weekly pop music profile #4

Teen-bop girl band f(x), with the only song they have come out with so far: "Chu <3."

"Chu" is not a Korean word, by the way. It supposedly represents a kiss, because the motion your mouth makes when you say "chu" is kind of like puckering your lips.

The short-haired girl (@bird_esque dyke hair! real dyke hair!) who dresses in masculine clothing throughout and starts rapping about two-thirds of the way through is Amber. She is Taiwanese American (but now lives in Seoul), fluent in both English and Korean. She is easily the group's most popular member, especially amongst teenage Korean girls, who think she is "so handsome!", confirming my suspicions that everyone in Korea is queer and just hasn't figured it out yet. Internet rumors abound, but so far, no official news of her sexuality or gender orientation. But not to worry - she's only 17. There's still time.

Despite the fact that she regularly dresses in masculine clothing, these pictures still caused a huge controversy:

Four of the f(x) members in traditional female Korean clothing (hanboks). Amber in a male hanbok, gasp!

Heartz.

pickled radish, pickled

jellyfish, I mean, same goddamn difference.

LOOK AT THIS MAN. ISN'T HE MAGNIFICENT. (I'm a creeper, duh.)

BUKHANSAN. The beast of Seoul.

Teacher's tea time topic: are you an adventurous person? I'm really not trying to stack my own ego, but I was well and truly flabbergasted by my co-teachers' collective response to this topic. I was the only one willing to try most things. And they were appalled to learn that I had, in fact, already swum in a lake at night, and more than once, too.

Sweet potato noodles, sesame. I eat sesames in almost everything now.

Big-ass maple leaves carpet the streets. <3

If those aren't rainbow mosaic sculptures of poo, then I haven't a goddamned idea what they are.

another day, another mountain.

Mountain #2: Umyeonsan (Mt. Umyeon) for the second time. It's the mountain right behind my school, and I climbed it with Shin-Jeong and Park Mi-Ran to get to a photo exhibition close to Mi-Ran's house after school on Monday.

The exhibit was of Sarah Moon (who sounds Korean by name, but is British by birth and French for all purposes).

Common themes:
1. women in high fashion
2. birds (a plethora of parrots. a fair few seagulls. one toucan. pelicans. flamingos. herons. at least 3 peacocks)
3. nipples (see below)
4. naked backs (see below)
5. ballet
6. swimmers

Fairly typical of her fashion photography.

Most of the women in her photos are pictured from behind. Their faces are almost never shown, but their backs are almost always bare and on display.

Some of the backs were photographed in contorted positions, which reminded me a little bit of Edgar Degas. Like this painting, only with more uncertainty about what position the subject is in.

Again, face is (at least partially) covered/obscured. Nipples are another common theme. In some of the photos, the nipples are actually visible; in others, they are obscured. But the nipples are always present.

Normal people/objects photographed as though they were diseased/dying/dead. This is only a pockmarked statue, but doesn't it look like a decaying corpse or someone with the plague?

Finally, at the very end, a photo with movement.

On the whole, the exhibit was a bit of a downer, and both Mi-Ran and Shin-Jeong denounced Sarah Moon as pessimistic (which I have come to understand is a pretty sizable insult here).

"It seemed like a dream. Back to my childhood, I had sad dreams. I dreamt that my mother said goodbye and left me alone." -Park Mi-Ran

Alone-ness seems to be a societal fear, here. Several of my co-workers (male and female) have expressed to me their desire to find a husband/wife so that they will never have to live by themselves. Most of my unmarried co-workers still live with their parents, and will likely continue to do so until they get married. This is a desirable situation to most of them. "I don't want to live alone," they say, and their earnestness is tangible.