"a large chunk of butter in the sun"

"In the rain, which does not come, our laundry always stays on the line.  A river, already half-dead, had its source in the Black Forest.  The sun, El Comandante told me, spends the nights lying on a stretcher.  Gather, gather, gather.  Gather words, my friend, but no one will ever succeed in describing fire exhaustively.  From the radio all we hear are electrical whoosing sounds.  Our boats are meandering about on the Camisea.

Yesterday in the speedboat one of the boatmen had left a large chunk of butter in the sun on a flat glass saucer (late-Woolworth style), and had covered it with a page torn from a porno magazine.  Repulsive-looking men copulated with blowsy blondes, who strangely enough had kept their bikinis on.  I saw that the butter was melting and would soon turn to liquid, so I pushed the saucer into the shade up front in the bow, but on two stops I made later the boatman had pulled the saucer back into he blazing sun.  The butter is salted, and comes out of cans imported from Australia.  I did not ask why the boatman was putting the covered butter in the heat that way, but with silent determination we continued the duel all day and into the early evening to get the butter into the sun, then into the shade.  In the last rays of the sun an enormous tree suddenly burst into bloom with blossoms of glowing yellow, as dense and yellow as a hail of gold.  It happened so fast that from one second to the next the blossoms were there, as if a light had been switched on, and just as quickly they were extinguished again.

Huerequeque found a large piece of petrified wood and gave it to me.  We talked about tortoise dances, about fish dances.  The notion that fish dance preoccupies me."

-- Werner Herzog, Conquest of the Useless

Christmas Line Man

Daegu, South Korea.

My exercise bike gave up the ghost not long ago, so with only a month left in Korea I've been taking lots of long walks throughout the northern part of the city for exercise.  From Christmas Day, which is a national holiday in South Korea, it was interesting to see which businesses chose to close and which chose to stay open.  (Corona is also making something of a comeback, which is horrible.)

I don't thing this technically counts as graffiti (rare but not unknown here) but just a friendly reminder that this here restaurant is closed for now, but it misses you very much and hopes you come back soon.

"a new entertainment"

 

Candy Machine, "The People Mover"

D.C. area folks might get the Dulles Airport related joke here.

Merry Christmas everybody!  I hope Santa brought you nice, expensive things.  This here blog is in a lull as I prepare to move back to America.  I'm doing bank and pension office visits, and I just helped my boss hire my own replacement.  I'm still teaching adults for the rest of January as well.

Things are good.  I had a quiet, solo Christmas replete with Korean fried chicken -- just like Baby Jesus!

Found In Translation

My life is way too up in the air right now to do something as life-changing as buying a new video game console, but this is kind of cool -- the Hangul-ized logo for Cyberpunk 2077.  (I realize the release has been a shit-show.)

So roughly, we've got "SA-EEE-BUH-PUNG-KU."

Not easy to do, but very cool.

Ability Without Confidence or Enthusiasm?

There's a long-standing stereotype regarding the hard-working but tired, over-stressed Korean student.  According to a test of elementary school students in the country, it's partly true:

"Yet despite Korean students’ high average scores, their level of confidence and interest in their studies were among the lowest in the world.  

Fourth graders’ confidence level in mathematics and science came in second-to-last place, at 57th out of 58 countries, with Filipino students coming in last.  

Only 15 percent of Korean fourth graders answered that they are 'very' confident in mathematics, compared to the global average of 32 percent. Likewise, they also had a very low level of interest in the subjects, placing 57th out of 58 countries in mathematics and 53rd in science."

There's a lot to unpack here, but my first thought is that separating "ability" and "confidence" is probably easier with more objective subjects like math and science.  In the context of English learning, a student who never speaks up is unlikely to improve.  It's possible of course, and that they could excel on written testing.

At the very least, expressions like "lifelong learning" and "love of learning" are not things I hear too much teaching college-level students in Korea, but which were pretty common back in America.  (And frankly  they were often mere boilerplate / lip-service much of the time.)

Genocide Is Nothing To Celebrate, Even Indirectly

First, the egregiously named "Redskins," now the slightly less egregiously "Cleveland Indians" are making a break with their mascot and its dicey cultural history:

"In July, the team said they were considering changing their name in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, which sparked a widespread debate about racism in America. 'We are committed to making a positive impact in our community and embrace our responsibility to advance social justice and equality. Our organization fully recognizes our team name is among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community,' the team said in a July statement. The team’s manager, Terry Francona, has said he believes it is time to 'move forward' from the name. 

Cleveland were known as the Lake Shores, Bluebirds, Broncos and Naps before settling on their current nickname in 1915."

Let's face it -- if "Indian" had no connection to "Chief Wahoo" this might not have happened.  And I like "Shores" or "Lake Shores" or "Lakers" -- let's make the 2020's the decade of geographical and topographical sports mascots!

Farewell Transmission

Songs: Ohia, "Farewell Transmission"

Didn't start listening to Jason Molina until I landed in South Korea.  Go figure.

I just spoke with my boss and made it official -- I'll be leaving South Korea and my current job this February.

My dad is getting older and needs full-time care, whereas for the past five years or so he could get by with part-time care.  My sister has been doing more than her share of maintenance, and it's time for me to step up.

To say I have mixed feelings is an understatement.  I love Korea, and I really like my job here.

But it's also been 12 years (!) since I came here thinking I'd just do a year or two.

Timing is a feeling more than anything else.  Or maybe an instinct.

I'm just chuckling to myself in my office right now -- Obama wasn't even president yet when I started this little English-teaching adventure back in 2008.

And while moving back to America in the midst of the Trump Virus and Recession might seem daunting, I think it's going to work out.  I'll be living with my Dad in Bellingham, Washington, a beautiful and bizarro place closer to Vancouver than it is to Seattle.  (It's Twin Peaks with a shittier economy and more hippies and meth labs.)  I'll get to spend time with the old man, but also get to see my sister and nephew more than just once every summer.

I'm planning on buying a real bike for what it's worth once I touch down, and taking more pictures, and keeping up with my Korean language skills, and playing guitar again.  (My Fender Strat -- American made! -- sits unused for over a decade in my dad's garage.)

This blog shall remain in place.  I'm sure I'll still have some semi-intelligent things to say about Korea from time to time, but also incredibly fascinating insights into elder-care, or the fact that my 91 year-old dad still loves to talk about his sex life in fairly graphic terms, both past and present.

I'm sad.  I'm happy.  I'm moving on.

"faith in Americans crumbled"

In a "Letter From Korea," Catherine Kim asks if Koreans still look up to America, the "beautiful country."  The answer is mixed, but with a healthy portion of "no, not really":

"Korea’s admiration of the U.S. was always bound to drop somewhat as Korea grew from one of the poorest countries in the world into its 10th-largest economy, says Lee Hyun-song, a professor of interpretation and translation at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies who wrote a 2015 article about Koreans' changing perception of Americans up to the early 2000s. But, he says, Trump’s tenure, and really 2020 in particular, has accelerated that process, especially among younger generations of Koreans, who are expressing more pride for their country and less likely to turn to the U.S. for guidance.

'There was a strong belief that there was a lot to learn from the U.S., but then that faith in Americans crumbled after they voted for Trump,' he says. 'As we’ve watched the U.S. fail to contain Covid-19 and rebel against mask-wearing through the media, we’ve come to realize that the U.S. is no longer a more "developed" country than us.'”

Koreans aren't stupid.  They will, at decisive moments, be forced to choose between the growing might of China and the apparent decline of the U.S.  There is no middle ground available, when China can punish South Korea overnight merely by barring its citizens from visiting Jeju Island.

And they're correct to realize it isn't just Trump, who is a symptom of the cancer in the American body, not a cause.  It's the millions of people -- anti-science, anti-alliance, anti-common sense -- who voted for him.  (Let's be honest -- anti-reality, frankly.)

It's his supporters who are the deep, intractable problem.  They're also loud and clear in their spite -- "America first" means, by definition, long-term allies and alliances get to go "last."

Bad Blood

I'm fairly agnostic when it comes to Taylor Swift -- her type of music isn't really my bag, but she's undeniably savvy and talented -- but the story of how she plans to re-record her entire back catalog to fuck over the shit-head who stole her rights is amazing:

"You'd think Swift's contract with Big Machine might prevent her from re-recording her old music, but she can legally do so for two reasons, according to Dina LaPolt, an entertainment attorney who represents Steven Tyler, 21 Savage, and several other high-profile artists. Firstly, while Shamrock Capital owns the master rights to Swift's first six albums—or in other words, the sound recordings on those albums—Swift owns the publishing rights. (Because she wrote her own songs, she retains the rights to the lyrics, melodies, and compositions that comprise them, and she doesn't have to ask permission from or pay anyone to use them how she sees fit.) Secondly, the 're-recording restriction' in her contract with Big Machine—a standard part of any record deal, which long prohibited her from recording new versions of the songs she released through the label—has reportedly expired. When Swift releases new versions of her old songs, she'll own both their master rights and their publishing rights, earning every penny they bring in and securing unilateral control over how they're used.

She's almost inevitably going to yield that power to license her music to advertising agencies and film and TV studios, according to Guillermo Page, a former record label executive who's worked for BMG, EMI, Sony, and Universal, and who now teaches in the University of Miami's music business program. To license (or 'synchronize') a song, you need permission from the record company who owns it and the songwriter who wrote it. Swift has always said no to licensing offers on the grounds that they would profit Braun—but now that she's cut him out of the equation, she can strike those deals herself, and take home 100 percent of the profits they reap."

I no speak lawyer, but it sounds like a double win -- her fanbase gets to support her by buying up the new recordings, and she can pretty much license her hefty opus to TV and film as needed / wanted.

It's not often artists get victories likes this.  Good for her.

Chicken LabNuggets

Has the future of lab-grown, "no kill" meat finally arrived?  Maybe!

"The cells for Eat Just’s product are grown in a 1,200-litre bioreactor and then combined with plant-based ingredients. Initial availability would be limited, the company said, and the bites would be sold in a restaurant in Singapore. The product would be significantly more expensive than conventional chicken until production was scaled up, but Eat Just said it would ultimately be cheaper.

The cells used to start the process came from a cell bank and did not require the slaughter of a chicken because cells can be taken from biopsies of live animals. The nutrients supplied to the growing cells were all from plants.

The growth medium for the Singapore production line includes foetal bovine serum, which is extracted from foetal blood, but this is largely removed before consumption. A plant-based serum would be used in the next production line, the company said, but was not available when the Singapore approval process began two years ago."

I'd be happy to try it.  I think I've done pretty well with upping my veggie and fruit intake recently, but I still struggle to avoid meat.  Then again, I do live in Korea. 

Living The Dream

True Fact:

If you put genuine home-made kimchi from adult students on top of convenience store-purchased, sad bachelor's doshirak, you _almost_ don't feel like such great big loser for about three minutes...#science#fact#lifestyle#winninglifestyle#singlelife

— Antifa #BLM James (@wetcasements) December 1, 2020

Shablime!

It's Korean style shabu-shabu!  Which is strange, because Koreans equate the dish with Vietnamese food instead of Japanese.

It's quite nummy all the same, and a great choice if you're looking for a light or vegetarian meal in South Korea.  (We ordered beef because we're dirty carnivores, but it's not mandatory.)

On the right you can spy the rice paper wraps.  You dip them into boiling water to soften them, then load them up however you like.

There was also a buffet for veggies and noodles as needed, and a fruit bar for dessert.

This here lunch special will run you about ten bucks total, in Daegu at least.