Mister Max: The Book of Lost ThingsBy Cynthia Voigtillustrated by Iacapo Bruno (Knopf for Young Readers)Readers who wish their families were more interesting will be hooked, as I was, on Cynthia Voigt’s “Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things,” the first of a planned three-book series featuring an inventive and endearing boy named Max.Max’s parents are actors, and their lives are unpredictable. The drama only increases when the family gets an invitation to create a theater company for the maharajah

BooksNov. 28, 2013

Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL FootballBy Nicholas Dawidoff(Little, Brown and Co.)First, to be fair: “Collision Low Crossers,” Nicholas Dawidoff’s chronicling of a season with the New York Jets, is excellent stuff. The author spent 2011 embedded with Rex Ryan’s team, and his doggedness and observational skills produce an insider’s look that brings to mind Roy Blount’s classic ode to the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers, “About Three Bricks Shy of a Load.”It’s good.Bette

BooksNov. 28, 2013

The Pony Chung Foundation has awarded scholarships to 60 students at Vietnam National University, Hanoi and Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh.　Chung Mong-gyu, chairman of the foundation, presented the scholarships to 30 students at the Hanoi campus on Wednesday and 30 at the Ho Chi Minh campus on Thursday.“I would like to introduce my late father’s pioneering spirit to Vietnam,” Chung said at the scholarship awarding ceremony.　The foundation has so far awarded scholarships to a total of 3

PeopleNov. 28, 2013

SYDNEY (AFP) ― Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber was told on Thursday to clean up his mess after the pop star was accused of spraying graffiti on the wall of an Australian hotel.Furious Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate said the Canadian had been disrespectful and “really, really silly,” and sent a graffiti removal kit to the exclusive QT Hotel on the Sunshine Coast so he could repair the damage.“If a normal person did that they’d be serving 80 to 100 hours of community service,” Tate told the Nine Network.

PeopleNov. 28, 2013

A South Korean singer has become entangled in a legal fight with her own mother and a member of her fan club.According to the Yongin Dongbu Police Station in Gyeonggi Province, the former leader of a fan club filed a report to the police last month, claiming that Jang Yun-jeong, a well-known trot singer, abused her own mother by beating her, locking her up and tracking her location.Jang’s mother appeared at the police station Tuesday to explain her position, and suggested that Jang intended to h

Nov. 28, 2013

K-pop singers grabbed the top slots on the Japanese Oricon music charts on Wednesday, led by G-Dragon, TVXQ and KARA.“G-Dragon’s solo debut album is looking to break the record for most albums sold out of Big Bang as a group and other members as solo artists,” said YG Entertainment, citing Japanese music industry officials.G-Dragon ranked second on Oricon’s Daily Albums Chart the day “Coup D’etat” was released with 34,597 copies sold in Japan. Meanwhile, TVXQ hit second on the Daily Singles Char

Nov. 28, 2013

Earlier this month, K-pop girl group Girls’ Generation beat out big names Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and even Korean YouTube sensation Psy to take the “Video of the Year” award at the first-ever YouTube Music Awards.The initial reaction of the crowd gathered at the awards ceremony in New York can be summed up with one word: Huh?Despite being one of the hottest groups in Korea and most of Asia, their name still does not ring a bell immediately in U.S. mainstream music. On YouTube, howe

PerformanceNov. 28, 2013

The art collection confiscated from the family of former President Chun Doo-hwan will be put on the auction block in December at two major auction houses in Korea. K Auction and Seoul Auction, designated as the official auction houses by the Korean government to sell the seized artworks, will present a total of 235 pieces at their regular winter auctions next month. The artworks are estimated to be worth more than 3.7 billion won ($3 million) and include masterpieces of Korean art ― from old lan

PerformanceNov. 27, 2013

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― South Korean officials say a 16th century royal seal in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art may have been stolen out of a shrine in Seoul during the Korean War.An official at the state-run Cultural Heritage Administration told the Associated Press that South Korea in May asked the United States to investigate how the gilt bronze seal ended up at LACMA in 2000.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says U.S. officials have confiscated the seal.The

CultureNov. 27, 2013

In honor of the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) in 2014, the Korea National Opera will stage two operas based on the English playwright’s works next year. “Romeo et Juliette” by French composer Charles Gounod will be staged on Oct. 2-5 at the Seoul Arts Center Opera Hall. The tragic story of teenage lovers Romeo and Juliet has been one of the most loved romantic tales around the world, made into several film and uncountable TV adaptations, love songs and others.

PerformanceNov. 27, 2013

NEW YORK (AFP) ― The first book printed in what is today the United States of America sold for more than $14 million at auction in New York Tuesday, Sotheby’s said, becoming the world’s most expensive book.The translation of Biblical psalms “The Bay Psalm Book” was printed by Puritan settlers in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640 and was sold at a one-lot auction by Sotheby’s.Bidding opened at $6 million and closed just minutes later at a premium price of $14.165 million, a Sotheby’s spokesman sai

BooksNov. 27, 2013

Nobody ever accused Spike Lee of an overabundance of subtlety. He’s an unapologetically bold filmmaker, one who hasn’t shied away from using a tattered American flag or a “Dead End” sign as hard-to-miss metaphors. But this also works to his benefit: Lee’s films rarely fail to leave an impression. So that Lee would take on a remake ― or “reinterpretation,” as he calls it ― of Park Chan-wook’s grotesque revenge melodrama “Oldboy” is perhaps fitting. He’s one of few filmmakers who would take the or

FilmNov. 27, 2013

Cable channel tvN’s newest reality program, “Sisters over Flowers,” part of the series “Backpacking Project, Part 2,” is slated to air for the first time on Friday night at 10 p.m. The program will have a much different vibe from “Grandpas over Flowers,” which followed the antics of four veteran actors backpacking throughout Europe and Taiwan. “‘Sisters over Flowers’ is going to be completely different from ‘Grandpas over Flowers,’” head producer of the series Nah Young-suk said at a press confe

TelevisionNov. 27, 2013

 Try inviting a friend over for a tipple at Hopscotch, and you may end up waiting as said pal gets lost. Tucked away on a small backstreet with no written sign or obvious door, this retro gastropub is more than hard to find, it is deliberately incognito. “We didn’t want the public to know about it,” said Hopscotch chef and co-owner David Cho. The whole set-up might read anti-social to the extreme not to mention bad for business, yet, as Cho so charmingly puts it, “People want to find the small h

FoodNov. 27, 2013