Most Popular
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Torrential rainfall forces 1,500 to evacuate, causes widespread damage to homes, roads
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Over 82,000 Korean young people unemployed, not searching for job long-term
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[KH Explains] Can smart chargers ease tensions over EV fires?
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40% of Korea's workers who reported bullying faced retaliation: survey
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1 in 5 households to have breadwinner over 80 in 30 years
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New Fifty Fifty off to strong start
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Assembly to review disputed appointment of national soccer team coach
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[Weekender] Young Koreans more open to Japanese cultural products
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Evicted guest burns down inn; 3 killed
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Arrival of fall calls for more outdoor festivals
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Eyelike: Opera‘s Kaufmann turns to lighter fare
Opera‘s Kaufmann turns to lighter fareJonas Kaufmann“You Mean the World to Me”(Sony)Is there anything Jonas Kaufmann can’t do? The great German tenor has long since conquered the worlds of grand opera and classical recital. Now he turns his talents with equal success to lighter fare, on an album of German operetta and film songs from 1925-35.Those years marked a period of tremendous cultural creativity until it was brought to a screeching halt by the ascension of the Nazis, who forced many of th
Oct. 24, 2014
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Shin Hae-chul still in coma
After collapsing from a sudden cardiac arrest on Wednesday, rock star Shin Hae-chul remains in critical condition at the Seoul Asan Hospital’s intensive care unit after undergoing surgery. According to representatives from the singer’s agency, KCA Entertainment, Shin’s three-hour operation to resuscitate his heart went well. However, it remains to be seen whether he can pull through. “His blood pressure has returned to a safe level, but his pupils are unresponsive and he still remains unconsciou
Oct. 24, 2014
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Victor Hugo’s play to get Korean premiere
French author Victor Hugo is best known for “Les Miserables,” a literary masterpiece that has been adapted into various forms including a film and a stage musical. What is little known here is that he wrote a series of extremely enjoyable plays that defy many conventional rules of a theater play. One such work will get its first Korean premiere this week by the award-winning original French production. The Theatre National de Toulouse production of “Mille Francs de recompense (A Reward of 1,000
Oct. 23, 2014
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Annie Lennox embraces jazzy ‘Nostalgia’
LONDON (AP) ― How do you follow in the footsteps of Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles without sinking in the footsteps of Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles? The answer, for Annie Lennox at least, is to throw out, to the greatest degree possible, the work of these giants and tackle some of their classics anew: no use of their phrasing, their arrangements, their orchestral sheets allowed.The former Eurythmics star sat down ― slowly and deliberately ― with songs like “Mood Indigo” and “Georgia on My Mind”
Oct. 23, 2014
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Search for world’s funniest person moves to Las Vegas
LOS ANGELES (AP) ― An international search to find the world’s funniest person is moving to Las Vegas, where people will get to see five finalists square off in an Olympics of comedy that pits France, Finland and other countries against one another.The finalists were determined by online voters who saw 10 comics take the stage at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood during a Monday night joke fest that was streamed on the club’s website.The finals will take place Friday at the Laugh Factory’s sister c
Oct. 23, 2014
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On road to find world’s funniest person
LOS ANGELES (AP) ― It was last summer and Israeli-Palestinian tensions were at the highest they’d been in some time when Jamie Masada hit on a formula for world peace: Forget about guns and bombs, and just tell jokes to each other. The onetime stand-up comic is, after all, the owner of the venerable Hollywood nightclub The Laugh Factory, so the idea wasn’t unfamiliar. Still, it’s one thing to get a liquored-up audience laughing at lines like, “Take my mother-in-law ― please.” It’s another to bri
Oct. 22, 2014
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Love, discipline fuel new Neil Diamond album
BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) ― Neil Diamond wrote and recorded his first studio album of new material in six years floating in the heady glow of new love.The 73-year-old entertainer, who married for the third time in 2012, says happiness with his new bride fueled his work on “Melody Road,” out Tuesday.“There’s no better inspiration or motivation for work than being in love. It’s what you dream of as a creative person,” Diamond said in a recent interview. “I was able to complete this album ― st
Oct. 22, 2014
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Stamps featuring BigBang to be issued in Korea, China, Japan
Leading K-pop boy band BigBang will be honored with postage stamps to mark the eighth anniversary of its debut, the state postal service and the group’s management agency said Wednesday.Three different versions of postage stamps with images of the band members will be released simultaneously in South Korea, China and Japan on Oct. 31, the Korea Post and YG Entertainment said.The three versions will all have different designs, with the South Korean version including one gold stamp and five postca
Oct. 22, 2014
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[Herald Interview] Jambinai: Hybrid of tradition and avant-garde
It’s apparent that Jambinai doesn’t play music for the masses. The three-member crossover band would love to connect with a larger audience, but has no intention of heeding to the public tastes in today’s music market. Yet, it is this determination to pursue their own distinctive music that makes the obscure Korean indie group one of the hottest acts in the global music festival circuit. “We were surprised at first. People over there (in Europe) knew our music already. And they seemed to like it
Oct. 21, 2014
