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Kwon Mee-yoo

Korea Times Politics & City Reporter

Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.

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Travel & Food

Local winery presents tasting tour

By Kwon Mee-yoo Kenneth Kim Vineyards in Anseong, south of Seoul, offers a wine tasting event, Saturday. The local winery produces red and white wines, a sherry and a port for the domestic market, using locally-grown Muscat grapes. The tour embarks at 9:30 a.m. at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul and visits a historic catholic mission before arriving at the winery. Kim will give a brief lecture on wine making, while guests can taste wine straight from aging barrels. Kim is a wine expert who also has vineyards in Santa Cruz, California, and contributed wine columns to The Korea Times in the 1990s After the wine tasting, a lunch of Korean food paired with wine will be served, followed by a Korean folk dance performance. The tour will arrive back in Seoul at 5 p.m. The event costs 80,000 won. For more information, visit www.anseongwine.com or contact ken@kennethkimvineyards.com.

Jun 23, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
People & Events

Korean ballerinas to join top ballet troupes

By Kwon Mee-yoo Three aspiring Korean ballerinos were accepted by world-class ballet troupes. Kim Ki-min, 18, a student of Korea National University of Arts (KNUA), was accepted by the Mariinsky Ballet in Russia for the first time as a male dancer from Asia and will officially join the prestigious troupe in September. Kim, a rising star in Korea's junior ballet scene, won a gold medal at the International Ballet Competition Varna, Bulgaria in 2010 and a silver, with no gold awarded, at the Moscow International Ballet Competition in 2009. Another ballerino Choi Young-gyu, 20, also a student of KNUA, who picked up two gold medals at Senior Men division and Pas de Deux division at the 2009 Youth America Grand Prix, was accepted by the Dutch National Ballet and will enter the company in August. Han Sung-woo, 18, the first Korean male dancer to win a second place at the Le Prix de Lausanne, is going to enter The Royal Ballet in the United Kingdom in August. Kim, Sun-hee, a professor at School of Dance of the KNUA, is the teacher of all three of them. Woongjin Fou

Jun 22, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Books

Fortune Arabia launched in UAE and Kuwait

Business magazine Fortune launched an Arabian edition in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, Jim Jacovides of Time and Bashar Kiwan of AWI Company announced Tuesday. Fortune Arabia will add five more local issues by 2012, seeing the leading magazine publish 13 foreign-language editions, including Fortune Korea. The Middle East editions of Fortune will be published monthly, in Arabic, through a license agreement between Time and AWI Company. They expect to raise the standard of in-depth-business journalism and become a leading title in the Arab business magazine market. “With the economic shift taking place in the Arab world and the rise of corporate Arabia, the market requires a serious, high standard business title to provide the right analysis and information,” Kiwan said in a press release. “The Middle East is an increasingly important player in global business. With AWI, we are confident that the Fortune Middle East editions will provide in-depth analysis of business news globally, regionally and by country,” Time’s international licensing and development vice presid

Jun 22, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

Pasca pours Rain on stage

By Kwon Mee-yoo Cirque Eloize’s “Rain” returns to Korea after five years with water actually teeming on to the stage. The show revolves around a couple in a theater during a circus rehearsal and realism blends with fiction and bossa nova music. “Rain” is known for its final scene, when gallons of water pour from the ceiling for 10 minutes. Eleven actors run, dabble, play with balls and jump rope as if they were children playing in the rain. Daniele Finzi Pasca, director of the circus, said he started to build the show from the last scene, via an email interview with The Korea Times. “It is an image recurring to my shows. It was not the first time it rained in my show and will not be the last,” Finzi Pasca said. “I love to drop things from the sky and it is a kind of obsession. Every time I look up to the sky, I always wait for something to be thrown by God, something that will surprise me.” His attachment to the sky led to the creation of the Sky Trilogy with Cirque Eloize — “Nomade,” “Rain” and “Nebbia.” “Rain” is a show dedicated to freedom, the

Jun 20, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

Everyday objects turn into art

By Kwon Mee-yoo Explore the quintessence of American contemporary art from New York Dada to pop art and postmodernism at “The American Art: Masterpieces of Everyday Life from the Whitney Museum of American Art,” which is underway at the National Museum of Art in Deoksugung, a branch of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (MOCA), in central Seoul. As American art is not so familiar to the Korean audience, the exhibition is designed to introduce not only American art but American culture in general. Bringing in the masterpieces The Whitney Museum of American Art provided 87 works by 47 artists, including Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein and Dan Flavin, for this exhibition. Established in 1931, the Whitney is dedicated to American art. Unlike other celebrated contemporary art museums like The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney has a broad collection of works only by American artists in any form and produced after the 20th century. It took some five days to bring in the artworks and install them in the Seoul museum. Around 20 people

