The always AMAZING creatively tickling SOKO Zine is available to download HERE Current issue #03 is fab!

Made by the talented Pogo, a boutique design studio based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

:: JUSTIN

am loving this little lady! sooooo adorable. Thanks to Hilary for introducing me to her.

do not read too much into the song. tad extreme and dramatic! ha! 

Soko

SoKo est une jeune artiste que je trimbale depuis pas mal de temps maintenant dans mon jolie petit ipod. Elle m’accompagne un peu partout où je vais, c’est un vrai régale d’ambiancer les scènes de notre vie quotidienne avec cette musique. Impossible d’imaginer qu’elle ne puisse plus faire partie de ma playlist Pop/Folk cela serai inconcevable pour moi. Vu que je suis très partageur et super généreux, je ne pouvais m’empêcher de vous la présenter. Je l’ai découvert avec le titre “I’ll kill her“, sans doute le plus connu d’ailleurs, morceau racontant l’histoire d’une jeune fille qui se monte un délire paranoïaque à propos de son mec qui devait l’appeler et que finalement non. Alors elle s’imagine le pire : que ce n’est pas quelqu’un de fidèle. Blondasse, jalousie, et haine sont aux rendez-vous. Paru en 2007, Not Sokute est son premier album à son actif. Je vous conseille vivement et chaudement d’écouter les morceaux suivants : I’ll kill her, Shitty Day et Take My Heart.

SoKo – I’ll kill her

En unos días podremos disfrutar del segundo número de TheCircleMagazine pero mientras tanto aquí teneis uno de mis ultimos descubrimientos. Me encantan sus editoriales!!!

In a few days we will enjoy the second number of TheCircleMagazine but meanwhile here you have one of my last discoveries. I love his publishing houses!!!

Podeis descargarla aquí ** You can unload it here

I went for a walk on Monday up the hill behind my apartment and this is what I saw.  I amazed at the color, how clean the air was and how few people there were.  I was also reminded yet again that I’m in a country that’s still at war with its neighbor.  I photographed one of several fox holes spread out around the hill, this one is concealed by a fold in the ridge and has clear lines on the slope bellow it.  I also snapped a picture of the remains of a barbed wire barrier, with concrete posts running around most of the slope.  Further up the hill is a spot where a helicopter can land, and the footings of an old observation post.  I’ve experienced this before and it’s always makes me thankful that the U.S. has never seen a conflict like the Korean War.  I’m currently living in a city that was flattened by back-to-back wars, something that cannot be undone and that has left its mark.  Things with NoKo remain on the rocks, there was a naval skirmish a few days ago, but Koreans’ remain optimistic…

~Dickie

Me impresiona la capacidad que tiene algunas personas para crear animaciones, en este caso Joerg Barton utilizó Cinema 4D, 3D animation y After Effects para llegar a la increíble animación que ven al principio. Hace mucho tiempo que no veía un trabajo que me maravillara tanto como este además la canción se taladró en mi cerebro y no la puedo dejar de escuchar.

Yes!  November marks the happy passage of my second year of blogging.  Mostly I’ve written little nothings about life and whatever, with this Korea blog being a major exception, and it’s been a fun thing to do.  My original post can be found here, it does a good job of setting the stage.  From there most of the posts are vague and short, but maybe that’s the point.

Anyway, lately I’ve been thinking about Christmas.  It’ll be so strange not being in California for the holiday.  I guess that’s maybe the hardest part about being so far away, the holidays.  Thanksgiving is coming up and I’ll be having dinner at a U.S. Army base, which provides anyone with a U.S. passport (and forty dollars) turkey and mashed potatoes.  It’s pretty spendy, but it’s worth it for such a satisfying reminder of home.  Still, Christmas is going to be a tough one (no Lost, no stockings, no NERF guns, no taking Jackie out to go to the bathroom).  Happily my old friend Garrett is making the long trek out here and he and I are going skiing Christmas Day, which will be a wonderful present for all the Korean’s who thought they’d be hitting the slopes in peace.  We’ve already bought American flag stickers to put on our helmets.  No that we’re going to show off or anything, WINK*

I read both of these things today and the timing couldn’t have been better:

From Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest, “If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all.  They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes places in the lives of others.”  That’s the truth and it makes tough times extremely practical!

From the book of James (1:12), “Blessed is the man who preservers under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.”

Have a great week!  If you’re looking for something to do, here’s Nick and here’s ALL The Office episodes commercial free and for free!  Oh, and some pictures of things that I like.

~Dickie

idag har jeg rett og slett stått opp på feil fot, og derfor er det ekstra deilig å ha fritime fra 10.20 til 12.40 hver eneste tirsdag. nå sitter jeg altså på hybelen og slapper av, hører på Patti Smith og skal sove. jeg veit jeg virker utrolig slapp nå, men jeg sto opp klokka syv og leste til historie prøva, og den gikk ræva uansett så nå unner jeg meg litt søvn altså. jeg har rett og slett en shitty dag idag.

etter mye mas fra vennina mi, Yngvild, legger jeg også ut bilder av meg med lesebrillene mine nå. følte meg litt bestemor når jeg skreiv orde lesebriller nå. i motsetning til min søte, fantastiske lillesøster ser jo jeg helt nerd ut med briller, og det kan da vel umulig stemme med min personlighet, eller? anywho, her er noen shitty bilder av meg med briller på min shitty dag. enjoy.

brille-etuiet mitt, ojoj Dolce & Gabbana, noen føler seg fancy nå asså;)

er litt tvilsom til å vise hele verden brilletrynet mitt..

fornøyd nå Yngvild?

her såg ikke nesa mi bare litt svær ut da?

og sånn var det altså, jeg ser ut som en biblotekar og panneluggen går hit og dit og i mente

today i woke up on the wrong foot, and i am therefore extra pleased with the fact that i have a free period every tuesday from 10.20 to 12.40. because of that joy am i currently located at my flat, relaxing, listening to Patti Smith and ready for a nap. i know i sound lazy when i write that i am going to sleep, but i woke up at seven this morning to read for my history test and i still blew it, so i feel entitled to a little nap right about now. today is pretty much a shitty day. and a bad-hairday too.

after a lot of nagging from my friend Yngvild have i finally uploaded some pictures of me wearing my reading glasses. and yes i did feel like a grandmother when i wrote the words reading glasses. apposed to my gorgeous baby sister, i look like a big nerd wearing my glasses, and that can´t be me, can it? anywho, here are the shitty pictures of me on my shitty day…

Well, I’ve entered the growing ranks of people who’ve had swine flu and I can report that it isn’t actually that bad.  Aside from having a nasty cold, all the doctors visits and tests have been the worst part by far.  I came down with symptoms on Wednesday and went to the hospital on Friday, where I saw several doctors, including one that gave me a rather painful nasal swab, which has to have been the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever sat through.  After that I was given TamiFlu, which functioned perfectly.  I had a fever of about 38.5° Celsius for a couple of hours and since it broke I’ve felt perfectly normal.  Weirdly normal, in fact I’m barely sick at all.  A lingering cough and an occasional headache are all that remain.  It’s been an odd experience, especially given the number of tests that were run on me, including a chest x-ray.  To feel so normal after having been so sick is a bit disconcerting, I keep waiting for the flu to kick in again.

Anyway, things here are great.  We celebrated Halloween with the kids, which was pretty hilarious.  The costumes ranged from Spider Man to Cinderella and just about everything in between.  I went dressed as a robot, which automatically made me a Transformer, and I had a good time chasing kids and meeting their parents.

I read this in Oswald Chambers book the other day “Beware lest you forget God’s purpose for your life.”  I think it’s very sensible advice.  Have a great week.

