Last night I went to a concert of much-loved Korean protest songs from the early 1980s democracy movement. Apparently everybody knows these songs. I had heard one of them somewhere while here as it was familiar.
The show was run by my friend Cecilia Kim who also set up that concert last month at the Buddhist temple in Cheonan (she is a composer and music professor here in Seoul and definitely has a hand in a lot of things). Lucky for her and for the show, this concert (which was planned long before) just happened to play for three nights during the non-stop rallies against US beef and President Lee. Good timing, to say the least. The rallies are happening only a few blocks from the venue in Central Seoul. So the music struck an even stronger chord than usual. The concert was an amazingly intense experience for the people there, who sang along, demanded multiple encores, and were visibly moved by the experience. When people left the show, they walked to a table and got candles and walked over to the rally.
here is a bad picture of it:
It was entirely in Korean so I missed all the meaning of the lyrics, sad to say. Cecilia had invited me to play in the concert but I didn't want to tie up my free time during last few weeks here with rehearsals so I begged off. But it would have been something to play in a show that elicited that level of response.
I got to talking to an American musician now living in Beijing who wanted to walk over to the rally to buy a pair of light-up mad cow horns. He had been at the rally before but neglected to get the horns.
I myself have been steering clear of the rallies. Something about hundreds of thousands of people protesting the relationship of their country with the US made me think that I didn't need to monkey around over there. Skye had decided that she would just claim to be French should the merde hit the fan. Being fluent in French helps. Me...well I would not have much to say besides a few Spanglish words before the crowd trampled me. Or so was my thought. But I tagged along with the other guy and figured I would stay on the edge (thinking of Miss Audrey, Hank Williams' wife, singing ""Something got a hold of me"--I'll just look around...)
Anyway, it was quite something to see. City Hall plaza has been totally taken over by people, impromptu carts and tents, live broadcasters, and many people milling around with candles, picnicking, and so on. Really an amazing transformation. (There are a couple of articles about the trampled square here and here)
All of my pictures of the rally are terrible. It was really dark and I just had my dinky camera which takes bad pictures in the dark.
We did get some mad cow horns. The horns come with a Korean flag to wave. Here is a seller
You have to appreciate the speed with which this has been commodified. There were dozens of people selling the horns. (I guess they can sell them again when the antichrist returns to earth and there are more rallies.)
Here is me with some horns on next to a paper mache statue of a bull charging with some injured man on top. This picture is worthless.
marginally better pic of the bull (the flash ones were worse, so this is what I have)
Much better picture of the horns, modeled by Miss Lark back at home this morning
We were leaving the rally at City hall Plaza and turned to go home when I figured I should at least go check out the scene toward the palace up the street, where the police barricades were. This seemed like too big an happening in modern Korean history not to have least seen it. Further up there roads there bands, people selling food, and then a large mass of people with flags and lots of chants. I did see several signs with the picture of the US ambassador Alexander Vershbow. It occurred to me to wonder how many Americans could identify any ambassador to or from the United States.
I encountered zero hostility and generally people seemed good natured. There were many thousands of people there but nothing like the pictures from earlier in the week when it was an order of magnitude bigger. They do seem to be having an impact, as the beef deal might be renegotiated and the president is definitely in retreat and reconfigure mode.
Here is an interesting Asia Times story about the tenor of these protests.
One interesting thing to read is
The show was run by my friend Cecilia Kim who also set up that concert last month at the Buddhist temple in Cheonan (she is a composer and music professor here in Seoul and definitely has a hand in a lot of things). Lucky for her and for the show, this concert (which was planned long before) just happened to play for three nights during the non-stop rallies against US beef and President Lee. Good timing, to say the least. The rallies are happening only a few blocks from the venue in Central Seoul. So the music struck an even stronger chord than usual. The concert was an amazingly intense experience for the people there, who sang along, demanded multiple encores, and were visibly moved by the experience. When people left the show, they walked to a table and got candles and walked over to the rally.
here is a bad picture of it:
It was entirely in Korean so I missed all the meaning of the lyrics, sad to say. Cecilia had invited me to play in the concert but I didn't want to tie up my free time during last few weeks here with rehearsals so I begged off. But it would have been something to play in a show that elicited that level of response.
I got to talking to an American musician now living in Beijing who wanted to walk over to the rally to buy a pair of light-up mad cow horns. He had been at the rally before but neglected to get the horns.
I myself have been steering clear of the rallies. Something about hundreds of thousands of people protesting the relationship of their country with the US made me think that I didn't need to monkey around over there. Skye had decided that she would just claim to be French should the merde hit the fan. Being fluent in French helps. Me...well I would not have much to say besides a few Spanglish words before the crowd trampled me. Or so was my thought. But I tagged along with the other guy and figured I would stay on the edge (thinking of Miss Audrey, Hank Williams' wife, singing ""Something got a hold of me"--I'll just look around...)
Anyway, it was quite something to see. City Hall plaza has been totally taken over by people, impromptu carts and tents, live broadcasters, and many people milling around with candles, picnicking, and so on. Really an amazing transformation. (There are a couple of articles about the trampled square here and here)
All of my pictures of the rally are terrible. It was really dark and I just had my dinky camera which takes bad pictures in the dark.
We did get some mad cow horns. The horns come with a Korean flag to wave. Here is a seller
You have to appreciate the speed with which this has been commodified. There were dozens of people selling the horns. (I guess they can sell them again when the antichrist returns to earth and there are more rallies.)
Here is me with some horns on next to a paper mache statue of a bull charging with some injured man on top. This picture is worthless.
marginally better pic of the bull (the flash ones were worse, so this is what I have)
Much better picture of the horns, modeled by Miss Lark back at home this morning
We were leaving the rally at City hall Plaza and turned to go home when I figured I should at least go check out the scene toward the palace up the street, where the police barricades were. This seemed like too big an happening in modern Korean history not to have least seen it. Further up there roads there bands, people selling food, and then a large mass of people with flags and lots of chants. I did see several signs with the picture of the US ambassador Alexander Vershbow. It occurred to me to wonder how many Americans could identify any ambassador to or from the United States.
I encountered zero hostility and generally people seemed good natured. There were many thousands of people there but nothing like the pictures from earlier in the week when it was an order of magnitude bigger. They do seem to be having an impact, as the beef deal might be renegotiated and the president is definitely in retreat and reconfigure mode.
Here is an interesting Asia Times story about the tenor of these protests.
One interesting thing to read is
"But things aren't so lovely all the time. As the protests have stretched into weeks, the familiar protest tools such as steel pipes and rocks have also surfaced, spelling an omen for possible violence and bloodshed.
For example, Friday will mark the sixth anniversary of the death of two Korean middle school girls who were run over by a US armored vehicle - a very emotional issue for many South Koreans. What is also worrisome is that the month of June in South Korea is traditionally a season for annual labor protests.
Already some labor groups have designated June 16 as a walk-out day. Then comes June 25, the Korean War Memorial Day. It's likely that the rightist groups will take to the streets at that time to protest against the leftist groups, who they believe are fooled by Pyongyang and sympathetic towards North Korea.
There will be many more pickets, chants, roses, candles, silkworm larvae and DVDs - it won't be a quiet month. "
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