Jun 17, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

New national art museum to open in Seoul in 2013

By Kwon Mee-yoo Construction of the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) began in Sogyeok-dong, central Seoul, Wednesday. It is being built on the site of the former headquarters of the Defense Security Command and Armed Forces Seoul District Hospital, next to Gyeongbok Palace. The museum is scheduled to open in 2013. A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site that formerly housed the headquarters of the Defense Security Command. Some 600 guests, including French Ambassador to Korea Elisabeth Laurin and Spanish Ambassador to Korea Luis Arias Romero, attended the event. “The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul is going to be a world-scale museum, communicating internationally through modern art and making a creative contribution to national growth,” Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Chung Byoung-gug said at the ceremony. Mihn Hyun-jun of mp_Art Architect and Siaplan have designed the facility. The new museum will be built on some 27,000 square meters site, with three stories below and three above ground. The building will b

Jun 15, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Arts & Theater

Lee Ja-ram experiments with pansori at Ukchuk-ga

By Kwon Mee-yoo A little woman in her 30s stands on stage of “Ukchuk-ga” dressed in a lacy blouse, purple modernized hanbok dress with reversible skirt and combat boots. When she sticks a wooden spoon into her chignon, she becomes Kim Sun-jeong, a tough woman who survives the hardships of war with her three children. She is Lee Ja-ram, 32, a renowned “pansori” (Korean traditional narrative music) singer. She entered the world of pansori in 1990 when she was 12. She holds the record of the youngest person to sing the entire “Chunhyangga” in eight straight hours when she was 20 and is listed in the Guinness World Records. However, she did not settle for the traditional art and explored new genres. Lee is a leader of Maybe Lee Ja-ram Band and released a single in 2009. She also received the Best Performance by a New Actress distinction at the fifth Musical Awards earlier this month for her role of Song-hwa in the musical “Seopyeonje.” Lee now presents “Ukchuk-ga,” a modern version of pansori, co-produced by LG Arts Center and Uijeongbu Arts Center and directed by Nam In-

Jun 15, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Shows & Dramas

CSI meets House in local medical thriller

By Kwon Mee-yoo A doctor who has characteristics of both Gil Grissom from “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” series and Gregory House from “House” has returned to the small screen to find rare diseases and solve crimes. The first episode of the second season of “The Quiz of God” aired last Friday on cable channel OCN, introducing a series of crimes involving self mutilation. Five dismembered body parts from different persons were found throughout Seoul City and the police and forensic doctors are criticized for not being able to catch the culprit. The case sees Han Jin-woo, a genius but eccentric neurosurgeon and forensic doctor, return from recuperation to examine the dead bodies with roman numerals inscribed on them by the killer. The difference between Dr. House and Dr. Han is the thin line of life and death. House tries to find out about rare diseases to attempt to save the patient, while Han tries to discover rare diseases to find the murderer and solve the crime. The title refers to a local saying that rare diseases are like quizzes God gives to humans so

Jun 14, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
K-pop

Paris K-pop concerts to be broadcast on YouTube

By Kwon Mee-yoo The first ever K-pop concerts in Europe will be available to view online this weekend. TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee and f(x) are scheduled to perform at the 6,000-seat Le Zenith de Paris, France, on Friday and Saturday. Immediately after the shows, the edited highlight video clips will be uploaded on an official SM Town YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/smtown) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/smtown). The website also has exclusive photos and footage of their arrival and rehearsals. More than 700 fans welcomed the singers at the Charles de Gaulle Airport, Wednesday. The tour was originally scheduled as a one-time event on Friday, but the agency added another show after French fans held a flash-mob rally. Meanwhile, the company’s Facebook page was featured at Celebs on Facebook, the first time for a Korean page.

Jun 10, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
Travel & Food

Smarter ways to explore central coast

Smartphones and tablet PCs have become the hottest items in modern daily life in addition to travelling. Local visitor’s bureau offers applications to assist traveling around the colorful central coast area. “Explore Monterey” starts up with scenery of the Big Sur coastline and provides a variety of information across the county from dining and accommodation to events calendar and scenic drives. The information is either available by category or according to proximity. “Visit San Luis Obispo County” is easily recognizable with its icon that resembles a sun rising between hills. The application provides special coupons and introduces the Savor Festival in September, which will showcase an array of local winemakers and restaurants. “Santa Barbara Sip & Savor” has a food feature section, a fun read for those who want to know about local dining and wine in depth.

Jun 9, 2011By Kwon Mee-yoo
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