So Bush wants freedom and democracy in Iraq and Cuba, eh? Should go hand-in-hand with the freedom and democracy the US installed in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's worked out well, yeah....
Oh yes, Gloria Arroyo pardoned Estrada. Good job GMA. You know I used to actually have a little respect for you. Your anti-death-penalty stance and all. But now, you pardoning Erap is like Clinton lying about Lewinsky. They should kick you out of Malacanang and feed you to the dogs.
You and Mayor Lim too.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
New Blogs
Actually, these are more like "Vlogs"....
Includes promo videos and performances from: Keith Green, L.S.U., Altar Boys, Kansas, U2, Mark Heard, Bob Dylan, Lone Justice, Over The Rhine, Sixpence None The Richer, Bruce Cockburn, Violent Femmes, Leslie "Sam" Phillips, The Alarm, Sweet Comfort Band, After The Fire, King's X, The Call, Paul Clark, Vector, De Garmo & Key, Danielson, Sufjan Stevens, Smashing Pumpkins, Phil Keaggy, Steve Taylor, Stryper, Crumbacher, Undercover, Lost Dogs, Adam Again, The Choir, The 77s, Daniel Amos, Second Chapter Of Acts, Resurrection Band, Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman and many more.
My favorite Smashing Pumpkins performances. I am currently collecting the best live performances of the entire "Zeitgeist" album, with more albums to follow in the near future.
Includes promo videos and performances from: Keith Green, L.S.U., Altar Boys, Kansas, U2, Mark Heard, Bob Dylan, Lone Justice, Over The Rhine, Sixpence None The Richer, Bruce Cockburn, Violent Femmes, Leslie "Sam" Phillips, The Alarm, Sweet Comfort Band, After The Fire, King's X, The Call, Paul Clark, Vector, De Garmo & Key, Danielson, Sufjan Stevens, Smashing Pumpkins, Phil Keaggy, Steve Taylor, Stryper, Crumbacher, Undercover, Lost Dogs, Adam Again, The Choir, The 77s, Daniel Amos, Second Chapter Of Acts, Resurrection Band, Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman and many more.
My favorite Smashing Pumpkins performances. I am currently collecting the best live performances of the entire "Zeitgeist" album, with more albums to follow in the near future.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
One of the most amazing things I've ever heard in my lifetime
The Smashing Pumpkins do a 13-minute version of "Heavy Metal Machine" on AOL. Wow.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Weird URLs of the day
http://www.angryalien.com/0406/reservoirbuns.asp
(not safe for work)
http://www.yourethemannowdog.com/
(ok for work)
(not safe for work)
http://www.yourethemannowdog.com/
(ok for work)
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
No cops in sight
Today, I was taking a break in the "garden" on the roof of our school and suddenly heard a squeal of brakes and a crash from the street below. Looking down, I discovered that someone driving a small red car hat hit a child riding a bicycle as he was crossing the street. Never mind that he was on the crosswalk, drivers in Korea pay little to no attention to crosswalks, yield signs, stop lights, pedestrians or even other motorists.
Here's the car:
Here's the bicycle:
And, amazingly, there were no police, no ambulance, no witnesses, etc. Everyone just went about life as though this were a normal occurance. The woman driver eventually bundled the boy into her car, and drove off (after executing quite a dangerous U-turn into oncoming traffic), presumably towards the nearby hospital.
Any other country, the police would have shown up, made inquiries, questioned the driver, summoned paramedics, etc. In China, a crowd of onlookers would have surrounded her car until police arrived, then give the police their version of events and the crowd would decide the penalty then and there.
Why on earth should I actually expect the Korean police to do their job????
Here's the car:
Here's the bicycle:
And, amazingly, there were no police, no ambulance, no witnesses, etc. Everyone just went about life as though this were a normal occurance. The woman driver eventually bundled the boy into her car, and drove off (after executing quite a dangerous U-turn into oncoming traffic), presumably towards the nearby hospital.
Any other country, the police would have shown up, made inquiries, questioned the driver, summoned paramedics, etc. In China, a crowd of onlookers would have surrounded her car until police arrived, then give the police their version of events and the crowd would decide the penalty then and there.Why on earth should I actually expect the Korean police to do their job????
