Nov 22
By Maria Borland
I like the idea of open mic nights—the promise of variety, emerging talent, a sense of risk… In reality, however, I have never quite reconciled myself to the ‘open’ bit. No matter how impressive the act, if you’re performing to an audience who have spent the last hour listening to navel gazing mumbled poetry or off-key ballads you’ve got your work cut out.
The Encyclopedia Show suggests an appealing alternative. A concept show originating in Chicago, an encyclopedia entry is distributed to various performers and writers who are given a month to create an original piece of work inspired by this entry. Here is the potential for a structured and coherent piece of theatre that still retains the off-the-cuff spontaneity of fringe performance.
Oct 25
By Alex Lowry
The Monkees – Introduction (Hey hey we’re the…)
This harmless tune is bright and cheery, yet there’s something disingenuous about the whole thing; after all, the “Monkees” wouldn’t know the first thing about being a monkey. (An aside: learn to spell, you cheeky bastards…) In the end, the song is an inert attempt to emulate the Kinks and the Beatles, back when that was the most lucrative thing to do. It’s not terrible, but this monkey can think of a thousand other songs he’d rather go to heaven or hell for, but alas I digress…
Oct 11
By Mizaru
The lack of concern that the Won Chon school managers showed towards what was happening or not-happening in the class was disconcerting. Some days I would make a copy of the lesson plan and bring it to the school principal and he would smile and approve getting back to his day. The rest of the administration never took much of an interest. The Ministry of Justice officials were always pluming and gossiping with themselves while walking around upon the compound. The same ones who were only a few months earlier so impressed with my baseball prowess now often looked in the English class at me with winces and vexations. It seemed to me like one of those prime-time TV shows when the tribal council gathers together to decide who they are happy with living on their island and who they decided was going to have to go.
Oct 11
By Kathy Fidler
Despite a seating capacity of 450 and wait staff who move at lightning speed, there’s always a crowd. Tables are communal, with cushioned floor seating and shared pots of kimchi. The regular menu fits comfortably on a small wooden plaque. The fame and crowds are definitely a part of the experience: people exchange pleasantries with each other at the tables, but the staff is too busy to chitchat with anyone (except, presumably, the heads of state that drop in for a meal).
The signature dish is samgyetang, a soup made from a whole chicken stuffed with rice, ginseng, dates, and chestnuts. The broth is mild but richer than it looks, especially after the rice stuffing is mixed in. Each serving comes in a hefty clay pot with a side dish of salt and pepper for dipping the chicken.
Aug 27
By Kathy Fidler
As you’ve probably noticed, it’s been raining A LOT lately, to the point where traipsing around unfamiliar parts of the city hunting for restaurants has become a temporarily unappealing prospect. My Korean acquaintances urged me to take the weather into account and sample the traditional rainy-day fare of pancakes and rice wine, so I recently took a trip over to Insadong to combine the experience with some shopping and gallery tours. It may not be the most adventurous way to spend a day off, but you can’t beat it for coziness, especially inside the fragrant wooden cocoon of Bori Koge Choo Euk restaurant.
Aug 02
By Kathy Fidler
On the northwestern edge of Seoul, about halfway to Ilsan on subway line three, there is a suburb called Goyang that is home to a wonderful little cluster of farms and specialty restaurants. There’s an herb farm, a mushroom farm, the tipsily entertaining Baedari Traditional Wine Museum and makgeolli brewery, and outdoor grill restaurants specializing in just about any kind of meat you can imagine. Up the road from all of these locations is a complex called Beantown, housing a bean farm, a coffee house, a shop selling an impressive variety of homemade soybean pastes (doenjang) and chili paste (gochujang), as well as the only live turkey I’ve ever seen in the Seoul metropolitan area. Front and center in this delightful complex is a restaurant serving foods produced on the farm.
Jul 25
by John Flynn
This isn’t to say that there aren’t great songs on this album. “I Wanna Rock,” “Vengeance is Mine” and “새벽2시(Two in the Morning)” just seem much more thought out than a lot of the other songs here. They allow singer Velvet Geena to stretch herself as singer and show some emotional depth in her voice. The songs themselves also offer a depth of songwriting that is lacking on more kitsch songs like “ZombieNight.” “새벽2시” creates a darker, more pained take on Rockabilly. The surf guitar, for once, takes a backseat and becomes more of a mood peace, giving the song a kind of paranoid 60s LA sound. The song shows the band stretching the parameters of their genre into brilliant new territory. Album closer “I Wanna Rock” is the shortest song on the album and has a visceral edge to it that is just lacking on the faster tracks presented. It’s a song that realizes the pastiche that this band trades in and just has fun.
Jul 19
by Jason Sander
On July 9, Canadian indie-giant Caribou came to V-hall to grace Seoul with a moment of live bliss—sans Aquanet. It’s safe to say that Dan Snaith, the creative genius behind the band, is not afraid to experiment and has proven with every album release that it is OK to change. Upon witnessing their recent performance, Snaith and the boys of Caribou proved beyond any cerebral stretch that dancey-pop on stage can be much more than an aging hipster simply turning his hat backwards and pressing “play.”
Jul 19
By Kathryn Fidler
If you’ve been watching Top Chef the last two or three seasons, you might be aware that American yuppies will suck down just about anything that’s grilled with an Asian sauce and wrapped in a romaine lettuce leaf. Here in Seoul, however, we can afford to be a bit more discerning about our barbecue. In fact, the new resident or visitor is often faced with the enviable problem of too many restaurants to choose from, with very little English-language guidance on the subject. It can be daunting to stare down a street full of establishments with nearly identical menus and try to select one, even more so when faced with a language barrier and/or dietary restrictions.
Jun 02
By Mizaru and Stuart Wainstock
May 31
By J. Lee
Since 9/11, the so-called “Niebuhrmania” has generated fierce disputes among those who claim Niebuhr as their mentor to the point where Paul Elie laments that “a well-turned Niebuhr reference is [their] equivalent of a photo op with Bono (the lead singer of the Irish band, U2).” To many who claim Niebuhr as their intellectual “precursor,” the late sage was a “prophet” who would concur passively with their preconceived weltanschauung without objections. However, Andrew Bacevich challenges such distorted notion when he defines the traits of a “prophet” as “requir[ing] persistence, tough-mindedness, and a commitment to principle… [for t]he prophet tells people not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. He (or she) does not pander or spin or sugarcoat.”
Apr 06
By Mizaru
First off, Roofers in central Seoul’s foreigner borough of Itaewon is a very accommodating place for anyone. It’s a substantial space with a mixed décor of a black and white checkerboard floor and 10-foot ceilings. The small wooden shoe-shine red colored square bar and open window kitchen are fundamentally set up out of the way of the main floor and it all combines to give the place the hip look of a Chicago supper club of the 1940’s.
Mar 29
By J. Lee
Many keen observers today note as the prospect of an expanded war in Afghanistan looms that the United States has yet to “kick the Vietnam Syndrome.” If anything, the recent developments to shift the warfront from Iraq to al-Qaida’s alleged home turf in Afghanistan have led many media commentators and academics to draw what they deem to be “striking” parallels between the present War on Terror and the first war the United States had ever lost on foreign soil. For this reason, an attempt to discern the parallels between the present quagmire and those of Vietnam should be made through a careful reading of Stanley Karnow’s book, Vietnam: A History, to derive appropriate lessons.
Mar 29
By Scoop McDougal 
Yes, it has been another big week of news here on the peninsula and so, in this first of an ongoing series of more or less depthless articles, I, dear readers, am here to disseminate and illuminate on all the crap that’s apparently fit to print.
For those uninitiated to the masterpieces of journalistic genius that comprise the South Korean print media, a stroll through the daily newspaper may at first be somewhat daunting, so feel free to grab an English edition and walk through it with me.
Recent Comments