20250403

Office Plants

All these plants were gifts for desk editors getting new positions. They're starting to wilt. Maybe you should be allowed to keep your job only as long as you can keep all your plants alive.

20250401

Cave Entrances

Just a few looks into ways to enter the underworld.

20250331

Buscliff

Buster is now officially down with Heathcliff.

This was my second attempt to enter this, and they edited it a little bit, but when I saw this it made my day -- no, year. Maybe longer.

The little guy only started sitting on my foot last December, on the day I left for a two-week vacation. I guess he could tell by the suitcases that I was going to be away for a while. Since then, he's done this a few times, but not every day. It's very deliberate; I think he communicates by throwing his butt at you, and it's more affectionate than the illustration suggests (which I love). He did it on the day that this comic ran. I've also caught him sitting on Millie.

I think he and Heathcliff would be great friends, as long as Heathcliff doesn't mind a sushi helmet.

20250330

Lucy Valentine at Skunk Itaewon

It was announced, without nearly enough fanfare, that Lucy Valentine was back, for what turned out to be a couple of solo events. I showed up to the one at Skunk, a day after being there for another show.

It was also my first time seeing Christmas from 18Fevers perform solo, and she played the band's songs, which worked well with just her alone. I texted Matt telling him he's fired.

20250330

Hechyeomoyeo

The latest Hechyeomoyeo opening was delayed a day to a Sunday, so I showed up before going to work. The pictures I got were published in a later article about the exhibition closing, which was on a Friday and I also didn't attend.

20250329

Skunk Show

Bovver was back, but only for a limited time. He put together a new band, which he named Seoul Somek Skins (SSS), and played one show before disappearing back behind the Iron Curtain.

This show also featured Gallus Alice, fronted by my newly discovered brother-in-law Pete. They were a lot of fun, and brought a pretty big following.

20250328

FRYb

The day after hearing about FRYb, a Korean-owned fried chicken restaurant in Itaewon, I went over to see what it was like and why Filipinos were so excited about the place. In the end, it was determined that this is not the same as Jollibee's, but that's not a bad thing.

20250327

Black Markets

I had to take stock photos of Korean black markets for an upcoming article. Midway through taking pictures, I noticed signs warning not to take photos. They threatened that CCTV was recording, but nobody ever caught me. I ended up deciding that they were probably afraid of having any kind of records out there, and ended up making changes to the article so that you couldn't find any of these black markets. But I still very much want to use these pictures.

20250326

Cats

When I went out in the morning (OK, probably about 1:30pm), I found this container of cat food, with unidentified white bits. I was alarmed but didn't want to make any serious moves, so I took a picture and posted it online asking for help. Advice came slowly, and some people thought it was medicine, while others thought it could be poison and more people suggested it wasn't worth guessing, and the food could just be removed. When I returned, the food container was gone.

20250325

Blustery Day

We have had a lot of strong winds this year.

20250323

10666

Hail Satan!

Also, with 34% battery power left, I went over the hill to get pizza from 8Piece.

20250322

Zines

In the course of writing this article, I got my hands on several more zines for my collection.

I was happy with these zines, because unlike 99% of the zines out there, these ones are actually about the music scene. They are also artistic-focused and quick reads, but I'm not against that.

20250322

Phillies III

I went to Phillies Itaewon for their official opening. I was to meet two very different groups of people, who I figured I'd have to keep apart. But when I showed up, they were all sitting with each other.

With my long-lost distant cousin, we pioneered something called the "Dunbar Method." Basically, we went up to the gay owner of Phillies, and he complimented her on how she looks, and when he saw me, he decided maybe he was straight after all. Eat your hearts out, Christian conversion therapists. Later on, I stole Bovver's fur coat, and I think I turned Brett gay again with it.

20250321

Abandoned

There's a building in my neighbourhood, on the route between home and work, that I've been watching recently. I finally stopped by late one night, and had a closer look. Not much information revealed.

20250321

TGI Fridays

I paused my boycott of American companies to give one last try of TGI Fridays before it disappeared from Korea, hopefully forever. This seriously ended uip being one of my most important articles.

20250321

South

I drove south to Gwangmyeong's Cheolsan to see if anything was still there. Turns out, nope. I should have returned earlier to see how those Buddhist temples held up throughout demolition.

20250320

GTX Entrance

After I'd been watching it for weeks, they seem to have finally completed the elevator that takes you all the way down to the subway tunnel. And of course, they seem to have locked it. But it won't be locked forever.

20250319

Stuff

Just some random pictures.

20250318

Kebab Place

I'd heard about this new kebab place so I decided to give it a try. At the moment I'm still on the fence, pending more information.

20250317

Detroit Pizza

If you like Detroit-style pizza, good news! You can now get it at convenience stores! It's not good, but anyway.

20250316

Helmet

It was a very windy day, and while my bike was parked outside the office my helmet was knocked off and disappeared. I had a backup which I wore, and as I drove off wondering what happened to the other one, I went around a corner and found it lying in the gutter. Looks like some other vehicle may have dragged it for a while, shearing it down to the styrofoam layer underneath.

20250315

Abandoned

While walking home, I passed by an unlocked gate which led to a pretty intense abandoned house, although I have not yet been able to get inside.

20250315

St. Patrick's Day Festival at New Phillies

After the Sindorim festival, I went to Phillies at its new location to see Seth Mountain play. It still wasn't officially open yet, after having a soft opening I think around Valentine's Day, although this seemed like a fully open night.

20250315

St. Patrick's Day Festival

I wrote an article about this year's St. Patrick's Day festival, but this time there was a bit less pressure to photograph the whole thing because Bereket was there also.

It was pretty fun, although the music lineup was a little less exciting this time. I was glad to see Red Dawg String Band, and the 120s were better than I was expecting, but there were a lot of other bands missing, like Honey Jam Sam and Ancestrul Rust. And I prefer listening to Seth Mountain in a smaller venue; he didn't seem to have the audience's attention here, and his second set later at Phillies was much more fun.

The crowd seemed much smaller at first, with the seating a little emptier than last year, but by the end I felt like the floor in front of the stage was more packed.

20250314

Yongsan History Museum

Yongsan History Museum had a temporary exhibition (until sometime like September) on the electronics market. When I visited, I was surprised to see that the exhibit contained a great deal of information on Mancho Stream, before it became The Host Tunnel.

20250313

Hoesik

I brought my coworkers out to Euljiro, where we went to The Ranch and the new Magpie over there.

20250313

HBC

It took me a moment to figure out what was so weird: no more Christmas decorations.

20250310

Tunnel

There's a new oddity on my street. At a site where there used to be an abandoned house, workers recently uncovered a tunnel entrance. I decided to make entry as soon as possible, in case they covered it up. It's now been three weeks, and it's still there, albeit half-assedly covered up.

20250310

The Hope Booth

I met up with Gloria who is the founder of The Hope Booth, and put together an article on it.

20250309

Stately Huam Manor

I returned to this house to look for a way into the basement. It was not where I was expecting. No idea what the reason for the shape of that slot was, as it wasn't like it led down to any kind of receptacle for catching whatever things would be poured in.

20250309

The Hope Booth

This booth was set up in front of Hangry Plate, offering mental health services and resources to anyone who wants to use it. I gave it a try to see what it was like. Will it have a positive effect? So little has beend one to solve mental health problems here that I wouldn't be surprised if it does have a noticeable impact. There is room for improvement though.

20250308

Phillies III

I finally made it over to the new Phillies located in Itaewon. The third floro wasn't ready yet, but the fourth floor and the roof were intact.

20250308

Stately Huam Manor

When I was almost home, I passed by this old building that had suddenly been opened up wide for the world to see in.

20250308

Good Morning HBC

On the way home, I decided to visit this roof so I could see HBC in the early morning sunlight as well.

20250308

Hannam New Town

I was wide awake around sunrise, so I went over to Hannam New Town to try photographing the eastern hillside in the sunrise. The sun was still rising a little too much to what I assume is the south, but I got some interesting photos, including of the mosque.

20250306

Around

Just checking in on a few places.

20250305

Dogs

I went to Oldies Hot Dog, which was harder to eat than I remembered. I also went to former Hair of the Dog, which was pretty hard to swallow.

20250304

Office

When people ask me where the office is located, I like to show this picture.

20250301

HBC

A lot of people showed up, including a newly returned Bovver, complete with pimp coat. I also may have met a security alarm, and am no longer monitoring the progress on that venue.

20250228

Jeonnongcheon

I'd noticed this aboveground section of a stream, so I decided to head over and see if it went anywhere interesting. It's a strange little linear park, probably not known to too many people, but both ends had heavy doors I didn't want to mess with, so I didn't see anything interesting underground.

On this trip I also paid a visit to Chefmasters, after having passed the former restaurant in Hannam New Town earlier. That first one has since become a garage, with a van parked inside. The new restaurant location is pretty out of the way, so I hope he's saving a lot of money.

20250228

Hannam New Town

After my previous visit, for which I had only brought my smartphone camera, I returned with my DSLR. Being able to properly zoom in is good, but the lighting of this place is very delicate and hard to photograph right. I'll have to come back early one morning, or maybe late at night.

20250227

Restaurant Reviews

I was going to publish a review of a hot dog place called Holiday Frank, but when I went back one last time before finalising the review, I found the space it had occupied completely vacant. This is only the second time this has happened, and the first time was not my review.

After this sad encounter, I scrambled to find another restaurant to review. I settled on a pizza place south of the river, but ended up deciding it wasn't good enough.

20250227

Hannam New Town

I went for a look around Hannam New Town, and nothing too out of the ordinary happened.

20250227

Garbage

A few months ago, while I was throwing out garbage, I met an old man who I assume lives somewhere along the street who was eager to snatch up any empty aluminum cans. Since then, I try to separate them, and leave them in a clear bag so he can see them. Here's a before and after, showing that he -- or someone else -- is getting them.

20250226

Day at Work

This time I received a visit at work from Coetzer, and we went back to the VIP meeting room.

20250225

Bukchon Hanok Village

I had two reasons to go to Bukchon Hanok Village. First, I needed a picture of a paper window for an article, and secondly, I needed pizza. Some nights, it's crazy getting there because of all the activity in front of the Constitutional Court. Sometimes it's not much.

20250224

Redevelopment

You can see the closed Millennium Seoul Hilto in the distance up that one little alley. My understanding of their plans for the area is that all these buildings, from Seoul Square down on the street up to the Hilto, will have to be destroyed to make way for a very large mall-type building. This is something that will take several more years, while the hotel will remain closed.

20250223

Office

Bereket had been writing for me too much lately, and I was stacking up copies of newspapers with his articles in them. So he stopped by to pick them up, and we had a meeting in what I call the VIP meeting room.

20250223

Hair of the Dog

This was the final night of Hair of the Dog. I wrote about it, and I wasn't sure I'd stop by, but I did, and it was too crowded.

20250222

Eggies

Just catting around.

20250221

Budae Jjigae

I found a GS25 that was selling budae jjigae. Years ago, sometime before the pandemic when these meals were still new, and quality was a little better, there used to be very good budae jjigae sets, and then they disappeared. These ones are about as good. I got one of the two there, liked it, went back and bought the other one, and they haven't had it since.

20250220

Coetzer's Hair

While Coetzer had been catsitting, he gave himself a thorough haircut. His plan was to donate the hair. But somehow, this is all that he collected.

20250219

Delivery and Food Runs

I went around delivering papers, and picking up two meals in the course of these images. I also found out that the lock on the subway vent leading to the Joseon Door has been replaced, locking it once again.

20250217

Buster

Finally, Buster makes it to the vet. We are now giving him insulin only every 24 hours, not 12.

20250216

Surprise Party

Fin decided to throw a surprise party for MJ at Hair of the Dog, the Sunday before its closure. She was very surprised.

20250216

Hannam New Town

I went back to Hannam New Town in the daytime, and yes that roof was alright. The lighting situation with the angle of the sun was a little awkward, as it had already passed to the other side of the hill.

I had been in contact with someone rescuing cats in the area, and was hoping to make an article about it, but then she stopped responding to me entirely for no known reason.

20250215

Another Look

Looks like I'm the only one who showed up.

20250215

Hannam New Town

One thing I wanted to do this day was visit Hannam New Town and look for cats, and cat feeding stations. I ended up going, but only late at night. I found one fairly large, modern building where I figured I could get to the roof, but it was too dark at the moment.

20250215

Buster

Buster has been having a bit of trouble lately. I started to notice he seemed like he was turning into a watermelon, legs unable to work properly and slipping around, becoming floppy little appendages on a big round body. This is a sign of hypoglycaemia. It was the weekend and already too late for me to do anything other than cancel my own plans. I took him off insulin and waited for the vet to open on Monday.

20250214

Another Look

I went back for another look at the progress in this venue. The opening show was supposed to start the day after this.

20250212

Odometer

My odometer was about to turn over to 10,000 kilometers, so I was careful not to miss it. It happened while on my way to the hospital, specifically hitting the number in the middle of Geumhwa Tunnel, a predictably difficult place to note it.

20250211

Suzanne Crowder Han

I went to the funeral for Suzanne Crowder Han with an RAS Korea contingent.

20250210

Delivery

Just driving around making deliveries, and I guess some low-level snooping. Plus picking up food. I went to Homeboy Seoul which is fine but still kind of overrated.

20250208

Millie

Here's Millie at work, with her extra fifth leg now.

20250208

Day Off

I went to Dice Comics & Cafe for the afternoon, which involved taking a bus and other things. Also I was able to locate a Lotteria that still has the "Bearded Bikers Munching Sliders" crap up as the main decorative motif. So now I don't have to feel like I miss it.

20250207

Delivery

I went to drop off some newspapers, and the alleys of Yeonnam-dong or wherever I was were pretty iced down. It reminded me almost of the roads back in Edmonton, although at least here I'm pretty confident it will all melt in a day or two.

20250206

Work Night

This day at work, I went to Itaewon to try to locate a particular kebab truck. Mission accomplished. The kebabs he sells are massive.

20250205

Subriot

Work in progress...

20250202

Hangeul Kwaja

These snacks were at work, but when I picked them up expecting Hangeul, I got plain old alphabet. I want a refund.

"Talkative" was the longest word I could create with them.

20250201

PB Baguettes

I stopped by the PB on the corner in Huam-dong, the one closest to where I live. I picked up a few items, and also noticed they had baguettes. Not particularly long baguettes, but I was fine with the size. I bought one, took it home, and...it was stuffed with cream.

20250201

HBC

More checking in on HBC, which isn't doing so well these days. Hair of the Dog is about to close.

20250130

Lunch

I went out for lunch to Linus BBQ, and looked at some empty real estate I figured might be turned into the new Phillies, which turned out to be wrong. Also, on the way to work passing through the road between Noksapyeong and Samgakji, I noticed a lot of wreaths laid out against the garrison walls. I'm assuming it's all just protest funerary wreaths for the president.

20250129

Hair of the Dog

I noticed one painting high up on the wall that looked like a Cossrow. Turned out to be.

20250129

Found Photos

In one of the basements, we found a few binders full of photos like this. They all look to be early 1990s, and all of a corporate nature. Not sure why anyone thought a photo album would be the way to present this.

20250129

Itaewon

I went back to that strange Itaewon site, with Coetzer this time, and this time he discovered that one of the doors which I thought led to a closet actually led to a hallway. At that point, we started finding some pretty crazy stuff.

