Closer but not there yet. Feeling a little bogged down with things I need to do around the house first, and with work. “If you build it they will come”, right? I need more order in my life before I invite someone in.
Meanwhile, my Korean language exchange partner called me last night. Dang! Online he’s a grumpy old man, but his voice is great. If I met a guy in the States with a voice like that, I’d be smitten. I’m a sucker for nice voices. At least it will be pleasant listening to him while we practice Korean/English together. (His spoken English is really good, but his listening skills need a lot of work. I can read a lot more Korean than I can speak, although I’m a beginner in both).
Tonight I’m going to the movies with my BFF and my old friend Survival Goddess from these boards. I think all three of us are almost ready to date again, it will be interesting to see how that works out for us! Three very smart women in their 60’s (SG worked in IT, BFF is a songwriter but also likes astrophysics). It can be a challenge to find guys who think that is an asset and not a liability.
I'm so excited! I just got presale access to try to buy tickets tomorrow to see SUGA. So many people signed up for the fan presale that they used a lottery system and many fans are waitlisted. My access code lets me try to buy them as soon as the presale starts, although it still can't guarantee tickets. My chances are pretty good though.
I never thought much about BTS before a couple of months ago. I had only seen one late-night tv performance of Dynamite and kind of wrote them off as a Korean Backstreet boys - slick pop, good but not really my jam. But now I know all about the breadth and depth of their catalogue (much more hip-hop, rap and pop-punk stuff than you would expect) and appreciate the literary references and deep themes in most of their music. (When's the last time you saw a popular musician with a reference to a Ursula LeGuin story in their music video?)
So yeah - fingers crossed, I hope I'll get to buy two tickets tomorrow for me and my oldest son (who is enjoying their music with me). It's my birthday that month - happy birthday to me!
The last couple of days, I've also been enjoying some songs by a Japanese singer-songwriter named Reiji Kawaguchi. Check out I'm a Slave for You (Japanese and some English, from the soundtrack to a quirky Japanese show I watched) and R.O.C.K.M.E. (ft. Marty James) (David Aude remix) if you want to get your dance groove on. The video for R.O.C.K.M.E. is super fun too.
I joined an online instagram kpop dance class this weekend, taught by a young Japanese guy with green hair and an iffy command of English, but he's a great teacher! I'm the oldest one in the class for sure but I could keep up! We worked on the dance break to the BTS song Idol this week. SO HARD but super fun. If you happen to know any kpop dance fans, he's on instagram as hebi_kekke and it's less that $12 US for a month of weekly classes plus access to the archive of past classes. Plus if the time of the class doesn't work for you, you can watch the video later. I'm just feeling good that at 66, I can still do all the jumping and twirling involved. This is going to be SO fun!
Saddened by the news of the death of musician David Lindley this week. I saw him perform in the early 80's. The last music gig I performed before the pandemic, in Jan 2020, was opening for him. He was hilarious backstage, quite the raconteur, and his performance was amazing. Now this weekend I have my first gig since the start of the pandemic, with the same musicians. We will be thinking of him.
Also, just heard from my business partner about a local physician, younger than us, who has just had surgery for a gigantic brain tumor. Seriously, this stuff makes me not want to put anything off. I think I'll start planning that trip to Korea sooner rather than later.
Weird experience this morning. Driving to work, blasting my BTS dance playlist on my car stereo. Today is an annual fundraising drive for burn victims, where firefighters stand on the traffic islands and collect money. I was stopped at the light and put money in the boot. The firefighter started a whole long conversation with me (Where was I going? to work. Where's that? down the street. Where? Name the town. Are you an optometrist? (Wearing my glasses) No, a physician. The red brick building? No a block down. What's your name? What's your specialty?.... )
Now maybe he was just the world's chattiest firefighter. But I swear to god, it seemed like he was flirting with me. He looked to be in his 40's, no older than 50 I'm sure. What???? Maybe it was just my happy glow from singing all these uptempo songs for the last 20 minutes on my commute to work. But it made me think my white hair may not be such an obstacle to dating as I think??? He was cute, as most firefighters seem to be. Hmmmmmm.
