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I had to go meet my dad's rich friend's kids and have lunch with them and their grandma. It was a super expensive meal and I ended up eating all sorts of weird sea creatures including sea urchin that was still moving when brought to the table and something that looked squishy but was quite crunchy. I don't even want to know... my stomach feels funny...
in other new... my roommate Leonard is actually online! AGH
gotta go
Yesterday I went to some free subtitled Korean film screenings at the Korean Film Comission. I saw a movie called Conduct Zero which was fun and had a devastatingly cute lead actress in it... the second film we saw was called Oasis and it's one that I've been waiting forever to see. It won a bunch of awards at the Venice film festival and the Seattle Film Festival and other ones around the world. I skipped it at SIFF knowing I could see it here in Korea.
Basically it's about a women with cerebral palsy and an ex con who's a little slow, who fall in love. The film is incredibly well made and the acting is brilliant, especially Moon-SoRi who plays the female role. While actors playing handicapped characters always seem to get a lot of critical acclaim she really deserved it. This and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance are the two best Korean films that I've ever seen which is saying a lot.
This is another DVD I'll be buying and trying to get people to watch...
The Korean Hail to the Thief cd I bought has all the lyrics translated into Korean in it. It's totally awesome! From what I've heard of the new Blur album, Think Tank, it seems really really good.
Hmmm, what else... uh... can't think of anything. I'm going to JeJu island tomorrow which is supposed to be really nice.
Peace.
WTF!? What happened to all the 100 level seats!? My brother and I were going nuts with the reload button and the best we manages was section 206 row 14. Oh well, those aren't bad seats so I'm happy :)
ugh... everything's all blurry... it's 1:27am, it wouldn't be so bad if I had taken a nap, but I fell asleep and my body was all set to wake up 10 hours later but no! Thirty two minutes until the tickets go on sale... I'll post again once I get them.
er... correction, I'm in section 204 not 206
This is going to be a long entry so beware:
Hmmm... where to begin...
The past couple days were spent at Mt. Surack which is a famous mountain in Korea. We went with all of my mom's brothers (four of them) and their families so it was a big Lim/Choi family posse rolling through Korea. It was pretty fun although it rained like hell, but it was especially nice because my mom's oldest brother hadn't seen any of his brothers for a myriad of reasons for almost a decade now and their relationship hasn't always been great. With my mom here to sort of bring them together it was a nice reunion type thingy.
While at a hotel there my brother and I had a pretty interesting/freaky experience. We were taking an elevator to the 10th floor which is the top. So we're going up when it stop REALLY violently and we're like "whoa." Then, the door doesn't open... and we're like wtf... and we sit there for about 10 minutes pressing the call button and no one is answering! So we're stuck inside a freaking elevator with no way of contacting anyone. Eventually someone answers and someone comes and opens the door for us and we hop down to the 10th floor because the elevator had been shut down and parked up top while we were still in it! WTF!? That was weak...
Rain, rain, rain. We played some basketball at the YMCA in Won-Joo. YMCAs are free in Korea, the way it should be.
I saw a fish get beat to death with a baseball bat... about 10 minutes later we had some sashimi... you make the connection...
The drivers here in Seoul are insane. Far scarier then even NY drivers! The subways are much cheaper then NY, the food is cheaper, electronics are about the same, gas is WAY for expensive. I think South Korea should invade a middle eastern country and set up shop, my uncle spends about 200 US dollars a week on gas!
I saw something cool on the subway today, there was a video on the wall as we passed by that you could watch looking out the window! I'm not sure if it was projected there or if someone did the math and printed photos on the wall at certain intervals to simulate video... hmmm, if I was able to watch two simultaneously I could figure it out...
In terms of technology when it comes to consumer electronics, Korea seems to be way ahead of the US. They have some crazy stuff, most of it useless, but really neat nonetheless. The cell phones here are way more advanced, they have really cool stackable stereo systems that you can quickly disassemble and take just a part of with you as a portable CD player of MP3 player, etc. Lots of cool stuff.
