The only good policeman is a dead one

2006-12-13T14:07:00.000+09:00

nobody could plan a better ad campaign than this scenario. the fact that my camera is broken and gives everything a pinkish-red tinge adds to the effect, i think. by the way, it's a social service ad. you gotta look carefully to find the EVIL CULPRIT MUAHAHAHAAAAA

new mission to anyone who reads this (or the only one keke) my soulseek username is v0llrath. meet me up, bitch!

2006-11-29T22:03:00.000+09:00

i really hate the anti-japanese sentiment that is so pervasive in this country. i know i'm not from a country with strong rivals like england/ireland or japan/korea but if my friends can get over it, then so can the rest of the damn country. here is my opinion expressed in photographic form. it's my own piss stain on some not-too-well-thought-out graffiti.

2006-10-29T19:08:00.000+09:00

funny picture. taken by yours truly.

2006-10-21T12:35:00.000+09:00

rest in peace cbgb's. this blog seems to be announcing a lot of deaths.

unrelated, but still very cool:

2006-10-09T01:02:00.000+09:00

since peter tomarken died another famous tv host bit the big one. poor steve irwin. i like that bill maher was the only one to point out that being stung by a stingray hardly counts as a "freak" accident. they're called "sting" rays for a reason: they sting with their stinger and they're ray-shaped. it's pretty straightforward.

speaking of deaths this site seems to be floating in la-la land but i'm still around and have decided to once again update with an abadoned project i began late last year about another "death" of sorts namely the question of whatever happened to 'McBarge'?

for those of you who didn't have the pleasure of attending vancouver's expo '86 you will have no idea what i mean so let me elucidate a little. back in 1986 the world was changing (for the worse but that's neither here nor there). new york was cleaning up its act. the seattle scene was kicking in (yes it existed LONG before nirvana was even conceived of). and with this seattle shit came upscale, trendy, yuppie-friendly coffee houses where they could maintain the semblance of high class while keeping overhead low with pretty much the same swill they've had at truck stops for years. anyway somewhere along the line the restaurant biz (i.e. fast food) got into the act and all of a sudden the 50s and 60s plastic and 70s fakeness was replaced with an 80s and 90s elegance of sorts. natural wood, natural light, naturally delicious. "natural" was the key word to the evolution of the pretentious decor most eateries eventually succumbed to. it is still predominant today in fact. anyway who would have thought that mcdonald's of all franchises would be on the cutting edge of this craze WAYYYYYY back in 1986 when all its restaurants were still ridiculously hideous (remember that brown tile and fake brick?).

thus mcbarge was born. never an official name mind you, but the nickname was pretty nifty you must admit. this was a floating restaurant that sat in the false creek area where most of expo was situated. during the fair this was a hot venue to check out. i believe it was nearly the most successful dollar-for-dollar mcdonalds of its time. after the fair was over mcdonalds actually wanted to keep the place open but alas the city of vancouver (why oh why) rejected every single placement that mcd's suggested. eventually they gave up and the restaurant was moved to the city of burnaby in the burrard inlet where it remains to this day. so sad. such a waste. this oasis of oases. this salt-and-grease utopia. this mcdonald's.

here is what it looked like in its heyday:

and here is what it now looks like:

truly this is the kind of history that is way too cool to make it into the books. blade 3 had a scene inside the beast i believe but haven't confirmed this story. it actually featured a hidden kitchen which was a big thing for mcdonald's back then. burger king was actually the first fast food joint to feature an open kitchen as a matter of fact just in case you're trivia hounds like myself.

there are some local adventurers who successfully managed to break into and snap photos of the majestic thing-on-pontoons:
http://www.wraiths.org/mcbarge.htm

2006-08-16T02:33:00.000+09:00

rest in peace peter tomarken.. AVOID THE WHAMMY!!!! i think he's met his ultimate whammy. why does the lord always see it fit to take the best? why lord WHY????!?!?!?!?

i saw both "blue velvet" and "coffee and cigarettes" on the big screen in the last two days. you wonder why i haven't made an entry in the last 4 months? because i saw blue velvet. you heard me. jealous?

2006-03-28T14:10:00.000+09:00

this is going to sound strange but i'm feeling a bit sad because someone i don't really know just died. his name was nikki sudden and he once fronted the legendary swell maps back in the late 70s. anyway, his 80s-90s glam-ish band the jacobites toured canada once and stopped in saskatoon. the band, after playing their show, then came back to our house for a long night of drinking and general stupidity. my native north american friends didn't take much of a shining to him though because he kept asking to see their headdresses. i think he just didn't realize how stupid of a question it was since he was a limey. anyway, he passed away in his sleep suddenly (pun intended) and what can i say? i almost forgot about that night until i heard the news. so i'll have a drink to him this weekend and remember the good times.

and that news of the amusement park has come to light. turns out i was right about most of the details except that 60,000 people showed up, of which only 35,000 got in, and 35 were seriously hurt. one guy described the event as "hell". i wonder if that's how david puddy envisions hell? anyway, the funny thing about this is that their free admission was their way to apologize for the accident and to make good on it and assure everyone that nothing bad would ever happen again at lotte world! so they end up hurting more people when they're trying to make up for killing one in the first place! the road to "hell" is indeed paved with good intentions.

Basic facts about Lotte World: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotte_World

2006-03-27T02:16:00.000+09:00

i killed too many civilians today in "Operation Wolf" and sustained fatal wounds because of it. it's not something i'm proud of, but i'm not going to hide from it either. it was all just a blur, really. i just couldn't make the lost children or bikini-clad california girls for the bastard soldiers it was my mission to overtake, interrogate, and ultimately conquer. i did end up with some information regarding a secret communications base, but alas it was too little too late.

James Plotkin is a very interesting character. He started out in a band called OLD - old. lady. drivers. which i guess is basically a grind-esque noise band (not sure since it's exceedingly hard to find) then branched off to work on his own, often collaborating with tape manipulators such as Mark Spybey (of zoviet france) or Mick Harris. anyway, he developed a nice little guitar drone sound i first got tuned into many years ago on brave new waves (when it was still good even though brent bambury had been long gone by then) and which i like to listen to while reading (current book: trainspotting. synopsis so far: the movie is a mere gap commercial in comparison to this book) or doing other productive things like play Operation Wolf. it's hard to find recordings by Plotkin, although if you want to pay insane import fees i guess it would be possible to attain a fair number of albums. but nuts with that. anyway, if you enjoy droney metallic sounds as i do, you may want to give JAMES PLOTKIN a spin.

and finally, i can't just leave a post without annoying caleb, so here is the improperly-implemented link for today: the WORLD CLASS theme park, Lotte World, here in Seoul (in fact about 5 blocks from my house) decided to promote themselves with a "free admission" week. i think it started yesterday, but unfortunately that's also when it ended. 60,000 people showed up within the first 10 minutes apparently, and 35 people were seriously injured, and they had to deploy about 900 cops to deal with the mayhem (i think). i'm assuming there were countless stepped on feet, as well. the news is too recent to be published in english, and jeong is asleep, so i can't really understand much more beyond that! anyway, here's another story from that same amusement park from only a couple of weeks ago (yes, it's an accident! woot!). i'll write about the frenzy when i get the details straight.

rocket to uranus,
house

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200603/kt2006030717372110510.htm

2006-03-20T12:56:00.000+09:00

these things all rule:

shattered records (especially digital leather and blank its)

v for vendetta (too bad mr. alan moore disowned it even before he saw it. but then again, let's not forget league of extraordinary shit)

nyquil.

this:

and as a final word, if you want to see what real victims in this country face (**not those who make shit up mind you because there is a difference**) then check this out.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200511/kt2005111418010911960.htm

equally horrifying is the film "memories of murder" apparently based on a play that depicts said "notorious unsolved murders" ... it's a frustrating look at how the justice system is pathetically outdated in this country. or maybe just inept detectives?

