the noughty films here
the noughty shows here
the noughty books here
the noughty songs here

the last of my ‘noughty’ lists, i promise. these are the fashion moments that caught my attention this past decade. these ladies were styled to the tee to appear on the red carpet or on screen. obviously, they had a lot of help (designers, stylists, hair, make-up) and they are not to take all the credit. my favorite fashion moments (no menswear) in pictures, below:

anne hathaway at the 65th venice film festival (2008) wearing atelier versace. in a word, fabulous.

michelle williams at the 78th academy awards (2006) wearing vera wang. she does everything right here (love the red lip) and looks beautiful in canary-yellow.

cate blanchett at the 77th academy awards (2005) wearing valentino. the pale yellow gown looks gorgeous against her pale skin, and the burgundy accents? gorgeous.

nicole kidman at the 60th golden globe awards (2003) wearing yves saint laurent (by tom ford). i couldn’t find a great picture of this gown (so it looks weird here); i think this is nicole’s finest moment on the red carpet this decade.

korean actress yoon eun hye (윤은혜) in a zipel refrigerator commercial (2009). i saw the mini dress and had a rachel zoe moment: “i want it, i want to own it, i want to wear it.”

sarah jessica parker in a vivienne westwood wedding gown in sex & the city: the movie (2008). love it. love the exuberance of it. love the heavy make-up. and love that bird on her head.

keira knighley in atonement (2007) wearing a gown designed by the film’s costume designer, jacqueline durran. this is not just a green dress. this is the green dress. and it looks ravishing on the big screen.

zhang ziyi at the 63rd golden globe awards (2005) wearing giorgio armani. not everyone can pull of lime-green on the red carpet, but on her alabaster skin and with the jet black hair? soft and pretty.

korean actress han ye seul (한예슬) at the 14th pusan international film festival (2009) wearing a beige gown with red accents (could not find the name of the designer). i think she looks beautiful. adore the red ribbon.

maggie cheung in in the mood for love (2000) dressed in a cheongsam designed by the film’s costume designer, william chang suk-ping. the actress wears a series of these restrictive, floral-patterned gowns (all breathtaking) throughout the film.

♦ yesterday was the last day of school! i really don’t know why these final two weeks of the year exist because a) the students don’t want to be there and b) the teachers don’t want to be there. well, the teachers need to be there because there’s tons of paperwork to be done, but why not just let the kids go free a week early so that the adults can finish the work quickly? then everyone is happy. ugh, education.

i found out yesterday that ms. shin will not be teaching at taegu foreign language high school next year. her four years is up at the school and in korea, teachers can only stay a maximum of four years at a school before being transferred to another school in the district (there are some exceptions to that rule). i dislike this part about the korean education system. there’s no time for teachers to build any kind of loyalty to one school; there’s no sense of belonging to one school. anywho, i feel sub sub hada about her not being at my school next year. i have lost my ally!

i dislike the authority figures at my school. it’s a good thing i don’t have to work with them directly, because then i wouldn’t look forward to coming into work every morning. they are tools.

♦ i’ve decided to get myself an iPod Touch (32GB). i am ordering it this weekend. and then my sister is gonna ship it to me, hopefully soon. the only thing that’s preventing me from ordering it this very moment is the fact that i don’t know what words to engrave on the back of the iPod. something clever? the iPod’s name? to whom it belongs? a quote? what quote? a poem? ugh.

♦ i got a nice little surprise (a late christmas gift?) wednesday when i checked my bank account and i was ₩429,200 (≈$370) richer than i was on tuesday. the EPIK people paid me (and my co-teacher miss son the same amount) for our lecture in kyeongju. that is a whole lotta money for talking to 90 people for four hours straight. sure, i worked really hard to put the lecture together, and we did have to go to kyeongju the night prior to the lecture, and it was kind of an inconvenience (time-wise), but yeah, that is still a lot of money.

i’m happy that i can now feel less guilty about buying an iPod, but i’m a little…grossed out about how much money korea (yes, all of korea) is willing to pay for english education-related things. think about it, the center probably paid the same amount to all the lecturers who went to kyeongju (maybe 20 lecturers) and then they put up 300 foreigners in a nice hotel for 5 days? the total (what i imagine it to be) is staggering. i can only hope that the trainees got something out of the training (i’m sure they did).

♦ do you know what was playing on tv last night, new year’s eve? television awards shows. on all the major networks: SBS, MBC, KBS, KBS1, etc. and special music performances of idol groups (current k-pop acts). the latter i’m used to, because in america we have dick clark’s new year’s rockin’ eve, a program filled with music performances. but awards shows? those poor celebrities who have to sit there in gowns and tuxes completely miss the ringing in of the new year. i hope they’re all pre-recorded.

♦ i have next week off. i’m going to enjoy it.

the noughty films here
the noughty shows here
the noughty books here

while making the list of my favorite songs that were released this past decade, i realized two things: a) newer songs, more often than not, won over older songs (unlike my movies list, which is crowded with older titles), and b) i really like pop songs (not an obscure title in the bunch).

suffice it to say, it was mega hard to narrow the list down to ten. i finally just filtered it down to tracks that i really liked, regardless of others’ opinions. if this was a list of the decade’s ‘best songs,’ then it would look very different. nope, these are just my favorites:

“single ladies (put a ring on it)” performed by beyoncé knowles (2008): this song makes everything better. beyoncé, more than any other artist this decade, consistently put out catchy hit after hit (“if i were a boy,” “crazy in love,” “irreplaceable,” “déjà vu,” “halo,” “ring the alarm,” “check on it,” etc.), and this song is the best song she has ever been a part of (plus, the music video is insanely good).

“we belong together” performed by mariah carey (2005): mariah carey had one of the biggest comebacks in recent music history, and “we belong together” led the charge. it was a massive hit, and one of ms. carey’s best-written songs.

“my love” performed by justin timberlake (2006): with this song, justin timberlake continued to prove that he could be a successful solo artist. though he gets a lot of help from his producers, it’s ultimately timberlake’s suave performance that makes this song work.

“like a star” performed by corinne bailey rae (2005): probably the least known song on my list, “like a star” is a quiet sigh of a song. it’s one of those songs where you know all the words when it’s playing, but if you had to write the lyrics down by memory, you couldn’t. there’s an ephemeral quality to “like a star,” and that’s why i like it.

“sorry” by madonna (2006): i admit i overlooked this gem when it first came out, but i recently rediscovered it aboard a long flight, and now i can’t get it out of my head. it’s better than madonna’s biggest worldwide hit, “hung up,” and that’s quite an accomplishment.

“thats not my name” performed by the ting tings (2009): one word: saucy! i don’t care that it’s repetitive. i don’t care that it reminds me of tony basil’s 1982 hit “mickey.” i don’t care that it was used in a victoria’s secret fashion show. in fact, i love the song for all of those reasons, and the fact that you can turn the song way up, shake your hair out in front of the mirror, and lip-sync to a hairbrush to it.

“paper bag” performed by fiona apple (2000): though when the pawn…was released in late 1999, i think it’s okay for me to squeeze “paper bag” onto this list since the song was released in 2000. fiona does her “i’m a tortured soul” thing here and what angsty generation y-er can’t identify with the lyrics, “hunger hurts, and i want him so bad, oh it kills / ’cause i know i’m a mess he don’t wanna clean up”? it’s genius.

“tell me” performed by the wonder girls (2007): i confess that this korean hit by the five-member girl group hooks me in every time, even if it’s now horrociously embarrassing to like this song. it was not just a hit in korea, it was a phenomenon. every single korean (i exaggerate only a little) can do the “tell me” dance, and i believe this song, more than any other, started the ”what’s the special thing in your choreography?” that’s so prevalent in current korean pop music.  

“again & again” performed by 2PM (2009): the charismatic seven-member boy group 2PM dominated the television airwaves in the year 2009 (they were practically on every variety show at one time or another), and it all started with “again & again” which is, actually, a very good song.  

“u-go-girl” performed by lee hyori (2008): so yes, ’sexy queen’ lee hyori can’t pronounce the word ’girl’ to save her life, but one can’t deny the catchiness of ”u-go-girl.” it’s such a happy song, and i love it in the chorus when the beat goes into double-time. plus, the music video is super cute.

other songs that didn’t make it into the top ten: gnarls barkley’s “crazy” (2006), kelly clarkson’s “since u been gone” (2004) and “my life would suck without you” (2009), lady gaga’s “poker face” (2008), big boi’s “the way you move” (2003), nelly furtado’s “promiscuous” (2006), britney spears’s “toxic” (2004), rihanna’s “umbrella” (2007), gorillaz’s “feel good inc.” (2005), gwen stefani’s “hollaback girl” (2005), brown eyed girls’s “abracadabra” (2009), buzz’s “가시” (2005), estelle’s “american boy” (2008), and wheatus’s “teenage dirtbag” (2000).

as we ring in the new year, i also ring in a new set of goals. i was having coffee with ms. shin last week when she pulled out a brand new “diary” (konglish for daily planner) and asked me to make ten resolutions for the new year. i informed her that my resolutions for this past year were a bust, so i wasn’t so keen on making myself even more of a failure. she insisted, adding that these new plans could just be hopes, not hardcore contracts with myself. she would write them down in her planner and would ask me once in a while how i was doing with them. i obliged.

1. get a dog
2. move to a place that would allow me to raise a dog
3. be able to comfortably fit into some pants i bought this past august
4. visit three new cities in korea
5. buy a new desktop computer
6. make two new frieds
7. knock off 75% of my current credit card debt
8. read one book a month
9. refrain from buying clothes and shoes
10. co-teach with mr. do (if everything falls into place like it should, because i am me and i am awesome and god loves me even though i don’t believe in him)

none of the items are binding; they’re just things to keep in mind as i live happily in the year 2010. speaking of which:

happy new year! 새해복 많이 받으세요!

the noughty films here
the noughty shows here

the jig is up. i don’t read. true, i’ve committed greater sins, but this is probably the main thing that makes me look like a sinner in the eyes of intellectuals. i don’t read books—well, not as much as i should. i read websites and emails and magazines, but those things only help me when i’m watching jeopardy! and the questions cover celebrities, movies and fads. people in academia are not impressed by this.

i try, though. i had an online book club (that was borderline successful for a while) and i recently started a book club blog (still on track). between the books i read for those clubs and the books i read for pleasure this past decade, i consider the following six pieces of literature—all published in the last ten years—my favorites:

harry potter and the goblet of fire by j.k. rowling (2000): this behemoth of a novel is a breeze to get through. rowling infuses the fourth installent of the popular fantasy series with intrigue (a genius dream sequence intro), adventure (the triwizard tournament), love (cho chang), deception (mad-eye moody), and death (cedric diggory). all of those elements make goblet of fire the most complete book in the heptalogy.

atonement by ian mcewan (2001): forget the half-baked 2007 film based on this amazing novel. mcewan’s writing is too beautiful in words to be captured on celluloid; it is truly a gorgeously written novel. in part one, we, the readers, are inside the complicated mind of 13-year-old briony tallis, a mischievous, highly imaginative girl who, as a result of one mistake, changes the course of her entire life, as well as the lives of two lovers. that one mistake lays the foundation for the rest of the tragic story.

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by mark haddon (2003): written from the perspective of a 15-year-old autistic boy named christopher, curious incident is fresh, smart, gimmicky, but at the same time, literary. i could not put this novel down. not only did i want to understand the unreliable narrator’s unique, at times, labyrinthine, thought process, but i also wanted to piece the puzzles of his life together for him. for those 250 pages or so, i was honored to be part of christopher’s life.

the road by cormac mccarthy (2006): let me begin by saying that i hate (hate) mccarthy’s no country for old men. so when my 9th grade english teacher asked me to read the road so that we could ’talk about it,’ i groaned. but i always do what she tells me to do, so i read the entirety of the novel on the journey from daegu to houston last summer vacation. this novel changed my mind about mccarthy (granted, i hadn’t read his earlier novels). i found the road to be sad yet elegant, simple yet complex. and one hundred percent stunning. i hope the novel doesn’t prove to be too prophetic.

never let me go by kazuo ishiguro (2005): these were the questions i had as i read ishiguro’s incredible novel (i cannot believe the same man wrote the remains of the day): where are we? who is kathy h.? what kind of a boarding school is hailsham? what is going on? i continued to read (at first, unwillingly so) but then i could not not finish. as the answers slowly revealed themselves (piece by piece, masterfully placed), my eyes got wider and wider and i quickly devoured the rest of the book.

me talk pretty one day by david sedaris (2000): how do i love david sedaris? let me count the ways. i love him for loving hugh. i love him for writing (crazy) stories about his family. i love him for being terrible at learning french. i love him for writing about his brother, the rooster. i love him for having had a lisp while growing up in north carolina. i love him for rocking back and forth in his chair for long periods of time because repetition makes him feel good (i do it too). i love him for including some of his best essays in me talk pretty one day, by far his strongest collection of short stories. 

the noughty films here

i hear hbo’s the wire is the best show ever. i know that the sopranos has won all those awards. all of my sci-fi/fantasy friends just geek about battlestar galactica. and supposedly, aaron sorkin’s the west wing is as good as, or even better than, his sports night (which i liked a lot). i never got into those shows, not because i didn’t want to, but because i was so involved with other shows already.

there just wasn’t enough room in my tv-watching schedule for all those awesome shows out there (and there are a lot of great shows out there—a lot). remember back in the day when home improvement was the number one show? no offense to home improvement (even i watched it in syndication), but we have come a long way.

below is a list of the shows i deem my favorites during this past decade:

grey’s anatomy, season 2 (2005-2006): though the abc series has had its ups and downs, the sophomore year of grey’s is consistently brilliant. throughout the season, i kept thinking to myself, “there’s no way next week is going to top this week’s episode,” but i was wrong—it constantly delivered. i also think that the back-to-back ’code black’ episodes are two of the finest hours of television ever.

lost, season 1 (2004-2005): when lost first came out, i avoided it like i avoid pregnant women. and then one summer i sat down and watched the entire first season (this show is best when viewed marathon-style) and just about lost my mind. though subsequent seasons have proved just as mind-trippingly awesome, the first season remains the most complete, cohesive season. the finale gave me chills.

queer as folk, season 1 (2000-2001): i bought the first season of queer as folk off of ebay for over $100. it arrived in a priority mail package on seven or eight vhs tapes. i watched the entire thing in two, maybe three nights (in the privacy of my bedroom), forgoing much needed sleep. did i know at the time that it was a badly written, awkwardly acted, campy show? probably. did i give a damn? not at all. to me, it was worth every single penny.

project runway, season 4 (2007-2008): season four of project runway features the most talented group of contestants thus far in the reality series, and it crowned a most deserving, “fierce” christian siriano as its winner. it also proves that you don’t necessarily need a ‘villain’ to have a competition-based show be entertaining. if you give us talented people, we will come and watch.

30 rock, season 1 (2006-2007): i adore liz lemon. i wish she was my roommate so i can constantly yell at her and abuse her for being such a slob. season one of 30 rock stands out for the following reasons: liz dates a black guy, liz dates her cousin, liz hates “the rural juror,” liz accidentally receives flowers from floyd on valentine’s day, liz gets slapped around by friggin isabella rossellini…need i continue?

my name is kim sam soon (내 이름은 김삼순, 2005): unfortunately named sam soon is a pâtissier (pastry chef) who gets offered a job at a fancy seoul restaurant managed by bad-tempered, cute as puppies jin-heon. we know what will happen by series end, but it’s the way that it happens that has us hooked (50% of korean households tuned in to the finale). at times sam soon is pure comedy, but mostly it is a believable, poignant portrayal of a woman who just wants to live a happy life.

sex and the city, season 6 (2003-2004): hbo’s landmark series about new york city single gals and their coffeeshop pow-wows ended its glorious run on february 22, 2004. i, along with 10.6 million viewers, bid farewell to carrie, charlotte, miranda, and samantha. i sat alone on the floor of my dorm room and literally cried through the entire finale (i was going through a break up at the time).

house, season 4 (2007-2008): the formula was still working (there’s a medical mystery, the team makes several diagnoses, then a really bad diagnosis, the patient almost dies, house has an epiphany, the patient is saved) but then season four changed it up. i thought to myself, “this isn’t going to work,” and quite remarkably—it worked. forget foreman, cameron, and chase; say hello to thirteen, taub, and kutner. what a great way to revamp a show.

glee, season 1 (2009-2010): perhaps i’m jumping the gun here (only 13 episodes have aired) but i’m confident that glee will continue its currently brilliant season with an equally brilliant second half. it is such a smart, funny, detailed, entertaining piece of work that each episode begs repeated viewings. plus, sue sylvester (played by the scene-stealing jane lynch) is the best villain on television right now.

american idol, season 5 (2006): no comment.

other shows that deserve mentioning: season 1 of desperate housewives (2004-2005), season 1 of six feet under (2001), season 1 of ugly betty (2005-2006), season 2 of the office (2005-2006), season 3 of will & grace (2000-2001), season 4 of brothers & sisters (2009-2010)…

i am a loyal tv watcher. once i’m faithful to a show, i will follow it until it finishes its run or gets canceled. my attachment to tv probably derives from having been a latchkey kid for most of my childhood. even if we didn’t have cable, i always found something on network tv to watch. alex trebek was always waiting for me when i got home from school, followed by oprah winfrey…and right before bed mad about you, roseanne, designing women would pay me a visit. tv for me is like junk food for fat people—it may be bad for me in the long run but it sure feels good now.

end-of-the-decade lists are popping up left and right and i want to contribute to the cyber noise. though i haven’t seen every movie that was released this current decade, i have seen a lot of them. and you can tell some things about a person by what he/she likes, so you can get to know me just a little bit more.

below are my ten favorite films that were released between jan. 1st, 2000 and december 31st, 2009. they may not be the ‘most important films’ of the decade, but they are my favorites—movies that left me in awe, despair, bliss, shock…movies that i keep coming back to.

amélie (2001): a gorgeous, romantic cotton candy of a film. directed by jean-pierre jeunet, and starring the delightful audrey tautou, amélie is so charming (and whimsical) everyone should have a copy of the dvd so that they can watch it on rainy days (for christ’s sake, it’s always $10 at target).

the hours (2002): so it’s not everyone’s cup of tea (“why is this thing called ‘the hours’ when it feels so much longer?” simultaneously liz lemon and dennis duffy, who is sitting a few rows in front of her, say “they should call this thing ‘the weeks.’”); it is melodramatic, pretentious, and so very white (as in the race). but i love it, and i have whole scenes of it just memorized.

crouching tiger, hidden dragon (2000): i’ve watched wuxia pictures all my life and it was kind of wonderful to see (somewhat) narrow-minded america embrace this chinese epic directed by ang lee. i saw this film five times in the theater, and dragged all of my friends to see it with me. the ending always gets to me.

you can count on me (2000): kenneth lonergan’s quiet family drama starts with a car crash that kills a middle-aged couple. their children, sammy and terry, are left to fend for themselves. as adults, she is a control freak and he is a wanderer. the movie is about their troubled, dysfunctional, co-dependent relationship.

brokeback mountain (2005): i saw this film on opening weekend in houston. i left the theatre, not knowing exactly how i was supposed to feel. i went home and slept. i woke up the next morning. and then i cried for hours. i wanted to drive to wyoming (the characters are that real to me) to find that trailer and i wanted to say to ennis that everything would be okay. [note: do not even mention crash to me.]

in the mood for love (2000): no best-films-of-the-decade list would be complete without mentioning wong kar-wai’s brilliant film, starring asian cinema’s most charismatic couple, tony leung and maggie cheung. not to sound corny or anything, but this stunning film changed my life. it is one of the main reasons why i applied to nyu’s film program.

finding nemo (2003): everything about this pixar feature is perfect: the animation, the script, the music, the voice-acting. i’ve never laughed more at a movie.

the descent (2005): this film is straight up crazy, piss-in-your-pants scary. i love it.

elephant (2003): gus van sant’s elephant is patient, elegant and disturbing. the film takes place in a fictional high school in oregon, where two boys aim to massacre all of its students and teachers. it’s almost poetic in its depiction of a most violent school day: the classical music, the polished camerawork (the long takes using steadicam, the slow motion sequences), the beautiful non-professional actors, the background noise.

spirited away (2001): hayao miyazaki’s best film (in my opinion) stars a plucky ten-year-old girl named chihiro. she has lost her parents in a mysterious, magical land filled with mythical creatures and unforgettable characters, and she does whatever it takes to get them back. so imaginative.

some others i could not include in my ‘top ten’: david lynch’s mulholland dr. (2001), mike leigh’s all or nothing (2002), michel gondry’s eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004), lars von trier’s dancer in the dark (2000), mark waters’s mean girls (2004), wong kar-wai’s 2046 (2004), brad bird’s the incredibles (2004),  joe wright’s pride & prejudice (2005)…

most of the films on my list were released in the earlier part of the decade. either my taste in films is stuck there or the latter half of the decade produced unappealing fare. or it’s because i don’t catch as many films as i did when i lived in new york city (that’s probably most likely). anyway, more lists to come…

roger ebert reviewed swedish director roy andersson’s latest feature film, you, the living (du levande, 2009) months ago and i wanted to see it. the story didn’t intrigue me, but a screenshot accompanying ebert’s review was haunting, dark, almost macabre, and the image got ingrained in my brain. it was of a tired-looking middle-aged man, playing a giant tuba in the living room of his home, behind him his wife, standing in the hallway screaming for him to shut up. i thought to myself, “this must be a horror film.”

i watched the film on christmas eve and immediately had a strong reaction to it. but first, let me tell you what it’s about. you, the living consists of exactly fifty vignettes, some related to others, some standing alone. the film takes place in an unnamed swedish city where most of its denizens are sad, drab and burdened by, well, life. they exist in small spaces, some look directly at the camera, and confess their unhappiness to us, the audience. “nobody understands me,” one alcoholic hag repeatedly declares. next to her sits an equally heavy man who, ironically, tries to understand her.

and then i understood the picture to be a comedy, a black comedy. while the ghostly pale figures onscreen complain about their lives, something else is present onscreen that makes me, the audience, smile. it’s the weirdest thing. here we have characters who are desperately in need of prozac, and i’m on the other side just laughing at them. am i the living? i wondered to myself, and they’re the dead? i’m not so sure.

you, the living is such a peculiar, unexpected, ineffable film. i’ve never seen anything like it before. perhaps roy andersson’s own words will do the film justice: you, the living is about the human being, about her greatness and her miserableness, her joy and sorrow, her self-confidence and anxiety. a being at whom we want to laugh and also cry for. it is simply a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy about us.

in most of the sketches, the camera doesn’t move, and for almost all of the sketches, the scene starts and ends in one take. they almost feel like brief IKEA commercials (andersson is a well-known commercials director). the most striking thing about the movie, though, is the look. this is probably one of the most beautiful films i have ever seen. beautiful not in the lush, succulent way wong kar-wai’s or hayao miyazaki’s pictures are, but beautiful in the way that fluorescent lights are beautiful.

each individual vignette is reminscent of a painting; in every scene, the space is finite (usually a wide shot) and the characters move, if they move at all, within the space. one can take a frame from any of the fifty pieces and hang it on the wall. the compositions, featuring a monochromatic palette (light blues and greys—nuclear power plant colors), are that stunning. furthermore, many of the scenes appear 2-dimensional; andersson achieves this effect through perspective and lighting. his camera is placed squarely in the middle of the scene, but (most of the time) slightly skewed, aiming at a corner for instance, which provides either a one-point, or, more commonly, a two-point perspective. though this would normally create a 3-dimensional world, andersson chooses to light everything in the frame without shadows. he calls this, “light without mercy.”   

in an online interview, he explains, “nowadays i prefer lighting without shadows. there should not be a possibility for people to hide. they should be seen. they should be illuminated all the time. that’s what i mean when i say ‘light without mercy.’ you make the people, the human beings in the movie, very naked.” andersson continues on about how he’s heavily influenced by cartoons. “cartoons often have a light without shadows. that’s what i like. the individuals in the frames, they are very, very naked, without any defense. there are no shadows.” what this lighting choice does is give equal weight to all the components of a frame. thus, the audience sees everything in a given scene: the actors in the foreground, the background extras, the sparse but (insanely) detailed production design.

in other words, everything in the film is controlled. all the spaces were were built on a set (it took three years to make this film), all the actors were hand-picked (almost all of them are plain-looking non-professionals), and their manner of speaking was heavily directed by andersson himself (he is one of those directors who loves doing multiple takes). you, the living is a work of art by a true auteur; we don’t have many of these filmmakers in the states.

while i was watching the film, i was reminded of a max beckmann painting i studied closely in high school, titled the dream. five lost, delusional figures are crammed into a tight space (an attic?), each unaware of the others, each engaged in his or her own nonsensical activity. beckmann’s pale color palette is similar to andersson’s, and there is a sense of doom in the air, as if doomsday is fast approaching, in both works. a few of the objects in the dream, the horn, the picture frame, the man directly under the ceiling appear in you, the living. and a handful of the swedish characters recall having dreams. roy andersson cites expressionist artwork from germany, especially those that were created in the period between the two world wars, as sources of inspiration. is there a direct link between you, the living and max beckmann’s the dream? i don’t know.

what i do know is that the artists’ tones are completely different. where beckmann’s painting is tragic,violent and hopeless, andersson’s film is tragicomic, harmless, almost delightful. the characters in you, the living live sad lives filled with alcohol, rain and disappointments, but, as the bartender exclaims during last call, “tomorrow is another day!” ultimately, i don’t think the film intends to create distance between the characters and us. quite the opposite. i think it tries to reach out to us in a way. life can be dreary, it can be hopeless, it can be ambivalent. but it can also be quite funny, surprisingly so, and there’s always marching band music to accompany us.

if you get a chance to see you, the living (especially if you’r an art lover), i strongly recommend that you see it.

♦ it’s christmas today! the significant other and i spent christmas eve roaming the keimyung university area, ate at pojangmachas (it’s become a weekly tradition), had some grilled meat at a restaurant (another weekly tradition), and noticed the long line at baskin robbins (this after midnight, let me remind you).

couples were buying ice cream cakes (i believe koreans love cake more than any other ethnic group on earth) in celebration of christmas. so we also got ourselves an ice cream cake. the significant other used some kind of point card and the counter clerk said, “if you use a point card we’ll give you a free hat.” i glanced at the furry thing she was holding and immediately wanted it (i’m like an ajumma when it comes to free stuff)! merry christmas to me! [i've been wearing the hat all day because it is soft like a puppy.]

♦ this past wednesday, i left school at around lunch time, arrived at the DEIIU (daegu educational institute for international understanding)—headquarters for us native english teachers in daegu—and did a lengthy lecture (yep, another one) to six brand new hires about creating activities for various types of learners. it went all right, and the crowd was mostly positive. i do feel like i should work on my people skills when it comes to answering questions, though. i don’t know how to respond when someone says something i don’t like. for instance, something asinine like, “in english we don’t have the vowel _ (like in 으, ‘eu’) and i can say it, so it shouldn’t be hard for korean kids to say [v] instead of [b].”

♦ i want to see james cameron’s avatar, but i’m afraid the aliens (if they are aliens) speak some made-up language and there won’t be english subtitles onscreen. perhaps there’s a theater out there playing the film with the english subs…will look for it.

♦ i’m happy to report that there isn’t much to do (in terms of work) in the coming weeks. i do have to teach at a teachers training program held on palgong mountain (i did it last year, too), but that doesn’t start until january 11th. until then…who knows? maybe a trip somewhere.

♦ mr. do, who sat next to me during the spring semester, came to visit our school on monday. he came into the main teachers office, announced his presence, i recognized his voice, looked up, and there he was! i’m pretty sure my face just lit up like christmas lights. he was a temporary english teacher at our school, and is working on becoming a ‘real teacher,’ which, in korea, means he has to pass 3 different tests in succession (a written exam, an essay test, and an interview & demonstration class).

he’s passed the first exam and is awaiting the results of the essay test (which is way more difficult). if he passes everything, and he will if he passes the second test, then it’s likely that he’ll be assigned to our school and then i’ll be able to co-teach with him next year. this is actually a wish. i’m going to fake-pray for him.

[note: the third test is actually difficult, but usually not for male candidates. the graders are usually old men and when they see a male candidate they'll give him an automatic passing score, because these old farts want more men in the education system to, i don't know, continue doing an ineffective, asinine job of running the education system here in korea (yep, i used asinine twice in this post—and?).]

♦ i just watched an amazing swedish film. i’m going to post about it later. wait for it.