Where's the Music!?

Well Saturday turned out to provide quite an adventure through Seoul's musical wonderland. At noon I headed downstairs with my guitar to meet Cleo and Razer for our first, ha, DYB band practice. Apparently this end of the year talent show is kind of a big deal to a lot of the Korean teachers (I can imagine its one of their few opportunities to focus on anything other than work). From the time he first mentioned putting a band together, Razer spent a couple weeks a least composing the "DYB Song" that is complete but in all honesty no more complicated than a cowboy sing a long tune.

I waited outside of the middle school for about ten minutes before deciding that I had misheard my instructions and was clearly in the wrong place or there at the wrong time. I called Cleo to double check and she apologized profusely for being late, promising me that she would be there in a minute, which she was. From that point it wasn't long before Razer showed up in an immaculately planned outfit, as always! Even when this guy is not working he finds a way to dress to the t for whatever occasion. Saturday he just happened to be wearing a brand new full adidas warm up set for what I believe is the Korean national team, the Reds. I asked him where the game was and unfortunately my sarcasm was lost in translation as he informed me no game today, we were going to band practice, but soccer is on Sundays. . . .thanks Razer, I figured that out on my own!

Worried about being late, Razer insisted that we delay lunch until arriving at our destination. Even then after a 45 minute drive (which I caught a great nap during) he insisted to Cleo, who was begging for food by this point, that there was only time to grab food and go. So, we dipped into the local Paris Baguette, grabbed some sandies and doughnuts then continued walking. We had arrived in the Gunja area met by rain which we had no option but to deal with as we walked from the car, parked haphazardly on the sidewalk, to our practice room at the Berklee School of Professional Musicians. . . ha!

Up on the fifth floor of the Berklee building we checked in at reception and waited for the previous band to clear out of the studio. During this time I plopped down on the reception couch and dug into my brunch. Ahhhh, how lovely it feels sitting on a couch again! For the majority of time that I'm here I am lying in a wholly uncomfortable bed, sitting in a less comfortable chair at my computer or standing up either at school or wandering around this metropolitan jungle. Believe me, a couch is a-whole-nother world to me at this point!

The studio itself that we have reserved for five, two hour sessions is awesome! They have all the hardware and everything set up and ready to go so all we needed to do was bring instruments and plug in. For the next two hours, minus a three minute break that Razer 'allowed' everyone, we practiced with DYB song with me playing the guitar, Cleo playing the (one finger bass), David on drums, Manira (or something like that) on keys, and Razer belting out the lyrics. Later practice will incorporate Nate rapping and Sunny dancing but for now we're working on just the music.

We played literally right up until 4:00 when Razer cut us off in the middle of the song to say that our time was up. . .well that was abrupt, but alright! I was just glad he made it through the practice without having a heart attack as he seemed to nearly do anytime someone missed a hit or a note. . .oops, thanks for being patient Razer!

Cleo, Razer and I said by to David and Marina(?) in the subway then headed up towards the brilliantly parked car. I again grabbed some shut eye in the back seat while heading towards Junggye. It seems like I have developed a wonderful ability of falling asleep in moving vehicles and lying awake all night in a static bed. . .hmmm

Although I didn't get back until about 5 oclock, Nate was waiting and ready to head out for our weekend adventures. In an expat magazine, Groove, I picked up earlier this month, I read about a 'music festival' happening in Hae Bong Chon (HBC) this Saturday. The 'festival' supposedly started at 2pm and lasted until late with a few dozen different bands performing at five different venues. Sounded like a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening, wandering around listening to a variety of local music. . .unfortunately, we never got the chance to!

We followed, what I believed, were the directions posted by the HBC Fest's website. However, we were unable to locate any of the venues or crowds that one might expect for a decent sized festival. We reassured ourselves that we were in HBC by asking a number of people who confirmed our suspicions. We simply could not seem to find any of the music that was most likely going on somewhere in our immediate vicinity.

After wandering for over an hour in a light rain we decided to call it quits and that we gave it our all. We ended up at a small middle eastern restaurant named Istanbul where Nate and I scarfed down a pair of Turkish Doners! Mmmmm, as Nate noted however these things are like potato chips in that you can never eat just one. We would each have two more, from different vendors, before retiring for the night.

After Istanbul we walked for another 20 minutes only to come up just as empty handed as before. By this time re really decided to retire and head towards Itaewon, foreigner's paradise, which was only one subway stop over. On our short walk, I decided to call the Seoul Information line just to see if they could point us in the right direction of the HBC Fest. Unfortunately all I got was a recording, no human help this evening. . .or at least not yet.

Ending up in Itaewon again by chance, we decided to wander around a bit before heading in anywhere. We checked out a few random stores in the market area that seemed to sell everything from underwear to shoes to souvenirs and old military medals. Suddenly Nate's phone began ringing, displaying a number that neither or us knew. He answered it and passed it off to me. It was the information line calling back! How helpful! Unfortunately I wasn't able to remember the website where I found info on the fest and consequently received no help from the English voice on the other side of the line. . oh well! We continued to wander and eventually found ourselves at Sultans, a small Turkish eatery specializing in, you guessed it, doners! Nate and I each put another one away and spent a few minutes chatting with Omer, the friendly and outspoken proprietor.