As if the shoes weren't bad enough. A fad here in Korea right now is "couple tees." Basically it's when a boy and girlfriend go out wearing the same shirt. It's hilarious! My brother and I accidently went out once dressed similarly though. That wasn't so hilarious.
The Matrix 2, I don't want to spend too much time writing about it, but it just seemed so pointless and the computer animation at time wasn't very convincing. I didn't need to see Keanu Reeves' ass, Morpheus is starting to strike me as a parody of himself, and it was just too long. It was more entertaining then the average summer action flick, but it wasn't great or anything.
Today I got a Korean copy of Hail to the Thief! Woohoo! It came with a button, hell yeah. I also found a Radiohead CD there that I had never heard of. It came out in the Pablo Honey/The Bends era, it's called The Live EP and was printed in Holland. Totally sweet. I also got the new Blur album which I heard was great. The Blur cd came with 4 pins! CDs are cheaper here in Korea then they are in US too so I'll probably buy a lot. They had a really big Hail to the Thief poster at the store too but the employee wouldn't sell it to us. Jerk... I should've just stolen it...
Radiohead tickets go on sale in 6 hours! I get to take a nap then I have to wake up at 1 in the morning Korea time to go to a PC room and buy them on ticketmaster. WASTE has them for sale right now, but they're lawn seats only. I'm trying to get seats, but if I can't get good ones in the 100 level I'll just get general admisssion.
Hmmm... what else... oh yeah...
Rest areas here in Korea are insane. They're gigantic and really fancy with lots of stores and really nice really clean bathrooms.
Korea would be a really beautiful country if not for one thing. It's currently popular to live in apartment buildings that are really high and ALL look exactly the same. They're all over the country, you see them anywhere you look and they're all bunched together and look exactly alike. They're built by various corporations too so you'll see Samsung building 100 through 106 then next to those LG or DaeWoo might have built huge apartment complexes. It's ugly, the whole country is littered with them :( It's not even because there's no space to build homes, it's because they're so popular!? Apparantly people find them convenient... too bad they're incredibly ugly and have huge corporate logos printed on the sides of them...
Alright I think I'm done writing... can't think of anything else that I've been meaning to write about but haven't...
...
yep, I'm out. Ahnyoung.
Okay, everyone else was doing so I figured it wouldn't hurt...
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Oh yeah. I finished James Baldwin's No Name In the Street which was awesome and I'm now a quarter of the way through Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine which is also really good. Both of them are such incredible writers.
Matrix 2 = Lame. I don't have time to go into it right now, but I was disappointed.
I have to go soon, but if I come back here later tonight I'll write about it.
Lol, I forgot to mention. We were at a CD shop and saw a Hail to the Thief poster. My mom asked if we could buy it off them and he pointed to a basket and said we could take the posters in there. We found 4 Hail to the Thief posters and two Blur posters. Booyah! Take that mean man at Japanese airport!
At my uncle's office waiting for my cousin to arrive so we can go see a movie... we're seeing the Matrix 2... hmmm... I'll most likely post one more time tonight with a rant, hahaha. Alright bye.
wtf... wtf.... wtf... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhh
WASTE (the company that does Radiohead's mechandise) originally announced that tickets for the Seattle show were going to go on sale on te 28th. Now I'm reading they forgot and put them on sale on the 21st and are all sold out... the only tickets left are the ticketmaster ones now...
................
It's me again! It's 9:30 in the morning and I'm at a PC Band (room) which are EVERYWHERE in korea.
I took a SUPER cold shower this morning against my will and now don't have much to do. We're going to this electronics super store called Techno Mart later. The place is gigantic. It's like 3 Best Buys put together.
What else... Haven't done much yet, visiting lots of relatives. One of my uncles is semi rich and has a really nice house on top of some mountain with an incredible view.
Girls in Korea have awful taste in shoes and socks! No Joke, it's not even funny. Leonard would die, forget his taste for Asian women, this is just disturbing...
Other random stuff... hmmm...
