‘Little Psy’ recuperates from brain tumor

Eleven year-old Jeon Min-woo, known as a child double of Korean singer Psy, has seemingly recuperated from a terminal brain tumor, local media reported on Tuesday. Jeon, who is Korean-Chinese, was diagnosed last summer with a terminal illness of the brain that left him with just six months to live. Jeon Min-woo with Psy (Yonhap)However, in an interview on Tuesday, Jeon’s mother revealed that an MRI scan in December had shown the tumor has been reduced and Jeon has since grown 6 centimeters in he

March 17, 2015

Early education starts from the womb?

“What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave,” says a popular old adage. While it means that habits acquired in youth tend to be hard to break, Korean people have long embraced a more literal interpretation of the saying.Since over 600 years ago, expectant mothers in Korea have been practicing taegyo, a series of prenatal routines aimed at nurturing a healthy, virtuous and skilled child. They try to see and hear only the most pleasant things starting from three months of pregnancy. Mot

CultureMarch 16, 2015

Barakatt’s recent concert to be aired on MBC

Those who missed the opportunity to see Steve Barakatt perform live at his recent concert can now see the show on television. The pianist and composer’s recent concert, “Ad Vitam Aeternam,” will be broadcast on TV Art Stage, a late-night MBC music program that features artists from diverse genres of music.  Steve Barakatt performs with the Herald Philharmonic Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall on March 8. (Rainbow Bridge Story)Barakatt, whose songs have long been loved in Korea and

PerformanceMarch 16, 2015

Mother-of-pearl art goes modern

Artist Kim Young-jun is holding a solo exhibition, presenting his modern interpretations of traditional lacquer and mother-of-pearl art, at the Korea Art Center in Insa-dong, Seoul. The exhibition presents 45 works, including the latest “Cosmos” series and modern furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl, as well as the decorated version of Microsoft’s video game console Xbox ordered by Bill Gates. “I developed the new ‘Cosmos’ series from my round lacquer paintings inlaid with mother-of-pearl. It p

PerformanceMarch 16, 2015

Crazy Horse Paris to offer nude cabaret show in Seoul

Crazy Horse Paris, an internationally renowned performance house from France, will officially make its way to Seoul next month to perform its signature nude cabaret show in the country, organizers announced Monday.Popularly known as “Le Crazy,” the French cabaret house recently gained final approval from the Korean authorities to stage its famous artistic nude show here for audiences over age 19, according to W&FUN. Crazy Horse Paris, considered one of France’s hallmark cabaret houses alongside

PerformanceMarch 16, 2015

Psy mired in legal wrangling with building tenant

“Gangnam Style” superstar Psy is embroiled in a legal battle with a tenant in his building in Seoul’s southern district of Gangnam, it was reported on Monday. The 38-year-old musician filed for an eviction suit last August against the tenant running a cafe in his building, even after the contract expired. Local news media reported that Psy’s contractors got into a tussle with the tenant and the cafe’s staff members on Friday while trying to forcibly drag them out of the building.One of the cafe’

PeopleMarch 16, 2015

[Up & Coming] Art that makes you cringe

Up & Coming is a series of interviews with emerging artists in various fields of arts and entertainment. ― Ed.Choi Sun’s paintings make people step back and cringe. His recent work “Bloody Excrement (Integral Calculus Painting),” an abstract painting in red and white, delves into the shapes of his own excrement. And this is how he made it: The artist took a laxative that patients take before colonoscopies. In the mess he got from the induced bowel disorder, he tried to find shapes, thinking that

PerformanceMarch 15, 2015

Amber’s ‘Shake That Brass’ most viewed K-pop video in U.S.

The music video for girl group f(x) member Amber’s “Shake That Brass” became the most-watched K-pop music video in the U.S. for February, according to Billboard. The 22-year-old singer topped the list with the video clip for the lead single “Shake That Brass” of her solo debut EP “Beautiful,” released in February. Also, the American-born Chinese singer’s video for the EP’s eponymous track earned her the No. 3 spot on the list. A still from the music video for “Shake That Brass” by Amber. (SM Ent

March 15, 2015

Kim Jang-hoon fined for smoking on plane

Singer Kim Jang-hoon was fined for smoking on board a Korea-bound plane from France, the court said Sunday. The Incheon District Court handed down a fine of 1 million won ($890) against the 50-year-old singer for violating the domestic aviation safety law. He would otherwise have to complete 10 days of manual labor, the court said. Kim was indicted in January after smoking a cigarette on Dec. 15 in the lavatory of a Korean Air plane bound for Incheon from Paris. During police questioning, Kim re

March 15, 2015

Singer Kim Jang-hoon fined for in-flight smoking

(Yonhap)South Korean pop singer Kim Jang-hoon, who is known for philanthropy, has been fined for smoking aboard a home-bound plane from France in December, a local court said Sunday.  The Incheon District Court said Kim will have to pay 1 million won ($878) for smoking inside a lavatory on a Korean Air flight to Incheon International Airport from Charles de Gaulle Airport on Dec. 15. Otherwise, he will have to complete 10 days of manual labor, it added.  The 50-year-old was summarily indicted in

March 15, 2015

[Weekender] Struggles of a sleepless society

Instead of sipping lattes, visitors to one cafe in Gye-dong, central Seoul, get into hammocks and doze off, indulging in a short break from a hectic day in Korea’s busiest city.Nazzzam has attracted a lot of attention since opening last year as the nation’s first “nap cafe.” But its owner, Jeong Ji-eun, claims the place offers more than just shut-eye. “It’s not a sleeping area per se, but a place where people can take a break from their busy lives,” she said. Originally a freelance English teach

CultureMarch 13, 2015

[Weekender] Good dreams, bad dreams and baby omens

Lee Jae-in woke up one day from an uneasy dream. The 31-year-old, who rarely dreams, could vividly recall what was disturbing her. “Someone was pulling my teeth out,” she said. Feeling leery, she grabbed her smartphone to search online for clues about what the dream meant. Immediately, a portal site pulled up a long list of dream-interpreting websites and Q&A pages filled with answers. “Everyone said losing teeth was a bad omen,” said Lee. “I don’t trust dream interpretation 100 percent, but the

CultureMarch 13, 2015

[Weekender] Prophetic dreams?

What do Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler and Yi Seong-gye, the 14th century founder of the Joseon Kingdom, have in common? They all claimed to have seen their future in their dreams ― years and sometimes days before the actual events occurred.Abraham Lincoln told friends a few weeks before he was killed in April 1865 that he had seen his own body lying in state in the White House.“Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments,” Lincoln allegedly said about his dr

CultureMarch 13, 2015

‘Study death to live well’

In Ancient Rome, when triumphant generals marched in victory parades, they would hear the words “memento mori,” meaning “remember that you will die,” from a slave whose sole responsibility was to remind them of their mortality. The story of slaves reminding glorious generals of their human limitations may be apocryphal, but it delves into humans’ mortal nature. Death is inevitable, but people rarely bring it up in casual conversation. It’s almost taboo to do so in many countries, including Korea

CultureMarch 13, 2015

Calendar

Dance“Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness”: The Universal Ballet Korea will be staging Nacho Duato’s “Multiplicity, Forms of Silence and Emptiness” as its 2015 season opener. The 1999 ballet is one of Duato’s best-known works and landed the choreographer the prestigious Benois de la Dance prize. As homage to classical music great Johann Sebastian Bach, the two-act ballet tells the story of Bach’s music by combining both baroque music and modern choreography. The Universal Ballet Korea’s

PerformanceMarch 13, 2015

Eyelike: The Mavericks, James McMurtry, Kelly Clarkson

1 channel is all the Mavericks need on ‘Mono’The Mavericks“Mono”(Valory) The Mavericks have always been a rootsy band, plying musical turf from Havana to Nashville via Miami. Here their sound is more retro than ever, recalling the era when these sorts of songs were best heard on small radios and big jukeboxes. ”Mono” was recorded in -- you guessed it -- mono. Kids, that means everything was loaded into one channel, including horns, accordion, bouncy beats and Raul Malo’s glorious tenor.The Maver

PerformanceMarch 13, 2015

Box Office

Twenty (Korea)Opening March. 25Comedy. Directed by Lee Byung-hunThis coming-of-age film centers three close friends who are all turning 20 years old. Chi-ho (Kim Woo-bin) is jobless and has no specific plans in life, but is very popular around girls, while Dong-woo (Lee Jun-ho) dreams of becoming a comic artist. Kyung-jae (Kang Ha-neul) is smart concerning his schoolwork, but not so much when it comes to relationships. Whiplash (U.S.)Opened March. 12Drama. Directed by Damien ChazelleBased on the

FilmMarch 13, 2015