It wasn't long however before we both agreed that a comfortable seat was much needed. Thus, we headed upstairs to our favorite third floor venue, Woodstock, where we were greeted by a near empty bar and a large selection of comfortable seating. . . ahhhhhh!

For the next hour or so we both just let our bodies melt away in the couches after wandering for two or more hours out in the cold with nothing to show for it. While it looked as if we would not be treated to live music that night, a keyboardist we had seen before made his way to the stage to begin setting up his gear. For the next hour or so no one else showed but when they did, they all did!

The band that ended up setting up setting up was Beef and the Penetrators, an all service men group that we had actually randomly seen before a few weeks ago. Knowing that not only were they good musicians but that they put on a great show we decided to stick it out in our lovely couch seats for the rest of the night! We sat through all three of Beef's sets, thoroughly enjoying the nine piece all-American band. Looking around however Nate and I realized that the crowd had certainly followed the band and that we were the only non-military patrons in the place, other than a few Korean drunks and the bartendresses. Even the majority of women that came in seemed like they would have no problem ripping us apart limb for limb if we made any sudden movements. It was quite entertaining to find oneself literally surrounded by soldiers on the third floor of a random building (that also houses a clothing store, old church, and 'sexy bar') in the heart of Seoul, South Korea.

For the next three hours or so we managed to escape the hustle and bustle of life in Korea by simply relaxing and listening to American music, played by Americans, surrounded by Americans! Oh how nice it is! Though I planned on catching the last train home, which leaves around 11:00pm, I hadn't nearly gotten my fill of live music and decided that staying out was well worth a few hours of lost sleep! Beef and the gang actually finished up rather early and we were able to make it home before two, though not before having a schwarma wrap from our favorite street vendor! As Nate put it, this is simply a food that you could never get sick of! Well, I haven't yet!


Sunday morning I actually had plenty of time to sleep in before my four o'clock soccer game. I woke up around noon, messed around on the computer for an hour then headed down to Yum Sem with Nate for my ritual pre-soccer meal: a bowl of jollmyeon. This is a rather interesting dish of noodles that are covered in chili sauce and served cold in a big stainless steel bowl topped with a half dozen or so different chopped veggies, and a hard boiled egg. I didn't quite manage to finish my whole serving as someone was a little too liberal with the chili sauce this Sunday, not to mention that I think the dish is meant to be shared anyways!

At around two oclock I packed up for soccer and threw the case of beer I owed the team into my game bag! Now this made for an interesting journey down to Apgujeong, lugging a 20 pound soccer bag behind me that I'm sure the Koreans on the subway assumed was a bomb. I eventually made it to the pitch with everything in working order and we began warming up for one of our most difficult matches against the number two ranked Incheon.

Last week's game marked the season's halfway point and now we repeat each game, played at the other's home pitch. So, playing Incheon marked our opportunity to get revenge for our first game loss (for which I was not yet on the team). Of note is Incheon's key striker Munro who had been featured in an article about the SSFL as scoring four goals the previous week. Apparently this kid is really top notch and has no problem dominating teams single handedly. . .not this week!

We Spitfires quickly went up a goal thanks to the hustle of forward Jun Ho. Within five minutes, Incheon rallied for a fierce breakaway down the left sideline and I was left alone in the middle covering two men. I read the cross beautifully, broke in between the intended receivers and put my foot on it to clear that sucker out! Turns out what I really did was try to put my foot on it. What really happened was I put my shinguard on it and it ricocheted off the inside of our own post into the net! My first goal!! Oops! No biggie though as it would have been a goal anyways had I not been there. Jun Ho managed to cover my mistake and put another one past the Incheon keeper only a few minutes later. . .phew, thanks!

For the remainder of the game our Spitfire defense played like a wall. No one was able to get passed us for so much as a botched opportunity. I'm not kidding when I say that I think I had Incheon's only shot on net for the day! Between our four defenders we managed to lock Munro down hard and he was able to produce nothing more than a few give and gos that fell apart at the seems!

Even with a barrage of long throws, from Incheon's monster defender, our Spitfire defense held fast, not allowing anything to come into the box unprotected! With ten minutes to go, another of our Korean strikers (whose name I can never remembered) bombed an absolute laser right through the hands of Incheon's goalie from about 30 yards out! This really zapped the team and despite a good last minute rally, Incheon was unable to produce anything for themselves!

The Spitfires took home the 3-1 victory (which we celebrated as 4-0 due to my goal scoring abilities)! As a result of manager Sun Uk betting us all on the teams message board, those of us that stuck around after the game were treated to free chicken at TwoTwo just down the street! It was a great way to end the weekend and an even better way to start the second half of our SSFL fall season! We're currently in third place, one game behind Incheon who needs to lose for us to be bumped up. . .consequently, I'm cheering for the rest of the league to step up their play! And, praying for my series of unfortunate events to take a break for the next few weeks!

Happy Monday