rabbits are smart in korea
unless you sing a song which means the exact opposite
i will watch hair, whilst simultaneously changing the colour of my own
i thought the day would never come when i decide to write an essay for my own benefit
nothing on this journal should be mistaken for the extent of my writing ability
the person next door is either:
a) delivering a lecture
b) listening to a lecture
c) some combination of a and b
d) asleep, and there are voices in my head, speaking in korean
It has been well documented that I have requested the following items to follow me around / sit in the corner of my room and perform for me at regular intervals.
A European Boys Choir
A Black Gospel Choir
A boy playing the marimba and/or mbira (thumb piano)
A Korean woman singing folk songs / Playing a Daegeum
A Tuvan throat singing ensemble
And the most recent addition:
The cast of Hair (any cast) singing the following song:
Good morning starshine
The earth says hello
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glub gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla
Nooby abba naba
Early morning singing song
New Favourite Thing…
Banana. Cadbury’s Drinking Chocolate. Dipping. Hair: The Musical.
It’s like being in the 60′s… but powdered.
REJECTED…, originally uploaded by jeremyinkorea.
After the occasion documented below, I decided to visit the beautiful traditional district of Insadong. I had arranged to meet Leah there, although, I was also supposed to ring her and organise a time and plan a route for her across town on the Subway. Unfortunately I couldn’t raise her on the telephone, so I decided to hike it alone… Who should greet me outside the station though, but one attractive Australian girl named Leah – apparently she had decided to hop on the Subway and hope for the best… We took this as a sign that spending money was approved by God, and went on from there. We spent a beautiful afternoon in Insadong, in the pursuit of Incense (I needed to purge my apartment of evil smells that I certainly was not responsible for), and knick-knacks to send home to the kiddies. We also consumed a large plate of deep-fried pork, under the assumption that we were ordering grilled chicken…
That evening we had arranged to meet with Rach and her friend, Nikka, to see a show in Hyewah. Hyewah is the Theatre/University district in Seoul, and in the space of about 1km square, there is at least 50 theatres packed into a rabbit-warren of side-streets. It is the West-End of Seoul, and there is ALWAYS a show going on. We were going to see SUBWAY LINE 1, an amazing show based on stories of the Seoul Subway System (it is a very good show, one that I have seen before, but was keen to see again). Unfortunately, we mistook the closing time, for the opening time, and turned up just in time to see the finale… AHHHHH…
THEN we decided to see Rock Hamlet – we got lost finding the theatre, and when we did, we were informed that it was entirely in Korean, with not so much as a scrap of English projected for the enjoyment of the mono-lingual. This, and the fact that we tried to brush-up on our Hamlet and came up with a crazy re-mix of Macbeth, Hamlet and Othello, decided our fate.
We were off to the Jazz bar. This also ended in disaster when we realised, after a good 15 minutes of amazing live jazz, that we were expected to pay a cover charge of W8,000 – on top of hideously expensive drinks.
We went the cheaper option of sitting in a bar across the road, enjoying the jazz under the night sky (at levels that would have any self-respecting establishment in The Valley closed in 20 minutes).
All in all, a pretty crazy day. The Jazz was good though…
You WANT Me!, originally uploaded by jeremyinkorea.
This is the way it all happened, step by concerning step.
Rach and I were met at Gate 8 of Yeoksam Station at 9.30 this morning, and were transported to the Hair Dresser, 8 stops away, by our assistant make-up designer, MiriYoung. At KanKuk Universtiy station, Rach and I had the amazing idea to take before and after shots using a conveniently placed ID photo booth. Above is the result.
Within 2 minutes of arrival at the salon, I was sat in a chair, and after a brief consultation of the prepratory sketch by the stylist, I was having foul smelling cream applied to my hair with a spatula and comb. ‘Gee’ I thought, they move fast with the colour around here… It wasn’t until I smelled the distinct smell of burning hair, that I looked at the tub, and what do you know, it sports the label: ‘GOPSUL Straight Cream’. What a concept.
After about half an hour, during which my hair turned to jelly and shed at least half its volume they had the foresight to rinse it out before I was left with an injury usually reserved for luekemia patients. It is a little concerning when they test your hair by pulling a single hair to see how far it stretches.
ANYWAY – The end result was one head of very black, and permenantly straight hair… If you DO want step-by-step documentation of what, on second thought, is a rather banal event, please follow the link above to my flickr account – I took many a photo, let’s just put it that way!!! (Plus I am too lazy to write anymore tonight…)
