Gangnam Style & 12th La Festa Degli Angeli Regular Concert

Gangnam Style
12 La Festa Degli Angeli Regular Concert 8th September 2012

This week I am reaching into the archives to bring you something a little different as it is Chuseok and I am having a good break before the busy month of blogging ahead!

Well it seems that I cannot ignore PSY Gungnam Style anymore as it seems to have taken the world by storm. I don't quite understand it myself but people outside of Korea have taken to this song like a duck to water so to speak. If you have no idea what I am talking about check out the video clip below:

At 344,000,000 views as I post this... I don't think I have ever seen anything like this on youtube before...



So as I spend almost everyday working in Gangnam I made a couple of quick video's to show you what its like there. The first one is a little shaky but the night version is much better ^^





There is also another famous street close to Gangnam called Garosugil Street. It is famous for its fashion, coffee shops and that you will generally only see young fashionable people on that street. So if you get a chance get down there and see all the beautiful people.

Sinsa Station Exit 8 walk up the road and take the first big street on your left (you should see an S-Oil Service Station to your right on the opposite side of the road. ^^



12 La Festa Degli Angeli Regular Concert 8th September 2012

My lovely friend invited me to this event as she was one of the pianists.  (정원호)

This was a wonderful performance put on at the university so I will share with you a few videos if Gangnam Style is not your thing ^^




































Well I hope you enjoyed that ^^ I guess it will take a while to load this page with all those video links... : /

Well this month is going to be a special time for you if you like air shows! There are two on this month and the first is at Ansan this weekend! It will cost 4,000 won to get in and about 6,000 for a taxi from the subway station or you can get the bus:

http://www.korea4expats.com/events-in-korea-G-Global-Aviation-in-Ansan-3-7-Oct-2012-Ansan-Gyeonggi-do-6431.html

I will be there perhaps just one day or maybe two if I feel excited about it. I will keep you posted on the Osan air show later this month.^^

Until then have a fantastic week (short week if you are in Korea).^^ See you next time!

Eminem Recovery Tour 2012 Seoul South Korea

Eminem Recovery Tour 2012 Seoul South Korea 19 August

Wow! This was a fantastic concert, one of the best I have seen. Eminem was opened by members of Slaughterhouse with their unique and exciting style of hip hop. As the rain started to come down lightly Eminem opened his act with stunning visual displays in the background of computer animated graphics or the music videos of each track he was performing. As he had some concert length songs (e.g. around 2 minutes or so for some of the popular songs) he managed to perform all of his hits from his career. Stan was a highlight as well as My name is (Slim Shady). One of the most exciting highlights was when he sung the lyrics in the my name is slim shady song "and Dr Dre said..." and all went quiet and then Dr Dre himself appeared on stage!!! He sung 2 songs before leaving the stage. Eminem also performed with Bad Meets Evil on the song Fast Lane which was also an awesome highlight.

If you get a chance to see this concert do it! It will be a fantastic experience for you!

I managed to get a handful of videos for you to experience a little of the concert so here they are. Enjoy ^^















Well that's all for this week. Check out the foreigners flea market this weekend at Gwangin... here is the link to that:
http://www.korea4expats.com/events-in-korea-Foreigners-Flea-Market-Sat-25-Aug-2012--Gwangjin-gu-Seoul-6541.html

And I guess I will post my apartment comparisons finally next week. So until than have a fantastic time!^^

Dream Concert 2012 World Cup Stadium Seoul South Korea 12 May 2012 드림콘서트 2012

드림콘서트 2012

Dream Concert 2012
12 May 2012 World Cup Stadium Seoul South Korea

Performers in Order of Appearance:

Boyfriend
A Pink
Exo-K
Davichi
Teen Top
Secret
Ailee
4Minute
2AM
MBLAQ
BEAST
KARA
B1A4
RaNia
ZE:A
T-ARA
Sistar
SNSD / Girls Generation
Infinite
2PM
TVXQ

A HUGE line up at the 2012 Dream Concert. A packed World Cup Stadium held thousands of screaming fans for what was to be a spectacular night of K-Pop. .... and you get to see it all for yourself!!!

