X2

How I choose to feel is how I am
-Pearl Jam

I realize that my last post about my first six months in Korea was woefully inadequate. Here are some other top moments:

Music. Yes, Seoul is no Seattle, but it is proving an acceptable substitute for the year. In November, I went to see Two Gallants, a band from San Francisco. The show didn't start until 11, I was tired and cold, and I *almost* skipped it. I am so glad that I didn't. When the band started to play, I found my way to the front of the stage (on "Mike's side" of course!) and closed my eyes, smiled and enjoyed life. Nothing better.

In December, I went to see Deerhoof, a band that I knew literally nothing about. The name sounded vaguely familiar and I read that they were from San Francisco, so I decided to check them out. Once again, as I was walking to the show not only was I cold and tired, but I also could not seem to find the venue. I wandered around the confusing streets of Hongdae for about an hour, and just when I was about to give up, I looked down the street and there it was! Like fate. And like before, I am so happy that I went. The club where the show was held was very very small and unlike at the Two Gallants show, the crowd was mostly Korean. There were three opening bands, all Korean, and all really good. I especially liked the third band, who I *think* are called "Banseom Pirates" and played spacey instrumental music while a strange movie played in the background.

Deerhoof was also a really great band, and if I ever get another chance to see them, I definitely will. The drummer was amazing, so much fun to watch. The lead singer was a really cheerful Japanese (I think) girl who kept saying "Kamsam-ida!"

Of course, I can't forget the guitar-playing bartender that I wrote about before. Victoria and I have since gone back to his bar to listen to him play again. Whereas on Christmas Eve, he mostly stuck with songs by Damien Rice or the Beatles, this time he played mostly Korean songs. I wish I knew the name of his bar so that I could advertise it, because he has a wonderful voice and is obviously a great performer who shouldn't just be in a small bar playing only to one or two people at a time. And, adding to my guitar-playing bartender love: both times we saw him, "Once" was playing on a screen in the background. In fact, on Christmas Eve he asked, "Have you ever seen this movie? It's great."

Theater. I have seen four plays so far in Seoul, three Korean and one American. The first play I saw was Jump, an absolutely hilarious non-verbal play about a family that does martial arts. Highly recommended. The second play that I saw was called Cookin With Nanta, and I went to it on Christmas. Another very funny play, about four chefs who are preparing a wedding feast. Again, it is non-verbal, the story is told through dance and music. And it stars "A Sexy Guy" (that's really what the character is called in the script). A few weeks ago, Victoria and I saw The Ballerina Who Loved a B-Boy, about, as you can probably guess, a ballerina who falls in love with a break dancer. The dancing in the play was phenomenal - as was the fact that one of the actors had a shirt emblazoned with the F-word - and after the play we got to go on stage and take pictures with the dancers. The most recent play that I saw was Without You, a one-man show starring Anthony Rapp from the Original Broadway Cast of Rent. The play is based on his autobiography about the deaths of his mother and Jonathan Larson (the writer of Rent). I wanted to see the play because I LOVE Rent (have seen it five times, own the original Broadway recording, and have the entire play memorized), but I was kind of leery of the whole "one-man show" concept. But it was *so wonderful* He sang songs from Rent (including La Vie Boheme!) and is such a good actor that two hours went by in the blink of an eye.

Cafes. I have to add this one, because who knew that one of my favorite things about Korea would be the coffee shops? There are some great ones in Daejeon. My favorite is called Holy Cross. It is on the 6th floor of a tall building downtown, and is somewhat reminiscent of a New York City loft inside. I have been known to sit there for a few hours, drinking a latte and reading a book on my Kindle. And they have free wifi! And they know my name and order without me having to say anything. That's winning in my book.

