Family Ties

North and South Korean families reunite, if only briefly.

I can’t imagine the range and intensity of emotions.  But then you read something like this:

“South Korea says the North is holding 560 of its soldiers from the war, in addition to 504 South Korean civilians — mostly fishermen whose boats were seized since the war’s end.

North Korea says the civilians voluntarily defected to the North and denies holding any prisoners of war.”

Outrageous.

Entropy

Metafilter post on “materialist poet” Dario Robleto.

Sort of a more apocalyptic Joseph Cornell.

Party of Mouths

AV Club interview with Craig Wedren of Shudder To Think, among other musical projects.

Even Harvard Makes Mistakes

Gawker on Peggy Noonan’s upcoming course at Harvard.

I genuinely pity someone with the drive to make it into Harvard but the desire to “learn” from a narcissistic twit like Noonan.

The pain:

“Let’s talk about them [her own books], about the writing of them, and let us have as a guest a great book writer.”

Oh dear god.

Laugh And Cry

On the one hand, you’ve got celebrities making it clear they want America to get quality health care reform.  On the other, you’ve got Republican ghouls like Eric Cantor telling the sister of a dying woman without insurance that she should look into an unnamed “existing government program.”

Unpossible!

Via Metafilter, an article about “new literacy” and how young people today actually write more than ever before.

Mashita

I love the frenetic energy of Seoul, but it’s nice to take a break.  A friendly barbecue on top of one of the city’s many hills is just what I needed.

Two buckets of shellfish, some basil leaves, and spicy, smoky gochujang.  And we had ribs too.

The transition period between summer and fall here is pretty much the best time to be alive.

IOKIYAW

Ta-Nehisi Coats doesn’t sugar-coat the obvious here.  Republicans can’t deal with a black president:

“But Barack Obama, bourgeois in every way that bourgeois is right and just, will not dance.He tells kids to study–and they seethe. He accepts an apology for an immature act of rudeness–and they go hysterical. He takes his wife out for a date–and their veins bulge. His humanity, his ordinary blackness, is killing them.”

They say it isn’t about race, that they’re just “concerned.”  But where were the teabaggers when George W. Bush was blowing a gaping hole into the Federal budget?  When he locked up American citizens without due process?  When he wire-tapped without warrants?

Zurich Is Stained

Pavement reunion?  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  “Less than enthused” maybe?

I’ve never been big on reunions in general unless it meant a good new album.  And those reunion albums are usually pretty mediocre.

Maybe it’s just because I’ve already seen Pavement live, and it was towards the end when Malkmus really didn’t seem interested in playing with those other guys.  Great shows though, if that makes any sense at all.

Update: World freakin’ tour.  Madness.  Come to Korea guys.  You can crash on my floor.

Crapping Bats

South Korean symphonic black metal?  You betcha.  Dark Mirror ov Tragedy and their song “Through the Mist that Reigns.”  I caught a live set of them playing last night on Korean television.

Which is funny, because just when you think that Korean TV is the most boring and conventional thing in the world (“wacky” sketch comedy, melodramatic soap operas, two different video game competition channels) they end up playing music that wouldn’t have a chance of being on American TV, even the most basic of cable.

I thought it was pretty good for black metal.  Then again, I know next to nothing about black metal.