Winter camp to help teens get serious about soccer

Expat soccer school International Football Education will be holding a weeklong children's soccer camp in Seoul next month, with tips on taking the sport further for the older players.There will be two daily workshops, one for teenagers and one for younger players, both looking at technical skills and game awareness to improve play.IFE staffer Na Hana said the teen workshops would also include advice for youths who are thinking about a career in soccer, or who want to pursue a soccer scholarship

Expat LivingDec. 19, 2016

Stravinsky's once-lost 'Funeral Song' to make Asian premiere in Korea

Lost for more than a century, Igor Stravinsky’s “Funeral Song” is being revived and getting set for its Asian premiere in Seoul next month. 　The Seoul Philharmonic orchestra will perform Stravinsky‘s long-lost “Funeral Song” during its two-day concert series on Jan. 20 and 21 at the Lotte Concert Hall, marking only the third time the repertoire has ever been performed. 　The recently rediscovered 12-minute piece was composed by Stravinsky in 1908. It was first performed on Jan. 17, 1909, during a

PerformanceDec. 18, 2016

[Movie review] ‘Rogue One’ is a dark, exhilarating blast

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story “ seemed suspicious on paper, like any film saddled with the dreaded “spinoff” label. For a while all the odds looked stacked against it too -- reshoots, script changes and a director in Gareth Edwards whose last blockbuster “Godzilla” had visual flair but no humanity, not to mention the fact that the film would be asking us to learn a dozen new characters with strange names, none of which were Skywalker or Solo. And of course as with any franchise there’s that ever

FilmDec. 17, 2016

[Box office] Upcoming movie releases

Will You Be There(Korea)Opened Dec. 14Drama. Directed by Hong Ji-youngScrupulous pediatric surgeon Han Soo-hyun (Kim Yoon-seok) is transported back in time to meet his 20-something self (Byun Yo-han) when he swallows a mysterious vial of gold pills he received as a gift for curing a child in a remote African village. He tries to guide his younger self not to make the same mistakes and change the course of his and his loved ones’ livesPandora(Korea)Opened Dec. 7Drama, thriller. Directed by Park J

FilmDec. 17, 2016

Uhm Jung-hwa to return with nine dreams

Mystic Entertainment announced the details of Korean pop diva Uhm Jung-hwa’s new album, “The Cloud Dream of the Nine,” on Friday. The songstress is returning to the stage for the first time since her 2008 digital single “D.I.S.C.O Part 2.” The album’s promotion will kick off with four promotional images, two preview videos and five series of interviews with Uhm’s acquaintances, including actor Jung Woo-sung. The album’s nine tracks will each tell the story of a dream. Four songs will be released

PerformanceDec. 17, 2016

[Home Cooking] Bulgogi jeongol (hot pot)

Bulgogi can easily be made into a hearty, steaming, and flavorful hot pot (jeongol) dish that is perfect for the cold winter months. Making bulgogi jeongol is fairly simple. First make bulgogi by marinating thinly sliced beef. It’s even better if you have leftover bulgogi. Then, arrange a variety of fresh vegetables and bulgogi in a shallow pot, add some broth, and cook. Depending on the size of your pot, you can cook in two batches, or you can add more ingredients as you cook, or take some out

FoodDec. 17, 2016

Winter is a cool time to explore the desert

Seeking something other than the traditional 70-degree, sunny Christmas that Southern Californians like me often take for granted, I persuaded my dad to spend the long holiday weekend last year somewhere more remote, and perhaps white.We signed up for a three-day trip with an Asian tour bus company out of Monterey Park, just east of Los Angeles, to Arizona and Utah. Disclaimer: The trip is better done driving your own car, especially if you like legroom.At the crack of dawn, we loaded our luggag

TravelDec. 17, 2016

[Around the hotels] This week’ promotions, packages

Wine and cheese at Millennium Seoul Hilton Millennium Seoul Hilton will organize a wine and cheese tasting event on Dec. 28 in the Grand Ballroom. The 89th edition running will feature special wines from the Farnese winery in Italy, which dates back to the Renaissance. The selected red and white wines include Fantini Primo Malvasia Chardonnay, Fantini Pinot Grigio, Fantini Sangiovese Merlot, Fantini Montepulciano D’Abruzzo, don Camillo, Pipoli Aglianico del Vulture, Canace Nero di Troia and the

FoodDec. 17, 2016

[Travel bits] Upcoming festivals, travel news

Everland Romantic Illuminations festEverland’s Romantic Illumination festival is continuing its celebrations until March 1 with beautiful and enchanting illuminations for a romantic and memorable holiday season.The festival will feature an extravagant 26-meter-tall Romantic Tower Tree, which will be displayed at the fountain area between Four Seasons Garden and Rose Garden. The hollowed out Christmas tree tower can accommodate up to 50 people.The tree’s interior showers visitors with enchanting

TravelDec. 17, 2016

[The Palate] Blowfish, a chancy delicacy worth the price

At this moment the food we all should be devouring is seafood, which is at its peak during the winter season. Restaurants are gleaming with the freshest catches during the colder months of the year, harvest time for succulent cold-water fish and shellfish from around the peninsula. Blowfish, also known as pufferfish, fugu and “bokeo” in Korean, are at their fattest and plumpest in the winter, which makes it an ideal time to enjoy them. Having the texture of a smaller-bodied monkfish and a mellow

FoodDec. 16, 2016

‘Passengers’ co-stars Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt land in Seoul

What happens when two strangers find themselves stranded in a spaceship headed for another planet? They fall in love. At least that is what happens in romantic sci-fi flick “Passengers,” which comes to theaters in Korea on Jan. 5.“I thought the script was very original, the concept and the idea, so grand in scale,” said Chris Pratt during a press conference held Friday in western Seoul. “But I don’t know what I would do in that situation,” he said. “Life is meaningless if you can’t share it with

FilmDec. 16, 2016

Daejeon Writing Group to launch first anthology

Daejeon Writing Group will release its first anthology Saturday, with a book launch event that will also raise money for a local animal welfare charity.The group will introduce work from the book, titled “Fleeting,” with copies available at the event and online.The book has three sections -- poetry, short stories, and short plays -- with an emphasis on poetry. “The wonderful thing about this book is the variety,” said Clare Hartwieg, one of the book’s editors.“The authors come from all over the

Expat LivingDec. 16, 2016

Patti Smith explains Dylan lyric flub in candid essay

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Patti Smith says that when she stumbled over the lyrics of a Bob Dylan song during the Nobel Prize ceremony last week, it was because she was overwhelmed with nerves by the enormity of the experience, not because she forgot the words to “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”Smith writes in an essay published Wednesday by the New Yorker that after loving the song since she was a teenager and rehearsing it incessantly in the months and days leading up to the ceremony, its lyrics “were n

PeopleDec. 15, 2016

18th century Chinese imperial seal sells for record $22m

PARIS (AFP) - An 18th-century Chinese imperial seal sold for a record 21 million euros ($22 million) in Paris on Wednesday -- more than 20 times its estimate, the Drouot auction house told AFP.Decorated with stylized dragons, the symbol of imperial authority, the extremely rare stamp in red and beige nephrite jade comes from the Qianlong period (1736-1795).It was snapped up by an unnamed Chinese collector after a furious bidding battle between would-be telephone buyers and those in the salesroom

PerformanceDec. 15, 2016

Lost ‘sensual’ Da Vinci drawing discovered in France

PARIS (AFP) -- A lost drawing by the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered in the papers of a French provincial doctor, a Paris auction house said Tuesday.The dreamily sensual sketch of Saint Sebastian is thought to be worth around 15 million euros ($15.8 million) and is an “extraordinary discovery,” the Tajan auction house said.It has been authenticated by the French specialist Patrick de Bayser and Carmen C. Bambach, curator of Renaissance drawings at New York’s Metropolitan

FilmDec. 15, 2016

‘We Got Married,’ after the honeymoon

When reality TV show “We Got Married” first aired in 2008, many viewers enjoyed watching celebrity couples engage in a blissful, albeit simulated, marriage onscreen. Others, however, questioned the show’s authenticity, wondering if it was scripted.Producers Huh Hahng and Kim Sun-young responded -- as they have to such skepticism over the years -- that there is “absolutely no script that is delivered to the cast,” at a media interview Wednesday at the MBC headquarters in Seoul. The show is in its

TelevisionDec. 15, 2016