Rockabilly is alive and well in Seoul, and last weekend it found its way into a couple of Hongdae venues. Three bands performed at a ‘warm-up’ type show on Friday at DGBD, while nine rockabilly bands performed on Saturday at Sang Sang Madang. The Lady in Red registered for tickets online, and off we went.

The first band of the night was Stay Gold, which the Lady in Red and I missed because we fully expected the show to not start on time. Sorry guys – I’m sure you were great.

The next band up (and the first we got to hear) was Oh! Brothers:

Oh! Brothers seemed to be cut from the same cloth as the Beatles themselves. While the quintet played well together, the energy came alive when the song started and ended as soon as the song did. Over time, I’d love to see them keep their energy going. Vocally capable, harmonized well, and played a pretty good ‘Johnny B. Goode’.

Next band up – Sunday Losers:

Elvis called – he wants his hair back. Hailing from Busan, Sunday Losers featured an instrument rarely heard these days:

The kazoo. Yes, that plastic toy you played when you were six still has an endearing quality about it. Although the kazoo only came out during a few solo opportunities, they were well-received. Their set was primarily older country songs, proving that rockabilly is a more diverse genre than I realized.

Next up – Kingston Rudie Ska:

Kingston Rudie Ska proved the largest band of the night – 2 trumpets, a trombone, a saxophone, bass guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, drums, and a singer /beatboxer / hyperactive dancer. Their mixture of ska and reggae added some energy to the crowd, and was the first band to really get the crowd dancing.

The Soul of Liberty took the stage next:

A rarity in the world of rockabilly – a female slap bass player. While they sang in Japanese, the beat was good for swing dancing or just jumping around.

Soul of Liberty was one of two bands from Japan, so the band worked hard to break through the language barrier. The guitarist’s cheat sheet allowed him to phonetically sound out enough Korean words to gain the crowd’s approval.

Watch out for Galaxy Express:

Who plucks the strings? This bass guitarist punched out chords on the thicker strings – not an easy job. To say this long-haired trio played hard rock is kind of like saying Ghandi was a nice guy. They were the only band to hide the kids from, especially a few four-letter words and middle fingers flung towards the audience.

To their credit, Galaxy Express got the crowd jumping – about the only thing you can do when the genre shifts to punk / hard rock / psychobilly.

The Tennessee Cats came next:

Playing after a psychobilly band is a tough act to follow, but they kept the energy going through their set. Why a band from Japan would name themselves after a state in the US is beyond me, but the Tennessee Cats also made an effort to bridge the language barrier. Throwing in some English played nicely to the 1/4 of the crowd not from Korea, while ‘Viva Las Vegas’ was a nice throwback to where rockabilly came from.

Next up – Crying Nut:

It’s not every day you hear an accordian as a principal instrument. A tin whistle (or was it a piccolo?) made a cameo appearance as well. This hard rock quintet brought the crowd to the stage, who until then had kept a polite distance and enabled photographers easier access to move around.

You’ll be seeing lots more of these guys, if you haven’t already – they were wedged in between Fall Out Boy and Weezer at the 2009 Jisan Valley Rock Festival.

Eventually we come to the headliners themselves – the Rock Tigers:

Velvet Geena – the lead singer herself getting the crowd pumped up. As the self-proclaimed pioneers of rockabilly in Korea, the Rock Tigers have the longest track record – and one of the tightest shows. Expect high energy, quick transitions from one song to the next, and a great stage presence.

Roy on the Upright Bass, sporting his signature hair style.

Tiger on the guitar and vocals. That the Rock Tigers sing and speak some English make them approachable and foreigner-friendly – especially after the show for an autograph. An excellent show, especially the last three bands.

My only complaint about the show was the lack of seats and drinks. Nine bands for an late afternoon to late evening show? Almost everybody made a run to the Buy the Way across the street at one point or another.

Geena mentioned that there would be another rockabilly show in March – stay tuned for more details on that in next month’s event schedule.

© Chris Backe – 2010

This post was originally published on my blog, Chris in South Korea. If you are reading this on another website and there is no linkback or credit given, you are reading an UNAUTHORIZED FEED.

Which is not to say there efforts aren’t well intentioned, and indeed the Travel in Korea’s (Is that the Korean Tourism Organisation – KTO??) attempt at an iPhone app is a good example of a balanced workable approach, albeit a little lacking in what is, the first iteration.

There are four separate apps available from the iTunes App store; Travel in Korea Metropolitan Areas, Travel in Korea Seoul, Travel in Korea Gyeonggi-do and Travel in Korea Gangwaon-do. (Search the app store). This post specifically looks at the Seoul version.

The Seoul version itself is separated further into North and south of the river and lists the places it covers in both the Gangbuk and Gangnam regions. Selecting one drills down to a further menu where you can view attractions by name:

The layout is clean and efficient for the iPhone and maintains the left to right User Interface element familiar to iPhone apps and web pages but is more colourful and not as sterile as the muted grey and blue of the standard iPhone UI palate. Choosing an attraction you are greeted by a brief description of your destination:

However few of the entries have any information o how to get there either by bus or Metro. Most places however have a website address but there is no click-thru to mobile Safari on the iPhone users having to remember a convoluted ~.go.kr address or presumably look it up on a PC and the same has to be said about the phone number. For an application on a phone you should really be able to call someone. You can’t even cut and paste these elements as the information is presented in HTML and text, rather it is an image file. Essentially the whole app is a glorified photo album.

That being said the images of various attractions and destinations in and around Seoul are pretty amazing looking on the iPhone’s screen and it is obvious that a great deal of work has been put into finding images that present these places in the best possible light. (No pun intended):

However where the app falls down the most is in providing a map for presumably tourists, to get to these places. The iPhone (and iPod Touch) takes great advantage of the Google Maps integration it has and GPS on the phone. The Travel in Korea Tourism App would be much better served by being able to bring up Google Maps from within the application to find a place rather than having users come up with this:

The most cluttered, lowest resolution map of Seoul in the world. which, in addition to it’s awkwardness can’t be zoomed in on.

Which is not to say that any of this can’t be improved in a subsequent 2.0 release. Admittedly these apps came out before Google had permission to use Korean mapping data, but even a clearer cached version of Google Maps like metro app Jihachul does, in an update would do wonders for this application and turn it into something more useful for tourists and expats alike. One of the things Google Maps on the iPhone lacks is the kind of Layers found in Google Earth and in it’s Android counterpart. An app providing some sort of Korean Tourism layer would be most useful indeed.

A good start but looking for those all important user iterations in a 2.0 Release.

Price: Free

Bimbo Rating: ★★ 2/5

Intelligent smartphones may end up rendered [sic] retarded by Korea’s crusty Internet regime.

In regards to the Financial Supervisory Service’s (FSS) insistance on using out dated unusable standards for security of smartphone related financial transactions.

The Hankyoreh has these words on the subject:

South Korea’s domestic accredited certificate system via Active X, however, has absolutely no possibility of expanding into the world market. This is because far from being competitive, it lacks basic compatibility and amplifies only user inconvenience in the mobile Internet era. This is a problem that results as the government, failing to understand the nature of the dynamic global technology market that is quickly transforming and creating new standards, designates a particular method as “the best technology” and forces it on everyone.

Active X – The ball and chain holding back development on the Korean Internet

Heehee! It might be a leftest rag at heart, but The Hanky rarely shys away from calling the government out when it is clearly wrong.

Thankfully more forward thinking heads seem to be prevailing at the Korea Communications Commission (perhaps they got iPhones for Sollal?).

Fortunately, in some government circles as of late, there are some noteworthy moves to change South Korea’s reality, which is far removed from the post-iPhone world. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on Feb. 16 (local time), Korea Communications Commission (KCC) Chairman Choi See-joong drew attention by saying that if South Korea’s domestic IT industry fails to respond well to the mobile revolution, it could fall behind in the world market

The Hanky article goes on to detail the success of PayPal in the US and ALiPay in China, both of which I have used, and the later of which is strongly backed by the Chinese Government. (BTW Good luck trying to use PayPal in Korea, you need a Korean resident number.) The Article laments the lack of ease of use in Korea as well as lack of profits that could be generated by such enterprises.

Things are looking up though with Cheong Wa Dae entering the fray:

The Presidential Council for Future and Vision also sent delegates from the Financial Supervisory Service, Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, Korea Communications Commission and Korea Internet & Security Agency together Friday to discuss solutions to resolve the current reality of the smartphone environment, that in South Korea mobile payments are not yet.

Here’s Hoping.

“This year, however, with growing concern over perceived Protestant influence on government,” according to the report, “there are concerns that the cross, if put up again, could create unhappiness among other sectors of society.” “Buddhists, in particular, have felt themselves under religious attack by Protestants, who in Korea tend to be aggressive proselytizers.”

However, “Park Jong-chan, coordinator of the Committee of Religion and Peace of Jogye Order, the largest Buddhist denomination in Korea, said that Buddhists do not oppose the cross.” He said, “Freedom of religion also includes freedom to propagate religion.”

Peter Lee Young-sik, media team head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, said, “As far as Catholics are concerned, we cannot say if Protestants’ putting the cross on the tree is wrong or right.” He continued, “Traditionally, the Christmas tree is decorated with a star, not a cross. Korean Protestant Churches may arouse public antipathy by highlighting the cross too much.”

The public Christmas trees and lights as well as the lanterns for Buddha’s Birthday are one of the pleasant aspects of living here in Korea. Koreans should be proud that, in their multi-religious society, such things are not a bone of contention, as they are in the United States. It would be a shame if one group were to upset the apple cart of religious tolerance.

Is it just me, or has there been a decided increase in sex crimes being committed, (or just reported?) over the last year or so?

Either way – Korea has a significant problem dealing with sex offenders, especially since people who commit crimes facing less than a 3 year prison sentence have their records wiped clean after 5 years on non-offending. I stand to be corrected on that one but bring it up in light of the fact that as a foreigner I have to produce my Criminal Record (or to the point, lack thereof) every five minutes, despite the fact that it wouldn’t prove if I was a sex offender or not.

So how many Foreigners have been found to be kiddie fiddlers in the last 3 years?

Two. (And even then, that’s in the category “Sexual Violence” which may or may not incorporate paedophilia.

How many Koreans?

Lots. There’s the Na-Young case, A 55 year old Mr Kim taking advantage of an ADHD elementary school student, A Mr Kim in Busan was found guilty of having sex with a teenage runaway, then there was the case of two dudes pimping out two middle school girls….The List, unfortunately, goes on.

So you will understand the proverbial spitting of the proverbial coffee all over the computer monitor when this evening I read this:

Foreign Pedophiles to Face Permanent Deportation

Surprisingly This one wasn’t penned by Kang Shin Who.

From the article:

The Ministry of Justice said Thursday it will revise immigration rules to ban foreigners found guilty of raping Korean children from re-entering Korea permanently.

All two of them.

Of course The Foreign Paedophiles are a greater threat than the home-grown Han-Kiddie Fiddlers, even the article says that right?

The government has announced a package of measures against sex offenders after the Supreme Court upheld a lower-than-expected prison term handed down to Cho Doo-soon, a 57-year-old man convicted of kidnapping and brutally raping a nine-year-old girl.

Cho, given a 12-year-term, is now in prison for class-A criminals in North Gyeongsang Province. The victim, widely known by her alias Na-young, suffered incurable physical and mental damage.

Of course, because every foreigner I know is likely to get drunk, molest a child and then disfigure her by sticking a broom handle permanently and only get 12 years.

Jeebus H. Christ Esq.!

But wait, here comes the head thumping moment, because, as you well know, not only is it foreigners, but specifically it is E2 visa holders that are the scourge of Korean Society and it’s children:

…Rep. Lee Joo-young of the ruling Grand National Party urged the ministry to tighten the rule on E-2 visa issuance, arguing it’s so lax that many convicted foreigners attempt to cross borders with legal residential status. The legislator did not disclose the exact number of foreigners caught for the violation.

Under the law, E-2 visa applicants are mandated to submit records on their criminal histories and health check-ups particularly on AIDS and drug use, which are issued by their country of origin.

All two of them.

I used to think a T-shirt, in Korean stating I was not American might go a long way to ingratiating me to my Korean hosts.

From now on I will just hand out copies of my Criminal Record Check and AIDS test results. (Neither of which go any way in proving that I’m not a paedophile, but you know, nothing like a bit of pragmatism.)

Thankfully a modicum of sense seems to be coming from the parliamentary opposition:

Earlier this month, a group of lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) proposed a bill, which will make it impossible to reduce the punishment of sex offenders on the grounds that they were drunk at the time of the crime and thus unable to make sound judgement.

It also aims at removing the statute of limitations on rape cases. At present, it ranges from one to 25 years depending on the seriousness of the crime.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to clean up the bloody mess on the wall….

—-

BTW Korea Times it’s spelt “paedophile.”

Just shave it all off in silence you filthy animal.

This week’s blog post deals with sporting more than just a little peach fuzz. So trim up and check out:

Beards and why they make you look dirty (Korean men and facial hair)

Previously on KC101, we dealt with how no one likes a middle child and how the Rock Monster from Never-Ending Story was showboating.

Kind of.

In your family, are you the Youngest? Oldest? Middle? (Korean birth order)

Using two hands to do what you do (nonverbal Korean politeness)

Enjoy!

crossposted at KC101

It is a very small sample – though not restricted to E2 Visa holders it equates to about 1% of the 20000 Language teachers in Korea. Neither should it be taken as an impartial poll – the questions were not checked for bias before the survey started (and indeed some changed during the survey as well), and of course the subjects were self-selecting.

So as an instrument for data gathering it is flawed.

I think it does however give us an interesting snapshot about who we as a population group are, where we come from, what we do, and where we might be heading.

The data collected is thus presented here with out too much clarification or interpretation. You may use it / reproduce it if you wish under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

First the more objective statistical type things:

Gender Breakdown

Age

Nationality

Length of Stay in Korea

Visa Status

Place of Work

So we might extrapolate that your average foreigner teacher in Korea is Male and aged between 26 and 30, hails from The United States, has been here 2 years, holds an E2 visa and Works at a Hakwon. (I think I skewed the results in terms of workplace by emailing all my fellow elementary school teachers and getting them to fill in the survey).

The second part of the survey asked less scientific questions. Nevertheless they provide some interesting results. The first Question asked:

Why did you come to Korea?

Where do you get most of your information on happenings in Korea?

(People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.)

It is no real surprise that K-Blogland features greatly in how people get their info about what’s going on in Korea such as events, festivals and news etc.

Which, if any, of these blogs / sites have you visited in the last month?

(People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.)

List any Korean related magazines you read.

Along with the usual sources the survey also looked at other media – in particular Magazines that are based in and are about Korea. It pretty much confirmed what I already thought – in that GROOVE and the more recent 10 Magazine are popular sources of information, and there is a niche being filled in Daegu and Busan with Daegu Pockets and Busan Haps respectively, there are obviously a number of other – probably smaller print run magazines out there that people are reading.

Two questions asked survey participants to rank the sense of “community” the feel as an expat in Korea.

(1 – no community, 5 – a super connected community.)

And also to rank the adequacy of services available to them as expats in Korea:

(1 – inadequate, 5 – more than adequate)

When it comes to potential activities that Expats would like to get involved in with other Expats it seems there is an untapped market in Korean movies with English subtitles (despite the best efforts of Paul at Hub of Sparkle.)

Finally survey participants were asked for suggestions on what services they missed, weren’t available to them or could be improved. A number stand out including:

An English version of Naver.com, and related to that the extension of the Korean Real Name System to Expats. (i.e. getting your Alien Number to work when registering for Korean sites).

A centralised “clearing house” for government information, forms and procedures in English. While these things are available, in English, they are often wide spread across The Internet. And in a similar vein:

“Clear legal advice, particularly related to visas, assistance setting up basic accounts and financial transactions, greater compliance with international standards for internet and telecom”

Which is a running theme among all the comments left along with better access to Korean Language classes. But apparently things are better than they have been:

Things are SOOO much better than when I first came here, but still don’t compare to the services Koreans could enjoy if they traveled to Western countries…

and

Other than being an ugly white guy who can now f**k model-quality Korean chicks, not too much.

There’s always one isn’t there.

Suicide booths

Ok – there’s always one, or two, isn’t there.

Another theme seems to be better access to legal advice in English. Predictably about labour related issues, but also things like trusts, investments and wills

So there you have it. An interesting snapshot of our “Community” at one point in time. Like I say it is not the most perfect instrument of data collection, but in lieu of a Government Census, which foreigners seemed to be left out of anyway, it’s a start.

Now for those in the know to put some of this data to work….

Designed so ANYONE can come out of the session with specific knowledge — tips and tricks — to improve their photography. Also, it’s designed to expose you, through the tricks and tips themselves, to new and necessary knowledge in photo — a little of the Photoshop you need, a little of the studio you always wondered about, and how to USE an external flash with bounce, shooting in night clubs, And it’s divided into two sections so as to maximize your dollas (won)!

Find out MUCH MORE by going to the Metropolitician’s original post on his page, and/or the Facebook event listing. If you ever wanted to upgrade your photography, Chuseok’s the perfect tIme!

Maybe it’s your blood. Your blood type has a big mouth in Korea…so what’s your blood type telling people behind your back? Find out a new way to be discriminated against in this post:

Hey little mamma, what’s your type? (Blood type in Korea)

crossposted at KC101