Week 32 (Oct 2nd to Oct 8th)
Sunday Oct 2nd, I woke up feeling just as stuffed up and awful as the day before, and definitly not in the mood to record. To make matters worse, Mike decided at the last minute that he no longer wanted to participate in the recording, thus leaving Jason and I (and Martin, our recording guy) pretty much screwed. Mike was pissed that we had organized the session without him, but as we pointed out, he had bailed on practise that night, so what could we do? He was also severely hungover, and I would not have wanted to be around him that day anyway, so Jason and I did some quick re-figuring and set off to do the session just the two of us. As of right now, the future of Drums Is No is up in the air. We have a gig in one week, but that may be our last gig (Jason and Evan are leaving in a month anyway, so the end was rapidly approaching regardless). Anyway, Jason and I ended up having a great session, very fast and efficient. We were able to do single takes for a lot of stuff, and we had to alter our song choices a little due to Mike and my illness, but we got four solid tracks done in four hours, which is pretty much what I had targeted in my mind. Thinking about Mike: some people here are clearly "lifers", you know the kind of people who are probably never going to go back to North America, or Europe or wherever. Maybe because they don't have a home to go back to, or maybe because they don't really know what else to do, or maybe because being here is like suspending yourself in a state of very little responsibility. As foreign teachers, we are usually overpaid and don't work very hard to boot, so being here often seems like a giant year-long party. Can you imagine living that way for the rest of your life? I kind of feel like my "real" life has been suspended while I'm here, almost like I'm in some parallel universe where I can get away with doing things that I would never do at home. So I always wonder what kind of effect that feeling would have on someone who is probably never going to leave Korea.
Monday Oct 3rd, Today we had another day off. I don't really know what it was for, something about sky-opening day. Most Koreans don't really know either, but they're just happy that we get a day off! Usually I would have tried to go away for the long weekend, but between the gig on Saturday, and the recording yesterday, and being so sick, I purposely didn't plan a damn thing to do today. I did nothing but sleep, watch tv in bed and listen to music, and it was perfect.
Tuesday Oct 4th, Now that I'm in the second half of my contract, I've been starting to look forward to going home. All my friends here are talking about coming back for another year, or trying to upgrade to a middle school or university job, but I've always been the one to say "No, I'm going home". Today I got an email that changed everything. There is a music institute in Seoul that has a really solid jazz program. The program is headed up by Jae Chung, who graduated from University of Toronto in 1995. Also onstaff are two more very reputable U of T grads. Jae contacted me to offer me the vocal position at this school. One of my old teachers from U of T reccomended for the job, and apparently Jae has been trying to get my contact info since the summer. I was absolutely floored when I read the email, because this is a full-on dream job for me. To get to teach nothing but jaz singing in a city where there's lots of gigs available, and to have enough time and money to travel? How could I possibly turn this down? This is the kind of job I would have wanted eventually back home, but it certainly wouldn't pay as much as it will here, and I would have to wait a long time to build up a reputation strong enough to teach at a university. And now the opportunity is just being handed to me . . . The timing also works out especially well. The job starts at the beginning of the new semester in March, and my contract ends in Daegu at the end of February. It's almost like this is the real reason I came to Korea, so I could have this opportunity. Of course, I called Jae tonight to tell him that I'm very interested in the job, and I will probably go to Seoul next weekend to find out all the details.
Wednesday Oct 5th, I had a gig with the funk band tonight. This is nothing unusual, except that it is our drummer Colin's last night in Daegu. He and his wife and two children are going back to Houston, Texas. Colin and Carmel are really happy here, but their kids are starting to complain that they miss home, so for the sake of their family, they are leaving behind their jobs here in Korea. We have another drummer lined up already, but Colin was a great drummer, and we will all miss him a lot. As for me, my cold is on the mend, but now I've developed a ridiculous hacking cough. I'm sure that I've been leaving behind bits of my lungs everywhere I go. However, I can take solace in the fact that EVERYONE who was on the China trip is also sick.
Saturday Oct 8th, I had a gig with Drums Is No at Commune tonight. We had decided that this was going to be our last gig, mainly because Jason and Mike have been arguing so much, and Evan is tired of playing, and I'm tired of having no time to myself. Fortunately Mike and Jason had a little bit of a "heart to heart" earlier on in the week, so that issue has been resolved anyway, and I think we've all decided that instead of really being all serious about a gig that doesn't pay anyway, we should just have fun and be really goofy about it. So we decided to have a real "rock-star" night, where we drink during the gig, and act silly, and do ridiculous walk-ons, and just generally be jack-asses! It was really fun . . . we didn't play very well, but it was really fun . . . Evan had an old guitar that was beyond fixing, and we had decided a long time ago that we were going to have a ceremonial guitar bashing, but this seemed like the perfect forum. So before our last set, we laid down a blanket in front of the stage, and during the last song, we had worked out a little drama where Evan would just start yelling and pulling a diva attitude, and then grab the guitar, and smash it while we all played random stuff on our instruments. It went over like gold! It was one of the funniest moments I've ever had in Korea, and I've got some crazy pictures of the whole moment that I will post soon! In any case, this isn't actually going to be our last show, because we were asked to play at some art festival in November. That will be our real last show, because Jason and Evan are done a week later! I can't believe that they're both going; I'll be absolutely heartbroken when they leave. The new people better be awesome, that's all I have to say . .
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