Books, blog and other blather

Category: Random Stuff (Page 7 of 7)

Random Notes and Whatnot 3

Because I am apparently unable to get my act together, here are some random entertainment notes….

I should have mentioned earlier, but Korea’s greatest rock star Shin Joong-hyun is having his “last” concert on Dec. 17. (I use the quotes because who knows if “last” really means last, or if it is a Babs Streisand-esque last, to be followed by 20 years of encores).

Shin is often called the “godfather” of Korean rock. He certainly was one of the most important people in Korea’s music history. Born in 1936, Shin grew up in Korea and Manchuria (and, according to at least one Japanese press version, Kyushu). He was orphaned during the Korean War, but managed to get by over the next few years thanks to friends of the family.

Some time in the 1950s, he got himself a guitar and learned how to play it. Soon he was giving lessons in Jongno (downtown Seoul), and by 1957 he was playing for the US 8th Army (using the name Jackie Shin).

Things were going well enough, if unspectacularly, and from 1957 for the next decade, he played and recorded and did okay. But in 1968 everything changed — two high school girls (The Pearl Sisters) asked him to write some music for them. The resulting album was a HUGE hit.

From then on, SJH was a big star. He started recording under his own name and writing songs for others. Kim Jung-mi sat in his office for weeks until he agreed to let her sing. Kim Chu-ja, Lee Hwa-jung and so many others. The Shin Joong-hyun “Family” recorded dozens of brilliant albums.

Then in 1972, Shin was asked to write some songs glorifying the Park Chung Hee regime. When Shin refused, life started going badly. He was increasingly censored and harrassed. Then in 1975, Shin was one of the first of nearly 60 celebrities rounded up in a huge marijuana bust. When he finally got out of prison, he found his music was banned. And, worse, tastes had changed and left him behind.

For the last 25 years or so, Shin has owned and operated a couple of clubs in Seoul, jamming with friends and playing.

So, Dec. 17 is the last chance to catch this icon of Korea music. He is playing in Jamsil. If you are in the country, you must see this show.

Wow… that was a lot longer than I intended.

Other stuff going on this weekend… Saturday at 4pm, this indie drama is screening at Strange Fruit, in Hongdae…

Other random notes… NO REGRETS, a highly regarded gay drama, has topped 35,000 admissions in less than two weeks. And that is on only 6 screens. Very impressive.

On the other hand, AD-LIB NIGHT, the latest film by Lee Yoon-ki (“This Charming Girl”), is not doing nearly as well. It sold 816 tickets in its first three days last weekend. Still, some say it is well worth checking out.

Random Notes and Whatnot 2

THE HOST opened at No. 9 in France last week. In its first weekend, THE HOST made $680,805 in 223 theaters. Not bad, I guess. I still remember checking out www.boxofficemojo.com each week, years ago when MUSA was released in France, like it was somehow important that a Korean film was playing in the theaters overseas.

Oh, pretty good reviews for THE HOST over at Rotten Tomatoes.

A nice overview of some jazz concerts in Seoul this Christmas over at the Marmot’s Hole. Christmas season is always the biggest time of year for live shows in Korea, with anyone and everyone having their big holiday shows.

Why has Firefox stopped showing me pics and editing options on blogger? I assume I have something turned off in my preference, but cannot see anything that could be causing the problem. Kind of annoying.

What happened to my NBA television? TVU, a kind of Internet pirate TV station out of China, used to let me watch ESPN (1 & 2) and the NBA channel, among about 100 other channels. But this week, ESPN and the NBA channel disappeared. All the lousy channels I do not care about are still there, only my NBA is gone. I assume Disney and/or the NBA took some sort of legal action against the company… but since when did the legal system in China Work? And why did it had to work to my detriment?

(For the record, I would gladly pay to watch the NBA, either over the Internet or via cable TV, but I have no such options in Korea. None of the Korean sports channels carry the NBA (okay, one game a week on MBC ESPN, but that hardly counts). Star Sports out of Hong Kong has nothing. No Interview VOD options. Nothing. Such a bizarre and sad situation.)

Sad, albeit in a totally different way, my Raptors are currently No. 7 in the Eastern Conference. Despite having a 7-10 record. If the playoffs were held today, Toronto would be in and Miami would not be. Bizarre.

Yes, I know those last points have nothing to do with Korean entertainment.

Hobsbawn and History

Eric Hobsbawm has long been a favorite historian of mine — not for his renowned Marxism, but for books like THE INVENTION OF TRADITION and its companion, NATIONS AND NATIONALISM SINCE 1780.

Anyhow, I just ran across an essay by Hobsbawm about the Hungarian uprising of 1956 in the Nov. 16 issue of the London Review of Books. Not terribly relevant to Asian entertainment or Korean history… But I did love the opening sentence of his essay:

Contemporary history is useless unless it allows emotion to be recollected in tranquillity.

A great, simple point about history and politics and all that stuff that gets people so hot and bothered. Lord knows more people over here in East Asia should follow his advice.

(By the way, a rather different view (i.e., negative and shrill) of Hobsbawm and his legacy can be read here.)

(Btw2: I never knew this until just now, but apparently Hobsbawm and Noble Prize winner Kim Dae-jung met a few years ago, at a conference is Olso.)

Random Notes and Whatnot

The godfather of Korean rock music, Shin Joong-hyun got a write-up in the New York Times this weekend, by Norimitsu Onishi. It is a nice enough piece, although slightly slight and not breaking any new ground. I would link to a story I wrote about Mr. Shin for the Asian Wall Street Journal in the summer, but like most WSJ stuff, you need a paid subscription to read it (as you will for the NYT story in a week). You can, however, read about my WSJ story in this Korean government website story.

How did I miss this bit of news? It looks like miniskirts and hot pants will no longer be illegal in South Korea. Hard to believe it, but technically both are still no-nos… weird morality-law holdovers from the 1970s, although this law has not been enforced in ages. Korea still has far too many unenforced laws like that one. Like that old saying “Everything is permitted, but nothing is legal.” Now, if only the government would scrap the cabaret laws which destroy Korea’s live music scene.

Asian movie companies are making a bigger presence at this year’s American Film Mart (the biggest film market in North America), although the overall market seems to be rather slow this year.

Nothing to do with Korea or Asian culture, but here is a link where you can look at 100 Hubble telescope pictures of the galaxies. Very cool.

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