2006-03-13T13:17:00.000+09:00

someone smarter than myself pointed out that when i said,

"girls who gew up too fast and made mistakes shout "rape" the next day just as often as truly abused victims do." i wasn't citing any statistics or basing anything on fact. so i stand corrected on that count, but i insist that even if this happens ONCE, it may as well be 1,000,000 times because it pulls the carpet out from under the real victims in this world.

for the record, i WAS trying to make people angry and it obviously worked. angry because it pisses me off that any time people claim to be "sexually abused" and actually are, our (korean) society ignores them, and yet in this case, which is obviously exaggerated at best, we get news coverage, and it's cited as an example of how the system needs to be reformed. this is an example of why parents need to know what girls are doing online. this is an example of how girls are growing up too fast. this is the stuff of inspiration for such detestable movies as "the crush". this is not, in any way, an example of a flawed system. 25 year old should have known better? of course. pharmacist can burn in hell? fuck yeah. but this girl needs to have her head shaken. "come to the bar, 16 year old girl, and i'll give you some counselling". if she would have simply told her parents, they could have chained her up in her room so she wouldn't have made such idiotic mistakes.

here's our next debate: when are our pissant little high school boys gonna finally make their hard working, loyal parents proud? i'm sick of shamed parents killiing their families out of sheer disgrace. read on.....

"During last year's CSAT, there was a spate of student suicides. This year one student committed suicide in Seoul on the morning of the CSAT. Numerous school-related suicides occur throughout the year, with this past April being especially tragic. A father in Gongju drove to his son's high school and torched his wife, daughter and himself with gasoline because his honor roll son disgraced the family with bad grades. All three died."

you hear that?? DISGRACE!!!! we're here to educate these little shits and turn them into "rich global citizens" and all they can do is fail exams forcing crestfallen fathers to douse their families with gasoline and burn to death? i'm glad the student was left to live with the fact that he knows it's HIS FAULT his family died because he FAILED. makes me sick.

2006-03-11T03:27:00.000+09:00

Stop me if you've heard this one. 16 year old chick walks into the pharmacy to buy the morning after pill because she's worried about "somehow" being pregnant. Pharmacist takes her to the back to "show her" how to use the pill. BAM! Molests her. She tells her tales of woe to a chat dude, 25, who offers to take her to a bar for "counselling". He gets her drunk and BAM! Giggity giggity. Chick is totally bummed and gets in a cab to go to the police station to report the chat buddy. Cabbie asks why she's going to the cop shop, which she for some reason actually tells him the reason. BOOM! Aw right!!! 3 times in one day. I can't help but be suspicious about this. She's supposed to be all innocent and victimized, but come on. 3 times in one day? I don't get it. Take that 90-year old woman. THAT'S a victim. 11-year old who got raped and burned you better motherfucking believe THAT'S a goddamn victim. But this high school chick is suspicious in my books. Why not read the article for yourselves and see what you think? There's a good point to the article but I think the 16 year old girl story is sensationalism mixed with gross exaggeration.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200603/kt2006030317444410230.htm

2006-02-28T02:07:00.000+09:00

I love living in a cimmerian hole. It keeps the vegetables fresh and the lint out of your bellybutton. The snapshot survey says natural gas gives you good ideas. During the countdown to darkness I crack a Corona. Heating up the pan now to melt some water. You'll understand when you're older.

2006-02-16T02:38:00.000+09:00

Old news I know but just in case yer curious. There are Muslims who of course say "Behead those who insult Islam." Doesn't that kinda prove the whole point of the cartoon?

2006-02-10T02:18:00.000+09:00

Once you go black, you never go back.

2006-02-09T01:04:00.000+09:00

Anyone ever heard of this company before? I hadn't before not too long ago (it's big in K-O). LE COQ SPORTIF!! Do people purposely ignore how gay it is or are they really unaware? Koreans can't be blamed since they don't know any better, but veteran rapper Darryl "DMC" McDaniels should know better. Time to toss away the Addidas for the Coq? Okay Darryl, whatever, you're not gay. Interestingly, the Coq isn't just a shoe company either. The gay French have a long gay long gay long gay Coq history:

"How has Le Coq Sportif come to be used as the sporting emblem of the French?

In Roman times, France was known as Gaul. The Latin word "Gallus" not only meant "a person who lives in Gaul" but also was the word for "rooster". The Romans liked this joke, and over a period of time, this play on words meant that the rooster came to represent the Gauls. So the rooster started as a joke and is an icon that has been used by people for nearly two thousand years!

In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the rooster was used by the Kings of France to represent France, in pictures and on coins. Later on, in 1789, during the French Revolution, this symbol was adopted by the Revolutionary leaders to represent France.

Napoleon introduced the symbol of the eagle to replace the rooster, since he felt it was more "important" and kingly. But the rooster wouldn't die! Later in the nineteenth century it was brought back and used on flags, the uniform and buttons of the National Guard, the great seal of France, the twenty franc gold coin and the gates of the Elysée Palace (the President's Official residence). It also became used on lots of buildings and bridges as a symbol of the Republic." (this is from some other website).

So they can't get enough Coq eh? The Greeks may have invented gayness, but the French, with their gay Coq, have taken gay gayness to an all-time gay high. Gay means happy right?

2006-02-05T11:44:00.000+09:00

Hmm. It's not too often that I update. So on the chance that someone still checks it out there's actually something interesting that's happened. We visited the convention centre a couple weeks ago to see some relics and stories from the Titanic that were on display. All was impressively set up and as you can see there were even a few mock-ups of actual rooms from the ship. Mostly there were artifacts and personal effects, though, and of course there were TV screens everywhere with Leo and Kate givin' er and all that. I don't care--even though that movie blows whale balls, I still like this kind of thing. Seeing stuff that once belonged to someone but doesn't anymore cuz they're dead... Yeah! Actually, some of the leather was amazingly well-preserved. That shot of the dishes in an array are exactly how they landed at "dee bottom of da sea". Whoever put those dishes away did a damn good job of it. The staircase looked cool at first glance, but don't be fooled: it was nothing more than fibreglass with a wood veneer finish. Nothing as "grand" as what was in the movie. I guess they have to transport this exhibit though so it makes sense to cheap out. The deck was really cool--a night breeze, calm, cool water, and a big ol' glacier at 11 o'clock. Seriously! They had it set up to simulate the exact evening of doom. Spooky. They also had a frozen slab of something for us to "feel" how cold a galcier really is. Uhh. Ice? Cold? Enlighten me! All in all it was cool though, because I like big things and I like crashes. Plus we got to keep replicas of actual tickets used on the boat. Both our passengers survived (thank god) and actually my passenger was running off with her lover to a better life in the US. Her lover, unfortunately, perished on that fateful evening, but seeing as how she had a daughter to take care of, it's good she made it. Stupid kid mwahaa. Jeong's ticket was of some business dude. Of course we had the haunting reminder of what country we were in once we got out of the main exhibit and were greeted by the extraordinarily happy ghost of the HMS (or RMS?? who the f---cares) Titanic. Much like the soon-to-be-devoured happy animal faces on signs of restaurants, this has to be the happiest Titanic ever. I'm glad that in the finality of it all, Titanic ends up a prozac-case grinnin' dude (or dudette if ships are "she" I guess). All in all, fun times, good times, and good, fun times were had.

2006-01-11T13:35:00.000+09:00

OUCH!!!

Details?? Gimme an email.

2006-01-07T12:18:00.000+09:00

[house sitting at table reading book. in comes other teacher]

other teacher: who's that, some can-EH-dian?

house: no, he's from michigan.

other teacher [mocking house]: no, he's from michigan. you arrogant canadian. wait. i recognize him.

house: you should, he's a great actor.

other teacher: oh. yeah. definitely know him.

house: you do? really?

o.t.: yeah yeah.

house: right.

o.t.: yeah yeah.

house: it's "ash"

o.t.: yeah.....yeah [at this point sheepishly staring at the floor]

house: so you know him........

o.t.: dude, i know who that is.

house: whatever, the interesting thing about this book is how close he and buddy sam raimi have remained to this day. they went from shooting their own super 8 films back in the day, to raising hell on big budget hollywood films, and the essence of how they operate hasn't changed one bit. they're still the same misfits today as they were way back then.

o.t.: who's sam raimi?

house: [eesh] he directed spider man.

o.t.: i love that movie!!

house: and darkman.

o.t.: didn't like that too much.

house: and evil dead [you know, that you claim to know, the first and most important thing you must god damn well know if we're gonna talk about bruce freaking campbell???]

o.t.: never heard of that one.

house: that's the one where his....name....is.....ash.

other teacher: maybe i'll rent it someday. [leaves]

yeah. he's pretty cool in case you couldn't tell.

2005-12-26T11:49:00.000+09:00

Merry Xmas from your friendly neighborhood supermarket checkout girl!

