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Pop music“2013 Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival”: The Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival is an annual three-day music festival that features some of the hottest acts in the international and local music scene. Since its inauguration year in 2006, the festival has been responsible for bringing in top acts such as Muse, The Black Eyed Peas, The Strokes, Korn, Hoobastank and many others. This year’s festival will be held at the Incheon Songdo 23 Geunrin Park from Aug. 2 to 4 and will feature headlining

CultureAug. 2, 2013

Eyelike: Brown Eyed Girls 5th album is solid

Brown Eyed Girls 5th album is solidBrown Eyed Girls“Black Box”(LOEN Entertainment)As veterans in the K-pop arena, Brown Eyed Girls has come back with a solid nine-track album.Unlike “Sixth Sense,” their last album from 2011, “Black Box” is a rather safe album with no standouts and sticks to a rather basic pop sound, making for a good summer listen. Although the music video is stunning in terms of style, inspired by the movie “Kill Bill,” the title track itself is your average, catchy pop tune wi

PerformanceAug. 2, 2013

Box Office: The Place Beyond, The Terror Live, Snowpiercer

The Place Beyond the PinesCrime. Drama. Directed by Derek CianfranceOpened Aug. 1Motorcycle stunt rider Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) works in a traveling act for state fairs, barely makes ends meet. During the fair in New York, Glanton gets a visit from his ex-lover Romina (Eva Mendes) who recently gave birth to his son. Glanton quits his job as a stuntman to stay in town to provide for his family, but turns to robbing banks. This puts him on a collision course with ambitious rookie cop Avery Cro

FilmAug. 2, 2013

‘Fruitvale Station,’ last day for a promising life

“Fruitvale Station” is a tragedy as fresh as today’s headlines, as moving as losing someone close to you. A re-telling of the last day in the life of Oscar Grant, a young black man gunned down by a transit cop in front of scores of witnesses in Oakland on New Year’s Day in 2009, Ryan Coogler’s often wrenching film begins with that death ― captured on cell phone video ― and takes us back through a life of hot-tempered blunders but compassionate potential, an ex-con who might have turned the corne

FilmAug. 2, 2013

Simple luxury at The Shilla Seoul, After seven-month renovation, hotel unveils new plush, swanky look

The Shilla Seoul reopened on Thursday after seven months of renovation. The highly anticipated reopening of the capital’s upscale hotel revealed facilities that the hotel claims to be “the best in the world.” “The core concept of the renovation was making our hotel a place where every day becomes a luxury,” Choi Tae-young, general manager of The Shilla Seoul, told reporters at Wednesday’s press conference ahead of the official reopening. “Whether it’s business, rest, dining or leisure, The Shill

TravelAug. 2, 2013

Around the Hotels

Restaurant 8 wins wine list award two years in a rowHyatt Regency Incheon’s Restaurant 8 has received an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator’s 2013 Restaurant Wine List Award for two consecutive years. The magazine chooses winners every year by evaluating a restaurant’s wine list in regards to wine information, and the pairing of wine and food. This year, around 3,800 restaurants were awarded the title. Restaurant 8 at Hyatt Regency Incheon has built its reputation by having various wine pro

FoodAug. 2, 2013

Gaji namul (steamed eggplant side dish)

Gaji namul is a popular summer side dish that is made with steamed eggplants. The traditional way of making this dish is to steam the eggplants and then tear them into small strips. It’s very easy to overcook eggplants, resulting in mushy vegetables that fall apart during the tearing process. You can avoid this by cutting the eggplants into bite sized pieces before steaming them quickly. The key is to steam the eggplants until they are tender but still slightly firm. Eggplants are in peak season

FoodAug. 2, 2013

Brisket takes the cake at new barbecue spot

The owners of Sopung, Yang Se-yol and Choi Hyun, seem to perfectly understand the hard-to-resist pull of fresh-off-the-grill, flame-kissed meat, and the beauty of barbecue done to juicy perfection. These veterans are three years deep into the business of beef, a journey that began when they opened a barbecue restaurant called Sopung in Seoul’s Nonhyeon-dong in the winter of 2010. And they are still going strong. “We instituted a corkage-free policy and put out thick cuts of beef,” said Yang, 43.

FoodAug. 2, 2013

Star couple Lee Bo-young, Ji Sung to wed in September

Actress Lee Bo-young and actor Ji Sung announced Friday that they will tie the knot on Sept. 27. The wedding will take place at the Western House at W Seoul-Walkerhill hotel, the two celebrities’ agencies, Will Entertainment and Namoo Actors Co., confirmed Friday. The two first met on the set of their 2004 SBS drama “Save the Last Dance for Me” and have been together for six years since 2007. Lee, whose highly successful SBS drama series “I Hear Your Voice” ended Thursday night, posted a photo

TelevisionAug. 2, 2013

‘Snowpiercer’ on record-breaking pace

Bong Joon-ho’s latest film “Snowpiercer” drew 1 million viewers in just two days since its release, the state-run Korean Film Council said Friday.According to the organization, the dystopian sci-fi flick drew 1.03 million viewers as of Thursday, just a day after its Korean release on July 31. This makes the film the fastest movie to smash the 1-million mark in weekday sales. The record beats last year’s box office hit “The Thieves,” which hit the 1-million audience mark in three days after its r

FilmAug. 2, 2013

Murder as poetry, metaphor

Choreographer Hong Sung-yup’s recent piece “The Dog and the Shadow” was, in many ways, a dance about memories and how they shape us into who we are. Hong used feathers and tiny pieces of cotton and paper to symbolize one’s distant and fading memories ― light, insignificant, floating easily through the air.Hong said he fears developing Alzheimer’s disease much more than any other life-threatening illness ― “You completely lose sense of who you are (with the disease) and it’s just extremely fright

BooksAug. 1, 2013

Dark tourism brings light to disaster zones

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (AFP) ― Before the huge tsunami virtually wiped it off the map in 2011, Rikuzentakata’s pristine beach and luxuriant pine forests were a well-worn stop on Japan’s tourist trail. Now the visitors are coming back, but this time they want to see the devastation and the monuments to those who died, the latest example of a phenomenon dubbed “dark tourism” where holidaymakers pay to witness the aftermath of others’ misery.“You can’t really get a sense how huge the tsunami was unle

TravelAug. 1, 2013