Mar 19
By Mizaru
It’s Saturday night, the big night out all over the world, and I want to go over to a local bookstore and look for, “Another bullshit night in Suck City.” Instead, the subway to Hongdae clubbing district is quiet and the path to club HodgePodge is clear. This is the third life of HodgePodge, the first one exuberantly lived with the dance floor being full of weekend revelers come to listen to a Dj with eclectic 3 generation tastes. You could hear a burning ass mix from Marvin Gaye to Ministry to Massive Attack to MGMT, and of course that was just the M’s. The second incarnation of the club was over expansive failure built somewhere outside the clubbing loop and no one came. This latest HodgePodge is the smallest of the three and three is a magic number because that’s the price of the mixed drinks, $3.
Mar 05
By SmurfyStew
Restaurant Pyongyang sits on busy Monivong Boulevard, in the heart of Phnom Penh. The building itself is nondescript and doesn’t really stand out unless you are looking for it. Aside from the lunch hours of 11:30 – 2:00, the only action you’re likely to see outside of the restaurant in the afternoon is some fancy SUV’s pulling up and leaving from time to time. I don’t even want to know what’s up with the SUVs. It’s been rumoured that managers at the restaurant pimp the waitresses out; most likely to North Korean officials visiting and working in Phnom Penh, to high-society Khmers, or to rich South Koreans, who want that North Korean experience but don’t want to brave the DMZ to get it.
North Korea Today ran a report that says prostitution is “widespread” at official government-run restaurants that cater to tourists in North Korea. If the report is true, it is likely that North Korean officials have absolutely no qualms pimping out waitresses at their establishments abroad as well.
Jan 16
By Mizaru
You probably won’t miss Craftworks; the sign board on the street is a good catch all. Inside the two sets of front doors is a swag menagerie where Craftworks t-shirts and mugs are displayed and for sale. This reminds me that Craftworks is expensive. The last time I passed the t-shirt display I had a self-deceiving revelation. I thought if you drank at bars with happy hours in Itaewon and HBC you could save money for the plane flight to Hoboken, NJ and drink where the noir giants drank (like Sinatra and Bogart), but that’s not gonna happen. I have checked the price at beer and burger joints back there and it is all categorically the same. No smoking is a big part of the appeal at meathead brew pubs and they all sell t-shirts. I think Yankee Stadium was the first venue to sell t-shirts.
Sep 26
Photos and write-up by Kyle McGregor
At the TGS, Costume Play (Cosplay) is at its best. The quality of the anime or game inspired costumes assembled ranges from skilled amateur to professional. Nothing to be seen here was to the inexperienced a disappointment; Stiletta in her black catsuit was sufficiently alluring, yet dangerous at the same time. The Pepsi Nex model was nicely hot and futuristic, as well as worthy of a spot on a Japanese cosplay magazine cover. Here were the highlights of the show by way of costumes, the booth models though attractive were mostly not wearing stand out costumes.
No sign of any female English teachers from Japan or Korea taking a vacation to play female warriors, just great fun for boys and lovely Japanese maidens as signposts for male fantasy. European models were sometimes previously invited to add flair and international sex appeal to the show, but, this year TGS was a mainly Japanese affair. Some of the event organizers explained to me that with the downward world economy it wasn’t the brightest idea to bring in “foreign models”.
Sep 26
By Konrad Kostecki
Sadly today, unless one happens to be a history buff, most people’s knowledge of the Korean War is based on watching reruns of MASH. I remember myself having zero knowledge of the Korean War, not to mention of Korea, prior to coming here. Well, that is life; we live and learn but it helps if a writer comes along and brings the history closer to us, more alive in a fictionalized form and yet accurate, based on real events. Such presentation of history is more exciting and palatable to the general public who might otherwise scoff at dry, academic writing. If Jeffrey Miller’s intentions in writing this book included renewing interest in the Korean War and making the subject accessible to non-historians, he has overwhelmingly succeeded.
Sep 12
By Megan O’Brien
Sandwiches are always better when someone else makes them: who is cutting, building and flavoring your sandwiches? In general, the art of making a fulfilling sandwich is a thing that is sometimes lost here in Seoul. However, there is a little spot perfectly located right smack on the HBC main drag that has been able to fill the void of a decent sandwich shop. Casablanca owned and operated by Wahid and his brother, Karim. Wahid and his brother hail from Morocco and recently, after observing the overwhelming 5pm rush of sandwich pursuers as the shop doors opened, I was able to ask Wahid a few questions which he coolly answered while skillfully multitasking through orders and payments and sandwich preparations with a pleasant smile on his face.
May 30
By Marie Kulik
“Korean society asks women to have the same face, body and build, which has become people’s idea of beauty… Korean woman should be scared of completely losing their identity…” -So Eunjeong
The May week of Monday the 23rd to Friday the 27th saw the Body Factory Exhibition at Platoon Kunsthalle in Gangnam Gu, Seoul.
The exhibition was designed and installed by fashion and art lecturer So Eunjeong. So is also the Creative Director at design house Dusty Goiyanni London, served as Illustrator to Alexander McQueen and is the Art & Cultural Editor at The Three Wise Monkeys.
