why can’t have everything?

I tell you, sometimes when you drop just one or two words from an English sentence, the result is simply hilarious. At least when you’re walking down the street in seoul and you see a lovely young Korean girl gabbing on her cell phone wearing a shirt that says, very loudly, “why can’t have everything?” indeed. Why can’t have everything? Because then there would be nothing left, jim said.

We made the trip to seoul, finally. It was a trip, for sure, complete with lots of men in uniform, falafel and shawerma, a candy-colored wonderland, and a new piece of art! Read on for more!

Just as a teaser: the best (and only) graffiti art we’ve seen in korea: kim jong il and beauty queens, side by side…

We decided to head up north to visit with an old friend of jim’s who he played scrabble with while in Prague for new year’s 2003. he told him to look him up if he was ever in korea. Well here we are. And we found him in seoul. So, we took the three-hour train to the city of 10 million, and with only a few minor squabbles over directions, based almost entirely on low blood sugar and the fact that we were in f*ing seoul, we made it to the neighborhood where we were staying. Gwangwha, I believe. Very close to the primary palace in Seoul – Gyeongbokgung, the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty.

We puttered around for a while –had an actual, real live sandwich from Au Bon Pain, which, though slightly bizarre, was simply divine. Walked down the street and found a variety of giant sculptures, as per usual, one of which was a bronzed horse reared up on its hind legs. From behind, it was amazing. Beautiful. From the front, it sho’ did look like the artist’s models were hit with the ugly stick pretty damn hard.



Found a giant temple and a huge, imposing statue of Admiral Yi who fought back the Japanese in the 1500’s. Found the US Embassy, which, as would be expected, is heavily fortified with what looked to be very young boys armed with large machine guns. Lots of barbed wire. Nothing inviting or appealing of the place whatsoever. We actually almost walked right by it, thinking it was a prison or something, saying things like, jeez, the map says the embassy is right here. Where is it? Way to roll out the welcome mat, America!

Found our hotel, got the room (₩ 40,000 ~ $45) and walked into this tiny little space with a variety of lovely accoutrements, including a GIANT flat screen tv on the wall. Seriously. Giant. Like it took up the whole wall. And, kind as the Koreans are, the room came complete with a hair dryer and a number of hair products. Though not in the western style, where every time a new hotel patron stays in the room they swap out the products for brand new ones. No, this looked like we had just walked into somebody’s bachelor-style apartment, complete with a tube of toothpaste, half-rolled up. Pretty awesome.

We headed out to the palace. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It was the largest palace in Asia, outside of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The grounds of the palace stretch for miles. Several huge structures leading straight back to the king’s and queen’s quarters with ancillary buildings all over the place. A scientific building where they set up telescopes. A garden, a lake for boating, a pond for pondering. Incredible. The palace was destroyed in the 1592 Japanese invasion and was rebuilt in 1868. To this day, it continues to be restructured and rebuilt, having suffered damaged during the 1920s and again during the Korean War. It’s a bit like Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia – continuous construction for about a 100 years. There are a few pics here, but please do check out the complete set on my Flickr site. It was an incredible place.

And when we got there, there was a summer concert series gearing up for the evening. So we caught the rehearsal of some young guys doing traditional Korean drumming. Check out the video here…



After 4 hours of walking we were exhausted, so we headed out of the palace to find some coffee. As we wandered down the street, away from the palace, the police presence was intense. (Across the street from the palace is the presidential palace.) Tons of dudes in uniform for blocks and blocks. And young dudes, too. High school. And road blocks made out of flower planters. Fascinating.

We made our way down the street and found a lovely café called “fan” – "fan yourself with an artbook", to be exact. They served coffee for ₩4,500 (~$5) so I almost passed it up, but jim insisted we take a peek. He’s always thinkin’, that one. It was the tiniest of coffee shops. Lovely, eclectic, full of art books and magazines all over the shelves. Little metal chairs and Lucite tables. Custom funky seat covers. Not only did they serve coffee in old-style espresso pots, they had art gallery flyers all over the counter. Which, of course, made me a happy girl. Art! In Korea! Yay. One in particular caught my eye for its candy-colored spectacularness – a flyer for the opening of smile planet. How could we go wrong seeking out smile planet?? We also found this little gem hiding in the corner of the counter. I thought it was good inspiration for my new teacher’s uniform. What do you think?

so, satiated and caffeinated, we headed home to dash off to dinner with jim’s buddy. And so we decked out, and left for a night out in seoul. jim’s friend suggested we meet up in Itaewon. Now, if you know anything about seoul, you know that this is: a) the only place in korea you can get falafel; b) the neighborhood where you’re most like to see bar brawls; and c) the general epicenter of US G.I.s, hence the bar brawls. After a dizzying walk down the street where I definitely felt like I had been dropped into Cancun at the height of spring break, passing lots of big dudes, girls with dyed blond hair and bad-sexy fashion and a general smattering of abercrombie and fitch strolling down the street, we made it to the first middle eastern food place we saw. For a hefty price, we ate falafel and lamb shawerma, and we were happy. Yes indeed. Very happy.

