William Shatner is a pretty unique actor, all things considering.  Note that I did not say that he is a good actor.  However, he is unique. 

Back in 1965, Shatner starred in a horror movie by the name of Incubus.  This film, long thought to have been destroyed by fire, was discovered again in France and put out on DVD.  The unique thing about this movie is not that it is a horror show and not that it includes William Shatner.  It was written entirely in Esperanto, the language invented in the 1880s by Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof, a Polish ompthamologist.  Esperanto does have loyal speakers and even its own literature.  William Auld, a Scottish author who wrote mostly in Esperanto, was considered for the Nobel Prize many times.  Nevertheless, Incubus remains just about the only feature film shot entirely in Esperanto. 

For those of you who wish to hear William Shatner speaking in Esperanto, you can watch this clip here.  Scary, huh?

Well, all is cold and snowy in Seoul right now.  I don’t usually mind snow, but I definitely mind it here.  In addition to the phenomenon of motorcycles on the sidewalk, you have to be really careful where you walk.  It snows and they never, ever clear it.  It sort of wears away more than anything.  Given that the temperature is not expected to rise above zero this week, it should make going to work an interesting prospect.  The paving stones that they use for sidewalks become unbearably slick.  I’m amazed that I’ve not fallen all that much considering. 

This afternoon, I attended the Mass of Christmas at Seoul’s Myeong-dong Cathedral.  They really do the Mass of Christmas very nicely.  His Eminence, Nicholas Cardinal Cheong Jin-suk, Archbishop of Seoul was the celebrant.  It is the sort of thing that I like to see, namely a veritable army of servers, candles, incense, and all.  The place really was packed.  When I spoke with my parents this morning, I was in line waiting to get in.  I had arrived an hour early and was pretty lucky to get a seat.  There were numerous people standing, the number of which would have raised the ire of many an American fire marshal.  Midnight Mass is even more amazing, considering that people start lining up at 8 PM, the outdoor creche is blessed at 11, and the Mass starts promptly at midnight.  The choir sung their hearts out, and as it is the Haydnjahr (Haydn Year), we had some Haydn. 

For Christmas Dinner, I went to the Big Rock, a restaurant and bar in Gangnam.  I sometimes like to go their for their breakfasts.  The owner is really personable, so I like to throw him my business when I can.  He had a special Christmas buffet involving turkey, ham, spare ribs, and all the rest.  So yes, I did get my Christmas turkey!  And it was worth it, too.  One of the teachers from our school and another teacher from another school joined me.

Anyhow, I hope that you all have happy and wonderful holidays.  I’ll speak with some of you on Sunday.

John Rutter, a British composer, has long had a faithful following in the English-speaking world.  Here in Korea, the choir of the Jeoldusan Martyrs’ Shrine, site where many of the Korean martyrs gave their final witness of faith, likes to sing Rutter’s music, albeit in Korean. 

Of his many works, two are definite favourites of mine.  Firstly is his Requiem which is an ecumenical work, one might say, seeing as it draws on both the Roman Catholic texts of the Requiem Mass and also on the Anglican texts of the Book of Common Prayer.  The second favourite is this little Christmas carol set to a poem by Robert Herrick.

I need not belabor you with the history behind it or other such musings.  However, I am going to leave you with this exquisite performance by the choir of St. Olav’s College and Herrick’s own exquisite text.

Merry Christmas everybody! 

What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!

Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honour to this day,
That sees December turned to May.

Why does the chilling Winter’s morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell, like to a mead new-shorn,
Thus, on the sudden?

Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
’Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and lustre, public mirth,
To heaven, and the under-earth.

We see Him come, and know Him ours,
Who, with His sunshine, and His showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.

The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome Him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart,

Which we will give Him; and bequeath
This holly, and this ivy wreath,
To do Him honor; who’s our King,
And Lord of all this reveling.