Other random things: cute Korean guys, samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup), kimbap, udon, dweji galbi (bbq pork), walking along the Han River in Seoul, the KTX train, waffles for dessert, parks, not having to worry about driving a car (just having to worry that I won't get run over when I go outside, but I'm getting used to that), Sun Sing Dam bakery, getting off the subway at a random stop in Seoul and walking around, and most of all, not having to worry about money. That's a big one. Free housing + no car + low cost of living, relative to Seattle = much less stress in my life. I almost don't want to have to go back to Seattle and start the treadmill all over again. Almost.

Yup, there are lots of things I love about living here, and I will dwell on those, because as a wise man named Eddie Vedder sings, "how I choose to feel is how I am."

hootenanny for haiti

my pain is self chosen
at least i believe it to be
i could either drown
or pull off my skin and swim to shore
now i can grow a beautiful shell for all to see.
mad season, river of deceit

i've said it before, and pardon me while i say it again, but i LOVE living in seattle. what i witnessed last night at the showbox is reason number 25433 why. or reason number 1, i can't decide which.



you know that feeling that you get before a show you've been looking forward to FOREVER? that feeling of nervous anticipation, like butterflies in your stomach? yeah, i kind of love that feeling. and i had it all weekend. i wish that i had a good camera that could really capture what the stage looked like at the showbox - there were a couple of big couches, some stools, some music stands, and a lot of candles. basically, it was like a living room. and right above where i was standing, there were microphones pointed at the crowd.

according to wikipedia, a hootenanny is an informal, festive performance by folk singers, often including audience participation. that's really the best way to describe the night. all the musicians - too many to count, but i'll try: mark pickerel, kim virant, kristen ward, duff mckagen, jeff rouse, tim dejulio, mike mccready, star anna, gary westlake, chris friel, matt cameron, and other people i'm forgetting - sat on the couches with their instruments and each came up front one at a time to sing a song while the rest played along. mike did a rolling stones song, for example, kim virant sang neil young, mark pickerel did tom petty, star anna sang a FATASTIC version of what i think is an otis redding song (watch me be embarrassed that i'm wrong) which makes me want to immediately run out and purchase her records, and etc...

a definite highlight was when kim warnick, formerly of the fastbacks, came out and sang belinda carlisle's song just like heaven. i can't believe i'm admitting this, but i knew literally every single lyric to that song. somehow the music pulled that out of the deepest recesses of my brain. it's sort of frightening to think about what portion of my mind is made up by song lyrics. plus, she made a somewhat dirty joke when she said she had come out of retirement "only for one night.. and that's what she said."

brad, who i wrote about in my last post and who will be playing at the showbox in april (!!), played buttercup. and i suppose this is as good a place as any to write about shawn smith coming out later to sing crown of thorns with mike, stone, et al. despite the guy singing off-key in my ear (or, heck, maybe because of him - he sure seemed to know all the lyrics to EVERY song and his enthusiasm was kind of infectious), i don't think i'm exaggerating to say that this was one of the best moments, musically or otherwise, i have experienced since seeing pearl jam in philadelphia last october. SERIOUSLY.

... but only one of the best. another of those moments was to be had at this show when mike, duff and jeff rouse (who i also now feel the need to find out more about) played the mad season song river of deceit. the song that i quoted at the beginning of this post. the song that i remember first hearing on the pearl jam radio show self pollution radio in 1995, sitting in my bedroom listening to with the volume low so that my mom and dad wouldn't hear. earlier tonight, i found a video of this song on youtube, and i told myself i would only watch it once.. well, now it's 2 and a half hours later, and i've been pretty much listening to it nonstop. seriously. and i have an overwhelming urge to dig out above, the mad season record. perhaps the best thing i can say about this entire show is that it makes me want more. i want to listen to mad season for the first time in about 10 years, i want to go see brad in april, i want to hear more of star anna's (and kim virant and mark pickerel, and everyone else honestly) music, i just want. music.

here's that video of river of deceit

my weekend in a few pictures and words

every weekend should be a 3-day one, i think. i love that it's sunday night and i don't have to think about work tomorrow.

