With three weddings to attend in the next two months, it seems to me that from year to year, like birthdays, they come in clusters. In a few years will come the christenings all clumped together - perhaps it's some weird law of nature whereby some kind of pattern emerges if you look at it, um, in a kind of cod-scientific way.
Well, for the less space-minded I suppose the answer for most of these things is logical in that weddings come together because people usually want to get married in the spring/summer months; birthdays are just random so you're bound to know a few people with birthdays close to each other unless you're a hermit; and people of your age who are married will probably sprog babies at roughly the same time, hence christenings will not be too far apart either.
The time to be worried is if you start having to attend multiple funerals...
23.5.05
18.5.05
Direct Seating
Well, carrying on with London's 3rd Korean Film Festival, I went along to see the closing film (Windstruck) last Friday with friends Robbierto and The Sash. Arriving 35 minutes before the screening we thought we'd left ample time but didn't reckon on the popularity of the film (or perhaps it was because it was Friday plus the film was free), as the queue stretched all the way into Leicester Square and round the corner to The Empire. Which in short, was very long.
Dutifully we queued, as more and more people joined behind us and eventually the line of people snaking out in front of us slowly crept forwards as the organisers finally began to hand out free tickets at the head of our shivering procession. Having waited for half an hour in the queue and getting within sight of the entrance, the cinema must have been reaching capacity as organisers began running past us down the queue to count heads.
We started to fret that we'd waited freezing in the queue only to get to the final few people and not get in. The guy at the front informed us all that they were down to the last handful of tickets as we edged closer, realising that it was going to be a close call. When we finally reached the front there were only two tickets left. Typical. I told the other two to go for it as I'd already seen one of the festival films earlier that day, but then a Korean guy amongst the organisers stepped forward and seeing we were together said he was holding a single ticket which he offered me, and so thanking him in korean (kamsa hamnida!) I went in with the others.
Having taken our seats upstairs in the circle (the last time I'd been up there at the Prince Charles was years ago), we'd just settled down to wait for the film when the guy who'd given me my ticket appeared onstage in front of the screen and introduced the film and then himself as its director (Kwak Jae-Young)!!
Dutifully we queued, as more and more people joined behind us and eventually the line of people snaking out in front of us slowly crept forwards as the organisers finally began to hand out free tickets at the head of our shivering procession. Having waited for half an hour in the queue and getting within sight of the entrance, the cinema must have been reaching capacity as organisers began running past us down the queue to count heads.
We started to fret that we'd waited freezing in the queue only to get to the final few people and not get in. The guy at the front informed us all that they were down to the last handful of tickets as we edged closer, realising that it was going to be a close call. When we finally reached the front there were only two tickets left. Typical. I told the other two to go for it as I'd already seen one of the festival films earlier that day, but then a Korean guy amongst the organisers stepped forward and seeing we were together said he was holding a single ticket which he offered me, and so thanking him in korean (kamsa hamnida!) I went in with the others.
Having taken our seats upstairs in the circle (the last time I'd been up there at the Prince Charles was years ago), we'd just settled down to wait for the film when the guy who'd given me my ticket appeared onstage in front of the screen and introduced the film and then himself as its director (Kwak Jae-Young)!!
12.5.05
Quid Pro Quo
Well that's how it usually goes in this world, there's not much that comes for free. In a city where a pint of beer can cost three pounds plus for the privelege of sitting in the bland identikit environs of some ubiquitous chain pub, and a one stop bus journey costs over a pound, it's almost taken for granted that you have to pay above the odds in London. So it's refreshing and actually astonishing that the 3rd London Korean Film Festival is a free event, running for the duration of this week down at the Prince Charles Cinema (I was trying to think what the catch was - we wouldn't be released from the cinema until we'd help make an industrial batch of kimchi???).
Films featured include recent releases as well as acknowledged Korean classics such as 1960's Hanyo (The Housemaid). Four films a day are being shown, all selected to show different facets of Korean cinema in a bid to appeal to a wider international audience. In recent years Korean film has come to the fore in Asia and critical awareness has gradually grown following the success of films like Oldboy, which took the Grand Prix at last year's Cannes Film Festival. The quality and originality of some contemporary Korean film is testified by their proposed Hollywood remakes, eg Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo (My Sassy Girl), Janghwa, Hongryeon (A Tale of Two Sisters) and Oldboy, all of which must surely lose something of their originals' essence in the translation as remakes generally fail to match the originals.
