An all-star line-up of Korean music specialists
OBAMA party!
An immensely entertaining noraebang session that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Everything from Korean trot (트로트/뽕짝) to ABBA's Dancing Queen could be heard. LOL!
Although I was unable to attend this year's Society for Ethnomusicology conference, I was fortunately able to see many friends and professors at the International Conference of Korean Musicologists in Pusan last week. I was extremely humbled to be in the presence of so many important scholars of Korean music and culture, and grateful moreover to be asked to participate in the conference. All in all, everything went well, and I came away with a new-found appreciation and understanding of the many voices of Korean musicology/ethnomusicology.
On November 5, I became the makeshift correspondent for election news coverage since I was the only one with a "line out" of our rather cloistered situation during that entire day. A friend diligently sent me text message updates on my cell phone, letting me know which states had gone blue. In the evening, we had a ba-(rock)in OBAMA party, where we squished into a hotel room, celebrated, and watched the Grant Park speech on my laptop. Even though we were thousands of miles away from the US, I felt somehow connected back to the States, in a tangible way, through the community of supporters that gathered together that evening.
As with any academic conference, it is often the time spent after the papers are delivered that is the most enjoyable. And, with the Korean music specialists, one has to factor noraebang (karaoke) into the equation as well. I'll let the following picture speak for itself. :)
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