Gig at HBC Festival

Brigitte and I gave our first truly public performance this past weekend at the Hae Bang Chon Festival.

As the two of us have just started performing together and are relatively unknown in the Seoul ex-pat music circle, we were given a lousy time slot: the dreaded opening act.  We played at 3:00 pm at an event that ran until the wee hours of the dawn.  Needless to say, we didn't have a large audience.  And those who did come were almost all colleagues and friends.  At least it was full of friendly faces.

Now, the HBC Festival is mostly about music, but there are also comedians, actors, poets, and some dudes walking around in togas for no apparent reason.  Given the artistic milieu that is the HBC Fest, I suppose I shouldn't have been at all surprised when a caricaturist set up shop right beside our stage.  (And, taking advantage of the fact that there weren't many people in the bar, all three bartenders took turns getting their caricatures drawn.)

Here's a short clip of Brigitte and me performing a few verses of Johnny Cash and June Carter's classic, "Jackson."  (Victoria's new short hair cut makes its own prominent appearance, as well.)

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures from the rest of the fest because Victoria ran off to our friend Jin Soo's birthday party (Happy Birthday, Jin Soo!) and took the camera with her.

However, a few of the sets I really enjoyed included those by electro-indie band We Need Surgery, the very loud power trio Seoul City Suicides, and old-school folk and bluesman "Mississippi" Dave.

And the food in Hae Bang Chon is great!  Props to the burgers at Jacoby's -- best burgers I've had in Korea yet!

Gig at a House Party

Brigitte and I had our first semi-formal gig this past weekend, playing at a house party near Itaewon.

(All photos courtesy of Robert Gordon.)

I don't know exactly, but I'd say there were probably around 60 people there.  The crowd had roughly equal representation of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s.  Our version of Johnny Cash and June Carter's "Jackson" and a few others on our setlist had the crowd out on dance floor dancin' away!

We didn't headline the gig -- that honor went to the Songdo Social Club, but their bassist, Stanley Crocker, (who is playing an electric upright bass) sat in on a few of our numbers:

The Songdo Social Club's next gig is at an art exhibition in Incheon, June 4th.

And speaking of gigs, Brigitte and I will be performing again this coming weekend at The Orange Tree as a part of the Hae Bang Chon Spring Festival.

It should be a good time.  I'll be sure to post pictures, maybe even video, of our concert.

Lotus Lantern Festival 2010

For returning readers of this blog, you may remember that a year ago at this time we went to the Lotus Lantern Festival (celebrated around Buddha's birthday) and posted photos and video of the Lantern Parade.

Last year, we were wearing coats and scarves and spent most of the parade in the second-floor window of a bibimbap restaurant, venturing out into the drizzle only to take pictures of the best floats.  

This year, although the weather was fine, Victoria wasn't feeling well, so I headed up to Jongno without her, but I met up and watched the parade with my brother Lane and his wife, Mandi. 

While there are of course the spectacular floats, the vast majority of parade participants were just groups of people carrying paper lanterns:

And not all of the floats were so serious or cultural in nature.  Some were just cute:

Lane, Mandi, and I decided to stick it out to the end for the closing ceremony, the Daedong Celebration of Unity and Hope.  It was billed as a time for everyone to "come together as one, holding hands, singing, and dancing under a shower of pink lotus petals."

I was a little skeptical going into it, but ended up having an absolute blast.   There was a lovely traditional Korean music performance, some really bad K-pop, a few other other musical acts, and some drumming (complete with pyrotechnics):

We had gotten there early and were able to be among the lucky few hundred who actually got to sit. Everyone else had stand around behind us, crowding in among the remaining floats:

But we weren't allowed to sit for long, for soon it was time for...

...wait for it...

...holding hands, singing, and dancing under a shower of pink lotus petals! 

And as I was too busy doing said activities, I was unfortunately unable to get many pictures.  For much of the time, there was a group of dancers on stage leading the whole audience in what I can only describe as a Korean form of country line dancing.  The Koreans, many still in costume from the parade, tugged as many foreigners as they could find into the fray.

And just my luck, Mandi and I ended up right up in front of the stage, smack dab in the middle of a few dozen Korean women wearing traditional hanboks. Well, that was more than any TV cameraman could pass up, apparently, because I saw myself a couple of times on the huge monitors.  And, um, well...  I don't think I need to remind any of you of what an excellent dancer I am!  

Thankfully, before long, the line dancing was over and we found ourselves snaking around Jonggak intersection, dancing and singing in the longest conga lines I've been a part of.  I freed my hands for a moment and shot a little video:

High above my head you can see the one of the famous landmark buildings of Seoul, Jongno Tower.

A fun-filled evening, to be sure!

Camping in Daejeon

Victoria and I both love to camp and did so frequently back in the States.  However, cheapskates that we are, we just couldn't quite bring ourselves to pay the cost of shipping our sleeping bags, mats, and tent all the way to Korea, so we just haven’t been able to camp here.

However, some friends of ours, Rob and Jo, are mountain bikers, and they had told us of a camping/biking event that they participate in a few times per summer.  In fact, they frequently would go on and on about these camping trips, torturing us with details about smoked pork BBQ, Cajun cooking, and hours of music around the campfire.  Well, it sounded too good to be true, so we ponied up, bought and borrowed some camping gear, and decided to check it out.  

 

As it turns out, they weren’t exaggerating, not even a little!

First of all, the bikers & their bikes:

(all photos by Juwon Kim)

How serious are these folks about their bikes?  Put it this way:  one dude reportedly spent more on his bike than I spent on my first three used cars – combined!  (Of course, for those of you who remember those pieces of crap I used to drive, that may not come as too much of a surprise.) 

