And this is why I won't be seeing MGMT

Its no question that I like my music.  One of the things I loved to do back home was check out some live music at a bar.  Once I came to Korea that part of my life dissipated.  I do try, however to search out local promoters to find music made in Korea, and while many places in Seoul and Busan boast great music, Daegu is a low-runner in that department. 
Local promoters such as Super Color Super and the guys behind Korea Gig Guide work hard to bring music acts to Korea like CocoRosie and Liars, but they also try to help support local Korean bands as well.  The issue with gaining exposure as an up and coming band when promoters are always looking to gain the extra buck with bigger acts is nothing new and it makes these local promoters essential.  In a city like Daegu where the live music scene is slim (but still there), I want nothing more than to keep these promoters' shows live and running.  Most recently, the Liars show caused great controversy resulting in the show being cancelled in both Seoul and Busan.
Straight from the Super Color Super website comes the following message:

Important news for everyone, a bit of death by commitee. KMRB, the Korea Media Rating Board, http://www.kmrb.or.kr/ contacted SuperColorSuper’s lead manager this afternoon that to put on the show will result in prison time and serious fines- in light of the show has been properly reviewed by this censorship board. The Liars’ were fully prepared to perform and did everything properly, this is no way reflects upon them. The blockade comes from down to us by way of government. Our co-promoter had heard a few days together that someone (not sure which) was set to interfere with our shows now since our grassroots/DIY work had been gathering support, and we had been researching everything we could to be locked and loaded. We didn’t expect this though. Unless there is a way found to make the process easier, this might mean some drastic changes in concerts in Korea.
We’ve gotten Media Rating Board approval for shows in the past when they were possible, but for most venues they are impossible to get because of zoning classicications- places that constantly run shows are not eligible venues for this board, as they are not licensed in the exact way. There are a handful of governement-acceptable place in Seoul, and they are nil in Busan, Daegu.
So why is this coming about now, in the midst of years of regular unapproved shows? When asking the board why they were only shutting down Liars’, they confirmed they knew of many other unlicensed shows happening the same night as Liars, but were only asking us to stop at the behest of a company who called them.

Now, what does this have to do with MGMT and why I won't be going?  Well, MGMT tickets are going for 99,000w (~$90) WITH no opening band.  This is ludicrous!  When MGMT played in Toronto tickets were $40.  I've also seen them play live at Lollapalooza 2010, and I wish I stayed for the entire set of Wolfmother instead.  As much as I would like to see music from back home in Korea, I wouldn't pay more than 60,000w to see them, and for a show with no opening act.  I also don't want to participate in feeding these bigger promoters for a show that won't last longer than an hour, which takes away from the integrity of the local promoters.  At least they try to support music in Korea, and I have the ability to hopefully see these bands come to Daegu. 

Just for the record, I have nothing against MGMT.  I think they're an amazing group and I do love their music.  This post is more of an awareness about the situation of what's going on with local music and my own personal protest.  If you were to give me a choice between only seeing International (to Korea) music in large venues and paying an arm and a leg, or see local music in small venues, hands down I would chose only seeing local music.  I just don't want this choice to be taken away from me at all.

Sites I use for music:
SUPER C۞L۞R SUPER
Korea Gig Guide
Daegu Pockets
Daegu Live (facebook group)
10 Magazine
HiExpat
Songkick

One more thing Korea is famous for something

And I'm referring to something other than the North and South Korean tensions (which is pretty much the only thing the Western world knows and reports on about Korea).

As we wake up and go to school we are faced with a challenge.  How on earth do we pass 8 hours where sometimes there isn't any work to do if we finish lesson planning and prepping for tomorrow's classes?  You can tell the slow days when everyone comments and posts stuff up on Facebook, others have promised themselves that they will try to learn Korean or start reading rather than live the mundane life of waiting for new Facebook posts or watching/catching up on tv shows.  Whatever people have chosen to make this deskwarming season more entertaining, I enjoy reading the links and posts people have found on the internet.  You know its interesting if it starts getting recycled through each person's page. 