Here is a picture of the performers before the concert:







And now the concert :) all rendered from 27G of raw data!














































































Well I hope you like the concert! I sure did :)

Remember this coming weekend is the Ink Bomb Convention all information can be found on their Facebook Page here:
http://www.facebook.com/events/194338930682858/

And next week Might be a special post of the latest Cosplay Event and maybe even The New Zealand Wine Festival... here is a sneak peek of things to come:





Stay tuned for next weeks episode! Have a fantastic week! :)

Dark Tranquility Live Seoul South Korea 31 March 2012

Dark Tranquility Live Seoul South Korea 31 March 2012

Asia Metal Festival 2012 31 March 2012 V-Hall Hongdae Seoul South Korea

** COMPETITION **

This week I am holding a competition! :)

I am giving away one CD copy of "hell hound" by the Korean Metal band "Silent Eye". Just answer this simple question:

Which country does the band Dark Tranquility come from?

You can post your answer in the comment box on my facebook page under the Dark Tranquility post:

http://www.facebook.com/RawrKorea

or simply send me an email at:

rawr.korea@gmail.com

The competition will close on Tuesday the 10th of April 2012 at 11:00am Korean time :)

I will draw a name and contact you regarding your address details and then I will post the CD to you :)

Only one entry per person please and the competition is open to everyone worldwide :)

Here is what you can win! (as you can see the jewel case has a hairline crack :( but the CD is perfect :)

Far beneath the earth the sounds of metal shook the streets of Seoul for 6 hours on Saturday. Held in V-Hall in Hongdae in the basement Koreans and foreign fans enjoyed a night of metal from four nations. Korean bands (Remnants of the Fallen, Down Hell, Ninesin and Silent Eye) were joined by bands from Taiwan (Eye of Violence), Singapore (Fall of Mirra) and the headliner Dark Tranquility from Sweden.

I was a little surprised at the "intimacy" of the venue (or how small it was) but the fans poured in and "moshed", crowd surfed and stage dived throughout the day.

I arrived late in the day (6pm the concert started at 4:30pm) so I did miss a few bands but the highlights for me were Silent Eye and Oathean. I especially enjoyed Silent Eye's song Heavy Metal (which you can see down near the middle / bottom of the page).

Dark Tranquility put on an awesome performance with Mikael Stanne (vocals) being a good sport and enjoying the friendliness of the crowd as they embraced him and the music both figuratively and literally!

Below you can see some of the action of the night. Some of the sound quality is not that great unfortunately :( however the videos give you an idea of what the concert was like :)

silent eye

----

Well that it for this weeks mammoth and time consuming post! :) I am not sure what I will have for you next week... it will be a surprise for me too! :) I will also announce the winners name for you next week. Until then have a fantastic week! :)

Judas Priest Epitaph Tour Seoul 4 February 2012

Judas Priest arrived in Korea to rock Seoul with classic Heavy Metal spanning over 40 years.

A packed out crowd gathered in one of Seoul's coldest nights to listen to music that in most cases was written and performed well before they were even born!

The show was fantastic and the band was tight illustrating why this band has outpaced father time for so long.

Rob Halford came out on stage and looked a bit stiff for the first few songs (but who wouldn't be stiff having to endure sub zero temperatures that Seoul was offering for days before this concert) but soon limbered up and was owning the stage soon after as in his prime.

The set list was a good long one covering 40 years of albums that really got the crowd excited!

the Set list follows as well as an experience of the show of the first 14 tracks.

