Saturday 31 May 2014

HeartSong's "A Might Fortress Is Our God"

Three years ago I mentioned that one of my favourite hymns are Martin Luther's "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott". This has not changed, and with every new rendition of the song I appreciate it afresh. The best modern version I've heard recently is undoubtedly the one by the CCM band HeartSong.


Friday 23 May 2014

Kwaai

Na 'n lang week is dit tyd om bietjie uitlating te gee aan kwaaigevoelens deur aggressiewe, melankoliese dinge vanuit verskeie oorde.

Heidevolk met mitiese-metaal uit Gelderland:



 
Die Antwoord se nuwe snit, "Pitbull Terrier" se musiekvideo is frieken friekie!




Uit Japan, Miyavi:




Kwaai K.O.B.U.S. sing oor hongerte:




En ten laaste, 'n Charles Bukowski gedig:


Monday 5 May 2014

Some Things I Did in April

April... flower season in Korea:















I hosted a knife fighting seminar, presented by Thomas Locke.


I attended a traditional Korean music concert, which was very good.


I also went to a Korean musical, Seopyeonje, about pansori (Korean folk opera) with one of my Korean brothers:



I had my 5th degree black belt promotional testing with Grandmaster Park Jong Su, one of the pioneers of Taekwon-Do, and one of only a handful of people still alive from the time that Taekwon-Do just started in the 1950s.



Also spent some time with other great martial artists. 

Work-wise I prepared four exam papers for midterm -- still busy grading them. Taught William Blake and William Wordsworth in March and did Samuel Taylor Coleridge in April. Started with Lord (George) Byron in May -- next up is Percy Bysshe Shelley. Covered a number of essays, short stories and one-act plays by great writers, including George Orwell, H. G. Wells, and Pound. Also in April we covered West Side Story and Shakespeare in Love in my film class.

Study-wise I've prepared a presentation which I'll present next Monday on Guerrilla Marketing, and have been working on my dissertation outline, while reading some old books on the Samurai, interspersed with reading on Korean dance.

Oh, and I voted. Went to the embassy in Seoul to do so.



Had some interesting, if not cliched "it's complicated" love-life moments. (At least there has been some great kissing.)

Cannot say that my life is boring. Busy. Complicated. But not boring.