D.A.N.C.WHAT?

is there actually a preview for 27 dresses that has justice' D.A.N.C.E in the background or is it completely understandable because it's purely a korea thang?

techno-cluster

i know the pics are blurry but i had to attempt to share my cluster of a phone
yesterday the screen went blank for about an hour and i could make and receive calls but i couldnt see a thing
i was thrilled to see that my screen had returned only to find that it was completely inverted...that's right, my hebrew education is finally paying off as i am forced to read right to left...

passing under

saw these on the wall in an underpass in hong-dae
sometimes there are also bands playing in the underpass
and sometimes they rock out hard

ssamzie

ssamzie co. ltd. is a leading korean fashion and accessories company
there are two stores that i know of and they are wicked cool
i just got a neon green plastic watch for 10 bucks
the style is really korean (very girly, very cutesy) but with a hipper edge
and there are some really cool pieces amongst the more cutesy items
in a wonderfully nostalgic twist (think 1995) they also have the seatbelt-buckle rubber belts lined with bottle caps (had one in jr. high...thought i was the coolest)
even cooler is ssamzie space, which was sponsored by the company to promote progressive, avant-garde art in korea, nestled in my favorite young, artsy area around hongik university
the neon orange storefront in hong-dae rocks, as does the complex in insadong which i posted earlier (the circular ramps lined with cool little shops and a ssamzie store)
they did a warhol collab in 2006
check out some styles here (remember, not everything is my taste): http://www.ssamziesport.com/





update: went to hehwan today to check out a philippino market that promised banana spring rolls, which were nowhere to be found, but we did find another ssamzie. and i hate to say it, but it wasn't nearly as good as the ones in hong-dae and insadong. there was some overlap in the stock but the hehwan ssamzie is a lot cheesier. so i guess some ssamzies are better than others. ssam(zie), ssam(zie), but different. so as to keep my readers (aka my mother, father, my boyfriend and two or so friends) well informed, i felt it my duty to note this... but im staying true to the other ssamzies. word.

oh what a night it was (or so i would imagine...from my asian bubble)

no country for old men swept the oscars
i'm thrilled...what a fantastic movie
on top of that there will be blood picked up a few
i couldn't even watch the show in korea but man am i happy

love today (the second coming)

book:
ashamed to admit i'm not reading a book at the moment. well, i tried to get into unlikely destinations: the lonely planet story but its been a slow ride. thinking i'll retire back to an old faithful (vonnegut, bukowski) just to get the wheels turning again. but i will stress how amazing into the wild is. i just watched the movie and, although the book was an incomparable experience, it rekindled my love for the book. i recommend it to anyone who will listen. i think what i like most about it is that it is a non-fictional investigation by a journalist into topic matter that he is truly intrigued by and can truly relate to. his connection to the "protagonist" is deeply evident throughout the book. furthermore, i love a book with history and this book is brimming with interesting facts and anecdotes related to the wanderings and demise of chris mccandless. just an amazing book. check it.
sidenote: why did eddie vedder's soundtrack suck so much? what a disappointment...





music:
the kills, the kills, THE KILLS. how topical of me. they're everywhere at the moment. i started listening to the kills when no wow came out. i was into it but never took my interest to the next level. when i noticed they were to be on the cover of nylon i figured i might as well check out their previous album before i inevitably listen to their much-anticipated, new album. keep on your mean side rocks my world. i love it. i can pretty much listen to it straight through. take a seriously sexy chick with this wonderfully gritty voice, add a british dude who can rock it on guitar and you get the kills. can't wait for the new album. love them.



tv show:
30 ROCK!!! i know i'm behind on this one but it has actually garnered a place amongst the ranks of my favorite comedies ever (those being arrested development and the office). alec baldwin is so perfect in his role and so consistently funny in the most dry, blink-and-you'll-miss-it way. tina fey is perpetually wonderful as the awkward but talented loner she plays so well. and tracy morgan. TRACY MORGAN! he is the coup de resistance. his character is too amazing for me to even attempt to explain. just watch it. my boyfriend and i watched every episode to date (2 seasons) in four days.
"why are you wearing a tuxedo" "it's after 6. what am i, a farmer?"



movie:
there will be an amazing new movie. there will be consistently good reviews. there will be a superb soundtrack. there will be a haunting feeling pervading every moment. there will be an excellent cast. there will be blood.
what can i say about this movie? i haven't even finished watching it (i'm a big pleasure delayer when i really like something) but i am confident in prematurely placing it on my list of current obsessions. from the moment the movie began i was simultaneously deeply unsettled and irresistibly intrigued. i enjoyed this melange of feelings so much that, even though i was just testing the torrent to make sure it worked, before i knew it i was an hour into the movie. the soundtrack so brilliantly produced by johnny greenwood compounded by daniel day lewis' acting (which has deservingly garnered so many accolades) are perfection. i can't wait to finish it, and though i highly doubt the possibility i will withdraw my glowing review if the second half does not live up to the first.

birthdays, korean style

baskin robbins in korea bares its similarities to that in north america...jamoca almond fudge, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, and the requisite flavors go on and on. however there are also some pretty wicked differences:

a) FONDUE - fondue! what is up with that? you get a bowl of melted chocolate sauce, pieces of fruit and mini scoops of ice cream and you dip it all in the chocolate! yes, it exists. no, i have not tried it. yes, i am dying to. will it be weird? yes. will it be the bomb diggity? most likely.

b) BLACK SESAME FLAVOR - sesame flavored ice cream. do correct me if i'm wrong and this delicacy does in fact exist in NA. i call it a delicacy reluctantly as i have not yet taken the plunge.

c) TAKE-OUT SCOOPS - yes, that's right. you can pick six flavors and large scoops of each will be placed a la carte in an egg carton-like plastic container. no bowl, no cone, just the goods. again, i am yet to go there. i fear meltage on the walk home.

d) CUBE CAKES - i must say i do miss the ice cream cakes we get at baskin robbins in toronto. that fudge is like crack, only you can't die from it. i remember in high school there was a baskin robbins at the york mills plaza and you could get them to put the cake fudge (blatantly distinct from the normal, sundae fudge) on your bowl of ice cream. you knew it was different because they scraped it out of a tub with a spatula, no pussy, pour-it-with-a-ladle bullshit. but none of that here. here, they put cubes of ice cream in a lady-finger crust. cubes. piled high. in a lady finger crust. furthermore, they put it in a luggage-size styrofoam box wrapped meticulously in ribbon with candles and baskin robbins matches which are proudly displayed beside the cake in the picture. what do we get in the t. dot? a cardboard box. no candles. no spoons. no matches. touche baskin robbins. touche.

thus concludes my investigation of what makes BR in korea different from your run-of-the-mill north american baskin robbins. and as i was writing this the preview for my blueberry nights (is that what that jude law/natalie portman/norah jones movie is called?) came on and the cat powers song 'the greatest' is in the background and i really love it. why did cat powers' show in toronto suck so much? and why is the all-american rejects song 'dirty little secret' soundtracking the new gossip girl ads? i'm sorry, is it 2005? but we'll leave that for another day....

bruised from head to toe

when i was 13 my friend bear and i decided snowboarding would be cool, so we signed up for snowhawks and learned to ride. getting up early on sunday mornings during bar mitzvah year was no easy feat but we cut our macarenas and electric slides short for love of this hip new sport. cut to 2008...i have boarded once or twice since my jr. high epiphone 11 years ago and find myself in korea with a renewed desire to ride. this weekend i was able to live it out at jisan forest resort, a mere hour from my area on a free shuttle bus. a profound place to ski by no means, but someone as out of shape and out of practice as myself needs nothing more than a few slopes covered in artificial snow. the on-site lotteria didn't hurt...a shrimp burger and mozzarella sticks PLUS dok boggi for lunch? AMAZING...




