18 THURSDAY
JANUARY 17, 2008
Expat living is a page dedicated
to the issues that affect foreigners'
daily lives. It is your page,
where you can share stories about
your life in Korea. Send story
ideas to Matthew Lamers
at mattlamers@heraldm.com
Looking for live music? Get
down to one of Hongdae’s small,
dank live venues and watch
some seriously interesting
bands from a variety of genres.
The GMC Records New Year
Fest 2008 show with eight qual-
ity hardcore bands on the line-
up was fantastic. While each
band drew its influence from
hardcore and metal, they all
had something unique to offer.
The venue, Liveclub Ssam, is
not far from Hongik University.
Upon entering, you are riveted
to the lime-colored walls as you
head down into the basement
where the stage is. The walls
are sound-insulated; two large
rope-wrapped pillars tower
down the center; and the not-
too-small stage can be clearly
seen from most parts of the
room. This venue has a decent
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4. The Road
Cormac McCarthy
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5. Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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Box set $22.50
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Trade paper $14.99
10.World Without End
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Hard cover $35.00
What The Book ships anywhere in Korea. See its website at www.whatthebook.com
In next Tuesday’s Expat Living
- Paul Kerry on dealing with depression
- Lairam Vapual on migrant worker issues
- Lucy McDowall on law
Richard Doherty
on Live Music
PA, and is rigged with an excel-
lent lighting system. The sound
and lighting staff make good use
of the facilities, helping to show-
case the bands to their fullest.
The crowd was an interesting
mix, with a group of young
teenagers at the front of the
stage, a group of boys wearing
cute animal outfits in the center,
and the slightly older folks
hanging back a bit, or sitting in
the few seats at the back of the
room.
The first band, Apop, was the
youngest and most attractive-
looking of all the bands, and, as
their name suggests, they
worked pop into their hardcore
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6. The Secret
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Richard Dawkins
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Albert Gore, Jr.
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10.The Age of Turbulence
Alan Greenspan
Hard cover $35.00
COMMUNITY
Dank venues
and rock’n’roll
sounds. Their emotional hard-
core style was easily the most
accessible and catchy of the
night. They set the atmosphere,
and younger people were soon
jumping around.
The next band, Ninesin, had a
similar set-up, but with the ad-
dition of a DJ adding effects.
Their energetic front man made
full use of the stage, while the
band played solidly throughout
their set. Their energetic perfor-
mance got a positive reaction
from the crowd.
Next up were Knockdown,
which has elements of death
metal, as well as hardcore.
Their deep, low vocals cut
through the crowd. When the
rather large and cocky looking
front man talked to audience,
impolite Korean and foul lan-
guage flowed out of his mouth,
Dorothy Nam: radio host, teacher, CEO
One thing you notice when you
speak to Dorothy Nam is her out-
going personality. Her character
is further emphasized by a cheer-
ful disposition and broad smile,
which makes her a pleasure to
have a conversation with.
Dorothy has been in the Korean
broadcasting scene for years.
Moving to Korea in 1996, she has
spent a substantial amount of
time finding her place in Korean
society. As someone who was
raised in the United States since
she was three years old, she has
managed to integrate back into
Korean society, and to do it with
a lot of success.
Her most recent project is the
“Evening Groove,” which airs on
Arirang Radio daily from 8 p.m.
to 10 p.m. The show deals with
what’s hot in general, touching on
what’s happening in food, cul-
ture, customs and various trendy
spots in Korea. She has quite a
few interesting co-hosts on the
show, too. They range from a
Websites to help make your life easier
In the early months of 1993,
the world saw the beginning
of a revolutionary change. A
web browser, dubbed Mosaic,
became popular enough to at-
tract 1s and 0s from all over
the world. By 2000, millions of
people, some of them removed
by tens of thousands of kilo-
meters, were interacting on-
line. Nowadays, anyone with
access to a computer and an
internet connection can read,
shop, listen, watch, message
and, to the detriment of civil
discourse everywhere, debate
online. The internet has be-
come pervasive. It affects
every facet of our lives. It has
changed the way we do busi-
ness and even the way we con-
duct our social relationships.
It has transformed language,
as evidenced by the selection
and his words were clearly
heard. Soon, the boys wearing
animal costumes surged for-
ward with their arms swinging,
and merged into the group gath-
ered at the front, creating a
huge mosh-pit. This continued
for the rest of Samchung’s tight
and well-played set.
Finishing the first half of the
night was Maze, a five-piece
group featuring the only female
performer of the night. Maze
blazed through their set with
tight riffs and a decent range of
vocal noises; their set ended
with a roar of cheers from every-
one.
Samchung kicked off the sec-
ond half of the night. Their five-
man line-up laid down a variety
of riffs, and the dual vocals
added some extra variety. Their
songs were on the epic side at
Regina Walton’s
Expat Interviews
Berkley School of Music graduate
to a popular comedian from the
“Gag Concert” TV show.
Dorothy is a hard-working
celebrity and has many projects
on the go. Her newest is a radio
show that began on Jan. 14
called “Seoul of Asia.” It will air
on the Traffic Broadcasting
System, Monday through
Friday from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
The show’s focus will be on en-
tertaining and informing the
foreign population. It will have
music and information about
events in Korea. Listeners will
be able to tune in using digital
radio.
When she first arrived in
Korea, she taught in Daejeon at
Woo Song University. It was
while working there that she
was encouraged to audition for a
Andrew Fincham
on the Information Age
of “blogger” and “to google” as
the Oxford English Dicti-
onary’s words of the year, in
1998 and 1999, respectively.
The tremors from this impact
can be felt worldwide, and
nowhere more so than Korea.
With the 29.1 broadband sub-
scribers per 100 households,
Korea is the most connected
country in Asia and the 4th
most connected country in the
world. As expats living in
Korea, this gives us a unique
viewpoint on the unfolding
Information Age. Over the
next weeks and months, this
space will discuss social issues
germane to this unfolding,
times, but were graced with
some excellent guitar solos.
Sixth on the bill was Captain
Bootbois, whose hardcore sound
was layered with melodic tunes
from the oddest looking guitar.
The positive-sounding nature of
their songs begged you to sing
along, and that we did.
The next band, 13 Steps, hail-
ing from Jeonju, were my most
eagerly anticipated act of the
night. I had first heard them
back in Wales, but tonight was
my first chance to catch them
live. They didn’t disappoint,
with more stage dives than you
can shake a pointed finger at;
the crowd exploded. Their short
songs draw you in, and, before
you know it, they end the set,
leaving you begging for more.
Finally, Vassline took to the
stage and carried on where 13
television show on the
Educational Broadcasting
System. Years later, when I met
her, she was working at EBS
while simultaneously teaching
English courses at Hongik
University in Seoul. As the
years have passed, her activities
have gotten more impressive.
She is now affiliated with Paik
Studios, the group that man-
ages media relations for Korean
artist Paik Nam-june’s works.
She is also CEO of her own me-
dia company, Dorothy Inc.
Both her length of time here
and success make Dorothy a
great source of information on
how to hit the ground running
when you move to Korea as an
expatriate. Because of her pro-
fessional success, she can offer
some great advice to foreigners
living in Korea and Kyopos. She
smiled and immediately out-
lined her advice. “There are
three things, basically.”
First, master cultural
and will draw attention to
some of the fun and useful
things to be found on the in-
ternet.
We’ll start this week with
some essentials:
Tour2Korea (www.english.
tour2korea.com): Without a
doubt, the most useful site
pertaining to Korea on the in-
ternet. The Korea Tourism
Organization has put together
an excellent resource for
tourists and residents alike.
There’s a wealth of informa-
tion and interactive bus and
subway maps. Both of these of-
fer suggestions on the fastest
way to reach your destination,
and they provide travel times
and expected fare. The bus
map’s search function is an
ideal tool for finding land-
marks around town, or plan-
Photo by Richard Doherty
Steps left off. Playing hardcore
with a large range of sounds,
their energetic vocals made
them the crowd’s favorite. Some
dedicated fans sang along with
the vocalist, and everyone else
exploded in a frenzy. It was a
high-energy and satisfying end
to the evening.
Korea’s hardcore scene is
loud, aggressive, and has a
great sense of community — ex-
actly as it should be. The bands
promoted each other and gave
informal lectures on how we can
support the scene. Judging by
the quality of this night, I’ll def-
initely be getting down to more
shows.
Richard can be reached
through his blog at
http://dorty.reptaro.net — Ed.
niceties: Learn the greetings
and how to say goodbye, when
to stand or bow, and how to say
“thank you” in Korean. Also, she
said “learn to like the food, be-
cause a lot of the social things
happen with food here.”
