Reppin' the Warriors!

Did not expect to see this - Checked into the Beewon Guest House in Seoul, snapped on the TV and the "teach English" channel was using Rick Barry (with an amusingly non-Rick Barry graphic) to teach language having to do with arcs and angles..

Laughed,

Then drank more!

Off To Seoul

Some Pics from yestiddy and then off to Seoul, Buddharama, and dinner with Ms. Shin.

Bang a Gong

Little Ninja

Bigger Ninjas

Books for the OAF to drool over

Then, of course, that Korean Tradition:

The Hula-Hoop Contest

Sparklers

Opening Salvo

kapow!

Broken Rock in the Hot Sun ( I Fought....)

After an exhausting 5-day work week it was the start of what may be three consecutive three day weekends.

Dinner with TSR last night - a curry of brilliant provenance and, happily, three bottles of wine between the two of us. Or sadly, when I remember how I felt when I woke up this morning. ;-)


But the trip to the festival was delayed until 1:30 (and then another hour because Adam's kid was cranky) and that helped. The festival lasted until just after 8 and it was hot.. probably near 90 and, as usual, the "field" was sand and dried spit. Still, some very nice cultural acts, an Indian lunch that wasn't within miles of what TSR had prepared the night before, and some very nice chat with Adam, who I rarely see except in passing. His wife drove us and she has perfect English, although she rarely spoke.



The festival ended with an awesome fireworks display. It was set off not 100 metres from us and it blew the sky open. The bonus thing? As I'm goggling like the idiot that you all know I am at the magnesium-based, steel backboned sparklers of my youth (you know, the ones that give third-degree burns on contact?) Adam says, "oh yeah, you can buy fireworks in any major store. Year round."

Now, Koreans may pile up in the thousands to hold candle-light vigils against US beef (Hey, genius, just don't eat it if you don't like it) at the same time that fans and taxi drivers freely take lives all across the country. And that would be a point against..



But, dude... fireworks.. all year. And, really, no crime worth mentioning (which comes up as a draw when measured against the fact that drugs aren't available). And the price of the food...



Korea.. not "sparkling" - and, that evil looking Ralph-Steadmanesque thing on the left is the new fucking OFFICIAL "mascot" (if by mascot you mean that thing that, after getting up from its position as recently sodomized beast is probably going to kill you) of Seoul - but pretty darned cool..



I mean really.. a fucking horned lion... drawn in random circles and inkblots.

Is there anything Korean Marketing can't fail?

When it Rains... unimportant people drown..

and now.. another possible job.. editing subtitles for translated DVDs and Movies...

Can I retire yet?

;-)

I have no idea why a coffee-machine in Korea would have football on it at all, much less Pac-10 football. My guess is that is one of the only leagues in the country in which you could snap a picture of a college football game and actually get three white faces in the thing.


On the other hand, the complete lack of fans that you see in the background suggest that this is an actual picture of that actual league. Stanford versus Oregon, unless I've lost my memory of the gang colors of the rich white colleges.


I saw this out of the corner of my eye and it drew me across the street so quickly I didn't even look for rogue taxicabs.


I was lucky.

Then there is the "Bucky Katt" wallpaper which features a vine growing completely through Bucky's skull. It gives me something to wake up to every morning, I'm telling you. I can't tell if the top bit of the bottom half is the part of Bucky's skull that was buried in the dirt, or if the evil (Korean no doubt!) vine has destroyed half of his noble orb.

Which is, if you think about it, far too much thinking about my wallpaper.

The editing thing for the pro-nuke folks went splendidly, now we'll see if they pay me (Ewha has still not paid me for work I did some months ago). It sounds like they will used me again, and I certainly hope so.

Since the plan here is to make money and then come buy all of America on the cheap (When Bush's ruinations have come to complete fruit, some couple of years from now), it seems as though all is going well.

So tell me about yourselves?

Lucky 13..

Got to the PC Bang and got #13 for the second consecutive time..

Thought I'd get luckY and see OAF online, but we missed...

so I checked email and some Korean Nuclear thingie has three letters they want me to work on...

Which surely is lucky news. ..


