Coffee in Korea

February 19th, 2011
I worked on the computer all day. More or less bored out of my gourd but trying to stay on task.

February 20th, 2011
Spent most of the day on the computer.

At 3:30 I went to meet the friend who is transcribing the first part of my interviews, 소영 Soyeong, at a Starbucks in 강남 Gangnam. Maybe I suddenly feel loquacious but, let me explain that the saturation of Starbucks in Korea is insane. At one time Starbucks was about the only good coffee to get in Korea. In fact, when Starbucks opened in Korea in 2000 it was a shocker and an industry changer for the country.
Young Koreans don't know this, but at one time in Korea if you went to a coffee shop (and they were popular even back then), you really didn't go for the coffee. You either went to the type of coffee shop (especially in rural areas) that sort of doubles as a way to hook-up with a prostitute (or at least flirt with a pretty girl you could hook up with if you had the cash) or you went to a place that was all about renting a fancy looking (but ultimately not comfortable) seat in a "posh" and "western" atmosphere (think mis-matched grandmother stuffed furniture, doilies and really awful décor like plastic flowers). The coffee, you ask? It was beyond horrible. It was either that crystal stuff that comes in the jar and if it gets humid it all becomes one huge lump, or it was so instant it was already mixed in with the sugar and the creamer. Seriously. No one ordered anything but "black," "black with sugar," or "milk coffee" (which definitely had sugar). And if you didn't specify, you got milk coffee. In a regular sized cup but a serving the size you get from coffee vending machines in Korea (less than half a cup). In fact, the coffee didn't even taste as good a vending machine coffee (which isn't bad, surprisingly though it took me about five years to ever try it).

I remember in the late 90s a few real coffee shops opening up, but they were mostly abandoned and only did well in areas around a lot of dating couples (if they also served regular Korean style drinks). It wasn't until Starbucks came along that people began talking about bean origin, roast, espresso, and ordering fancy drinks with long names.

Although Starbucks might seem expensive to the foreigners newly arrived in Korea (What?!! Almost 5 bucks for a tall latte?!!) at the time it was shocking to Koreans that the same 5 bucks they'd dropped for less than half of a Starbucks 'short' made from instant coffee in a café that was realistically only open to your 30-60 minute conversation during a date was now enough to get a 'tall' made by one of the most famous coffee companies in the world in a café that welcomed you to stay all day (Starbucks even opened up near universities and installed long tables for studying with extension cables available for laptop). I have a friend I'm out of touch with these days who was doing her doctoral research on Starbucks in Korea, I remember her talking about how it recreated a Western space for those nostalgic for their days overseas. The décor, the chairs, the smell—it's all just like Starbucks in America. (Although I suspect Starbucks Korea has many more green tea drinks. Oh, and the baked goods are hoity-toity in Korea. Scones and muffins, sure, but tarts and tiramisu, too. There are no donuts or super frosted white cake- bananas, baked rice chips and 7 dollar organic fair trade chocolate bars are next to the cash register.)

So in Korea Starbucks was actually a –good- deal, especially considering the amount of coffee you got for your money and the long hours (they opened, shock, in the morning so you could get coffee on your way to work!) and openness to singletons and studiers was great, too. In fact, I felt proud to mention my long association with Starbucks (which really had mostly meant walking by Starbucks as a youngster in Seattle because I'd never had the disposable income for a coffee habit).

After Starbucks opened in Seoul friends and I would actually make a point that each time we went to Seoul (I was living in Daegu at the time) we would make a pilgrimage to Starbucks before we came home. Then when Starbucks opened in Daegu, well, I was ecstatic. Seriously you couldn't get good coffee before that. There were only a few in Daegu and shortly all the staff members learned that I was a regular and treated me very nicely. Swinging by Starbucks on my way from one end of the long rectangular city to the other seemed perfectly logical to me. So did have a crush on a barista (nothing ever came of it).

Things changed, particularly in the mid 2000s Starbucks Korea began to grow at a ridiculous rate, for awhile I was able to keep track of the location of every Starbucks in any area of Seoul I ever frequented, before long they became so thick on the ground it wasn't worth bothering. And other coffee shops started opening. The chain Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Seattle's Best Coffee (they didn't last) and then the Korean chains. By the time the TV drama "1st Shop of Coffee Prince" aired, understanding coffee was becoming something a cultured person should know about, just like wine. Baristas had to have training. By that I don't mean a couple weeks on the job, I mean baristas might need to go to foreign countries for months of training if they were to be a real barista. At the very least they needed to attend an academy inside Korea. Starbucks became just another shop, not unlike Angel-in-us, Holly's Coffee and Café Bene. The independent shops sprouted up and espresso took a back seat to "hand drip."


All of which does not change the fact that I had brewed coffee at home, then had an Americano at Starbucks with Soyeong (and while waiting for her and using the computer since she was late), then before I came home again (and while doing another 1.5 hours on the computer) I stopped at my local specialty shop- Chans Bros- for a nice hand drip.

Between meeting Soyeong and Chans Bros I engaged in retail therapy, running into 정현 Jeonghyeon from 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum at Uniqlo where I managed to replenish my spring wardrobe and snatch some bargain bin deals and ate dinner. I invited a random stranger in the restaurant to sit with me (as we'd ordered at the same time), which was extremely un-Korean of me, and I grilled him on his knowledge of traditional culture (zip) and asked him what sort of Korean he was if he didn't know his own roots (I'm so mean—but I did say it with a grin).

Blog of a guy who REALLY knows coffee who used to live in Korea, he reviews a LOT of Korean coffee shops. Freshground.

Ahn Eunme

February 18th, 2011
I had an amazing day. I woke up and all that stuff, then at 2 I went to meet 엄승용, Eom Seungyong, the Policy Director of the Cultural Heritage Administration. He is tied with three others as being the third highest ranked person in the Cultural Heritage Administration, the CHA is the governmental body that administers the law that designated and protects the traditional culture I study. Meeting him was great for three reasons 1) He's open-minded and speaks amazing English, and so he was able to share information with me like no other bureaucrat I've met in the course of my research. 2) He shared specific information on plans to amend the law which is the backbone of my research, and was open (and taking notes) when I stated some of my tentative (and not so tentative) conclusions about this law based on my 8 years researching the topic. 3) We are going to cooperate. I am going to facilitate him meeting opinionated artists to help him understand the law the way I do, and he even asked me to draft a very interesting proposal. We talked for two hours, which seemed to pass in a minute, because I had so much to say to him and everything he said to me was so valuable.
Screen capture to show you where this guy is in the scheme of the CHA:

I was able to go home for long enough to eat dinner before going to see my favorite modern dance choreographer of all time in the first night premiering her new work at the Doosan Art Center. Ahn Eunme is out of this world. I know a lot of modern dancers and choreographers. But she is peerless. I found an excerpt from my favorite of her pieces, the first I ever saw (ten years ago): Sky Pepper. I also found an excerpt from Chunhyang, freaking most awesome interpretation of that story –ever- (but obviously not shot at the two locations in Korea, both of which I watched the show at, because some of those scenes used full nudity and body paint). Tonight's show, "Dancing for Grandmother" contained the same strong musical score (she always uses the same guy, he's scored dozens of top films, but he always finds time for Eunme), the same love of color (but in light of the grandmother theme we had more prints and less solids), and even a bit of nudity (but nothing like some of Eunme's pieces which have full male and female frontal nudity including bouncing body parts). The dance, however, took the motions of grandmothers and brought them onto the stage, followed by the grandmothers on ethnographic-style film, followed by the actual grandmothers boogeying on stage! It was awesome. Okay, I just have to give you this one more link, to a performance of Louder which must have happened in Germany (at any rate my friend Clint who is American but dances in Germany (and Korea) with Eunme is the guy is sparkling pink).

