yanni is one hairy man

it's a saturday afternoon here in the suncheon, south korea and i am exceedingly bored. i have no money, except the little more than i need to get to and from work until the 25th. though i am admittedly financially irresponsible, my current poverty isn't completely my fault. the 25th of every month is the normal payday for us city hall folks. but right now the majority of the my co-workers are on vacation (i'm not going until july because vacation now conflicts with my drama schedule. i know, "drama schedule" sounds very official). because they wanted to have money before they left, we all requested to be paid on the 20th. city hall said it would be fine. actually they told us it would be fine on several different occassions. because i send half of my paycheck home every month anyway, i'm used to have to dip into the change jar for the last couple of days.

on thursday, the 19th at 4:30 in the afternoon we all got an email telling us we weren't getting paid the next day because of budget allocation problems. great. besides the obvious--"being poor blows"--situation, shit like this doesn't inspire great confidence in one's employer. especially because it's happened before. just reinforces what i already believed to be a korean cultural difference: people are so afraid to disappoint or displease that they will say yes to everything out of fear of offending. with megan in chuncheon it was always "i think so." in actuality, here in korea "yes" actually means "maybe."

the only reason i really feel like complaining about this right now is because i'm really bored. i can't even call on my failsafe guilty pleasure, cheese don kass-uh, because it's $4. damn.

yesterday at the library there was an animation festival. just as "yes" is loosely interpreted, so too is the term "festival." when i think of festivals i think of big events with lots o' people, attractions, food, just something generally out of the ordinary that warrants a term to distinguish it from the other quotididan events of everyday life. so our animation festival was 3 short films in the library auditorium. an hour that some families spent time watching our big tv instead of their little ones in the privacy of their homes. regardless, i still sat and watched these cartoons that weren't in english. of the 3 of them, one had english subtitles. it was entertaining enough though.

the best part of all this was before the "festival" began. mr. huh, the same man who sometimes smokes in the children's library, had made a dvd mix to play on the big screen before the films began. so he proudly shoves this dvd in my face so i can give my stamp of approval. i caught a glimpse of the names yanni, ricky martin, and toni braxton before he left the office. a few minutes later he comes back and fetches me so i can come watch his music dvd. so i go sit down in the empty auditorium and the first thing i see on the huge tv is yanni. i've seen pictures of yanni before, which by themselves warrant a certain degree of mockery, or is it awe? i dunno. but i don't know how to even begin to describe yanni "in his element." he was backed by an orchestra--including some chick with a really puffy red dress and shoulder pads--and yanni himself played the organ with one finger the whole time. but man, was he confident! the whole ordeal was a whirl of lion-esqe man hair and molestaches. and yanni looked sort of crazy while he emphatically pumped his fist in the air. it was quite obvious he was "feeling it." whatever "it" was.

during yanni, people began to filter into the auditorium--mostly little kids and their moms, the library's main demographic. after yanni it was time for toni braxton. i don't know where he found the clip, but it was toni braxton singing "unbreak my heart" while wearing a skin-tight white dress. so a bunch of little korean kids got to stare at her nipples, midrif and upper thighs. nice-uh!

after toni braxton came ricky martin and "living la vida loca." at this point, i think it was 7:05 (festival was sposed to start at 7) but mr. huh just wanted to watch his choice cuts for a little longer. in the ricky martin video, some slutty chick was gyrating all over the stage in a thong and some silver fringe bikini top, again, all in full view of the children, magnified on the big screen.

this all just struck me as funny. he was so proud of his "english music dvd." and then not only was the music awful and cheesy, but it was totally inappropriate for an audience of children.

the time has come to raid the piggy bank and go buy a bottle of soju. drinking alone tonight with some dvds about hypnosis. it's going to be an interesting night.