Nothing. I'm still trying to adjust to the time difference. I'll write more soon.
Konnichiha!
This is Ben reporting from the far east! Tokyo, Japan to be exact. I have about 4 minutes to write this entry before I turn the computer over to my brother so he can use it. We paid 100 Yen for 10 minutes of internet time.
Anyway... It's really hot in here, it's humid, and there's a Radiohead poster in one of the stores here that they refused to sell us. Jerks.
The flight was long and tedious of course. About nine hours, but stopping here in Japan has been fun. The airport employees dress like little Lego men and the noodles are damn good. Unfortunately, there's a severe shortage of attractive women... boo!
Hmmm... I typed all that in three minutes so I get a couple more. The plane should be loading anytime now and in a couple hours I'll be even further east in Seoul, Korea! Titeness. Alright, once again this is Ben reporting. Peace from the far east.
Oh yeah, being here reminds me of Meeting People is Easy. When I stop here on the way back I'm just going to sit here and listen to OK Computer, it'll be really cool. Ok bye for real! Or should I say bAibAi?
i'm about to unplug the computer. Good bye world! Temporarily...
So it's off to Korea tomorrow morning.
I picked up my Un Chien Andalou poster today and it rocks. It's hanging right above my computer so that I can see it when I look up while typing. Right now I'm taking a break from cleaning my room and doing last minute packing. Busy busy busy. I had to work today until 7ish, that didn't help any.
The flight tomorrow leaves at around 2 o'clock and we're (me my mom and my brother) are flying via Northwest Airlines. We get to stop in Japan for three hours too! Woohoo! It'll be my first time there, if it even counts...
I don't know how soon I'll be able to update again. Korea is full of PC rooms though so I should have no problem. We're not staying in a hotel, but we're staying in a studio that a friend of my dad owns and rents outs. He's holding it for us and letting us use it for awhile. Maybe they'll have dsl... I read somewhere that Korea has one dsl connection for every three people. That country is wired up the wazzu. I'll probably return to the states a master of Counterstrike and Starcraft.
My list of people to send postcards to ended at nine. Any last minute requests will most likely be honored so feel free to continue emailing kumudha@mynameisben.com and having her let me know.
I think I'm set... I'm out yo. Peace.
p.s. Titeness... soon I'll be able to say "Peace from da far east."
I can't wait...
Today i went to Kenmore Camera and bought a camera bag. It's pretty cool, it fits both my SLR cameras and my camcorder and all the lenses. Tite. It was expensive though, but oh well. I also got a UV filter for my Nikon and some lens caps.
I went to Bothell High School to play my teacher Scrabble but he was in an important teachers only function thingy and I was waiting when I got a call to come to work! I was supposed to go to the Mariners game tonight too! BOO! So I was on my way to work and I'm almost there and I get a call saying I don't need to come in! BOO! I had already called my friends and told them not to get my a ticket to the game so I was stuck with nothing to do!!!
I just came home bummed out and started compiling a list of people to send postcards to while I'm in Korea. The list is at eight people so far, anyone else who wants to get in on the action should email me at Ben@mynameisben.com. No better yet, email Kumudha@mynameisben.com and tell her to forward the information to me. Thanks.
Work tomorrow morning then I'm hanging out with Ian in the afternoon. Werd. Peace out dawgs.
picture of the poster I won...
minus the words polishposter.com over the bottom part...
Oh yeah! I forgot to mention, I won the poster auction at the Film Festival for the Un Chien Andalou poster!!! It's totally cool, I get to pick it up on Friday. Hopefully I'll be able to transport the thing to NY somehow...
ugggghhhh, boo to sick employees and employees that quit around the busiest time of the year.
I worked today from 10 - 8 ewwww...
I FINALLY get a day off tomorrow. It's about time. I'm heading to my high school to meet some of my buddies and I have a Scrabble match scheduled with my old AP English teacher. It'll be a clash of the titans and hopefully I can extend my winning streak to five...
