Out and About

I'm taking less pictures lately. I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do, but I decided to try to focus more on the technique and aesthetics of each shot I take rather than just randomly taking photos of every interesting thing. I'm taking some photos on film too, which means that will take forever and a day before I remember to develop them, scan them and put them online.

I got lost near Namdaemun and I stumbled upon a small row of Chinese food supply shops, where I picked up a package of Hong Kong-style shrimp noodles. I'm not sure I'd be able to find this area again except that it was in a street near a Shinhan Bank, and I had just walked by a strip of creepy "business" clubs. Actually I kinda want to go back there to photograph the funky neon signs, but maybe I'll go mid-day mid-week when there are less drunk creepy guys around. Although I'm sure the signs will look nicer at night... I'm eating the shrimp noodles now, somehow they're not as yummy as I had anticipated. I'm quite sure the shrimp noodles I used to have back home had more... shrimp taste... to them.

Lately i've been frequenting a new cafe to do my freelance work. It's called T+ in Daehangno and they have free Wifi. I'm liking them a lot better than the Starbucks in the Somerset building because the Wifi is more consistent, there are outlets EVERYWHERE, the coffee's better, and once when I was there with the Seoul Stitch 'N Bitch group, they were handing out free plates of pasta for "service." Whole plates of pasta, for free. Today someone came around handing out free Chupa Chups. That's just awesome.

Sunday night, on a whim we went to Evans in Hongdae to listen to some live jazz. The bill listed a band called the 성기문 트리오 (Song Ki-Mun Trio). We really didn't know what to expect, we hadn't heard of the trio before and this was only the second time we'd been to Evans. The three performers settled into their seats in the cozy dark club, one man at the piano, another gripping a huge bass and another behind the drum set.

The pianist silently hunched over the keyboard, then with 3 fingers carefully began to trace a melody, starting to sketch out a story. It was like he was gently beckoning the audience down a road into a forest; his left hand, the bass, the drummer joined in and fleshed out the details, painted an image, the song became an intricately woven tale. The pianist looked at the bass player, the bass player nodded to the drummer, the music shifted it's rhythm and tone with a few graceful chords. I found myself amazed and wondering what kind of wordless communication they had with one another. Sometimes it's fun to see a rollicking band with a lot of bravado on stage, but these guys were more low key, and when each man took his solo it was a kind of soft subtle shift that you barely noticed at first. It was clear that the pianoman was the lead, but he didn't portray any arrogance whatsoever. It was simply as if he had a story to tell, and the piano was his voicebox.

We'd been listening for 15 minutes before I realized they've been playing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" all along, only dancing around the outline of the melody, deviating and returning to its main chords teasingly, before graciously tossing out the tune to "he's gonna find out who's naughty or nice" to the audience, causing a few listeners to laugh and nod in sudden recognition. Throughout 2 sets, Song Ki-mun didn't speak much, only briefly interrupting the performance to introduce his bandmembers or relate the name of a song. I got the feeling that he was not much of a talker, but felt more comfortable speaking through the keyboard than with words. Two hours later we left the club with smiles on our faces, souls uplifted by the great performance we'd just witnessed. I wouldn't mind going to a jazz club every weekend in Seoul for that kind of refreshment...

Here's a cyworld video of the Song Ki Mun Trio.

I LOVE this. Via kottke.