Some things I did over the last four weeks

It has been almost exactly a month since my last update. I've been quite busy with various things and honestly, a bit lazy about updating my blog. One reason is that I've started using a Korean mobile phone app that works similar to Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram called Kakao Story. Since it is so much quicker to just take a photo with my phone, write a sentence or two, and post it with almost instantaneous feedback from my followers, it has admittedly given more gratification. One of the main reasons for this blog is for me to record my life, and jot down some of my thoughts about stuff - I have a bad memory and therefore I use this blog as a type of journal. I also started this blog as a way to keep my friends and families updated with my life, but I have found that they are fare more likely to follow me on other SNSs than come visit me at my blog.

Well, these other apps are achieving these goals much better and consumes less time. What I like about the blog though is that it gives me the room to write my thoughts out better. The problem is, however, that these days I'm so busy that I don't have much time to do much writing. I guess I'll have to rethink the value of my blog versus the other SNSs that I use. It would be great if I can update all of the SNSs at the same time, rather than having to update them individually, which is clearly not working well.

In any case, here is a selection of things I did these last couple of weeks.

In the middle of September I went to see the Broadway musical American Idiot based on Green Day's album by the same name. It was awesome.

I usually buy shoes whenever I go to South Africa because it is difficult to find shoes that fit me here in Korea, but since I have not been able to visit South Africa in a while I have not been able to buy any new shoes and I've been in serious need of some new shoes for work. Then the other day a new E-Mart opened very close to my house and there is a small shoe outlet with American stock. It was fantastic. I bought four pairs. I'm yet to wear the red shoes though. Obviously they were not bought for work purposes.

Over Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) my employer gave me a box of vegetarian meets. Speaking of my employer -- the last weekend in September the freshmen students had to go on a camp and us lecturers had to join them for a few hours -- about an hour and a half trip one way.

The South African Embassy in Korea initiated a new association for students studying in Korea. At the end of September the new South African Students in Korea (SASKOR) was founded, and I was chosen as chairperson. If you know of any South Africans studying in Korea, or if you know of anybody wanting to come and study in Korea, please get them in touch with me.  I'm standing next to the ambassador in the photo above.

The embassy also put the new leadership for SASKOR up in a hotel for one night during our conference. I had a very pleasant evening.

I won a one month membership to a private lounge (Roni Project) in Gangnam in Seoul, allowing me unlimited free drinks. I've been spending many hours there recently, working in various projects.

One of the main things I've been working on has been the page layout for the second edition of the South African literature and arts magazine Guillotine. The magazine is sold at Protea bookshops in South Africa. The launch for the second edition happened last week Friday in Hatfield, Pretoria. This edition of Guillotine focused on the city Pretoria, featuring articles on architecture, art, poets and writers that are connected with the capital city.

As always, I'm still constantly busy with martial arts training. The photo above shows some recent bruises from Taekwon-Do sparring. I also hosted and organised some martial arts workshops for my group The Seoul Martial Arts Circle. In September we had a Basic Grappling Self-Defence session that I taught, a Kicking and Counter-Kicking workshop taught by my friend Leo Snel and an Introduction to Dahn Mudo workshop. This coming Sunday I will teach a Basic Martial Arts Principles workshop. Speaking of martial arts, have I mentioned somewhere that I got my 3rd Dan in Hapkido?

I recently went to see a production of The Tempest by the Chekhov International Theatre Festival which is a Russian theatre company directed by Declan Donnellan. Even thought the production is in Russian and French, I still thought it was brilliant. Of course, it helps being an English Literature lecturer who is familiar with many Shakespeare plays. You can see a YouTube trailer of the production here.

Last weekend (or was it the weekend before last?) I went to the annual Seoul International Fireworks Festival at which time Korea and three other guest countries put on a fireworks display like nothing you have seen before. I try to go to it every year, but I missed it last year. Of course it is tremendously popular. The photo above shows thousands of people waiting at the subway station, trying to get onto the train to get closer to the Han River where the fireworks festival is held. I'm thinking of next year either renting a boat or hiking to a nearby mountain.

Well, these are some of the things I did recently. They are all I can remember because I took pictures of them. Of course there are more . . . I hanged out with friends, ate good food, found a new chocolate place (see the photo), did exercise, worked, studied (PhD still going strong), and did the regular household chores that I dislike doing such as laundry, dishes, and the like. During August and September I watched all three seasons of the funny show Bored to Death. I also finished watching the sci-fi series Farscape. I just watched the last episode (a movie) today. The first season started of very slow, but once it gained momentum it was great fun. Now I'm watching the second season of the brilliant show The Newsroom and after that I plan to start watching a Korean series, probably Iris 2.