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Dan from Dandan
My friend Dan Shor, as Billy the Kid, plays cards with Keanu Reeves (Speed, The Matrix) and Alex Winter (Lost Boys).
Dan tries to impress the girls at the mall. Geek!
Also, Dan in a music video by Kansas.
Dan tries to impress the girls at the mall. Geek!
Also, Dan in a music video by Kansas.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The Price Of A Pizza In Iraq: An Eye And A Leg
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Constantine Rodriguez had just fetched chilli peppers and was going out to get some onions when he heard the siren for an incoming rocket. All he remembers was a door blasting open and a loud explosion.
A quiet man from the former Portuguese colony of Goa in southwestern India, Rodriguez was working at a Pizza Hut restaurant at Taji, one of the main U.S. air bases in Iraq, when he was caught up in an attack.
He is lucky to be alive, said Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Martin, the surgeon who treated him earlier this month at the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. Shrapnel took out an eye, pulverized one of his legs and damaged his torso. He lost a lot of blood, but surgeons were able to save him.
As he lay recovering in hospital, all he could think of was the new wife he had left in India when he went to Iraq last year, and the 7 1/2-month-old baby he had never met.
"I had gotten the capsicum. And I was going to get onions," Rodriguez told Reuters from his hospital bed. "I heard the siren ... What happened after I don't know.
"I don't blame anybody. Just take care of me and my family. One leg. One eye. What can I do with my family now?"
The Kuwaiti firm that employed Rodriguez, Al Homaizi, operates 11 Pizza Huts, 13 Burger Kings and five Taco Bells on American bases in Iraq, said Joe Petrusich, who runs the firm's Iraq restaurants.
It employs about 300 workers, recruited in Kuwait but nearly all from poor countries in Asia: India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines.
They are a small part of the vast army behind the army -- the tens of thousands of "TCNs" -- "third-country nationals" -- hired to feed U.S. troops, wash their laundry, build their compounds and clean their toilets, for salaries of at most several hundred dollars a month.
The U.S. military says that by contracting out tasks like cooking and cleaning, it can provide its soldiers with a better environment at a lower cost.
CONTROVERSY BACK HOME
For poor countries, allowing their citizens to work in Iraq has been controversial and often politically sensitive.
India has told its citizens not to work in Iraq since 2004, when three Indian contractors were kidnapped and demonstrators took to the streets at home complaining the government did too little to protect them.
But there is little a country can do to prevent its citizens taking work that pays much better than jobs at home.
The Philippines now puts stamps in new passports saying they are not valid for travel to Iraq.
Petrusich said the firm still employed Filipino workers in Iraq, as long as they have old passports without the stamps.
Al Homaizi is Pizza Hut's franchise in Kuwait, with 45 restaurants in that oil-rich Gulf state, where nearly all workers are recruited from poor Asian countries. The firm offers staff at its Kuwait restaurants double pay if they go to Iraq.
For Rodriguez, that was the equivalent of about $450 a month, enough finally to find a wife and start a family back in India after 10 years of working in Kuwait. The average per capita income in Goa is about $1,100 a year.
Petrusich said Rodriguez would receive free medical care in Kuwait, including physiotherapy and a prosthetic leg, and one-off payments totaling 18,333 Kuwaiti dinars, about $55,000, if he is finally deemed permanently disabled.
"I'm very close to these guys. I've known all of them. I know we do everything we can," he told Reuters by telephone from Kuwait. "It's just an unfortunate situation that has happened."
A quiet man from the former Portuguese colony of Goa in southwestern India, Rodriguez was working at a Pizza Hut restaurant at Taji, one of the main U.S. air bases in Iraq, when he was caught up in an attack.
He is lucky to be alive, said Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Martin, the surgeon who treated him earlier this month at the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. Shrapnel took out an eye, pulverized one of his legs and damaged his torso. He lost a lot of blood, but surgeons were able to save him.
As he lay recovering in hospital, all he could think of was the new wife he had left in India when he went to Iraq last year, and the 7 1/2-month-old baby he had never met.
"I had gotten the capsicum. And I was going to get onions," Rodriguez told Reuters from his hospital bed. "I heard the siren ... What happened after I don't know.
"I don't blame anybody. Just take care of me and my family. One leg. One eye. What can I do with my family now?"
The Kuwaiti firm that employed Rodriguez, Al Homaizi, operates 11 Pizza Huts, 13 Burger Kings and five Taco Bells on American bases in Iraq, said Joe Petrusich, who runs the firm's Iraq restaurants.
It employs about 300 workers, recruited in Kuwait but nearly all from poor countries in Asia: India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines.
They are a small part of the vast army behind the army -- the tens of thousands of "TCNs" -- "third-country nationals" -- hired to feed U.S. troops, wash their laundry, build their compounds and clean their toilets, for salaries of at most several hundred dollars a month.
The U.S. military says that by contracting out tasks like cooking and cleaning, it can provide its soldiers with a better environment at a lower cost.
CONTROVERSY BACK HOME
For poor countries, allowing their citizens to work in Iraq has been controversial and often politically sensitive.
India has told its citizens not to work in Iraq since 2004, when three Indian contractors were kidnapped and demonstrators took to the streets at home complaining the government did too little to protect them.
But there is little a country can do to prevent its citizens taking work that pays much better than jobs at home.
The Philippines now puts stamps in new passports saying they are not valid for travel to Iraq.
Petrusich said the firm still employed Filipino workers in Iraq, as long as they have old passports without the stamps.
Al Homaizi is Pizza Hut's franchise in Kuwait, with 45 restaurants in that oil-rich Gulf state, where nearly all workers are recruited from poor Asian countries. The firm offers staff at its Kuwait restaurants double pay if they go to Iraq.
For Rodriguez, that was the equivalent of about $450 a month, enough finally to find a wife and start a family back in India after 10 years of working in Kuwait. The average per capita income in Goa is about $1,100 a year.
Petrusich said Rodriguez would receive free medical care in Kuwait, including physiotherapy and a prosthetic leg, and one-off payments totaling 18,333 Kuwaiti dinars, about $55,000, if he is finally deemed permanently disabled.
"I'm very close to these guys. I've known all of them. I know we do everything we can," he told Reuters by telephone from Kuwait. "It's just an unfortunate situation that has happened."
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tarantino goes local in Manila
MANILA, PHILIPPINES: Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino was forced to hop into a pedicab to escape flood-induced gridlock in the streets of Manila on Wednesday (August 15th) on his way to the presidential palace to receive a film award from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.Tarantino said he and Filipino filmmaker Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz were in a limousine that had been stuck for about 2-1/2 hours on a bridge close to Malacanang palace when Aguiluz suggested they leave the car and proceed on two separate pedicabs - one for each of them.
"It was a lot of fun. It's the way it is, I guess. ... It was wild," he told reporters later. "No worries. I've done more serious things than that."
Tarantino talks about his ordeal
About 15 minutes later, they reached a street corner near the palace gates where a car picked them up, he said.
Tarantino and Aguiluz were 40 minutes late for the scheduled ceremony but they were still 30 minutes ahead of Arroyo, who was a victim of the traffic jams in the Philippine capital's flooded streets Wednesday (August 15th).
Pounding rain from Typhoon Sepat flooded parts of metropolitan Manila, prompting authorities to suspend classes, briefly stopping a commuter train and slowing Arroyo's convoy.
Tarantino _ well-known for his films "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill" _ was in a traditional Filipino formal shirt called Barong Tagalog but wore sandals. He was handed a size 13 black leather shoes because sandals and rubber shoes are not allowed inside the palace during presidential ceremonies, a staff of the National Commission on Culture and Arts said.
Tarantino, who is writing a book about the Philippine films, particularly the horror and action films he saw in his youth, was one of the three Lifetime Achievement award winners in the 9th Cinemanila, a film festival featuring foreign and local movies.
Chatrichalerm Yukol, a member of Thailand's royal family whose historical epic "King Naresuan" was shown during the festival, and Belgian independent film director Robert Maleangreau also received the same award from Arroyo. (AP)
CineManila Ad:
MANILA, Philippines -- Quentin Tarantino would not eat fish, even something as tempting as crisp-fried tilapia served at dinner on Saturday at Café Havana at Gateway Mall in Cubao, Quezon City, where the 9th Cinemanila International Film Festival is being held from Aug. 8 to 19.
He was a hearty eater and merry drinker, though. He polished off a serving of pancit luglug along with his medium-rare steak, pizza and gambas, which he mixed with his noodles. He said he had tapsilog (a combo meal of eggs, fried rice and beef) at breakfast.
It was his fourth day in the country, and he was having dinner with Wieland Speck, director of the Berlin film fest's Panorama section and chair of Cinemanila's International Competition; Robert Malengreau, founder of the Brussels independent-film fest and chair of the Asean Competition; and Tikoy Aguiluz, Cinemanila founder-director.
Tarantino, the international film icon behind such relentless genre-benders as "Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill," is here to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the festival. He is also premiering his latest movie "Death Proof," which could have been inspired by Russ Meyer's raunchy and foxy female posse.
In a strange twist, he brought for screening at the film fest a few films from his collection of Philippine B-grade movies: Cirio Santiago's "Ebony Ivory & Jade" and "The Muthers," and Robert Vincent O'Neill's "Wonder Women."
This is Tarantino's first trip to Southeast Asia, which he had promised Aguiluz three years ago he would undertake, saying he wanted to meet his movie icons Santiago and National Artist Eddie Romero. He finally met them on Friday in a film forum they moderated.
Another icon was the late National Artist Gerry de Leon. "I'm a huge, huge fan of Gerry de Leon," he revealed to film students in the four-hour master class he conducted before dinner.
He could hardly contain himself from raving over De Leon's "soul-shattering, life-extinguishing" movies on vampires and female bondage, particularly "Women in Cages."
"It is just harsh, harsh, harsh," he said, and described the final shot as one of "devastating despair."
Asked why he was so deep into B-grade movies to the point of making his own appear like one, he said those movies he enjoyed in his youth were no longer being made so he was just giving back to a generation that had missed that stuff.
"My relationship with Filipino cinema is that I find the movies beyond interesting—they're fascinating," he said. "Nowhere else in movie history can you find this kind of cinema. There are two Filipino movie industries—the movies of Bernal, Lino Brocka, Tikoy, and the alternative film industry that produced the movies of Cirio Santiago not intended for the Filipino public, those war movies and vampire movies of Gerry de Leon and Eddie Romero made for American viewers. In this, Philippine cinema stands alone."
The most exciting revelation Tarantino made at dinner was that he was now starting to write a book on these B-grade Filipino movies, to be called "Bamboo Gods, Iron Men and Wonder Women."
We thought he was just in a jocular mood after several drinks, but he added he had just finished writing the introduction that morning. (So that was why he didn't arrive for lunch at Cibo.)
He even found the time to watch Weng Weng in "For Your Height Only." The screening of such movies at Cinemanila was just his way of giving back to Filipino audiences this rich film heritage they had missed. And, in a kind of symbiosis, he said he was taking home DVDs of the films of Brocka, Bernal et al.
"To further immerse myself in Philippine cinema," he said. "I'm taking my lifetime master's in cinema, and the day I die is the day I graduate."
Philippine Inquirer
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Smashing Pumpkins in Asia
I've compiled a list of Pumpkins dates in Asia - it seems nearly every two years since 1992 Billy Corgan and gang have shown up here in Asia and last time he came here was as a solo artist in 2005. So I think he is due to visit over here again on the new Pumpkins tour......
Billy Corgan
(with Smashing Pumpkins)
1992/02/21 Club Quatro Osaka, JP
1992/02/23 Club Quatro Nagoya, JP
1992/02/24 Club Citta' Kawasaki, JP
1992/02/26 Club Quatro Tokyo, JP
1992/02/?? [Japanese TV] Tokyo, JP
1994/02/09 Sun Plaza Tokyo, JP
1994/02/11 On Air West Tokyo, JP
1994/02/12 Club Quatro Nagoya, JP
1994/02/13 Club Quatro Osaka, JP
D'arcy
1996/02/19 Archaic Hall Osaka, JP
1996/02/20 IMP Hall Osaka, JP
1996/02/21 Aichi Kinro kaikan Nagoya, JP
1996/02/23 Todoroki Arena Kawasaki, JP
1996/02/26 Todoroki Arena Kawasaki, JP
1996/02/27 Shibuya Kokaido Tokyo, JP
1996/02/29 Thai-Japan Bangkok Metropolis
Youth Centre Bangkok, Thailand
1996/03/02 World Trade Centre, Singapore
James Iha
1998/06/23 (unknown venue) Tokyo, JP
1998/06/23 Nihon Budokan Tokyo, JP
1998/06/24 Koyakuin University Hachioji, JP
2000/06/20 Pacifico Yokohama, JP
2000/06/21 Kenmin Hall Sendai, JP
2000/06/24 Koseinenkin Hall Hiroshima, JP
2000/06/25 Zepp Fukuoka, JP
2000/06/27 Castle Hall Osaka, JP
2000/06/28 Koseinenkin Hall Nagoya, JP
2000/06/30 Budokan Tokyo, JP
2000/07/02 Kokusai Forum Tokyo, JP
2000/07/04 Olympic Park Gymnastics Stadium
Seoul, Korea
Melissa Auf der Maur
(with Zwan)
2003/02/01 Zepp Tokyo, JP
2003/02/02 Zepp Osaka, JP
2003/02/05 Club Diamond Hall Nagoya, JP
2003/02/06 Liquid Room Tokyo, JP
(Billy Corgan solo)
2005/08/01 Namba-Hatch Osaka, JP
2005/08/03 Club Diamond Hall Nagoya, JP
2005/08/04 Shibuya-AX Tokyo, JP
2005/08/05 Shibuya-AX Tokyo, JP
(with Smashing Pumpkins)
2007/09/01 Hezarfen Airport Istanbul, Turkey
Jimmy Chamberlin
........
pictures from the Japanese Smashing Pumpkins fan site
Billy Corgan1992/02/21 Club Quatro Osaka, JP
1992/02/23 Club Quatro Nagoya, JP
1992/02/24 Club Citta' Kawasaki, JP
1992/02/26 Club Quatro Tokyo, JP
1992/02/?? [Japanese TV] Tokyo, JP
1994/02/09 Sun Plaza Tokyo, JP
1994/02/11 On Air West Tokyo, JP
1994/02/12 Club Quatro Nagoya, JP
1994/02/13 Club Quatro Osaka, JP
D'arcy1996/02/19 Archaic Hall Osaka, JP
1996/02/20 IMP Hall Osaka, JP
1996/02/21 Aichi Kinro kaikan Nagoya, JP
1996/02/23 Todoroki Arena Kawasaki, JP
1996/02/26 Todoroki Arena Kawasaki, JP
1996/02/27 Shibuya Kokaido Tokyo, JP
1996/02/29 Thai-Japan Bangkok Metropolis
Youth Centre Bangkok, Thailand
1996/03/02 World Trade Centre, Singapore
James Iha1998/06/23 (unknown venue) Tokyo, JP
1998/06/23 Nihon Budokan Tokyo, JP
1998/06/24 Koyakuin University Hachioji, JP
2000/06/20 Pacifico Yokohama, JP
2000/06/21 Kenmin Hall Sendai, JP
2000/06/24 Koseinenkin Hall Hiroshima, JP
2000/06/25 Zepp Fukuoka, JP
2000/06/27 Castle Hall Osaka, JP
2000/06/28 Koseinenkin Hall Nagoya, JP
2000/06/30 Budokan Tokyo, JP
2000/07/02 Kokusai Forum Tokyo, JP
2000/07/04 Olympic Park Gymnastics Stadium
Seoul, Korea
Melissa Auf der Maur(with Zwan)
2003/02/01 Zepp Tokyo, JP
2003/02/02 Zepp Osaka, JP
2003/02/05 Club Diamond Hall Nagoya, JP
2003/02/06 Liquid Room Tokyo, JP
(Billy Corgan solo)
2005/08/01 Namba-Hatch Osaka, JP
2005/08/03 Club Diamond Hall Nagoya, JP
2005/08/04 Shibuya-AX Tokyo, JP
2005/08/05 Shibuya-AX Tokyo, JP
(with Smashing Pumpkins)
2007/09/01 Hezarfen Airport Istanbul, Turkey
Jimmy Chamberlin ........
