♫: dolly parton - jolene (1974)

train keeps on a'rollin. its like kinetic energy on a frictionless plain. i can't stop this thing. content is just spewing from my fingertips like strained peas from a babies mouth (or bottom if we want to get really graphic, but let's not).

this is another music post long-time-coming. i fell in love with this song a little out of nowhere. shortly after it found a way into my karaoke rotation and for a few weeks in new york i think i drove my roommates insane listening to it and its various covers. i think i have a knack for attaching myself to songs whose protagonists are pitiful sad-sacks longing for something just out reach. and i guess this is the point where i wonder - "perhaps this suggests something about my own fragile place in this world? am i really the sad-sack? am i pitiful? am i always wanting what i can't have?" well i'm not going to give you the satisfaction of answering those questions. instead, i'm going to talk about this song.

the song's marching rhythm lends it something close to aggression towards the titular character, although you get the feeling that its a ferocity built out of fear rather than strength, like a cat backed into a corner. it's a far cry from the independent-woman-feminism of 9 to 5 parton. what i respond to most in "jolene" is the simplicity of the song's composition - a guitar, some drums and parton's vocals attached to a really fantastic melody. and the lyrics. again, nothing fancy, just a plea given in simple language ("and i can easily understand how you could easily take my man, but you don't know what he means to me, jolene").

do i get weird looks as i sing about losing my man to a more beautiful woman in the karaoke room? yes, obviously. but i don't care because i know there's at least one other person in the room who feels the same way i do when i hear this song. one person who can feel happiness slipping through their fingers as it crawls into someone else's. we all know that feeling. besides, i just really like singing it.

let's play with english

as i alluded to in my last post, all last week we had an english language experience (entitled, "let's play with english"), which meant all the classes had to try and introduce english into their lessons and we threw a big halloween party for every grade. i was responsible for helping the teachers create halloween themed games and activities for their classrooms and hosting the halloween party (with its own set of games and activities). this would have been fine if it was just for a day or two, but 5 straight days of halloween parties (1 party for each class in each grade, so 6 grades...that makes around...20 parties!) turned me into a teaching zombie. if there's an up-side at least it was appropriate for the lesson topic.

the main activity was a trick-or-treat game which loaded the kids up on candy (really it was only around 5 pieces each, but to them that's a lot), so regardless of whether they actually learned anything i think they had fun. but there were a few other games as well, such as a mummy wrap, a spider-web word game, and a zombie rock, paper, scissors game. most of the pictures are from the mummy wrap which involved only the first and second graders. they're the most photogenic of the bunch anyways.

and boom goes the dynamite

and once again i'm playing catch-up. where does the time go? well i'll tell you where the time goes - it goes into planning week long english learning experiences with a halloween theme, it goes into hours and hours of volunteer freelance design work for local foreigner publications, it goes into taking little cat naps here and there because i'm up until 2am working on things. and of course all that shit hits the fan at once, which as i'm sure you can imagine (imagine it! imagine that shit hitting the fan!), causes a real mess.

but that's all in the past now and i finally have a little time to fill you, my loyal readership whom i adore, whom i've neglected so cruelly, in on the various comings and goings in southern korea. i think calling it southern korea gives it a little more charm, like its a little folksy all the sudden. and thats the feeling i get from south (i mean southern) korea: folksy charm. moving right along...

two weekends ago i went to the busan international fireworks festival in...wow, you guessed it! busan! busan is on the southern tip of the country and in addition to being the second largest city it is the major shipping port of south korea. and now you know a little more about the friendlier korea. the busan international fireworks festival is supposedly the largest fireworks show in all of asia, which is boasting a lot since fireworks were pretty much conceived over here in the far east. the show lasts three days and is shot off the coast of gwangalli beach; a pretty unimpressive beach as far as beach standards go, but the neon city lights that surround the sandy coast and the large bridge that cuts through the bay make for a surreal coastal experience. it's pretty in the way that blade runner is.

generally speaking i'm not much for fireworks. maybe its the webn labor day crowds that rub me the wrong way (literally if i'm really unlucky), or maybe its the repetition of seeing the same arrangements and hearing the same songs every year? so i guess i went in with low expectations. we arrived at the beach around 4pm to get a good seat (the show didnt start until 9 but the crowds are pretty infamous) which turned out to be front row right in the sand. we had a little picnic and waited out the day as the people slowly but surely trickled in. and then piled in. and then crammed in. and then it was a massive ocean of bodies, impossible to move anywhere, our 3 spread out blankets were our home. the theme of the fireworks (maybe it changes every year or maybe it stays the same, i'm not sure) was continents of the world. the show was divided into segments, each segment representing a different continent. long story short, the fireworks were amazing. breath-taking even. i may be prone to hyperbole now and then but i actually had goosebumps. i felt choked up at times. the european section was particularly beautiful. golden explosions filled the sky in unison with the "1812 overture." darts of light sprayed out in perfect harmony with the strings of violins. the finale, an ode to busan itself, had the entire night sky so full of phosphorescent light that it completely blocked out the darkness. i took a video on my phone of the first 5 minutes or so - obviously not the best part but it shows the bridge over the bay and the lights and the fireworks and how they all worked together. enjoy. (next up: pictures from the halloween party aka. adorable kids wrapped in toilet paper and a not so adorable me)