in reverse order

I went down south this weekend.  A four hour ride in a rickety old train and we found ourselves stepping out into a small farming town peppered with traces of a very ancient Korea.  

Seoul is a mega city; almost half of the population of the entire nation resides in this entanglement of buildings, cars, wires, and people.  Seoul represents a big portion of Korea's impression on the world.  High tech city, arts, fashion, cell phones, LG, Samsung, Kia, Hyundai, and kimchi.  But there is another forgotten part; the countryside.  Sitting almost untouched by the hand of development and commercialization, the history is projected by the living and breathing people who consume these smaller cities.  Generations of laboring in the hot sun is etched into every wrinkle of their shrunken faces.  Whereas a thriving population of young and old inhabit the mega city, it's quite a different scene outside of its boarders.  The most prominent faces you see are much older, much, much older.    

Over 50 years ago, Korea was dirt poor; an agrarian society that had survived through an occupation almost stripping them of their identity and a war that just about broke them.  The story of Korea's growth is definitely one for the books, and one that is studied by ambitious countries hoping to find their own Lucky Gold (LG) pot.  

I'm finding it hard to put my thoughts into words, I suppose it's because I haven't been sleeping, but also because I don't write anymore.  All I really wanted to say is that I seriously love every part outside of Seoul.  I love that there's so much life and history that has been carried through the generations.  You can see and feel this sense of...I don't know what it is, but something that is so void in the city.  

It's the pace.  I love the pace and the peacefulness.  Here's a few captures from what Seoullites unaffectionately term the "shegwol" (countryside) of Korea.  Enjoy :)  

  

Sky Park

Some shots I took at 하늘 공원 (sky park) across from the World Cup Stadium.

Moloko - The Time Is Now

An oldie but a goodie...reminds me of driving through oc in the middle of the night. Volume up, windows down, with the faint smell of moist lawns from the sprinklers and a distant sea breeze twirling through my spaceship...35 more days!!!

crumbling stones

I stood staring at this building for the longest time.  

Last week, while I was waiting on some friends to see the Steve McCurry exhibition, I took a walk around the area.  I turned into a little alley and was instantly smacked in the face with the smell of sizzling food.  It was lunch time.  

As I was sauntering down the street, I came across this building.  I couldn't stop staring at it.  I kept wishing that the contemporary structure behind it would somehow vanish.  Apparently this little building had burned a while ago.  There were pictures of protests that happened in front of it.  

Something about dingy old buildings really gets to me.  So much history etched into it's rough exterior.  It once was a new building, with a layer of silky paint.  Life existed inside, but now, only exists around and beside it.  It's just waiting, waiting to be erased from history.  Why does that make me sad?  I need to go to bed.

Good night!    

    

untitled

eyes gaze into a daydream.

forgetting feelings of the present reality,

the mind moves through possibilities.

sliding through the wet paint, 

the brush sweeps strokes

evoking new dimensions of color.

bright sounds cast shadows in warm hues,

as water dillutes to the tunes of walking hums,

and the heart rests under a willow tree.

hands collide to the down beets, 

entangled mess of bliss.

fingertips kiss.

namdaemun

little burst

of color

around

each

plastic corner