The Andong Mask Festival, in Kyungsan Province, is pretty famous, and if you need to get out of Seoul, wouldn't be a bad idea.
Korea has a long tradition of Mask Dancing, and you can see some of it, and hear all the old traditional instruments.
And get out of the city, eh?
If you're not Korean, you can even set your goal to be this guy:
And possibly be featured on Arirang TV or Chosun Online (who love following white people around with cameras).
More information here.
one expat's life in Korea
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
More Roboseyo far and wide. . .
If you go to the "Special" sidebar of the Korea Herald Online, you will see the latest manifestation of the "Why Do Expats Complain?" meme The Korean and I started back in the Summer. Tomorrow, in the same place, you will find my write-up on "Why do Koreans Get so Defensive" and on Thursday, Gord Sellar will be there with "What Makes a Happy Expat?"
In other news, I was invited by Joe of Zenkimchi to a ridiculously good meal at "Star Chef," a wonderful fusion restaurant in Maebong, south of Kangnam. FatManSeoul was also there (her writeup here), and Zenkimchi Food Journal even edited together quite a nice video of the whole thing.
This is fusion food as it ought to be -- rather than the UN-creative stylings of replacing the usual shredded cabbage with a bit of spaghetti, throwing honey mustard sauce on the Korean fried rice, and putting Kimchi on a toasted ham sandwich (which is the usual dull way of Korean "fusion" restaurants), this guy is actually mixing flavours of different cultures in ways that are interesting and new and really intriguing. As well as jaw-droppingly delicious.
Yanni presided over the affair, with his video, his jazz shoulder, and his moustache setting the tone for the night, on widescreen TV.
You'll catch me a few times on this video, which presents the food well enough that it remains interesting all the way through, even though it's only about food. That's just how good the food was. Joe and Jen are much better at talking about food than I am, but you'll here a few lame roboseyo jokes here and there and some of my semi-drunken braying, if you pay attention.
This is the space where I will put the great photo Jen took of me, which she promised to send me, but hasn't yet...and I hope she will, and that she's not mad at me for teasing her a bit in my video (next).
(oh there you are, Peter! Thanks, Jennifer!)
and here is my video (not nearly as good as Joe's, but shorter) with mostly pictures of food, and a bit of Jennifer loving on her camera (she bought a new lens that day). Watching the two food bloggers take pictures of the food ("Food Porn" -- an apt description) was fun as heck. (For the best of the food porn, check out FatManSeoul and ZenKimchi's posts on the place. But gee golly wow, it was good eatin'!)
In other news, I was invited by Joe of Zenkimchi to a ridiculously good meal at "Star Chef," a wonderful fusion restaurant in Maebong, south of Kangnam. FatManSeoul was also there (her writeup here), and Zenkimchi Food Journal even edited together quite a nice video of the whole thing.
This is fusion food as it ought to be -- rather than the UN-creative stylings of replacing the usual shredded cabbage with a bit of spaghetti, throwing honey mustard sauce on the Korean fried rice, and putting Kimchi on a toasted ham sandwich (which is the usual dull way of Korean "fusion" restaurants), this guy is actually mixing flavours of different cultures in ways that are interesting and new and really intriguing. As well as jaw-droppingly delicious.Yanni presided over the affair, with his video, his jazz shoulder, and his moustache setting the tone for the night, on widescreen TV.
You'll catch me a few times on this video, which presents the food well enough that it remains interesting all the way through, even though it's only about food. That's just how good the food was. Joe and Jen are much better at talking about food than I am, but you'll here a few lame roboseyo jokes here and there and some of my semi-drunken braying, if you pay attention.
This is the space where I will put the great photo Jen took of me, which she promised to send me, but hasn't yet...and I hope she will, and that she's not mad at me for teasing her a bit in my video (next).
(oh there you are, Peter! Thanks, Jennifer!)
and here is my video (not nearly as good as Joe's, but shorter) with mostly pictures of food, and a bit of Jennifer loving on her camera (she bought a new lens that day). Watching the two food bloggers take pictures of the food ("Food Porn" -- an apt description) was fun as heck. (For the best of the food porn, check out FatManSeoul and ZenKimchi's posts on the place. But gee golly wow, it was good eatin'!)
And Yanni was pleased, and smiled down upon us all.
Amazing photos of North Korea
HT to Schwim
Big pictures, but amazing ones, compiled or taken by Eric Lafforgue, a photojournalist who attended the Pyongyang mass games this September, and seems to have done other work in North Korea during the year.
The North Korean Arirang Mass Games are amazing and terrifying at the same time: getting 60000 performers to move in unison is incredible, but if you think about the methods they probably used to train them . . . yurg.
You can see some of North Korea's natural beauty, but also note, with one glaring exception, the amount of suspicion in the eyes of North Koreans when they look at this foreign photographer. Two of my favourite from the series:
See the whole series here.
Eric Laffrogue's Flickr photostream: more here.
Video from the 2007 North Korean Mass Games: given their limited resources, this is miles more impressive than the Beijing Opening Ceremonies. Imagine what North Korea would do with an unlimited budget.
And those are people holding cards in the background.
those are all kids, by the way.
video of preparations for the games.
Big pictures, but amazing ones, compiled or taken by Eric Lafforgue, a photojournalist who attended the Pyongyang mass games this September, and seems to have done other work in North Korea during the year.
The North Korean Arirang Mass Games are amazing and terrifying at the same time: getting 60000 performers to move in unison is incredible, but if you think about the methods they probably used to train them . . . yurg.
You can see some of North Korea's natural beauty, but also note, with one glaring exception, the amount of suspicion in the eyes of North Koreans when they look at this foreign photographer. Two of my favourite from the series:
See the whole series here.
Eric Laffrogue's Flickr photostream: more here.
Video from the 2007 North Korean Mass Games: given their limited resources, this is miles more impressive than the Beijing Opening Ceremonies. Imagine what North Korea would do with an unlimited budget.
And those are people holding cards in the background.
those are all kids, by the way.
video of preparations for the games.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
To all the guys who declined my housewarming party invitation last weekend...
Ya sure missed out. Jeez, boys, what's the matter with youse?
A few fellas showed up. . . but they were sorely outnumbered.
Gender ratio aside, a good time was had by all; I love having an apartment big enough to host people, and a kitchen big enough to cook.
For the rest. . . don't worry, all. This won't be the last time I have a house party. 'Till then, be well.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
This has NEVER happened before in Korea...
Never happened before, I say. NEVER!
Does that bubble song remind you of anything? Say, Canadian singer Feist (who was way cooler before she sold out. No lie: here's Mushaboom.)
This is the FIRST TIME I've EVER heard of something like this.
Needless to say, I'm shocked, SHOCKED, and disappointed. (HT to Brian for this one)
Does that bubble song remind you of anything? Say, Canadian singer Feist (who was way cooler before she sold out. No lie: here's Mushaboom.)
This is the FIRST TIME I've EVER heard of something like this.
Needless to say, I'm shocked, SHOCKED, and disappointed. (HT to Brian for this one)
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