The people – 50 or so, and mostly ex-pats – were incredibly friendly, and they welcomed us bikeless party-crashers into their midst.  There were, of course, the token English teachers and military dudes, but there were also engineers, researchers, full-time moms, Baptist ministers, Deadheads, medical equipment technicians – the whole gambit. 

And they brought their children!  I think I spent half of my time playing with the kids, especially Roy:

I can't express enough how fun it was to be able to play with kids who could understand me!  With my height, facial hair, and pathetic Korean language skills, I usually just scare the bejeezus out of Korean kids. (OK, well, technically Roy's half Korean, but he knows English.)

Next, the food:

Our chef was Al, a Texan who has lived in Korea for the past 17 years:

When Al moved to Korea, he had his smoker shipped from the States and ever since, as a hobby, has been catering parties and entertaining Korean dignitaries with his incredible smoked version of heaven on a plate:

"Swamp beans" (top): a mix of pinto beans, ham hock, sausages, and collard greens.  Delish!

Finally, the highlight of my weekend, the music:

There were four of us instrumentalists, and between us we boasted three guitars, a mandolin, harmonicas, an acoustic bass, an electric cello, and a fiddle:

We all took turns leading songs, the others following along and adding harmonies and solos.  Brigitte and I performed a number of our tunes, and people were very responsive.  I hope to collaborate more with Stan Crocker (bass/guitar/vocals) and Kerri Javorka (fiddle/vocals/guitar) again in a few weeks at a party in Hannam.  It was really fun to be able to play in front of an audience again, if just informally.

After a while, the “concert” ended, but the music moved to the campfire and kept right on going.  After we'd been playing for about four hours, someone hollered over to me between songs: “Happy Birthday, Austin.”

And so it was.  We'd played past midnight – it was Sunday, May 9th, my 34th birthday.  I couldn't imagine a better way to spend it. 

I'm HUGE in Korea (Part XIII)

At Sinheungsa Temple in Seoraksan National Park:

[For the rest in the "I'm HUGE in Korea" series, click here.]

I Smell Road Trip! (Day 1)

Victoria's mom and aunt were visiting from the States last week, so six of us -- Jin Soo, Carolyn, Jan, Aunt Gloria, and I -- stocked up on goodies for the road, piled into a borrowed van (Thanks again, Anny!), and took a two-day road trip to out to the East Sea:

Snacking on kimbap in the van:

But the kimbap wasn't enough, so at the highway rest stop, we bought a big box of yummy hodu kwaja, which are tiny Korean pastries shaped like walnuts and filled with sweet red-bean paste:

Unfortunately, we didn't get our own picture of them because I ate them all too fast!  Seriously, I think I pounded seven of them in less than five minutes.  

Our first destination was Sokcho, where we played around on the beach:

Then it was off to the town of Yangyang to check into our hotel, which stood high on a hill overlooking the ocean and the town.  The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, so it made for quite a view:

We found an awesome little hole-in-the-wall restaurant for dinner.  The decor of the place left a little to be desired, but the woman who ran the place grew all of her own vegetables and made all of her own kimchi, so the food was amazing.

The servings were large, the makgeolli (rice wine) plentiful, and the banchan (side dishes) as beautiful as they were delicious:

After dinner it was back to the hotel for more makgeolli and some yoga.  Yes, that's right, yoga.  After all that rice wine, it seemed like a perfectly great idea...  Yeah...not so much.  But I do recall almost managing to pull off a headstand while keeping my legs in the lotus position.  Almost.  Thankfully, we have no pictures of that little fiasco.  

Then, it was time for bed, as we had a long Day 2 ahead of us.

I Smell Road Trip! (Day 2)

Day 2 began with a search for some coffee for the caffeine-dependent among us.  Our quest spanned several hours and two cities yet sadly still resulted only in instant coffee.  :(

Soon, however, we were headed to Seoraksan National Park, where you may recall that Victoria and I went hiking last October.  Nearing the park, we had to stop once again to take pictures of the amazing cherry blossoms:

And more jumping:

We entered the park near the giant Buddha and the Sinheungsa Temple:

Then we started hiking:

We followed, crossed, and recrossed a gushing mountain stream as we meandered our way toward a cliff called Bisondae.  According to legend, a nymph came down from the heavens and played in the pool below Bisondae because it was a place of such exquisite beauty.

We had hoped to follow the stream up to the waterfalls we saw last October, but that trail is not open in the Spring, presumably because the melting snow can lead to flooding.  Instead, we decided to climb straight up the mountain, toward Geumganggul, a Buddhist shrine built into a small cave halfway up the side of the cliff.  The trail was crazy steep at places, but Jan and Gloria hiked like champs:

At times, there were stairs clinging to the rock face.  We, in turn, clung to the stairs.

The view of Cheonbuldong Valley from the cave shrine was well worth the climb:

A monk, perched at the mouth of the cave, pointed out to us the various rock formations: the 100 Buddhas, the rose petals, the giant ship.  (They mostly just looked like rocks to me, but we nodded and agreed politely.)

The way down seemed even steeper:

Before leaving the park, we took a few of the required pictures with the Asiatic black bear statue and mascots:

All in all, it was a great trip.  The weather was beautiful, the food delicious, and the company delightful.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering about the title of this post, the phrase "I smell road trip" comes from Jin Soo's T-shirt, though he hadn't planned to wear it and had never actually read it until we pointed it out to him while on the trip: