The Jaraseom Jazz Festival and a few other pictures

These benches are popular drinking spots for students near my place. One morning I headed out early...ish to see this. It made me happy.

Downtown Seoul at night looks great when I bring my tripod.

The lady with purple hair didn't notice.
I went to a cocktail bar with a buddy and it was really really good. Nice mojito, amazing side-dishes, and halfway through the night, we realized that every glass we'd drunk from was shaped differently forom the others. So we took pictures, of course.


This kid was in a subway station, holding a sign saying, "Don't run on the escalator" in front of his face, to hide his shame at being busted. It's not the first time I've seen kids holding signs at this station... whoever's responsible for using shame to punish kids' bad behavior might be onto something, though.
And girlfriendoseyo and I went to Jaraseom, an island near Chuncheon where they have an annual jazz festival.
It was beautiful out there.
and busy.
and pretty at night
and the fall colors are kicking in for real now. it's great.
though the English on the signs wasn't always the best.
and of course a few pictures out the train window, on the way back.
Meanwhile, we saw a bunch of jazz acts, including this guy, Avishai Cohen, a bass-player from Israel, who created a really nice soundspace as he played. He had a mellow gravelly, but mellow voice -- like Sting, but less whiny, and his drummer was really cool, and Girlfriendoseyo and I just generally really enjoyed the show. Plus, when he was really into the music, he made funny faces - his face looked like it had no bones in it - and stuck out his tongue, but it didn't matter, because he was really into his music. I liked him. You can learn more about him here, at his website.

One of the things about music is that it's almost always better live than on a recording, but of all the genres, I'm convinced that Jazz is the one that improves the most, upon hearing it live. There's really nothing like the experience.




Oh yeah, and we saw the Band Formerly Known As The Gypsy Kings, too, and they flamenco'd the HELL out of their set.



More on the jazz thingy later, if I get around to youtubing the video I took.

Blog Action Day: Green Korea?

Blog action day is a day when bloggers all around the world write about a certain topic of interest and import to the world... and the blogosphere, I suppose, though the blogosphere is less important that, you know, THE WORLD.

anyway, bloggers this year voted to write about climate change (that's twice in three blog action days.. if not three times) -- but I just wrote about that. My friend Matt thinks this will be the most compelling issue of our generation... and I don't think he's wrong.

Anyway, this being a Korea blog, I took a look around google news and other searches, to find out about Korea's green status. Here are some interesting articles about Korea's green record.

First of all, Korea's a bit of an environmental puzzle: they develop wetlands, but LG Chem also invented one of the best batteries out there, which GM will be using in their electric car development, and which might lead to a Korean mass-produced electric car. Of the world's 20 largest economies, Korea and China used the highest percentage of their economic stimulus investments to support environmental work, and young Koreans overwhelmingly think protecting the environment is very important. These are good signs, duh.

There's the ironic trumpeting of the DMZ as a wildlife preserve, in which the Kimcheerleeders casually gloss over the fact it's undeveloped because it's a minefield... but it's also the one place in the world where you can observe the Three-Legged Asian Bear, and the Three-Legged Wild Deer, in its natural habitat.

But if you're going to read only one of these links, go for:

Asia Chronicle has an awesome article about "Korea's Green Nationalism" which does a great job describing the importance of nationalism in Korea, and how just as (polluting) industrial development was an imperative to repair Korea's damaged national pride after Japanese colonialism, reforestation was equally important to make up for the way the Japanese exploited Korean forests. In fact, Korea's reforestation project has been a remarkable success, increasing Korea's forestry resources by 900% since 1973. And trees grow slow. Arbor Day is a (kind of a) big deal here.

In my own observation, a short trip to Japan showed a much higher visible commitment to environmental protection in buildings and infrastructure: buildings had "energy efficient" stickers and signs on windows, appliances, and all over; almost every road had bike lanes, (whereas in Korea, the bike lane in front of Gyungbok Palace seems to have been taken as a "Buses, Taxis, Scooters and one Frazzled Biker Fearing For His Life Lane"). Bikes in Korea are a toy for kids, not a valid transportation option: hell if you'd find a bike garage like this (any old place in Kyoto) somewhere in Seoul. Maybe the situation's better in other cities, or outside the city, but it's bleak in Smoggy Seoul.

Yay Japan!
So there's a ways to go, both in public policy and conservation efforts, in green technology and infrastructure, and, more than anywhere else, in my opinion, also in the culture of the people on the street. It has to become cool to ride a bike in Korea, but for now, a car is still too much of a status symbol for all those old guys to take the subway (how can I browbeat my subordinates into staying late if I can't point to the parking lot and scream, "I drive a dodge stratus!" at them?) -- bikes have to become cool. The new subway lines in development have to be used. Bike lane laws must be enforced. And, before even starting the "don't litter you disgusting foob" awareness campaign, instilling respect for the streets in your average Korean, rather than just love for Dokdo, public trash receptacles need, need, NEED to return to Korea's public spaces so that people have no excuse for littering.

I lived in Jongno for sixteen months, and every morning at 6:40am when I walked to work, I had to walk by this. Frankly, it just looks like Seoulites don't respect their own city, when you see this: it's just shameful: (final picture in the series: puke warning)

Blogoseyo: Mountain Climbing Edition

Kimchi and Cornbread gives us a great list of Korea's mountains and national parks.

My favorite artist has a new cd coming out soon

Tom Waits is, by head and shoulders, the favorite artist in my huge and eclectic and slightly indie-snobbish music collection.

He's got a new one coming out soon, and you can download a sample by putting in your e-mail address.

Also: Ten Magazine's list of the ten best mountains in Seoul... ten best known might have been more apt, but I'll take it. (HT Rok Drop)

Happy Hangul Day (Actually, it was October 9)

And how better to celebrate hangul than by slamming Japan? And not slamming Japanese politicians or historians... but slamming the Japanese pronunciation of an English word (Scottish, I suppose, really), and not just slamming the Japanese pronounciation of any Scottish word, but that of one that Koreans can't say properly, either!


All I can say is... wow. That American tourist sure speaks Korean well!

I also love the smug face of the Korean-speaking (read: "right") one in the clip from McDonalds -- she has the same face as the person in those Christian videos I used to watch in youth group, who listens to friends talk about some relevant, real-life moral dilemma with a smug smile, before jumping in, just after they have presented the dilemma, with,

"Well, I actually have an answer to your question... and I just happen to have a bible with me... let me tell you a story about a man..."

And the icing on the cake has got to be, in this video about promoting Korean culture, that their music selection at the beginning and end of the video, are kayagum arrangements (that's good -- kayagum's a korean instrument) -- of BEATLES songs.

. . . too easy. Just too easy.

But then... I heard when Paul McCartney was killed in that car accident and secretly replaced by a body double, that his replacement was a Korean.

On a slightly more positive note, Sejong is up and running in Gwanghwamun Plaza, and he looks good. Despite my derisive language a moment ago, I still like Sejong a lot for what he did, and even if Hangul was rejected by the Yangban back in the day as something for the "low" people, and they clung to Chinese to maintain the elitist gap between them and the peasants, as cultural mythmaking goes, Korea couldn't have picked a better hero to venerate.


Chosun English on Hangul