Dj Fest

So here I am looking at my quickly diminishing time in Korea trying to figure out where to go from here. I have 8 weekends left as Natalie so kindly informed me today and that seems to me like it really won't be enough time. I still have to go to Busan for one thing, and Jeju-do for that matter. To kiss a Korean girl would be nice too but I'm not holding my breath, maybe I should. Point being there's still a lot to do here and I feel the need to do it. We've been talking a lot recently here about the future the recurring question being "what are you going to do when you get home?" I have a few ideas but no set plans, Natalie has been accepted to a teacher's college in Australia, Allie will go home and study for the GREs with the hope of getting into graduate school for psychology somewhere in Chicago, Ben's also applying to graduate schools and Pete has no real idea. The return from this escape is looming pretty large for all of us I think but as I was walking around outside of COEX the other day I realized that I am very much going to miss it here and since that's the case I had better get my fill of Korea within the next few weeks because I have no idea when I'm going to be coming back. This is good because I've kept pretty busy the past few weeks. I'll get into the first thing in this entry then explore the rest next time.

Directly following the baseball game described in the last post I hopped a cab and went to DJ Fest, a gathering of local and international DJs Seoul hosts every year. Last year over 100,000 people attended so I jumped at the chance to go see this show. I wasn't wrong to do so, I had a blast. Natalie and Matthew had gone earlier, it started at 2 in the afternoon but I didn't get there until around 10 because of the game. I arrived relatively disappointed because the girl I had planned to meet up with there had gotten sick and wasn't coming but that quickly faded and even disappeared from my mind when I got there. Another friend Scotty had asked me to come originally. I gave him a call upon arriving and was pleasantly surprised when he informed me that he was sneaking me in. Perfect, tickets at the door were 55,000 won, no thank you I'll pay ten. That might make me a little bit of a jerk, and yes having worked at concerts I know sneaking in is kind of a dick move but I'm poor give me a break. There were no complications with that, we got in quick and easy and headed right to the main stage. There we met Zach and Maddie, other friends who had helped finance sneaking me in, we evened up with the expenses and then got to enjoying the show.

It was incredible, 3 stages, the main one playing electronic and house music with a variety of different DJs tearing it up, the 2nd stage was more hiphop and the third was local artists. We began with the Main stage because it was by far the best. Natalie and Matthew joined us, we bought a few beers and dove into the crowd. Loud music is really one of my favorite experiences at nighttime, when it comes in tandem with a light show I always enjoy it that much more. Neon lasers combed the crowd, people were first green, then red, then blue, then orange under the thin but erratic beams of light. These all came from the tops of giant TVs doing there best to imitate the itunes visualizer and doing a pretty good job of it. In short the colors were blinding, but in a good way.

The night was so dark, the park the show was held at sat at the foot of the mountain so it had no immediate contact with the light from the city and the three light shows were the only things illuminating us. It's kind of otherworldly to be bathed in florescent colors so entirely different from what you're used to for hours on end. I always find myself admiring it whether I'm at a club or under some black-light and at DJ fest I did the same. The moon paints everything with a very silvery light as it is which blurs lines and renders some things unrecognizable. It generally complicates the act of seeing so much so that a lot of what you see may appear first as illusory followed quickly by undefined. This uncertainty, the moon's propensity for tricks and deception when coupled with the glaring but fleeting brilliance of a light show is really something else, very different from any club atmosphere and whenever I'm at a show where I see this I love it. The light first made me want to dance, which I did despite how silly I looked, then it proceeded to pull me toward it. The four of us, Natalie, Zac, Maddie and I made it to the front of all the stages and when we got there we danced. It was excellent, but it made me feel a little like a fly being drawn to one of those blue zappers which is an unnerving feeling to say the least.

Some examples of the changing light are at the top.

The unnerving nature of the light there just made DJ fest all the more exciting. Like I said I enjoy the difference. You see much differently through green than you do through red or blue and it really is something to appreciate I think. It's not everyday you get to take a step back from the way you see everything and try something different, in fact that is very nearly impossible so I think it's important to take the opportunities to do so seriously, even if they are just changes in the lighting. I will never see everybody as giant millipedes walking through this city but for a night I can see thousands of them painted by the sky in neon and it really becomes a new lens through which the world can be seen.

I think that's what travel is, an attempt to see things through a different lens. I've denied most this ability in the last paragraph but the fact of the matter is that the way we see the world is an ever changing one simply because the lens through which we look on things is constantly changing, whether you sit on your sofa watching TV all day or you spend your life globetrotting, everything our minds take in and process has an effect on how we approach the rest of our life. I think that travel is a more effective way to change this lens but with everything you learn your perception is irreparably altered whether you learn it from the boob tube or from falling out of an airplane at 15,000 meters with nothing but a glorified bed sheet strapped to your back. That's the beauty of existence. I must give Ben credit for some of this, we had a pretty in depth discussion on perception and human relationships last night and I've been thinking about it a lot. At DJ Fest I saw the world through a more diverse ocular lens than normal because of the light-show mixed with the night sky. This is a lens I've looked through before but never really thought to much about, but the more I think about it the more it resonates with me.

Here I am living in a different country, experiencing a new and different way of life that is very similar to the American way of life in some aspects and very different in others. Just for contact with this culture my whole conception of life has changed in ways that I may never understand just as seeing the world bathed in red and green at Dj Fest changed the way I experience the everyday. Now walking to work in the morning can be defined by it's lack of neon, by the fact that I see everything as I "normally" do, but I don't because now what I see as "normal" has the caveat that it isn't being dissected, transformed and illuminated by concentrated beams of color that originate from something other than the sun. Rather my normalcy has taken on an entirely different shade, or in this situation lack of shade, that it never had before.

DJ fest has at this point become just an example of how the world evolves before your eyes if you allow it to. By allowing yourself to be open to a different way of seeing the world you can't do anything but absorb that way into your own way, even if only a little bit, even if you only absorb a sliver, it will then effect the rest of your life. Travel does this to people, travel performs light shows if you care to watch. They aren't light shows for your eyes but rather for your approach to life, your plans and most importantly your future.

When Ben and I talked the other night he mentioned how fascinating it is that in interacting with others a person becomes inextricably linked with everyone they meet. People take infinitely diverse paths to reach certain points in their lives, but when they meet people that moment is something that they share with the other exactly how it is, no matter what. Example, the conversation snooze and I had the other day about this is something that we will both have as a part of our life for the rest of our lives and the experience of it is, on the outside, identical. On the inside however I can't imagine that to be true. Both of us took something completely different away from that conversation but the memory of it will have effects on both of us, no matter how different they are, that will last us a lifetime.

That vein of thought got me to thinking about DJ Fest, the same is true for that experience. All concert goers experienced the same light show, heard the same music, drank the same cheap beer and liquor and hopefully had the same great time I did. We all experienced another lens through which to look and we all marveled at it in our own way, but the effect the show has on every one who went will by no means be the same. For some it will be simply another concert, for others a hazy night marked by loss of inhibition and lack of recollection, still others will see it as one of the "time's of their lives" while I'm now looking at it as a glimpse at the world through a different pair of spectacles. Our time here in Korea is much the same. I don't know what my coworkers will take from this. I don't know whether this will have a profound impact on their lives or not, maybe it will be just another year for them, maybe it will be life changing, as for me I'm seeing it as something that has taught me a lot, an experience that has put interesting ideas in my life, a learning experience that has definitely changed the course of my life and I feel so lucky to have been able to experience it.

To think that until fairly recently this shade (laser light shows) of being had never before been experienced by man is astounding in and of itself, I mean when did man first make the laser? 100 years ago no one knew this light and the fact that I know it now and am applying my pretending toward philosophy to it is . . . . well amazing.

I'm getting away from myself, that's cool but beside the point. Korea is the light-show. It has been really something to see and absorb. I will never forget it. Here now with 2 months to go I'm preparing myself for the culmination of the light-show, the grand finale, the one that leaves you walking away from the concert shaking your head, knowing it to be a night t remember. I have no doubt in my mind now that I will remember this trip, no illusions as to it's effects on me, it's importance in my life I'm just looking forward to the flurry of activity that will be the next eight weeks and frankly, I'm excited.

Korea is the light-show.

Staring Down the Home Stretch

Ok so it's May now, my 23rd birthday has passed, I've got two and a half more months left and I find myself somewhat disappointed with this whole blog thing. I haven't been as good as I would have liked about this but at least I have something. It's been a busy few weeks so I'm going to cut this post in half because it will undoubtedly turn into boring rambling more often than not and I would not like to put my readers to sleep. I'll start out with my social life.

Last month was a little skimpy as I believe I mentioned in previous post because of my trip to Thailand. That turned out to be all right and I still managed to have a lot of fun, but it also meant that last weekend I kinda let loose a little bit when it came to time to go out. Saturday was a doozy let's just say that. Here is the beginning.

As most Saturdays do I began May 8th with a soccer game. I woke up bright and early at 5:05 to go to the field at 6:15. Our game didn't actually start until 7 probably but we our coach has always insisted that we arrive early, maybe so we can be awake for a little longer before the game, I dunno. The game went well. I assisted the only goal in the first game, sat for two half hour games then scored two in the final game, can't do much better than that for the amount of time I played. More and more people have been coming to the games because the weather is steadily improving so playing time is becoming a hot commodity, no one plays for more than two games, but Pete and I usually get decent enough time. Following the game we went to the Sauna and to lunch with the team as we do all Saturday mornings when we play. Pete, Sung Nam and I offered to pay for the meal because each time we go out to eat a different team member pays. We felt that 5 months of not paying was a little long so we did. They of course insisted on us drinking as a reward for being so gracious as to pay for everything. Someone brought Chinese Soju Kor-I-An-Ju is what it sounded like that was very sweet and very strong. That on top of the Makali led me immediately back to bed when I got home from soccer. I slept for 3 hours and the next thing I new it was 330.

Pete had asked if I would go to a baseball game on Saturday with some of our friends. Stupidly I agreed forgetting about the DJ Fest some of my friends had told me about that began at 2 on Saturday. I wasn't going to miss that though so I decided to skip the party that was going to happen after Baseball and cab straight to DJ Fest from the game. It was a good plan. The game rolled around and the four of us went out, Pete, Allie, Kevin and I. Kevin is a friend of the Canadians who I've hung out with a few times. We were meeting two Korean girls who we've gone to Baseball games with before, they love the sport and every time I go to a game I can see why. It is so much more upbeat than an American sporting event. Think of Duke vs. Maryland ACC basketball on speed. There are cheers for each of the players which are chanted every time they bat, a variety of cheers for defense and of course two distinct cheering sections (one for each team) which invariably despise each other. The cheers are all sung in unison with hand motions and dances usually accentuated by the blow up noise makers which you beat together. The sound can be deafening at times but it just adds to the atmosphere of the game. Everyone has these beaters and well everyone uses them, I never had the best hearing but after Saturday it probably will never improve.

At baseball games there are also cheerleaders led by one guy who walks around on a stage in the middle of one side of the stadium conducting all the cheers. He's flanked by four stunning Korean girls, all of whom I will admit to having stared at a little. They're beautiful, it's not fair it really isn't. Regardless the four cheerleaders are basically glorified back up dancers who support the masters of ceremonies himself, a man decked out in a uniform for whichever team he's supporting dancing around like a lunatic on the stage. At least that's how it should be. The man is there, he does conduct and direct the cheering, he is wearing a uniform, but he doesn't dance around to much. I would be much better at his job I really would, I mean I can dance like a lunatic, so I got something on him.

Despite his complete lack of lunacy, the man does control a pretty ridiculous show and the whole time he's up there strutting his team's stuff he's competing with his doppelganger on the other side of the stadium. I swear it's like dueling banjos between the two orchestrators of the cheer, one goes the other tries to one up him and it gets interesting but I always thought that one would be more enthusiastic than the other and that maybe would push him over the top. That's just not how it is here though. The name of the game is efficiency. I think the winner of the dueling cheerleaders is the man who can goad his cheering section into chanting in complete and total unison. There isn't really much emotion to it. When I went to the wedding one of my coworkers told me that at the wedding the couple isn't supposed to show their emotion in respect for the sanctity of the ceremony, in thinking back now the baseball game is similar to this. There is no cheering beside the preplanned and orchestrated cheering delivered by the master of the cheer. No boos and no shouts of "FIGHTING", the signature cheer of Korean games, are heard except from the foreigners used to leering at other players and screaming lewd comments or racial slur at whoever is unlucky enough to be on the other team. You never call anybody on your team anything bad, but the other team, well it would have been better off for them if they had just not been born . . well in America, but not here.

That seemed strange to me at first. Hey battabattabattasaaaaWING batta was something I always expected to hear from some drunk asshole at a baseball game, but it just didn't happen here. I think that this just shows a little more respect for the game and the athletes. These people are the cream of the crop at what they do and whether we love or hate them they deserve some respect for being much better than we are at what they do. It's then fitting that opposing fans restrict the competition between them to the uniformity and subsequent strength of their cheers rather than who can be more insulting, malicious and hurtful with what they yell. It was nice getting buzzed around people who were focused more on the collective good time than the competition. Obviously the competition was important but it didn't go past that into negativity and I really liked that.

Well the other good thing about Baseball games is the beer at them DOESN'T cost 10 dollars for six ounces, in fact you can get a tall boy for lest than 3 which is a pretty good deal, so I had a few beers, to you know celebrate pay day. The six of us had a good time, I learned the cheers from Jamie, one of the Koreans and impressed both of the Koreans with my ability to read the Korean alphabet. I mean it is impressive after only 9 and a half months of studying, I'm the man, no, but they acted as if I had done something remarkable. The game went on longer than I thought it would. LG lost but I don't care I'm a Doosan fan because that's the first game I went to and I left immediately afterwards.

Next entry: DJ Fest and probably this weekend depending on how tomorrow night goes.

PEACE