20250111

Itaewon

I had about 20 minutes to kill, so I figured I might as well take a closer look at these buildings I passed along a fairly well-used road. It turned out to be probably my most interesting UE discovery in about a year. Expect many more lengthier updates on this.

20250111

Hannam New Town

I paid another visit to Hannam New Town, from where I could hear the protests over in Hannam-dong in front of the president's residence. It also turned out that from where I was, I was able to photograph the compound. Didn't see anyone home though.

20250110

PB

I made a delivery and also stopped by a few PBs looking for food to taste test. It took me three before I found one that seemed better than the others. The food I picked out was all pretty decent, all things considered.

20250108

Failed Parking

Subsequent visits revealed more information about the bad parking job: other vehicles did not appreciate it, and also why it may have been parked like that.

20250107

Game Market and Kebab

After Coetzer reported finding the Yongsan game market still active, I went over to have a look, and was able to confirm. I also finally tried Seoul Kebab, which is probably one of the best kebabs in Seoul, but is also a bit too much portionwise and keeps terrible hours.

20250106

Failed Parking

I came across this motorcycle parked awkwardly in this one road by a Namsan tunnel, just jutting out into the road. It became a popular post on Failed Parking South Korea, but I would keep observing the bike over the next more than month.

20250105

Snow

Right after I returned, there was a major snowfall. I made sure to stop by hannam New Town to get pictures of it under the snow.

1996

DHMD Jr.

While on my recent visit to Canada, I found more photos from Korea in 1996. Probably all of these were from my uncle, and many of them are from the period before and after my visit, although I can be seen in a few. The images showing his apartment complex really show how different that area used to be, compared to what's there now.

This is part 2, and part 1 is viewable in the archive list on the sidebar, or just here if you're lazy. Weird to think that the Slackers Korea tour of 2007 is closer to that date than to the present.

I'll get back to the regular scheduled DHMD adventures at some point...

20241219-20250103

Edmonton Christmas/New Year's

Step inside here for photos from my visit to Edmonton in December 2024 to January 2025.

2024

Phone Pictures

As I use my phone increasingly as a camera, I've been posting those pictures all over this site.

Contrasted with previous years where I shared all the extra phone photos at the end of the year, this time there's much less.

It's just one gallery, and most of it is cat photos.

I might try to return to the older format of posting standalone photos in a gallery like this, because this year this site had way too many entries.

20241219

Lotteria

Renovation work has already completed on the Lotteria, and yes they removed the "Bearded Bikers" Konglish poetry. There may be a ROTW article in their future because of this move.

20241218

Construction

The tall construction fences have been taken away from GTX-A sites, revealing staircases leading down into the deep unknown.

I decided to give this one a try, and can confirm it looks like it goes all the way down to the tracks. They're deeper underground here by a significant amount, probably due to the higher surface level on the side of Namsan.

I made it halfway down to where I could see the rest of the way, confirming that it was a long way to go, meaning a longer way to go back up. As I was leaving, a worker entered above me and we passed by each other on the stairs. I said hi but he acted like he didn't see me.

20241216

The Making of Broke in Edmonton 2

Ahead of my next visit, I set to work on the latest issue of Broke in Edmonton. This shows some of the preparation that went in, as well as some images I took to tease it online.

20241214

Dough Daddy

After the book sale, a few of us went to Sindang-dong to visit Dough Daddy, which has since become a Restaurant of the Week. This was my first time actually having a sit-down meal there.

20241214

RAS Book Sale

In order to clear out space in the office, RAS Korea had a book sale. Apparently it was successful, with people taking away a lot of books. I ended up filling in my collection of Transactions, now possessing a copy of every single issue of Transactions ever published.

20241213

Rory Farewell

Rory, a comedian who contributed articles to my section on the stand-up scene, announced he was leaving, and had a farewell performance, which I covered for the paper.

20241213

Hannam New Town

What began as a shopping trip turned into a visit to an abandoned apartment building I've been trying to get into for at least a year.

20241212

Transactions Deliveries

To save money on delivery fees, I handled delivery of a number of copies of RAS Transactions myself. This took me between downtown, Seongdong-gu, Gangnam, and Itaewon all in one day, as I delivered about 35 copies to around six stops.

20241211

Pens

Someone at work has been distributing tons of these pens that happen to resemble Millie's right paw, the one that's on the cover of "Cats on Keyboards." A month later, more bags of the things keep appearing. At first they were cute, but now it's kind of morbid seeing dozens of the things all resembling Millie's paw.

20241210

Wokster

After deciding I wanted to put more emphasis on the chow mein, I went back to Wokster to take a few final photos for their Restaurant of the Week article. The article was scheduled to come out around Christmas.

20241209

Drunk Australian

A very drunk Australian showed up in HBC, having lost something like her wallet or her glove. She ended up making it a pair by forgetting her other glove. We went into the new bar in the former Al Matto space, which was better than I had been expecting. Beer is affordable, and they had a dog.

20241207

The Host Tunnel

Here are photos from this year's trip to The Host Tunnel. Smaller group than last year, but still pretty big, and about as much fun.