before:



after:

an ode to sam

don't tell your friends
don't check it out
take my word for it
SAM is the best bar in hongdae
the house wine is delightful
as is the complimentary cheese
(both in candy and stick form)
there are two very fluffy himalayan cats
plus sometimes they lick each other
and its comical
the ambiance is eclectic and
there are piles of pillows to lounge on the floor
and vinyls all around
and an apothecary table
i love it so much that i want to share it
but i dont want getting a table
to become any harder than it already is
so love and enjoy this bar vicariously
through me
word









p.s. lucky for me the sign is in korean
p.p.s. don't learn to read korean

saturday night, i feel the air is getting hot

well, it was a big saturday night in Seoul...we made soju popsicles and sat on my couch. pretty radical! kind of like high school where you still need creative ways to drink your booze (before sadly segueing to vodka on the rocks in true alcoholic style). but in high school, for one, and, furthermore, north america, you can't follow that with a trip to the bath house, the highlight of my every weekend here. the bath house is where korean people go to take baths, as most people live in apartments and only have showers. they bathe, sit in the sauna, scrub each other down, get treatments and/or shower. and it's a naked FREE FOR ALL. i've always fancied myself a nudist at heart so i definitely feel very at-home in the bath house. nothing's better than a steam at midnight.

i leave you with two stickers i found....the english is just too wonderful not to share. is "kor" the hip new short form for korean? well, i'm into rock music...




the fine print: i am crazy about rock music. "well, i'm into rock music".

love today (aka what im into at the moment)

author:
charles bukowski, as per usual
saving ham on rye for a rainy korean day
wish i could drink a jug of port wine with him
sadly after reading so much buckowski hunter s. seems a bit dull...is that blasphemous?












movie:
running with scissors, based on the memoirs of augusten burroughs
quirky, fantastic, depressing, grim, unbelievable, believable
damn you gwyneth paltrow, lucky enough to be in the royal tenenbaums AND this gem







tv:
simon amstell in general, but namely never mind the buzzcocks, in all its british comedic glory
its actually up there with little britain...quite a feat if i do say so myself





music:
girl in a coma...these girls rock my socks

wanderlust (aka what dreams may come)

tonight i had a dream of living in every country in the world for 6 months

there are said to be 194 countries in the world (this includes taiwan)

this means it would take 97 years to live out my dream

furthermore, there are a number of countries i would not be able to visit for political/safety reasons

this does not, however, make the odds of my living to well over 100 years of age any more likely

i suppose i need a new dream

will let you know when i figure it out

an exercise in negative space

on a weekend trip to ulsan i found myself in gyeongju, the former capital of korea (when it was referred to as "the kingdom of silla" over a thousand years ago). the city, described on it's website as "a museum without walls", is just that, with many symbolic sites and artifacts. what i particularly enjoyed was the temple in Bulguksa, reflecting the former governments patronage of buddhism. i wish time had been on my side (for once!) and i had been able to explore the mountainsides of gyeongju, which lend to a veritable treasure hunt for stone carvings of buddhas and bodhisattvas. however stepping into super mario land and witnessing the gyeongju burial mounds was definitely a treat.

on the bus from bulguksa to gyeongju city i saw an extremely unique building that my friends pointed out in passing. i thought it was so cool that i had to look it up. it's called Gyeongju Tower and is actually shaped like the former Hwanryongsa temple's pagoda. only here's the catch: the building is rectangular and surrounds a negative space that is the shape of the historic pagoda. i think the result is stunning! truly unlike anything i've ever seen...

the philosophical musings of a loner

some thoughts i had my first week here...when i spent A LOT of time alone...

