And, for a slightly less appalling look, I have a 25 minute video interview on KBS online:
Thursday, November 29, 2012
More of the transience of fame thingie..
For those who just can't get enough (of my double-chin!), here I am on the front of the Uni's web-site
And, for a slightly less appalling look, I have a 25 minute video interview on KBS online:
And, for a slightly less appalling look, I have a 25 minute video interview on KBS online:
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Monday, November 05, 2012
"He Ain't No Human Being!"
Exactly one week ago I was given my exciting honorary citizenship in this here town. Unfortunately the event was on my standard day off, so I didn't get to cancel any classes, but other than that it was a swell event.
My buddy the Czech Ambassador was there, so we swapped small talk and talked inspecifically about some kind of project in the future.
Then it was time to take the stage, where we all lined up, and the Mayor came by and awarded us in St. Valentines' Day Massacre style.
Sit down again and listen to some surprisingly good entertainment. Normally they just trot out the drums and gayageum, but this time they had a kind of fusion band that was really quite good and did songs I could see as quite useful for background music while studying or writing. Because I have yet to receive any of the promised photos of this event, you will have to settle for this picture of me bedecked in my finery.
The lunch was good, and then a very few of us took off on a tour of a hanok in Bukcheon, and the new City Hall and Library. Again, surprisingly good events and the planners of the whole day deserve a raise for not going for the safe and traditional stuff at most banquets.
Here we are at an inexplicable craft:
And then it was off to tea (the worst beverage on this side of a Masai toff). So I stared out the window at the awesome falliage (patent pending!):
Finally it was off to City Hall, which sports this killer 7-story greenery facade:
Also worth noting is that at the top of City Hall there is an awesome Cafe with some of the cheapest drinks in Seoul, normally about ₩2,000.
Two days after all this, the lovely folks at LTI Korea sent me this awesome orchid, which will now slowly begin to dehydrate to death under my uncertain care:
And, last but not least, on the Sunday Arirang radio-show it was time to celebrate with Adrien, and lay out my goodies (a proclamation, a rapstar medallion, and a card that gets me free entrance to any Seoul City facilities.
My buddy the Czech Ambassador was there, so we swapped small talk and talked inspecifically about some kind of project in the future.
Then it was time to take the stage, where we all lined up, and the Mayor came by and awarded us in St. Valentines' Day Massacre style.
Sit down again and listen to some surprisingly good entertainment. Normally they just trot out the drums and gayageum, but this time they had a kind of fusion band that was really quite good and did songs I could see as quite useful for background music while studying or writing. Because I have yet to receive any of the promised photos of this event, you will have to settle for this picture of me bedecked in my finery.
The lunch was good, and then a very few of us took off on a tour of a hanok in Bukcheon, and the new City Hall and Library. Again, surprisingly good events and the planners of the whole day deserve a raise for not going for the safe and traditional stuff at most banquets.
Here we are at an inexplicable craft:
And then it was off to tea (the worst beverage on this side of a Masai toff). So I stared out the window at the awesome falliage (patent pending!):
Finally it was off to City Hall, which sports this killer 7-story greenery facade:
Also worth noting is that at the top of City Hall there is an awesome Cafe with some of the cheapest drinks in Seoul, normally about ₩2,000.
Two days after all this, the lovely folks at LTI Korea sent me this awesome orchid, which will now slowly begin to dehydrate to death under my uncertain care:
And, last but not least, on the Sunday Arirang radio-show it was time to celebrate with Adrien, and lay out my goodies (a proclamation, a rapstar medallion, and a card that gets me free entrance to any Seoul City facilities.
Sunday, November 04, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
I'll get back with an account of the Honorary Citizen conferment when some pics come back from the PR folks at Seoul City...
I'll be on the Arirang (live!) Morning Show on Friday, unfortunately at 7am!
Until then, here is an inexplicable picture of me ranking high in some leaderboard or other ("Sulia" apparently a social media ranking website) that has to do with Korea..
I'll be on the Arirang (live!) Morning Show on Friday, unfortunately at 7am!
Until then, here is an inexplicable picture of me ranking high in some leaderboard or other ("Sulia" apparently a social media ranking website) that has to do with Korea..
Friday, October 26, 2012
Fridazed and Bemused
First, I suppose, a bit of good news. Had lunch with my Yonhap connection who informed me that when I return to the states, if it is not in a pine box, I can continue to write for them, so that would be a guarantee of some small money, depending on how many pieces they wanted a month. Somewhere between $500 and $1,000 probably, which wouldn't be a bad thing to add to some kind of salary. LOL.. they'll go out of business the day before I leave...
Then, chilling and listening to the Grantland Soccer Podcast (yes, it has come to that), I get a call from the city of Seoul. Oops! On Friday night they have decided that they need a picture of me for promotional purposes - for the press covering my honorary citizenship of Seoul.
There are very few pictures of me, because I am usually holding the camera, and cameras that aim at me usually have their lenses explode. What pictures do exist are up in my office, backed up on an external HD and on DVDs with Yvonne and my general pictures.
Yvonne, at the time, was out walking with a friend, so I attempted to take pictures of myself using the iPhone. It's an iPhone 4, which has an even shittier camera than the shitty camera on the new iPhones, so nothing good came of that, except this amusing pic, showing me hard at work trying to figure the phone out:
I look pixellated and furrowed.
Fortunately Yvonne got home and we were able to take a picture that isn't exactly flattering, but may work:
Alas, I am old and ruint, but the press must be fed!
With all that excitement behind me, it is back to the sports podcasts and an early bed.
LOL.. I am really old and ruint!
