Elephant Talk

I want to marry this woman. But me in Korea… her in Iraq… It probably wouldn’t work out.

It’s Friday, time for a little music appreciation…

The whole idea of a “favorite band” is kind of silly. I like far too many styles of music to have one, although if forced I could probably narrow it down to two. But my deep admiration and enjoyment of Iron & Wine has gone on long enough, so it’s time to push that number to three.

Iron & Wine is actually one guy named Sam Beam (joined occasionally by his sister on harmony vocals) so it makes pronouns challenging. I think what I find so impressive is how he’s able to craft songs that have a consistency of emotion, but wrapped in always changing production styles. His career is still fairly new, and I get the sense that he’s in the middle of something that will eventually be considered extraordinary.

There are only three Iron & Wine albums, plus a handful of EPs. The first album The Creek Drank The Cradle was produced and recorded solely by Sam. The style was very distinct: acoustic instruments such as guitars, banjos and slide, and a very close-miked whispering vocal. It was a lo-fi affair, with an intimate quality. But at the same time, there was something deep and spooky going on in the lyrics and mood.

Here’s one of my favorite songs, “Faded From the Winter”:

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Yesterday was Buddha’s Birthday. There are certain events that I mark as personal anniversaries as I go through my second year here. This is one. A year ago today I was fairly well assimilated and beginning to feel quite at home in my new world. Last year, I went with a few friends to Beomosa, the great temple in the hills north of Busan. It rained late in the day, chasing us down the hill toward PNU, where we finally found refuge in Kebapistan, a nice Turkish restaurant.

One year later, I’ve become a little more adventurous. I went with five other friends on a four-hour bus ride to the southwestern tip of Korea, where we stayed two nights. We saw two areas of interest – Boseong, famous for its green tea plantations, and Yeosu, a great city on the coast.

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I survived Membership Training. If anything I got off too easy. A ride became available around 12:30 am and I took it… just about the time I was starting to enjoy myself.

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I’m trying to get caught up on youtube postings. Here I am swimming upstream through a flood of Gyeongju children last fall…

I realized that I promised some Gyeongju photos a while back and didn’t post them. Here are a few from my recent trip there, plus a few more random ones from the past couple weeks. Friends who know me may have seen these on facebook, but for those who haven’t…

Gyeongju

My favorite tree in Gyeongju.

Don’t call it the sea of that other country over there.

After a long day of hiking, we ate sam-gyup-sal. There was a girl next to us cutting up some garlic for the next day.

Leffe exists in Busan… but I’m not telling where.

While hiking around Busan with a friend, we came across a temple, right as a funeral was happening. I probably shouldn’t have taken this picture.

Ajumas.

…and throw little things off, like car parts, bottles and cutlery, or whatever I find lying around.

Lovely Haeundae Beach and Dalmaji hill.

Sheet music from band practice.

I’ve watched this four times now, and I laugh every time.

I agree 100% Mr. Lynch.

What if Jon never actually had a talking cat named Garfield? Maybe he was just insane all that time. There’s no cat, certainly not one that talks and eats lasagna. Jon may in fact be suffering from schizophrenia born of isolation and possibly drug abuse.

This site is more funny than it should be. It’s also kind of dark, twisted, sad, and somehow makes an interesting commentary on suburban isolation and modern day loneliness.

Oh, heavenly kimchi…

When I was 25 or so, I had this fear that when I turned 30 I’d run out of music to listen to. That hasn’t happened, and I’m well past 30.

Just when I think I’m in danger of a getting into a rut, I find new things. I was going through an introspective, indie-ish, acoustic singer-songwriter thing for the past year or so (still am to some degree). My new thing is something I can’t quite describe, so I’ll name some bands instead: Hammock, Explosions In The Sky, God Is An Astronaut, Sigur Ros, This Will Destroy You, etc. What do you call that? I’ve been seeing it lumped into the “post-rock” genre, but I don’t hear it. Post-rock is more shifting and varied, with styles and moods borrowed from many genres and crafted into interesting compositions. I’ve also seen it compared to shoegazer music. It’s close, but not as poppy. Space rock? No, that’s not right either. Emo? I still don’t know what the hell that is and I don’t really care to.

I’m going to call it by my own name: Spacegazer music. It’s got qualities of shoegazer, but thematically, it seems to be looking into the heavens rather than down at the floor.

Here are a few juicy tidbits. First, my favorite song in the world right now:

God Is An Astronaut (he is, you know…):

Sigur Ros isn’t my favorite band in the world. Sometimes the singer gets to be a bit much, and his melodies have a kind of sameness to them. But I absolutely love this song: