Books, blog and other blather
After weeks of the clearest fall skies I can remember in Korea, the smog finally rolled in last week, turning everything all throat-scratchy and post-apocalyptic. But last night it rained and cleared everything out, at least for a little while. Plus the leaves are finally turning colors (it’s been pretty warm all October), so everything in Korea is pretty lovely at the moment.
Is it my imagination or have we had some of the clearest fall skies in years in Seoul this year? Lots of blue — sometimes clear, sometimes great clouds.
As happy as great weather makes me, good reviews for Young-Hee & the Pullocho make me even happier (segue!). Jo Ann Hakola, The Book Faerie, gave the book a nice write-up. And Erik over at This Kid Reviews Books said:
This was a good book. Young-hee is a marvelous main character. You can really see how her character changes throughout the book, but it is subtle until the end then you realize the growth of the character. The book is a nice solid story with an interesting plot … The story was compelling and the world created by Mr. Russell was exciting and described vividly. This was a cool multi-cultural story that many kids would enjoy.
EDIT: Oh, and one more photo, from this evening’s sunset.
Summer is still nasty hot out, but the end is in sight, as at last temperatures are falling somewhere close to okay in the middle of the night. With my son on the verge of turning 1 year old, I thought this might be a good time to take stock of where I am and how things have changed over the past year or so.
To everyone who checked out one of my books or read this blog, thanks much for your interest. And hopefully I’ll have more to interest you soon.
We had a pretty amazing sundown last night.
And incredible skies this morning.
For no particular reason, here are a few photos of a couple of sunsets from last week.
I’m going to miss this apartment when I move…
It’s strange seeing parts of Korea that are so familiar to me change so rapidly. Not only is the Grand Mart getting a facelift, but an old part of Shinchon is also changing fast. Down the street, where the old rail bridge used to cross the big road, looks like it is about it get its park at last.
The rail bridge used to cast a pretty dark shadow over that stretch of Shinchon, and only old, lousy buildings abutted the noisy tracks. The bridge was torn down six or seven years ago (seen here in 2009 from Google Maps).
Then the big ugly concrete anchors were taken out and the train line was buried and turned into a subway (Naver Maps: 2012).
Then the construction was covered over, but the land on top has been left to grow wild, with those same old buildings just sitting there — an old gopchang jeongol restaurant, a tiny vegetable stall, and some little, rundown places (Daum Maps, 2014).
Or, rather, they were just sitting there. Monday night, they were all gone.
I guess this means they are finally getting around to building the long-promised park here. It’s already done by Daeheung Station to the east and is nearly done west of Hongik Station. Now they need to fill in the middle bit. Considering how much those completed sections have improved, I’m really looking forward to seeing how this stretch will change. It’s really perfect for some cafes and open spaces, the kind that Seoul so lacks.
Drab old Grand Mart in Shinchon appears to have gotten a fancy facelift. It’s about to re-open with a Spao on the ground floor, and the usual mix of restaurants upstairs. I guess it is mostly (entirely?) E-Land stuff, which isn’t a huge surprise, considering the mini-chaebol is headquartered just down the street.
The Shinchon Grand Mart opened in 1994, even before I arrived in Korea. But ever since I started hanging out in Shinchon, it was the most depressing building in the area. The three-screen cinema that used to be housed in its upper floors was perhaps the worst I ever went to in Seoul, with tiny screens and terrible sound. That theater closed years ago, thanks to the rise of nice multiplexes everywhere, and the Grand Mart has generally be trending downward for years (although I do appreciate the supermarket in the basement).
The Grand Mart is located in the lower left of the above photo. As totally as the area has changed over the years, I think I recognize a couple of the buildings on the rotary, though — the Hongik Mungo bookstore and the Woori Bank building.
Just a few pics from Changsin-dong, just to the north of Dongdaemun, in the park that runs along the wall.
And a little something from the Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
My typical view on the way to the subway in the morning.
Close to my home, there is this small, nondescript alley. Or, rather, there was. Just one year ago, the alley had nothing but a super-cheap lunch place and a lot of residences (and stacks of garbage). Here is an image of it taken from Naver from just over a year ago.
Now, however, that alley has been turned almost completely commercial. There’s a “Mongolian” lamb grill, an Izakaya, a croissant shop, a grilled seafood place, a fancy dessert shop, and a pretty good Chinese restaurant.
Not to mention a Japanese bakery, Aoitori, which is bizarrely one of the trendiest joints in the area for drinks later in the day (it turns into a quasi-pub, with cocktails and wine, in the evening).
And that’s just on this 50 meter stretch. When you go to the end, the cross alley now has a Mexican-Japanese fusion pub, a huge chicken place, a hair shop, plus three of the buildings are now being renovated or completely rebuilt.
In short, there’s a real dynamism here, a sense that everything is constantly in flux. And I really like that. Of course, all change also implies a sense of loss and someone inevitably gets hurt, but I like living in a country that is still moving forward.
Imagine this happened in alley after alley, block after block, and you might get a sense of how much energy there is in Hongdae these days. Every time I think this neighborhood has hit a saturation point (for bars, coffee shops, galleries or whatever), it just keeps on growing.
Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music and Internet Culture (2nd edition) is the only English-language book to examine the whole of Korea's entertainment industry and how it became such a powerhouse over the past 20 years. With profiles of many of Korea's top stars (including Lee Byung-hun and Rain), Pop Goes Korea features chapters on movies, music, television, comic books, the Internet, and more.
On sale now at:
Amazon.com
Kobo eBooks
And hopefully more ebooks stores very soon.
The original edition of Pop Goes Korea is now out of print.
K-Pop Now! takes a fun look at Korea’s high-energy pop music, and is written for its growing legions of fans. It features all the famous groups and singers, and takes an insider’s look at how they have made it to the top.
You can buy at:
Amazon.com
Chapters Indigo
Tuttle (my publisher)
Kyobo Books (in Korea)
Goodreads (not for buying, but still a good link)
© 2024 Mark James Russell
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