My last post being a bit off topic, I am going to refresh anyone still paying attention to me on the internet by updating them with some Korea news. The kids are getting more and more used to seeing my face everyday and I think are actually growing fond of it. For one, I am receiving completely adorable random hugs from students all over Wonderland. My youngest students, a class of four 3 year olds, have quickly become my favorite. They are definitely the easiest to entertain and do a spectacular job entertaining me back. We want on a field trip to the botanical gardens awhile back and I spent the whole time as their chaperone. It was awesome. Here are some pictures:


Katie and Megan posing as pretty pretty princesses (sleeping beauty and ...enthusiastic monkey)

Sean and Andy posing as super savage destructo ninja warriors

Princess/monkey cont.

Botanical Gardens group shot. 16.7% of this picture looks enthused.

Sean preparing for the dentist. Katie getting caught up in the excitement.

The notorious smirk


Anyway, its hard to discern whether things have been chaotically fast or mind-numbingly slow around here. Obviously, my blog took some serious damage in the month of September. This can be accounted for by my sheer laziness. I was perfectly capable of updating at least once after the first, but opted for embarrassingly long trips to Burger King and getting drunk in Suji. Well maybe half of that is true. I'll just pretend you know which direction of my logic is actually logical.

This past month was unwavering in its "put it off till later" and "holy crap I have to finish this stupid lesson plan before my flaking credibility as a responsible human being is ultimately flushed down the toilet." Ok, it maybe wasn't that drastic, but we did have these things called "Open Classes" this month that involved stress levels so high, they may as well have been irrelevant. An open class for Wonderland is where parents come to observe and evaluate their students' (and not-at-all legitimately trained teacher's) progress. Of course, like all things involving direct parent/school credibility correspondence, stress is pushed to maximum overdrive, ensuring no single thought escapes painfully precise preparation. I, with all the other teachers, was mandated to create a verbatim lesson plan of something inherently predictable and ultimately redundant. Not that I was above it or anything. I completely understood the risks associated with ill preparation. It was just the sheer tediousness of every single detail being mulled over and reassessed for an entire month that made things a little ridiculous. When the classes finally happened, I still managed to stumble near the end of both. Why? Because I realized how intense my freshly developed routine had been scrutinized under the high powered microscope of making a perfect first impression. In all that planning and working and devising, I forgot how to teach. I thought after any type of misstep I very well may have been a goner, but the stress ultimately proved futile. The only complaint made by any of the parents was a suggestion that I could've given the students a worksheet (more work) on top of an already absurdly condensed, nerve racking, fast paced lesson. Basically, it meant hitting the bars at raging head-on-collision force the following weekend.

Don't get me wrong, it actually wasn't all bad. I mean, I may be exaggerating a couple elements here. But I realized just how pointless stress can be sometimes. I'm aware it doesn't work for everybody that way, but I absolutely hate being stuck in the position where I'm supposed to feel like it shouldn't. Either way, it's over now and I am successfully teaching in my own "slack to the max without being foolish" style. I'm aware of my responsibilities and I will get them done. In fact, I thought today was the best, most consistently flawless teaching I've done since being here, and I did it all with little or no standard preparation. My routine, with obvious overhead regulation from Wonderland, has come into its own, and it makes me a more confident and better teacher.

Now, to highlight some things outside of school, Joel and I went to the Global Gathering festival in the Han River Nanji park a few weeks ago. With blissful intentions on observing and sporadically dancing to Royksopp, we went into the night full fledged psycho fans. It proved worthy and we were fairly certain we saw the infamous "chick from the Knife" (I swear nobody who knows of her knows her name) singing to their loveliest and grooviest tunes. I, as well as Joel, were much enthused. On top of that, Underworld played a mind-bogglingly awesome set- something I was definitely not prepared for. We'd come to see Royksopp and viewed watching Underworld as a mini-bonus to waiting for MSTRKRFT. Inevitably, that logic was thrown out the freaking window as Underworld blew away a significant portion of my mind. When "Pearl's Girl" hit the sound system, I just started jumping in pure excitement. I have never been in such entranced, spontaneous excitement.

Speaking of entranced spontaneous excitement, if you don't know my friend Ryan, you should. He has a recently started music blog called Billy D's Sunset Breeze and it is pure awesomeness. He recently posted a mix that I will honestly testify to being out of this world phenomenal. If you have any sense of transplanetary groove in you, then you must download, listen, and repeat. He is awesome.

Now That's What I Call Power-Pop-Folk-Metal!!!

After reading my friend Ryan's blog about media driven music labeling and commenting, I got pretty enamored with dissecting the labeling process even further. I find it fantastically interesting that an entire theory of social psychology can be extracted from a practically automatic human function. Categorization is somewhat of an inevitability when it comes to dense, multi-tiered artistic pursuits, but I find its automation almost always lies within too specific of parameters, essentially canceling its purpose out altogether. In the Shape of Time, George Kubler delves into this concept with a semantic approach on how history can be classified based on "style":

In practice certain words, when they are abused by too common use, suffer in their meaning as if with cancer or inflation. Style is one of these. Its innumerable shades of meaning seem to span all experience. ....gasolines and toilet papers have style (while) annual fashions in clothes are purveyed as styles. In between lies familiar terrain of "historic" styles: cultures, nations, dynasties, reigns, regions, periods, crafts, persons, and objects all have styles. An unsystematic naming of binomial principles allows an illusion of classed order.

Thus, style is illusory, having semantic significance too specific for far too many of the subjects it defines. This is just one example, and he didn't even mention music. Currently (and well, for the past sixty or so years), popular music has been driven solely by its never ending conveyer belt of labels. To give a generic consortium of these is pretty easy: Rock and Roll, Blues, Folk, Rap, Dance, Oldies, 80s, World, Metal, Alternative... I could go on. Whether these labels are media or fan based is unimportant, as they are what specifically defines them as popular music. And this is what makes the entire thing so interesting. Popular music in this regard, much like Kubler's analysis of style, is itself completely ambiguous. It is an open label broadly defining too much within too narrow of parameters. Clearly, when considered as such, Rap and Metal are entirely different musical concepts, working within practically opposite spectrums. Last.fm, Pandora, and cable packages that offer 24 hour popular music stations are subjecting thousands of distinctly dynamic pieces of music into "appropriate" (and sometimes wholly inaccurate) subcategories for the purpose of practicality. This is not to say specific popularized genres were not being exploited as such in the countless record shops strewn about city blocks 30, 20, or even 10 years ago, but is rather offering the assumption that increased global communication and technology will inevitably lump these popularized identifiers as what may be deemed "popularly necessary". I mean look at "Soul/R&B" or "Electronica/Dance" or even just flat out "80s". The categorizations inevitably limit themselves.

Not only this, but the cyclical nature of Pop music is something driven entirely by "inventing" new labels. Much of this "inventing" has fallen victim to specific formulas. Within the structure of these formulas lies what I believe can appropriately be considered "easier" means of achieving success in the Pop music market. Are those Now Thats What I Call Music!!! compilations still being released? Interesting how easily those things actually garnered sales. Sure, the songs were catchy and at rare points, innovative. But what if we were to ask the NTWICM's sales team what they considered musical integrity? Any genre represented by a particular song or group on those compilations can probably be traced back to some of its predecessor's (primary influence) more popularized works, and so on. This is not to say any genre represented by a song or group was entirely disingenuous, as inspiration and idolization define music as an art form, but merely observe them in a highly processed, easily discernible formula.

This is one major reason why I've gotten so into Disco recently. It was particularly curious to me that such a hugely popularized genre, defined exclusively within pop culture knowledge by the 70s, leisure suits, mirror balls, glowing tiles, and the Bee Gees, could be so incredibly dynamic and varied. It was literally an entire culture I knew nothing about. With that, it was also some of the most personally satisfying music I've ever heard in my life. Interestingly, I'd never really known its subtleties and variations until after stumbling upon them, and sifting past its most righteously popular definers. The irony here is two-fold:

1. I knew it as a popularized label and consciously or sub-consciously avoided its chasms of audible goodies because of this.
2. I explored those chasms and now expressly identify my tastes through this popularized label.

Granted, I could hardly say I am qualified enough to declare myself anything other than an enthusiastic listener, but my intentions are good. Am I conforming to a label or not? Should positivity or negativity be invited into this recognition? Did this blog even make sense? Comments?

Apartment Pictures and Open Invitation

I've been extraordinarily lazy about this, but I thought I'd post some pictures of my apartment here in Korea. I am quite lucky, as everyone else I've talked to here has described their apartment as being about half the size of mine, and definitely not across the street from where they work. Because I can't stop fantasizing about being a DJ, I imagine I will one day host a dance party in it. If you can make it to Korea, you're invited.



Bedroom



Bathroom (yes the entire bathroom is the shower. Extremely convenient for cleaning)



Kitchen



And Living Room

I think within the next five blogs, I am going to post one of my own songs. Brace yourselves. It will probably blow you...r hair gently around your ears.

Why hello. Been a little while. This will just be a quick update. So far, the new foreign is absolutely fantastic. No longer does the Wonderland community observe constant arrogance throughout its workdays. No longer am I, or anyone else, burdened with the obnoxious persistence of information spouted for the sake of previous foreign teacher's ego. Work is ludicrously more comfortable, and everyone is happy.

For my birthday, I met my former Chicago co-worker and original South Korea Opportunity informer Mike, friends Joel and Emily, and new friends Leanne, Andy and Ken. After some pretty pathetic decision making while briefly scouring Itaewon, we decided to head for the much more gratifying Hongdae. There we encountered probably the nucleus of all graffiti in Korea, Akira-esque motorcycle groups (I've forgone the term gangs, as they could hardly be deemed menacing), and Club Oi, a bar that would be completely appropriate witnessing the drunken annihilation of the Cat and the Hat. It was low-key and worth every minute. I thoroughly appreciated everyone there and had a great time.

With that boring riff raff out of the way, I am getting ever closer to my DJ goal. With the introduction of the Yongsan electronics market, I've been peeing my pants with anticipation in acquiring one of these (AAAGGH!It can do anything! Midi control, USB input for multiple sources, a stupifying array of effects, and compatibility with nearly any legitimate music making program! I can't believe it). Anyway, Yongsan is quite possibly, no, make that positively is, the largest electronics store I've ever been in. Joel made a pretty apt comparison of it to Marshall Fields (macys shmacys), utilizing 7 gigantic floors for laptops, gaming, cell phones, music making equipment, cameras and an assortment of black market PSP and DSlite game downloading sales. In other words, it was heaven. Now, all I have to do is get my next paycheck, buy the DN-S1200, start Djing, and become the freshest old school Disco DJ in all of Korea (mixes will definitely come within the appropriate timeframe).

Health and the Shape of Time floating in the Internet Universe

I had this entire post set for divulging in an elaborate comparative analysis between South Korea's National Health Insurance plan and the U.S.'s lack thereof after a clinic visit here astoundingly lasted a little under 15 minutes. I'm mean, I'm seriously talking the waiting, the check up, the prescription and all. But after a hefty amount of research, I'm basically going to rest most of my take on the issue on this article. And with that, I officially declare the internet as a 100% legitimate research tool (thus adding to the Internet Universe theory. Oh and this, albeit old, is interesting too)



Anyway, I finished reading the Shape of Time a little while ago and just started reading the abridgment of A Study of History by Arnold J. Toynbee and am feeling a bit analytical. Pardon any over-ambitiousness. But really, if you're interested at all in Art and history (read: NOT art history) and their relation, The Shape of Time is the most thorough analysis of the two subjects' correlation. George Kubler is ridiculously astute at reorganizing the entire structure of observing and placing significance upon all human objects, from "all tools and writing in addition to the useless, beautiful, and poetic things of the world." There is seriously not one paragraph of the book I do not in some way observe as completely profound. Some of my favorite concepts are as follows:

...our ability at any moment to accept new knowledge is narrowly delimited by the existing state of knowledge.

and

How does artistic invention differ from useful invention? It differs as human sensibility differs from the rest of the universe. Artistic inventions alter the sensibiility of mankind. They all emerge from and return to human perception, unlike useful inventions, which are keyed to the physical and biological environment. Useful inventions alter mankind only indirectly by altering his environment; aesthetic inventions enlarge human awareness directly with new ways of experiencing the universe, rather than with new objective interpretations.

and

When the industrial designer discovers a new shape to satisfy an old need, his difficulty is to find enough buyers for the new shape among people who already own satisfactory old forms. Thus every successful manufacture tends to saturate the region in which it was made by using all the occasions that might require the thing.

Simply genius. The book was originally published in my favorite decade ever, the 60s, and influenced a number of my favorite artists including Donald Judd, Ad Reinhardt, and Robert Smithson. It was complete coincidence I noticed it in the bookstore, read the back, and promptly decided to buy it. I seriously believe it has changed my life.

Anyway, I've been enjoying work pretty thoroughly this week, as one of my less favorable co teachers is leaving, a new very nice teacher is arriving, my birthday is Saturday, and there's a DJing prospect completely within my reach. This prospect is not at all any type of a career starter nor anything completely serious, but an exciting opportunity to at least play music in front of people. If I can get equipment, slow, low key Sunday nights are my bounty at Under Construction, a bar just two stops away on the yellow line. All I have to do is save up enough money after maybe two or three paychecks to buy something that mixes songs together and doesn't look like I am following some poor attempt at a trend.

Spam?

I submitted my blog to the Korean Blog List awhile back and was amused to read that it was accepted a couple weeks later. In lieu of this acceptance, I seem to be a new target in a flurry of various promotional emails. Hagwon reviews, Korean language learning websites, other bloggers in Korea, its really bizarre. I can't tell how much of these messages are templates and how many of them are totally genuine. Aside from that, I can't tell if I should really care whether or not they're genuine. Oh well. I think this internet being an alternate universe theory is starting to hold up. Websites like secondlife are pointless given the real second lives people lead on the internet. Getting readership really makes some bloggers livelihoods. I'm not being facetious either.

So, this turns the whole concept into a personal dilemma: should this mean anything to me or should I get a pizza tonight? I have a feeling I'll choose the latter and regret not being able to make free money three months later when I'm getting 2,534,555 hits a day.

Thank you internet gods.

Puppies, Market and Scrap Yard

Notable pictures from Seoul. I came across the most adorable group of puppies in the history of the universe and had to take pictures. The others are just ones I liked.

oh my guard!

Oh geez. My relishing in the moment has caught up with me. Has it really nearly been a month since my last post? So much has happened! I don't really know where to begin.

Currently I'm jiving to some fresh Disco (check it) with my good friend Joel in my gleaming apartment, slowly digesting a full belly of bulgogi, and staying up way too late for a trip arranged to depart from a distant subway station at 7 in the morning. What glorious odyssey commences at such an unruly hour you ask? Why, a pre-arranged trip to the ancient hot springs of Deokgu of course (conveniently located a town away from a nuclear power plant. Why this is mentioned in the trip outline, I have no idea). Hiking, nearby Uljin beach, and an organic food expo (?) await our Korean scenery-craving palettes. In about 4 hours time (probably when I finish writing this entry), we will be on a bus toward the East coast of Korea partaking on yet another indulging experience.

Now, to divulge in past events, I will follow irregular formula and go from most recent to latest. Mainly because I feel like it and I am totally awesome. To start off, my vacation started yesterday with an explosion of fun, as I was invited by two of my Korean partner teachers (Emily and Helen, both awesome) and a former Wonderland teacher named Sue (also awesome), to an all day excursion upon Everland, the Korean equivalent (and semi-rip-off) of Disneyland. The majority of the day was dedicated to Caribbean Bay, a massive water park chock full of slides, wave pools, (actually delicious) peanut butter squid dispensing snack bars, and relex (not my typo) room spas. It was fantastic. Sue, Helen, Emily and Emily's son, (who's Korean name I kept forgetting, so I called him Max), were perfect companions, and even with the semi language barrier, coworker friendships were developed and strengthened. I of course managed to burn my entire torso even with my countless applications of sunscreen and by the time daytime and Caribbean Bay had been conquered, sights were set on a free transfer to sans bathing suit Everland with aspirations of witnessing fireworks and fervent consumption of chicken and beer. Both were achieved and with a subsequent slight buzz, we pranced the park, riding nearly vacant rides and touching everything possible in the plethora of gift stores. By 11pm, bodies and general giddiness had been spent, and we drove home to many infectious tunes of K-pop (seriously, this song is awesome). All in all, a glorious day.

Before this, about a week ago, my friend Joel arrived on a 14-hour direct flight from Chicago and it was so pleasantly refreshing to see a face from home. By his first weekend here, he managed to do more Seoul exploration than I had been able to do in the last month. Luckily, we were together. We went to the ancient village of Bukchon, within the greater neighborhood of Jongno, an area that literally bore witness to the birth of this magnificently historic city. Over 600 years reside in this one region and it is truly splendid. Bukchon, the smaller more historically vibrant region, is situated between two palaces: Gyeongbukgong and Changgyeonggung. Because of our rather impromptu decision to embark on the region so late in the day, we weren't able to see anything inside either palace. But it hardly mattered. The entire exploration that ensued boasted its own illustrious atmosphere, somehow perfectly encapsulating ancient and modern architecture into a seamless flow from one end of the neighborhood to the other. Coffee shops, fashion boutiques, art galleries, and trendy restaurants strewn about winding, narrow and sloping streets satiated our thirst for unique atmosphere. The entire area was so becoming of a side of Seoul I knew had to exist but hadn't chanced upon yet, and experiencing it all with a friend from home made the experience so incredibly worthwhile. Classic Joel and Paul banter was revisited after an overdue hiatus and plenty of stupid inside jokes bloomed in its wake (i.e. the title of this entry). Everything we thought was awesome was immediately commented on with an "oh my god! that's so awesome!" exclamation. It wasn't until we saw some sort of military official standing guard at the entrance of a gated road that an inevitable "oh my guard! that's so awesome!" comment came about. Probably less than 1% of the entire world's population would've found that funny, but to us, it was hysterical. Anyway, Jongno is awesome. I'm definitely going back.

Two weeks ago, the most significant happening was my invitation to skip Mudfest (an event that can be likened to spring break in Cancun: lots of drunken white people compacted into a designated area of a small foreign city, of which little or no attention to cultural etiquette is paid), and join my amazing co-teacher Emily, her husband and aforementioned son Max, on a weekend boating trip to an area of the Han river Northeast of Seoul. Hilariously, our ten o'clock arrival at the prearranged hotel inadvertently threw us into the middle of terrible Tiesto style bass thumping at the outdoor pool. The hotel, a certain Masion de Bali, converts its pool area into an all night club on the summer weekends and doesn't stop playing cheesy (not the good kind), wall resonating music until 2am. We were all already itching to get some rest before the morning's boat ride, but instead did our best to avoid such catastrophic sleeping implications by opting to get a late night dinner along the river bank. All in all, it managed to work out perfectly. The dinner was downriver enough to not be phased by the bass, and was freaking delicious. I was an amateur vegetarian before I came to Korea, but am now a full blown meat addict. I can't help it. I invite any one of you to try and resist freshly battered succulent pork cutlet cut into deliciously crispy strips of pure tender juiciness and dipped into the most distinctly fantastic barbeque sauce you've ever had in your whole entire damn life. It is pretty much impossible.


Co-teacher Emily and I eating Korean BBQ at Masion De Bali

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was notable for the beautiful rolling hills witnessed all along the banks of the Han during the boating trip and Saturday's decision to stay behind and partake in the club (after witnessing countless sunbathing Korean women) with the group's young boat driver friend named Choi while Emily and her family went home. I mean the boating trip is definitely of mention, but uh, this club thing was probably more notable. I was pleasantly surprised/completely confused about being the only westerner among the crowd of rowdy 20-something Koreans. Choi kept insisting I dance and/or talk to any girl I wanted, but with my classic party logic, I insisted on having one more drink instead. One more drink soon turned into "ok I can totally dance with zero inhibition now" and after plenty of garbled Korean phrases, I actually met a girl without turning into too much of an idiot. Honestly, even though enough alcohol was consumed, I was pretty coherent. HONESTLY. Anyway, by the next morning, torrential rain was falling and Choi, being my ride back home, displayed excellent driving skills throughout some pretty serious flash flooding. I guess I should mention I was not his only passenger. Unbeknownst to me, he was talking to one of Eun-Hye's (the girl I met) friends the night before and said he would give them a ride back into Seoul. I was surprised. Within five or six hours of meeting, I was recovering with Eun-Hye, her two friends, and Choi at a restaurant stop eating holy-crap-this-is-ridiculously-spicy bone soup (yes thats right, bone soup) and getting to know new friends a little better.

Ok so at the beginning, I was totally kidding when I said it would take 4 hours to write this. But seriously here I am four hours later typing out my last sentence.

What?

That is retarded.

we are the bourgeoisie and we're coming to town- beep! beep!

I have honestly considered myself to be at least a decently fashionable person throughout my ever delayed awareness of how to look cool. This is not to say I have always looked cool, nor that I am even generally accepted as looking cool even when I think I do BUT, holy crap, I have to say the population of Seoul has by far the most amount of cool looking people I have ever seen in my life. 

After arriving, my fashion sense looked immediately paltry, completely out of step, and totally boring. Before arriving, I thought at least a few of my outfits would funnel me into "ooo, an American wearing American clothes from America!" admiration, but to my somewhat biased dismay, they have not. I am not exaggerating when I say that Korean women (and men) dress in utterly beautiful ways. They manage to pull things off that I don't think westerners would even know how to put on. Like take a few of these pictures I am shamelessly reposting on the internet (it is a bit difficult and creepy as a foreigner to attempt publicly taking pictures of women in a country you've only been in for one month):

 These are not the best examples, but if this at all peaks your interest, go here. This site readily displays pretty much everything I'm talking about and I'm not exaggerating when I say 8 out of every 10 people you see in Korea are dressed as the pictures so adequately display them. 

Also, an interesting side note for this link: 

I found out about it by meeting its owner and her friend at the bars two weekends ago. Her friend, whom I did a terrible job of drunkenly trying to woo, is the model in most of the pictures. Cute right? I just discovered that researching for this entry. 

Anyway, continuing with the impeccable national sense of style that dominates Korea, it is completely within reason that I admit to my love of girls with undeniably sophisticated yet eccentric fashion. Basically anything evolved from Mod (big buttons and high waisted skirts anyone?). In America, this type of sighting was rare and usually highlighted the day. Here, it is literally every 10th girl you walk by. It has essentially been the biggest incentive to adjust my wardrobe accordingly and make myself look a whole lot better in the process (by better, I am of course strictly talking about standards I feel I can more subscribe to a lot more openly, i.e. in Korea, I wouldn't be typecast as 'hipster'). The trends here may be sweeping the globe and clearly represent offshoots of American cultural identity, but here, people just know how to look good with them in a distinctly Korean way. With the country being as small and condensed as it is, it actually seems to be less difficult I think for corporate dominance to set into the practicality of everyday expression (i.e. dressing yourself). America has trends that are unique and fresh in themselves, but far too often get pigeonholed into specific crowds and age ranges. It isn't like that here, and its apparent just walking down the street. I mean seriously, there are 40 to 50 year old Korean women dressing in ways that look fresh and new. I've never seen anything like it. 

Now, throughout this entry, I purposefully avoided talking about a very specific trend here. Just so all seven of my readers will be fully engaged and on the edge of their seats wanting more more more, I will devote a later* blog to it with loads of example pictures just so I can say... to be continued.

so, here it goes...

To Be CONTINUED

*like, a couple weeks from now.

p.s. one free totally awesome souvenir to anyone who can guess the inspiration for this blog's title

seoul searching

Pardon the terrible pun, but on Saturday, I did in fact go Seoul searching. It was a wonderfully humid, smog-soaked afternoon and after an hour long transfer-filled subway excursion, the highest point in Korea, N Seoul Tower, was reached. I surfaced at Seoul Station, a distinctly historic building covered in a curious westernized architectural facade, and was immediately greeted by a totally random Christian dance troupe. Within the procession, four costumed Korean women performed something reminiscent of a rain dance while a Korean Jesus stood gallantly by. An all horn band played backup to a pre-recorded tape of what reminded me of Paradise Found, the 14 member church band I cringed over so many times throughout my adolescence. It was quite entertaining, in its own completely bizarre way, but really made me consider the strength of Christianity here. Seriously, church steeples are all over the place, and just like Chicago, you are sure to encounter lone preachers standing atop milk crates, denouncing your way of life through megaphones, and completely 100% accurately predicting when the world will end (okay, that realistically cannot be determined in my Korean encounter, but I would be willing to bet one dollar). It was interesting to say the least, especially since I never thought I'd encounter something like it here. 

Anyway, with a loosely scheduled plan to eventually reach the tower on my own time, I sauntered around, took mediocre pictures on my complete crap of a camera, and absorbed the charm. The area was the most natural blend of corporate urbanization and residential neighborhood I've ever seen. Somehow, it managed to go from big city steel and glass to quaint, charming restaurants, five to six story apartment buildings, and outdoor snoozing shop clerks within a couple blocks. Trying to capture these aspects on camera was difficult if not impossible and it forced me to appreciate being in the middle of a distinctly different culture, feeding into the limitless alterations of my own urban perceptions. Its what makes being in a foreign country so exciting, especially one with such characteristic variance. 

So Seoul Tower is on top of this area called Namsan in the middle of the city. Because the region is so hilly, most of the natural terrain has managed to stay intact. This is not to say human impediment hasn't occurred, as countless paths, statues, rest areas and fountains accommodate the weekend tourist on their excursion upwards. There are two methods for getting to the top: a cable car and about 3,000 steps directly upward. I chose the latter. It wasn't all bad, as just like climbing anything high, you can immediately dissuade your muscles from feeling pain by pumping them full "Whoa! Holy crap! I can see the whole city from here!" adrenaline. The higher you climb the path, the better you feel about yourself doing so. At least I think so. 

Right before the plateau the tower is situated on, there was a beautiful, completely stunning structure built during Korea's Joseon Dynasty that had once acted as a smoke signaling post. In fact, there was an entire defensive wall from this era which culminated at this point along most of the path upwards. It was stunning for two reasons:

1. The view from it literally overlooked the entire Northern section of the city, a view that had to have been completely, stunningly different around the time it was built.

2. The structure was essentially six gigantic furnaces, actually used as a perfectly reasonable, if not totally necessary, means to communicate messages to places miles and miles away. 

Like all physical historical things I encounter, it created an eerie, totally weird feeling within me just trying to imagine what it must've been like at the time the stones for such a project were being laid. How vastly different that atmosphere must have been. Trying to imagine how people back then must've casually interacted to pass the time. So weird. 

But yeah. After this point, the modern tower itself became the focus and I proceeded to the top. Once there, I observed the completely ridiculous massiveness that is Seoul and relished my moment above the world, less than 200 kilometers from Pyongyang, and over 10,000 from Chicago. 

Click here for my pictures of the trip.

iranian protests

I've just fed into the media frenzy that is the Iranian elections and am emotionally shaken. If you visit Youtube's Citizen Tube, the experience is mind-bogglingly surreal. I feel disgraceful for not making myself aware of the complete insanity of these events sooner. Just watch the videos. It is live streaming history. Emphasis is placed here because of the completely unfiltered, unembellished, brutal reality brandishing itself across the internet. This is legitimate textbook history undergoing its legitimization instantaneously. Think about that for one solid minute. 

Even though there is fair warning on the more graphic videos, I highly advise taking extreme precaution before watching anything with blood, fire, or what has become the viral martyrdom of Neda Agha-Soltan (it can be found through basically any video titled 'Neda'). This was not produced on some studio backlot in Hollywood. In fact, take the most realistic movie death scene you can imagine and multiply it by one thousand. Because IT IS REAL. Watch it only to be grounded in the actual events of present moment Iran. It is quite possibly the most disturbing thing I have ever witnessed. The video documents an entirely innocent, beautiful woman's horrific death as recorded frame by frame onto a cell phone this past Saturday. A CELL PHONE? What? Really? It made me consider how the entire historical nature of these events is inherently causing them to become some sort of anti-history, hastily feeding reality into this bizarre, new alternate universe. Which, in turn, caused me to ask the question, can the internet be considered its own legitimate universe?

Watching the "Neda" video quite literally shocked me to my core. It released adrenaline and anxiousness on levels I have never even interpreted in my lifetime. It really put every present moment into context, and made it feel pretty worthless. 

field trip and a random playlist

Yet another week has passed with blazing speed and I am all the more experienced for it. Learning how to teach is probably the most intense thing I've ever had to do, and its amazing how adopting it really affects one's outlook on life. I can honestly say my prior perceptions of teaching were completely skewed. As a student, so many aspects of just one class were not even considered, let alone admired. Even in college. I can't believe how much work teachers actually have to invest themselves in to get through even just one lesson. Even on something as redundant as teaching English to Korean Kindergartners. By this I am of course not suggesting the work is meaningless, or even unenjoyable, just completely, 100% engaging. It really does require a stellar amount of energy. I've been teaching for two weeks and already feel like I've invested two months worth of continuous stress. To be clear, this is not at all a complaint about the work. In fact, it is more of an ode to a job bursting at the seams with rewards. I can't wait to get better. 

On Friday, Wonderland went on a field trip to the transportation museum in Everland. From what I've gathered, Everland is somewhat of an equivalent to Disneyland, with an array of theme park amenities of which the co-workers and I have discussed potentially visiting in the near future. Anyway, the museum consisted of an outdoor miniature urban street center complete with real asphalt, kid sized cars, working traffic signals, and a fully automated train signal thing. It was set up as a guide to street safety and led by uniformed traffic attendants. The kids got a grand tour of what to and what not to do at cross walks, train tracks, and underpasses. I spent the entire time attempting my hand at photography capturing any photo op possible for Wonderland marketing. It was pretty fun and though the setting was completely different, brought me back to my days as an elementary school student half understanding what was going on and half completely oblivious to anything even remotely educational. The nostalgia trip was interesting, as it had me in a weird "is this deja vu or my brain confusing things?"  limbo. Probably the most interesting part was how well some of the kids reactions paralleled the memories I had of my own. It wasn't even things they said, just ways things were observed. I could clearly tell the educational elements were reaching them halfway, while the other half remained in "Whoa! Look at that thing! Ah! I have a cookie in my pocket! Yes! Field trrriiip!!" mode. Ahh if I could only revisit those days. 

Apart from the field trip, I spent a majority of my time over the weekend making music. Seriously, I logged nearly six straight hours in Reason Friday night alone. I think I am really making progress and will hopefully post some songs in the near future. Criticism will be more than welcome. 

Anyway, I really enjoyed doing this note on Facebook that involved putting your ipod on shuffle and documenting the first thirty songs that come up without skipping ahead or covering up potentially embarrassing guilty pleasures. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I am going to do it here with comments just because I feel like it. Here we go. Tell me what you think.

 (oh yeah also check my picture link thing. Not very many pictures yet, but more are sure to come.)

1. 1984- David Bowie - excellent song. David Bowie is one of the best songwriters I am familiar with. Actually       written in 1973

2. Dear Mr. Fantasy- Traffic - yet another excellent song. 1967

3. Voodoo Ray- A Guy Called Gerald - Early Acid House. Probably around '89 or '90 or something. Off a Warp 10+1 Influences compilation.

4. Sexx Laws- Beck - Groovy, revitalized Funk from one of Beck's most underrated albums. 1999, a year after the confusingly controversial Mutations.

5. Milkman- Aphex Twin - Hilariously and bizarrely harmonious track from one of Aphex Twin's best albums: The Richard D. James Album. 1997

6. Promo- Jackson and His Computer Band - 20 second track not worth mentioning. Good though.

7. Panda Panda Panda- Deerhoof - I think one of the most talented bands I've ever seen live. Such thoroughness and excellent musicianship. Something you I didn't expect listening to their records. 2003

8. Turn Up the Radio- Autograph - Hilariously cheesy mid-80s synthesized power rock ballad given to me from my good friend and music connoisseur Ryan. Taken from the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack.

9. Julian Fane- Birthday Boys - Beautiful ambient tune that doesn't get enough of my attention. Coming straight out of Canada, reminiscent of Barber's Adagio for Strings. 2004 

10. Number One (Black Strobe Instrumental Mix)- Shake - Wonderful synth-driven remix acquired by my friend Ryan. Very Disco inspired and completely perfect for dancing in a dark , dingy basement party. 

11. Tak 4- Plaid - I am very appreciative of Plaid and always like them when they come on. Another fantastic show where I wasn't expecting what I witnessed. Tiny track off Double Figure 2001

12. Someday my Prince Will Come- Mile Davis - Very pretty track from a best of compilation I bought awhile back when I was trying to get more seriously into Jazz. I have yet to get any deeper. Originally recorded in 1955

13. Chapel Hill- Sonic Youth - Wonderful tune from one of my all-time favorite bands. Brings back a lot of memories from high school. What a fantastic song. Full of tons of unexpected hooks. Off Dirty, an album you should own if you don't already. 1992

14. Cool Out- Leroy Hutson - Not too familiar with this, but a great smooth and cool Jazz/R&B instrumental track I acquired from a previous co-worker's mix CD. 1975

15. Like Spinning Plates- Radiohead - I don't think I can say anything about this band that hasn't already been said. Just fantastic. Off Amnesiac for all you crazies that pretend to not like them. 2003

16. Cephalopod- Lithops - Track from the solo project of Jan St. Werner of Mouse on Mars. Weird, loosely structured, and repetitive. In other words, awesome. 2008

17. Will You Smile Again- And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead...- Intensely dramatic song with a catchy and nice middle section from a band I admittedly only became familiar with because of their track Mistakes and Regrets. Music I'd probably spend more time listening to if I wasn't obsessed with cheesy electro. 

18. Stereo Sanctity- Sonic Youth - Really fantastic song from an earlier SY album. Completely ahead of its time and full of catchy, trademark distortion. Off Sister 1987

19. We Still Expect Freedom- James T. Cotton- Very redundant, hypnotic, and old school yet still somehow fresh sounding House track from this guy named James T. Cotton. He basically creates dance tracks that go nowhere and are virtually un-danceable. He goes by numerous other monikers and is well respected in the house community. Off The Dancing Box, an album with appallingly terrible cover art. 2004

20. Nimrod- Edward Elgar - An intoxicatingly beautiful song from the infamous Enigma Variations written by the English composer. This song has a significantly special place in my heart as I will never forget the insanely powerful feeling of building its crescendos and dramatic climax in my high school orchestra. Written in 1898-99

21. Wooden- Simian Mobile Disco - Another intoxicatingly beautiful song of completely different persuasion. Borrowing heavily from early 90's pop trance (a genre I just made up), it completely embraces the magical quality of zoning out and dancing your buns off. From an album I foolishly underestimated well after it was released: Attack Decay Sustain Release 2007

22. Wu-Tang Clan- Visionz - Not one of their best, but a random one I downloaded in college. Clearly, its all about Da' Mystery of Chessboxin'. 

23. Harder Better Faster Stronger- Daft Punk - A song notoriously mutilated by Kanye West in 2008. You can't slow down a brilliant classic dance song, half-assedly rap over it, and call it genius. Personally, I believe Discovery will become one of the greatest classics of our generation. 

24. That Which Cannot be Measured- Devast8r - A song produced by my brother! Go to his myspace page now: myspace.com/archcarriermusic  

25. Walking On a Dream- Empire of the Sun - A track that should be played in every dance club everywhere. So fantastically emotionally investing and entirely appropriate for dancing. Watch the video right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmM2RwlxGt0 

26. Shrewland- Chris Clark - A song that would fit more than perfectly in a horror movie about waking up in your completely abandoned elementary school. 

27. First Gear- The Rapture - The Rapture are such a great band and this song is really fun. I unfortunately am reminded too much of terrible breakups when listening to them for me to really enjoy them fully.  2006

28. Atlas- Battles - A great song by a band so many random people went bananas over last year. Interestingly, they were brought onto the scene by Warp, a label that seemed unlikely to ever break out of its electronica shell. 2007

29. Eugene's Lament- Beastie Boys - Ahhh the Beastie Boys. One classic New York act with countless classic EPs under their belt. This song is very Middle Eastern inspired, for lack of a better term, and composes just a fraction of their innumerable instrumentals. 1994

30. You Are the Sunshine of My Life- Stevie Wonder- Gorgeous track from one of my personal musical heroes and a perfect to cap this ridiculous, two hour long playlist. Sporting a voice I would kill to be gifted with, Stevie Wonder truly is a wonder to listen to. This song always makes me feel like I have a girlfriend, even when I don't. I really like it. 1973

I can't believe I just did that. 

geogaddi seoul

Korea living status has officially reached over a week. I am so happy to be here. It feels fantastic. Last night, I went out with new co-workers and received a punishing blow from Itaewon. Not really, I just wanted to say that because it sounded cool. 

So in Seoul, Itaewon is like the foreigner capital, constantly brimming with drunken westerners. I've been there twice so far, and have yet to interpret it completely sober. My recollections of last night have me in this absurdly crowded bar called the Wolfhound, talking to people from England, South Africa and U.S., all guzzling frosted beer and bad mix drinks and ending up in a hilariously bad dance club. Most of the people were very nice and I had a pretty fun time celebrating my co-worker Jaemie's birthday. 

Of course, this was not the highlight of officially living here a week. 

On Thursday, I was sent after school to the Immigration office in Seoul, about an hour's commute from Bundang. As I lust after traveling into the unknown, prompted to use urban survival skills, and marvel at the sheer massiveness and never ending complexity that is life, I went alone with only a subway map, immigration papers, directions and enthusiasm. One cannot express the complexity and massiveness that is Seoul. If you've ever been to New York, its public transit is comparable. In fact I would say it's better. The trains are well-lit, clean, and appropriately complimented by raw, thick, sprawling underground cities. And that is to be taken literally. Seoul's subway stations are a consortium of consumer business first, transport hubs second. Clothing shops, arcades, food stops, and even banks construct a subterranean maze so unprecedented in scale, it is nearly incomprehensible. Seoul's underground network is made up of vast walls, tunnels, and grandiose staircases on par with being slightly-larger-than-large-enough and are constantly illuminated by borderline surreal fluorescence. It is bright, solid, stoic, and completely embarrasses the Chicago Transportation Authority. To say I love it is an understatement. 

Aside from this, the infrastructure of the city is to be constantly marveled. The sheer physical weight of its massive granite blocks, grated metal, and deep cement sliced neat into such elegantly simple structures is astonishing. However, newness is perpetually contrasted by ancient density. The major streets' offshoots are inundated with a standard array of steep hills, compacted storefronts, and winding built-before-cars-existed throughways. I have been consistently amazed traveling through this city, as it has always been overwhelming in volume. As with New York City and all metropolitan areas, the vibrancy here is encased in the grit. Unlike New York, charm is ensconced within the endless holding aquariums brimming with exotic sea life, the worn neon Hangeul hanging above floor seating only restaurants, and dozen or so street vendors encountered on a stroll down a bustling city block. I couldn't but pause every few blocks on my way to immigration to observe something I'd never seen before: live squid, eel, clams, perfectly foreign alleys packed with haphazard looking electrical wiring, hastily parked scooters, and crumbling balconies. Maybe its the Metric system working its charm, but structures here seem to have their own unique physicality unlike anywhere in the States. It feels as though geometry sprawls throughout the architecture here in a deceptively homogenous manner to that of my own country. The perfection in completed structure is a different type of perfection. Needless to say, it is the beginning of quenching this foreigner's thirst for the exotic. 

After reading on the internet that Koreans have no concept of personal space before I arrived here, I observed a nearly 200-person line in seemingly normal fashion stretching down the sidewalk to board a bus. I observed and stood in lines waiting for trains at subway stops. It appeared to me that patience is conceived of differently here, as a willing and calm line of people in America waiting to board a bus in a dense urban area would probably result in some type of obnoxious yelling. I will say that riding a totally packed train is different from Chicago, as I definitely had the brightest hair on the car. And my god, observing the obscene amount of cuteness bursting from everywhere I walk in Korea is ridiculous. Korean girls have just adopted a new fan. There was seriously a girl on the train on my way back from immigration who could've quite possibly been the cutest girl I've ever seen. The bangs, the thick rimmed glasses, the collared shirt, the cute cute loafers, everything. It was ridiculous. I am a huge fan of girls that look like total nerds, probably are, have bangs and are actually really hot. And holy lord train girl fit this profile to the tea. In fact the percentage of girls that do in this country is significantly higher than back home. It is awesome. 

Anyway, I am really seriously considering pursuing my personal DJ aspirations so I can make people dance and feel good. I want to be really good and only play music that would fit the essence of feeling fantastic. Basically, old school disco tastefully and progressively meshed with good downbeat, funky bass driven electro as the set wore on. Oh man I get goosebumps just thinking about it. I even just thought of the most perfect name: Vega. More on this later.

lack of posts

My apologies for not posting more regularly. My first week of teaching has been kind of a whirlwind of stress. I really intend on posting more frequently in the next couple weeks or so, but I am just kind of inundated right now. Hopefully, I'll get a good blog in this Sunday (with pictures). 

Laterzzzz

here

Yo-ho! Two weeks have past! After a 12 hour flight into the most ergonomically designed airport ever, hour long bus ride through rice fields, valleys of mud slopes at low tide, charmingly condensed urban and rural life, and the following three days of hilarious and absurdly cute Korean kids and some already amazing and beautiful people, I am in Korea. It is very hard to adequately portray the feeling of being here, as it has been a complete burst of newness. I couldn't even get to this blog until after arriving four days ago, but already, there is so much to think about, dissect, and analyze. What's most shocking is how little culture shock has set in (at least not yet) and I am stunned by my lack of trans-globe fatigue. It practically makes no sense. I barely even slept on the plane. But I am here and in it and feeling like I've finally done something huge in my life completely on my own. 

So, to start off, the plane ride began with a mad dash to the international terminal from a two hour delayed arrival into San Francisco. Because a handful of people were transferring to Seoul on the the said flight, our magical flight steward made some "magic" (an expression he used at least five times) happen by telling everyone aboard to not get up until we were at the front of the plane. I have to say, it felt really nice walking through first class wearing cutoffs and a hoodie, watching dozens of eyes impatiently stare me down as I, last in line, exited the plane. "Hello! I am your inferior relishing in my two and half minutes of completely inane superiority! Thank yooooooooouuuuuuu!" 

Well I made the flight to Seoul with a host of my counterparts scurrying to get into the dying remnants of a line boarding the plane. "Yes I have my passport! Yes I have my confirmation ticket! Yes! Yes! I am ready for this!"

I stepped on, looked into the decadent sleeping pods trimmed with ten square feet of personal space in first class, and was immediately slapped back into my airplane riding reality. However, it wasn't all bad, as when I was shuffling to my seat and dreading sitting in an armpit for twelve hours, I was pleasantly taken aback at how I had happened to evade such bad luck. The seat beckoned me like a holy grail, bursting with magically glowing well-worn cotton threads, a cellophane-wrapped blanket, and the oh so extravagant Tyvek pillow. I had been fortunate enough to be graced with the godly throne of seat 30B, the emergency exit row, and over five feet of legroom in the clouds. 

For the next twelve hours, I sat next to a well built, completely grizzled, Louisiana drawling Iraq war veteran traveling abroad to "get some stuff." We had a number of friendly conversations about North Korea, his love of boats, and life goal of traveling the Pacific Rim in a catamaran and not caring whether his 20 year old wife would want to join him or not. I asked him about serving in Iraq and he delved into things I wasn't expecting, aligning many of his points with America's supposed solid course into developing into a Marxist state (and most interestingly, claiming that once I was in South Korea, how I'd see they "are freer here than in the U.S."). I steered clear of U.S. politics and we ended up discussing the threat of North Korea, much of which I am admittedly lagging behind on completely understanding. It was interesting getting his perspective and the logic behind it, as it seemed to make sense in his context and understanding how close we were traveling to said country. It actually did a lot for me, expanding my bubble to include the reality of the threat, knowing I was closer to it on the plane and would be for the next year. But I also learned that much of the logic behind this threat is completely irrational and stupid. South Koreans do not feel threatened. It is understood here that if the North were to attack, the resources it has to sustain any type of conflict would dwindle so fast, the government would probably collapse if it pushed too far. This is not suggesting it couldn't inflict sufficient damage and major harm on its neighboring countries, but unlike the Taliban or Al-Queada or Terrorism, North Korea is a legitimately recognized governed society, feeding into the endless swarm of political mess. Needless to say, I was very appreciative of my seat partner's presence the whole way there. 

We arrived and it was off to Wonderland. Some medical screening (as in checking forms we filled out on the plane) was conducted, and everyone followed each other through the sleekest, cleanest, nicest airport ever built to the baggage claim and then onward to bus travel into Seoul. I was greeted by a man holding a Mr. Paul Schaffenberger sign and was directed to my bus and which stop to get off at. I arrived and was immediately greeted by two members of my school and set up in a hotel approximately 200 feet from where I got off. I then toured the school and met everyone there. It was really fantastic. I think I am really going to love being here. I love it already. I am comfortable in the school after being there for two days. The biggest challenge is going to be learning how to teach, but I am going to take it and run. So, as I sit here in my new Korean apartment, eating squid flavored chips, and just starting my whole life changing saga, I anticipate learning and discovering and blogging about it all. The best is yet to come (including pictures: my camera is being a downright fool at the moment).

whoa totally meta

First off, this entry is dedicated to Jenny for giving my blog a shout out and making me feel like a chump for being critical of tumblr in the process. 

With three entries under my belt, and what I initially intended on being an informative, non-pretentious (or at least interesting enough to forgo pretentiousness), and dare I say, exciting blog, I've realized how my dive into the blogosphere is already kind of swampy and hypocritical. So here, I will outline some points I believe legitimize intentions of having a blog.

1. To inform others of your views, thoughts, travels and interests. 

2. To make those views, thoughts, travels and interests anything but pointless by making them unique, interesting, promoting others to read them and (in most cases) provide feedback.

3. To take that feedback and build a following to encourage bigger and better views, thoughts, travels, and interests. 

So from this model, I had a lot of conflicts in the past with starting something I felt to be completely vain, even if being an artist ironically follows these guidelines pretty much exactly. I even tried to start a tumblr page and couldn't do it because the format seemed lazy to me (which I justified as promoting the vain stereotype as easily as possible). Regardless, a blog is like constant self promotion, no matter which direction you encourage it. And although I've come to terms with this aspect to even write this entry, I can't help but feel talking about books I'm reading or music I'm listening to is not in some way trying to express how awesome I am, even if its unintentional (if it really ever can be). And this makes everything feel hypocritical. 

Interestingly and as mentioned before, being an artist follows the guidelines of a blog pretty much exactly. The hypocrisy here now is twofold, one representing my already published entries, and one representing my current life goal. I hadn't really thought of it that way until Jenny mentioned me in her blog and forced me to realize I was kind of focusing on blogging too narrowly. So from here I want to express how much I intend this blog to be hopefully interesting and capture the essence of being in Korea once I get there from an analytical and artistic mindset. I like to keep tabs on blog models I like and interestingly, even ones I don't, and it feels like this blog is not necessarily trying too hard (well maybe), but definitely coming off as if it is. I think. I am pretty much my only resource here. So comments would be awesome. Let me know. You are 50% of this blog. 

On another note, I will be in Korea in less than a week. I can't tell how excited I am because it seems to have plateaued over the past month. I mean, I am super excited but can't tell what to think about anymore because everything's run through my head 3,467 times already. And by the way, that number may not seem like much, but it is exact. One thing I keep repeating in my head is what the landing is going to feel like. I haven't abroad since I was 14 and can only nostalgically remember watching foreign land sweep by under the plane in what felt like (and probably was) a two hour descent. The anxiousness combined with the mystery made the whole thing  feel so awesome. I think that combination is the recipe for adrenaline, which in a dose like that, is pretty intense. 

Wow, two entries in a row about plane landings. Maybe I'm destined to be an ambassador. 

history shmistory

So I'm reading this book called The Shape of Time by this guy named George Kubler and it is pretty interesting. I found it in a store called Myopic Books in Chicago and promptly bought it after reading this description on the back:

Let us suppose that the idea of art can be expanded to embrace the whole range of man-made things, including all tools and writing in addition to the useless, beautiful, and poetic things of the world. By this view the universe of man-made things simply coincides with the history of art. It then becomes an urgent requirement to devise better ways of considering everything man has made. 

Published in 1962, the book is written in the form of an essay, providing examples of the inter-relationship between humankind's multiple array of developed complex systems (tools, math, history, etc.) and art at length. It is pretty dense and formidable, but it breaks down very logically, an aspect I really enjoy. I am only halfway through and have gathered maybe 75% of the content, but if I understand some main points Kubler is presenting, it is these:

1. Current and past dispositions in the field of art are inherently hindered by their predisposed paths in history. The relationship between artist and movement for example, is forever linked based on our biological (his term, not mine) classification system, i.e. organizing artistic achievements and movements regionally, periodically, or based off style etc.

2. I don't think Kubler necessarily believes there is anything wrong with the practicality of this approach, he just feels that it is like examining historical achievements through a pinhole rather than the gigantic gaping hole behind it: 

"... the 'history of things' is intended to reunite ideas and objects under the rubric of visual forms: the term includes both artifacts and works of art, both replicas and unique examples, both tools and expressions- in short all materials worked by human hands under the guidance of connected ideas developed in temporal sequence. From all these things a shape in time emerges... This self image reflected in things is a guide and a point of reference to the group (of people) for the future, and it eventually becomes the portrait given to posterity." 

So far, the merit of this book is unprecedented. It is really a fantastic way to approaching history on general terms, de-emphasizing the significance of art while retaining its absoluteness as a legitimate human necessity. I am totally excited to read the rest, even if it does take a while to do so.

That said, I was very lazily sitting around the other day gorging on cookies when a show called Inside Air Force One came on the National Geographic Channel. It was pretty absurd learning about the security measures and amenities provided by the president's plane. Did you know there are two Air Force Ones? And they're not officially recognized as Air Force One until the president is on board? At one point during the show, there was a scene in which Air Force One landed in Israel, and taxied right up to the already rolled out red carpet. The pilot could be heard talking about representing America and just how important and perfect every aspect of a landing had to be over imagery (from his window) of military guards holding flags and saluting the president as he strolled off the steps and into the diplomatic foray of Israeli leaders. It was this instance I found most intriguing. The perspective given from the cockpit gave off a very weird energy, depicting a somewhat abstract essence of what being a person of world stature would be like firsthand. The cockpit view captured a subtle yet interesting actuality I just can't imagine being shared by that many people throughout the world, diminishing the grandeur of the event to a level of purely engaged reality. The elevation of such an event has to be the means of ensuring its historical significance. However, it's interesting that such significance is beheld by only a handful of people whom actually experience it as legitimate reality. This is not to say it is overemphasized, or even that it is unnecessary (OR even that my experience of it through recorded and edited film did not elicit some of its own significance), but rather that it is nearly entirely focused within a specific core of people, while the rest of the world has to experience it through miles upon miles of wires. Watching the footage of that scene took me on a thought path that totally subtracted all media filters and lead to some of these conclusions. On some levels, it was kind of like looking at a fine Baroque painting in person, seeing it in its rawest and purest form, and focusing on how the frame took more time to make than the actual image inside it. Regardless, I can't imagine what kind of pressure something like exiting Air Force One into a foreign country would demand, let alone what it would be like to be greeted on such a massive scale. Everything on the president's schedule is apparently timed down to the minute and there is no room for error or setbacks. That means no sleeping in or sitting around to watch National Geographic when your job gets a little hectic. What is it like to have an entire country depending on you? I think its hard enough living up to Facebook standards let alone those of 304,059,724 people. Well whatever, I used to want to be the president, but I don't really anymore. 

pump up the jam

So I found a neat title photo for the blog after searching for exactly three minutes. I am officially a legitimate blogger. Speaking of legitimate blogs, I have had this blog in heavy rotation with random 60s girl group on my itunes and I have to say it is really refreshing. I had been in a music-exploration slump for the past few months or so, very narrowly focusing on hilariously cheesy/fantastically groovy new wave-electro-dance music provided by my friend Ryan's innumerable playlists. Admittedly, the beat electric blog doesn't veer from this very much, but it does present a whole new (as in retro) basis to my dance music thirst. It is completely fascinating how specifically genre-blending, experimental, and innovative this short-lived era of music was. It was entirely a transitional period, lasting all but 5 to 8 years if that. Drawing heavily from beat orientations of Disco and Funk, this period began the first really solid incorporation of synthesizers and the fresher than fresh hip hop trends as they developed into independently  legitimized musical styles. I believe it entirely set the tone for the wave of electronically based, dance-oriented styles that emerged in the 80s and 90s. What's most interesting is how the massive appeal of duos like Daft Punk and Justice today, very consciously reverted to not just drawing influence from subtle nuances of this musical time frame, but sampling it directly. With the onslaught of 80s throwbacks in dance (and double interestingly, current pop music) in response, this avenue of musical expression appears to be recycling what already happened nearly 30 years ago as fresh and new. And this presents the best part of it all, because it totally and completely is fresh and new. I think its the entire reason why Daft Punk  and Justice were responded to on such an immediately appealing level. Their combination of elements from bass driven 90s house elevated the fresh sounds of this transitional disco, funk, electro period to freshness that is becoming of our own era. And damn, it is really nice. 

On top of all this, listening to 60s girl groups has really inspired this incredibly weak soft spot I have for women with beautiful voices. Man, I can't even believe how amazingly moving some of the harmonies and subtleties of this other abstract, somewhat forgotten, yet highly influential era of music are. Add to that the vintage appeal of the best decade ever and its forever freshly established openness, and you have a combination that melts my heart. I mean seriously look at how cute Sheila Ross from the Royalettes looks in this freeze frame:

I think the combination of these things is what I find so appealing, even if the music requires you be in a precise mood to take it all in. While sifting through this genre, it is very easy to write it off as all sounding the same, and much of it is notoriously formulaic. But what's exciting, as in all music, are the little breaks, unexpected tempo changes, unpredictable chorus punches and lovely harmonies. For me, it strikes a power chord in my body and will almost always, if the mood is right, make my eyes inexplicably well up. It's hard to explain, but I can honestly say the movie Dream Girls had me in the constant disposition of wiping tears off my face. 

Here are some good songs if you are interested:

Oh No Not My Baby- Maxine Brown

She Don't Deserve You- Honey Bees

It's Gonna Take a Miracle- The Royalettes

I unfortunately don't know/am too lazy at the moment to figure out how to post these as downloads, but I highly recommend looking them up on youtube for the full awesomely 60s instant nostalgia effect. 

Anyway, my dog, Sato, is awesome.

cue first entry

Korea is on the horizon. Two weeks time and I will be anxiously waiting in a deceptively comfortable passenger loading lobby, listening to dance music and thinking about approximately 172 things at once, all intercepting each other. I returned back to the pleasant sunny cool breeze that was Dallas, Texas yesterday and had a perfectly coincidental evening with my good friend Steven. Three hours of the most intense Yoga I've ever done and a typical Paul und Steven jam/dance/embrace one another's presence session ensued. All in front of his lovely girlfriend. Later this morning, we said our goodbye and I was helping my little sister load the contents of her apartment into my Dad's mini-van destined for S.A.. This was all of course after a week spent in New York, God among cities, with my brother, also named Stephen (with a ph). NYC was predictably fantastic, and I logged at least 30 miles of walking while I was there. I was fortunate enough to have much on my own time to explore and looked at quite a bit of art:

My brother turned 28 and had a party the day I arrived. He, his friend/roommate Ben, Yuka, and I went to a club later where we (I) drunkenly attempted breakdancing moves in a haphazardly organized dance circle. The music was completely on point and there was even a live band to compliment the DJ's booty-jive inducing skills. Basically I want to live in New York now. I'm pretty sure I'll end up there eventually. 

Now I am home in San Antonio, embracing the seemingly perfect kid-absent decor that was my childhood. My parents have done a lot of work on our house since all their children have ventured into adulthood and it has always managed to simultaneously please and throw me off when I return after a long absence. It's kind of exactly like Trading Spaces, but without the hot hostess.