20250128

Hidden Space

Someone left the door to the Hidden Space unlocked over the long weekend. I made about three visits during that time.

20250128

Weird Little Park

While driving by slowly, I started to pay attention to this weird little park next to the closed Millennium Seoul Hilto. It's a big turret pedestal with a sculpture on top, and there's a park around it, but it turns out to be just the tip of a larger structure.

20250127

Catnip

Time for some catnip.

20250126

Sauce

I went to Sauce to finally try their Sunday roast. It was fine, but just as I was going to write an article about it, they told me to wait because they were changing the menu.

20250125

GTX-A Seoul Station

The GTX-A line is open in two unconnected segments. The one from Seoul Station runs out to the northwest, bringing you to KINTEX in about 12 minutes, a trip that took me about an hour on my scooter once. Kind of sucks though because I no longer have a tunnel system to explore.

20250125

Tequila Bar

I paid another visit to this bar in the former Al Matto location. I think people are saying it's named "Tequila." It's good and beer is cheap.

20250125

Hoehyeon 2nd Citizens' Apartment

I've been watching this site since at least 2008, when I first visited after watching a documentary from 2003 saying it wouldn't be around much longer.

People keep predicting its doom, but I went at night to see how many lights were on. Not many, but still some.

20250124

The Studio HBC

The door was open, so I had a look inside the former Studio/Camarata space. They're doing work on it, and it will look different.

20250124

Flowers

About once a year, there's a game of musical chairs at the office, in which a bunch of people who were working jobs get shuffled around to new positions. The latest one moved quite a lot, and now I'm working with less supervision above me than before.

20250123

Hair of the Dog

Hair of the Dog was about to close next month, so I went there in order to work on an article about it. I was especially impressed to notice that one of the former bartenders there had made a painting out of a photo I had taken for a previous article about the bar.

20250121

Redevelopment

The block of old buildings next to my office is getting fenced off, and redevelopment looks inevitable.

20250119

Game Market

I went and had another look at the game market.

20250119

Discarded Glasses

Someone left a box outside with discarded glasses for anyone to take. I grabbed a few things, including a wine glass that turned out to be cracked, and a White Crow beer glass.

20250117

Pyeongtaek

I went down to Pyeongtaek on a free day, and my main focus this time was on food, especially Wich Craft.

20250116

Interview with God

I went to Hair of the Dog with a few people, including a drag king. At one point three of us were sitting on one side of the table facing him, so it suddenly became an interview, and we were interviewing him for the position of God.

20250115

Small Park

I've been examining this small park next to the Millennium Seoul Hilto, which I'd never really paid attention to until this statue caught my eye. It's not really a patch of nature, just a structure built on top of a large buried thing.

20250114

Itaewon

After having photographed a blueprint the day before showing more buildings as part of this property under redevelopment, I returned and visited a few more buildings that had escaped my notice before. This small site feels like it keeps expanding.

20250114

Buam-dong

It had been on my to-do list for a while to visit this site, where I realised I could easily go up onto a part of the city wall overlooking these abandoned buildings. I wanted to go to a pet food store there to get expensive cat food, so I made this part of the journey.

20250114

Blue Screen of Death

Looks like I ran out of space on my hard drive at work.

20250113

Itaewon

I paid a visit to several sites around Itaewon, including the property I've been exploring a lot lately, as well as Hannam New Town and a smaller site next door that I'm assuming is not directly related.

The main reason I was there though was to see the presidential residence. I found a slightly better location from last time, a little more northward so there aren't any trees in the way.

20250112

Subway Tunnel Entrance

This is what's under construction right by Seoul Station at the entrance to my neighbourhood. Just some unguarded entrances to the underworld, leading down to the GTX-A tunnel.

20250112

Itaewon

I returned the next day before going to work for a more thorough look around this Itaewon site. I saw quite a lot, then went to work. Its mystery keeps deepening.

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.