“Yes, the Bruce Dickinson.”

Pitchfork is hosting a really engrossing documentary called Tom Dowd and the Language of Music.  He was a recording engineer who worked with just about every musician you’ve ever heard.  Worth checking out.

Happy Halloween!

Panda Class wishes you a scary and sugary Halloween!

Mild Shock

So I’m eating mandu and watching professional ice hockey on TV.  Played in Korea.  Played in Japan.  Mostly by Koreans.  Mostly by Koreans and Japanese, with a liberal sprinkling of Canadians.

I thought hockey was strictly a club sport here dominated by Canadian ex-pats, but no.  Thank you, Asian League.

This particular game is the Korean squad High 1 versus the Tohoku Free Blades in Japan.  Still neat.

축하합니다, 기아 타이거즈!

The KIA Tigers are the Korean Baseball Organization’s champs for 2009.  I tried to stay on top of the KBO this year but my interest waned as the three clubs based in Seoul (Doosan, L.G., Heroes) all fell out of contention.  But it’s always fun to check out Wikipedia and see which foreigners have made it over to either re-ignite or ride out the end of their respective careers.  (I’m looking at you, Rick Guttormson and Aquilino Lopez.)

So now KIA heads to dreaded Japan to face the winner of the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball League) in Nagasaki.  Looks like a toss-up between the legendary Yomiuri Giants and brash upstarts the Nippon Ham Fighters.  (I’m looking at you, Terrmel Sledge and Luis Jimenez.)

And in my expert opinion, the Tigers have the best uniforms in Korea bar none.  So they should whip any pretenders from Ilbon without too many problems.

Homage

In some ways the new Yo La Tengo is basically their take on Motown and 70’s soul.  Pretty brilliant.

Update: Some live YLT on Pitchfork.

Saturday in the Palace

Deoksugung, Seoul

Oh No They Didn’t

I love Korean food but changes of pace are nice.  Dos Tacos is a reasonably priced chain here in Seoul that fits the bill.  (You can get more authentic Mexican, but it’ll cost a bit.)

Here’s the kimchi burrito with pork.  I was a little hesitant, since kimchi and dairy isn’t a combination I look forward to.  But the vegetables were crisp and there was only a bit of cheese.  Mostly the flavor and crunch of a mild kimchi came through with the nice tanginess of the pork.  This is all probably incredibly offensive to many connoisseurs of Korean and Mexican cuisine but I thought it was great.

Crazy Right Now

Beyonce played Korea a few nights ago and according to some of my co-workers it was rad.

Unfortunately, a lot of American and British acts that make it to Asia will stop in Japan but often bypass Korea.  And indie bands?  There’s a big summer rock festival that gets some OK acts (although a lot of them were second tier acts, even back in the 90’s) but that’s about it.

Not that there isn’t a shortage of quality Korean music from pop to jazz, but my fading inner hipster would like to bask in noisy live skronk from time to time.

Not Always As Backwards As They Appear

Chosun Ilbo article on North Korean hackers having success infiltrating South Korean intelligence networks.

In my highly non-professional opinion, South Korea is really great for being wired up in an incredibly efficient manner.  The drawback is a lax approach to online security when it comes to things like using Windows Explorer almost exclusively.

Department of Deep Thoughts

I think Koreans might get more excited for Halloween than Americans do.