to hell and back…

dear diary–
i awoke to gray skies on saturday [april 9] morning. surprisingly enough no hangover although i was very sleepy. my first thoughts were "how am i going to be able to go out again tonight?" all i really wanted to do was stay in bed and sleep. if only i didn't make advance plans. i was actually looking forward to tonight. i've been wanting to check out skunk hell for some time now. i heard it was the spot to hear korean punk bands. hell yeah!! i couldn't even tell you the last time i was at a punk show. high school? college? its been awhile and the inner youth that haunts my soul was excited. it rained off and on all day. figures. one friend canceled due to the rain. around 5:30pm horace and i met damion at jungang station. he came up from asan. he's been here for almost two months, maybe more, and this was the first time we saw each other. i was excited to see an old friend from sf. how odd that two people from the same city who hung out with the same crowd [for the most part] would end up in south korea. crazy!! we caught up on the subway ride. once at our destination we waited for jenny and ryan to show. once they got here we went into hell. skunk hell was a tiny space. all black and smokey. there were perhaps 30 people there tops. a majority of them members of one band or another. there were also quite a few weguks, three of which drove me crazy. i've got a very short fuse when it comes to other weguks here. not really sure why. enough of about them. the strange thing i've noticed about korean shows is that a lot of people sit during the show. along the back wall of hell the kids sat. there were a couple of folks standing up front and we stood in the middle. basically we were up front since this place was so tiny. i can't tell you how happy it made me to see korean punks. colored mohawks, studded jackets, combat boots, striped socks, etc. it really didn't matter what the bands sounded like. i could have just stood here all night taking it in. luckily enough the bands were quite good. not really sure who was who but i liked what i heard. at one point one the singer from the first band asked me if i knew how to say "last song" in korean. of course i had to answer no. there was even an all girl punk band. i soon dubbed them the korean go-go's. the show started early around 7pm and was over by 10pm. not that long but we did get to see 4 bands for $7. you can't really beat that. they have shows there every saturday so i'm sure i'll check it out again. i mean, why not. towards the end of the gig vicky and neeve arrived. at least they got to enjoy some of it.

after experiencing hell we decided it was time for drinks. while we were in hell we had to run to the 7-11 to get beer. they didn't sell it there. i love the fact that 7-11 have paper cups for when you buy a pitcher of beer. love it. the only bar i knew of in this area was cocks where we went with misty, kate, and d. after traveling in the rain to get there we found out it was closed. instead we went to shooters which is the upstairs part of cocks. go figure. cocks and shooters. tonight shooters was giving its customers a free guiness. can't be that. except that the guiness was gross. there's something wrong with guiness in a bottle. anyway we ordered a pitcher and some food and hung out for a bit. after a horace, vickie, and neeve all left to catch the last subway. it was now down to the four of us. the staff at shooters were super nice. since they were so late in bringing out our food we got it for free plus a free fruit plate too. goodtimes. goodtimes. from shooters we moved onto yet another bar. jenny knew about this place and it had super cheap drinks. i completely forgot the name of it too. i'll have to ask jenny on sunday. anyway we had to wait to go in because there were no seats. thats the thing about korea. if there are no seats available in the bar you can't go in. they don't allow standing like they do in american bars. its odd but also nice. the bars never get super packed this way. here we have more beer, more food, and vodka drinks. the night was on. our final destination for the night was ska bar to do some dancing. i wasn't quite sure what to expect but i figured why not. the ska bar was quite small too. it was upstairs on the 3 floor. inside it had wooden floors and the walls looked redish. with our admission we got a free drink coupon. for some odd reason i wasn't able to get a corona with my coupon so i opted for the cranberry vodka. the music was all over the board: 80s one minute, disco the next, some 60s tunes thrown in here and there, a little hip-hop, and some greenday. what more could you ask for. it was a total trip dancing about being the only 4 westerns there. i almost forgot. for a snack they had cherry tomatoes. korea is all about the healthy snacks while drinking. finally around 3ish we decided to call it a night. after 10 minutes of talking to the cab driver he agreed to take us home. the trip home was pretty uneventful. i was thankful we made home. sometimes you just never know. be well…

snaps from hell night…
Links

• saturday b-day pics