1. Rapid Fire

2. Metal Gods

3. Heading Out To The Highway

4. Judas Rising

5. Starbreaker

6. Victim Of Changes

7. Never Satisfied

8. Diamonds And Rust (Joan Baez cover)

9. Prophecy

10. Night Crawler

11. Turbo Lover

12. Beyond The Realms of Death

13. The Sentinel

14. Blood Red Skies

15. The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown) (Fleetwood Mac cover)

16. Breaking The Law

17. Painkiller

18. The Hellion/Electric Eye

19. Hell Bent For Leather

20. You've Got Another Thing Comin'

February in Seoul for any metal head is heaven with performances still to come of:

Lamb of God -- February 12th

http://ticket.interpark.com/Global/Play/Goods/GoodsInfo.asp?GoodsCode=11018149

Opeth -- February 14th

http://ticket.interpark.com/Global/Play/Goods/GoodsInfo.asp?GoodsCode=11018671

and

Evanescence -- February 17th

http://ticket.interpark.com/Global/Play/Goods/GoodsInfo.asp?GoodsCode=11018769

So get out there and bang your head... I might just do so again soon! :)

YG Family Concert 2011 Big Bang and 2NE1 Special ! ! !

YG Family Concert 2011 was amazing! There was a HUGE line up including 2NE1 (my favorite girl group), Big Bang, Gummy, Seven, PSY and many more.

No camera's were allowed >:(

So I had to leave my big Canon camera behind...

But luckily for you and me I have my back up pocket Nikon camera :)

I didn't take any photo's because in such darkness and strange lighting and at a distance of more than a few feet the photos are not good...

However I did take 12 video's for you all to experience the concert ! ! ! :)

I only filmed Big Bang and 2NE1 and some GD and Top and that was at some risk because I was kindly told once to not use my camera and some people had theirs confiscated but I got some footage in the end :)

So here enjoy:

2NE1 ..... yay !!! :)

Big Bang..:

G Dragon and Top ... :

Wow so I hope you liked it! I picked up about 20 more youtube subscribers in just a few hours after posting so I am very happy right now :)

If you are in Korea and you get a chance to go to a K-pop concert like Big Bang or 2NE1 or another group I would recommend it definitely! Also keep a look out for Lotte Duty Free Family Concert that will probably be happening next year. I went earlier this year so you can also check out those Big Bang video's in my earlier blog posting or on my youtube account :) I will try and go again next year. Lotte Duty Free is not so hard on cameras so I hope to be able to film the whole concert if I am lucky :)

Until next week have an excellent time!!! :)

Lets Rock Festival 2011 & MMA ChangDong Station

Finally got around to updating this week :)

Saturday I found myself at the 2011 Lets Rock Festival. The event was held next to the Han river and I found the location curious as parking and ease of access to get to the event was not exactly easy... as the day went on the cars started piling up and some interesting parking places were utilized such as on the motorway or just about anywhere there was enough space for a vehicle.

The early morning was not exactly "rock" but as the night came on the harder sounding bands appeared. However the size of the crowd was not as big as I expected but it was a fun atmosphere none the less. Here is some photos and video's of what was happening there. I did not spend the whole day there but the morning and night and skipped the afternoon.

Sunday ChangDong Station right next to exit one on the right there was a free open air MMA Kickboxing event which was an all age competition from very young to adult and some of the fights were really impressive. I spent a few hours there but the sun was very hot and I went out for dinner before the night events began but here is a taste... by the way Road FC 004 is on at the Hilton Hotel on the 3rd of October... however I cannot find a google link...so.... maybe if you have a Korean friend that is into MMA they will know :)

So another "chocka block" weekend done and dusted... bring on next weekend for some more excitement! Another long weekend too! Excellent! Have a great week! :)

P.S. Have a look at one of my students websites. They have designed and made handbags from Korean leather and are available in selected stores and online. Here is the link and a few pictures :)

http://www.shopmaniagirls.com/

Lotte World All Night Hip Hop Party & Insadong Redux

Wow I am a busy bee this week! Why does Korea demand so much out of every hour of the day? I don't have enough hours in my day anymore so here is a delayed posting due to many other demands on my time (so much so that I am running a 19 hour day today and probably tomorrow as well!)

