Congratulations to Son Heung-min for winning the Golden Boot award for the highest total goals scored in the English Premier League this season. He shares the award with Liverpool’s Mo Salah, as both players scored 23 goals. Some people (particularly Spurs fans) point out that Salah’s tally includes six penalties, making Son the more prolific … [Read More]
Category: Asides
CL plays the Village Underground
Rapper CL pays her first visit to London at the Village Underground on 30 November. The venue has been upgraded from the nearby XOYO venue to accommodate the demand for tickets. 54 Holywell Lane | Shoreditch | London EC2A 3PQ | www.villageunderground.co.uk She’s sure to perform numbers from her debut album, ALPHA, which includes Spicy: [Read More]
BLOO plays at the Garage Highbury Corner
Korean rapper BLOO comes to the Garage courtesy of Cult of Ya, supported by Howmini. BLOO: Moon and Back tour Friday 3 December 2021, 20:00-22:00 The Garage | 20-22 Highbury Corner | London N5 1RD | Tickets (Sold out) Links: Cult of Ya on Facebook [Read More]
Interview with Bora Chung in Korea Times
There’s a nice interview with writer Bora Chung in yesterday’s Korea Times. Coming later this year from Honford Star is her short story collection Cursed Bunny, translated by Anton Hur. According to the article, Many of her recent works can be defined as a gripping amalgamation of absurdist, unrealistic stories that draw on science fiction, … [Read More]
Julie Park wins Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award
Belated congratulations to London based violist Julie Park for winning the prestigious Arts Club Sir Karl Jenkins Award in October. She follows violinists Songha Choi, who won second prize in 2019, and Joo Yeon Sir who won the prize in 2014. Julie Park performs tomorrow in Korean Cultural Centre UK’s ‘Home Theatre’ season of online … [Read More]
How not to sanitize your cash
There’s a lovely item in today’s Korea JoongAng Daily about a report by the Bank of Korea (including the above image) on how people have been attempting to disinfect their banknotes to protect themselves from Covid-19. Putting them in the washing machine and then the tumble dryer, or microwaving them, is not recommended. “The central … [Read More]
Councillor Bora Kwon interviewed in the Guardian
Bora Kwon, Labour councillor for Hammersmith and Fulham, and one of only two councillors of Korean background in the UK, gets a nice interview in the Guardian this week. She talks about her life in the UK, politics and of course health. Read the interview in full here. You can follow Councillor Kwon on Twitter … [Read More]
Samuel Hawley’s Imjin War comes to YouTube
One of my most enjoyable reads so far this year has been Samuel Hawley’s Imjin War, originally published in 2005. At 664 pages long it might seem a bit intimidating, but in my view it could probably be twice as long and still be as gripping. But for those who like their history in nibble-sized … [Read More]
Misun Won and Kyosun Jung at Goldsmiths Fair
Earlier this month LKL paid a brief visit to the second week of Goldsmiths Fair, primarily to congratulate Misun Won on her special mention in the Best New Design Award 2019. The award itself went to Patrick Davison, but Misun’s generously proportioned brooch caught the judges’ eye. While there, we also visited award-winning designer Kyosun … [Read More]
Ko Jin-young wins the 2019 Evian Championship
Going into the final day, all of the top four players on the leaderboard of the LGPA Evian-les-Bains golf tournament were Korean. Kim Hyo-joo led, followed one shot behind by Park Sung-hyun. A further three shots behind were Park Inbee and Ko Jin-young. On the final day, today, things started to go wrong for Kim … [Read More]
Photos from Birdsong and Borders concert at St Luke’s
While it’s a huge treat that there’s so much in the way of interesting performances involving UK-based Koreans nowadays, it’s a shame that sometimes they clash with each other. Hyelim Kim’s recent collaboration with Merit Ariane at LSO St Luke’s was something I’d definitely have gone to… if it hadn’t been for Jinyeob Cha’s performance … [Read More]
Stray Kids play the Brixton Academy
Another K-pop concert that sold out pretty quickly, with tickets now only available on the secondary market, unless they release some more. According to Koreaboo, Stray Kids, a 9-member boyband formed in 2017 by JYP, are goodwill ambassadors of the Korean Culture and Information Service – the organisation that published my book. Maybe if they’d … [Read More]
Former UK Home Secretary to unveil statue commemorating Vietnamese victims
In an article on Politics Home, former UK Home Secretary Jack Straw writes about South Korea’s need to investigate rape and other atrocities inflicted by South Korean soldiers upon women during the Vietnam War. Despite Korea’s history of Japanese military sexual slavery, successive South Korean governments have refused to investigate their own military’s crimes against … [Read More]
Paul Smith retrospective opens in DDP
A retrospective of designer Paul Smith’s work opened at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza yesterday. A good friend of LKL went along to the opening and took a few pictures. The exhibition is hosted by the Seoul Design Foundation and the Design Museum in London. The Korea Times describes it as “like walking into the renowned … [Read More]
BTS perform on Britain’s Got Talent
Last time they were in town for a gig it their chosen UK TV appearance was the BBC’s Graham Norton Show. A small TV studio was not the best place to showcase their talents, but they made the best of circumstances and turned in a good performance despite injuries. This time round the stage was … [Read More]
Francis Daehoon Lee meets Jeremy Corbyn
On Monday, before his London talk on Denuclearising The Korean Peninsula, Prof Francis Daehoon Lee of People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy was invited to lunch with Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, in a restaurant in his Islington constituency. He said he was impressed by Corbyn’s understanding of the situation in the Korean peninsular. Prof. Lee is … [Read More]