Showing posts with label weekend roundup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend roundup. Show all posts

Monday, January 29, 2007

jet black

deery-lou.
sunday was spent reconnecting with my old peep chen. it had been some time since we last hung out. we've both been busy doing our own thing and our paths just never seemed to crossed. that's the one thing i truly miss about living closer to friends. to be able to just call someone up during the week and meet for a drink or whatever. now my life has come down to planning. for those that really know me—well you know how good i am at that. we met up in hongdae. our day started out in a cafe, who's name escapes me. i really got to be better at remembering the names. from there we ventured to purple records. i was looking for kristin hersh's new cd. of course it was a bust. i asked the lady if she could order it. she wrote down my number but we'll see if it actually happens. [fingers crossed]. seeing that food was much needed we grabbed some sandwiches at jenny's. this seems to be the spot chen and i always end up at. their sandwiches do rock though. and i was so craving one. of course a day out with chen wouldn't be the same without hitting the anime shops so that's what we did. i scored three new toys for my collection. luck must have been on my side cuz i ended up with the ones i wanted. one never knows which character is going to be inside those boxes. we had a brief jaunt through fashion street and youth town which is in front of ewha women's university. i scored a white pully that looks like its out of blade runner. me was very excited. it's very rare that the "one size" fits. we ended the evening meeting up with mz. amber at a tea place that looked like my mommom's house.

last night i had a dream. it had something to do with my friend shortcake. although in the dream it wasn't her per se. the gist of it escapes me; however, i do remember the end. i was in a house. a big colonial style house. it was mine. i was wearing a robe and blue slippers. i was walking down the stairs, heading toward the big, white door. my hand reached out for the gold knob and opened the door. outside night was still there. i stepped out onto the opened porch which was the length of the house. as my foot touched the ground i heard a crunching sound. snow. the porch was covered in fresh snow. i hadn't even noticed it before. everything was covered in a fresh blanket of snow. on the corner of the porch were two girls. one was in lavender. they made a comment about the snow. although i don't recall exactly what was said. i replied but my words escape me. i shortly awoke to the sound of my phone. it was pevil. she had called to tell me that shortcake had passed away. i was at a loss for words. while speaking with pevil, i kept looking at the photo of shortcake and i on my wall. it was good to speak to pevil. we were able to laugh a little, which is always good. i spent my morning in some what of a daze. i guess we are never quite prepared to hear about a friend's death. it got me thinking. life is too unexpected. you just never know when things will change. i've so many friends out there that i seldom speak to and i want that to change. it's time to make an effort. an effort to reach out at least once a month to just say hi. i don't want to lose another without them knowing that i care. i will surely miss shortcake, who i often thought of as a little sister. she was full of spunk and had a great spirit about her. i hadn't spoken to her in awhile so i'm not really sure what was going on in her life. she had seemed happy the last time we chatted. i only wish that where ever she is now that she has found some peace. i will think of you often. goodbye, shortcake.

today's bit of news also made me think of yet another friend i had lost about 6 years ago. at that time i wrote something to her. it seems only fitting to share it now:

untitled
it's hard to express how i feel
never to be one who is forthcoming with emotions
i keep things bottled up waiting to explode

i wanted to call the minute i learned
of your ailing condition but i was afraid
for i did not know what to say

a small part of me imagined i'd see you at christmas
most likely not wanting to believe the truth

i heard about your condition just weeks before
the shock of the news just never sunk in
i hoped you would conquer this, like you did before

never in all my life did i imagine that i'd get that fateful call
i listened to the message twice
hoping, wishing i had heard it wrong

both times the words "bonnie pasted away"
were clear as a bell
there was no mistaken it

i wish i had the courage to call you
to hear your sweet angelic voice

a voice that made me laugh so many times
just to hear it one more time

stay gold & be well…

Sunday, January 07, 2007

lover's spit

deery-lou.
hung out with bc in my hood. saturday night was spent shopping. bc scored. sadly, i didn't. however, i did manage to have every person working on the men's floor look at my shoes. we were ambushed which resulted in me breaking out in a sweat and losing all interest in shopping. there's nothing like being put on the hot seat. one vender on the women's floor gave us each a free pin. why is that the sales people on the women's floor are much more relaxed? we saw three girls sitting in one of the shops eating pizza, pasta, and drinking beer. classic. we discovered a new bar in my hood called [si:m], which according to bc is pronounced seam. the atmosphere of the bar is right up my alley: semi-dark, good music, and a friendly staff. i think its suppose to be some kind of photo bar. there were a lot of cameras, pictures, and photobooks all over. finally a cool place to go and chill. before leaving the cute bartender noticed my shoes and made a comment. i think he actually liked them. a first here.