I went to find and upload some old Ahn Eunme photos, but they're all TIFF files and it's 3:30 a.m.

Daeboreum (First Full Moon of the Lunar New Year)

February 16th, 2011
Worked on the computer all day.

February 17th, 2011
Today was 대보름 Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar new year. In the morning I tried to get stuff done on the computer as I have a couple deadlines next week, but I left my house a bit before 2 and headed to 서울놀이마당 for the Daeboreum Festival. When I arrived we were preparing long sticks by wrapping them in tape. Then balls of fabric (later to be soaked in fuel and used as torches) were attached to the end. We had made the balls the previous Saturday. I was rather stressed not about my own performance (as one of the 등롱 deungnong lantern carriers) in the performance of 송파다리밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi, but because the four KNUA students who I had roped into participating really weren't being given the information they needed to participate to their best and I felt like we were looking unprofessional in front of them as a result. I want them (희수 Heesu came today, too, in addition to 재윤 Jaeyun, 정우 Jeong-u and 장호 Jangho the guy I did not previously know) to think of the Songpa folks as professionals or at least serious about what they're doing, but I am afraid they didn't appear that way.

We had an early dinner (or late lunch?) at a restaurant we often go to and then went back to preparing (I got into my 민복 minbok and continued to try to rope 탄종원 Tahn Jongwon, the only one I could trust to remember and explain clearly, into telling the boys how to do the performance). Eventually we did have the tiniest bit of rehearsal (3 minutes?) before we had to go and distribute peanuts and drinks to the assembled audience as the 풍물 pungmul performance was going on. Actually considering that it was an outdoor nighttime performance in February and about freezing, it was a great turn out. After a 민요 minyo performance we did Songpa Dari Balpgi. At first everyone was cold and stiff and not in sync with each other, however as the performance went on things loosened up and straightened out. I ended up having a lot of fun with only one small error. As we ended the performance morphed into the torch lit parade along the banks of the lake with the pungmul group dominating the soundscape. I sprinted to the practice room, dropped my lantern and grabbed my camera. After our march we ended up at the 달집 daljip (house of the moon), a branches and bamboo wrapped up with thousands of wishes for the new year (the wishes had been collected at Songpa Noli Madang for over a week). My wish was in there, of course. After more pungmul and speeches by the local government official (the head of Songpa District) the bonfire was lit and we continued to dance around it until it was burned down to the ground and the pungmul players were exhausted.

One thing about the pungmul team- the leader of the team (the 상쇠 sangsoi or lead 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari player), who also chanted the ceremonial wish-chant during the speeches and 고사 gosa ceremony- turned out to be my friend 박연식 Bak Yeonshik from my 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class. The world of Korean traditional performing arts really is quite small.

After everything was finished I was still, for lack of a better term, high on the communal release of energy. There is not much I like more than dancing to ecstatic drum music by a bonfire under a full moon. I hung around hoping something good would happen, eventually 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk, 이수환 Yi Suhwan, 서병무 Seo Byeongmu, Tahn Jongwon and I went out for a late dinner and some more drinks. With the exception of Seo Byeongmu those are just about my favorite people from Songpa Sandae Noli, so I was happy, but then after only about one drink Seo turned into an argumentative nonsensical annoying drunk. Actually he's always an annoying drunk, but I hadn't realized he'd already been drinking so he only needed a bit more to tip him over into unacceptable.

Sangmo Class with Yi Jonghui

February 15th, 2011

I got a lot of work done on the computer in the afternoon to the extent that every additional minute to type meant another amazing rush of words onto the page—bam bam everything coming together-- then rushed to 상모 sangmo class. And frustratingly 이종휘 Yi Jonghui was over an hour late (he's never been more than ten minutes late before and that only once). This was complicated by the fact that he had a new phone without any of our numbers in it and until I called him, he couldn't even tell us he was running late. When I got there 현석 Hyeonseok was already there, playing 장구 janggu, as was another woman, who turned out to be a 교포 gyopo (Korean-American) but no, I didn't talk to her. Maybe next week.

Before Jonghui showed up 구철회 Gu Cheolhoi (my first sangmo teacher) showed up. I was weirdly nervous. I think partially because I know I'm still not that good. But he was really surprised to see me. Probably thought I'd never spin a sangmo again after the week with him last summer. It was awkward to have him there, but fortunately a couple minutes later 진영 Jinyeong showed up, very happy to see her. When class finally started, it was such a weird adjustment to be back to Jonghui's style again. He forces us to take no breaks and do everything perfectly. He hassled me a lot to get some moves (more basic motions) right, but then praised my 나비사 nabisa (the most difficult motion I know).

Today after sangmo class when we were packing up our sangmo in our bags Hyeonseok started talking to me a lot more than he has in the past. His opening salvo was "I'm not good at this so I'm working towards being a professional – If I want to be professional I have no choice but to work, so (after much practice) I'm good at this." And "sangmo isn't fun at first. It's hard and frustrating and over 90% of the people who start quit it then. But if you get past that, then it's alright." We talked all the way to the subway and waiting for the subway and the stops until my transfer (he mostly talked and I listened and tried to follow along because he was talking to me as though he would another young person and young people have their own ways of talking these days. Most of the college kids I talk to sort of match the way I talk (a bit more formally) but Hyeonseok was talking with a lot of slang and full use of the habit of Koreans to not speak the subject and even the object of sentences if –they- think it's obvious.) He's getting more excited about his future prospects (I think he was really happy that I had complimented him on his drumming, which is frankly amazing) and really thinking about applications to university. He feels that students from arts high schools have a disadvantage when applying to KNUA, but he agreed with me that KNUA wants to see solid basics more than the most talented advanced performance. He went through a long list to me of which schools have better chances of sending their applicants to KNUA. The schools with good odds had two students accepted this year, so I don't see big difference from one (Hyeonseok goes to the same school 원중Wonjung was going to, and Wonjung was the only applicant that got into KNUA this year). It was really interesting to hear him lumping himself in with the professionals already, but he is performing (and probably earning money from it) already and he's definitely driven and hard working. Another subject of the conversation was that he is from a poor family and they don't have enough money for him to take lessons, not really, or not the number of lessons he wants to take. Instead of studying 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum directly with 손병만 Son Byeongman he plans to start attending the evening Bongsan class, it's a lot cheaper. He told me he's planning to ask the teacher if she'll waive tuition for him. (And he's only planning once a week, which is around 30 bucks for the month- almost nothing!). So I sent her a message and told her that I wanted to secretly sponsor him to attend class. Among the many things Hyeonseok wants to learn is 바라춤 Barachum (the dance of the cymbals) it's a dance performed as part of the 영산재 Yeongsanjae ceremony (intangible cultural asset #50) by Buddhist monks.