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Art and science: The creative partnership
Just by placing a fingertip on a pad, you can create your own virtual city out of the labyrinth of a fingerprint and drive through your “fingerprint city” with a joystick. The interactive work on display at the Museum of Art in Seoul National University, employs the “City Engine” technology by Esri R&D Center-Zurich, a 3-D content developer from Switzerland. Visitors to the museum can also get a glimpse of the ambitious Human Brain Project by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
Oct. 21, 2014
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TVXQ to begin overseas concert tour in December
TVXQ performs during its Japan Live Tour 2014. (SMTOWN Facebook)Popular K-pop boy band TVXQ will make a concert tour of big cities around the world, including Seoul, this December, the band’s management agency said Tuesday.The duo will begin the tour at Seoul’s Olympic Park on Dec. 6 and 7 before hitting overseas cities later that month, SM Entertainment said, without disclosing the exact dates of the overseas concerts.In the title of the tour, “TVXQ! Special Live Tour ― T1ST0RY,” “T1STORY” is a
Oct. 21, 2014
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Epik High tops charts at home, aboard with new album
South Korean hip-hop trio Epik High swept local music charts and iTunes albums charts in seven regions with its first full-length album in two years on Tuesday.Hours after the group’s eighth studio album, “Shoebox,” was released on online music sites at home and abroad, the album’s title track “Happen Ending” sat atop real-time charts of eight domestic services, including Melon, Naver Music, Olleh Music, Genie, Soribada and Mnet.Other songs on the album such as “Born Hater,” “Spoiler” and “Rich”
Oct. 21, 2014
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[Herald Interview] Snarky Puppy gears up for first concert in Korea
Led by Grammy Award-winning musician and composer Michael League, fusion instrumental band Snarky Puppy is holding its first concert in Korea on Tuesday night at the Blue Square theater in Hannam-dong, Seoul. The large-scale band was started by League more than 10 years ago while he was attending jazz school at the University of North Texas. Gathering together nine of his pals, the band was initially launched as an opportunity for the budding composer to play out the jazzy hybrid funk music that
Oct. 20, 2014
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Vinyl ‘renaissance’ boosts British album sales
LONDON (AFP) ― Vinyl records are enjoying a “renaissance” in Britain, the music industry’s trade body said on Friday, with sales for the year on track for their highest result in nearly two decades.Figures from the Official Charts Company showed almost 800,000 vinyl albums have been sold so far this year, already more than last year’s total of 780,674 and nearing the 1 million mark of 1996.“Vinyl enthusiasts are now able to enjoy the renaissance of the format,” said Lynne McDowell, a spokeswoman
Oct. 19, 2014
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[Weekender] Changing lives through music
Nearly four decades ago, Venezuelan economist and musician Jose Antonio Abreu gathered 11 impoverished children in a parking garage in Caracas and started teaching them classical music.His notion was simple: free music education can lift the children out of poverty and crime, which in turn could tackle social problems plaguing the country.The initiative ― “El Sistema” or the System ― became hugely successful, so far affecting nearly 2.5 million youngsters mostly from low-income backgrounds and p
Oct. 17, 2014
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[Weekender] Civic orchestras spread love of music
The marching band of the historical Kyungbock High School in Seoul, founded in 1921, was disbanded in 1979 after a complaint was filed that the trumpet sound coming from the window might be a disturbance for the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae, a few meters from the school. “It was the time when the U.S. President Jimmy Carter was visiting. It was a historical visit,” recalled Kim Hak-myung, 59, one of the former band members. The school reacted to the anonymous complaint by dissolving the
Oct. 17, 2014
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[Weekender] Young, ambitious and in a gentleman’s game
If one is asked to picture a classical music conductor, it is safe to say that more often than not, the image which immediately springs to mind is that of an older male in a freshly pressed black-and-white tuxedo gently waving a baton.However, thrashing past these outdated stereotypes is 38-year-old maestro Sung Shi-yeon, who is making waves in the classical music world as a notable upcoming, young female conductor.Although her career has only just taken off, Sung has already received a number o
Oct. 17, 2014
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[Weekender] ‘Real fulfilment comes from being in an orchestra’
As the principal timpanist of the Seoul Philharmonic, Adrien Perruchon stands in the back row, yet provides the orchestra’s heartbeat. The large drums’ deep resonance and gratifying boom plays an essential role in any orchestra. Beethoven loved timpanis for their rich sound and harmonic potential. Asked what attracted the 31-year-old musician to the instrument, he smiled. “You get to play with the orchestra, quite opposite from playing a piano,” he said. “Although the timpani can be played solo
Oct. 17, 2014
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Transforming centuries-old artistry
Kim Young-jun was a star stock manager in the 1980s and 1990s when the Korean economy was on the rise, registering strong growth. He gave financial advice on TV and radio, and also wrote two books on stock investments. “I was a celebrity in finance,” said Kim. His advice proved worth heeding most of the time. The rule was, he said, invest when others don’t. Then, suddenly, he realized that all his life was built around the hollow world of the stock market. “I felt like I was a robot chasing mone
Oct. 17, 2014
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Eyelike:Blake Shelton the adult shines on new LP
Blake Shelton the adult shines on new LPBlake Shelton“Bringing Back The Sunshine”(Warner Nashville)Blake Shelton’s public persona -- a mix of smart-aleck whimsy and thoughtful sensitivity -- has made him country music’s most ubiquitous male star. A full-grown man with a boyish cheekiness, his easy likability has made him a consummate award-show host, a high-profile judge on “The Voice” and a constant presence in ads across print, the Web and TV. His recent albums draw on both sides of this perso
Oct. 17, 2014