vlog #9: walking down Cheonggyecheon

my dear lisa

it's been such a long time, friend! i've been trying to keep updated by blog-stalking you and i love and miss you with every random picture.

so, you are being public blog emailed, which means that i'm going to have this email up on my blog as well. i hope you don't mind. i don't think you will...

i'm in korea! it's been about a month now, and i really hate my job right now (something i know you can relate to)... but right now, i'm reminded of a quote you put on your blog: "I do positively HATE my job, but whatever I hate my job in NYC!" i hate my job, but whatever i hate my job in seoul! i never thought of it like that yet. i need lessons in joy.

i've been thinking about you every once in a while here. in seoul, there are so many cute, cute things. there are some things that i know you would just love - the stationary, for example, is adorable. i was going to take a picture for you, but instead, i'll just send it to you in the mail. but keep in mind, that it'll take me a while to send it, and then it'll be a few weeks. but it'll be worth the wait... maybe. all the clothes are very cute, and some of it is super cheap - like about five dollars for a shirt is very common. and then some of my friends raised the question whether it's christian to buy nice clothes and i brought you up as an example of someone who worships God through beautiful things.

anyway, the reason you are getting public blog emailed is because i went to this amazing part of town - Samchung-dong - and my cousin took me to this cute restaurant that i know you would have loved. check it out.



Basak means 'crunchy'! this is the inside:



napkin holder on the table was neat-oh with this cool picture behind it.



bathroom! isn't it cool!



but here's the clincher. here's why i KNOW you'd love love love it:


HAND-WRITTEN menus! it looks like someone's journals, with little stickers and pictures on it.

anyway, i miss you, lisa... oh wait, i just remember why i didn't mail you that postcard already. how much longer will you be in NYC? let me know where i should mail you.

love to you, lisa lisa!

esther

a new song

Okay, no vlog today, and perhaps, not this week. Instead, I'm sharing a new song.

Things to note:
1. Don't try and play guitar and record yourself when the camera is on the bed. It will shake.
2. I lose my words a couple times, but right now I don't really care. Maybe I'll redo it later. Maybe not. Whatever.

이블데드!

So I talked a bit about it in my vlog, but just in case you don't watch those, it was wonderful. I was wondering if they'd keep all the sexy jokes, because, in my point of view, Koreans just don't do that, but they were definitely there (as far as I can gather. It was in Korean, so I just went from what I remembered and their suggestive body language.). The audience was also all young girls, which is almost the opposite of what it is in Toronto. The friend I was with was saying that the connection might very well be because of the sexual jokes. She said that in her experience, it's the girls who like the sexual jokes, rather than in North America where the opposite is more likely to be true.

The dancing was incredible and the singing was amazing. They really played up the campiness to the max. In the Toronto version (which, don't get me wrong, I LOVED), I really didn't like "Housewares Employee," the ballad in the beginning of the show. But in this show, they took campiness to the highest level possible. There wasn't a single weak link.

The moose in this show was actually Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and at the end, they had these incredible encores. Now, I have a thing against planned encores, but the audience wanted it, and it was awesome. There was a beat-boxing, rapping, break-dancing encore, followed by each of the cast members singing a song from the show by another character (which must so cool, being an actor, and showing off this other side!)

It's cool to see Koreans play every role. In Canada, I sometimes feel so limited by what I can play, but it really can't be an issue here. Koreans come in all shapes and sizes, so it was nice for everyone to see past the initial issue of non-whiteness immediately. Not to say Koreans aren't racist.

I saw Macbeth last week, and I can sense a kind of physical theatre tradition. In the showing of Macbeth, it was past realism into true physical symbolism whenever possible, and it was wonderful. (When Macbeth was deciding to kill Duncan, he did it hanging from the ceiling upside down! And Lady M's hand-washing speech was her stomping in a bucket then using Macbeth to walk on the walls.) That kind of understanding of theatre, I believe, is what makes Evil Dead so good, and it probably works so well here.

Seeing Evil Dead has reminded me that I have to get my dance up, but there has been NO TIME! Gah! I found another place to go to, and it's closer to work. Koreans dance a lot, I guess. The dude at the place asked me whether I was learning so I could dance in the background of a music video. HA!

Yay! Regular written blog. Hope this doesn't bore you!

vlog #8: boring and unsmart

I hope this isn't boring. GAH!

vlog #7: guitars and singing

vlog #6: theatre fiasco

Okay, two things:
1. I was in the bathroom because my roommates were sleeping.
2. In this video, I'm talking about Evil Dead: The Musical, which, by the way, is now the longest running Canadian musical in Toronto history.
3. I'm really busy, but I'll try for one vlog a week.