Back to Bongsan Talchum Class

February 14th, 2011

I wrote during the day then headed to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum in the evening for the regularly scheduled class. Class was, strangely, me and ten men. One of this, 박신마 Bak Shinma, was a brand new attendee who has been studying with 손병만 Son Byeongman (who performs with 허창열 Heo Changyeol). I have to interview Byeongman. He seems to have a lot going on. The class was pretty ordinary, we practiced the monks in order, then did the lions dance at the end. The only really out of the ordinary thing was that since in Korea Valentine's Day is when women give chocolate to men (even all men co-workers or fellow students they see for the day) and White Day (that's March 14th) is when men give it to women, 병호 Byeongho started giving me crap for not giving him chocolate and how (poor poor pity pity) he hadn't gotten any chocolate all day. So while 김은주 Kim Eunju was teaching the beginners I ran to the convenience store and bought a bag full of chocolates which I shared with the entire class. The funniest thing that happened all night was I started sort of mini-interviewing Shinma to see why he was studying Bongsan Talchum (he teaches drama to kids as his regular job). And he looks at me as if I've asked a question I shouldn't need to ask and says "(I) like (it). Because I'm Korean." (좋아해요. 한국사람이나까) which if I hadn't been squatting on the floor would have made me fall off a chair laughing. If only it was that simple. I mean, if it was, we'd have thirty students in the class and it'd be running every night of the week.

Recruiting Performers

February 13th, 2011
Ironically despite going to bed early, I managed to sleep late. So late, in fact, that I woke up only 41 minutes before I needed to be at the subway station by 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli. I allow, ordinarily, an hour and twenty minutes for the trip; it's nowhere near my house. By slipping into the wrong clothes (for movement) and skipping any sort of grooming or eating I was able to get into a taxi in eight minutes and make it to the subway station so early I had time to buy a half dozen donuts before 허창열 Heo Changyeol, 심재윤 Shim Jaeyun, 이정우 Yi Jeong'u and their classmate from KNUA 장호 Jangho showed up.

I walked with them to 서울놀이마당 Seoul Noli Madang, feeling sicker by the moment. We bowed in the office, then proceeded to the practice room where 이병옥 Yi Byeong'ok talked to them about the art and led everyone through basic motions. I must admit the three students (not Changyeol) were a bit confused, since this wasn't rehearsal for the performance on Thursday, but I want to snare them into liking Songpa Sandae Noli, so they've got to get introduced at some point! However I felt so lousy I had a hard time following along and felt sort of embarrassed at my performance.

After that we walked through the 송파다리밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi performance under the assumption that they would all do the part of lantern carriers (this was later changed on the phone).

I hurried home, rested and then wrote in Chans Bros (coffee shop) until closing.

From Sangmo to Songpa Dari Balpgi

February 11th, 2011
In the morning I practiced 상모 sangmo with the class until at 11:20 when everyone went outside and bowed goodbye to me. 이재정 Yi Jaejeong ran me to the bus station. Unfortunately just as I was leaving I realized that my hat (a green fleece hat my mom made) was misplaced. I couldn't find it again in my few minutes before leaving even though I checked the most obvious places. Frustrating!

In 전주 Jeonju I had lunch at a vegetarian buffet with my awesome friend 월덕 Woldeok who has gotten engaged (and chosen a wedding date) since I saw her a month ago.

I reached Seoul rather later than I wanted to and scrambled to go meet a friend who was on her way from one country to another and only in Seoul for about 15 hours as a layover. She spent the night. I'd say who except she doesn't want other friends in Korea to feel dissed because she only saw me. It was really awesome to see her, but I'm afraid she was so jet-lagged I did most of the talking.

February 12th, 2011
I had to wake up at 5:30 to prepare a very light breakfast and walk my friend to the airport shuttle, and surprisingly I stayed awake afterwards and got some work done. At 1:30 I arrived at 서울 놀이 마당 Seoul Noli Madang, the home of 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli for rehearsal of 송파다리밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi (Songpa Bridge Crossing).

Songpa Dari Balpgi is registered for protection by the City of Seoul (Songpa Sandae Noli is registered by the nation). Dari Balpgi is a perfect example of a reenactment. The life of the ceremony is gone, it's just motions that people (we) are going through because it has some historical significance and has been chosen (somewhat arbitrarily) to be labeled "important heritage" that should be protected. It is taxidermized culture. On the other hand, if you openly admit something is a reenactment, and don't pretend that people in the modern world actually do march around Seoul guarding and escorting local governmental figures as they survey the region on important days of the year, there isn't any harm in it, right? Ceremonies, like Songpa Dari Balpgi, tend to be quite openly reenactments and acknowledged by participants and observers as non-living culture. There are some other reenactments that are not clearly taxidermized; chief among these is National Intangible Cultural Asset # 1, 종묘제례(악) Jongmyo Jerye(ak). This is a ceremony for honoring the ancestors of the Yi (former ruling family) line and the associated music (ak). The participants include professional musicians and college students BUT they also include a large number of Yi descendants holding tablets with ancestral names. To those people it's a pretty big deal to be part of the ceremony, and they (maybe not all of them) do feel a real connection to their ancestors. So –that- ceremonial reenactment is in much more of a grey area.

As I explained last summer when I performed in Songpa Dari Balpgi, most of the performers are members of Songpa Sandae Noli with a group of about 8 singers (who manipulate 소고 sogo) who sing 선소리 Seonsori (standing songs) during a key part of the reenactment. These singers and about a half dozen other people are not Songpa Sandae Noli members, but the rest are. And on Saturday we prepared for the big 대보름 Daeboreum (first full moon of the lunar new year) event first by filling small bags with roasted in the shell peanuts while others made bundles of cloth for torches, then by rehearsing Dari Balpgi. We had to rehearse outside, of course, and it was -10 celsius which made it so we really rushed through practice.

Cell photos of An Byeong'in directing us and a bunch of us milling around the 마당 madang practicing.



Afterwards 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk, my friend and the office manager, asked if I knew one more person we could get to perform with us (someone had bailed out). I agreed to contact some people and she clarified that she wanted as many young men as possible to show up on Sunday morning at 10:30 to rehearse Songpa Sandae Noli. I contacted friends from KNUA and by the end of the day had a good response.

The rest of the day I just worked on some computer stuff and went to bed super early.

Sharing Links

Sometimes other people just write really cool things:

My dad's business website currently starts off with this awesome essay that shows just how articulate and knowledgeable he is. Check it out! Yay dad!

There is this awesome website called Native Appropriations (link in the side bar). I was raised very close to Native American culture and the issues with appropriation of native culture are something I've been sensitive about and followed for years. The author is almost always really thought provoking. Her recent post is on Pendleton blankets. Check it out. You may find yourself following her blog later on.

I'm not a Girl's Generation (소녀시대) fan, but if you are, check out this essay and translation of the lyrics from The Grand Narrative. But it's for essays like this on Korean socialization and body image that I sometimes find time to read The Grand Narrative.




Not so much about reading:

This isn't really reading so much as viewing, but it's fall off your chair funny. Simon's Cat.

This is about listening-- some good remixes of K-pop created by Areia Remix. Another person who remixes K-pop in some interesting ways is Masa. I've been following Masa for awhile, I really love his video work.

Last Full Day of the Winter Sangmo Intensive

February 10th, 2011
I had a frustrating morning. After a bit of work on the 나비사 nabisa move (which is getting very fluid), I was assigned to work with 범준 Beomjun on steps. I got stuck on the second step we tried, I just could not get the timing right and it frustrated the heck out of me the rest of the morning. REALLY frustrated me. It seemed so simple, and I understood what I was doing wrong, yet… After lunch all the students with high enough skills met and had a mini group concert in the dirt expanse between the two main teaching buildings. I joined in and learned how much harder it is to do nabisa when you are timing it to the music and the other 상모 sangmo people, while being too close to each other so 지용 Jiyong's ribbon kept smacking me, with a pesky wind that kept trying to snatch the ribbons and take them out of the course we'd set them on. It was not easy. Nor were the other spins that I did, or combination spins, but the challenges I've named here are pretty much what challenged with all of the moves. Fortunately 진영 Jinyeong was at the front of the sangmo group and she knew what to do with each musical cue.

In the afternoon after everyone stopped playing it was starting to snow (it never really got going) but 이재정 Yi Jaejeong had been promising us all week that he'd cook us a bunch of chicken (it took people various amounts of time to realize he meant eggs). So we boiled eggs over an outdoor fire, spinning while waiting. Jaejeong taught us this really interesting way to peel an egg. You take a bit off the shell at each end; then you blow really hard in one end. The whole shell just slips right off. Totally wild. He's very sweet but he's also quite Korean in his teaching methods. When students are roughhousing for just for fun, he'll hit them. That sounds bad to American ears. Hmmm, how can I explain. It's funny, for one thing. Everyone laughs a lot, even when he's slapping their wrist with two fingers as hard as he can. None of it really truly causes any physical distress (except possibly the wrist slapping when it happens too much, but it only happens too much if people have been losing games and stuff like that. Today's games included a relay race while spinning the sangmo. Things like that. It's sort of affectionate.

Photo of Jiwon and Jeonghwa from the Hallym University team and of course, me. Not sure I like the treatment i did on these photos though.


Jiyong

Awesome instructor Yi Jaejeong

Uiyeong (yes, this is a woman)

Beomjun

Jinyeong


My afternoon practice was MUCH more successful, I immediately nailed the steps from the morning, and started working on hitting the 소고 sogo while doing nabisa. Jaejeong definitely teaches people really fast. He doesn't make anyone perfect a move before they can move to the next move. I think this is because he feels that teaching us the basics of a lot will let us have more to practice on our own later, when we can polish things. But of course I worry that people don't realize how different their move is from someone like Beomjun's move—we don't have mirrors in the room we're in. I also think Jaejeong gets bored and wants to avoid student boredom as well. But I could be wrong. Anyway, when I had class with 구철회 Gu Cheolhoi last summer he didn't teach people more than two moves in a week. And in Seoul with 이종휘 Yi Jonghui he definitely nitpicks each move before he allows anyone a chance to try something new. In 5th week of the winter session Jinyong was studying with Yi Jonghui and he studied the whole week and only worked on 양사 yangsa and 자반 jaban (giant jumping spinning move) but I suspect he worked on the latter without Jonghui around. He's been learning that move since last summer. Jaejeong keeps saying "it has to be interesting! This class has to be fun!" Jinyong thinks this is different than the way he used to teach, that he's mellowed out a lot and lets us goof off a lot. Of course there is also the factor of the space (size of space for the number of students) and the total number of students the teacher has to divide his (her) time between.

Egg party:


Our entire class (except Minsu who left on Wednesday). Click on the photo and it'll get larger





After class we had a special 민요 minyo session. The minyo teacher was very young, she taught us 성주풀이 Seongju Puli. Or rather she taught the chorus and one verse, the shortest one. After leading everyone through the song, she started calling people out to sing it on their own. 박주동 Bak Judong was practicing the song starting last night, so he volunteered to sing right off the bat. At the very end she called on me, but I flat out refused. I will do a lot that makes me look silly (like the sangmo move with my hair last night) but I will not sing absolutely horribly in public.

After dinner we had one more sangmo practice. Everything I'm doing is getting pretty smooth and nice, but I have a long way to go before I will look good in performance. I ran out of energy half way through the practice, though, and didn't even get on the case of the other people who were talking instead of practicing.

We're getting visitors today. 다원 Dawon from week 3 came, and then later after the last practice 태강 Tae'gang showed up. They both brought food and presents for the group. 뒤풀이 duipuli was pretty normal, just drank a bit of 막걸리 makgeolli and tried hard to circulate to have a last few minutes with each groups of students that included someone I'd gotten close to during the week. I try hard to talk to everyone, or give everyone a chance to talk to me if they want to take it, and I think I did an excellent job, socially, during this week. On the other hand I'm physically exhausted after battling a cold for the whole week while practicing sangmo which is intense and sweat-inducing.

Day 3 of the Winter Sangmo Intensive

February 9th, 2011
It stayed warm all night. Or should I say seriously hot. But the good news was that in the morning the video camera was working properly. I really think it just hates to get cold. I was able to shoot the entire morning class.

We began class on time, with me leading the beginning exercises, then practiced on our own stuff until the teacher arrived (all in all, though, this teacher is much more prompt than most of the teachers I have had here). He had everyone who could do 양사위 yangsaui do 150, but at just past 100 there was a mistake and he made us start again. So we certainly got a work out. Then I was assigned to walk and do 나비사 nabisa at the same time!!!!!!!!! Wow! And I was able to do it (with sort of tentative steps at first but I got better). That was great.

In the afternoon, as usual on Wednesdays, we had a game day. I was in team 8, and each team began by making a name and a song/chant. We named ourselves 원래 골찌 "have always been last" more or less. I could probably translate that better if I spent time thinking about it. I think in Korean, so I don't always know how to translate things. Anyway, it was a joke about how the team I've been on has always been last every time I've done one of these camps at 필봉 Pilbong. And the song was pretty funny, too. It went more or less "There's no denying I'm always last, that 막걸리 makgeolli over there won't be mine, even coming here four times, always last, this time I'm sure to be last again." We had four rounds of games. First we played a charades type game, where you relayed the acting through the whole team (pair by pair) and the first person in line had to guess what it was. We lost totally unfairly because the other teams subject was movies, and all the movies were major blockbusters, then our subject was animals and the animals were like "water skater beetle" and "gray bearded baboon" and things like that. Really hard to guess! Two times our team just had to pass the animals because the first guy had no idea what they were. The only one that compared with Titanic and Matrix was giraffe. The second round was the best. Totally fun. We had to lock our arms to our legs and then scoot on our butts and knock over the other team with our feet until we got their queen. I was a total killer. It was great. We won twice and so there wasn't a third game. Which almost made me sad we had won both times. The third round was horrible. We had to do three legged races to the 장구 janggu and then one person played each side of the janggu. After you'd randomly drawn the name of a 장단 jangdan (rhythmic pattern). Of course I don't really remember any of the jangdan names, so I was a total handicap to the team. We lost royally, because it was a race to get through all our pairs before the other team did, and they won by miles. The last round was actually four games, we won the first and third, but then the judges said the first game was a practice game. Game one was where you say a number and the people on the other team stand up or not. If the same number stand up as was named, then the team loses. Game two was a really complex Korean rhythmic syllabic game and I bowed out. You had to say a four syllable word or phrase four times, accenting a different syllable each time, as fast as you could. Then the next person did it but they couldn't go in the same order as you. The third game was another speed game with guessing the word, but this time the person who knew the word described it to the next person in line. We had to get through as many people as we could in the allotted time. We got through nine people, I did fine. Our subject was "bathroom" I had to guess "plunger" and had to describe "bidet." The other team drew the subject "Korean TV stars" so if we'd had that then my team would have been screwed. The final game was a game of true or false, the last team with players who were right would win. It was so sad, it ended up me against two girls from the other team and on the last question I went true, with one of them, the other went false. It was false. So close…

Then we all reassembled and my team had come in seventh (out of eight). We got 4 bottles of makgeolli as our prize, but then there was a big true or false game and my team was the last standing and we won 5 more bottles.

Photos of our team:




After dinner we had sangmo practice again. Everyone was doing well, except 의영 Uiyeong still can't really spin even once. This guy 진용 Jinyong who was with me in Week 3 arrived the evening of the 8th to do sangmo, too. In the morning he wasn't able to do nabisa and worked with 정화 Jeonghwa, but by the evening he exploded into really doing it well, which sort of frustrated me.

The 뒤풀이 duipuli for the night was according to the teams of the day. We had our 9 bottles, with 8 people, but we were having fun and decided to go begging off other groups. We got one from our neighbors, then three from one group by doing my arm trick, and three from another group by using my braid like a sangmo ribbon. So we all ended up with at least two bottles each. I was sitting next to 문형 Munhyeong, another individual participant, and 형진 Hyeongjin, a future acupuncturist. It was a lot of fun, especially when we started playing this huge selection of games. I'm almost getting good at those with so much practice. Fry pan game, strawberry game, image game, makondo, one where you have to do the multiplication tables, etc. I went to bed at three after two and a half bottles.

Day 2 of the Winter Sangmo Intensive

February 8th, 2011

It was another really amazing day. First of all, though I doubted I could sustain it I –still—did well in 상모 sangmo class all day long. Today the teacher, 이재정 Yi Jaejeong, had me work on 나비사nabisa, a movement that sketches a butterfly with the sangmo (left wing, right wing, center backward and forward). Amazingly by the end of the day I could do the move at least mostly correctly 5 or more times in a row without pause. It's really amazing! Other than that in the afternoon because two of the more beginning people are able to sort of do 양사위 (right 1, 2, left 1, 2) the six of us had to practice together (as in 정화 Jeonghwa, 진영 Jinyeong, 범준 Beomjun, me and those two). We just stood in a line and practiced over and over, trying to hit 200 without a mistake, which of course since two people had only started doing it that day was impossible, but at any rate we practiced a lot as we TRIED to hit 200 as a group.

Today Jaejeong put on a sangmo (Beomjun's) for the first time. Which made it clear that he teaches NOT by example, but through talking. He does physically move the head of low level people, but not more advanced students, and he does sketch the moves without a sangmo on (which is pretty important when you are talking about a spinning move or a jumping move like he was having Beomjun and Jinyeong work on today). However, in general he talks us through things, in a very relaxed manner.

In the afternoon 김동민 Kim Dongmin came to talk to him. Dongmin came into the door and got down belly to the floor. So Jaejeong did the same. But then Dongmin was moving forward on his stomach, and Jaejeong had to slither off the stage he was sitting on to do likewise. The whole time they'd come up, see the other and go "Ohhh ohhh, aigo" and go down in a super deep bow again. It was really funny. I was, however, conducting an interview when that happened, so it did interfere with things, but Dongmin had to come and complain about being forced to learn to drum right handed (he's left handed) in order to teach some students. Jaejeong is also left handed… so they commiserated.

Otherwise… we had the drinks I bought because I couldn’t play the game, and we also had drinks after Jaejeong demonstrated (the idea was that he deserved an appearance fee). I led us in beginning exercises before morning and afternoon classes. I told everyone to be back at 7 for evening classes and we all worked hard and helped each other to improve. I went back to my room at 9:30 and worked a bit on a fellowship application then showered with 민경 Min'gyeong. I forgot to mention but three of the students that I did 고성오광대 Goseong Ogwangdae with in 2009 are here, including Min'gyeong.

Starting at 11 we had an exclusive 뒤풀이 duipuli for the sangmo people. I tried hard to facilitate a good mood, and eventually everyone really loosened up and talked with each other a lot. I think we're all getting to be close. We switched seats several times, talking to whoever was next to us and also playing games together. We didn't drink much because the training center has a new 1 bottle of 막걸리 makgeolli per person rule, which is not much. In my opinion anyway, since for me one bottle would only be a buzz if I scarfed it on a mostly empty stomach.

Spinning the Sangmo (again)

February 7th, 2011
I am particularly happy as I type up my report for the day. There are ten people in the 상모 sangmo class, and I'm the third best! The best two are 진영 Jinyeong from the Ewha University team and 범준 Beomjun (who as I mentioned yesterday was with me last summer and in Seoul). I'm not sure which of them is better- it probably depends on the move, but I think probably Jinyeong is overall a stronger sangmo person. At any rate, four or five are trying sangmo for the first time and the others have had very little experience. The best of these, 종화 Jonghwa from the Hallym University team, is where I was at in about the end of September. The instructor 이재정 Yi Jaejeong has been an 이수자 isuja for the past 15 years. He has been doing traditional performance for 21 years and is the same age is me. I was told last night that he taught sangmo to all the current sangmo teachers (who weren't available to teach us), and that he was very "scary." I don't think he's scary at all, his class is really comfortable.

First thing in the morning he determined who was a total beginner and had them take off their sangmo and put it back on to his satisfaction. At this point he announced that we needed a class captain. And I became the captain which is sort of funny, especially since without Jinyeong and Beomjun I'd have no idea what to do. Jaejeong took us through some exercises and told me to lead the group through the same exercises before each class (morning and afternoon) for twenty minutes. After the exercises he split us according to whether we could or could not spin, and then asked us to do several spins, I was between Jinyeong and Beomjun, and acquitted myself fairly well. He then had the three of us keep working together. We had to do 500 circles of 양사위 yangsaui (both sides), and I only lost the spin about 3 times! He had us work on the same thing with beating the 소고 sogo, then we had to do a lot of forward and back marching while spinning but –not- bending our knees (he has a point, I'm not sure what it is yet). We had to march 1,2,3,4 for each beat, then we had to march 1,2 (two beats per step) then we had to march 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 to only 4 beats! Which was really hard, especially when we were doing it in reverse. This is all while we're doing two spins on each side (1,2 looking right 3,4 looking left). At first we were doing this while hitting the sogo (1,2 at waist level, raise to face level, 4) later after we learned this super fast sogo beating technique, we were supposed to do the same. I really didn't do well at this, because I kept tensing up, and as I tensed up, then I wasn't relaxed enough to move fast. Frustrating … At the end of the day Jaejeong had all of us work on the steps for the giant spinning jumping move that is the highlight and pride of any sangmo dancer.

After class we had to watch a video of a performance that I was present at (I appear in the video), we had to watch the same video in week 3, and 인하 Inha was with us in week 3, and has been here the entire time (from week 1), so I wonder how many times she's seen it.

After dinner starting at 7:00 we had our individual practice. Usually at this time people practice with the members of their team, but the practice for sangmo students is for the sangmo students to keep working together. Around 8:00 we finally had all 10 members of our class. In my position as captain I brought everyone together and we introduced ourselves and played a Korean game for name memorization. Which I had never done before, and I sucked, so I lost—this means I have to buy refreshments for practice tomorrow. But we learned everyone's name. In addition to Beomjun and Jinyeong, the other members (I know you don't care, but this is where I make my notes to remember things later for when I'm writing my dissertation…) are 서민수 Seo Minsu, 구윤회 Gu Yunhoi, 안의영 An Uiyeong, 김형준 Kim Hyeongjun, 홍선형 Hong Seonhyeong, 오정화 O Jeonghwa and 서지원 Seo Jiwon. I practiced hard (I was sweating) but I'm not sure about some of the others who are (like I was six months ago) so frustrated it's hard to keep going.

Jaejeong teaches without spending much time correcting mistakes. For example, I know I need to power my swing by going down, but I power on the up stroke. He hasn't mentioned it. I know when I do yangsaui I have a head twitch, he hasn't mentioned that either. He also hasn't told Jeonghwa that her sangmo hat is so far forward it's not able to spin in the correct place. He mostly just tells us new things and works with us on –those- things, and leaves the rest of it alone. I'm not sure if he will go back and correct them later, or not. He smiles a lot, but he also says "Dal (that's what he calls me, but it's the closest to a name any of us have, he calls others by their major or what not), you have to relax. You have to count while you're doing it and not rush the move." And other similar corrections. I'd videotape it, but the video camera is being uncooperative. Really frustrating. Perhaps it'll work later.

At 9:30 I quit practicing and grabbed my computer, which I used in the office for a few minutes. I've been so busy since I've been here that I have to put some serious time in now just to keep the journal up to date and get ready a paper to submit to one of my dissertation writing groups. Back in the room, however, we quickly started an informal 민요 minyo class. One of our independent members can sing well, so she's helping everyone to either learn or learn better a series of minyo. The 뒤풀이 duipuli was pretty ordinary, as duipuli goes. I just talked with some folks, esp. 주원 Juwon.

Back to Pilbong

February 6th, 2011

I woke up and cleaned some more and packed the rest of the way (but forgetting both my face lotion and my bite guard). Georgy arrived a few minutes before I had to leave, she'll stay at my place for three weeks while she attends an intensive Korean language class.

At the spot the bus picks us up to go to 필봉 Pilbong I met up with both 예술 Yesul and입새 Ipsae from 이화여대 Ewha Womans' [sic] University, which I expected, but also 범준 Beomjun who I studied with last summer and at the Seoul Training Center (and was my favorite fellow from last summer) and his university 'junior' (can't remember his name) who studied with us at Seoul Training Center as well. I was blowing half my brain out my nose every couple of minutes but felt more alert than I had the previous day. The bus was so packed that we had 장구 janggu and other instruments in the aisle to the extent that getting out to pee at the rest area was hard.

At the 임실필봉농악전수회관 Imshil Pilbong Nongak Training Center the independent people were assigned to room 12, at first this was me and 종욱 Jong'uk, a nice guy studying dentistry at Yonsei University. A little later another man, 주동 Judong joined us. He has just got back from 5 weeks in India and immediately changed into a full outfit of things he bought in India. All very comfortable but so not Korean. I liked him immediately. We had dinner and at 9 assembled for the meet and greet. Each team introduced their members and performed a little routine. We (the two guys and I) had also prepared (for ten minutes) and we went over just fine. After this meeting the evening 뒤풀이 duipuli commenced. I had an entire bottle of 막걸리 Makgeolli, which is, mind you, medicine, and in fact I felt much less congested afterwards. I was also on some of my most social behavior, I greeted and sat with each group except one (I gave them two chances, but as I approached both times they called out in English, and you have to train the students not to do that, so I turned away).

Tomorrow I'll find out who all is in 상모 sangmo with me, one thing is for sure, 이종휘 Yi Jonghui will not be our teacher (he's injured his back) and there won't be a 대보름 Daeboreum festival. As soon as I knew these two facts I decided to go back to Seoul on either Thursday night or Friday morning.

Three Days in Seoul

February 3rd, 2011
My friend Bonnie and her husband Curtis came and spent the night, so I made them dinner and we had a long Korean pop culture conversation. Otherwise I finished Photoshop on the photos from Goseong and transferred all the video to Karjam's computer and other book-keeping type tasks.

February 4th, 2011
I went to a concert at the 국악원 Gugakwon with Kimberely Hall in her capacity with the Asia Society, as the event photographer. However the seats weren't ideal for photography. Worse, though, was that the lighting in the hall was atrocious. The person I was particularly supposed to photograph, Jocelyn Clark, an American professor in Korea with amazing 가야금 gayageum skills, was lit with a spotlight straight down from above, so she had dark pits for eyes and her nose cast a shadow over her mouth—it's not pleasant for the audience to see a show lit like that, and definitely I was dissatisfied with the photos. When I met her after the show she said the lighting also made it difficult to see the strings. The rest of the show was moderately better lit, but none of it was very good.

The show itself consisted of six pieces of new music for Korean traditional instruments (usually). I have limited patience with such, in general, because for every good piece you hear quite a few bad ones. It is as if the musicians, composers, directors, etc. are all so bored with the traditional repertoire they're willing to try anything—but that doesn't mean it's good for the audience! The first piece was for five solo gayageum. No, that doesn't make sense. Why not just have one solo player do the whole thing? Why five? They alternated playing in a very unconventional way, taking the new techniques popularized by composers like 황병기 Hwang Byeonggi and then going way beyond into new territory. Chiefly, the piece was not melodic. I'm sure it must be beastly hard to play as nothing was predictable at all.

The second piece featured the 생황 saenghwang, an instrument that was described after the show by Kimberely American boyfriend Shawn as "you know, the bong," and indeed Hilary Finchum-Sung (who also attended with son Oliver), confirmed that it's filled with water. It was saenghwang, viola, cello and two violins. I honestly didn't feel that the music fell within the category of "Korean music" in any way at all, but I'm probably just being conservative. Honestly, to me, it sounded like the music to a movie montage about a person who was losing their mind and was committed to a mental hospital.


The third piece was one of the two I liked the most, it showed the promise of new compositions particulary through the interesting conversation between the 단소 danso and the 피리 piri and a lovely part where just the danso and아쟁 ajaeng were playing together.

The fourth and fifth piece were for full orchestra, the orchestra was seated in chairs (western), and wearing black and white (so western), with vaguely hanbok styling to the neckline, the women's outfits ended up looking more to me like Vietnamese clothes given that it was a slit skirt over pants. I have not much to say about either piece, they used some interesting additional instruments from western and other non-Korean areas, but the music itself didn’t captivate.



The sixth piece was in the broad genre of military music, powerful and aggressive with 나발 nabal horns, 태평소 taepyeongso and piri plus a lot of percussion. More than just the music, I enjoyed hearing the composer (who was also the conductor) talk a bit about his process before the piece began.


February 5th, 2011
I met Joji at the Electronics market and bought another voice recorder because the one I bought in August records at much too low of a volume to be useful. Even if the mic is practically in the mouth of whomever I'm interviewing. We then proceeded to the National Museum where we toured the Silk Road and Dunhuang exhibit.

At five "The Gwangdae" had a performance, the hall was crowded but 대천 Daecheon's wife helped us to find a seat. The show was fairly good.

사물놀이 samulnori, a singer, followed by 풍물 pungmul, followed by 이매 Imae from 하회별신굿탈놀이 Hahoi Byeolshin'gut Talnoli, followed by a lion's dance (the lion pretended to be a camel to great amusement), then a spinning disk performance and that was the it. The audience, especially the young children loved it. After the show I got to see everyone which was awesome. 가은 Gaeun also came to the show.

Still feel sick.

Various K-Pop Releases

K-pop Reviews:

제 블로그를 방문해 주셔서 고맙습니다. 저는 이 블로그에 일주일에 4번 정도 한국 전통 공연 문화에 대해 쓰고 있습니다. 처음에는  K-pop에 관심이 있으셔서  방문하셨겠지만 나가시기 전에 한국 전통 문화에 관한 것도 한번 봐 주시면 좋겠습니다.

When MBLAQ asks you to "stay with me" how could you possibly leave? In "Stay" hese guys are so hot, I can almost forget they're practically young enough to be my sons. This is definitely MBLAQ's best work yet, in many ways they are maturing as a group, but I find the song overall to be too "busy," there is just too much going on. And the video, with some of the colors and lighting, sort of strains the eyes, when I'd really just like to relax and look at the guys. There is a longer review on allkpop, just in case you're interested.

Park Jungmin, one of the performers from SS501 (at least in the short term the group is taking a hiatus), has released a solo effort, "Not Alone." The song lacks originality and although the choreography has a few moments of brilliance, we mostly just get to look at the new slicked down hair cut and dark eyeliner that Jungmin is sporting, rather than dance moves. Like some other SS501 songs, Jungmin has utilized a bunch of string instruments, but it feels contrived. And he really shouldn't have changed his look, the old one was much hotter. At least the autotune is not overpowering his voice, which isn't bad.

This character shows up in the video. I just thought the glasses merited a screenshot.


Teen Top (talk about stupid group names) has released the video for "Supa Love," which apparently was produced by a guy who has also produced for Justin Bieber. That should tell you a lot. But as much as the previous releases of this group have fallen short in my opinion, this one is actually a very danceable/club track. If I have to hear it too many times it's going to irritate me, but in the short term I can see myself getting the dishes done in a big hurry while listening to this. The last twenty seconds should be cut off the track though. The video is fairly good, somewhat simple choreography but a nice consistent look throughout. The teen top guys are young, but they don't come across as pre-teens, despite the sort of immature references to supa as in Superman, and a set of outfits that sort of look like trainee superhero garb. I read an online review that says basically one guy, Niel, is singing the whole time. But if it was a solo singer instead of a group that'd still be the case, so who cares how they divide up the work?


A new group that wants to fight back against the idol group culture had just released their first song—the group is called Piggy Dolls and indeed the members are hefty. The song, "Trend" has a long intro, but once the singing starts, you can see that these three can sing, they've got serious lungs, although autotune is still in use, perhaps stylistically chosen, not needed though in this case. It seems to me, though, if they dance that much they are going to lose their trademark plus size. At any rate, Korea is a bit too hung up on appearance and I applaud attempts like this to fight back. But they aren't the first such group, so I am skeptical if they can stick around.



Infinite released a video for "Before the Dawn" that is too violent, apparently, for television. Shots of dance choreography alternate with a dark fight scene. The fight scene just doesn't seem justified in the lyrics, I think it's supposed to be a metaphor, but way too heavy handed to work out. The choreography is pretty good, very strong and masculine, but the singing isn't gritty enough to match the fight or darkness, it's too pretty and smooth.



Joo has released the new track "나쁜 남자", or bad man. The song is whatever, nothing I'd want to listen to again, but the video has an advantage, in that the man is played by Chansung from 2PM, definitely their hottest member. He has the best eyes.

Back in Seoul (again)

February 1st, 2011

I had a meeting with my local dissertation support writing group:
Hyun (UCLA), Jenny (Columbia), Shannon (UPenn) and Bonnie (UW) were in attendance. Only Shannon and I had full length papers ready, we were pairs, while the other three worked together (and got to know each other).

Went to Severance Hospital where the ear doctor says I appear to be fine!

January 31st, 2011

I found out that 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class would be run as normal, so after a hectic day which involved an emergency tooth extraction (yes, my body is falling apart), I ended up (minus the tooth) at the Intangible Cultural Asset Training Center in southern Seoul, dancing yet again to Bongsan Talchum's familiar rhythm.

We had a normal class, with 원중 Wonjung, 병호 Byeongho, 정현 Jeonghyeon and 하연 Hayeon notably in attendance, as well as three new people (one of which came just before I left). We practiced the 8 dark faced monks, then 소무 Somu and the 사자춤 Lion's dance came last. All in all, it was quite good, but Wonjung may not be able to come anymore. I gave him my report on Goseong and he expressed his frustrations with his group.

Final Performance at the Goseong Ogwangdae Intensive

January 29th, 2010

I woke at 7 and made a huge batch of 뒨장찌게 bean paste stew and salad (green cabbage base with strawberries in it). After breakfast everyone changed into 민복 minbok and headed to the main hall. I hung back a bit to clean up, then to meet Heike, a friend of mine who was teaching at ANU when I went there for a conference in 2005. She is now teaching at Gyeongsang University (in Jinju) running their international studies section (and teaching politics). Just like last week the performance started with a 고사 gosa ceremony, with 이재훈 Yi Jaehun talking the students through the process. The mixed team performed first, and the 말뚝이 Malddugi needed to be cued repeatedly and screwed up the dance a bit, the monk's dance performer also got lost several times in the choreography. The KNUA students did a great job, but it wasn't as much fun as the first performance because they didn't make a lot of funny mistakes. However there were a ton of wardrobe malfunctions. Masks coming off, pants that fell down, ties that came untied. 정우 Jeong-u needed to be cued on his part (원양반 Won Yangban), too.






After the performance we had lunch, Heike joined us before checking out the mask dance museum and going back to Jinju. That was followed by a large amount of cleaning to get the space back into good shape before we left. I took several loads to the main building, and used the opportunity to talk to the teachers and others there. Gave 이윤석 Yi Yunseok a solid good-bye, gave my card to 영욱 Yeong'uk from "The Gwangdae" and Daecheon. Hugged Changyeol, relieved that I only have to wait until Saturday to see him. I love him, he's totally awesome. As soon as Karjam comes back I'm inviting him and his girlfriend, 세정 Sejeong, over for dinner. It was sad to leave. As soon as we got on the bus most of the students fell asleep. Before we were halfway to Seoul, it was snowy and freezing. At the rest stops I could hardly manage to get to the building and back on the bus, and remarked that we should turn around and head back to Goseong.



We reached KNUA campus around 8, and I took the long subway ride home, stopping at the bakery and the market on the way up the hill as I couldn't stomach the idea of leaving home again that evening.

January 30th, 2011

I stayed home and transferred audio and photo files, labeling and editing. Please look back over the last two weeks worth of entries to see photos inserted in the next day or two.

Last Day of Rehearsals for Week 2

January 28th, 2011
I felt pretty under the weather, especially in the morning, despite the ginger tea and the vitamin C I've been eating.

I don't know if I should say that I am unlucky today, or to say that I had two very close calls. First in the afternoon practice session for Act 3 (Bibi), 희수 Heesu, in the excitement of the moment, managed to knock over my tripod and video camera (which was on the lowest height possible) (I was using my camera at that moment, but the video was still recording). The tripod broke, one leg completely snapped off--which honestly is crappy construction because Heesu didn't hit it hard. But the tripod cost a tiny fraction of what the video camera, which was completely unscathed, cost. Then less than an hour later, after afternoon practice was mostly done, I was interviewing 이윤석 Yi Yunseok (the Human Treasure, so this is like the MOST important interview here) and my voice recorder batteries died. But I noticed it. I may have lost as much as 15 minutes. But I recorded more than 30 minutes on the new batteries, including going back and trying to ask the first questions in a different way (to the extent possible without taking up too much of Yi's valuable time).



Otherwise, in the morning we had practice which was essentially talking people through Act 2 (Yangban), and then having them actually run through it. There was a huge difference between the KNUA team and the other team, even though many of the performers have changed (most, except 민기 Min'gi is still the key character of 말뚝이 Malddugi (though the other key character of 원양반 Won Yangban was 기영 Giyeong and now it's 정우 Jeong-u). They saw it last week, and they had a very good idea of what to do (and had also, when needed talked about it among themselves). The contrast with the other team was extreme. After lunch the same thing continued, but with more rehearsal of Act 3 and a group run through of both Act 1 and Act 4. The entire day was supervised by 전광열 Jeon Gwangyeol. At the end of the afternoon practice 하현갑 Ha Hyeon'gap performed the monk's dance in clothes but no mask and 대천 Daecheon and 창열 Changyeol ran through Bibi to everyone's delight.





At lunch time I walked to town again, they would have made curry for me without the meat in it, but I've never been a fan of Korean curry mix. I bought a coffee for Min'gi and set it out in the main hall with a note written by the office manager on it, but I think they still figured out it was me. Oh well. I tried. (This is because I drew his name and have to do nice things for him). But because they figured out it was me, I have to do his final day of cleaning while he relaxes (according to the rules, anyway). I also bought a side dish for tomorrow's breakfast, partially because it was good, and partially because of SBS coming back, but then they called and said they're not coming back. I'm actually really relieved. I just don't have the energy. If they were coming back they'd be here during evening rehearsal. Which would make it harder to do interviews and stuff. I interviewed 최영호 Choi Yeongho before the morning class and 경진 Gyeongjin before dinner, then like I said Yi Yunseok, and later I interviewed Daecheon and then 이재훈 Yi Jaehun, who is a 전수교육조교 2nd ranked (below human treasure) member of the group. Sometime during that interview my voice recorder ran out of room, we were talking until midnight, I hope I got most of it.

The evening practice was just more and more run throughs for both groups (except 윤만 Yunman was sick so he couldn't run through his scene and 솔지 Solji from the drama group 북재통 substituted for him. After the last rehearsal I was interviewing but when I finished that I learned we were having a big 뒤풀이 duipuli with everyone there. The KNUA students didn't bring anything (alcohol or food) which was embarrassing, but I wasn't there long, anyway. Shortly after I got there 황종욱 Hwang Jong'uk made an appearance, he sat with me and we talked about how to improve festivals and performance environments, we may (at least he said we would, but let's see if it happens) go to 안동 Andong together and talk to those guys about what needs to change, how to improve the festival. Then Changyeol fetched Hwang and told me to come and meet them at our place, which I did after a few minutes. We drank and every member gave their little wrap up of the experience speech. I went to bed at 2:00 because I had to wake up to make breakfast in the morning.

Being Filmed by SBS

January 27th, 2011
I woke up fairly easily (since I felt like I had never gotten into a deep sleep all night) and shook 민기 Min'gi awake so that he could make breakfast (I didn't even bother to try with 혜미 Haemi who is on today's cooking crew, too. It's just not going to happen).

After breakfast when I got to the training center the SBS TV crew was already there. We had our morning class in the Mask Dance Museum (on the second floor), the whole time with the TV camera practically right in my face, or on the floor right under my feet. It was a bit stressful (to say the least). 전광열 Jeon Gwangyeol came to teach us, but didn't talk a lot, I was a bit disappointed about that. At one point Daecheon had the two who will perform on the last day and then me dance in the center of the circle, while holding the real stick, instead of just a little bamboo wand. I did amazingly well (it was hard to follow other's motions from that position) and was very proud of myself, although suddenly using the heavy and long stick was kind of odd. I went to lunch with the TV crew (and 창열 Changyeol) because the lunch for the students was going to be meat. After lunch we sat in the freezing cold main hall and they interviewed me for about 75 minutes without a break. It was so hard. I always doubt my vocabulary at moments like that. Not to mention every other aspect of my Korean. But they kept asking me questions I knew the answer to and had a lot of opinions about.
"Why don't Korean like traditional arts?"
"Uh, Koreans don't even know traditional arts, if they ever watched them with an open mind they'd probably like them a lot."

For afternoon practice, even though it was much colder than yesterday we went back to the quay we practiced on yesterday. My hands got really cold and my leg muscles started freezing up, but it was really awesome, it was sunny (which it hadn't seemed all day, it was only sunny after we got to the ocean, I swear) and a bit breezy and after practicing as a group we had to break down, first three at once, followed by a period of 안대천 An Daecheon helping us with our weak spots, then we had to do it two at a time. I did it was 혜미 Haemi and did pretty well. As we were going to leave Jeon showed up with 호떡 cinnamon sugar stuffed rice pancakes for everyone. We ate them with great relish, then went back to the same place we had snacks the day before and had 막걸리 makgeolli with 떡볶이spicy rice noodles and 오뎅 boiled fish cakes.




The SBS people left (they'll be back tomorrow evening) and I interviewed Changyeol then fell asleep out of pure physical exhaustion. For dinner suddenly Hwang Jong'uk informed us that he'd be taking us all out to dinner, which he did, at a meat buffet. Literally you picked up all the different types of raw meat and grilled it on the table. I had pumpkin rice soup and a lot of 김밥 kimbap, as that was about all that I could eat. It was very very generous of him, taking 25 people (24 other people, because he took out some instructors and all the "The Gwangdae" members as well as us) out to dinner like that was definitely not cheap.

Our group is playing a new game of sorts: at lunch we all drew a name, then the first mission was to send that person a text message. We can't let them or anyone know we drew them, though. Of course since I only had two people's phone numbers, I got someone else. At dinner I went around and got almost everyone's numbers, then sent a lot of text messages to disguise who was my actual person (Min'gi). I still have no idea who drew my name.

Inseon and Minji sat across from me at dinner:


In the evening after dinner everyone assembled in the main building, with Act 5 rehearsing in the small practice room downstairs and the rest upstairs. Changyeol ran through Act 3 (Bibi) with the people who will perform this week, teaching them how to say the dialectical dialogue and where to accent it, as well as stage blocking. A little later 황종욱 Hwang Jong'uk came upstairs and oversaw practice, drumming and calling out directions while having a conversation with 혜미 Haemi at the same time. His running commentary exposed his opinion of the motion execution as the 문둥춤 Mundung Dance crew rehearsed the motions in a large circle. The dance is that of a leper with a fair amount of disease progression, showing his hardship and frustration with his physical condition, which at the end of the dance he overcomes enough to actual express joy. I'd learn it, but there is a hint to me, in some of the motions of a very non-PC making fun of the person with the degenerative disease. It especially feels that way when people can't do it very well and they sort of overdo it.

After Hwang watched the four individual dances (not the Old Wife, who is rehearsing with the Act 5 group downstairs), two sets of dancers at a time, he ordered those who would do the final performances to dance, starting with the 말뚝이 Malddugi dancers. The guy who will dance for the other group is really hopeless, both as a dancer and as a memorizer of the set of motions. Oh well. It's not chosen according to who is the best, because if it was, you'd see the repeat students often learning the same thing again and then dancing that for the final performance based on experience, whereas the stress of preparing for the final performance will give some of these younger first year/first time students a huge leg up once they get back to their universities and practice with this groups. Next the 원양반 Won Yangban people came out. Then 승무 monk's dance (the key people in the outer robe so that they could experience the very long sleeves). Last of all was the Mundung dance group. When everyone finished Hwang said "some people are of course better than others. Some work harder. But you need to look in the mirrors and see your motion and try to figure out how to improve your own motion, so that you can do it without looking in the mirror in the future. Read the dialogue and think about the meaning behind the dance and the characters. Why do the rhythmic patterns change, the whole piece shouldn't be exactly the same energy, put the energy in the right place. The dance is important, but the dialogue and stage blocking is also important. If you don't know what it means, you need to ask someone, because you'll never make it come out right, otherwise. Okay? Today watching you guys I can't give you 30 out of 100. You still have a long way to go. Some of you don't even remember the order of motions yet. Tomorrow, practice all day so we can have a good final performance. You understand? You really need to make the motions right with the mirror. If you are uncomfortable with how you look, how do others feel when they watch you? Don't just look at the KNUA students, you're not the same, you should do it your way. 헐!" (Heol is this slang thing these days, it was funny that Hwang said it, although a bit misplaced, according to my understanding.) Then we all bowed and that was the end of the practice.

Back at our rooms another 뒤풀이 duipuli began even though I don't think there was one student who really wanted to drink. The reason for the evening was that the old 조교 jogyo (kind of like a TA but they never teach, just run professorial errands and make copies and answer phones and stuff) had come to see how the students were doing. I made ginger tea and went to sleep pretty early (1:30), but during the night the heat never came back.