Today I gave an exam in my Creative Writing class and tomorrow I'll give a poetry writing workshop in the same class.

Oh, and I caught a cold.

Theme Songs

Below is "Don't Do Sadness" from the Spring Awakening musical -- my favourite.



I don't know if you are anything like me, in that you have "theme songs" that typify certain periods of your life, certain sections of a year, certain mental and / or emotional states. I do. Certain songs become stuck with me and I will listen to them over and over again as they somehow capture my emotional gestalt at a given moment.

At the moment, I feel that "Don't Do Sadness" (what an awesome song!) is lining itself up as my next theme song. My subconscious is predicting sadness (I might talk about it in a future post), and so it is gearing me up to get into the right frame of mind, one that do not do sadness.

Spring Awakening

A theatre production I really wish I could see is the rock musical Spring Awakening, which had won numerous Tony Awards, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album (2008). Actually, this is not the first time for me to write about my wish to see it.

I have the soundtrack and have even watched the bootleg video on YouTube. While such an illegal copy on YouTube is supposedly taking revenue away, according to the Media Industry, it has caused in me quite the opposite reaction -- I want to see the actual performance even more now.

There used to be a Korean version of the musical, but I missed it. It was reworked into Korean in any case so that I would not have understood it even if I saw it. Still, I'm regretting it a little that I never did go to see it. But who knows, maybe they will one day come by on tour. I did after all get to see Rent when they came to Korea.

The song below from Spring Awakening is one of the most beautiful and brutally honest love songs I have ever heard.



Another big Broadway production of which a Korean version is currently running in Seoul is Wicked. I'm considering seeing it.

Cirque du Soleil -- Varekai

Source

On Sunday night I went to see Cirque du Soleil currently in Seoul. What a magical experience the Cirque du Soleil performances are. The whole set-up is so surreal that one is quickly spirited away into an other-wordly experience. It's not only about people doing "acrobatic tricks", it is everything: the costumes, the lighting, the music, the décor, the fantasy inspired plot. It's a grand theatrical extravaganza that is dificult to explain if you haven't seen it. This was the second time for me to see a Cirque du Soleil performance. The previous time was in 2007.

If you have never experienced circus at its best, I highly recommend putting a Cirque du Soleil performance on your bucket list. 

South Africa So Far

I arrived in South Africa on Tuesday morning. Not mutch occupied my time on the first day. I went shopping (bought some food to contribute to my host -- my brother) and got some credit for my cellphone card here in South Africa. I planned to go to the Taekwon-Do club in town but it turns out that it is still closed. Classes only resume next week, after the long holiday season.

On Wednesday I also stayed at home -- jet-lag getting the better of me.

Yesterday (Thursday) was much better. I worked a couple of hours on preparing for one of the classes I'm teaching this coming semester and basically finished the syllabus. I still have another module or two to prepare for.

Last night we (two of my brothers and I) went to watch the Afrikaans musical Liefling currently doing the South Africa cinema circuit. "Liefling" is not on my list of favourite films. I'm appreciative of the concept. They used many Afrikaans folk songs and weaved it all into an ellaborate romance. Unfortunately it all felt a bit forced. The characters were also by and large pretty shallow, even for a musical. Bobby van Jaarsveld, the Afrikaans pop-star, is the leading actor. Surprisingly, he was quite efficient, but even his performance could not save the movie. Again, its been decades since the last South African musical film, so things can only get better from here on.

Today was much busier. I went to the bank to get some stuff done, had to buy some clothes for tomorrow (I brought very little clothing with me), quickly visited with a friend, went to a cellphone shop to find out about using my Galaxy Tab in South Africa, was send to a service centre, went to an Internet shop, went back to the cell phone service centre, and am sitting now in a coffee shop waiting for my lift back to my brother's home. There, I will have to try and fix his computer. A virus caused havoc on it, so I was forced to format it last night and install a new Windows platform. The bad thing is that my brother does not have the install discs and drivers for his computer. I'm not quite sure how to remedy the situation.

Tomorrow I'm off to Potchefstroom for the weekend and then back to my brother's for a day or two before I start my journey northward -- final destination Tzaneen.