Most importantly, show re-
spect to people older than you
and to people who have been in
your profession longer than you.
The senior-junior social hierar-
chy is everywhere in Korean so-
ciety. It’s essential to recognize
that social balance is important,
even if you might not agree with
it. Therefore, show the respect
due to someone who would be
considered your “senior.”
“The faster you do that, the
faster you’ll blend in. The longer
you hold out, the longer you’ll be
kept away from your goal.”
Regina can be reached
through her blog at http://ex-
patjane.blogspot.com — Ed.
ning travel routes.
The Korea Meteorological
Administration (www.kma.go.kr):
The KMA offers information
enough to sate even those harbor-
ing the most rabid meteorological
tendencies. If you’re planning a
trip, be it to the park next door or
across the country, the forecast
you need is readily available, cour-
tesy of the KMA. The KMA pro-
vides weather resources other
than run-of-the-mill short-term
and long-term Korean forecasts.
They offer long-term climate infor-
mation; monitor the level of Yellow
Sand in the atmosphere; and pro-
vide earthquake notices, satellite
imagery, and lightning informa-
tion.
Andrew can be reached at
afincham@gmail.com — Ed.
SeoulSteves.com’s
top events
for this week
Current Events
The Seoul Global Center will be
opening next Wednesday, Jan.
23. If you are interested in at-
tending the opening ceremony at
2:30 p.m., write to njj0772@
sba.seoul.kr.
Live Music
Catch the opening weekend of
42nd Street — it’s the Broadway
cast, too, so it’ll be in English. For
more information see www.
ntok.go.kr/eng.
Club DGBG in Hongdae is host-
ing the band Crying Nut this
Saturday, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Volunteer
The Lonely Lifetime expat annual
rescue group is sponsoring on-
going weekly trips to a Daejeon
animal shelter, which is being
forced to close. For more infor-
mation, see LonelyLifetime.com.
Efforts to clean up the oil spill in
Taean are ongoing. For more in-
formation, see www.iguidekorea.
com/taeanoilspill.html.
Community Events
The Arirang International
Taekwondo club meets every
Saturday and Sunday from 4:30
to 8:30 p.m. near Konkuk
University. For more information,
contact tm3ym@hotmail.com or
010-3078-1433.
Continuing Education
Itaewon’s Well Being Shop regu-
larly holds classes on topics from
Yoga to Photoshop. They will hold
a candle-making class this
Saturday at 1 p.m. For more infor-
mation, visit www.wellbeingshop.
org.
You Can Dance in Itaewon is
having an open West Coast
Swing class this Saturday from
3:30 to 5:00 p.m. For more infor-
mation, contact (02) 749-3262;
youcandancekorea@gmail.com;
www.youcandancekorea.com
World-renowned cigar educator
Willy Alvero will be conducting
an exclusive educational semi-
nar on Tuesday Jan. 22 at 7:30
p.m. at Villa Sortino in Itaewon.
The cost is 120,000 won and
covers the class, full course
Italian dinner, a few drinks, and
two cigars. RSVP to seoulciga-
raficionadosociety@gmail.com.
Seating is limited.
Sport & Excercise
The holiday
season is
over, but the
Hi Seoul
Lucevista
(the lighting
display and
ice rink in
front of
Seoul City Hall) continues until
Feb. 10. from Monday-Thursday
10 a.m. - 10 p.m., Weekends and
holidays 10 a.m. - 11 p.m.The cost
is 1,000 won per hour on the rink.
Catch some basketball action as
the Samsung Thunders take on
the KT&G Kites at Jamsil Arena.
Tip-off is at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Hotel & Travel
Get away from it all without leav-
ing Seoul by spending the night
at the Park Hyatt hotel, which is
currently offering a special “Park
with BMW” package, which in-
cludes test-driving your choice of
one of three recent BMW mod-
els. Guests can also attend a free
cocktail class and have full use of
gym and sauna facilities.
Packages start at 480,000 won.
(02) 2016-1234 or (02) 2016-
1100 for reservations.
The Royal Asiatic Society is
sponsoring a romantic train ride
through Korea’s snowy country-
side this Sunday. The tour lasts
about 12 hours, and includes a
couple of stops. For more infor-
mation, see www.raskb.com
To submit your events for publication on
SeoulSteves.com and possibly be fea-
tured in the Korea Herald, visit
SeoulSteves.com/submit — Ed.