Disc 2
1. Pyramid Song
2. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
3. Talk Show Host
4. Permanent Daylight
5. The National Anthem
6. Trans-Atlantic Drawl
7. Sail to the Moon
8. Exit Music (For A Film)
9. Myxomatosis
10. Creep
11. Just
12. Cuttooth
13. I Might Be Wrong
14. There There
15. Electioneering
16. Where I End and You Begin
17. The Trickster
18. Life in a Glasshouse
I was asked by a friend to recommend some Radiohead songs for him to download and listen to on his way to Korea. I recommended some songs and then instead offered to create a mix for him.
I realized I can't do it on just one cd so I'm going to create a double disc ultimate intro to radiohead mix curated by moi.
Disc one is burning and here's the rundown.
1. Like Spinning Plates (The live version off the I Might Be Wrong EP)
2. Everything in Its Right Place
3. Polyethylene
4. Airbag
5. 2 + 2 = 5
6. Lift
7. I Will
8. High and Dry
9. I Might Be Wrong
10. No Surprises
11. Paranoid Android
12. Thinking About You
13. Karma Police
14. Fake Plastic Trees
15. A Punch-Up at a Wedding
16. A Wolf at the Door
17. Street Spirit
18. True Love Waits
After another long day of work (10 - 8) I've returned home to find a UPS package with my new camera inside. Sweeeet.
It's a Nikon Fe2 and I got two lenses for it, a 50mm f1.8 and a 35-70mm f3.5-4.8 zoom lens. Fun stuff, I'm going to stop writing and play with it now. Peace.
A funny fact I just learned:
In a 1997 poll of the general film going public in Hong Kong Wong Kar Wai was voted best and worst director for Chungking Express. hahaha. It's one of my favorite movies ever, but I can see how opinions about it could be so sharply split.
Another long day!
I woke up today around 9 and went to work and worked until about 6 because my mom was late to pick me up to go to the film festival. After she eventually showed up we went to see a Korean film called H. It was awful. It was like David Fincher making an anti abortion film. I laughed out loud so often that my mom was genuinely angry at me.
Let me just say one thing about it, the main bad guy (the Hannibal Lecter of the film) was motivated by the terrible memories he has of a failed abortion when he was still a fetus. Okay, wtf...
Lame. I was so pissed at the movie I gave it a 1 out of 5 on the ballot. It probably didn't deserve that low of a vote, but oh well.
Because there was a lot of time until the next movie, which was a midnight screening of another Korean film: Chow Yun-Fat Meets Brownie Girl, my brother and I came home and played some ping pong on our new ping pong table and proceeded to get our asses kicked by our dad.
The movie at midnight was really funny and enjoyable albeit incredibly weird and a little sloppy. Some members of the audience were incredibly obnoxious. Possibly more obnoxious then Modest Mouse fans... it's neck and neck. Stupid people just bother me that's all... The guys sitting behind us talked about Comic books, collectible card games, masturbation, collectible card games involving masturbation, and the need to upgrade the processors and "mobos" on their computers. Ugh. Throughout the length of the film they probably said "that was random..." about 20 times. Ugh again.
Whatever. I enjoyed the movie even though I was super tired. I really need some sleep...
And now, to borrow an idea from
The Moral of this Entry: The two things that all adult Korean males are obsessed with are golf and ping pong. Most of them are good at both too so beware!
Ok here's more news about the tour:
They're doing a three week thing in August, which is when they're playing Seattle and in late September/early October they're doing another three week swing through North America. Hmmm...
LOOONG DAY!
I woke up today at around 10 and went to work and worked from 11 to 7. It's a Friday so lots of Kegs were going out.
After work I went to David's house and he proceeded to show off everything he had learned from watching the food network by cooking some good food. All that television really has paid off in his case.
After watching the Mariners destroy the Braves 2 - 1 we went to the film festival for a midnight showing of a Korean film called No Blood, No Tears. Ugh, it was terrible. I actually voted a 2 out of 5 on the ballot. Lots of style and no substance and it's not even forgivable because the style isn't any good. There's some nice cinematography but it was all just brought together in such a sloppy fashion. Boo! Worst movie I've seen at the festival!
I got home around 2:30 and after a glass of grapefruit juice I got on my computer and as I mentioned in my previous and very brief post RADIOHEAD IS PLAYING IN SEATTLE ON AUGUST 31ST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now they don't have any dates yet for September and October and my understanding was that they were playing the U.S. in September as well... maybe they'll announce more dates in the NY area? I don't know yet if I'll be in Seattle on the 31st... AGH!!! What to do???
Well, for now i'll buy tickets to the concert and if I can't go I'll have no problem getting rid of them I'm sure. If they announce NY dates soon or anywhere near that are in September I'll just see them there, if they don't I'm staying here!
Sweet!
AGH! RADIOHEAD, WHITE WATER AMPITHEATRE, AUGUST 31ST!!!
If I hear Bridge Over Troubled Water sung by Clay (the runner up from American Idol, and I only know this because the DJs on the radio station I have to listen to at work talked about him) one more time I'm going to die. It's terrible.
In other news:
I bought a Nikon FE2 today with the money I've earned over the last couple weeks. At the moment I'm blowing the rest of the money on lenses for the thing so that I can go nuts when I go to Korea taking photos.
The U.S. Postal service released an Audrey Hepburn stamp.
Achewood is funny.
Woohoo! PiFan (Pucheon International Film Festival in Korea) announced it's lineup.
The opening film is a Korean animation called Wonderful Days, I've seen photos from it and it looks incredible. Who knows if it'll actually be any good though...
They're also doing a Bollywood special which might be interesting and they're showing the Qatsi trilogy: Koyaanisqatsi, Naqoyqatsi, and Powaqqatsi. I would love to see those.
One funny thing they're showing: House of 1000 corpses, I would love to see a Korean audiences reaction to that, hahaha.
In other news. Four people complimented me on my SIFF t-shirt I had on today at work. Work went by pretty fast. I'm pretty much working every day until I leave for Korea with a couple days off to hang out with friends.
Off to eat...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2944162.stm
hahahahahahahahahaahahahahaha!
I should've known something was up when my dad wakes me up at 7:30 in the morning over summer break for breakfast. I guess it's my fault for saying yes and getting out of bed because sure enough once we're out eating he says "you're working 11-8 today and tomorrow" doh! Oh well, I need the money...
I'm going to take a short nap now then go to work...
I almost didn't get my copy of HTTT today! AGH! Luckily I had a tiny bit of time between the end of work and the film festival so I was able to pick up the CD and the vinyl. Woohoo. They were all out of the posters and 7 inches they were giving out though :( the employee saw how bummed out I was and gave me a HTTT necklace/pass type thing.
The movie was tons of fun. It was a japanese movie about ping pong and it was really funny. Not as good as yesterday's movie, but I haven't had so much fun in a long time. I was grinning the whole film.
Whew!!!
I just got back from the Cinerama where I saw Infernal Affairs. WHOA! I loved it. It's a Hong Kong action film but WAY better then anything John Woo has ever done... yes, better then Hard Boiled. There was hardly any gun fighting or anything, just lots of really cool police stuff. Tony Leung (who's an awesome actor) is great and so is Andy Lau and everyone else in the cast.
Really stylish and intelligent action movie, way cooler then anything you'll see coming out of Hollywood. If you can find it watch it!
Next Up: Ping Pong
So I thought Saturday was the end of painting, but I get a call this morning after 4 hours of sleep and I'm off to paint again. Boo! Oh well, the weather was in the 60s or 70s and breezy so it was much nicer to paint in and now I'm done forever! $270 for three days of work, not bad...
Tonight I'm off to the film festival again to see Infernal Affairs, I heard it was cool so I'm very excited.
Tomorrow I work at my dad's store then go to see Ping Pong at night.
In 45 minutes the new Radiohead album will only be 24 hours away on the west coast. Mmhmmm...
"They say money can't buy happiness? Look at the fucking smile on my face. Ear to ear, baby... You Want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet, What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid."
