– My latest article is up at Korean-Content — this time a talk with director Jang Cheol-soo, whose film BEDEVILLED was screened at Fantasporto, the fantasy/science-fiction film festival in Porto, Portugal. I attended Fantasporto, too (greatly enjoying it, as always), and spent some time with Director Jang, walking around the old city with him, and taking a quick trip to Guimaraes to see the castle and old town.
– Which reminds me, Fantasporto is a really fun festival. Different than most, but in a good way (the festival organizers are more hands-off than most, but I like being more independent). And I really like Porto, the look of the city, the food. And this year, they actually had sunny weather (Porto is usually rainy this time of year).
– Speaking of Korean movies, as I write this, local films are taking in over 60 percent of the box office in Korea in 2011. Sure, attendance is lagging (there has been no AVATAR-esque blockbuster to dominate things), but still, always good to see a country’s cinema performing well.
– A bunch of articles have appeared on the web recently that talk about Korean indie music and my music website, the Korea Gig Guide — a round-up on the indie scene in the March music issue of KoreAm magazine; a profile of the Gig Guide over at Groove magazine.
– And speaking of music, this is shaping up to be a pretty exciting time for Korean indie music. Four Korean bands are slated to play SXSW this year — DFSB Kollective taking Galaxy Express, Vidulgi Ooyoo, and Idiotape to SXSW, Canada Music Week and a couple of other gigs, and Apollo 18 doing their own 16-gig mini-tour through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennesse. Plus 3rd Line Butterfly and W&Whale appearing on Monocle magazine’s podcast recently, and Balloon & Needle just had a mini-tour of Europe, showing their more avant-garde electronica. Seriously, the Korean music scene at the moment really reminds me of the movie scene back in 1996, full of talent and energy, just waiting to take off. Despite (because of?) the music industry being ravaged around the world, I am getting strangely optimistic about the chances for the Korean indie music community breaking out.
– Btw, how cool is it that Apollo 18 got themselves included on one of the main posters for SXSW? That’s them on the lower left, on the same poster as Emmylou Harris and The Kills. Shawn writes a bit about Apollo 18 and their tour plans over at the Korea Gig Guide.
– Terrible news coming from Japan, as that earthquake has been upgraded to a 9.1. Fortunately, no one I know there seems to have been hurt … but with so many thousands hurt, dead, and missing, tragedy is going to be overwhelming for some time.
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