Andong Mask Dance Festival

This Taiwanese "I-Jhen" troupe gathered quite a crowd simply because of their willingness to pose with Vita-C drinks.

This Vita-C photo is my favorite of the bunch. Vita-C, if I haven't explained before, tastes a lot like Triaminic and is way popular with health-conscious Koreans. It's a little too syrupy for me.

Somehow this part of the Mask Dance Festival came across as inauthentic... maybe it was the clamor of Korean techno-pop. More likely it was the superheroes on stilts doing the Roger Rabbit.

One of my students laughed at me because I thought this was a dog. Apparently it's a tiger, and this segment of the Mask Dance performance was a laugh riot for those that could understand.

Batman and Spiderman ponder why Brett Ratner is directing the next X-Men flick.

So you may have noticed that it's been a while since I've posted... promises are difficult to keep, but I swear to you that I will do my best to make this a banner week for my humble blog. The Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) is starting this weekend, plus Marie and I are going to see a Korean performance of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch". Add to that the fact that I have pictures of my students, a wild norae-bang visit, and the bar with the costumed dancers and it should be clear to you that happy times are here again... as long as I can get around to posting them.

So about the Andong Mask Dance Festival...

Every October, the city of Andong (north of Busan, about a three hour bus ride) holds an international dance festival that does its best to celebrate traditional Korean customs and all of that.

(I'm stopping here right now-- I'll be back to this later on tonight, I swear)