Saturday, July 18, 2009

a reality shaker

tom

This is tom pfaeffle. he was an audio engineer who toured with and recorded a number of albums from artists you certainly know and probably love. he was also an instructor at the art institute of seattle, where he was my portfolio advisor. I chose him because was the hardest, more no-nonsense guy there and I knew that if my work met his approval I had achieved something. tom opened a studio a few years back where I recorded an album with the band I was then playing with. I occasionally crossed paths with tom after, as the audio industry is a very small world.

today I found out that, while on vacation with his wife in eastern washington, he was shot dead. he mistakenly tried to open the wrong door with his room key and the guy inside (who must have been expecting trouble) fired two shots through the door, then opened the door to fire a third. all of this was right in front of tom’s wife. they got him to the hospital, where he died from the wounds.

tom had a lot of kids (the total count of which I lost track of at some point), and was the primary bread winner for his family.

I have managed to keep this blog expletive free up to this point, but this is just too fucking senseless. 

mudfest

yesterday some coworkers and I went to daechon to mudfest. this is a festival dedicated to, you guessed it, mud. daechon is a coastal city with a really nice beach, which once a year sets up all kinds of muddy games and activities. there are pools of mud which you can submerge yourself in, mud painting stations, mud cannons, and a mudslides. the weather was warm, although a bit windy, so people wandered around in their swimsuits, caked in mud. once you were tired you then either went into rinsing areas or just jumped in the sea.

we all had a lot of fun, and despite the cloud cover, I got quite a bit of sun. on a side note, there was a stage there which had cover bands playing and hanging from the stage were two mccauley sound mla3 arrays (for those that don’t know, I worked for mccauley sound for the last six years). it seems you can run but you can’t hide!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

comics, sweet comics

I was feeling a bit low when out of the blue a care package arrived from my comic book store in the states (atomic comics, in tacoma. I’ve been to bigger shops but not better ones). only getting comics once a month (or two months as this period has been) really makes one appreciate them. I spent the last two and a half hours ripping through a stack of them. now I must wait another month…

Sunday, July 12, 2009

another seoul weekend

some fellow teachers and I went to seoul this weekend. the goal of this outing was to go on a palace tour and to eat our body weights in western food. both of these missions were accomplished.

we went to changdeokgung, a chosun palace. we took an english guided tour. during the course of the tour we took in some of the palace’s 110 acres of buildings and gardens in addition to hearing of the seemingly countless number of times that the palace had burned to the ground. it seems that korean palace builders had a knack for beautiful structures and tranquil gardens while lacking in the fire management skills.

my camera was shipped to me a month back and I haven’t taken it out since, so this was a great chance to put it to use.

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additionally, I made a pilgrimage to a massive musical instrument complex in insadong. I had heard that this place had everything, and if this was true, I hoped to buy a guitar. it turns out that they do have many things, but none of any merit. the products there were either incredibly cheap knock-offs of american guitars or actual american guitars that cost more than their purchasing price in a america + shipping expense. I am pretty certain that I am going to buy a guitar from a japanese shop and have it sent over.

my rock lottery group has met once now, having figured out what everyone can play (we lucked out and got a bassist, drummer, singer and guitarist) and what kinds of songs we would like to play. we are going to meet sometime this week to hammer out a set list, then begin working on getting a set together. apparently there are rock band karaoke rooms here in town, where a group of musicians can go and play with provided equipment, so this should work pretty well for our rehearsals.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

hiking

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I finally went hiking on saturday. koreans do tons and tons of hiking and its an essential experience for one living in korea. I was taken by a couple of korean folks that I have met who wanted to show me around a bit. the contrast between the city and country here is amazing. the above pictured piece of serenity is only an hour or so outside of the city. its easy to see why koreans appreciate the escape this provides, as the bustling cities bombard the senses and just a few hours out here can go a long way to recharging ones batteries.