Tales of an American moveable family
From the monthly archives:
I really have to change the banner (well, it’s almost March anyway and I try to change it each month) and get rid of this awful hot pink. I think it’s one of the main reasons I’ve had so much writer’s block lately. I really can’t stand looking at the page.
What was I thinking??
Also, more pictures will be up when Dave brings my camera back from Australia. He’s been in Melbourne on a business trip for the past two weeks.
I guess the Korean government believes its in the vital interests of the nation for everyone to look their “best.”
From the Chosun Ilbo:
The costs of plastic surgery, cosmetic tooth reshaping, corrective laser eye surgery, and “boyak”, or traditional Korean health supplements, will be eligible for income deductions in the year-end tax adjustment from this year. Costs incurred last December and this January will be retroactively eligible. The government passed a revision of the enforcement ordinance for the income tax law, including the new items, in a cabinet meeting Tuesday.
If you get to deduct your “cosmetic tooth reshaping,” what else is included? Is this for real?
Yesterday, my boss advised me to go home and do some quick shots of whiskey to get over my lingering head cold. This is what they do in Korea, he says.
On my way home on the subway, I end up sitting next to a very tall, very inebriated guy in a bright red track suit. “You going home?” he asks me.
“Yes.”
He slumps back over his lap in a stupor.
At the next stop, he perks up. “Now, I’m going home, too,” he says, patting my knee.
“Uh, OK,” I think. “Nice chatting with you.”
Later, on the neighborhood (마을) bus idling at the subway stop, a gentleman old enough to be my grandfather staggers up the stairs a few minutes after me. He labors to line up his T-money card with the white outline on the electronic fare reader. After a few tries, he gets it right and then straightens up to gaze toward the back of the vehicle. At first, I think he is waiting for someone to offer him a seat, but I look around and see that there are plenty of empty ones. He then moves forward, weaving back and forth, to a seat at the back of the bus, falls into it and slumps over. I should note that the bus itself was still parked this whole time.
It looks like a lot of people are taking the local cold cure.
Update: So, yeah, I’m an idiot. It turns out Clapton did play Seoul. Still, no John Mayer. ‘Why John? Why?’ Or am I wrong about that, too?
Original post: So, this afternoon as I was listening to my iPod on the subway, thinking how great it’d be to go see John Legend live, it hit me. Why don’t major U.S. music acts come through Seoul? Eric Clapton plays Shanghai, and John Mayer does two shows in Tokyo, but neither hits the mega-metropolis a mere two-hour flight from both.
It’s not like we don’t have a sizeable expat population and fan-base. I would think there’d be more Clapton fans here than in Shanghai. (And, I do know of a few who flew over for the show.) And a lot of U.S. artists have Korean fans as well.
Maybe I’m just uninformed. I’ve never been someone who keeps up with tour schedules months in advance, and maybe I’m missing some well-known acts because of my sort of fogeyish taste in music. (Not that either of the Johns, nor Eric—well, maybe Eric—is a fogey, but Fall Out Boy they aren’t.)
I was really happy to hear about last year’s Busan International Rock Festival and the Pentaport festival. But it does seem like we’re missing something. Am I just out of the loop?
