When did a Korean barbeque last blow up in YOUR face? We live in dangerous times, and fortunately there are people whose job it is to protect us. A couple of weeks ago my big brother was staying with me, and I thought I’d introduce him to Korean food. So I took him to a … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 186)
The 2nd European Conference on Korean Linguistics, at SOAS
A bargain three-day conference begins at SOAS this Thursday. The 2nd European Conference on Korean Linguistics (ECKL2) 7 – 9 August 2008 Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS The Centre of Korean Studies of the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London, and the Oriental Institute at Oxford University take great pleasure in welcoming … [Read More]
Advance fee frauds – the Korean connection
We have all received garbage emails from dodgy people in dodgy countries giving us a sob story explaining how they’ve managed to end up with several million dollars and need help getting it out of the country. They started in Nigeria but have now spread to other countries as well. Two recent ones have come … [Read More]
Rollercoaster #5: Triangle
T-Entertainment, March 2006 Rollercoaster’s fifth album was released in 2006, after a gap of 2 years since the almost flawless fourth. Gone is the sense of rhythmic drive, of energy, of joie de vivre. Instead we have something a bit more laid back, less characterful. I had been warned that the fifth album was a … [Read More]
North Koreans in Britain
Every now and then a visitor to this site asks whether there are any North Koreans in the UK, apart from at the DPRK embassy. Journalist Michael Rank keeps his eyes open for evidence, particularly on the parliamentary website, and shares his findings with the BAKS list – little snippets of information such as the … [Read More]
Alex: My Vintage Romance
Fluxus Music, June 2008 As a fan of Clazziquai, I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the first solo outing of one of its members, the male vocalist Alex. On the plus side, he has a mellow, well-controlled voice, very pleasant to listen to. And he has a reasonably distinguished line-up of guest stars. … [Read More]
August events 2008
As usual, I’ll update this post as I hear more. Exhibitions Cantilever Left continues at I-MYU until 9 August. There will be a different exhibition starting soon after. Psycho Buildings continues at the Hayward Gallery until 25 August. The U_Design City_Seoul exhibition continues at the KCC until 2 August, then is replaced by Vessels, an … [Read More]
Suh Do-ho in Psycho Buildings
Psycho Buildings is a cosmopolitan collaboration in which artists from as far afield as Tokyo and Cuba “take on” architecture. Suh Do-ho (right) is one of the diaspora of Korean artists working in various countries around the world. Like Baik Nam June, Suh has chosen to make his home in America. Suh’s work has in … [Read More]
Jennifer Barclay: Meeting Mr Kim
Summersdale Publishers, 2008 Jennifer Barclay went to Seoul with her musician boyfriend eight years ago with no fixed agenda other than a desire to get away from her job. Fortunately, while in Korea she took advantage of her free time to explore parts of the country which are not necessarily on the tourist route. This … [Read More]
The King Baeksu counterblast to Amnesty International
J Scott Burgeson, aka Scott Bug, aka King Baeksu, has been monitoring the anti-FTA mad cow protests in Seoul pretty much nightly since they started. He’s been filing some detailed and extended eyewitness accounts over on his bulletin board. A week or so ago Amnesty International called for the “excessive force” used by South Korean … [Read More]
LKL featured in Euro Journal (유로저널)
I recently had a heavy soju and singing session with Jeon Sung-min (below right), who as well has being one half of a well-known kayageum / guitar duo and nephew of the founder of 해바라기 (Sunflower) is also a feature writer at the Euro Journal (유로저널), a Korean language weekly newspaper distributed in Koreatowns in … [Read More]
The Gyopo PI
Leonard Chang: Fade to Clear Thomas Dunne Books, 2004 This is the third novel featuring the private investigator Allen Choice, a Korean American whose name indicates how far he has moved away from his Korean roots. He can’t speak the language, but he gets annoyed when people call him Chinese or Japanese. He dates a … [Read More]
Meet Mister Kim. Now.
It’s the publishing event of 2008. More hotly anticipated than the latest Harry Potter, and certainly more entertaining, Jennifer Barclay’s Meeting Mr Kim, or How I went to Korea and learned to love kimchi, is in the shops now, priced at just £7.99. Jen’s trip to Korea was actually back in 2000, so this little … [Read More]
Mock funerals make Koreans focus on how to live
Hyung-Jin Kim of Associated Press has done a nice piece on a new idea from Korea Life Consulting Co: fake funerals. It has been run in the Taipei Times (South Koreans give their deaths a trial run: ‘Well-dying’ – having a mock funeral after a set of seminars – is touted as a tool to … [Read More]
Book review: The Dawn of Modern Korea
Andrei Lankov – The Dawn of Modern Korea EunHaeng NaMu publishing, 2008 This entertaining book has, paradoxically, taken me a devil of a long time to finish. That’s not because it’s difficult. It’s because it’s the opposite. The book is co-branded with a series of articles that Andrei Lankov has been writing for the Korea … [Read More]
Excess Baggage goes north of the DMZ
After last week’s feature on South Korea with Jennifer Barclay, this week’s Excess Baggage looked at North Korea with Robert Willoughby, author of the Bradt Guide to North Korea (right), and Doris Richards, an avid traveler. Willoughby’s introduction to North Korea was as an English language examiner working for the British Council, assessing the language … [Read More]