I'm thankful that I can actually use my phone now to access the Internet which will dramatically improve my stay in South Africa if I don't have to plan frequent visits to Internet cafes. The uncertain thing is how much it will cost. South African cellphone and Internet services are still ridiculously expensive.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Hallelujah!

I wish I was there.



Better yet, I wish I was part of this.

Cinderella on Ice

For my last evening in the Cape I went with my brother and two of his college buddies to see the ice-skating extravaganza, Cinderella on Ice. This was one of the most visually pleasing performances I’ve seen in a very long time. The décor was superbly used, and incorporated into the performance were a variety of surprising effects, like blasts of fire on stage, lighted décor (the pumpkin carriage lighted with hundreds of LEDs), and even rain. Yes, actually dripping water falling on stage. Although I’ve seen some better displays of lighting techniques in other stage performances, it was still very effectively used as part of the story telling.

The ice-skaters – all Russian – were very skilled, with convincing performances. This is unlike a Russian ballet performances I attended two years back, of which I was terribly disappointed. Cinderella on Ice has rekindled my faith in Russian performances.

If you are in South Africa, the R150 a seat is well worth it.

And in recent history...

So many things had happened over the last couple of weeks, yet I just haven’t had the time to record them here. For instance, I went to see the musical Rent – which was excellent. I went to Hoengseong 횡성 (were, apparently, one can taste the best beef in the whole world) and visited a traditional market and took photos of rice paddies. I attended a three hour Brazilian Jiujutsu workout in Apgujeong 압구정. I accompanied a friend to hospital who came down with serious abdominal spasms. I met some friends and had lots of good quality ice-cream. I’ve seen a number of good movies and read a couple classics (Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies), not to mention some good poetry. All of this in between work-work-work.

Some Theatrics

Image from Daily Mail Online.

The third year students in my department put on a play. There were two performances, one last night and one tonight. I went to see tonight’s showing. “Ile” by Eugene O’Neill was the 35th play performed by the university’s English Department. Other past plays included a number of Shakespeare plays, of course; as well as some other famous plays, such as Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus”.

“Ile”, which is colloquial for “oil”, referring to whale blubber, is a one act play about a stubborn captain that refuses to turn his ship back until he has filled his quota of “oil”. They have been out to sea for over two years and the crew is on the verge of mutiny. Also on the ship is the skipper’s wife who was adamant to come along with her husband, but is slowly going insane from the "prison" of the Arctic Ocean.

In all, the play was quite well performed and the students clearly spent a lot of time and energy preparing for it. (Many of them have been skipping my classes, to my chagrin!) While their English pronunciation wasn’t too bad, they did, however, struggle with natural intonation, stressing some words and leaving others unstressed at peculiar place, which sounded a bit odd to the native ear. Otherwise, mostly well acted.

Image from New Yorkology.

Speaking of plays, there is a play that I’ve been wanting to see, but unfortunately the rendition currently performed in Korea is not in English. “Spring Awakening” is a 2006 (rock) musical that won eight Tony Awards. It is based on the controversial 1891 play of the same title by Frank Wedekind. The play is set in the late 1800s and is about teenagers’ “awakening” to their sexuality and touches on such taboos as suicide, abortion and masturbation.

After some detective work I was able to find an on-line version of it. After watching it on my computer I’m now even keener to see it live, but I’m still not sure if I want to see it performed in Korean.

A queer little serendipitous coincidence is that the original "Spring Awakening" musical is currently playing at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York. Yip, the same Eugene O'Neill that wrote "Ile", the play I watched tonight. As I mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I often experience such synchronicity in my life (or maybe I'm just good at seeing peculiar links between things -- a type of unintended lateral thinking).

The YouTube-video below is of a short performance at the 2007 Tony Awards.

Movie Review: Across the Universe

Has it ever happened to you that certain things just keep crossing your path, as if the universe is trying to tell you something?

Every so often I have this experience and had it again recently with the movie Across the Universe (2007). It started a while back already and many of the serendipitous events I cannot recall now. However, let me share a recent chain of events. A week ago I listened to Porcupine Tree's song, "Epidemic". This reminded me very much of Greenday's "Wake Me Up When September Ends". (I posted on this last week.) On YouTube I went to see Greenday's music video of "Wake Me Up When September Ends". The video tells the story of a young couple in love. The video takes a serious turn when the young man enlists in the army, apparently to ensure their future, but to the frantic distress of his lover. Evan Rachel Wood, the girl in this video, also plays the leading actress in Across the Universe. Something similar happened so that I listened to Evan Rachel Wood's beautiful renditions of "It Won't Be Long" and "Blackbird" both songs from the soundtrack of the motion picture. Make sure to listen to Wood's "Blackbird"! It caused me to go searching for the soundtrack of Across the Universe and after listening to it for I week I decided that I better see this movie.