that night bc and i had a pajama party. we listened to music, read people, ate peanut butter sandwiches then stayed up to 4am watching babel. i thought the movie was good. the actress playing the japanese deaf girl did a fabulous job. by the time we got out of my apartment it was noon. our first and only mission of the day:food. we decided on dak kalbi. i think we were the first customers. the entire staff was sitting at a table watching a korean drama when we walked in. oops. our slogan for the morning: beer for breakfast. it tasted good too. i left the restaurant stuffed. he rest of my day was spent in bed watching justice league unlimited. so good. cartoons rock!

stay gold & be well…

p.s. i almost forget. i found smurf boxers! unfortunately they were for kids. grrrr.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

birthday girl

deery-lou.
the other night while leaving taekwondo i happened to look up at the building and saw this sign out front. in the two years i've been walking in and out of that building i've never noticed it before.


now is it just me or does this sign seem a bit sexual. not really sure what its a sign for either.

it was a rather quiet weekend for me. here's what i got up to:
1. watched 4 hours of one tree hill
2. ate a bag of chex mix
3. smoke countless cigarettes
4. cleaned my apartment
5. watched the justice league
6. bought 6 more movies from my nbf one of which was the movie i called about [he even gave bc a free one for service, who in return gave it to me. how sweet]
7. went to buddha's belly in the twan for a photo exhibit [snore]
8. bought 2 books

stay gold & be well…

p.s. i think i have a crush on nbf

Sunday, December 03, 2006

just like anyone

deery-lou.
when did it become december already? its getting colder and colder here. i had to bust out the white beast this week. it made me sad. for now i know i'll be wearing it for the next 3 months. hopefully this winter won't last as long as the previous one. i am in the market for a new mid-length jacket preferably black and boots of some sort also black. while out with my k-friend on saturday he told me i needed to invest in a mirror. apparently my hair was too much for him. i guess he doesn't like the wind-blown look. what do you say to that? i simply laughed it off and gave him a sarcastic thanks. which i'm sure was lost on him. this has been the second time we hung out and once again more time was spent in his car driving from one place to another than actually doing something. and to make matters worse he was playing horrible christmas songs. there was a point when i wanted to jump out of the car. next time there's got to be a plan.

today bc and i checked another thing off the list. this time it was the national museum of korea. we were quite pleased with ourselves. especially since it had been some time since our last list outing. the national museum is huge. we managed to do the third floor which had the asian arts gallery and the fine arts gallery 2. we tried to guess each others favorites. bc was much better at the game than me. am i that predictable. while in the fine arts section we ran into two obnoxious children that kept bumping and getting in front of us. of course the mom was right there but never said anything. i came very close to drop kicking them. there were lots of cool stuff. my favs were probably the mini pagodas and the tiny dragons used to decorate them. yes, i like dragons. we attempted to do the second floor but realized we were museumed out. before leaving we hit the gift shop. a definite must do in any museum/gallery one goes to. i walked out with 4 postcards and 1 button.

welcome to the national museum of korea

the ceiling

giant pagoda structure

more pictures from the national museum.


from the nmk we headed to yongsan. on the way i found a toy store. unfortunately it turned out to be not so exciting. yongsan is the land of electronics and dvds. i'm usually completely overwhelmed when i step into the electronics mall but it wasn't so bad this time. we stayed ever so briefly before making our way [through the dodgy back way] to the dvd mecca. i initially planned on buying three dvds but somehow got talked into six. one of the movies i wanted they didn't have. my new best friend [the worker] had asked everyone nearby; however, it was a bust. nbfw gave me a number for a mister lim and told me to call him. now i got my own personal dvd connection. how fab is that. out of the six movies there's only one that i wasn't familiar with. if i end up not liking it i'll blame him. shopping is fun.

what i saw when i peered through the fence:

soccer time

something i learned today: in some countries sauce rhymes with horse. hm mm.

my new motto: what would the justice league do?

stay gold & be well…

Sunday, November 26, 2006

a doodlin' song

deery-lou.
here's what my horoscope had to say.
taken from vanity fair's december 2006 issue

aries
Part of you is passionate, rife with creative urges, and desperate to strut your stuff and let everybody know you're still a hot genius. Not with Uranus changing direction in your solar 12th house, though. That vibration makes you want to turn your back on all the trash that passes for art nowadays, not to mention the people who tout it. In fact, the falseness of the world is such a turnoff that what you need now is some serious downtime away from the noise, glitter, and insanity. So what's stopping you?

sounds like grand advice. downtime is always a good thing.

in the subway station

spent most of my weekend catching up with friends and just chillin. saturday was dinner with olivia, who's leaving korea in a few weeks, and a few others. afterwards we went to stereo underground for drinks. later in the evening i hooked up with bc, who was trolling the western bars. having been there once, i refused to go inside. instead we went off to a cute cafe that had awesome art books for a last call. sunday bc and i went princess's apartment for some green curry shrimp. yumfest. before making our way there we strolled around the twan. i bought me some sloppy joe mix at the foreign market. going back to my white trash roots. now all i need are some tator tots.

stay gold.
be well…

Sunday, November 19, 2006

working for the man

deery-lou.
somehow i seemed to spend my entire weekend here in ansan and it felt great. on saturday a friend sent me a text and asked if i wanted to check out the "challenge adventure" at the ansan youth center. being somewhat intrigued by this "challenge adventure" i agreed. what i walked into though was a little girl playing the piano. curious. apparently the adventure part of the evening was over. it was now the talent portion, where proud parents dressed their children in their finest attire to showcase their hidden talents. five piano recitals later my friend turned to me and said, "this is boring". i couldn't have agreed more. before we made our escape we were subjected to one little girl's singing voice. it was like listening to cats fighting. the rest of the evening seemed to be one misadventure after the other: wrong turns down very narrow streets, trying to go to the art center but finding out it was closed, etc. the evening ended with a driving tour through hanyung university. which was all right except for the fact that i was sans glasses and contacts so everything was a blur.

today bc came to visit. i love when my peeps come to ansan. she had been on vacation in the land down under visiting her family. it felt like ages since i last saw her. so we got to play catch up. she got me the most fabulous anime nurse pin. love it. and from her brother i received a bag of mints. mints are like a luxury item here. we lunched at my favorite dak kalbi restaurant. they had the most excellent candied sweet potatoes as a side. bc and i were in heaven. after completely stuffing ourselves we took a stroll through handaeop. on a whim we stopped into a clothing store. i found a most excellent shirt which actually fit. of course i had to buy it. bc gave me the thumbs up. with my purchase i also received a cute black tote and two umbrellas. score! free gifts are always fun.

i was inspired today to finally load up my itunes with music that misty and ted have sent me. they've been laying around forever so i figured why not. unfortunately i think i added way too much. itunes is not happy and crashed. it is now rebuilding my entire library. oops. i'll give it a few days and if it continues to be temperamental i will most likely have to pull some things off. or better yet increase my memory. hmmm.

be well…

Monday, November 13, 2006

it dawned on me

deery-lou.
saturday, november 11 was pepero day. the day in korea where children give each other and their teachers chocolate covered biscuit sticks. and once again i ended up with a desk full of them on friday. even the ddung cafe was getting into the act by having a sale. i stumbled upon their poster one day while walking to work.


unfortunately i didn't make it to the sale. the koreans sure do love their holidays. i actually saw a couple carrying a balloon sculpture that was wrapped around a box of candy while another had giant baskets of candy.

here's how i spent my weekend:
1. the looking for symbolism in nothing show
9 experimental videos/films by artists from america, japan, and korea. the event was put together by a friend of mine, olivia, who also happened to be one of the filmmakers. it was held at stereo underground, which in itself is a pretty cool place. it felt very chill. it reminded me alot of being at the madcat film events in sf. overall the videos/films were pretty good. there were a few that lost my interest quite fast but hey you can't like them all. i hope that olivia plans more events like these. they are definitely needed.

2. westin chosun hotel
somehow through the course of the night i strayed and ended up at the bar in the westin chosun hotel with two koreans. one of which is a police inspector. there was a live band there. well i'm using the term band very loosely. it was actually two women singing cover songs. one of them played the keyboards. they were eastern european. i think maybe from bulgaria or russia. don't know. didn't ask. i tried to click my shoes and wish for home but i guess that only works in the movies. the bar had some beef jerky so it wasn't a total loss.

3.wake up andy warhol
ssamziegil, which is in insadong, has transformed itself into the land of andy warhol. they went all out and covered the entire building in copied warhol art. throughout the complex is some art by warhol and some warhol-style art by korean artist. even the stores got into the act by selling warhol merchandise. apparently there is a basement gallery with some of warhols work but i missed that. oops. i'll get to it next time. check out this article. here's a glimpse of warhol wonderland ssamziegil style.




to see the rest of the images click here.

4. amnesia and memory
amnesia and memory is the current exhibit at artside by chinese artist zhang xiaogang. if you're in insadong you should definitely check it out. the work is quite impressive. it ends on november 20.

5. shopping
bought two more wooden people keychains bringing my total to 4 [i have a plan for them]
a black and white scarf
a long sleeved t-shirt with a warrior on it

6. eating tacos
after my morning arting i headed to gangnam to meet princess. we went to the bookstore then ate burrittos at dos tacos. we got an order of fiesta nachos to share. princess asked for the cheese on the side. when it came out we got a plate of naked chips and then another plate with all of the toppings on the side. hmmmm. there were some real interesting conversations happening in there, too. the best were from two korean-americans who sounded like total frat boys talking about their bitches. i'm so use to koreans speaking korean that its strange to hear them speaking perfect english.

be well…