Iron Man

Of men and irony: my boss ushers me into an empty dark room without a word. This is yesterday afternoon. 'Here we go' I think. Right on cue he twists me round and mimics anal intercourse, fumbling for my crotch. Does it again in the office, armed with the aircon remote. 'I don't like boys' he mumbles after as precaution. Tries again in public as he waits for the bus, seeing me leaving work. Nutter.

Global Gathering '09

Prodigy - Girls

Somehow you can buy tix here for Global Gathering 09, a dance music event happening on September 19th by Han River, headlined by The Prodigy, Royksopp and MSTRKRFT.

banana & dumplings

Recently I posted about Korean solo artist Haihm and her curious remix work on the new release by K-starlets Brown Eyed Girls. Thanks to the excellent treekingdom, I found Vol. 1, her debut from 2008. I was expecting some harsh avant garde in the vein of her chopped up BEG rmx, but instead the album's half hazy lounge like the lone single above, and half subtle 2step sadness. These beaty tracks like April's Snow are definitely worth a listen - have a download here. Maybe Haihm's finding a more experimental direction for her next release judging by her '09 output - turns out she produced the wonderfully quirky picopop track I mentioned in my original post about the Brown Eyed Girls new CD, the must listen Strange Days. You'll heart it.


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You'll also enjoy this fantastic blog on art & film events in Korea, Art'n'about in Korea. I've been looking for a blog like this for a long time, fantastic. Discovering Korea is also worth a look.


August events:

The 24th Asian International Stamp Exhibition is on now at the COEX mall, ends August 4th.


Korean Indie Animation fest in Myong-Dong until August 8th (thanks to Gerly). I can't find any details in English alas.


There's also the 9th Seoul International NewMedia Festival, but again, no details in English.


And finally, why bananas and dumplings? Cos that was school lunch today, when I bumped into my hokey jokey new boss Mr Lee, who saw me come out the elevator and, without a word, tried reaching down into my underwear, to then bearhug me from behind like salsa when I pulled away, touching my poor chap and exhaling a saucy 'Oohf', sizzling burns from my trousered crotch.

I watched him go outside like nothing happened, my mind shedding yet another chunk of its sanity in his wake.

Shin Sang Cheol Hula Dance !!

More recent listening. and your mother won't leave you alone...


Capsule - You Are The Reason. Great track by synth dance duo Capsule. I got their CDs Flashback and More More More in Tokyo, really decent stuff with shades of The Knife, Tiga, Crystal Castles, even Kylie.




Lo Fi Fnk - Want U



Air France - June Evenings



Cassius - Almost Cut My Hair



Morning Mesume - Love Machine



After School - Dream Girl. K-pop cover of the J-pop classic above. Girls Aloud meets a bump of French house.



Jewelry S- I Like You More

The Host 2

News on a sequel to Korea's highest grossing movie, 괴물 The Host, courtesy of SciFi Japan. The original's good fun if you take away the awful American actors involved and the at times uneasy collision of comedy and tragedy amidst the schlocky monster mayhem. Cloverfield ripped off the creature's design as well.

Video-Videa-Videology

Found through Naver. This exhibit can be seen at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon. Thanks to my student Jake who helped me work that out, haha.

I finally visited the Dissonant Visions showcase at the Seoul Museum of Art in City Hall. There I saw Ji Yong Ho's sculptures made out of tire rubber, Bull 1 being especially grand.

Also happy I saw the Image of Youth photo showcase at the Ilmin Musuem of Art in Jongno. Really try to see these photos of Korea's adolescents at work and play. 2000 entry.

More art on Naver here

Zombies hit Seoul

Twitch at the PiFan festival reviews Korean flicks The Neighbor Zombie, A Good Night’s Sleep For The Bad and Private Eye.

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Following my last post on the Brown Eyed Girls' newbie Sound G, Indieful Rok reports on an interesting bonus remix CD by various Korean electro alumni of past hits. There's a nice drum n bass remix by Fraktal which comes at you like a rhythm made out of brown paper, very 90s, while DJ Cloud and Saint Binary serve up some cool house cuts. Really interesting is the 'rebuild' by Haihm of Second, a harsh track that cutsup the original through digital hardcore. And I just googled the name - Haihm's a girl! She's hot! Hot girls don't make such industrial nastiness. Wow


Born in Seoul, Korea, haihm played the piano from an early age and graduated from Seoul Arts Highschool. Shortly thereafter, she studied at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria in the Klavier-Konzertfach program. Thank you last.fm. Here are some of these rmxes anyway






Added to the blogroll

Kimchi Style

you stay there, you're fine


And with the zombies down South, this is what's happening up North. Well, Beijing actually

'Pyongyang Paradise’ in Beijing Casts North Korea in Soft Focus

The Pyongyang Art Studio

Abracadabra. Picopop

I think Brown Eyed Girls will own the second half of '09 with new mini album Sound G.




Abracadabra starts off an awful lot like that track Wa by Jun Jin 전진 I posted a while back.

