President Lee Myung-bak named Kwak Young-jin, his former secretary for cultural affairs, as the new deputy minister of culture, sports and tourism Wednesday. Kwak, 54, formerly served as the director-general of the Arts Bureau and the Planning Bureau at the Culture Ministry.Born in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, Kwak graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. (hayney@heraldm.com)

Nov. 16, 2011

Simon Rattle anticipates intensity, depth in audiences during Berlin Phil’s Seoul performanceWhile preparing two very different symphonies by two very dissimilar composers, maestro Simon Rattle hoped to tell just one story; a story in which the audience and the orchestra become one and feel the same air. “On stage, you feel the atmosphere immediately. It is not the matter of sound, but the matter of the intensity of the audience,” Rattle, the star conductor of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, said

Nov. 15, 2011

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Gustavo Dudamel stands off to the side of an orchestra of T-shirt clad teens as they laboriously rehearse Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5.” He’s listening, not just with his ears, but also with irrepressible fingers that tap and pluck the air as if he’s actually conducting the piece.At the end, he hops on to the conducto’s podium and, beaming at his rapt pupils, demonstrates that the difference between playing music and performing it is passion.“Be wild, like the pop music,” th

Nov. 14, 2011

   JEJU ISLAND -- The southern South Korean resort island of Jeju has been named as one of the new seven natural wonders of the world in a worldwide poll, a Switzerland-based organization announced Saturday.   The subtropical volcanic island, located 130 kilometers off the southe

Nov. 12, 2011

Substantial support needed to bolster traditional craft industryAlthough he has been hammering Korean traditional patterns on metal for nearly half a century, artisan Park Moon-yeol’s life only began looking rosy in 1993, when he figured out the secret of the seven-step lock. Hearing about the existence of a peculiar Joseon Dynasty lock, he visited a folk museum in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, to take a look. It was tucked away in the back of the museum and the owner prohibited him from tak

Nov. 9, 2011

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Cave painters during the Ice Age were more like da Vinci than Dali, sketching realistic depictions of horses they saw rather than dreaming them up, a study of ancient DNA finds.This undated photo provided by the Pech Merle Prehistory Center shows a cave painting of pair of spotted

Nov. 8, 2011

RUJM AL-HIRI, Golan Heights (AP) ― A newly proposed solution to an ancient enigma is reviving debate about the nature of a mysterious prehistoric site that some call the Holy Land’s answer to Stonehenge.Some scholars believe the structure of concentric stone circles known as Rujm al-Hiri was an astrological temple or observatory, others a burial complex. The new theory proposed by archaeologist Rami Arav of the University of Nebraska links the structure to an ancient method of disposing of the d

Nov. 6, 2011

Relics of Pope John Paul II have come to Korea and been laid in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, and Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, to remind Korean people of his teachings, the Society of the Catholic Apostolate has said.The late pope’s hair has been laid at the Divine Mercy Jesus Oasis house in Bungdang and his blood has been laid at the Divine Mercy Jesus Retreat House in Hongcheon.The church received the relics from Stanislaw Dziwisz, a longtime and influential aide to Pope John Paul II, in July th

Nov. 4, 2011

Pre-wedding classes on wedding preparations and wifehood gain popularityDonned in spring-colored hanbok, or traditional Korean dress, eight brides-to-be gracefully glided to the front of the room and formed two rows in front of the folding screens. On the teacher’s cue, they raised their hands up to their eyebrows, arms held up horizontally with elbows turned outward, and bowed to their parents sitting in front of them. They repeated the deep bow, which was for “pyebaek,” the Korean traditional

Nov. 4, 2011

MANILA (AFP) - Asia welcomed the world's first symbolic "seven billionth" baby on Monday, but celebrations were tempered by worries over the strain that humanity's population explosion is putting on a fragile planet.The United Nations says that by its best estimates the seven billionth baby will be

Oct. 31, 2011

More companies partnered with art organizations through the Korean Business Council for the Arts this year than last year. A total of 83 companies sealed relationships with various art organizations on Wednesday at Seoul Namsan Traditional Theater in Pil-dong, central Seoul. Participants at the ceremony included Choe Kwang-shik, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Park Young-ju, head of the Korean Business Council for the Arts. Contributions from 23 large businesses totaled 3 billion won

Oct. 26, 2011

She loves films by Hang Sang-soo, grooves to Wonder Girls, and makes “kimchijeon” and “doenjang jjigae” when throwing house parties in her native U.K. Meet Anne-Maria Cole, a popular K-blogger in London.“I don’t want to go back!” the bubbly British blogger told The Korea Herald during an Interview in Seoul on Monday. She was scheduled to go to the airport to catch her flight back to London right after the interview. “Everything has been so amazing here.”Cole was one of the seven foreign bloggers

Oct. 25, 2011

About 100 people on Saturday paddled their kayaks on the Han River, to celebrate the opening of four major weirs created by the nation’s large-scale four-rivers restoration project. The event was also hosted to attract more foreign visitors to the newly transformed riversides. The government opened

Oct. 23, 2011