2005-12-23T18:21:00.000+09:00

This is insane. I couldn't stop laughing. Prepare yourselves for "MOSHZILLA"
The super mario brothers rendition made me fall out of my seat...

http://www.labusas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=62756

2005-12-21T01:39:00.000+09:00

This is one of the most excellent music videos I've seen in a while!
"http://www.timesbeachrecords.com/media/video/MAN-MACHINE-FIRED.mov

2005-12-20T16:59:00.000+09:00

Lest we forget one of the funniest Family Guy episodes in a long time. Click to read the script!

2005-12-19T12:15:00.000+09:00

I hope people have taken notice of our TV stand. I'm pretty proud.

2005-12-18T21:42:00.000+09:00

Click on any of these to see bigger versions.

This is the new home. We've posted pictures for people back home to see. Tell one and all and leave comments so we know you're still alive. The place is small but nice. It's bloody cold outside these days, and it's very warm in here. This is a good sign as during the blistering heat of summer it should be pretty air-con efficient.

The Frig is the coolest: it looks like an ordinary cabinet to the untrained eye. Open it up and it reveals the spacious, ever-chillin' frig.. I just like to say frig.

2005-12-18T17:44:00.000+09:00

Current listenings. One is old and one is new. I got the Damned one a while ago, but spun it again (hah how the fuck do you spin an MP3?)

The Hentchmen are killer. They can best be compared to Deadly Snakes.

The Damned made a side project called "Naz Nomad and the Nightmares" and this is the one and only album they ever did. It's a covers-only (except the last two) album of 60s garage. It's good.

Come to IRC and download them. I'll be on channel #rewindtv on server Dejatoons. Or try me on Efnet, name is Vollrath. If you don't know how to use IRC ask me in the form of email or a comment.

2005-02-08T02:22:00.000+09:00

Shuttle358 is good.

This is post number two in two years.

Shuttle358. Came across them on a newsgroup by accident and they've been lulling me to sleep lately with their sweet ambient sounds. If you like this sort of thing, I highly reccommend checking them out. Check this out for more:

http://www.12k.com/shuttle358.htm

Koreans love North Koreans. It's true. Ask any Korean national what they think of Kim Jeong Il (the dear leader, whose predeceasor, Kim Il Seong, was brutal at the best of times) and they'll tell you that he's a "good man". Wow. They really stick to this whole brotherhood thing like childhood playmates who won't admit to who threw the sand into little Jimmy's eyes. Anyway, this news artice from a while ago struck me as odd:

SEOUL — North Korean scientists are said to have conducted lethal gas experiments on political prisoners in the 1970s that were still happening as recently as 2002.
In 10 hours of interviews Monday, three North Koreans detailed chilling experiments in which prisoners were placed in glass chambers and exposed to chemicals that killed them within hours, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group based in Los Angeles.

It goes on to explain that these findings were not come across by the South Korean government itself, but rather an independent human rights group in Seoul, and that the scientists (or scienticians >_< ) didn't really feel much remorse about the whole thing because these human subjects, as prisoners, were "as good as dead" anyway. The South Korean government, in fact, and this ties into the whole sticking to the brotherhood thing, criticized this information as not being condusive to reconciling differences with the mighty north. They felt that it came out at a bad time, because economic ties and blah blah blah were all better than they'd ever been before. Aww. I'm broken up. I wish more attention was paid to NK and it's insane policies because they've been getting away with this for SO fucking long now. The story finishes up with the not surprising reaction from the North's capital:

"Pyongyang denied the reports." Nuff said.

As a footnote to all this though, the reason North Korean hate the South so much is pretty solid: 1,300 years of forcing the North to starvation and denial, since the Northern land is much less fertile and much more rocky than the south. So, for years the South horded all the rice, and only called on the stronger, mountain-dwelling Northerners to fight the many attackers who came a-knockin'. Wow, I guess things will never settle down. But there's one good thing out of all this: an excellent tourist spot at the DMZ.

On to other things. The Melt-Banana show in Seoul of January 22nd, 2005!!!

Punk rock may or may not be dead, but something most excellent is alive in THIS band, for sure. That's the end of my review.

2003-09-26T20:06:00.000+09:00

Here goes.
Let the blogging begin.
I've learned by now that when things start out badly they usually stay that way. Let's hope that isn't the case with this blog.
It seems a little arrogant of me to WANT people to read this, and undoubtedly it will result in my toning down the honesty if I know people will read it. But I'll try to make it as interesting as possible for people to read back home.