pictures from the Japanese Smashing Pumpkins fan site
Monday, July 23, 2007
Smashing Hotel Rooms? What Visiting Stars Do in Korea
A bevy of international music stars will come to Korea for concerts this year. They will make a deep impression on numerous Korean fans with their performance, but what impression will the stars come away with? The Chosun Ilbo asked sources in the performance industry for a glimpse of the life some famous musicians enjoyed during their visit to Korea.
Can’t live without booze
Many (mostly Rock) musicians proved that they couldn’t live without alcohol by spending every spare minute here drinking. The now-disbanded heavy metal group Pantera would have won the competition for the hardest visiting drinkers. The group enjoyed themselves at the Walkerhill Hotel casino all night on the night before their gig, drinking two or three 500 ml bottles of liquor a head. After getting a bit of sleep at the hotel, they gave the planned concert, with the help of more liquor stored in 10 beer glasses at the corner of the stage.
The British singer Sting kept a low profile by enjoying some wine privately in his hotel room, but he spent as much as W4 million (US$1=W938) on meals and wine during his four-day stay. Of course, he paid for it himself. Another heavy metal group, Rage Against the Machine, spent W2.5 million on wine here.
Counter-intuitively, according to a staffer with event organizers Access Entertainment, Metallica, who have been nicknamed “Alcohollica” for their dedication to booze, did not touch a drop during either of their two Korea visits.
Shopaholics
Sharon Osbourne, the wife of Ozzy Osbourne, showed what a shopaholic is like during their Seoul visit. She bought knockoff bags and watches worth some W5 million in Itaewon, the well-kwon pirate brand district in Seoul. Craig David brought home a Korean-made MP3 player he bought at the TechnoMart shopping center and about a dozen antiques including paintings and stone statues from Insa-dong. A staffer with Private Curve said many pop and jazz musicians like to look around Insa-dong and buy antiques to take home.
Out walking
When British rock group Oasis visited, they encountered some young fans of the Korean boy band TVXQ in front of the group’s agency SM Entertainment in Apgujeong, Seoul. Some of them recognized the world famous group and followed them. Some 10 minutes later, Noel Gallagher asked them why they kept following and gave them his autograph to send them away.
Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst also spent some time in Korea walking around Apgujeong. He ran into a cable music TV crew team who were doing street interviews and, feeling a sudden urge for fun, shouted in front of camera, “I, Limp Bizkit, have come to Korea.” Failing to recognize him, a reporter was dumbfounded, and Durst, now also confused, went on his way. But a producer recognized him belatedly and drove after him, succeeding in landing an interview.
When Eric Clapton was in the country for his first concert here a decade ago, he bought three pairs of socks for W10,000 from a street vendor while strolling around the busy streets of Seoul’s Gangnam. The elderly vendor threw in another pair for free saying, “You have grown old gracefully.” Clapton thanked him and left.
Fights
When Boyz II Men came to Korea in 2005 to give a joint performance with Korean girl band Big Mama, they got into a fight over music. It was resolved magically by getting them to play poker for US$1 stakes. Smashing Pumpkins was so notorious for discord between members that they sat separately on the plane and had separate meals in Seoul. A source from event planners Yellow Nine said members also went to separate bars after their concert.
Cleanliness
All bad boys the Prodigy really wanted in Korea was a sauna. When they came here in 1999 for the Triport Rock Festival in Incheon, their performance was canceled due to heavy rain. The group’s manager called the festival organizers and asked to change the hotel because the place where the Big Beats combo were staying would not allow them into the sauna because of their tattoos. The firm had to decline, saying no hotels would tolerate body art of such dimensions.
The Hip-Hop group Black Eyed Peas, who attended the Pentaport Rock Festival in Incheon last year, were unwilling to wear their expensive shoes costing W2-3 million on the muddy stage, so they bought Wellington’s boots worth W4,000 on the spot and performed in them instead.
(englishnews@chosun.com)
Can’t live without booze
Many (mostly Rock) musicians proved that they couldn’t live without alcohol by spending every spare minute here drinking. The now-disbanded heavy metal group Pantera would have won the competition for the hardest visiting drinkers. The group enjoyed themselves at the Walkerhill Hotel casino all night on the night before their gig, drinking two or three 500 ml bottles of liquor a head. After getting a bit of sleep at the hotel, they gave the planned concert, with the help of more liquor stored in 10 beer glasses at the corner of the stage.
The British singer Sting kept a low profile by enjoying some wine privately in his hotel room, but he spent as much as W4 million (US$1=W938) on meals and wine during his four-day stay. Of course, he paid for it himself. Another heavy metal group, Rage Against the Machine, spent W2.5 million on wine here.
Counter-intuitively, according to a staffer with event organizers Access Entertainment, Metallica, who have been nicknamed “Alcohollica” for their dedication to booze, did not touch a drop during either of their two Korea visits.
Shopaholics
Sharon Osbourne, the wife of Ozzy Osbourne, showed what a shopaholic is like during their Seoul visit. She bought knockoff bags and watches worth some W5 million in Itaewon, the well-kwon pirate brand district in Seoul. Craig David brought home a Korean-made MP3 player he bought at the TechnoMart shopping center and about a dozen antiques including paintings and stone statues from Insa-dong. A staffer with Private Curve said many pop and jazz musicians like to look around Insa-dong and buy antiques to take home.
Out walking
When British rock group Oasis visited, they encountered some young fans of the Korean boy band TVXQ in front of the group’s agency SM Entertainment in Apgujeong, Seoul. Some of them recognized the world famous group and followed them. Some 10 minutes later, Noel Gallagher asked them why they kept following and gave them his autograph to send them away.
Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst also spent some time in Korea walking around Apgujeong. He ran into a cable music TV crew team who were doing street interviews and, feeling a sudden urge for fun, shouted in front of camera, “I, Limp Bizkit, have come to Korea.” Failing to recognize him, a reporter was dumbfounded, and Durst, now also confused, went on his way. But a producer recognized him belatedly and drove after him, succeeding in landing an interview.
When Eric Clapton was in the country for his first concert here a decade ago, he bought three pairs of socks for W10,000 from a street vendor while strolling around the busy streets of Seoul’s Gangnam. The elderly vendor threw in another pair for free saying, “You have grown old gracefully.” Clapton thanked him and left.
Fights
When Boyz II Men came to Korea in 2005 to give a joint performance with Korean girl band Big Mama, they got into a fight over music. It was resolved magically by getting them to play poker for US$1 stakes. Smashing Pumpkins was so notorious for discord between members that they sat separately on the plane and had separate meals in Seoul. A source from event planners Yellow Nine said members also went to separate bars after their concert.
Cleanliness
All bad boys the Prodigy really wanted in Korea was a sauna. When they came here in 1999 for the Triport Rock Festival in Incheon, their performance was canceled due to heavy rain. The group’s manager called the festival organizers and asked to change the hotel because the place where the Big Beats combo were staying would not allow them into the sauna because of their tattoos. The firm had to decline, saying no hotels would tolerate body art of such dimensions.
The Hip-Hop group Black Eyed Peas, who attended the Pentaport Rock Festival in Incheon last year, were unwilling to wear their expensive shoes costing W2-3 million on the muddy stage, so they bought Wellington’s boots worth W4,000 on the spot and performed in them instead.
(englishnews@chosun.com)
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Smashing Pumpkins are a Christian rock band?
We all know that Billy's been writing lyrics with religious overtones for many years now, but did you know that current guitarist Jeff Schroeder used to be in Christian rock bands like Violet Burning and Lassie Foundation? Or that new bassist Ginger Reyes was in the all-girl Xian band the Halo Friendlies? Or that new keyboard player Lisa Harriton played on a lot of praise and worship albums for Word Records?
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