Today's news story was Global Alcohol Consumption: Drinking Habits.
Apparently, from 2005, the World Health Organization reported that with all the alcohol consumed in the world it was enough to give each person 6.1 litres of pure alcohol.  Now, I've become weary of studies (even if conducted by the WHO), but nevertheless, Korea seems to be equivalent to the world's leaders of alcohol consumption- Russia.  In fact, it seems that Korea sets the drinking level as the highest in Asia. 
I can't say I don't agree.  There's not a day that I walk home in the evening that I don't encounter at least five different groups of drunk Koreans (guys and girls), and Monday mornings are the most entertaining/revolting walks to school as I try to avoid the puke stains made the night/couple of hours ago.  I also can't say that us expatriats don't do anything to decrease these numbers as I have never been exposed to being able to buy alcohol in convenience stores open 24/7, nor have been able to buy alcohol (meaning soju being almost comparable to vodka) for only 2,000won (equivalent to less than $2). 

Drinking with my teachers and Principle always ends in a drunken state of chaos as everyone has drunk themselves to oblivion and made a fool of themselves (quite frankly, I can't understand why you'd chose to be the drunken mess in front of your superiors, but hey! This is the life here, and nobody's going to remember because everyone's blitzed!).  What I do like about the drinking lifestyle here is that it doesn't exclude women in the mix.  For sure, men drink far more than women, but its not uncommen to see drunk women stumbling the streets with not a care in the world.  I know that, back home in Toronto, you see drunk girls and you almost snicker to yourself as they make the fool of themselves (unless you are that drunk girl and then you have no care in the world, until you end up puking in an alley/car/yourself/your friends).  Maybe I don't see the casting down upon and the general bad looks from the elders/males in Korean society when women chose to drink themselves dry, but either way, below is the picture of the world's alcohol consumption.  Chose what you'd like to believe.

Yesterday's news story: K-Town
As well, I'm trying to figure out if this is a joke/spoof or real.  Much like Toronto decided to join in on the Jersey Shore success, apparently, the Asian-Americans want in as well.  The show's being called K-Town.  Although, not everybody is Korean, the show follows these young adults around LA's Korean Town to see all their sloppy and karoaking (noraebanging) madness.  Its humorous to me that the show's executive producer is model/actor Tyrese Gibson, although if he wants to incorporate the Blasian (I guess its too offensive to just say Black-Asian?), here's his venue.  However, the pilot's been shot but not picked up by any network.  But is it degrading to Asians?  Maybe, but we've seen the majority of America's youth depicted as shallow, ignorant and trampy as most MTV shows provide, so what makes Asians any different?  At least they're not being depicted as the stereotypical nerd, martial artist or piano superstar.  As one of the shows producer Mike Le says,

“A lot of stereotypes about Asians are good.  We’re smart, we play the violin or piano, we’re hard workers, great at math. Our cast is like that, too, except they’re also sexy, stylish, and have swagger. Those are things people don’t think of when they think of Asians in media. They think Asian guys are asexual, girls are docile, repressed"

As a fellow Asian person (although people love to say that being Indian is not Asian, more Southeast Asian, to which I respond, "Its still in Asia right?"), I would love to see the media show Indians as more than just taxi drivers, nerds, convenience store owners, Bollywood stars and traditionalists.  It may be a step in the wrong direction, but when nobody wants to change the stereotypes, at least there's somebody trying something new- and that's when change happens and its always interesting to see where the fine line is between stereotype breaking and stereotype reinforcing.

The cast comprised of four girls and four guys, include similar characters to the Jersey Shore.  "The Situation"-like character is Peter Le (who also has an x-rated website), there's a club promoter instead of DJ Pauly D and the Snookie-esque character is Scarlet Chan.  The others are Young Lee, Jennifer Field, Joe Cha, Violet Kim, Steve Kim, and Jasmine Chang.  It appears that their choice of drink is Korean beer Hite, and soju, it'll be interesting to see how many other things they do that are traditionally Korean/Asian.

Funny that an American would chose to drink Hite

Cover Band Alert!

 Sometimes at work I sit in front of Youtube and find new music.  When you're only exposed to K Pop and pop/club songs, I sometimes yearn to find something new and original, and catch up on the music scene I left behind at home.

I was sitting in a waffle cafe the other day and I hear this song that reminds me of a hard rock song I know, and as I strained to hear the song and maintaining my conversation with my friends that I hadn't seen since before I went on vacation, I realized I was indeed listening to a French remake of "This is not a Love Song" originally done by PIL (Public Image Ltd), but I knew it as the cover done by Kerbdog.  Upon doing some google-ing and some youtube-ing, I've realized I've fallen in love with these guys.
Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux round up this French music collective and very much like Michael Buble, they cover songs in their own unique way.  Their name comes from a play on words of French new wave and Brazilian bossa nova, and I fell in love with Bossa Nova when I learned about it a couple of years ago but haven't found anything that I really liked.

In this age of music that lacks creativity and is reduced to covering songs with no originality, Nouvelle Vague is like a breath of fresh air.  Their ability to strip songs back to their acoustic arrangements and gather singers from around the world make all their songs unique and their own.  They've covered everyone from The Clash to Blondie to The Dead Kennedys and their albums are loaded with famous musicians. 

And then, in line with Bob Marley's birthday, I came across Playing for Change.  I thought the concept was amazing- you gather musicians from around the world and have them collaborate to popular songs.   Their soul, passion, and uniqueness draws you in, and I always find things more mesmerizing to watch/listen when you add incorporate world music to the mix.
From the website www.playingforchange.com (because I couldn't say it better):

The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.

 The wonderful thing about this Not for Profit Organization is that they have opened up music schools in Africa and India, and in 2009 they released a documentary "Peace Through Music" as directors Mark Johnson and Jonathan Walls traveled and recorded clips of musicians from various places around the globe.  Yes, this is a major plug, but I only support causes that I believe really stand for something.

I've fallen in love with both these concepts.

Who knew eh?

That being a Canadian, living outside of Toronto that the first time I'd go snowboarding would be when I get to Korea?
Its actually sad that the only time I've been skiing was on a field trip back in Elementary school (some odd 15 years ago) and I've never really had the opportunity to go back- or just never chose to.  Well finally, I had the ability to go away to Muju Ski Resort on one of my few free weekends.  A little hesitant at first, I thought about skiing because I figured it would be the easier of the two.  However, at the last minute I changed my mind and bought the snowboard rental instead.

I was incredibly nervous, and thought to myself "how could it be that hard?"

Fun-filled ice activities!

From Daegu there are no buses that go straight to Muju.  Our trek started by taking a KTX to Daejeon, then a bus from there to Muju.  If you can find a cab, it'll set you back about 25,000w to drive you to the resort or you can wait for the shuttle bus.  Waiting for the bus we came across a frozen pond where a variety of ice activities awaited us.  You could skate, sled, tube down the small hills, ice bike, or kneel on this small wooden sled-like device and use ice picks to help you glide along.  The kids playing on the ice were incredibly friendly, talking any English they could and raced amongst us. 

Alas, the shuttle came around and we hopped on for the two hour bus ride.  You can rent virtually everything you need for skiing/snowboarding from the goggles to the boots.  However, I rented the equipment from the resort itself so I just got the jacket, pants, board and boots and started the evening run.  The slopes are open from 6:30am-2am with a two hour break from 4:30-6:30.  There are no waivers to sign and no liability to anyone but yourself if anything were to happen either. For the cheapest room in the area, you get a small room with no bed and do what the Koreans do- sleep on the ondol heated floor.  If you're smart, you bring a burner and cook your meat.  If you see garbage cans in the middle of the hallway, don't move them!  They catch the leaks from the ceilings.  Yet, it sure beats traveling for about 3 hours to get there and then suffer another 3 hours to go back, making sure you don't miss the last bus.

Now I am a klutz.  I've ruined both my ankles doing the most random things, my knees are not the strongest- I can't ride a bike without falling or running into something, so I was preparing for the worst.  I got up the hill and with no surprise, I could barely stand up without moving and falling back down again.  Now I know when you boarding anywhere else in the world and fall down, you'd move to the side if you want to take a breather or go slow, but of course, nothing in Korea is ever common sense.  There'd be rows of Koreans sitting in the middle of the slopes waiting (for what seemed like forever) to get back up again.  But I loved snowboarding at night.  It wasn't that cold, and after 10pm means not so many people, and there's something that I love about snow at night- it makes me happy.

Koreans= Super cute animal family!

I'll give credit to my dad for this, but I started watching what the other new snowboarders were doing and tried to keep at it and learn how to board.  After much, much, much time had passed I was finally able to stand on the board without falling on my poor, sore butt and could move very slowly down the slopes while facing the bottom (board parallel to the base).  Around 12:30am, I couldn't last anymore.  My knees were sore and I could barely sit on my butt.

...and then I'm down!

Finally up and at 'em

However, I went back at it again the next day and decided to go on the bigger hills.  Of course, longer hills equals faster speed which means harder, bigger, and tougher falls, and falls I did!  By the end of the first run,  my knees were raw and I was losing upper body strength trying to get myself up all the time.  My second run proved much better however, and I could actually make it about a good couple of minutes without falling!  Of course I have to go back before the season ends, but this time I need to give myself more time to recover. 

Teacher Shaun helping me guide my toes

Doing what I do best!

Oh-ri-ons-ah!

Yes, they are not known as the Samsung Orions (which belong to our baseball team, the Samsung Lions), we have a sports team where we can proudly show off our city name.  Unfortunately, our pro basketball team isn't much to proud of.  Now, I hail from Canada, a little outside of Toronto and I will gladly support the Toronto teams even though there isn't much to cheer for, so I was more than happy to cheer for the Orions, despite knowing that at the time they were ranked 9 out of the 10 Korean teams (currently 10 out of 10 in the Korean Basketball League- somehow I feel eerily at home with those stats!). 

Yes, you get balloons to fling around and get static clung to!

Now all the teams are allowed two foreigners and one Korean-American, probably so the Koreans get a chance at playing and teams don't import a whole foreign lineup.  Our superstars for the night were #2 Glen McGowan,  #9 Otis George, and the super fantastic #40 Lee Dong Jun (or Daniel Sandrin as he is known in the States (and by no coincidence, these three are the tallest on the team ranging from 200-206cm).

#9 Oh-tis-uh!

As we sat through the game and listened to all the chants- the most recognizable being "de-pens" (defense!), we started recognizing what they actually were.  The "Oh-ree-on-sah" chant made us giggle the most, but what I found the most intriguing was that the foreigners have their own chants.  The crowd chants "Oh-tis" whenever he has the ball whether he gets the ball in the net or not, and after I asked why Lee Dong Jun didn't have his own chant, I heard it play over the speakers.  #40 truly is a legend on the Orions, even though this is my assessment from just watching one game, he plays the entire game (except the last couple of minutes because they've already lost) and he is this super tall, long haired, lanky player (you really can't miss him).  Poor guy would beat himself up when he missed a shot, but who can blame him?  When you play the entire game, you're gonna get tired after a while.

#40 doing what he does best.  Did it go in?  I guess we'll never know.

However, while we watched the game and saw the point difference grow larger and larger, they don't stop short on entertainment value.  The cheerleaders aren't the best dancers, but with their constant costume changes, and the mascots giving out free stuff during any break time there was always something to keep your attention going.

Those cheerleaders in their cute outfits and the mascots

Would I go again?  Of course I would!  I would never miss an opportunity to cheer for my city's team whether they are winning or not, and for only 9,000w, how can you go wrong?  Unfortunately, the season is done and I'll just have to wait to run into Daniel Sandrin again somewhere downtown.
How do you get there?  Either you can take a bus (706) and get off around the Kyungpook University area and then take a cab to Daegu gymnasium, or just take a cab from downtown. 

I actually can't wait to check out the baseball games when the season starts back up.  Until then, I'm going to have to watch the indoor volleyball games to get my fix!

Baby, Its Cold Outside

Its freezing in Daegu.  I'm not talking about from my Canadian perspective, but to fellow Daegu-ers, it is cold in this city.  Everyone tells me that this winter was the first time they have seen snow, and this is the coldest its been- ever.  I'm not sure how true this is, but I do know this, according to the Chosunilbo,  

"Seoul's morning low was -17.8 degrees, the coldest since 2001. Other areas also experienced their lowest temperatures this winter with -24.3 degrees in Cheorwon in Gangwon Province, -23 in Munsan, Gyeonggi Province, -16.1 degrees in Daejeon, -13.1 in Daegu, and -11.7 in Gwangju.

  

Experts attribute the record chill to climate change, which is pushing cold air masses from the North Pole through to the southern parts of the Korean Peninsula.  The North Pole has recently seen the mercury soar 10-15 degrees from an average -35 degrees in previous years, resulting in a decreased gap between temperatures in the North Pole and middle latitude areas. That in turn has pushed southward the Jet Stream, a fast upper wind current generally flowing from west to east and often preventing cold air masses from moving south."

This cold weather has made me stay indoors a lot.  As I sit on my floor heated by my Ondol heating system, I've become addicted to watching Korean TV and music videos.  My new K-Pop fascination lies with GD&Top.  G-Dragon and T.O.P. are from the humongously popular Big Bang boy band.  As I was sitting on my floor watching this music video, I realized that I am in love with T.O.P (the blond guy).

Another thing that I love watching is anything with Kang Ho Dong.  It seems that he's in some sort of variety show (and Koreans LOVE their variety shows) every hour, and I could watch all of them.  1 Night 2 Days, is my favourite at this point.  Its 6 guys that go somewhere for 1 night and 2 days and participate in crazy events.  Kang Ho Dong is wearing the green New York Yankees hat.  Ohhh 진짜!

In my ways of seeing what Daegu has to offer, a couple of friends and I visited the convention centre EXCO for their Trick Art show exhibit.  Its amazing what 10,000w can get you here!  This show was simply amazing.  It was loads of fun and you can easily spend three or more hours taking wild and wacky pictures.  I would go again and I would tell anyone else to go if they could.  Lasting until February 22nd, 2011, this is one of the many reasons I find myself falling in love with Korea.




Another way to stay warm during Winter- book a trip to the Philippines!  I'll be on my way in about a week and hopefully see if I can catch the tail end of Lunar New Year in Seoul when we get back!
As all Koreans tell me- be safe and stay warm so you don't catch a cold!

A Comedy of Errors

So, school officially gets out for the kids on December 24.  I have officially started my desk warming life in Korea.
However, for Christmas weekend we headed off to Namwon and rented a log cabin.  I have been fortunate thus far to know some good cooks, but I wasn't anticipating the feast that I was to consume!
Curry and homemade naan with mulled wine and rice krispies squares for dinner one night.  Eggs, sausage, bacon, hashed potatoes for breakfast, and 3 chickens, pork, mashed potatoes, gravy, grilled vegetables and stuffing for Christmas dinner.
Cabins as far as I know are always full of things to do outdoors, but being out in the boonies it was spent with Christmas sweaters, bb guns, Wii and mafia games, with a whole bunch of Canadians!

Then we were off to Thailand.  I can't say much because we really didn't spend that much time in Thailand.  Two days dedicated to busing up to Incheon airport and flying, then we spent two more days busing from Bangkok and Koh Chang.  So all in all, we had 2 full days in Thailand- one in each city.  What I plan more to do in this post is tell you what not to do.  That seemed to be our vacation.  And while our trip seemed like a disaster I wouldn't have wanted it to happen in a more beautiful place that is Thailand.

So.  Travel tip #1: Book your accommodation and transportation if you're traveling during the busy times ahead of time
This would seem logical.  But it was the last thing from our minds.  I managed to find some couchsurfers that could put us up.  The hardest part was finding a way from Bangkok to Koh Samui.  All flights were booked and every day we would find a new train that was booked to.  Luckily Bangkok has enough hostels.
We headed to the train station the day after we arrived to Bangkok and spent a good couple of hours finding out that there was no trains to virtually anywhere.  Then after talking to an agent we found out that what fit our itinerary and budget was a bus to Koh Chang.  A bus that we were told would only take 5 hours (including the ferry ride), which leads me to

Koh Wai Island

Travel tip #2:  Always add at least two extra hours to travel times.
We were told that if we got on a bus at 9am from Bangkok we'd arrive in Koh Chang off the ferry at 5pm.  However, we didn't get on the ferry until about 6pm and checked into our hotel at 7pm.  That pretty burned a whole evening for us.  The ride back was even worse.  We spent 6 hours on a bus with no air conditioning.  That was the worst part but getting on the bus is for

Travel tip #3: Nothing is ever organized properly.  Ever.
Most of the times with anything we did in Thailand I felt like we were like penned sheep following the herd.  Almost like the blind leading the blind.  There's no point asking anyone questions because they give you the runaround (like they're politicians or something), so you're just doing whatever any other foreigner is doing.  We were told when leaving Koh Chang to be on a ferry at 11, but our bus wasn't leaving until 12:30pm.  After hearing one thing from the front desk about taxis going to the port, we found out we had to hail our own taxi.  Let me explain these taxis a bit.  They're more like trucks where they try to pile as many people into the back as possible (and if possible they can stand on the back) with all the luggage thrown on top (with nothing restraining it down.  How the luggage stays there is beyond me), and they drive to different hotels seeing if people are there regardless if they or not.  This taxi ride ended up being about 20 minutes longer than expected.  When we got to the port, we ran to a travel agent to call the bus and tell them we might be late.  As soon as she finished we walked towards the ferry to find that they just started sail, so we had to jump on... literally.  So we get off the ferry and there's a bunch of us on that bus.  They take one load of people in a taxi and tell us to wait.  About 15 minutes later the taxi comes back and takes us to the drop off point, however, there's nobody there.  It seems the bus took off even though they knew there was another bunch of people coming.  We wait half an hour, get on the heatbox bus and begin our travels back to Bangkok.

Travel Tip #4: Know basic etiquette and survival language

Ahh!  Nothing like some tropical fruit!

This goes for any country you go to.  I find its the most amount of respect you can pay someone if you can at least say hello and thank you in the language of the country you are in.  You also don't seem like a dumb or ignorant traveler.  Having said that, I was just like this in Thailand.  I had no idea how to say hello or thank you for the entire time I was in Thailand.  It was just nice to actually speak in English to the natives that I took advantage of it.  Also, living in Korea, you don't tip when you go anywhere (great perk by the way!), but we had no idea the entire time we were there if you do tip or not in Thailand.  Also, the taxi's and tuk tuks in Thailand have a tendency to go off meter when they know they're driving tourists.  Its always good to know how much it costs to go from here to there, and remember you can haggle when buying anything, including taxi fares.  Getting off the bus from Koh Chang, a taxi driver told us it would cost 200baht each to drive us to our hostel, when in reality it only cost 50!

Dr. Fish- Thailand style!

With all of this, and the many other disasters that came upon us, this trip was still worth it.  Thailand is beautiful.  Full of culture, history and a million things to do, I'd definitely come back here time and time again.  We were warned about people taking advantage of us because we were female tourists but as long as you know what you're doing and don't believe everything you hear- you're fine.

Palaces, Buddha's, beach, bike rides, Kho San road, Dr. Fish, Thai massage, snorkelling, tourists from everywhere but North America- it was a great trip although short lived.  Hopefully the next time I go it won't be so crazy