Brief Chaplin bio captures essence of ‘the Tramp’

In 1914, Keystone Studios released two short films that gave a world marching to war a reason to laugh. Their titles, “Kid Auto Races at Venice” and “Mabel’s Strange Predicament,” are far less memorable than the character they helped to introduce: the Tramp. Wearing oversized shoes and baggy clothes, carrying a cane, and sporting a derby and just a dash of moustache, actor Charlie Chaplin waddled onto the screen. Two years and dozens of shorts later, Chaplin was a global favorite. Over time, the

BooksNov. 6, 2014

Marlon James writes Jamaican epic

It’s around 3 p.m. on Oct. 1, the biggest day in Marlon James’ career ― if not his life. His third novel, “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” hit bookstores with more buzz than a swarm of bees.James is on his phone with prominent Jamaican blogger Annie Paul, who has just published her interview with him online. The blog post, in which James discusses his novel about the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Kingston, has upset editors at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, e

BooksNov. 6, 2014

Book collects best of Vanity Fair

Bohemians, Bootleggers, Flappers & Swells: The Best of Early Vanity Fair Edited by Graydon Carter (Penguin Press)Before Buzzfeed, before Spy, before Rolling Stone and the Paris Review, there was Vanity Fair. The smart-set magazine launched a century ago became famous as a sort of barometer of the Jazz Age and for its murderers’ row of heavy-hitting contributors. Dorothy Parker, Carl Sandburg, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein were just a few who wrote for the magazine. “Bohemians” collects

BooksNov. 6, 2014

‘Spoiled Brats’ is original, hilarious

Spoiled BratsBy Simon Rich(Little, Brown and Co.)Feel the humiliation of the widowed guinea pig, so beaten down he contemplates suicide and questions his Christian faith. See through the eyes of the doting parents, who look past the signs of demonism ― the pentagram birthmark and grasping claws ― to find a flawless little boy. Befriend a tortured Christmas elf who is caught in a boy’s sick, sexual exploits. Simon Rich gives us each of these characters in “Spoiled Brats,” an anthology as endlessl

BooksNov. 6, 2014

‘Sometimes the Wolf’ tells engrossing story

Sometimes the WolfBy Urban Waite (William Morrow)A father-and-son relationship, perhaps broken beyond repair, fuels Urban Waite’s engrossing novel that skillfully exposes the complicated emotions that can stymie a once close family while also working as a superb action-adventure tale. In “Sometimes the Wolf,” the sins of the father have rained down on Bobby Drake for 12 years. Bobby, a sheriff’s deputy in a small town in the Pacific Northwest, wonders what his life would have been like had his f

BooksNov. 6, 2014

‘Killer Next Door’ is gripping mystery

The Killer Next DoorBy Alex Marwood (Penguin Books)Desperation brings six people to a decaying Victorian apartment house where the tenants’ desolation pales in comparison with one neighbor’s despicable acts. Alex Marwood’s second stand-alone novel delivers a multilayered plot that succeeds as crime fiction, a gothic tale and a village mystery ― all with an edge. With the apartment building substituting for a village, “The Killer Next Door” balances a shrewd look at people living on the edge of s

BooksNov. 6, 2014

Faithful pooch gets ‘new life’ via cloning

　Davis Hawn arrived at the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Guro district, Seoul, at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. He was planning to ask South Korean veterinarian Hwang Woo-suk to clone his faithful 10-year-old dog Booster. Davis Hawn (right) shakes hands with scientist Hwang Woo-suk at Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul on Wednesday. The American is visiting to clone his dog Booster. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)　Hwang is one of the top minds in animal cloning despite his checkered ca

PeopleNov. 6, 2014

Selfie for a happy finale

Singer-actor Jung Ji-hoon, better known as Rain, posted a selfie with fellow actors in SBS rom-com “My Lovely Girl” on Instagram on Thursday. 　In the photo, Rain strikes a friendly pose with actress Cha Ye-ryeon and singer-actor Alex.  Jung Ji-hoon (left), Cha Ye-ryeon (center) and Alex. (Jung's Instagram)　With the selfie Jung wrote, “The hyeong (elder brother) who is so like the youngest brother,” pointing at Alex. 　Directed by Park Hyung-gi and written by No Ji-seol, My Lovely Girl stars sever

Nov. 6, 2014

[Design Forum] Design resembles nature in Paju Book City

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us,” Winston Churchill said in October 1943 as he promised to reconstruct the British Parliament building, which had been destroyed by bombs during World War II.Against a backdrop of hasty urban planning, lousy buildings and a clutter of signboards that mirror Korea’s turbulent modern history, pricey structures continue to rise over each other in Seoul as if to compete to become a landmark of the capital.Min Hyun-shik, architectural magnate and form

Arts & DesignNov. 5, 2014

[Design Forum] Removing the unnecessary brings out the essence of design: architect

This is the third in a weekly series that examines the expanding role of design in the run-up to the Herald Design Forum 2014 on Nov. 26. ― Ed.“Less is more.”Joon Paik’s simple answer epitomizes what he puts above all else in architectural design.“It’s actually easy to add things. But if you keep adding, you end up with just a mixture of everything with no clear point,” said Paik, vice president of Seoul-based Chang-jo Architects.“The essence of a design unveils itself when unnecessary bits are

Arts & DesignNov. 5, 2014

Shipwreck thought to date back to Joseon found

A shipwreck with more than 100 pieces of earthenware, presumed to date back to 18th- or 19th-century Korea, has been found in western waters in what archeologists say could be the first discovery of a Joseon-era ship. The National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage said Wednesday that its underwater research team discovered what appeared to be a vessel’s stern and some wooden beams on the seabed off Mado Island, Taean County, South Chungcheong Province.“A pilot excavation of the sh

CultureNov. 5, 2014

A modern take on love story ‘Chunhyangjeon’

Romanian-born American theater director Andrei Serban has compared the famous classical Korean love story “Chunhyangjeon” to freely adapted works of Shakespeare. “Like Shakespeare’s stories, you can turn the story upside down, improvise and do the craziest experiments to recreate,” Serban said in a press conference on Wednesday about his new production “Andrei Serban’s Different Chunhyang,” which will be staged with the National Changguek Company from Nov. 20 to Dec. 6. “But at the end of the da

CultureNov. 5, 2014

Small port occupies museum space

The vast 17-meter-high space dedicated to site-specific installations at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea looks like it’s been filled with water and floating boats with blinking lights. As the idea of filling the exhibition space with water is counterintuitive, the scene challenges our usual perceptions of space. Up close, what appears to be a night scene at a small port turns out to be carefully arranged installation pieces by Argentinean artist Leandro Erlich. The square museum

PerformanceNov. 5, 2014

North Korean paintings on display in London

LONDON (AFP) ― North Korea’s embassy in Britain offered the public rare access this week to an exhibition featuring four socialist realism artists and their takes on classic London cityscapes as part of a cultural thaw between the two countries.Some 60 paintings by Jon Pyong-jin, Kim Hun, Ho Jae-song, Hong Song-iI and other artists including landscapes of their communist homeland went on display in the anonymous two-floor, red-brick townhouse in the Ealing suburb of west London.The artists dress

PerformanceNov. 5, 2014

Indie star duo 10cm to release third album

Acoustic and drum duo 10cm, one of the indie music scene’s most successful acts, will release its latest full-length album titled “3.0” on Nov. 19. According to press agency I-Je Company on Tuesday, the indie hipsters Kwon Jung-yeol and Yoon Cheol-jong are finally ready to release their third album after unveiling their new singles at a special “teaser concert” at the end of August. After the conclusion of the beloved acoustic duo’s sold-out, two-day performances, the members claimed that the tr

PerformanceNov. 5, 2014

David Guetta, Hardwell to headline UMF Korea 2015

The dates have been set, and the early bird announcement for Ultra Music Festival Korea 2015 has revealed that superstar DJ David Guetta will be at the helm of next year’s show, alongside EMD mastermind DJ Hardwell. Organizers of UMF ― one of the world’s largest electronic dance music festivals ― have announced that both Guetta and Hardwell are already slated as headlining acts for next year’s two-day event, which will be held at the Seoul Jamsil Sports Complex on June 12 and 13. Tier 1 and tier

PerformanceNov. 5, 2014

Grandma’s Roundtable eases life challenges for 7 lucky grandkids

MINNEAPOLIS ― She’s a therapist and career coach, cheerleader and wise woman, secret keeper and borscht pusher.Mostly, 85-year-old Gretta Freeman of Golden Valley, Minnesota, is chief executive officer of perhaps the most endearingly run support group in the Midwest, and likely beyond. Unfortunately for us, membership is closed.For 18 years, Freeman has guided her seven grandchildren, now grown, through myriad life passages and challenges. She has done this through her Grandma’s Roundtable, a pe

CultureNov. 5, 2014

Call him ‘Biilzbub’: Man gets creative with bones of dead animals

PITTSBURGH ― They crawl and they feed on rotting flesh and sinew, appearing to pulsate as they strip the skull and thorax of a small rodent. The sight of them might give a chill or turn a stomach, but it is simply nature at work.The grubs of dermestid (or skin, hide or carrion) beetles are scavengers that feed on the carcasses of the deceased and are commonly found on roadkill or, more grimly, on abandoned corpses.But in a 208-liter aquarium tank on the coffee table of a Pittsburgh apartment, th

CultureNov. 5, 2014

Homeless ‘urban travelers’ are vexing to tourist-dependent cities

SANTA BARBARA, California ― Joe McCabe sits on a wooden bench and calls out to two men strolling up State Street, “Have any spare change? I’m actually a traveler.”The men continue walking, and McCabe grumbles a homophobic slur that they don’t hear.McCabe gets up from the park bench and saunters down State Street in the opposite direction. At the corner, he stretches his right arm out to a woman wearing short shorts and high heels. She grimaces and looks at her friends questioningly as she maneuv

CultureNov. 5, 2014