Insadong revisited finally... I took a stroll down the busy street of Insadong with pedestrians and cars / trucks!? I still cannot figure out why the street is not closed to traffic...

So if you are not familiar with Insadong it is a hot spot for foreigners looking for artwork, crafts, designer clothing, traditional dining and cafe's and just a general collecting or souvenir hunters haven.

Here are a handful of images that illustrate what I mean:

Also get a doughnut fried thingie from this stall... it will be the best 1,000 won you will spend. It is very unusual but deliciously sweet and I think I want to go back just to get another one... hmmm :)

The show:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64219328@N07/sets/72157626996633916/show/

Directions: Anguk Station Line 3 exit 6... follow the crowd. Turn left where you see the obvious :) If you cant turn left without being run over by the traffic on the street you are going the wrong way :)

Saturday night was a spontaneous trip out to Lotte World for a look at the Hip Hop All Night Party! Which started around 11.30 and was supposed to go until 5.30am. The coolest part was that Lotte World was also open as well as having the concert you could go on the rides! And compared to normal days lines there was barely anyone there so you could jump on anything you wanted without waiting... and the food stores were open too so it was like a charlie and the chocolate factory moment running around playing on all the rides and eating hot dogs! So this was really fun!

Here is a quick video of what the first 2 acts were like after that it was a rampage around Lotte World :)

Next week should be a posting which has personal significance for me :) So until than have a great week!

Lotte Duty Free Family Concert 2011 26 March!!!

WOW! Lotte Duty Free Family Concert 2011:

2AM

2PM

T-ARA

and...

BIG BANG!

Held at Olympic park on a chilly spring night surrounded by Koreans of all ages we took our seats for a unique spectacle!

The announcement came over the speakers that due to copyright issues cameras were not permitted to be used.

2pm came on stage... and cameras that you would be stopped at the airport for were being pulled out left, right and centre. I mean they were big telescopic lenses and tripod video camera's! Just about everyone was taking pictures or videoing the concert :)

Next time I will take my BIG camera since no one even attempted to enforce the no camera rule!

2pm

2am were on next and Im Seulong walked right off the end of the stage so that was dramatic for a while... the music cut and 2 - 3 minutes later they dragged him back on stage and he waved to the crowed and limped off!

T-ara

I like a few of their songs and their light show was pretty cool but I only took a couple of pictures because I was waiting for the next act on...... :)

And if you made it this far....

BIG BANG!

....and I have the complete set here that I filmed with my little hand held Nokia :)

Hands Up

Somebody to Love --- (one of my favourites :)

Cafe

Lies

Baby Baby

and...

Tonight

Oh BIG BANG arrrrrrhhhhh!!!! :)

Big thanks to my special chingu who surprised me by taking me to this concert and did some of the videoing so I could watch :) *>_<*

Well this week was a cold one... very cold indeed..

JYP The Dancer was the ticket for Thursday night. The show was pretty good. JYP was on the top of his game unfortunately the stage hands, pyro and costumes were not. Right up first was one of the stage curtains didn't come down, some of the pyrotechnics did not go off, one of the dancers tops kept falling dawn and when the stage hands were setting up a silhouette scene the back lights turned on to show them doing it. However the rest of the concert was good. One of the Wonder Girls came on to sing and he also took one of the audience members up, tied them to a bed and did some singing and... well you can figure it out from there.

Also this week on the most freezing day I went to the New Zealand Embassy to get my original Degree noterized for 29,000 Won so that I can send it back to New Zealand to get it Apostilled which is the new law that came into effect 15th November 2010. So if you have your original Degree here in Korea and you plan to stay on another year then you had better get an Apostilled copy.

Christmas was very quiet for me and I have been having a big rest over the weekend as I have been stressed out over the last 2 or 3 weeks and next week I may have to move so... I need a good break or something to relax me after that.

Here is a JYP clip so you can know what it was all about: