re: 정월대보름 (and other korean holidays)

looks like fun.

today is jeongwol daeboreum (정월대보름), one of korea's 14 traditional holidays. begun 1,000 years prior during the unified shilla period, "daeboreum" means "great full moon" and that's what it celebrates- the lunar year's first full moon. to celebrate, men dressed in traditional hanbok passed out walnuts to the confused foreigners who work at kbs's world service.

why nuts? the tradition holds that cracking them today keeps your skin and teeth healthy all year. beyond nuts, there's the five-grain rice dish appropriately called "ogok-bahp" (오곡밥) and unsafe traditions like climbing ice-clad mountains in the middle of the night to be the first to spy the first moon-rise and giving children holed-cans blazing with charcoal to spin around their heads.

re: unsafe, for the past 11 years, scenic jeju island on korea's south coast has hosted a 3-day daeboreum fire festival. what begins with a torch relay ends in the burning of an 82-acre parasitic volcano. after viewing the following video clips, i think i need to visit next year:



this second clip is over 6 minutes but the end is pretty amazing and scary. since the closing minutes resemble carpet bombing or the end (or beginning?) of the world, it could frighten little children or other fragile beings.



a good example of korea's conspicuous contrasts of old/new, east/west, etc., is the integration of its traditional lunisolar calendar with the "western" gregorian one. the upshot is a lot of holidays- some of which are fixed while others wander. you decide which system deserves which adjective.

it's been a little difficult for me to discern the difference between "official" and "government," "public" or "commemorative" but here's my best estimation of what public offices and most large companies observe:

new year’s day (01/01)
lunar new year (three days around 1st day of the 1st lunar month)
march 1 independence movement memorial, or “3-1 Day” (03/01)
children’s day (05/05)
buddha’s birthday (8th day of 4th lunar month)
memorial day (06/06)
independence/liberation day (08/15)
national foundation day (10/03)
chuseok (three days around 15th day of the 8th lunar month)
christmas (12/25)
and dates of presidential and national assembly elections (varies)

2008 marks the first year that constitution day (07/17) is no longer celebrated, and although hangul day (10/09) was reinstated as a national holiday in 2005 after a 15-year hiatus, it's not a legal day off. parents' day (05/08) is "observed" but not "public", whatever that means. as far as i can tell, labor day (05/01) is the only day with its own law (the labor day act) designating it a mandatory official public holiday applicable to all employers. beyond may 1, however, korean employers are not required to give any public holidays off, and if the special day lands on the weekend, the previous or following weekday isn't offered instead.

write about seoul on the mayor's dime

the seoul metropolitan government wants to promote seoul tourism via "western press". to this end, they'll pay for you -- if you're a professional journalist, travel columnist, freelancer or travel blooger, that is -- to come to seoul and write your favorable snapshot of city life. expenses covered include: round-trip airfare, hotel, meals, transportation and interpreter for up to 10 days. sounds like a great deal to me. the first trips will begin mid-april, so download your application here.

fun indy flick

a film about making a film.

last year, myspace put me in touch with a gyopo filmmaker who saw a film that i produced. last fall while eating kalbi in gangnam josh asked if he could tape our conversation because sometimes he gets lonely. he explained that prior to korea he chose an npr internship over starting a career at the fbi. curiously, both tracks seem equally appropriate for this socially quirky dude.

in between his frequent film trips to hong kong, we hang out. a coupla years back korea's film industry was all the buzz, but of late it's been lackluster. the pending us-korea fta deal won't help things, but my friend says that the independent scene is robust.

last night we met in busy myeongdong to see a film debuting at the seoul independent film festival. he was excited to watch the "milky way liberation front" (은하해방전선), but there was but 1 ticket left unsold. i could feel him seriously considering buying the ticket and asking me to go home. instead, i got another reminder that good things happen to people who are friendly and request favors. he talked to a festival organizer and several minutes later we got in for free.

admittedly, i was disappointed that english subtitles didn't pop up with the korean dialogue. what follows is what i cloud glean from 100-minutes of being distracted by the main character's very well-defined lips.

but, from what i gathered, it's a film about a serious, verbose and young aspiring filmmaker who is bombarded by well-meaning advisors as he tries to craft his movie about an aphasic protagonist. in the process, however, it is he who loses his voice, which requires his ventriloquist actor friend to intervene during negotiations with japanese investors. of course, there's also the bit about his voice being replaced by the sounds of various musical instrument unless he talks through a megaphone. in the end, although his human voice returns, it's his new deaf hunny sporting a power rangers' outfit who helps him realize the value of keeping mum.

i'm far from a film buff, but i enjoyed it. sure, it felt like a first feature-length effort in that... "i'm trying to fit four films' worth of ideas into one and of course i'm not going to cut that scene even though i should!" kind of undisciplined way. nevertheless, you should check it out.

about

yup, those are my pants on the couch. for the blogger, clothing below the waist is just distraction.
>more photos of korea (and me)

i grew up on a small island in the northwest corner of the united states. much of my childhood was spent drawing maps, harvesting sea life, and wishing i was puerto rican. after 8 years birthing and then resenting an NGO, it was time to leave identity politics usa-style behind for my mudder's mudderland.

because we share a special temperament, despite being mixed and homo i love korea and he loves me back. korea haters are boring. if you don't take yourself and/or your fetishes too seriously, you may enjoy my inconsistent mix of personal updates with regionally-relevant musings. i love maps. thanks for visiting.

email me here.

fyi: the homepage banner image was extracted from a photo by story sloane, jr., an american g.i. stationed in daegu during the korean war. it was taken in 1951 or 52.