Having been to quite a few film festivals, this one isn't as grand in scale as others but the organisation has been as good, especially in dealing with the numbers of people who are turning up given that it's a free event at a single venue (the tickets are released half an hour before each screening on a first come first served basis so there's some good queueing going on!). Overall, it's a fantastic free event which doesn't happen everyday and plus they give you a free bottle of bulgogi marinade sauce on entry, so you can run home afterwards and whip up a batch of bulgogi stir-fried beef for your dinner - what more could you ask for?!
Films featured include recent releases as well as acknowledged Korean classics such as 1960's Hanyo (The Housemaid). Four films a day are being shown, all selected to show different facets of Korean cinema in a bid to appeal to a wider international audience. In recent years Korean film has come to the fore in Asia and critical awareness has gradually grown following the success of films like Oldboy, which took the Grand Prix at last year's Cannes Film Festival. The quality and originality of some contemporary Korean film is testified by their proposed Hollywood remakes, eg Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo (My Sassy Girl), Janghwa, Hongryeon (A Tale of Two Sisters) and Oldboy, all of which must surely lose something of their originals' essence in the translation as remakes generally fail to match the originals.
Having been to quite a few film festivals, this one isn't as grand in scale as others but the organisation has been as good, especially in dealing with the numbers of people who are turning up given that it's a free event at a single venue (the tickets are released half an hour before each screening on a first come first served basis so there's some good queueing going on!). Overall, it's a fantastic free event which doesn't happen everyday and plus they give you a free bottle of bulgogi marinade sauce on entry, so you can run home afterwards and whip up a batch of bulgogi stir-fried beef for your dinner - what more could you ask for?!
6.5.05
What No Vote?
No surprises this morning following yesterday's general election in the UK with Tony Blair still in the driving seat, trying desperately to move away from the Iraq issue where he and President Bush went on a joyride looking for a downtown bar called WMD. They got lost on the way and managed to do a hit-and-run on a vagrant locally known as the Saddistic Hussy, taking out a few innocent civilians in the process. Most of the locals are reported to be glad to be free of this neighbourhood scourge, but this came at a price as B&B also caused a fair amount of collateral damage on their rampage. Finding plenty of accomodating petrol stations nearby, their cruise continues.
Blair is now doing his best as a politician to squirm away from these recent controversial international issues to re-focus on domestic ones such as health, employment, education etc - everything a government usually does to try and avert the public's attention from its international activities to its home affairs. An attempt to reassure the public that the government is thinking about the state of the nation as opposed to merely lavishing its attention and resources on far-flung shores at the neglect of home issues.
This comes as a postscript to the election win as Labour try to regroup following a victorious but bruising campaign in which they have seen their majority representation drastically reduced. Blair has survived for a third term in office but the contentious Iraq War has obviously hurt his party's political power as the voting shows. It can only be hoped that he fulfills his reconciliatory promises regarding domestic issues as there are many which need addressing. Then again, he's a politician so perhaps Elvis will turn up in a UFO piloted by a pair of Ewoks before anything actually happens.
As it is, I didn't vote yesterday - not merely out of apathy and disillusionment, but the more important factors of not having been sent ballot papers and disappearing off the electoral roll. I was registered to vote before, so must have fallen through the system and am now invisible in a way. However, my latest payslip tells me that the tax office can most definitely still see me.
Blair is now doing his best as a politician to squirm away from these recent controversial international issues to re-focus on domestic ones such as health, employment, education etc - everything a government usually does to try and avert the public's attention from its international activities to its home affairs. An attempt to reassure the public that the government is thinking about the state of the nation as opposed to merely lavishing its attention and resources on far-flung shores at the neglect of home issues.
This comes as a postscript to the election win as Labour try to regroup following a victorious but bruising campaign in which they have seen their majority representation drastically reduced. Blair has survived for a third term in office but the contentious Iraq War has obviously hurt his party's political power as the voting shows. It can only be hoped that he fulfills his reconciliatory promises regarding domestic issues as there are many which need addressing. Then again, he's a politician so perhaps Elvis will turn up in a UFO piloted by a pair of Ewoks before anything actually happens.
As it is, I didn't vote yesterday - not merely out of apathy and disillusionment, but the more important factors of not having been sent ballot papers and disappearing off the electoral roll. I was registered to vote before, so must have fallen through the system and am now invisible in a way. However, my latest payslip tells me that the tax office can most definitely still see me.
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