When you read a book, or a short story, or an article or a quote, are you changed?
When you learn a new fact can you ever be the same?
Or does that new thing penetrate your entire being, devouring the self you once were and creating the self you now are. Sensory experience…it has a way of stirring change. If I see a photo that moves me, or a photo that does nothing to me at all, is there a difference?
Both have some effect on my being, both shape who I am.
One reinforces what I like. The other reinforces what I don’t like. Or what I’m indifferent about.
So how do I know my self? My being?
Are there patterns of the self that one may know? Tendencies?
If I hate bananas and go through half my life with this hatred entrenched in my being but one day I taste it prepared in a way that I like, is there a ripple effect? Does that shake my every dislike? Must I reconsider all the things I’d believed I hated?
Is it enough to know oneself at a moment in time and not know oneself the next? But then discover ones new self a moment after that moment of uncertainty?
I have spent a number of full days alone and yet I feel no closer to myself than I did before…except that I am more aware of how little I know. Does this mean I know more?

blogger: take two

i've had many a revelation as of late, namely the fact that you can't really fancy yourself a writer if you don't write. a sensational connect-the-dots on my part, no? hence my renewed interest in and triumphant return to my blog. but take two will be different as it comes to you uncut, uncensored and commercial-free from my new abode in "korea land" (aka south korea).
i've been here a little over a month now and suffice to say there's been no end to the interesting and bizarre things i've witnessed in seoul. more on that later (can't deplete my best material in the first post if i intend to write regularly now can i). right now i'm sitting in my small albeit comfortable apartment in kanseo-gu watching on style's kate moss: exposed. celebrity gossip makes me feel at home. sad, i know. but it beats age of love (a devastatingly poor excuse for reality television, however devastating reality television is to begin with, in which a group of 40-somethings who look 30 and a group of whorish 20-somethings vie for a man in his 30's...will true love prevail to spite the stigma of age? i will hopefully not have to find out). hmmm...a tangent. get used to those. that's pretty much how my brain works in a nutshell.
going to watch one of many bootleg dvds i've acquired while here (a definite perk), running with scissors. quite excited. the commentator on kate moss: exposed just pronounced longchamps with a pronounced "s" at the end...tee hee. why does that amuse me so?
i leave you with a picture of myself and a giant, happy bottle of soju (korea's distilled rice liquor, much like a low budg sake, pretty sweet at a dollar a bottle). i think this is one of few places in the world where a bottle of booze is made to be cutesie. everything here is cutesie. as you walk into a pork restaurant you're greeted by an wide-eyed, animated pig smiling at you as if to say "eat me, i'm delicious" (i like to imagine it's voice as bearing a close resemblance to the gay bee on family guy). p.s. props to myself for uploading a pic when all the controls were in korean

the most glorious teva of them all

when we were traveling in India my petite travel companion bear brought a pair of pretty tricked-out nike tevas...the first month they were a running joke that kept us entertained...the second month we were becoming acutely aware of their practicality...by the third month i was determined to have my own pair for our next jaunt in asia
how cool would i be if THESE were my tevas...

CHRISTOPHER KANE - insane in the membrane

a few sporadic posts aside, isn't it funny how this blog has become a montage of my fashion epiphones...actually, other peoples epiphones that i've clumsily stumbled upon
either way, christopher kane is one of my new FAVES
neon + mini dresses + lace, zippers, and other accoutrements = f---ing fantastic!!!

fashion tv india, who would have thought?

was watching sao paolo fashion week on indian fashion television, which rocks, and discovered two fabulous lines: FORUM and TRITON

will post pics eventually...

not all those who wander are LOST

a family friend just got me a journal to take with me when i escape toronto for the next three months. the front is a quote by Augustine that reads "the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page". quite rightly. as i head off to india on friday, all i can do is hope to read as many pages as i possibly can.
whether i end up embodying the greatest cliche of all and "find myself", or just come back with some rad pics and stories of glorious adventures (the latter of which i expect), i can't think of anything i'd rather be doing...

peace out

love is in the air....

IEKELIENE STANGE