From the monthly archives:

June 2006

Think Korea website now up & running

by Philip Gowman on 30 June, 2006

in Events news,Other exhibitions,Park June Bum

It’s taken a while, but here it is: www.thinkkorea.org.uk. It seems to be part of the Korean Embassy website. And it’s now coming up on google. It must be a recent creation, because I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve googled in search of “Think Korea 2006″ and only found my own site. [...]

Tagged as: Think Korea 2006

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Yoko Ono at St Pauls

by Philip Gowman 29 June 2006
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I was trying to find an excuse to plug an event put on by a charity I’m involved with. It’s an installation of two of Yoko Ono’s works, at St Paul’s Cathedral as part of the City of London Festival. The major piece is Morning Beams, installed in the north transept, modelled by the artist [...]

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Yohangza. Go see it.

by Philip Gowman 28 June 2006

Go see it. It’s outstanding. And to all of you who turned down my offer of a free ticket, you missed out. It’s on for the rest of the week at the Barbican. I can’t add anything to what Colin Bartlett had to say. And like him, I have nothing to do with the production [...]

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The picture that says it all

by Philip Gowman 27 June 2006
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A South Korean soccer fan protests against what he considers to be the referee’s unfair judgment after South Korea’s national soccer team lost to Switzerland in their World Cup Group G match as they watched the match on a screen in Seoul, Saturday, June 24, 2006. Switzerland defeated South Korea 2-0. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon). It’s [...]

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Kim Ki-duk: the Coastguard

by Philip Gowman 26 June 2006
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While browsing Play.com over the weekend I noted an upcoming Tartan release: Kim Ki-duk’s neglected Coastguard. The title of the film, to a westerner, is somewhat misleading. In the peaceful west, a coastguard is something to do with lifeboats, or air-sea rescue. He sits in a lookout post all day scanning the horizon for drug [...]

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Apologies to blogline and other subscribers

by Philip Gowman 25 June 2006

In reviewing my site statistics the other day I see that there are a number of links to me from Bloglines – a site I knew nothing about until then. I signed up for membership to see what it was all about, and found quite a useful little service which inter alia aggregates postings in [...]

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Dear Leader’s Heir Apparent fills Independent News Void

by Philip Gowman 24 June 2006

The UK’s Independent is getting increasingly soft-focus. It’s more like a Sunday supplement than a newspaper. Yesterday’s page 1 and 2 (you don’t get much to a page in the new tabloid format, once you’ve sold all the advertising space) contained the shock horror news that 4x4s are bad and their drivers are stupid. On [...]

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대한 민국 !

by Philip Gowman 23 June 2006

대한 민국 ! 대한 민국 ! I give in. Good luck against Switzerland.

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Il Mare remake opens in London

by Philip Gowman 23 June 2006

As I flicked through the Independent on my way to work today trying vainly to find some real news (of which more tomorrow) I was vaguely aware of Keanu Reeves entering my consciousness. Not a frequent occurrence I can assure you. Maybe there was a story about him in the gossip section. I turned to [...]

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Korea’s most beautiful face

by Philip Gowman 22 June 2006

After yesterday’s heavy post, something a bit lighter. Kim Hye-soo has been voted Korea’s most beautiful face. The picture in the Chosun news story is a fairly low-key affair – but you can find far more glamorous images by googling her name. The image here is a still from the film Hypnotized aka Faceless Beauty. [...]

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Prof Kim Chang-nam: history & characteristics of modern Korean culture

by Philip Gowman 21 June 2006
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(SOAS, 5 June 2006, 7pm: the concluding event of the London Korean Festival 2006) I’m more reluctant than usual to make this post. The ground covered in Professor Kim’s hugely stimulating conclusion to the London Korean Festival was more than extensive, and left the audience wanting to ask tons of questions. To condense a hundred [...]

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Park’s equalizer costs Woori Bank millions

by Philip Gowman 20 June 2006

I’m still running this as a business story. It’s a follow up to my post a few days ago. The Korea Times today provides more detail on banks’ exposures to the world cup. As well as Hana Bank’s Red Devil Reserve Account, Woori Bank has opened 19,000 “I Love Park Ji-sung” time deposits. Every goal [...]

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If you’re going to trash a film in a British newspaper…

by Philip Gowman 20 June 2006
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… the least you can do is use British English. Mark Kermode’s strange review in the Observer of Fruit Chan’s full-length version of Dumplings (above) reveals a prissiness that I don’t expect of a reviewer. Cat III sleaze it is not. His comment raises the question of whether he has ever watched any Cat III [...]

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Nobble your vicar

by Philip Gowman 19 June 2006

The organisation of the Global Week of Prayer for North Korea has been impressive. The website has been up for ages, allowing ample time for word-of-mouth. And then a week or so ago there was a bulk mailing. I happened to be around at the vicarage the other day for a meeting of the church [...]

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Four emerging artists

by Philip Gowman 18 June 2006

From a recent two-part article in the Korea Herald:

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