Then, chilling and listening to the Grantland Soccer Podcast (yes, it has come to that), I get a call from the city of Seoul. Oops! On Friday night they have decided that they need a picture of me for promotional purposes - for the press covering my honorary citizenship of Seoul.
There are very few pictures of me, because I am usually holding the camera, and cameras that aim at me usually have their lenses explode. What pictures do exist are up in my office, backed up on an external HD and on DVDs with Yvonne and my general pictures.
Yvonne, at the time, was out walking with a friend, so I attempted to take pictures of myself using the iPhone. It's an iPhone 4, which has an even shittier camera than the shitty camera on the new iPhones, so nothing good came of that, except this amusing pic, showing me hard at work trying to figure the phone out:
I look pixellated and furrowed.
Fortunately Yvonne got home and we were able to take a picture that isn't exactly flattering, but may work:
With all that excitement behind me, it is back to the sports podcasts and an early bed.
LOL.. I am really old and ruint!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
I am an Honorary Citizen of Seoul, and other Tom, Dick and Harry-foolery
 |
| "Trash, go pick it up, don't give your life away" |
Why would I come back to the Empire in Decline, again?^^
(PS - ask me again in 2 months when I'm freezing my ass of, when not slipping on it going down icy roads)
I suppose the big, breaking news is that I have been declared one of 2012's "Honorary Citizens of Seoul." This puts me up there with Guus Hiddink, Hines Ward Jr., and Jackie Chan, who are all previous recipients of the award. LOL.. Jackie farking Chan!
The only thing that scares me is that a little research reveals that just at this very moment, since the award was first given in 1958, there are 666 winners. Dang! I missed it by one.
I go to some kind of ceremony on the 29th, in which I will meet the mayor, get me a certificate, and score some kind of medal. If the medal is bitching I’m going to head to Itaewon and get a big, thick, gold chain and wear it like an Italian guy at a disco in the 70s or a rapper in the 80s. One only gets so many chances at this kind of thing, after all.
The other news, which makes me a broke-ass bitch, is that I had to go buy another laptop after what I euphemistically refer to as a "cleaning accident." While listening to sports podcasts from my laptop perched on a chair outside the bathroom, I placed the shower-head (water running) into the sink where it immediately performed a vigorous flip and sent a cascade of water directly out the bathroom door and onto the screen and keyboard of the old lapttop. *Sizzzzzzzzzle!*
Not a terrible thing as old one had a broken DVD drive already, iffy ethernet, and the trackpad would no longer allow dragging. Much of this the ongoing result of my abuse of the poor thing (like the time I interviewed Shin Kyoung-sook and just plain dropped it onto the road). I’m pledging to treat the new one a bit more respectfully, but just like declarations of new-found sobriety, or studying Korean an hour a day, this will only last for so long.^^
Oh well.. enough fritterization here. Although my homework is complete, I should probably review before class.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
LOL.. ESPN fellates Yankees even in loss..
Hard to tell what the score was in this game:
LOL... oh yeah... Yanks lose...
LOL... oh yeah... Yanks lose...
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Raising the (Hanok) Roof
Saturday and the weather is grand in Seoul. One of my “online-only” buddies is Robert Fouser, a man who has devoted considerable effort in an attempt to save the hanok, the Korean traditional house.
On FB he announced that he was having a “roof-beam” ceremony for his hanok, so we decided to go. Grabbed a cab and got near where the site is, and then wandered around trying to find it (curse you IOS 6 and your lack of a Google Maps app).
On the way over we saw a traditional Korean band in the middle of the street and I joked that it was probably on its way to the ceremony, but in fact it was already dancing. It took about 15 minutes to find the place (with the help of a friendly Korea), and lo-and-behold, the band was there!
We watched the ceremony… some speeches, close friends bowing three times before a pigs head and then stuffing money into its mouth. Once the pigs mouth was full, the beam was revealed to be on the front of the table (with some Chinese characters – hanja – written on it, definitely for good luck. I should note that the pig is also a sign of good luck). The roof-beam was tied with two white banners, and the MC and various important people stuffed these tied areas with the money from the pigs mouth, as well as money that other guests gave them. Then the beam was raised to the roof, placed, and hammered down.
After that, it was pork and makkoli all around (Yvonne had some of the pork, but I had already eaten a tuna kimbap. We both avoided the booze.^^). I talked briefly to Robert, and then we wandered away to a bookstore.
It was a cool ceremony, and I immortalized it on video, here:
Bookstore was cool also, but what you gonna say about a culpa and dropping 35 bucks on books?^^
On FB he announced that he was having a “roof-beam” ceremony for his hanok, so we decided to go. Grabbed a cab and got near where the site is, and then wandered around trying to find it (curse you IOS 6 and your lack of a Google Maps app).
On the way over we saw a traditional Korean band in the middle of the street and I joked that it was probably on its way to the ceremony, but in fact it was already dancing. It took about 15 minutes to find the place (with the help of a friendly Korea), and lo-and-behold, the band was there!
We watched the ceremony… some speeches, close friends bowing three times before a pigs head and then stuffing money into its mouth. Once the pigs mouth was full, the beam was revealed to be on the front of the table (with some Chinese characters – hanja – written on it, definitely for good luck. I should note that the pig is also a sign of good luck). The roof-beam was tied with two white banners, and the MC and various important people stuffed these tied areas with the money from the pigs mouth, as well as money that other guests gave them. Then the beam was raised to the roof, placed, and hammered down.
After that, it was pork and makkoli all around (Yvonne had some of the pork, but I had already eaten a tuna kimbap. We both avoided the booze.^^). I talked briefly to Robert, and then we wandered away to a bookstore.
It was a cool ceremony, and I immortalized it on video, here:
Bookstore was cool also, but what you gonna say about a culpa and dropping 35 bucks on books?^^
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