I've been on the receiving end of some gentle chiding recently on the old 'last gig ever' front. My first 'last ever gig' in Korea was in.... December 2007, or thereabouts. Yep - that's more than three-and-a-half years ago... Then there was our 'last-ever' with John and Kev, 'last-ever' with Jim, 'last-ever' UR Seoul, 'last-ever' Dead End Friends, 'last-ever' random gig, 'last-ever' at this/that venue... you get the picture. Of course, an element of it is trying to twist people's arm to come out. The whole 'pushing' part of being in bands is often pretty annoying (for you and me both!), but most of the time people seem to have fun, so I feel good about it more often than I feel bad. The real crux of the matter, though, is that I honestly never know that this or that gig won't actually end up being my last gig! I didn't really have any intention of returning to live in Korea when I left for South America in 2007 (I had been planning China as my next step, just as I am now). We had no idea how we could cope with the departures of Kev, John and Jim, before we were lucky enough to link up with other musicians who enabled us to keep the whole experience going that little bit longer...
I think the same can be said for any of us, in anything we do. I doubt FC Seoul's Ou Gyoung Jun had much of an idea that he was more than likely playing his last-ever game of professional football, as he started in our 1-0 League Cup defeat away to Gyeongnam on June 29th - although he may have had an inkling... I'm not going to go down morbid alley on a Friday night but we never know when we wake up in the morning whether or not this could be the last day in which we take a walk in our favourite park, listen to or favourite song, hold our favourite person's hand, or sing some of the best songs ever written with awesome musicians and wiggle around in front of an unsuspecting public!
This gig at Club FF tomorrow night will almost certainly be my last in Korea. Yes, of course it's not impossible that I might link up with someone in a future weekend trip to Seoul from Nanjing. Yes, I might end up hating my life in China and be back in a few months with my tail between my legs. Who knows? Still, the way I see it, I'm going to go into anything I love doing, with the thought that it just might be my last chance, and try to squeeze every last ounce of enjoyment out of the experience. If I don't see you at my latest 'last-gig', I'll see you a the next one...
It's been a bit busy recently with probably going out and doing too much, keeping up with work and my dissertation, but not really enough being sensible at all. We finished another DDE session on Tuesday night so I have a fairly quiet rest of the week - time to get plenty of that dissertation done before the research methods exam on June 1st. Confusingly, it's worth 60% of my final dissertation mark, so I'm sure 'the fear' will kick in soon.
Doing lots of reminiscing recently because Jim, another of my best friends in Korea (as well as our drummer), is leaving at the end of the month. We had our final FF gig together last Saturday, a venue that really means a lot to us (mainly as U R Seoul) over the years. I was there on my very first night out in Korea in December 2006 with Rob - yet another ROK hopper! I remember thinking how much I'd love to rock that stage, and we're really lucky in that we've been fortunate enough to have done so many times over the years. I hope I get another chance, but obviously it'll never be quite the same.
Other blasts from the past these days: great emails from Gallagher and Risky; a wedding invitation from Roisin (August 13th - Ill be there!); coming across loads of cards from Ji I had almost forgotten about; lunch with my old Korean teacher; and a Korean FA Cup match tonight against Yongin reminding me of being there this time last year (or longer?) scraping a win over 'a little town called Mokpo' with Rob. Will be in China before I know it. Better prepare myself!
Off to World Cup Stadium for Seoul V Yongin (FA Cup 3rd round), so this is short n' sweet today. Great win for the boys at the weekend over Gyeongnam (Dejan, Ko Yo Han(2)) putting us up to 7th in the K-League and continuing Choi Young Soo's undefeated reign as caretaker manager so far. Get in!
Alright I haven't blogged all week and I'm forcing myself to now even though I don't have any idea what I'm going to say. This has been one of those weeks where I just couldn't really have been bothered to do very much of anything at all. In saying that, I have somehow managed not to really fall behind on anything (other than this blog - but nothing important!). Monday was... Monday. Tuesday was a second Monday as we headed out for Tommy's birthday the night before. Wednesday was a third Monday because I'm old and it takes me an incredibly long time to get over the weekend, never mind adding an extra night on Monday! I have just about returned to normality today, hence my feeble attempt at giving you an update.
Alright here goes - long and very tiring Saturday. Volunteering at Yongsan International School of Seoul as a judge for their debating competition. Heading over to Hongdae for rehearsal. Managing to keep the energy levels up (drinking Guinness and watching footie at Gerry's takes it out of you). Really really fun gig at FF. High-energy, tight performance, great crowd. It was up there with the good old U R Seoul days, but not quite just yet...
Ok I think it's clear my heart isn't in it today. Could be something to do with the fact that my youngest sister is celebrating her seventeenth birthday. I'm not quite sure how that has happened. I actually remember the day she was born because my Dad, bizarrely, took me out of school early before driving to Letterkenny at about 100 the whole way (exaggeration alert) in the vain hope of being there on time to welcome her into the world. We didn't get there on time (thankfully) but I saw her at only a few minutes old. Obviously I'm very proud of the beautiful, talented, warmhearted young woman she's turning out to be. I can't claim that there isn't a fair dollop of guilt at the recent years of her life that I have effectively missed out on. I'll be glad to get home for a couple of weeks soon, I can tell you that for sure.
I had been hoping to add a video from our FF gig last Saturday but, low and behold, I can't figure out how to. Let me get back to you on that one. Hope you're having a good week and feeling more inspired than I am. I'll try my best to be more interesting tomorrow. No promises...
I was going over a few old music-related articles I have kicking around my place in the hope of finding inspiration for a REALLY good band name and came across something I used to be quite interested in. I remember reading about Malcolm Gladwell's book 'The Outliers' a couple of years ago that expanded upon the notion that it takes 10,000 hours practice in some certain area to become an 'expert'. It struck me at the time that it was encouraging to think that if I wanted to become say, a skilled guitarist, the only thing that stood in my way was a sustained period of hard graft. Another author I found interesting was Daniel Levitin and his book 'This is Your Brain on Music' which argued (what I had long believed) that musical talent isn't merely innate, but is something that can be significantly improved through targeted and appropriate practice. Great musicians aren't simply born, they have had to put a lot of work into their art. The Beatles and even Stevie Wonder are held up as examples. It also aims to explain why people are attracted to musicians, something I have to be thankful for over the years! Although Levitin is one of those 'pop theorists' that garner a lot of media attention these days by providing quick, easy-to-understand assumed answers to tough questions, taken together, the two provide some thought-provoking concepts.
Think about the things in your life so far that you have spent 10,000 hours doing (keep it clean, Craig!). At 28, I'd need to have been doing these things for an average of an hour a day at least to reach that mark. Does that make me an 'expert' scholar, reader, conversationalist, listener, perhaps even singer? Obviously that's a huge simplification, something both Gladwell and Levitin have been accused of. Surely HOW you practice is as important as HOW LONG you do it for. Just think of those 30+ years experienced teachers you had at school who had simply been doing the wrong thing repeatedly for their entire career. I get the feeling I could continue to mess around on guitar or with my Korean for 10,000 hours the way I currently am without getting significantly better at either. It'd be nice to imagine some mental countdown we could perform for ourselves as we edge closer to expertise (whatever that is), but obviously it isn't quite as simple as that. As far as my band-name-hunting was concerned, the best I came up with was 'These Glorious Illusions' or 'The Dopamine Fiends' so I think 'Dead End Friends' is still the best suggestion on the table.
Not much longer to wait now until I get the chance to do a bit of showing off, ass-shaking, saying lame things over the mic and, of course, singing! For those of you in Seoul at the minute, we'll be playing at Woodstock in Itaewon tomorrow night (Friday, 22nd) from 11pm for about an hour. We just have 11 songs in mind for the set so I have been making sure I know them inside out. No matter, I'm sure I'll muddle something up on the night anyhow. Only a couple of weeks later we'll play our first 'full' gig at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon (Saturday, November 6th) and I'm going to start booking other gigs right up until New Year's Eve over the next week or so. It has taken us longer than we had hoped to get up and running since U R Seoul's final gig, but hopefully now we're finally back in the game. I certainly hope so. Without a gig, weekends feel a bit empty and pointless to me, if I'm being honest. That might be a bit sad, but things tend to feel very repetitive just going to the same places or doing essentially the same thing (drinking) in vaguely different places. It sometimes gets to the point where you can play too much, but having 2/3 shows a month to look forward to really keeps me in good form. Although it can be a bit guilt-inducing always bugging friends to come to shows, those big nights are genuinely fun all round and bring a wider circle of friends together in one place better than anything else I can think of here. Once we get a name finalised, I'll be setting up a facebook group to help promote gigs, share photos and videos, etc. Please join up and support our new venture.
Predictably, my week off work is absolutely flying by so I better get on and do a bit of work on my dissertation background reading, get ready for my Korean class at 2, go over these song lyrics a few more times, and maybe have one last stab at arranging things for the Korean Grand Prix this Sunday (my attendance looking more doubtful by the day). I had been hoping to write this blog last night, but personal circumstances dictated otherwise. Perhaps I'll go crazy and blog again later today.
Holy crap the weather is insane here today. I don't normally get bothered by thunderstorms but this one is unnerving me a little. I watched a huge bolt of lightning strike the building just opposite mine about half an hour ago and I'm sat on the top floor of mine in a room walled by mostly glass on one side... Safe...