20241206

Persian Palace

Persian Palace was selected as Restaurant of the Week, so I went there to take some pictures and have a look at the place.

It is much more an Indian restaurant than an Iranian restaurant, specialising much more in Indian curry dishes than anything Persian. Also, since the writing of this article, they have stopped serving the spiciest curries. According to the owner on this visit, whenever people tried a 5 or 6 they would often faint, and he stopped wanting to deal with it.

20241206

Birds

I woke up to see snow outside my window. But then I noticed it was sunny outside, and also the snow was falling up, not down. When I looked outside, I saw two birds, one a corpse and the other some kind of predator. All I remember is it had a sharp beak, like a hawk's, and wasn't noticeably much bigger than the other bird, which I later found out lacked a head. I tried opening the window a little so I could take a picture, but it alerted the alive bird which flew off. I went out to inspect the crime scene. The next day, when I looked outside again, the corpse had vanished.

20241204

Lotteria

I was surprised to see the Lotteria closed for renovations, and the infamous "Bearded Bikers" poem seemingly removed after what I think has been more than 10 years. Good riddance.

20241203

RAS Korea

RAS Korea had its final official meeting, in which the decision to close was discussed. Later that night, on our way home, the president declared martial law.

20241201

Hannam New Town

On another visit to Hannam New Town, I got into an abandoned church for the first time, found a location with lots of furniture left behind, and revisited another place.

20241130

Thanksgiving

I ended up at the Jeff and Trash Moses Thanksgiving party this year.

20241129

HBC

I took pictures of Bonny's Pizza, and then ran into Rory, one of my contributors, who's leaving the country soon.

20241129

Hannam New Town

I paid a visit to Hannam New Town before the snow melted, hoping to get pictures of lots of abandoned buildings covered with snow. This was the best I could do.

20241128

Mono mansion

One day after the sign went up, the Mono mansion opened. And it was another Photo Heim. The differences are few.

20241127

Mono mansion

People rejoiced when the Photo Heim disappeared, but then the next day a sign showed up saying "Mono mansion." What would that be? It wasn't immediately clear. But just to be safe, don't kiss anyone there.

20241127

Heavy Snow

There was a massive snowfall, the largest Korea has ever seen in a November.

20241125

Eggies

Millie and Buster were being nice to each other, and even seemingly holding hands.

20241124

Thanksgiving

I was invited to a US Thanksgiving party, and I only took three photos during it, all of Coetzer and this cat that sort of looks like him.

20241123

The Studio HBC

After the stabbing spree was over, I went over to The Studio HBC where there was a punk show with a pretty decent lineup. I missed Pogo Attack sadly, but caught Fail Fast and Full Garage.

This may have been the last show I ever go to at The Studio HBC.

20241123

Mutiny Show at Victim

I showed up for Mutiny, but the show had a ridiculous long schedule and I had no chance of staying all the way until the end. I think it started at 4pm, and Mutiny was supposed to go on around midnight. I stayed for mid-evening and saw three bands before it was time to leave and go stab Buster.

20241122

Mutiny at Channel1969

I was at Mutiny's first Seoul show at Channel1969. I got to see the Japanese bands opening for them, and then saw a couple songs by Mutiny before having to leave quickly.

20241122

Cat Sori & the Inwangsan Ramblers

I went to a show in Seochon where this band was playing. The frontman was the son of Ned Forney, a friend I haven't seen in a few years. It turned out one of the acts was a foreign journalist, so the place was filled with foreign correspondents.

20241122

Abandoned?

I've been watching this place for several years, and this time I observed what looked like a light on inside.

20241121

Tampa

These two pictures come from my drive to Tampa to give them copies of the newspaper with the review of them in it.

20241120

Liminal Hospital

I wandered around on a hospital visit and managed to get into the two main liminal spaces I've observed before. While previously they were harder to access, this time I got into both.

20241119

Good Riddance Photo Heim

The HBC Photo Heim closed down, but rather than gutting it completely as I would have expected, it seems like they're just fixing it up. Stay tuned because there aren't many different types of businesses it could beccome with this interior.

20241118

The Moon

Just a few photos, starting from at work when I noticed the moon looking in through the window.

20241117

Skunk Itaewon

Over at Skunk, more work has been done on the decorations.

20241117

Underground

I passed by an unsecured construction site and decided to stop and see what it was about. I was pretty sure I was going to get into a utility tunnel, but all it led to was a concrete box, leading absolutely nowhere.

Next stop, I got into this subway tunnel for the first time.

20241117

Baeksa Village

I drove out to Baeksa Village and arrived right at dusk. There is still one security guard on site, and I didn't get too adventurous.

20241117

Academy House

Academy House used to be abandoned, then it was repurposed, and then it closed again. When I visited previously in the summer, I wanted to return when it was colder. Unfortunately, on this trip, I found that a lot of the furniture I remembered had been removed.

20241117

African

I'm pretty sure I've photographed this restaurant before, but it always catches my eye.

20241117

English Village

I went out to see what the Suyu English Village looked like now. It may be closed possibly, but it's not untended, anyway.

20241117

Drive

I set out to drive through northeastern Seoul.