This one, Strange Days, is very picopop.

And your mother won’t leave you alone. And your father won’t leave you alone.

In a minute things can change, at least until you get home...

It’s the middle of the night.
That’s my favorite part,
Keeps me under the gun...

Recent listening

Holy Ghost - I Will Come Back


The Juan Maclean - One Day



Wonder Girls - Headache

You're Born to Cry

Julia Hart - Prayer. The best of Korean indie. Just lovely

HA! smile AAA (i ♥ NY)

'Amity
Amity
Amity
Amity
Caught stars in her arms

Hello, hello kitty, happy in New York City...'

more of the same

found through Naver

도야지봉 :: 네이버 블로그

หมานคร mah nakorn

Double Bill is screening Thailand's answer to Amelie หมานคร Mah Nakorn aka Citizen Dog this Sunday 19th. It starts 17.00 at the Godard Cinema Bar in Hongdae, near the very hip bar Strange Fruit. You can catch Some Like It Hot after if you want!!


Yesterday I noticed the BBC has 3 fascinating reports on the land up north

North Koreans learn Southern ways

The meaning of N Korea's strange jibes

Spare rib diplomacy in Pyongyang

i'm a hustler baby

that's what my daddy made me.


Simian Mobile Disco are DJing @ Club Answer this July 25th in Gangnam. 40,000 for tickets.


Hustler



I Believe



I Got This Down



And why not post this, a song I actually didn't mind hearing every night out at uni



Justice v Simian - We Are Your Friends

Do It!

I'm Like A Bird. Yep, you can sing this in Korea's noraebang rooms, but what about Nelly Furtado's classic singles from Loose, one of the best modern pop albums to date? Did songs like Maneater, All Good Things and Promiscuous Girl flop that badly over here? I would love to sing this some day




If you like JT, I'm happy to say you can sing most Futuresexlovesounds in Korea, with exception of What Goes Around Comes Around, which I've always felt trumps Cry Me A River any day.

420ml

Photos from the 420ml graffiti exhibition at Platoon Kunsthalle.










More on 420ml - link

Uncle Tomato Melt Banana

Tokyo noiseniks Melt Banana are playing Hongdae @ Freebird, August 22. Link


Nine Inch Nails + Keane will be playing this year's ETP Festival on August 15th @ Jamsil Baseball Stadium. Keane and Nine Inch Nails? That's like Aqualung supporting Tool.

Fire

Uncle Tomato recommends

Tune les jours



Fire by 2NE1. They look much nicer here than they did in the Lollypop vid.

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Blogs les jours

Your Boyhood

SAME HAT! SAME HAT!

The latter is a 'weekly manga commentary featuring horror, gag & erotic-grotesque nonsense'. Talking of comics, why not see 'Manhwa - 100 Years of Korean Cartoon' at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon?

More classic art from Korea

Nervous Track - modern art at the Atelier Hermes in Sinsa-Dong. Ends August 9th.

An interesing new modern art collection has also started up at the Seoul Museum of Art until August 30th, Dissonant Visions.

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Twitch reviews the Jeonju Digital Project, a 9 disc box set compiled by the Jeonju International Film Festival, which celebrated its 10 aniversary this April. You can own this collection of obscure Asian shorts for around $100.


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Talking of festivals, August sees the Seoul Fringe Festival take over from the 14th to the 30th. Download the PDF guidebook for full details.


Uncle Tomato will be updating this blog on a less constant basis.

@the Platoon

The Platoon Kunsthalle gallery between Gangnam/Apujeong is holding some cool events.

From this Thursday 9th to Saturday 11th there's a graffiti exhibition, and on the 11th they'll be holding Korea's 2nd annual scratch battle, Skratch Day.

On Thursday July 23rd you can also catch Moderat performing live, the collaboration between two German acts, Thom Yorke buddies Modeselektor and the ambient Apparat. Here's Pitchfork's review of their LP, and this is my favourite Modeselektor track, a remix of Silikon by Siriusmo.

Thursday 9th also sees the start of the Guru Arts Valley Indie Rock Festival, with the very Britpoppy Black Skirts 검정치마 headlining the first night.


Just noticed this blog's been mentioned on the Puchon Film Festival site as a 'news clipping'. Nice.

The Church at Gyodong

Faithless, but still I was intrigued by a seemingly abandoned church, newly built in the redevelopment area of Gyodong 2. I first saw it lit at night, imbued with a European aura from on high, a plateau by the in-progress apartment blocks, cordoned off but constructed in an area definitely under construction.

I possibly trespassed when taking these photos, but there were no fences to climb or signs to ignore, just traffic cones in my way.

Gyodong 2

Where I live, I can just walk 5 minutes down the road and enter some sort of equinox between city/country, the old and new Korea, ever developing.

Gyodong or Gyodong 2 in Yongin is that equinox, with derelict temples sharing the land with unpolished tower blocks. More photos tomorrow. Others here