More importantly than the precarious nature of my life, I had plans today! I was supposed to go cycling with Stephanie or, depending on the weather, hang out at least. We had to give up on that one. I'm also meant to go meet the boys after they finish playing screen golf (not quite up to that yet) for dinner but I'm not sure if that's going to happen either. The rain here is just like a blanket of water so, umbrella or no umbrella, you wind up getting drenched anyhow. The next time a Korean accuses Ireland of having bad weather I'm going to be less diplomatic than I usually am. Six more weeks and we'll be freezing our arses off for winter before an all-to-brief spring leads us back into a summer of sweltering heat. At least in Ireland, we know not to expect much...
Really fun weekend just passed. Friday night I somehow forced myself through the fatigue to head out with Thomas, Gerry (aka Tom and Gerry from Derry) and Jonny, another Ulsterman - nice to travel and meet new people, eh? Few drinks, pool, good music, bit of dancing on the wonky knee, lots of laughs - it was just what the doctor ordered -well, maybe not the dancing part. Someone actually told me I'm the WORST dancer they've ever seen, but I had my knee as an excuse. I'll show 'em! Saturday was productive (by my standards) because I met up with Ji, bought a second-hand bike and spent a couple of hours cycling the paths near where we both live. So, so nice and relaxing. We headed down to Hongdae for galbi with John, back visiting on a visa run for his new job in Mongolia. It was good to see him. His new adventures certainly fueled my growing desire to move on to pastures new...
Nice Sunday hanging out with John, bit of cycling (removing the tension built up by our 160 km/h on average taxi ride home last night...), bit of getting caught in the rain, bit of Man Utd V Liverpool. I'm not going to go on about football in this post (apparently I do so too much...) but it's amazing how easy it is getting to watch so much live sport live on your computer. Sites such as myp2p.eu show football, motorsport, cricket, rugby... nearly anything you'd like to watch is on there! It hasn't quite got to the point where I can watch Derry City FC in the comfort of my own home in South Korea yet, although I'm not sure that's a bad thing considering the results they've been having recently...
Working on Monday wasn't so bad. A lot more students showed up than I had expected but it was a pretty laid-back atmosphere with the holidays coming up. It was actually nice to have the opportunity to work with a smaller group of students and get to know them all a little better. I only see my General English girls once a week and I have nearly a hundred of them in total so that's not easy. I also got a W200,000 Chuseok bonus from my Uni, so I'm les inclined to moan about them than usual... What can I say, I'm cheap! After classes I met Ji and we cycled out of the city into a surrounding hiking trail and it was beautiful. I love living where I live. All the convenience of the city but the fresh air and ease on the eye of the countryside just a short cycle away. I love my bike... It's like being a teenager again!
After some confusion, we finally managed to arrange a rehearsal for late last night. It wasn't all plain sailing but we made a bit more progress and have another session booked for Saturday afternoon. It's all about building up some momentum at the minute. We might even arrange a short gig (maybe just one set) for Saturday October 2nd in Itaewon or Hongdae. Musically, it's all sounding good, but we're still a long way from the energy and atmosphere of U R Seoul. Maybe my best night with them (although Jim was out of the country so we had Craig covering on drums) was for the Seoul V The Beatles benefit in Freebird, Hongdae, the year before last I think it was. I'll leave you with a video taken from that night. Aaaah memories... Will I ever be in a band that fun again?...
Oh, technology has never been a friend of mine, I'm not going to lie. I'm the kind of person who gets an iPod when they're old news (got my first one in July - and didn't buy it to myself, of course), didn't have a mobile until I was 19 (a fair while after everyone else, a hand-down) and prefers to do things the way I know how to do them, rather than taking the small step of learning how to use something that could probably save me a fair bit of time. We all take the piss out of my Dad for refusing to embrace anything that has it's origins beyond the 90's, but I know I'm going to be the same. In saying that, technology is NOT all it's cracked up to be. Tom Hodgkinson in How to be Free, uses the example of the much-heralded dishwasher. Oh what a godsend! No more horrible washing dishes by hand! Instead, damaged dishes, cleaning the washer, buying detergent, less space in the kitchen, another thing to buy, another thing that can/will break down PLUS the fact that it doesn't clean the really horrible pots and pans anyhow.