~Dickie

Post Script:  This is what I’ve been listening to at the moment: Digits, Going to Age.

I’m a bit late with posting my bento of Thursday October 22th: Sōkō Bentō.

In Japan certain days have special names to mark the changes in season. Sōkō 霜降, on October 23rd, is one of these 24 sekki: Frost Descent (the descent of temperature and appearance of frost). Well, Thursday was indeed cold. But we’ve actually had some night frost earlier in the month! Of course, I’m situated on the other side of the globe to Japan

Living in accordance to the seasons comes so naturally to Japanese / Asian people. I  really wish I had it in me too — which I experienced even more strongly when I read The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery, my favourite read of 2008! Unfortunately I don’t think it is something one could learn

Anyway, it’s obvious I got my date wrong… I thought I had read somewhere this year’s Sōkō was on the 22nd but I can’t retrace it. For people who are more well-informed about Japan than I am and believe I also got the name wrong: please let me know what you think Frost Descent is called! I actually came across several names and decided to rely on Wikipedia Others terms include Shousetsu (しょうせつ) and Shimo Ori.

Now, what’s the contents of bento #82?
Clockwise…

Upper tier
Salad of different types of lettuce, tomato and meikaas (‘May cheese’ a very young cheese of 1-7 days; it tastes a bit like halloumi), which is vegetarian because of its microbial rennet made of mushrooms. On top a watercress leaf and some parsley. Next to that a roasted orange squash dish with red onion and pepita’s (pumpkin seeds).

Lower tier
Sweet & spicy couscous with cinnamon and cranberries, sprinkled with some more parsley. Two un-sulphuretted apricots with an almond inside for the bite, a container of roasted almonds as couscous topping and some big capers.

Quite a lot of whites because of frost descend Pumpkin and apricot being fall products, some red berries heralding winter. Of course the young cheese is quite out of tune here, but it can be conceived as the pureness of cold nights & early frost. Likewise, the texture of couscous reminds me of snow or hoarfrost.

CSA (& organic): lettuce, tomato, pumpkin, parsley.
Organic: watercress, red onion, apricots.

This post is dedicated to elm@, who prefers my bento blogs to the bookish things I write about. I hope she’ll find this one satisfactory

Well, it has now been an exceedingly long time since me last post and I apologize for that.

As you can probably tell I’ve been suffering from writers block.  So, instead of pandering and not writing anything interesting, I’ve just made a huge gallery of various pictures.  Including:

1.  A recent trip to Hong Kong.  If I were going to visit Asia, I’d see HK before I saw SoKo.  It’s easier to get around and be a tourist.  There’s also more English spoken, and a 10 minute bus will take you to the Yellow Sea, which is totally swim-able.  On top of all that there are a plethora of interesting cars, including the BMW 325 Warsteiner clone, the 1973 Alfa Romeo Spider and the awesome Land Rover Defender Mk2.  Not that I’m boring or anything, I’m just really into cars.  There are also a couple of shots from around Honk Kong, including the obligatory Lotus flower picture.  All the Hong Kong pictures start with the letters “HK.”

2.  A couple of old Korean chaps from a few weeks ago.  I like to imagine that the fellow on the left has just Tweeted…

3.  A few various pictures from around Seoul.  Including another of my very favorite SoKo building.

4.  Garrett’s flying out in December so it seemed appropriate to include a little throw back pic.

So there you have it.  I’ll actually write something for my next post, I promise!  Until then here is something amazing that I read in Romans the other day: No one can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ our Lord (8:38).  God loves you very much, and so do I.  Have a great week!

Cheers,

Dickie

Infinite sunshine, drool-worthy Mexican food, street festivals, endless cups of coffee – for the last two weeks, I’ve been soaking up the culture of Venice Beach, Santa Monica and the surrounding areas in Los Angeles, California.

I was there on business, so most of my time was spent trekking up and down the freeways and working out of the Animal Logic office, but I was free on the weekends to venture out and explore.

Morgan and Jay work in the Animal Logic LA office.

Orly Olivier, an LA-based photographer – we checked out her amazing polaroid exhibition in Silverlake.

It took us an hour of waiting in line to get our hands on one of Pink’s hotdogs.

Pushing my way through the throng down at the Abbot Kinney Street Festival, I was pretty stoked to discover Soko performing live – I’d missed her show at the Oxford Art Factory last Christmas, so this was an unexpected treat.

Harry Perry, legendary rollerblading guitar player of Venice Beach.

From a work perspective, one of the highlights of my trip was meeting legendary makeup & prosthetic effects wizards Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr, and getting a tour of their workshop. This massive sculpt of an Alien fighting a Predator was part of a jaw-dropping display room next to their foyer featuring highlights of their past work.

A friendly local.

i love soko’s music so much. she plays the ukulele, has a darling little voice and the funniest and cheeky lyrics.

Time is flying!  I’ve been here in SoKo for over 10 weeks!  Things here are great.  Busy with this and that, but enjoying life.  I’m getting to know more and more Koreans and it has really impacted my perspective on Korea as a whole.  It’s a good country and culture, but not one that is easy to adapt to.  I went to the Korean Cultural Museum this last weekend and was amazed by how few people there were.  It is a huge granite and concrete structure.  The front entrance has a reflecting pool, an impressive facade structure and a broad, winding, stairway.  It is a powerful place, but it was almost completely uninhabited, which was fascinating.  Those three women in the picture below were truly the only people that I saw while I wandered around.  To have it all to myself, in a city of 14 million, was actually pretty cool.

I read this today: God does not ask us to do the things that are naturally easy for us—He only asks us to do things that we are perfectly fit to do through His grace.

Have a great weekend!

~Dickie

Well the french music festival kicks off tomorrow night with Sebastien Tellier, Gonzales, and Cocoon. The festival will continue after that for two more days. So far there has been one cancellation by Emilie Simon. She will be replaced with SOKO.

I would just love to go see Tellier. Great french pop. But for all of you going…awesome!

Je suis en amour avec la voix de Soko ^_^

She has the sweetest and most beautiful voice I have ever heard. Plus, she has a filthy mind and a lovely face.

I have totally added her song ‘I’ll Kill Her’ to my favourite songs list
[LISTEN^_^]

I missed her on a UK tour supporting MIA in 2007 :’(
But she has done a few festivals, including the Sunset Sounds festival this year, so maybe there is a chance I will get to see her beautiful face. Maybe I will ask her if I can touch it and she can teach me some french and we will become friends and make music, together..

Au Revoir ♥

Koreans hate the Japanese.  Mind you, the Japanese enslaved and pillaged Korea for the better part of 600 years, well into the last century.  Koreans also live in the shadow of China, a country that has risen to global power in a way that Korea has never been able to.  Koreans are also at war with each other.  North Korea is 35 miles away from Seoul.  If the North attacked, 12 million people would die in this city in the first 24 hours.  US and South Korean military helicopters circle and pass over my neighborhood at all hours of the day, flying low enough that you can see the pilots.  Koreans have also been “saved” by the US twice, something they seem neither proud or ashamed of.  50 years ago Seoul was a 3rd world city.  My apartment building sits on top of what used to be rice paddies.  Korean teachers at my school remember using outhouses as children.  This is a country that went from nothing, from 5 centuries of Japanese internment, to a 1st world player in 4 decades.  It’s hard to describe unless you’ve seen it, but Seoul and South Korea are unlike any other place.  Nothing is old, everything is the same and everyone wants more.

~Dickie

The original version of this song got played hundreds of times during my recent Vegas trip. It became the sing-along song in the car… and if you were there for the trip, or knew the basis of most of our conversations, it really isn’t odd.

“She’s a bitch, you know, all she’s got is blondeness,
Not even tenderness, yeah she’s clever-less”