BUT DID NOT ATTACH THE FILES AND THEY ARE DUE AT NOON TOMORROW!

So here's some pics and I'm out.. They are all clickable (if Blogger works right) for slightly better versions..


COMING IN TO LAND


HOUSTON, WE HAVE LANDED

WALKING TO THE BUDDHA

HIM, UNIMPRESSED

THE CLASSIC TALE OF THE ANGRY FRIEND LEAVING ON A CLOUD

KEEPING THEIR COUNSEL

KIMCHI, KIMCHI, IT IS GOOD FOR YOU AND ME!

LEAVING

I HAVE CREATED NEW EVIL!!!!

And, man.. it feels goooooood.....

In the course of writing an abstract I came up with the idea (and word) of "exterrogated." This is based on the idiotic idea that there should be "interrogated theory." And yet no malign, evil, betrayer of language has come up with my word (says Google). Until just now in a Soju-frenzy.

I rule evil!

I should get some kind of award. Like and axe through the middle of my head. Or 72 virgins.

Or, get my goddamed paper accepted. There should be some credit given to someone who can come up with a fresh assault on the English language.

Really. I'm begging here.

I've sent the abstract (due on the 30th, but I just heard of it) to BKF for his sage council.

til then I can only appall you all with the first paragraph...

Kim Yong‐Ik, a Korean by birth, English writer by trade, and Korean by death,
attempted to exterrogate questions of empire, orientalization, and theory by
declaring autonomy from any definition. Kim was avowedly anti‐political,
extra‐theoretical, and purposefully resistant to placement. His writings
however, antithetically to his confessed approach, obsessively concerned
themselves with issues attendant to empire: oppression, the state of the
outsider to the state, disconnection, diaspora, and the dream of coming to a
“home” that was not contested; a home of ancestors and not imperials.

Man..I am evil...



The haters spoke on Husker Du... Johhny Marr rewlzz! Rekanize!

Report to the Empire: Part II

BICYCLE (disg)RACES!

Fire it Up and Enjoy the Garrulosity!

Today was the day I went with Bike‐on John (Who looks like HYS in a spooky way - he's from Brownsville as well!) to the reservoir. He had a spare bicycle and I had a delusion that I was still 40 (which might be the most depressing thing I have ever typed!). So where would the reservoir be? Up above town, and for two good reasons.

First, if it wasn’t no one would be worried about what would happen if the dam breaks.

Second, this makes it much harder to get to.


So it was “up the road.” But Korea, so proud of its “Four Distinct Seasons” is much more shut‐mouthed about its “Four Distinct Ups.” It is unlike Koreans to be shy about the wonders of Korea and so I wonder if this is their secret shame? In any case, for anyone contemplating coming to Korea to get ‘up’ to something, I have included this convenient directional graphic indicating the four kinds of Korea up.

Then, of course, there was the distance. It was about three miles straight up, and then another three miles straight up. This was only interrupted by short stretches that were decidedly more up. It is kind of hard to explain in language that the kind of people who read this blog (and I love all three of you!) would understand, so once again I have provided a nifty visual aid.

The trip was complicated, for me, by the fact that my rear tire was rubbing against the frame. I would have preferred to have figured this out earlier than halfway back to downtown, but still, it did come as something like a gift to figure out, and John and I flipped the bike and fixed it, which made the last few miles much easier. I also (I think) got some cool pics, the reservoir was absolutely gorgeous and it was bizarre to go not so very far and be in a completely rural setting. We also walked up a very steep road and saw the famous (by which I mean no one besides us was in sight) “Standing Buddha” of whereverthehell.

Bike‐on John was also garrulous. This seems to be a rule. Waeguks can’t get together and just shut the hell up, they need to unload every damn thing they can think of. It is also fair to say that John had a rather remarkable story to share.

Starting with the crash that nearly killed him and did kill his wife and his realization that life is pretty finite and you might as well do something you enjoy while you can. So, he left a job at CBS and came to Korea to teach. So far he’s been hit by one car and had a appendectomy without anesthetic. John waited too long, his appendix burst, and then just as they were strapping him down for surgery, he got asthmatic and pulled out his inhaler and took some hits – the doctors were worried about interactions between that and the ether and, since John was dying in front of them, just whacked the blade in and tried to make the operation as quick as possible. John says it was the worst pain he’d ever felt in his life, but then he went into shock and says that it was great.

