There's a Pride Parade in Seoul this weekend.
From 11am-6pm, around the Cheonggyecheon area, you can check it out.
Here's the Korea Queer Culture Festival website.
Here's the facebook page for the event.
Here's the facebook page for the group.
Here's a brief look at acceptance of Queer culture in Korea (diagnosis: still pretty weak), from Popular Gusts.
And an article from 2008's Pride Parade, on OhMyNews (English).
and Kiss My Kimchi's write-up of the 2008 Parade
one expat's life in Korea
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Concert Fundraiser... Mark your Calendar: June 26
Well, he's now planning a fundraiser concert for an orphanage in Suwon, and a North Korean refugee center in Ansan. Worthy, worthy, worthy causes, both.
The event, called "ROK Concert-Fundraiser: Bands Battle with Molotov Vibrations" is a battle of the bands at Club FF in Hongdae, on June 26 - mark it in your calendars! The Facebook page is here, and I really think you should go.
My buddy Abhi told me about it, and he's a seriously stand-up guy. If you live in, or near Suwon, you want to be on his mailing or phone list, because he cares about helping people, and he knows places and ways that YOU can help people, too.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Rain's Bum Joke Bombs... but Congrats Anyway
Former Kpop/current Hollywood star Rain, owner of the most preposterously self-congratulating album cover I've ever seen:
Was voted "biggest badass" for "Ninja Assassin" at the MTV movie awards... and his acceptance joke TOTALLY bombs.
"They told me I was nominated for the bad ass award, so I've been working out.... (crickets chirp, two fangirls scream) why so serious?"
But we shouldn't be too hard on the man.
It was a noble effort, but his delivery was off: he would have gotten a better laugh if he'd turned around and lifted up his jacket tails or something. This IS an MTV crowd, after all. Frankly, I sympathize: delivering a joke in one's second language, especially a verbal joke (bad ass award - our man is PUNNING on national television!) is hella hard. Good attempt at a recovery, too, with the 'why so serious'?
Anyway, congratulations, Rain. Sorry about that flubbed punchline, but I hope you have lots of success, and more opportunities to show off your sixpack in Hollywood movies.
And in case you think Rain don't do funny, I refer you to the Stephen Colbert/Rain dance-off, in my opinion, one of the high points of the show, and of Kpop relevance in America.
Was voted "biggest badass" for "Ninja Assassin" at the MTV movie awards... and his acceptance joke TOTALLY bombs.
"They told me I was nominated for the bad ass award, so I've been working out.... (crickets chirp, two fangirls scream) why so serious?"
But we shouldn't be too hard on the man.
It was a noble effort, but his delivery was off: he would have gotten a better laugh if he'd turned around and lifted up his jacket tails or something. This IS an MTV crowd, after all. Frankly, I sympathize: delivering a joke in one's second language, especially a verbal joke (bad ass award - our man is PUNNING on national television!) is hella hard. Good attempt at a recovery, too, with the 'why so serious'?
Anyway, congratulations, Rain. Sorry about that flubbed punchline, but I hope you have lots of success, and more opportunities to show off your sixpack in Hollywood movies.
And in case you think Rain don't do funny, I refer you to the Stephen Colbert/Rain dance-off, in my opinion, one of the high points of the show, and of Kpop relevance in America.
Caption Contest: weirdest burger poster I've seen.
This poster is so many kinds of surreal I don't even know what to say about it... so I'll leave it to you, my readers.
CAPTION CONTEST!
Saturday, June 05, 2010
The Wedding Hall Wedding...Why?
I'm actually torn here, because what I really want to do in response to Jason's post about wedding hall weddings is to sit somewhere with a beer in my hand, nod knowingly (and a bit defeatedly) and say "Yeah, man. I hear ya." On the emotional level, I'm sitting right there with Kimchi Icecream, feeling that weird taste in my mouth. On another level, given that I'm about to marry a Korean, I've thought a lot about Korean weddings, and I do want to look a little at this wedding culture stuff.
So before I intellectualize the whole thing and give reasons and justifications, I just want to take a moment to recognize. Yeah. It's way different, and jarring, and often quite off-putting. A spade's a spade, and a Korean wedding hall wedding looks weird to Western eyes.
Soundtrack: Marry Me, John, by St. Vincent
(Photos of one Korean wedding) (Another) (Another, from Busan Mike)
(let's not forget that other countries can go a bit overboard with weddings, too.)
Photo by these guys... who seem to do a good job, if you look at their samples. Hope you don't mind my borrowing!
Ask The Expat also has something about weddings.
But in Korea's defense, here are some of the points that have come up in talking, a lot, about weddings. Fact is, most Koreans I've spoken with agree with many of Jason's complaints about wedding halls, and I've spoken with quite a few, because I have an article about wedding culture I like bringing into class.
more
So before I intellectualize the whole thing and give reasons and justifications, I just want to take a moment to recognize. Yeah. It's way different, and jarring, and often quite off-putting. A spade's a spade, and a Korean wedding hall wedding looks weird to Western eyes.
Soundtrack: Marry Me, John, by St. Vincent
(Photos of one Korean wedding) (Another) (Another, from Busan Mike)
(let's not forget that other countries can go a bit overboard with weddings, too.)
Ask The Expat also has something about weddings.
But in Korea's defense, here are some of the points that have come up in talking, a lot, about weddings. Fact is, most Koreans I've spoken with agree with many of Jason's complaints about wedding halls, and I've spoken with quite a few, because I have an article about wedding culture I like bringing into class.
more
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