first off, happy birthday erin. i was reminding myself to call you all day yesterday... in fact, my students were reminding me all week. then, on the way to heun-young island, i forgot until 4 pm seoul time... about midnight your time, i guess. crap. so happy birthday, LYMYB.
went on a work 'picnic' to the 'seaside' today which consisted of a 2 hour drive to the 'seaside', a lunch in a fish market, and a 3 hour drive home (gangbyeon expressway was in gridlock). some of the shit they put in front of us - i.e. sea squirt, sea slug, and various other things with no eyes or cerebral cortex - i couldn't stomach.

but one thing i did that i've wanted to do since watching the 박찬욱 (park chan wook) film 'old boy' (a film i recommend to absolutely everyone)... was eat live octopus.

side note - the photo i've posted of old boy's main character is from the early part of the film, wherein our hero is locked up in a for-hire jail somewhere in eungam (northwest seoul) in 1984 or so. there was very little in eungam back then, now it's sort of near the world cup stadium where korea's shining moment - beating japan in the world cup - took place.

anyways - the main character is imprisoned for 15 years and he's not told why. he goes on a rampage afterwards to find out why. it's kinda like 'kill bill' only way cooler and very korean. the dish he is eating is 만두 (mandoo), or dumplings. pretty much the same as japanese gyoza (only if you said that a korean would say "oooohhh nooo.... mandu... invented in KOREA!!!" not taking into account that every single culture in every part of the fucking world has a dish that features a mix of things like meat, veggies and whatever else that they wrap up in dough and boil and/or fry).

anyways... in the movie he is fed only mandoo for the 15 years he's in this jail. he is released without explanation and promptly goes to a 해물 (seafood) restaurant and guzzles down a whole live octopus. i think he said "i wanted to feel like something was alive inside me" or some shit like that. then he goes on a 2 hour rampage of revenge and twistedness.

mr. han took us to this fish market, basically a giant barn with fish merchants and picnic tables.
we sat down next to a big tank of live fish, and they started chopping shit up for us. here is the result: http://lonelybullet.com/oleary/new%20014.avi

live octopus is not necessarily all that delicious, and the texture is that of a sneaker sole, but the sensation of a suction cup grab the inside of your mouth is definitely one people should experience. now here is my new guitar:

and here are some boats:

yeah. some picnic.