So I did last night. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a musical. And a beautiful one at that. The movie is set mostly in America during the tumultuous 1960's and tells the tale of love and war. Protests against America's engagement in the Vietnam War is a major motif in the film. By inference, the film can possibly be interpreted as protest against the current Iraqi War.

Similar to the Beatles music, the movie is uncluttered. The scenes are skillfully constructed with rich moods and always aesthetically pleasing compositions. The visual elements seem to have been put on the canvas with economic brush strokes. The interpretations of the Beatle songs are lovely to listen to. They keep the neat melodious feel of the originals, but new flavours are brought to the old songs. Also, the script is well constructed.

In the study of Creative Writing it is often better for the writer to say less, to leave some gaps in the plot. This is contrary to what one would expect, for isn't the mark of a good writer his or her ability to describe in detail? Actually, too much detail can in fact hinder the engagement of the reader to the text. If everything is said, then the reader has nothing to imagine. It is therefore sometimes better to leave certain things unsaid, so that the reader's brain can fill the missing links and so be more actively involved in the text. The script to Across the Universe does this. Subtle plot pieces are strategically left out, keeping the viewer engaged, often relying on the lyrics to give hints towards the missing pieces. Since the plot flows mostly chronologically the viewer is never lost that filling-the-gaps happens subconsciously, so that the viewer hardly notices the jumps in the narrative.

The transition into the surrealist landscape of the musical is also a progressive one, so that the viewer is slowly taken up into the musical fantasy world – so gradual is the transition that one nearly forgets towards the end of the movie that such things cannot happen in real life.

Although over two hours in length, Across the Universe is the type of musical one can watch over and over again. It watches like a music video, weaved together with a thin thread of blood and love. It is a beautiful story and afterward I felt a warm glow as if I heard the gospel again. While Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly ends with a quasi-sermon on "God is Love", Across the Universe never preaches, but I heard the message: "Love is God".

The movie also brags with an ensemble of cameos, such as Bono and Salma Hayek.



A little more on Evan Rachel Wood: She had a relationship with Marylin Manson and inspired the song "Heart-Shaped Glasses" [Listen here or download here] on his Eat Me, Drink Me-album. She has a black belt in Taekwon-Do (which is probably why I like her so much!). She signed a deal with a record label for her debut album which I look forward to listen to.

Evil Dead: The Musical

Last night I went to see Evil Dead: The Musical. Now if you grew up submerged in pop culture like I have (my mom owned a video store, after all), you’d be very much aware of the cult film phenomenon. What makes a cult film a cult film, is not always the great story, the special effects, the immaculate cinematography or superb acting. Sometimes it is exactly the inverse of these elements. Sometimes, it is the “badness” of a film that makes it great. Evil Dead (1983), written and directed by Sam Raimi (the guy that brought us the recent Spider-Man movies), is such a film.



Five teenagers journey into the woods to a cabin where they accidently unleash demonic forces and one by one turn into zombies. One of the five, Ash, is the last man standing and has to battle through the night to survive. In the process he saws of his possessed hand and replaces the hand with a chainsaw. Evil Dead is pure popcorn violence with lots of blood and gore, but I doubt people ever find it scary. It is too over the top to be taken seriously. And that is probably the fun. Once you see the movie you will realise how influential this film has been to pop culture. The amount of references made in other movies and in pop culture to Evil Dead is amazing.

So when I heard that Evil Dead: The Musical is playing in Seoul, I just had to see it.

The musical is a remake of the original Canadian musical. Of course the Korean version is all Korean, but having had seen the movie (probably more than once), the plot was easy to follow. It is a fun musical with lots of singing and dancing (and some references to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” [YouTube-video]), silliness, and fake blood splattering over the front rows. The audience is made up of mostly women, shrieking and cheering.

Evil Dead: The Musical is not everybody’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed it. Will I go see it again? Probably not. I’d rather go see the very fun Jump! [short video clip], the talented break dancers of The Ballerina that Fell in Love with a B-Boy [video clip] or rock-musical Line 1 again. Another Korean musical which I’d still like to see is the percussion play, Tokebi Storm. If I can afford it I plan to go see Cirque du Soleil currently performing in Seoul.