lives in Creston, one of the prettiest corners of the world I've seen. The town also enjoys some of the most delicious tapwater in the world... certified. BC's interior is known for that. You wouldn't know it, but that fresh water blew me away, of all things, the entire time I was in Camaba.
I chased a sunset one day in the rental car. Glad I did.
We went down to a riverside park my sister knew. It was great. My sister and her husband and kids played by the water while I took sundown pictures. I also had a really great few conversations with my sister about... all the important stuff.
My niece, and her town.
The night sky on the way home from white rock.
Many of the side streets in vancouver were vitually car free; maybe I missed something, but it seemed like they were reserved, either legally or tacitly, for bicyclers.
Near Grand Forks, British Columbia. The Rocky Mountains were in especially fine form this trip, and a good thing, as I drove across them twice, stretched over three days: one day from Langley to Red Deer, my sister's hometown to my brother's, eight from Red Deer to Creston, where my other sister lives, and eight more from Creston back to Langley again: a triangle punctuated by stops to stretch my legs, drive throughs, an epic seven hour stretch without finding a single Tim Hortons, lots of coffee, fewer pee breaks than usual, because of careful liquid intake (I'm a bit of a road-trip badass, after so many times needing to skooch all over the place so often).
I tried taking pictures of some nice stuff without stopping the car, by pointing the camera out the window, but it didn't really work out as often as I'd hoped it would.
I stopped at this bridge right before the sun went down: it was right in my windshield, making it dangerous to negotiate corners and stuff, so I just got out of the car and took pictures until the sun was low enough not to bother me anymore. This shaft of sunlight caught tons of bugs... few enough of them mosquitoes, that it didn't bother me much at all.
I also saw eagles circling above the river.
Other pictures of random vistas around the rockies.
Mist rolled in around Hope... not long after I took this picture, I couldn't see a hundred yards ahead of the car.
This looks like a KIA ad.
Harrison Hot Springs is a little resort town near my old hometown. Harrison Lake is an awesome freshwater lake. The resort town means my hometown is pretty as anything, but the cheesy tourists all go to harrison, which is close enough to enjoy, but not so close that I have to hear cheesy new-age music every time I walk to the pharmacy in my old hometown.
That there's Mount Cheam. My old house had a view of that mountain (from a different angle) right out my bedroom window.
Highway 7 between Mission and Harrison Mills is another of the prettiest patches of driving I've ever seen.
My sister lives in Creston, one of the prettiest corners of the world I've seen. The town also enjoys some of the most delicious tapwater in the world... certified. BC's interior is known for that. You wouldn't know it, but that fresh water blew me away, of all things, the entire time I was in Camaba.
I chased a sunset one day in the rental car. Glad I did.
We went down to a riverside park my sister knew. It was great. My sister and her husband and kids played by the water while I took sundown pictures. I also had a really great few conversations with my sister about... all the important stuff.
My niece, and her town.
In Alberta, Highway 22, the Cowboy Trail, is another of the greatest bits of driving I've ever done. In fact, if I'd had time to hit up Vancouver Island as well, it would've been ALL the nicest drives I've done in my life. But we can't have it all.
And I had a good berry crumble at Wendel's in Fort Langley.
Took some pictures of Banff on my way through.
Cutest picture: I was glad to know Red Deer is a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. That is, until Kim Jong-il drops one on it.
Few more of Red Deer, where my bro lives.
And I had a good berry crumble at Wendel's in Fort Langley.
Took some pictures of Banff on my way through.
Cutest picture: I was glad to know Red Deer is a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. That is, until Kim Jong-il drops one on it.
Few more of Red Deer, where my bro lives.
And mushrooms in the garden outside my brother's house.
Pictures of Niagara Falls, Southern Ontario, and who knows what else, coming ... soon? Whenever. In conclusion, Korea is a land of contrasts. Thank you for reading my essay.
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