So.. that’s uh.. a hell of a year in town. But it gets better..

Some of us remember a story about a Hagwon tragedy in which a van driver ran over and killed a young girl. A tragedy. So of course John works at that Hagwon. And, unreported in the English press here, this has turned into a brawl between the family of the deceased girl and the Hagwon. The family wanders in and threatens students, throws shit around, and hits (Korean) employees. This has gone on since the event. The family also started sabotaging various things and stalking employees. John stopped his stalking by filming it. The police seem unconcerned and it is pretty funny that the family did get a stern talking to, and one that had effect, from the Electricity Company! The family pulled some fuses in John’s building and the manager was around to see it. He called the local PG&E and they stepped in and stopped that.

No wonder the cops here are rather looked down on.

Anyway, John’s garrulosity was, I believe, merely cover for his plan to kill me. A plot that now seems to be taking slow motion effect. My legs are certainly dead, my butt hurts in a way that defies metaphor and suggests a recent prison stay, I managed to get a sunburn, and my head is fogged (though that may be the result of the bottle of medicinal Soju that I have since applied).

It may be another night spent stretched out defenselessly on the Ondol floor.

God help me if the ravenous Kimchi‐Weasels come out!

Friday Follies

Friday’s class is the lovely Japanese Studies kids who are always a hoot as well as the most academically serious of my classes. That’s always a good way to end the week. TSR and I kicked it in the office for a couple of hours and traded stories. He showed me a variety of pictures of his house and apartment buildings in the Philippines and also told me the story of how he met his wife. He was in Israel(!) and planning to go to Thailand. He thought she was Thai and stopped her on the street to see if she would give him lessons. She wasn’t, she was a Philippina nurse in Israel and so not much came of it. Til fate, FATE I tell you(!) caused them to bump into one another again and it eventually led to marriage.

His pictures also included the volcano behind their house and a boatload of relatives. These relatives includes Violetta, his 33 year old sister in law(?) who is looking for a husband. The upside is she is quite attractive and will make a good wife in the traditional Philippina way. The downside is she has three kids. The middle-side is that her kids are all old enough to stay in the Philippines. And, she’s willing to marry someone of up to 55 years of age. This sounds horrible (I can hear the “Pucaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiie!” from here), but it is also pretty much traditional – TSR showed me a cam-site for Philippine women and if they think you are an even moderately wealthy (and their standard is quite low) American you will be swarmed like a bee-hive.

Anyway, if any of you know a single man in the US who wants a pretty, quite, and dependable wife, boy TSR would like him to start an e-conversation. Considering all the losers independent thinkers I used to hang out with, I was boggled no names came to my mind. Surely there is some gnarled mountain-man up there in the high-hills?

Got home and the accumulated exercise of the week started to gang up on my old self. Turned on the ondol floor (damn the bills!) and just laid on my back, with the headphones on, for an hour. It’s the world’s best heating-pad. Got up and headed to the PC Bang, but no one was around online. Did a bit of research for the book review, then came home and read and wrote steadily for about 2 hours. It’s now up to about 1800 words and I can see I will have to hack great chunks away, since there are still 4 stories to discuss. Still, it is at a point that I can start on the little project that BKF and I will hammer out in the next couple of weeks, using “sayings” in language and cultural education.

Something based on similarities (What do the following proverbs say about risk?):

“A turtle travels only when it sticks its neck out”
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

And differences (which culture valorized farming and which valorized hunting?):

“Beating around the bush”
“Licking the outside of a watermelon

It should be a lark – and only over 750 words, so easy to bang out. Blah on about how it can be used as a writing prompt, how it can be used to make foreign cultures seem less intimidating and more familiar, and how it can be used to teach conversational FL.

Tomorrow I bicycle up to the reservoir to go fishing (tremendously shitty weather permitting).

That should be fun.