His thoughts came back to me earlier, as I battled, unsuccessfully, with the projector in three of the classrooms in the language center here on the second floor (I live on the sixth, classes on the second, faculty office on the first. Confusing, I know...). I had put together a lovely (I hope) lesson based around thanksgiving, with Chuseok next week in mind. I prepared the TV show I'd need (a once-in-a-blue moon event in my classes), picked out the vocabulary to cover, made an activity to do so, wrote up some comprehension questions and an activity to identify the speaker in a selection of quotes. I selected some discussion topics that I could get the students to expand upon if time allowed. Easy! All I had to do was check that I could get the episode I needed from my laptop onto the projector with sound. What could go wrong? I've used it so many times before, it was just a matter of being sure (to be sure). Right? Wrong. An hour and a half I spent plugging in sockets, untangling wires, trying different rooms, different laptops, doing things in a different order before I swallowed my pride and asked for help. Unfortunately, (or, secretly, I was glad as I could deflect the blame onto someone else) she (one of the girls from the office) couldn't work it out either. I'm sure we'll find a way round it before I need it (7.30am tomorrow morning), but my war with technology rages on regardless.
Other than that, it has been a nice, productive day (so far). Eight hours of sleep last night. What a luxury! With enough sleep I'm a slightly moody but manageable person; without sleep I can be a negative, self-immersed, grumpy little shit. Aside from getting my lessons prepped for tomorrow (but not yet for tonight, as is my logic), I made it over to the gym and did a bit of cycling to start building my leg muscles up again, as advised. So far, no pain, although I'm sure that won't be the case in the morning. The gym here is a funny experience. One of the perks of the job is free use of the Uni gym abut 2 minutes around the corner. The strange part is that it consists almost entirely of females. Hmm.
We might even be finally sorting out some rehearsal time with the band for next Monday. It has been so frustrating not being able to get it off the ground, but maybe this, our latest new dawn, will create some momentum. With John coming this weekend, I've been thinking a lot about how much fun the U R Seoul days were. I even searched for us on youtube and found this old video that I didn't even know existed. Having a band to look forward to on the weekends, you just can't beat it. Cross your fingers for me (and Jim, equally eager to get back on the road again). The quality isn't good, and that's not our regular drummer, but it brings the memories back...
There were other things I had intended to write about today but time waits for no man and these lessons aren't going to create themselves. Thank you for your recent comments be they public, private, online, or in person. Keep letting me know what you think, what you like, what you don't like, etc. If you have a few spare moments today I recommend that you check out Matt's blog because he has been dealing with facebook updates, something I often chuckle about myself. I'm not expecting to be too busy tomorrow so I'll tie up those loose ends I mentioned before the weekend. I hope you're all doing well, wherever you are.
Be warned: I'm still a bit grumpy and off-colour BUT I had a brief respite when my new band (as yet unnamed - suggestions still welcome!) played not just our first but our first AND SECOND gigs last Friday night. We rehearsed in Hongdae (in a really psychedelic, chilled out rehearsal space) then decided over chicken and beer that we were ready for our first show. Aren't all the best decisions made over chicken and beer? A few texts later and we were playing our first ever gig at Club FF. It was an almost entirely Korean crowd, which isn't the norm for me here in Korea strangely enough. Nonetheless we had them up and dancing within a couple of songs. I even managed to wiggle about a bit in spite of my splint. Onstage chemistry seemed good. The guys are brilliant musicians. They really are.
Drunk on the atmosphere, we decided to taxi ourselves over to Itaewon and play a second impromptu show at Woodstock in Itaewon. A few of our friends were there (only my girlfriend made it over to FF given the short notice - she wouldn't have missed it) and there was a decent crowd even though it was very late on a Friday night. Given that we finished our set just before 4am, I can't say with any certainty how great/otherwise we were. Still, it was fun and we got plenty of good feedback. It all augurs well for the future. Jim flew back to England the very next day. What a trooper. Come back soon buddy. I had missed it so much. There is no better feeling. Ok, well, maybe I wouldn't go that far...
We headed out again on Saturday night and it was fun. Spent most of Sunday chilling out with Ji. Back into the routine of teaching and so on since then. My form hasn't been good but I won't bore you with that (again). Off to watch FC Seoul in their big Posco Cup semi-final against arch-rivals Suwon Bluewings tonight with a few friends. Good win away last weekend against Gwangju Sangmu. Ha Dae Sung scored a scorcher (his sixth of the season) and it was good to see Jung Jo Gook add a quality second. Check out the highlights here. Couple of key players returning to fitness (including Kim Chi Woo, who I'm a big fan of) so it'd be great to get into a final and push on from there.
Back to the hospital again tomorrow. Say a prayer, cross your fingers, sacrifice a cow, do whatever you think might result in me getting unexpectedly good news. There's a video from one of our shows so I promise to get that up soon with some pictures (the picture above is from an old gig with U R Seoul). I'll write more when I'm less likely to sound like a self-obsessed bore. Perish the thought! I hope you're all well.
I'm a 28-year-old teacher from Ireland living in Seoul, South Korea.
I'm planning to blog about my interests in education, politics, football, music as well as life in general...