May 16
By Kate Knibbs
Last Saturday, I sat down at The Hungry Dog, HBC’s newest eatery, with a ravenous, sun-burnt clan of ex-pats. The Hungry Dog sits on Haebangchon’s main stretch, next to Pita Time. We almost overwhelmed the small, cheery restaurant’s limited table space, but the proprietors and staff Mj and Sunny took pains to accommodate our bulk.
The menu focuses on American foods: mini-burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, and salads are their standard fare. They offer an all-day breakfast menu and a small dinner menu (dinner starts at 5). For dinner, there’s an intriguing souvlaki option, but we were too early to check it out. My infamously persnickety friend insisted that the lack of mayo in the condiments box be condemned; later, upon request, mayo was pulled out of the fridge for his fries. Critique revoked. The staff was very solicitous and friendly, and was open to altering the menu to suit our specifications.
Apr 25
By Jesse Coy
It’s March 10, and damn, I’m on the bus to Seoul, where I can finally see one of my favorite bands from high school, this time with their primary (not original, Paul… I know) singer, Bruce Dickinson, who flew the 747 in country.
Up the irons, mother fucker!
So I’m psyched. I’m also grinning happy that my current girl, the sweet BlueKat, will apparently be there to meet me in the wee hours of morning when I return to Masan after the show. I’m about a half hour from Seoul now, listening to “Blood Brothers.” Yes, I cheated and peaked at the set list. Iron Maiden will be playing a lot of new stuff. Who knows? Maybe I’ll look at it differently. There’re a few songs from the new one that I quite like. Anyway, for two nights in a row I had bad sleep.
Apr 18
By Jesse Coy
This is later, and boy, was I happy that I took the 1 p.m. and not the 2 p.m. bus. First, I hadn’t noticed, but the show was at 7, not 8. Second, when Eric Clapton says that his show starts at 7… well, he’s a punctual guy. I might have missed half of the first song. I was assisted to my seat as Eric was in the midst of Willie Dixon’s much covered “Hoochie Coochie Man.” And speaking of being assisted to my seat, I needed that, because compared to all the other shows that I saw at the Olympic Stadium, this one looked to be nearly sold out. I saw no empty seats. Did I miss “Key to the Highway”? I know that I heard him do “Goin’ Down Slow,” which I think is a switch from his set list. That song was second, and not third, in other places.
Apr 04
By Mizaru
Recently in Salon.com comes the news that MGM studios is changing the villain from China to North Korea in its re-make of the campy but cool stories-for-boys flick “Red Dawn”. The original Red Dawn had a group of teen-age boys—some from the football team and others seemingly more comfortable on the sidelines–packing up together as “The Wolverines” to defend their home town from a Soviet Union conspired invasion.
Jan 03
By Jesse Coy Nelson
Part 2: read part 1 here
Seikima II/ Loudness,Vivaldi Park, Daemyeong, South Korea 9/3/10 – 9/4/10
I woke ten minutes before the alarm went off. I slowly made breakfast, or at least not fast enough to really get a move on if I intended to make the eleven o’clock bus. I had to withdraw some money (200,000 won), and then went for food and booze at a mini-mart. I hurried to the bus station, catching the bus to Seoul right before it pulled out. It’d be about five hours to Seoul. I had my journal, so I’d catch up on that. Instead of bringing the book I was almost done with, I brought Arabian Nights, which doesn’t have a single or identifiable author. It’s sort of interesting how that’s set up.
Dec 26
By Jesse Coy Nelson
For the first two songs, the impression that I got was a drunken karaoke session. Dylan had some disjointed crust on his voice that he had to break loose. By the third song, he was sounding better, like a grizzled Tom Waits (and yes, I know he predates Tom). I didn’t recognize the third or fourth songs, but I have them now… “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and “Stuck Inside of Mobile.” By the fifth song, “Levee’s Gonna Break,” Bob was definitely in full form. Being somewhat removed as I was, and with the simple, no-nonsense setup of the stage, Bob was transformed. He became for me a floating tan hat, sometimes hovering over the organ keyboard, or sometimes emitting the sound of a harmonica… Bob the Hat.
Nov 29
By Rishika Murthy
Editor’s note: The Local is 3WM’s choice venue for the Dripan Art Walk in Liberation Village 
Turn your head to cough and you might miss it. New to the Haebangcheon family of watering holes, The Local is the place to be if you are a musician, a fan of music or just a fan of cheap booze.
Owner and resident “hot bartender” You Ga Young opened The Local in late September. She said she wanted to “make a place where (local musicians) want to come and play.”
“In the HBC there are not many places to play and listen to music,” said Ga Young. “I wanted to open a place where people feel comfortable playing and having fun.”
She decided on this spot for her bar because she sees a lot of potential for the area.
Nov 29
By Maria Borland
Far from being radical or revisionist, the play is vague, bland and structurally bizarre. The first half is particularly bewildering. An ensemble of personalities populate the stage (I hesitate to call them characters as the word usually suggests some kind of motivating force, which is entirely absent here): a couple of young lovers, a French lothario, his sensual Italian lover, her laconic ex-husband, his lover, and some hysterical ageing lesbians. These archetypes/borderline archetypes, skillfully played by a talented cast, as well as the one room set, suggest the scene of a farce.
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