Davey Dreamnation

Right now I am feeling more run-down than I have for a long time. One of my students said to me today “you look dead”. There’s nothing worse than being told something like that but the truth is that I don’t feel well at all. It’s not that I’m sick per se - I don’t [...]

This is a picture of the Sogang University student cafeteria on a beautiful clear September day. Down below is the stadium area where people can sit and watch the football or baseball. At ground level are changerooms and music practice rooms. Pretty cool, huh?

As part of my Australian Culture course here at Sogang University (in which I now teach approximately 40 students), we spent some time learning the basics about Australia: the capital city, the system of government, what the flag and coat of arms mean and, naturally, the national anthem. I think I mentioned in a previous [...]

Sometimes, in a fit of boredom, I watch movies on Korean TV. The good thing about television here is that there are very few advertisements during shows; however, the downside is that in between shows, viewers are bombarded with approximately three quarters of an hour of inane commercials. The following is a transcript of what [...]

The first time I saw this sign on a shopfront in Insadong I thought: mmm, borntobe chicken … this must be a Korean specialty. Of course, it’s really “born to be” chicken - and aren’t we all?
For the record, this shop serves delicious fried chicken and pitchers of cold beer. They usually show the baseball [...]

During a recent gruelling brainstorming session for the track listing on my debut album, I hit upon an incredible invention: the iClint™, a personal music system for the discerning music fan (click on the link above for a larger image). Composed of a cassette player that doubles as a mask to wear either to masquerade [...]

Okay. So. Itaewon is an area of Seoul which contains a United States Army base and which is known as a place where westerners congregate. While riding the subway there, I was beset by doubts: did I really want to go to Itaewon? If so, why? Wasn’t I meant to be experiencing the real Seoul [...]

“Wow, they must have a lot of Nazis over here in Korea.”
(Of course, this symbol denotes a Buddhist temple. It is not a Nazi swastika.)

It’s about time someone spoke up about the appalling way in which CATS fans behave sometimes. I found the following advice on the wonderful Cats Musical website and I urge ALL fans of CATS to HEED it.
Because of the popularity of the video and so many new theatre fans that Cats attracts, a gentle reminder [...]

Today I began work on what will, I am sure, eventually come to be known as the greatest album I will ever record. Its prospective title is “Never Go Ashtray”, a quite clever pun on “Never Go Astray”, a mantra I repeat to my hair in the mirror each morning. The album is in fact [...]

Last Friday, the day I received my Alien ID card, ended up being kind of crazy. After returning to the hostel, I went out again with my Canadian friend Kevin to see some “culture”. We walked to the big fine/performing arts centre in Gwanghwamun, and checked out an exhibition of photos about traditional Korean acupuncture. [...]

This is a momentous day for me: I have finally been accepted as a real, legal alien Australian by the South Korean Department of Immigration. Wow, that rolls off the tongue. I’m like Sting’s “Englishman In New York”, twirling my cane up and down the street, asking for my toast to be burnt on one [...]

Rather than bore my dear readers with the minutiae of my sojourns here in Seoul (what I had for breakfast, the weather forecast, how much I miss home), I seek instead in this post to offer a few random snippets, observations and thoughts.
1,2,3,5 …
A ride in the elevator in my hostel has proven to be [...]