Mongdori

A Foreigner's Perspective on Korea

mongdori@mongdori.com (brento) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:15:03 +0900

Videos with scenes from Seoul, Busan, Kyeongju. Made by my friend Stuart. Watch it. Well edited and great!

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FRI 5/15 The Plastic Day CD Release

mongdori@mongdori.com (Eshe) — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:47:09 +0900

The Plastic Day 1st CD Release
30 Seconds Between the Dreamer and the Realist
Friday 5/15
@ FF (Club Funky Funky)
Hongdae, Seoul

15 000 won

CDs and designer Tshirts available

The Plastic Day
http://www.myspace.com/theplasticday

Cocore
http://cocore.com/

Galaxy Express
http://www.myspace.com/galaxyrocknroll

Apollo18
http://www.myspace.com/apollo18official

Recent Press
Plastic Day:
http://smashingmag.com/tour/09tr/090228plastic_shawn.html
http://groovekorea.com/5.html

Cocore:
http://smashingmag.com/tour/08tr/080119cocore_shawn.html

Apollo 18:
http://www.koreagigguide.com/2009/03/24/midway-through-their-mission/

Cocore and Galaxy Express have both been added to the lineup for this year's Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival

http://www.pentaportrock.com/2009/lineup.html

The Plastic Day

Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Sun Ho, bassist Ho Seong, and drummer Yun Beom, The Plastic Day came together in late 2006.

Their infectious tracks and awesome live show earned the Seoul trio an opportunity to perform at the 2007 Ssamzie Sound Festival, an annual outdoor music event showcasing some of the top underground acts
in South Korea. In December 2007 they unveiled “Lady,” an eight track EP filled with raw, passionate rock, post-punk, and post-grunge anthems.

2008 saw The Plastic Day continuing to sharpen their playing skills, winning over rowdy, sweaty audiences in rock clubs in Seoul, Jeonju, Daegu, and
Daejon with tight, energetic gigs. They were invited to perform at Love Camp in Gangwon province, Jeju Island’s Stepping Stone
Festival, and Gwangju’s Indie Music Fest.

In November they began work on their debut full-length CD. Recorded over the span of five months, the self-produced “30 Seconds Between The
Dreamer and The Realist” features six new songs alongside four re-worked tracks from “Lady.” The album is set to be released by Seoul record label Cub / Music (The Sagitta, Cocore) on May 15, 2009 in South Korea and will made available internationally through iTunes soon after.

While “Lady” provided a solid snapshot of The Plastic Day in their early days, “30 Seconds Between The Dreamer and The Realist” sees a stronger, more mature band on the verge of big things. The disc is densely packed with layers of wonderfully distorted guitar noise, heavy bass, and pounding drums. While “Lady” sounded rushed at times (which it should, seeing as how the guys recorded the effort in around 7 hours) all of the well-crafted rhythms on “30 Seconds Between The Dreamer and The Realist” are more drawn out, allowing these young talents to showcase their growth as songwriters while building elaborate sonic journeys for listeners to gleefully lose themselves in.

The Plastic Day will also unveil their first band T-shirts on May 15. Designed by highly regarded Korean fashion designers Juun.J and Jain Song, the T-shirts will be available at all upcoming concerts.

“A bright hope of the indie scene (in Seoul)” – SmashingMag.com “Editor’s Note”

“Watch one of their blistering sets and it’s easy to see that The Plastic Day are the best young rock-based act in (Seoul) right now.” – GROOVE KOREA

We Live in Oz

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:40:50 +0900

So, are they the new Lollipop Guild?

A Virtual Trip through Gumi, Gangjin, and Jindo with a Bunch of Ajummas and Ajussis

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:23:11 +0900

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a bunch of ajumma and ajossi friends to travel around with? Well, it would probably be a lot like this, especially if you're listening to Bette Midler's "The Rose" the whole time on your MP3 player:

Gumi
fire-safety-awareness-boating, eating, and riding the bus action:

Gangjin
museum-visiting and sushi-eating action:

Jindo
awesome drumming action:

That's an Interesting Hobby

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:24:11 +0900

From a blog which likes to demostrate how to draw korean gag comedians:

He's Hulk

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:15:17 +0900

...if only he could turn green:

O'Yu Commercial

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:11:54 +0900

Here's a new and cute ad for the yogurt drink O'Yu, which is kind of clever in how its jingle is devoid of consonants...

Growth Hormone Shoes

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:16:14 +0900

Hurry kids, gotta grab these before they get banned by the IOC!

Black Queens

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:59:53 +0900

I think a better name for this dance group would be Black Girdle Queens. Here they are performing to Big Bang's song Strong Baby, where I'm pretty sure the lyrics go "Quack! Quack! Quack!"

Gratuitous Skin

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:11:46 +0900

Here's actress Han Ji Hye showing just how clean Say Body Wash can make you:

The Story of Donna and Vegi

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:14:10 +0900

Here's a unique commercial from Japan for Suntory's beverage called I Love Vegi. This type of drink is like a combination of V-8 with orange juice, and mixes well with vodka. It is also really effective at curing hangovers. Awhile back in Japan, I used to seek out a drink called Fruity Vegetable after a night of heavy drinking. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any good versions of these drinks in Korea, so your only option is paying a premium for imported V-8 juice.

There's also a flash photo album, for anyone interested about more of their love life.

Pyrotechnics at the Ceramics Festival

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:36:02 +0900

Who says ceramics festivals aren't exciting?

