No. of royal palace visitors to surpass 10-million mark for first time

The annual number of people visiting the country's four main royal palaces and Jongmyo Shrine is expected to surpass the 10-million mark for the first time later this week, the cultural authorities said Tuesday. The four palaces are Gyeongbok, Changdeok, Changgyeong and Deoksu. The Jongmyo Shrine is a place where the kings of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) conducted ancestral memorial ceremonies. They are all in Seoul.   Hyangwonjeong pavilion in Gyeongbokgung palace. (Yonhap)"The number of visi

CultureNov. 22, 2016

Indie filmmakers denounce President Park, culture industry affiliates

Indie filmmakers called for President Park’s immediate resignation and the reform of the Culture Ministry and the Korean Film Council on Monday.　“The Park administration has emphasized culture and cultural enrichment ever since Park’s inauguration,” said producer Ko Young-jae, head of the Association of Korean Independent Film and Videos. “But now, three years later, never has the term ‘culture’ received so much ridicule,” he said, referring to the culture-related projects that allegedly misused

FilmNov. 21, 2016

Classical music, delivered to the home

Classical music has begun seeping into the household recently. New platforms are connecting classical performers and listeners directly, allowing consumers to customize the music they listen to. Mini-concerts are now being held inside homes, returning classical music to its salon origins. Last week, string trio Armonia Ensemble performed at a child’s birthday party at a kids’ bookstore in southwestern Seoul. Surrounded by toys and coloring books, the trio broke away from the conventional classic

PerformanceNov. 21, 2016

Seventeen to return next month　

Seventeen (Official Facebook)K-pop boy band Seventeen is gearing up for its return to the spotlight.　The group released a teaser image, featuring lead vocalist S.Coups holding a glass bottle containing a model ship at the beach, on its official social media channels on Monday morning.  　The 13-member act, which is divided into hip-hop, vocal and choreography units, is currently getting ready to unveil a new album next month, according to the boy band’s management agency Pledis Entertainment. 　Af

PerformanceNov. 21, 2016

Zico to release new single

Block B’s Zico (Seven Seasons)K-pop boy band Block B’s Zico revealed one of the two artists collaborating with him on his upcoming single which comes out next week. 　The singer, producer and rapper released an image, featuring his and hip-hop artist Crush’s names, via his official social media channels on Monday morning.　“Zico has prepared a special year-end gift for his fans,” said the rapper’s management agency Seven Seasons on Monday. The company also revealed that Zico would reveal another a

PerformanceNov. 21, 2016

Julie Dash's landmark 'Daughters of the Dust' is reborn

NEW YORK (AP) -- Julie Dash's 1991 film "Daughters of the Dust” was the first film directed by an African-American woman to get a nationwide theatrical release. When it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, its director of photography, Arthur Jafa, won best cinematography. In 2004, it was added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. Rapturously lyrical, wholly original, it's been called “a landmark achievement” and “one of the most distinctive, original independent films of its

FilmNov. 21, 2016

Cruz, Bardem to star in Iranian director Farhadi's new film

MADRID (AFP) - Oscar-winning Spanish actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem will star in a new film set in Spain by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, Cruz said in an interview published Sunday.Farhadi, who won the foreign-language Oscar in 2012 for “A Separation” about a middle-class couple's divorce, is currently finishing the original screenplay for the movie, she told Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia."The idea is to film in Spain, we still don’t know where. It is an intense drama which is a g

FilmNov. 21, 2016

Tintin drawing sells for record 1.55 mn euros in Paris

PARIS (AFP) - An original drawing from the popular Tintin adventure “Explorers on the Moon” sold for a record 1.55 million euros ($1.64 million) at a Paris auction on Saturday, auction house Artcurial announced.The 50-by-35-centimeter drawing in Chinese ink by the Belgian cartoonist known as Herge shows the boy reporter, his dog Snowy and crusty sailor Captain Haddock wearing spacesuits and walking on the Moon while looking at Earth.It had been expected to sell for between 700,000 and 900,000 eu

PerformanceNov. 21, 2016

Bruno Mars opens AMAs; Drake, Twenty One Pilots win awards

Bruno Mars kicked off the 2016 American Music Awards with some serious uptown funk: He sang his groovy hit, "24K Magic," backed by his band who matched his slick, upbeat dance moves.The song is Mars' latest smash single after the success of last year’s "Uptown Funk." He, like many of the artists on Sunday, was promoting a new album at the AMAs at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.Mars released his new project on Friday, while others are also promoting new albums, including Lady Gaga, the Weeknd,

PerformanceNov. 21, 2016

'Fantastic Beasts' takes top spot at box office

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” a spinoff from the hit “Harry Potter” franchise, made its debut in South Korean theaters at No. 1 on the weekend box-office chart, data showed Monday.According to real-time based box office figures from the Korean Film Council, the Warner Bros.’ adventure film topped the chart, selling over 1.4 million tickets over the Nov. 18-20 weekend.The film, starring Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterston, is based on a screenplay by J.K. Rowling and follows Newt

FilmNov. 21, 2016

David LaChapelle on beauty and intuition

To pave a way for himself, US photographer David LaChapelle left his home in Connecticut at the age of 15 to pursue photography in New York, where he spent most of his youth in the darkroom.　“I just wanted to take pictures,” he said at a press conference at the Ara Modern Art Museum in Insa-dong, Seoul, last week. “I did anything related to photography to survive.”A couple of years later, he was discovered by the late pop artist Andy Warhol, who offered him a job at Interview Magazine. LaChapell

PerformanceNov. 20, 2016

2016 Melon Music Awards celebrates top K-pop artists

The annual Melon Music Awards on Sunday recognized some of the biggest Korean artists and groups for their contribution to K-pop this year. Among the top winners at the ceremony were the boy band EXO for the best artist of the year, Bangtan Boys, or BTS, for the best album of the year, and girl group Twice for the best song of the year with its single “Cheer Up.” Unsurprising to many fans and those in the industry, YG entertainment’s latest girl group Black Pink took home the Best New Artist Awa

PerformanceNov. 20, 2016

Sechs Kies to hold year-end concerts in Daegu and Busan

First-generation K-pop boy band Sechs Kies confirmed that its year-end concerts will take place in Daegu and Busan.After holding its first group concert in 16 years in September, the group will be extending its tour “2016 Sechs Kies Concert Yellow Note” next month, the members explained on Naver’s broadcasting app V Live on Saturday.“When the concert came to an end, we all felt that we truly wanted to do it again,” said member Jang Su-won. The five-member act recently unveiled its new hit single

PerformanceNov. 20, 2016

Hip-hop draws growing academic interest

BOSTON (AP) -- The forgotten music of Boston’s early hip-hop and rap scene is being revived by two unlikely heroes: a local college and the public library.Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Boston have been working with the Boston Public Library to compile an online archive of demo tapes by the city’s top hip-hop and rap artists of the 1980s. Opening to the public Saturday, the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive was created in part to reclaim the city’s role in the genres’ history.“It’s b

PerformanceNov. 20, 2016