Apart from Jan Pieterszoon Sweenlinck and the Dutch masters of Renaissance polyphony, the Dutch haven’t really produced many “great” composers.  However, they have made up for it in spades in painting.  Rembrandt and Van Gogh were natives of The Netherlands.

At some point, The Netherlands in general and Amsterdam in particular became the place for early music.  So many of the leading interpreters of the music of Bach and other baroque masters either are natives of The Netherlands or studied there.  They’ve produced artists of the quality of Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Brüggen, Ton Koopman, Marion Verbruggen, Bob van Asperen, Jaap ter Linden and others.  Prominent early music performers who studied there include the French-born Christophe Rousset, Barbara Thornton, and others.

The Netherlands also contains quite a few ancient organs.  The organ in Haarlem’s Sint Bavokerk was played by the young Mozart on a concert tour of The Netherlands and Belgium.  Ton Koopman, one of the preeminent Bach interpreters of our time here plays the ”Little” Fugue in g-Minor by J.S. Bach.

Peter Kim graciously left on my “About This Site” page the information for the Christmas and Holy Masses at Myeong-dong Cathedral.  For any who may be interested in attending, I’m posting this up on the main page.  You are strongly urged to arrive early, that is if you want a seat.  Myeong-dong Cathedral, while being an exquisitely beautiful place, it not overly large.  If you want a seat, you must arrive early.

A Solemn Pontifical Mass at Midnight on December 31 will also be celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Yeom for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother God.  This is one of the three Holy Days of Obligation of Korea.  At 12 noon on January 1, His Eminence, Nicholas Cardinal Cheong Jin-suk, Archbishop of Seoul will celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass.

Dec. 24, 2009
– at 7:00 pm: Christmas Mass (arranged for children, the old and the ushers)
– at 11:00 pm, adoration before nativity scene
– at Midnight: Christmas Midnight Mass celebrated by Cardinal Cheong Junseok

Dec. 25, 2009
– at noon: Christmas Daytime Mass celebrated by Cardinal Cheong

Dec. 31, 2009
– at 11:30 pm: music concert
– midnight Mass celebrated by bishop Yeom Sujeong

Jan. 1, 2010
– noon Mass celebrated by Cardinal Jeong

◉ 예수 성탄 대축일

※ 12월 24일(목) – 오후 7시 (봉사자, 노약자)
밤 11시 (구유 예절), 밤 12시 (자정 미사)
* 주 례 : 정진석 추기경님

※ 12월 25일(금)
* 교중미사(낮 12시) : 정진석 추기경님 주례
* 미 사 : 주일미사 시간과 동일 (단, 오전 7시 미사는 없음)

◉ 2010년 새해맞이 미사

지난 한 해 동안 하느님께서 내려주신 모든 은혜와 은총의 새해를 주심에 감사드리며,
작은 음악회와 함께 2010년 새해맞이 미사를 봉헌합니다.

* 작은음악회 : 12월 31일(목) 밤 11시 30분
* 미 사 : 12월 31일(목) 밤 12시 (자정 미사)
주 례 : 염수정 총대리주교님
※ 12월 31일(목)은 평일 미사와 동일합니다.

◉ 천주의 성모 마리아 대축일(1월 1일 금요일)
* 교중미사(낮 12시) : 정진석 추기경님 주례
* 미사 후 추기경님께 새해인사
* 미 사 : 주일미사 시간과 동일 (단, 오전 7시 미사는 없음)

Catalonia has always been a bit different from the rest of Spain.  Despite being a major center in the Spanish-speaking literary world, they have their own language which they have jealously guarded, namely Catalan.  Despite attempts by the late caudillo Francisco Franco Bahamonde to ban it, it nevertheless remains strong.  And it is a good thing too, as Catalan is one of the most pleasant sounding languages there is. 

Following the death of Franco, Spain finally began to pay attention to the very real aspirations of her many different linguistic groups and peoples.  While the dialect of Madrid remains official, the autonomous regions such as Catalonia or the Basque Country have the right to educate their children in their own language as well.  They also have their own local parliaments, police forces, and so on.

It seems that the government of Catalonia is thinking of banning bullfighting.  If this happens, it will be the first place on the Spanish mainland where the corrida de toros will be illegal.  It has been illegal on the Canary Islands since 1991. 

You can read more about it here.  

Spain is by no means the only country to engage in bullfighting.  The neighboring nation of Portugal also has bullfighting.  However, it is done on horseback and they aren’t allowed to kill the bull.

The USA, unlike most other developed nations, is largely financing itself these days through debt.  I’ve read about other countries such as Singapore and China who’ve largely pursued sane fiscal policies.  The Chinese have amazing amounts of savings as does Singapore. 

Much of our economic growth has been based on an illusion.  Basically, our government has been financing all of the amazing blunders they do by issuing insane amounts of bonds.  A few months ago, Queen Hillary was Beijing and Seoul begging the leaders of both governments to buy more bonds. 

Zhu Min, the deputy director of the People’s Bank of China, recently stated that “the world does not have so much money as to buy more US treasuries”.  You can read his remarks here.  Basically, American citizens are saving more and spending less.  This impacts the ability of foreign countries to get US dollars with which to buy treasury bonds.  The USA is going to have to resort to something to get a handle on its deficit, but seeing as politicians only care about getting reelected, you can hardly imagine that they’re going to plan for something as important as our future.

I mourn for my country and for what it has become.

One of the things which really annoyed me when I first got to Korea was the lack of numbering on the buildings.  But the same is true of Japan as well.  My first year, I had booked a hotel room in Fukuoka Japan.  The hotel was allegedly located at Hakata Ekimae-ku 1-3-5 which I never found.  After a couple of hours of looking, I came across the Comfort Inn at Hakata Ekimae-ku 2-1-1 and asked if they had a room.  And wonder of wonders, they did.  I called the other hotel from the Comfort Inn to tell them that I wouldn’t be coming, mostly because I could never find the place.

I had a very difficult time trying to find the Catholic parish.  My school was located at 1251-1 Chipyeong-dong.  The Catholic parish was located at 1110-3 Chipyeong Dong.  I thought that this meant it was close to the school.  It was, but on a side street and not immediately visible.  Now, the Korean government is renaming the streets (most of them didn’t even have names) and attaching house numbers to them.  I have never received mail addressed to my new address.  I receive everything addressed with the old one.  Basically, the building numbering system, which was imported from Japan, does not reflect where a given building actually is.  It only reflects the lot number on which it is built.  It would sort of be like addressing our mail to Lot 92 of the Apache Vista Ranchitos.  (I used to work for a title company.  That is my favourite subdivision name.)  Or even worse, to “Beginning at the rusty water pipe of the Southwest Corner of Lot 36, Township 14 South, Range 33 of the Salt River Base and Meridian.” 

The Gangnam district of Seoul has really tried to embrace this scheme.  The markers are large and the numbers are easily readable and are written in Korean, Chinese characters, and English.  I wonder, though, how much mail they receive actually written to the new addresses, though.

Now that fears over swine flu have largely subsided, we decided to take the kids for an outing.  Over by the GS Mart in my city, there is a place, run by a nice older couple, where kids can jump on trampolines.  The kids had fun and exhausted the teachers.  However, they are never exhausted it seems.

It is funny, but quite a few of my students have had the swine flu.  We’re still taking standard precautions.  They have to wash their hands with an alcohol-based handwash before entering.  And we do still take temperatures.  But the kids are not afraid to admit to having had it.  “Where were you last week?”  “Oh, I had shin jong (신종) flu”. 

Here is one of the three buses our school has.  One of them is a large van, actually, and is the main car driven by our boss or his wife.  She is really quite adept at driving a large vehicle in the midst of Seoul’s sometimes unbelievable traffic.  As big a city as Seoul is, it is perhaps surprising that the traffic jams aren’t worse than they are.