both yesterday and today i spent my time wandering around the seattle center during the folklife festival. the weather actually turned out really well - it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy but it was surprisingly warm (especially on saturday). i'm sure that i've said before that one of my favorite things about seattle is the summer festivals. i know, i know, they're crowded and often overpriced (folklife is free, however), but there is a part of me that loves walking around watching all the people, eating gross festival food (my absolute favorite are greek gyros. yum) and experiencing complete sensory overload.

of folklife in particular, something i really enjoy are the percussion workshops. the "seattle drum society" (or whatever, i don't really know if that's their name or i made it up) set up a tent with chairs and drums and shakers and they have people who lead community drum circles. i know it sounds really hippy, and it probably is; i had a roommate in college (in vermont, can you get more hippy?) who used to do stuff like this (and she was also a really good guitarist and singer, but i digress...) also, for the first time, i checked out something called "participatory choral singing," which was basically the same idea but with voices instead of drums. there is something really comforting about being surrounded by all that noise and all these people who are doing the same thing you are. and there's something really liberating about it too.

that's what i love about folklife (and other festivals): i see things i might never go out of my way to see otherwise. i saw african dancing, "folk punk attack!" (which was, honestly, quite oddly endearing), accordian players, an irish fiddling group, and the "raging grannies," among other things i wandered in and out of. the best musicians are not necessarily the ones on the stages, but the random groups that sit on the sidewalk and play. on saturday, i saw a string band ("the tallboys," if you're interested; i see them playing all the time at festivals or pike place market) that i could have watched for hours.

this afternoon, i went to see indiana jones . i've never seen any of the other movies, so i had no idea what to expect. it was entertaining; an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

tomorrow, i plan to do nothing beyond taking a walk at green lake, getting my hair cut and watching bravo's marathon of top chef. (i love that show, but always seem to fall asleep halfway through the episodes when they're on the first time)

i'm waiting anxiously, kristine, to hear all about sasquatch. how was death cab? i'm sad i missed rem. boo hoo.

livin' on a prayer

have i mentioned that i love carrie brownstein's blog at NPR? it's become one of the sites that i check every day. last week, she wrote what i thought was a really interesting post about the ways that people listen to music. i guess it was inspired by a friend's grandfather who had a really expensive audio system; she asked readers to send in pictures of whatever they used to listen to music the most. people sent in pictures of ipods, boomboxes, headphones, computers, televisions...

her newest post is about song lyrics that somehow become part of popular culture, particularly how words can make you want to sing certain melodies. the comments readers made were hilarious - after someone wrote that they always came home with livin on a prayer (bon jovi was my favorite band during middle school) in their heads, i am now singing that song (woah oh we're halfway there/ woah oh livin' on a prayer/ take my hand and we'll make it i swear)

three years ago, there was a boy in my class who always used to say "hey ho, let's go" before he put his nap mat away (this was also a boy who wore little death cab for cutie and KEXP t-shirts) so now i sing that little line in my head every afternoon when i come back from lunch. (and that's also why i laughed a little when i noticed that glen signed my ticket "hey ho!") everytime i make myself a cup of tea (which is actually often now, since shannon introduced me to a kind that i love), i sing to myself: "tea, a drink with jam and bread." and then i usually sing the rest of the song too. when someone asks me something that i find stupid, i think to myself "oh well, whatever, nevermind." does anyone know what that is from?

her post also got me to thinking about music and education. when i worked in tacoma, the other kindergarten teachers and i went to a workshop by a woman who put all of her lessons to music; we got a few of her cd's and i still have them. she also had a cd of self esteem music, and there are a couple of songs that the kids in my class love (i haven't played them in awhile actually, maybe i should tomorrow) - i'm a grump and wonderful me. i've noticed that the kids (and me) are in much better moods when we sing and listen to music. sometimes when they're not listening i just make up a stupid song and it catches their attention.