We had some time to kill, so we hit a bar jim’s friend recommended for eats. I’m not sure if it was the bouncers in flack jackets at the doors or the bevy of football player-like physique carrying pitchers of beer back to their darts game that tipped me off – we weren’t in Kansas anymore, my dear. Not by a long shot. I surveyed the scene, took a deep (smokefilled) breath in and said, “honey, this was college.” Indeed, we could have been at mary ann’s or the kells on a Saturday night. Or maybe mary ann’s in a war zone, given the flack jackets and army boys. We got some beers, sidled up to a faux fireplace, and took in the ambience. Not five minutes pass before three fully suited Army CPP officers walk straight into the bar, each taking a different direction. One stood behind us and chatted with a soldier (I presume) about whether or not he was drunk. I guess they survey the bars on the weekends every 10 minutes or so, looking for army boys breaking curfew and the like. Fully uniformed, fully armed. Fascinating. We left a few minutes later, eager to catch a breath of air. Met up with jim’s friend and spent the rest of the night in far more chill environs – an English pub where most patrons were in the 30 and over, and way over category. Beatles, Elvis Costello and a little Sinatra played on the juke box. We played kododi and I got to drink stella. Very nice indeed.

And now for the end of the adventure. We headed out the next day to Insadong, a neighborhood pretty close to where we were staying. We wandered through a maze of back alley streets, tons of little restaurants and mysteries. We came to the end, found a little gallery and walked up some stairs to the unknown. The art was interesting. The curator spoke English and was kind enough to take us around the corner to smile planet. It was on the 6th floor of a building next door. We hit the ground floor which was a store mostly filled with traditional Korean art—fans, tea pots, masks, etc. but there was one little corner in the front run by an artists collective called “sang.”

“Sang is the place where art coexists with everyone’s daily life. It is the small art market administered by several young, fine artists. These artists select some fine works of art and reproduce them. It is the market place for art communicating with daily life through the products from the art work.”

It was here that I fell in love with a little piece down at the bottom of a bookshelf. An artist named Sung Myung Chun had just finished an installation nearby called "Swallowing the Shadows." though all in korean, what I got from the description was that the show was about a man who enters a forest and encounters many strange things and emotions. He regresses into his life as a young boy and spends his time in the forest trying to rid himself of his shadow. All the pieces in the show were made out of rough, white plaster. Some were eerie, some violent, but all very melancholy. Not unlike the film I finally watched last night – Pan’s Labyrinth – beauty and pain wrapped tightly together.

So the piece. A small boy stands on a tightrope. Himself slate gray, he wears a little cape against a field of minty green-blue. The inscription in Korean reads something like: my body is heavy, it is better than me. Not totally sure on it yet. Need to work with it a bit. The piece, though appearing to be a canvas, is actually all plaster, with a metal wire attached. The girl who sold it to me was so sweet. she said I couldn’t buy the one of the shelf; I needed to order one and the artist would have to make another, ready for pick up in 2 weeks. When I explained I live in Gwangju and had no idea when I would get back to Seoul, she went outside to make a phone call. She came back with the answer from the artist: I could take the piece that day. She even gave me the beautiful hand-crafted metal stand that held it up. Truly a lovely experience. And a lovely piece. It’s found it’s home next to our little gizmo and jims gorgeous antique Chinese compass he picked up on the very same street. A lovely afternoon. And…finally…we headed to smile planet.

We stepped off the elevator on the 6th floor and were greeted with a sight I could never have imagined. Chandeliers of candy-colored plastic and glass wrapped in vibrant colored yarn hung from the ceilings. It wasn’t just a gallery. It wasn’t just a store. It was a café, a bar, an art studio, a kitsch-covered, candy-coated wonderland. It was smile planet. The centerpiece was a white lacquer bar lined with cherry apple red bar stools, modern and sleek. The bar itself housed an impressive collection of, yes, Barbie dolls. Held under glass, as if in a state of momentary paralysis, they lay side by side, dozens of them, wrapped tightly in multicolored yarn, decked out in tube dresses and fabulous beehive hairdos. The lined the entire bar, corner to corner. And under glass, they looked as though they might just wake up any minute and come prancing out of their slumber to perform a spectacular rendition of "Johnny, Are You Queer?" with John Waters singing in the lead. Seriously. This place was insane.

Dresses made entirely from little plastic star and heart toys. What looked to be bike helmets with entire toy cities perched on top. (Safe, surely not. But fabulous. Oh yes, darling. Oh yes). And the workshop space. Oh my. Silver barbies galore. And barbies upon barbies in some kind of bizarre synchronized swimming formation, not unlike {MOVIE WITH synchronized swimming from 1950s). and the jewelry. The jewelry.



The best purchase of the weekend can be seen right here. Sexy lego men earrings.

And so, there you have it folks. Seoul. we will return. It was fun. I’m glad we live down in gwangju. I’d spend way too much money in seoul. and where else could I walk into a funny little facial salon called “Skin Palm: Queen’s Zone” and get an eyebrow wax and a complimentary cooling mask for ₩10,000 (which is definitely what happened to me just before I wrote this tome of a blog post, and let me tell you, the mask was decadent, cooling and truly fabulous. And it was free!). aside from being a bit sick this week and having to dress my children in the american flag, things are looking up.

And so, why can’t have everything? Ah, but I do, I do.

Korean barbies rule.

xoxo

catie