Screwed by a Screw Bar

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:21:29 +0900

Rather inappropriate, I think:

The Banana Glamour Diet

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:21:33 +0900

Not a believer in the amazing Banana Glamour Diet? Here's a little montage showing the effects of having 2 bananas and a glass of water everyday at breakfast over the course of a year. (Conveniently sponsored by Del Monte):

A Rainism Wedding

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:43:28 +0900

Here's one of the most popular videos from Naver the other day. Hopefully, a little Rainism at your wedding isn't bad luck:

4/4 Love Dance Volume 1 @ Bowie (Hongdae)

mongdori@mongdori.com (Eshe) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:29:42 +0900

SATURDAY 4/4
LOVE DANCE
Volume 1
Hongdae, Seoul

Bellydance:
Eshe
http://eshebellydancer.com

Navah
http://myspace.com/navahseoul

Juyeon Lee (Ebellydance)
http://ebellydance.com/

and Wakako of Samanyolu (Tokyo, Japan)
http://devadasi.jp/saman.html

@ Bowie
http://bowie.co.kr/

Bowie is on the same road as Hongik University going towards Sinchon. It is located across the street from the Sanwoollim Theater.

From Hongik Station go out exit 4 and turn right. Walk up the street and turn left at the convience store on the corner. Stay on
the right hand side of the street (you’ll pass a bunch of BBQ restaurants) and turn right at the first proper road (not one of the small alleyways). Walk up the left side of the road (you should
pass a bunch of small clothing shops and restaurants, a Family Mart, Cafe Bbang,and Cosmo’s vinyl bar) until it ends. Cross the street at the traffic lights/ cross walk and you should see Bowie. It’s next to a Buy The Way. It's got a big white sign with "Bowie" spelled in black letters. For events, the entrance is at the back of the building.

Dance from 7-10PM

3 sets of dancing
Tribal, Oriental, Ambient Bellydance

Eshe at Grand Mint Festival with Orgeltanz

Navah at Rainbow in Gangnam

Fanta Shakers

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:53:47 +0900

Thought you'd already drank it all? Here's a new drink from Fanta that requires you to actually shake it before you can drink it. Though I haven't tried it yet, apparently if not shaken it is like carbonated jello inside. At the very least, it should make for a new soju mixer:

Cambodian Wonder Girls

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:17:28 +0900

Just as good as the originals, and cheaper to book:

Fingered by an Astronaut

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:14:27 +0900

Were you aware that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy? I sure wasn't. To help promote the occasion, Seoul was visited by an astronaut offering everyone the universal greeting:

Site Update: English Interface to Naver Maps

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:12:19 +0900

We've added an English interface to Naver Maps that you can access on our map page. The main feature is that you can easily jump around the map from station to station, or city to city. (Not all subway lines are finished yet, though.) You can also set markers and text labels, then email your custom map to other people by sending them the link.

I think it helps solve the problem people have asked of me before, that of how to email invitations to parties or events using a Korean map. Naver Maps don't show bus information or subways schedules, so if you're looking for that kind of information in English, you should try the bus map at Congnamul. Also, if you're looking for the equivalent of Google's street view service, Daum has beat Naver to the punch on that one. You can jump straight into Daum's Road View service by following this link. (Daum's service might not work outside of Korea.)

The "English Teachers Are Gang Rapists" TV Show

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:46:53 +0900

Leave it to Korea's Comedy channel (motto: Always Fun Time!) to really reach for the depths of depravity and promote racial fear-mongering. This is a show called Damage (데미지) that's the unholy marriage of Jerry Springer and Scandal.

What's happening in this show is that even though the whole thing is fake, they try to make it look real by re-enacting the actors on the stage. Even though "real" David looks suave and "re-enactment" David looks geeky, they are supposed to be the same person. (As an aside, I hereby nominate "re-enactment" Dave for best male orgasm by a foreigner on a Korean TV show. He really steals the show.) The latter part of the show plays out like an investigative journalist's wet dream as the "real" actors are caught in the act and exposed on air. Lastly, in the host's Final Thoughts, we are warned to be careful of all these strange foreigners in our land.

Part 1:

[ Continue... ]

Grow Taller System

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:31:39 +0900

If these shoes don't work, you can always try the rack.

Roach Massage Cream

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:49:01 +0900

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, it can be stressful trying to find the perfect gift. One item that makes for a good gift and says "I want to feel you more" is massage cream. Unfortunately, when shopping for massage creams, you're basically just paying a premium for a brand name, when the actual cost of making the cream is dirt cheap. Luckily, you can make your own massage cream at home with a few everyday ingredients. Here's a video that shows you how:

Site Updates: Job Applications, Claiming Directory Items, etc.

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:08:32 +0900

Here are some of the changes put live in the latest update to the site:

Job Board
- Users can now directly apply to jobs. The jobs application form is at the bottom of each posted job.
- User ratings have been reintegrated into the job board. Job posters who have registered and claimed their business in the directory will have their directory rating show up in their job posts.

Directory
- Users can now claim their establishments from a directory item's details page.
- The coordinate system was updated to work with both Google Maps and Naver Maps, should we decide to switch map services later. The algorithm we used to make that change was off by about 100 meters, so we had to reset the geocode data on a few directory items. Sorry about that.

Events Board
- Events board now supports uploading images.

Aggregator
- Fixed problems with some links.

General Site Updates
- BBCode support has been added to most text inputs, such as user reviews and event descriptions.

Coming of Age Dance

mongdori@mongdori.com (Mongdori) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:19:11 +0900

The title of Park Ji Yoon's song 성인식 (Sunginshik) in this video means "Coming of Age", the time in one's life when childhood innocence is lost forever: