Another Old Photo

taken inside my old flat.

I miss the collection of books, music and movies that filled it before it became necessary for me to move back to Korea after a lifetime in Los Angeles.  But after spending a fortune to have all my artwork professionally packed and insured and shipped off to Korea, I simply ran out of budget and couldn't afford to have all the other stuff sent along, too.

Many of the LPs were part of my father's collection, but the rest were all my own, collected over the decades.  Now when I look up the books I used to own, it's shocking how rare and expensive some of them are.  Some are long out of print and can't even be found.  I found a used copy of The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles Finney with the famous hallucinatory illustrations by Boris Artzybasheff -- the edition I used to own -- offered for sale at AbeBooks at $600 USD.  Another edition (also used) was listed at $2000!  As for the movies, aside from the usual classics and popular favorites I had also accumulated all sorts of lesser-known and obscure titles, artsy experimental films and cult favorites on DVD, now all but impossible to track down.  And hundreds of Korean movies.

Speaking of which, for the longest time I had little interest in Korean culture (aside from a few favored Korean restaurants) and had no interaction with the larger Korean community in L.A. unless strictly necessary.  Then, in 2003 I came across a newly-released Korean movie called A Tale of Two Sisters (directed by Kim, Jee Woon and remade in the States in 2009 as The Uninvited), gave it a try and I was hooked!  It was beautiful, complex, scary, mysterious and bittersweet -- even the soundtrack was wonderfully poignant, and remains among my favorite compositions to this day.  My eyes were opened to a whole new world of cinema (and by extension... yes, to Korean music and drama series as well😏) and I started collecting Korean movies left and right.  And not satisfied with just watching them by myself, I started going over to my friend Evelyn's house every few weeks with a few Korean DVDs to watch with her (she was an Emmy-winning script writer;  she spent a great deal of her time watching all sorts of movies in any case, both for her work and for personal pleasure... R.I.P., Ev).  I even formed a group with local Mensa members that met downtown once a month to have dinner, walk over to my place and watch Korean movies.  Some of those movies were hard-to-find small productions and simply can't be found any more, whether online or as DVD.  I guess I'll never stop missing them.  They were a big part of my life.

A K-drama Really Made An Impression On Me

I watched this TV series, The Sound of Magic (thank you, Netflix).

Yes, the title is a play on The Sound of Music (actually, that's the English title for the global Netflix audience;  the original Korean title, taken directly from the webtoon the show is based on, is Annara Sumanara, which is a made-up incantation perhaps intended to recall the well-known Sanskrit mantra sri sri mahasri susri svaha), but still, the show IS a musical and it really is about magic, and this line from one of its episodes rang true for me:  "Magic isn't about making miracles, but finding them".

As I've said before, magic really is where you find it (hey, maybe the producers of this show read my blog).

Related posts:  magic

A Mildly Amusing Coincidence

Just now, while sitting at my desk checking out this and that online, I heard a car horn sound down in the parking lot.  It was just a single brief note, but for whatever reason, to my ears it sounded exactly like the A-flat note that begins the "Pink Soldiers" theme from the popular thriller "Squid Game".

And as I was mulling this over, it was quickly followed by another staccato honk, one and a half intervals lower and the correct second note to establish the haunting opening of the theme music.

[Photo and sheet music nicked off the Net]

Here's a quick listen, courtesy of YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7uTnxYFDSw

Synchronistic Event #18

Just now (about 8:30 PM), I was watching the K-drama 'You're Beautiful'/미남이시네요 on DVD.  In episode 13 there is a scene in which the Bad Girl barges into the home of The Three Gorgeous Guys and demands that they make her lunch.  They are soon joined by the Good Girl Who Must Pretend To Be A Guy (with whom all three Gorgeous Guys are in love, naturally -- but only two of them know she's really a girl;  the third Gorgeous Guy thinks he's fallen in love with a guy but can't help himself).  As they eat, the Bad Girl snaps a photo of one of the Gorgeous Guys looking at the Good Girl with a yearning gaze, and begins to suspect something is going on between the two of them.  Anyway, the click of the shutter button on-screen was immediately followed by a real flash of light outside my window.  I'm on the 6th floor, so I only saw the reflection off the facade of the building across the street, but it sure looked like a camera flash.  Hmm...

[K-drama = Korean (South, that is^) television miniseries, usually lasting 16 to 20 episodes, two per week.  'You're Beautiful' from 2009 remains popular with fans in many countries;  a Japanese remake called 'Ikemen Desu Ne'/美男ですね recently completed its run]

It occurs to me a significant portion of these Synchronistic Events have occurred while I was watching K-entertainment.  Wonder if that means anything -- like guilty pleasures can put a person into an altered state?  LOL

The Borg and K-Dramas

For a long time I was proud to count myself firmly on the side of the Borg... you know the Borg -- that efficient, straight-ahead thinking, simplistic-in-the-best-sense-of-the-word 'race' of cyborgs from the 'Star Trek' franchise, who always did the pragmatic thing. In whatever situation they encountered, they always did what was best for the Borg. Being a simple sort myself, I liked their rational, uncomplicated way of life. Also, all the Borg were mentally connected in a kind of cybernetic telepathy. Everybody knew everything they needed to know. No one had to learn anything, because knowledge was transferred effortlessly through the Hive Mind -- maybe one could call it the 'BorgWeb'. There was no personal ambition because it was pointless and unnecessary. Life was simple. Well, just now I was watching the next-to-last episode of the Korean TV drama Personal Taste (개인의 취향), and all of a sudden I found myself tearing up over the trials and tribulations of the hero and the heroine (yeah, well...). Not only had I suddenly realized that I love humanity's failings, but I couldn't contain myself about it and I had to go and e-mail my friends about my sudden epiphany. O.K., maybe it was the beer and the Sangria I'd consumed shortly before, but anyway this is the message I sent:

"Haha... here's a total non sequitur -- I just realized something; I was in the midst of watching the penultimate episode of 'Personal Taste', and you know what, I just realized I don't wanna be a Borg any more... all the stupid shortcomings of humanity -- the little rituals, the misunderstandings, the stormy emotions, the love and the passion and the guilt and the making up and the joy and the tragedy -- there's just too much fun to be had in being irrational and imperfect. I pine for my lost loves and missed opportunities and the 'what if's and the frustration and whatnot, but I wouldn't trade them for bland perfection in a millennium of Sundays! That said, I'm still waiting for the implantable microcomputer for my brain :D"

Wow, I really sound drunk! Thank you, K-dramas... you're totally awesome!

Location, Location, Location

I was driving home yesterevening in some pretty unusual weather -- hot yet cloudy through most of the day, partly dry and partly humid -- when I noticed, some distance ahead, what looked like extremely localized pockets of rain. The sinking sun was selectively lighting up the clouds in the northwestern sky and making the precipitation stand out. The rest of the sky was mostly clear, though. Odd.

When rain fell from a clear sky I understand people in parts of the western world used to say the Devil was beating his wife, and the rain was her tears.

I recently learned that in Korea, people used to say of the same phenomenon that somewhere a magical creature, the fabled nine-tailed fox of folklore, must be crying. How do I know? I've been watching the K-drama My Girlfriend, the Nine-Tailed Fox (내여자친구는 구미호) -- a fantasy about a likable slacker dude who acquires a beautiful girlfriend, unaware that she is in reality a 500-year old magic fox. With nine tails. Which she keeps hidden when in human form.

On the show, whenever she feels sad and cries (mostly due to the guy's thoughtless behavior -- it seems that, despite being so old and powerful, she's an amateur when it comes to the emotional complexities of life as a human), it begins to rain, no matter that the sky was perfectly clear a moment before.

Anyway, as I neared the glowing columns, some drops of rain did hit the windshield, so I guess I was right about the localized rain. But as I continued driving along the 101 freeway and neared the Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral (which occupies a commanding position overlooking the freeway), I noticed something which quite stood out, and made me stare:

O.K., I didn't exactly break out in a cold sweat, but really, with its elongate shape it was pretty striking -- it almost looked like a soaring lick of flame in the sky. And not only that, with a little imagination you can see a standing female figure there, clad in a robe/veil (burqa?^), above (or standing/riding on) whatever the other thing is (which looks to me like a dove!). There is even a faint hint of a nimbus behind 'her' head. And considering the proximity of the cathedral, I daresay there are people who would not hesitate to say that, that column of floating water droplets/fox tears/mystical flame, was actually the sign of a 'presence' hovering over the cathedral. I love it!