China 4 Korea 1
(Readers note: I had photos and videos of lots of this stuff, but I fear I may deleted all of it AAAAAAAAA. Also I’ve been lazy about finished the tour diary. Only a couple days left. But whats the point with no photos. Most of what I wrote below I wrote during or soon after the trip)
Day 11
The next day we wake up and we have to leave for the bus back to Shanghai so Jeff can do an interview. We get the bus and arrive back in Shanghai and grab a taxi. We’re running late for the interview so Abe tries to cancel it, but can’t get in touch with them. We drop bags at the hotel and then head to the interview. The magazine people are a little grumpy as they have been waiting for 2 hours. It’s in a fancy restaurant, but they don’t get us any food or drinks. Is that ok? Am I getting too needy?
The magazine takes some funny photos of Jeff and conducts a weird long interview. It’s some common interest mag like Red Book or something. At one point they ask Jeff what he looks in his ideal woman. Grumpy he says “the size of her penis.”
They don’t seem to understand. I’m shocked. I may have video of this coming soon.
(this question comes after a lot of inane questions that she tries to take notes about)
After the interview which lasts too long we walk around the streets of Shanghai. Then it’s back to the hotel.
The next day Jeff has another interview. I’m a little annoyed as Abe and my roommate Stephen said we should check out this town just outside of Shanghai which is called the Venice of China. But we won’t have time today.
Jeff does the interview at a café and then we check internet for a while. Then we go our separate ways. I head to the gallery district and Jeff goes back to the hotel to work on some projects. The galleries are about to close, but I manage to see a few things. One artist has done different paintings of Mao in the style of different artists, here some of them are:
There is a mix of mostly bad galleries, but a few good ones. In the hallway of one gallery building these guys play ping pong:
I watch them for a little bit hoping they will let me play.
Finally they do. They’re no amazing, but better then me (hey I haven’t played in months), but I do win a couple points and it’s good relaxing fun.
I walk around. There is a large graffiti wall they are about to destroy. I read about it in a magazine yesterday. Then I head back to the hotel. We head back to Abe’s café and get some drinks, then to Abe’s place and then back to the hotel.
Day 12.
We have an early 8:30AM flight to Korea, so we wake up at 6 and leave at 6:30.
We’ll be back on Sunday for 8 hours. I hope we have time to see the water town.
We fly to Korea.
When we land Violet who works for the promoting company SuperColorSuper picks us up. It’s a lot cooler in Korea, temperature-wise. We go to change some money and then grab a taxi to the hotel about 30 minutes away. We get our room key which says 908. We head up to the 9th floor, but the key card wont work. I flip it around. I think it’s really 806. So we head down. It opens the door. The room is really nice. Huge TV, slippers, very clean, fancy sink and some other odd extras.
There is a luggage back and 3 bookbags neatly placed in the corner. I guess they lend you day bags if you want. Such an advanced culture!
But there’s something a little off. So I open one of the bookbags and it has clothes inside. I open another one. It also has some personal items. Then there is a knock on the door. They’ve given us the wrong room. Hmm. I take some pictures of the Jacuzzi and the fancy toilet in case our other room is worse.
But no, our own room is just as nice just no luggage. It’s room 808 (Kanye Wests room eh?) I start to unpack. Erg. My laptop appears to be missing. Did I leave it in the other room? Violet goes to check. It’s not there. AAAAAAAAAAAA. Oh jeez. What was on it? What have I lost, my tour diary for one. Lots of music I was working on. Pictures from tour and this tour diary. AAAAAAA. The only place it could be is back at the airport. I ask Jeff if he still has his receipt from the money exchange place, that’s where I took it out to check the exchange rates. How stupid can I be? It’s totally gone, a free laptop. Maybe there’s some security video I could get to catch the person, but no way the police would care. It’s way too small-time to bother looking at the video. AAAAAAAAA.
Violet calls the number. It’s a miracle they have my laptop. I must have forgotten it on the ledge there and someone turned it in! I love Koreans! Violet takes the cab back with me to the airport and we get my laptop. Here are some photos I took and a re-creation of where I probably left it.
We return to the city and meet Jeff at a radio station. This time, the first time on tour I am allowed to do the interview with Jeff. The interview guy has a great radio voice. He’s Canadian, been in Korea a bunch of years. He’s not that familiar with Jeff. We do what I think is a fun interview with a little bit of our usual bickering that everyone seems to find charming. At one point Steve, the radio guy asks Jeff during a break what they should talk about next. Maybe what people can expect from the shows. Jeff mentions his History of Communism project and how he has a chapter about North Korea. Steve looks a little concerned and suggests we don’t mention that as it’s a sensitive topic.
After the interview we go next door to a little comic museum, which is more a comic book library. Violet says they will take us to bar that evening where they play 70’s psychadelic Korean music only on vinyl (they take all visiting bands there). Both Jeff and I are intrigued. Violet takes us around the city a bit. Out to some delicious spicy lunch. Later we go out to Korean BBQ, which I am disappointed by.
It’s not saucy and sweet like American BBQ. It’s just raw mean you cook yourself.
We meet Sean the main man promoter. Turns out he’s from Sacramento. Nice guy, very organized. He’s got lots of interns and a good business model. He puts on art and music shows and his company is getting more and more popular. Too much, for some local Korean promoters who have had a couple of his shows shut down.
We leave the BBQ place and meet up with Ross a friend of Marci’s from Chicago who has lived in Seoul on and off for 4 years. We quickly look into a puppy bar/café. A place where people pay for expensive bad coffee so they can hang out with and pat a bunch of dogs.
We end the night at the bar that’s supposed to play psychedelic 70’s Korean music.
The bar is quite the hip spot and only plays vinyl, the walls are lined with records.
The music they play is not so much 70’s psych as just 70’s Korean rock. It’s cool.
We drink a white liquid that I think was some sort of rice wine. We drink it out of dented aluminum bowls.
Then it’s off to sleep
