Five days off...and no concrete plans
Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving, has reared its delightful head and I have nothing planned. Initially, the mountains called but a delightful typhoon has rendered that slightly undo-able. As much as the thought of eating kimchi pancakes on a dangerously slick slope whilst Korean families in their entirety skip carelessly past appeals, I think I will give it a miss in favour of water parks and sleep catch up.
I saw Koop, a nu-jazz band consisting of two unconvincing cross dressers and a fantastic back up band on Saturday night at the very plush Sheraton Grande Walker Hill Hotel (farrrr too many words in that one) and they kicked ass. What didn't kick ass were the five Korean bands that proceeded them. I have never seen such terrible music before. Really. The first act consisted of a reedy female vocalist and a Korean rapper. It went progressively downhill from there but fortunately Koop didn't reflect the quality of their support acts.
Sunday brought the National Museum of Korea. Museums in Korea, like everywhere, are a mixed bag. The Seoul History Museum sounded promising, for example; however, it ended up being a museum based entirely around the history of Seoul. There are only so many papyrus-drawn civic maps that you can take in one afternoon. The Kimchi museum (which I haven't been fortunate enough to visit) is dedicated solely to the wonderous pickled vegetable that few Korean meals are complete without. Seodaemun Prison is so anti-Japanese that if you happened to walk through its gate with even a small manga book in your pocket, you might spontaneously combust. The National Museum of Korea, however, was spacious, absolutely huge, bedecked with a huge pagoda in the centre and there was a wealth of water droppers. I was there with my friend Alex and the American and we all puzzled over what exactly these could be for. Turns out that calligraphists required the specific measurements of water given out by said dropper to keep the consistency of their ink correct. I personally was envisaging torture techniques similar to those of the Chinese so the reality was somewhat more...pleasant.
I saw Koop, a nu-jazz band consisting of two unconvincing cross dressers and a fantastic back up band on Saturday night at the very plush Sheraton Grande Walker Hill Hotel (farrrr too many words in that one) and they kicked ass. What didn't kick ass were the five Korean bands that proceeded them. I have never seen such terrible music before. Really. The first act consisted of a reedy female vocalist and a Korean rapper. It went progressively downhill from there but fortunately Koop didn't reflect the quality of their support acts.
Sunday brought the National Museum of Korea. Museums in Korea, like everywhere, are a mixed bag. The Seoul History Museum sounded promising, for example; however, it ended up being a museum based entirely around the history of Seoul. There are only so many papyrus-drawn civic maps that you can take in one afternoon. The Kimchi museum (which I haven't been fortunate enough to visit) is dedicated solely to the wonderous pickled vegetable that few Korean meals are complete without. Seodaemun Prison is so anti-Japanese that if you happened to walk through its gate with even a small manga book in your pocket, you might spontaneously combust. The National Museum of Korea, however, was spacious, absolutely huge, bedecked with a huge pagoda in the centre and there was a wealth of water droppers. I was there with my friend Alex and the American and we all puzzled over what exactly these could be for. Turns out that calligraphists required the specific measurements of water given out by said dropper to keep the consistency of their ink correct. I personally was envisaging torture techniques similar to those of the Chinese so the reality was somewhat more...pleasant.
posted by Korrena at 3:32 AM
1 Comments:
Keep up the good work.
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