Ben Affleck's speech to the potential employees in the movie Boiler Room is one of the most digusting combinations of bad acting, bad writing, and just all around grossness. I was laying in bed watching TV trying to fall asleep and the scene made me sick to my stomach...
Two more days until the new Radiohead CD comes out!!!
Three more days until the new Radiohead CD comes out...
Day two of painting
I woke up and could hardly move, my back hurt like a mother, my shoulders were a little sore, and my legs hurt.
Went to work from 10 - 4 and it still sucks, but it seemed to go by a little faster.
Whew, another cold shower, feels SO good.
Finding Nemo, funny, uh huh.
NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER GET A JOB PAINTING!
I have never in my life been under such physical stress for such a prolonged period of time. This was worse then standing in the 90 degree heat at the Gorge in a 2x2 space for 7 hours. This is worse the running for an hour and half kicking a ball around playing soccer. This is worse then golfing in 100 degree weather. This was worse then lugging kegs around all day. It was awful! I wouldn't do it for twice what I'm being paid right now. AGGGGHHHHHHHHH!
Painting is really hard and the damn building we're painting is like 25 feet high plus it was 85 degrees out today!
I'm so exhausted but I did get to take the best cold shower ever. Whew! Ice cold water never felt so good.
Being home alone and laughing out loud is kinda weird...
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that's odd... last I check eoin was a dude... maybe it's a sign...
This is very weird. I woke up and looked at the clock and it was 8:30. I went to bed around three o'clock and I woke up at 8:30. What the hell? I've done this for the last three days too, I just wake up and sit there confused. I need more sleep but I can't get any! AGH!
Anyway, rumor has it that Radiohead is doing a secret show in San Diego with the Mars Volta. Um... I hate California.
EDIT:
More radiohead news, Stephen Malkamus and the Jicks are opening for Radiohead on the first leg of the tour and Supergrass is opening the second. That means September 5th isn't the end of the tour, it's just the end of when the Jicks are playing with them... hmmm... why don't they just release the damn tour dates???!!!
oh yeah... some korean lady in line told me i was pretty... it was awkward...
One thing that's always made me smile are elderly couples holding hands... well, this time around these people were holding more than just eachother's hands...
Today at SIFF I saw a Korean film called Too Young to Die. The film stars a real life elderly couple (both in their 70s) who weren't actors before this film. The director saw them somewhere, saw the relationship the two had and asked them to star in his film about love at an old age.
The film is basically about two old people and their day to day activities. These activities believe it or not involve lots of sex. The sex is very graphic and is on screen for extended periods of time yet it's more sweet then it is repulsive. The film was banned in Korea for awhile and would get an NC-17 rating here in the states due to those scenes, but it's the most harmless film ever!
It's actually rather funny and very beautiful. The two spend time together as if they were still 20, it's great. The fact that it's all real and that the affection they show for each other on screen is genuine made it especially enjoyable. It was directed with class and great maturity. Not for the faint of heart haha, but I loved it as the rest of the audience also seemed to.
Ok, you can tell by my sloppy prose that I'm really tired. Bed time. Peace.
Funny stuff from IMDB
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert said today (Wednesday) that he can produce tape recordings of director-writer-actor Vincent Gallo making the comments that Gallo now says he never made. In an interview with the New York Post on Monday, Gallo maintained that he never disowned his movie, The Brown Bunny, which received disastrous reviews when it was screened at Cannes last month, and that he had never apologized for making it.
"The only thing I am sorry about is putting a curse on Roger Ebert's colon," Gallo said. "If a fat pig like Roger Ebert doesn't like my movie then I'm sorry for him."
Ebert responded that he wasn't too worried about the curse. "I had a colonoscopy once, and they let me watch it on TV. It was more entertaining than The Brown Bunny." And paraphrasing a perhaps apocryphal remark by Winston Churchill, Ebert concluded: "It is true that I am fat, but one day I will be thin, and he will still be the director of The Brown Bunny."