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Week 35- Y3(Nov 4th to Nov 10th) |
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Sunday:Today I met Mark to record for his project. The albumis being recorded by Brandon, a Canadian guy who hasan awesomely huge apartment that he has basicallybuilt a studio in. Plus he really knows his stuff, soit was fun and really easy-- 1 hour of recording, acouple takes of each track and done!Some interesting conversations before and after therecording . . . a lot of people are talking about thepedophile who used to teach in Korea and was recentlyarrested in Thailand. We were discussing how thescreening process for teachers needs to be elevated;but it is also really difficult to tell what a personis really going to turn out like, even with thingslike police checks-- this guy didn't have a policerecord. I was also shocked to learn that a guyeveryone knows but no one necessarily likes wasaccused of pedophilia 2 months ago. I'm not terriblysurprised in this case. The case was dropped becausethe family didn't want to deal with the shame of itall. It makes me wonder exactly how many shady peopleuse this whole teaching English thing to theiradvantage-- I know there's plenty of men who come overhere strictly to prey on the slightly naive Koreanwomen, but how many are coming over for other darkerreasons? |
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Wednesday:In a very roundabout way, I just ended up with acontact for Hard Rock Cafe-- they are looking for ahouse rock/funk band made up of all foreigners, andthe booking guy (whose chosen English name isGandhi--seriously!) called Chris Varga, a jazzdrummer in town, who then called Kenji, who thencalled me. However, I don't see how they're possiblygoing to book someone for this gig, considering whatthey want-Gandhi wants a band of all foreigners to play 6 nightsa week, 2 sets each. The club isn't really willing tofly a band over from overseas (and they are payingwell, but not well enough to exist only on the onegig), but I don't see how any foreigner with a day jobcould possibly do this gig as well-- last year Ithought I was going to go crazy with the 4 nights aweek gig! Anyway, I knew right away that Bamboo Wifewould most certainly not be taking the gig, and Itried to explain that over the phone, but Gandhieither has selective hearing or his English is reallybad (ha. Maybe that's why his name is Gandhi!) So,somehow I ended up agreeing to meet this guy today inbetween school and salsa class. Stupid stupid me. Before I had even gotten to Itaewon, Gandhi alreadyannoyed me by calling and texting 3 times to make surewe were still on for the meeting. When we did meet, Itold him I wouldn't be taking the gig, and thenrecommended 2 other foreigner bands who might beinterested. I said I would pass along the informationto them. He wanted me to call them right then and askwhile he sat there and listened! I told him no, Iwould rather do it in private and left. Grr. I'mexpecting several annoying phone calls tomorrow.At salsa tonight, Andy and I were working on amini-dip step. Unfortunately, he wasn't supporting myback correctly and now I'm in a lot of pain! DamnAndy! |
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Thursday:Okay, I've done my job. I passed along the Hard RockCafe information to 2 bands, who both said they wouldcall Gandhi. Now I've got to get Gandhi to stopcalling me . . . |
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Saturday:Ooh, awkward dance class tonight! Helen and Joey hada little bit of a tiff while instructing the class,thus putting pretty much everyone on edge for the restof the night. Including me. I went to Hongdae for mytwo gigs kind of already in a bad mood. When I got toClub Ta, where our first gig was for the night, themood got worse-- I explained to the door girl that Iwas the singer for Bamboo Wife and she wouldn't let mein! I was kind of like, Are you kidding? You want meto pay to get into my own gig? I walked around for 15minutes and then ran into Trevor outside, and we wentin together. Even then, the door girl was like, Oh isthat your wife? It took her about 10 minutes torealize that I'M the frickin singer of the band! GRRR. Even in Korea, singers still get the sameattitude/crappy treatment from other musicians andindustry people-- we're not actually "musicians" untilwe prove ourselves to be. This wasn't the only problemwith Ta tonight-- they don't promote their shows inany way, and we had invited some people, but it wasstill pretty dead. Plus the sound system was absolutecrap. Needless the band didn't sound that good on thegig (and honestly, the mistakes can't really beattributed to the sound system-- 2 of the band memberswho shall remain nameless have their stuff together,while 2 certain band members do not . . .) I was extraembarrassed by my band tonight at Ta, as there were afew Paekche students in the audience. (I'm starting torealize that it might not be possible to keep thislittle band under wraps when it comes to my students .. .) In any case, we've been invited to play thereagain sometime in December.After the gig, we had to rush over to Free Bird, whichseemed like heaven after Ta-- amazing sound system, anactual sound guy, sound check and set up time, areally enthusiastic audience of foreigners andKoreans, plus all the free drinks we wanted. Andsurprise, surprise, this gig was actually prettytight! Right now two of us are carrying the weight ofthe other two, but this gig gave me hope forimprovement-- at least now I know that it's possibleto raise the level of professionalism and ability ofthe other two members . . . The audience reallyenjoyed us at Free Bird, and we've been invited backfor pretty much anytime we want, plus we made acontact with a guy who wants us to play at his bar inGangnam. Now we've just got to get more tunestogether, including originals, faster.I also really really enjoyed the free drinks allnights . . . |
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