I love T-ara. Their first album had more good songs than most Kpop groups or American pop singers put out in 3 years (see Like the First Time, I Go Crazy Because of You, I’m Really Hurt, Bo Peep Bo Peep, Apple is A, and TTL)… even my Mom likes to break down with the [...]
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Overall grade: 95 Acting: 4/5 Directing: 5/5 Writing: 5/5 Filming: 5/5 I finally got around to seeing The Housemaid (2010). Before talking about the movie, I must encourage everyone to watch the first 5 minutes. It is one of the best dissections of Korean night life I’ve ever seen. As for the movie, it was [...]
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I finally got around to seeing The Housemaid (2010). Before talking about the movie, I have to encourage people to watch the first 5 minutes. It is one of the best dissections of Korean night life I’ve ever seen. It has almost everything: singing rooms, fish restaurants, barbecue coals, ahjummas doing back-breaking work, ahjummas speed [...]
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A few days ago I was with some friends while a TV was on in the background. Midway through some Christian telling me how Howard Zinn couldn’t possibly be a Christian (I assume due to his anti-war, anti-poverty, and anti-slavery positions), I was given the opportunity to completely tune the guy out (allowing him, the [...]
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When I first moved to Korea over a year ago, I did not understand all the cuteness. Now, after succumbing to Oh! and Balloons (quite possibly the cutest thing ever) and countless other cute things, I think it’s time I fully embraced my love of Korean cuteness. I love Girls Generation‘s new video, Hoot. It bothered [...]
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I went to Nami Island this weekend with two friends (who write the very funny and frank blog, Shotgun Korea). I love the Fall. It is my favorite season, and so happy that I get to see beautiful places like this. The only drawback was that out of the 5,488 people there, I was evidently [...]
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I had the rare opportunity to visit Changdeok Palace at night. The Palace is normally closed at night as it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has limited electricity. It was one of the best things I’ve done since moving to Korea. It was incredible. They only allowed 100 people in this tour, and [...]
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It’s no secret that I’m afraid of other Westerners (i.e., white people) in Korea. I don’t like being around them, and I try to avoid them most of the time. I know I’m missing out on a lot of potentially great friendships, but I’ve had some bad experiences… The two hours before my Korean language class, [...]
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After my plans of going to the countryside were thwarted by thousands of festival-goers, I quickly went online to find the nearest cultural landmark to my house (one great thing about Korea is that you’re almost never more than a few minutes away from a National Treasure, temple, or cultural asset). So, I went to [...]
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Can’t Nobody is my new favorite Kpop song. I got the 2NE1 CD a few weeks ago (along with a poster and school folder!), but am just now really listening to it. I love it… it’s fun, it’s catchy… and it’s much more interesting than most girl groups in Korea.
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A few years ago I was volunteering for a mayoral candidate in Hartford in hopes that he would defeat the now imprisoned Eddie Perez. A friend and I asked him what his plan was to get people downtown. His answer was “street theater.” We both kind of stood there with our mouths gaping because all [...]
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I love buying CD’s in Korea. They put so much effort into it, and each one is different (at least with the kpop idol singers). So, I was doubly excited today when I went to buy 2NE1‘s new album and in addition to the 47 page lyrics & photo book that come with the CD, [...]
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Reason #3 for moving to Seoul: I started taking janggu (장구) lessons this weekend. It wasn’t my first choice (I wanted to learn the gayageum), but I was pleasantly surprised after my first lesson. It was a little harder than I expected, but hopefully not too difficult. From Wikipedia: The janggu… is the most widely [...]
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The other day I posted some photos of Andong’s music fountain. Now, I’ve finally put the video together. It’s very short (2 minutes). I removed the live sound and replaced it with one of my favorite Kpop singers — Son Dambi. (I love love Son Dambi.)
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General McChrystal may not have been the most politically savvy person in the lot, but at least he had a sense of humor. In the infamous Rolling Stones article that cost McChrystal his job, it was mentioned that some of his team referred to themselves as Team America… Team America being the exhaustingly hilarious movie [...]
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To celebrate the Fourth of July, some of us got together to act American (i.e., be really loud) by shooting fireworks off the roof. We also ate hamburgers, chicken, potato salad, and beer! And to make it even more American, I was able to squeeze in a fantasy baseball trade! But the Americanization was short [...]
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When I first saw this video by DBSK (동방신기) I was mortified. I didn’t understand the mittens, the headbands, the ties, or the penguin back-up dancers. I still don’t understand it, but after several hundred viewings, I have completely succumbed to their saccharin smiles and cheesy dance moves. Similar to a Picasso or Liza Minelli [...]
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My Friend from the Philippines visited this weekend. So, after a day at temple, we decided to walk through downtown Daegu. Of course, something fun happened… I got to see Cabaret performed in Korean, which is probably the next best thing to seeing Liza. It made me miss my good friend Tom, who never lets [...]
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I haven’t been keeping up with the blog because I started re-watching The Wire, and I just finished Season 3… for the fourth time. If you’ve never seen The Wire, the best way to summarize is to just say that it’s a crime drama set in Baltimore that focuses equally on the detectives, drug dealers, drug [...]
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Now I don’t know a lot about figure skating, but when I watch Kim Yu-na, I know I’m seeing something incredible. And since the ladies figure skating starts this week in Vancouver, I had to give a preview. She currently holds the world record in the short program, long program, and combined score. I don’t [...]
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