d-Wizz Hankuk Travel Diary [2005]
Day 23 (2005-08-18) / Day 24 (2005-08-19) / Day 25 (2005-08-20) 
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Day 24: 2005-08-19 (Friday)
In total contrast to the busy schedule of the previous day, I stayed at the guest house making more MIDI files for FX. After a few hours on the computer, I began to feel hungry, and also scatologically ready.
After inducting my eighth scatological event in Korea into the scatological hall of fame, I went to the shop near the guest house to buy a few things, including a ramyun for lunch, and some Crown biscuits. One of the Crown company’s products is a biscuit called a “Peanut Sand”, which has a filling made of peanut cream. I was first introduced to these in Australia by a Korean friend, Can (정동휘: Jung Dong-hwi). They are extremely addictive! I had bought a box of Peanut Sand on my first night in Korea at a shop in Incheon, eating them all myself in just three days! One of the hosts at the guest house told me that the company also make other types of “sand” biscuits, so when I was in the shop, I looked for them, and found “strawberry sand” and “chocolate sand”. I bought a box of each.
My first appointment was at 1600 to meet JK (정양우: Jung Yang-Woo) at Gungnam (222). So I left the guest house about one hour before then to meet him. Conveniently, it was on the same line (2) as Hongik, where the guest house was located.
JK was working at a karaoké bar from 1800 to 0600 every day, so he had very limited time windows to meet people, as he slept during most of the day. We had talked on the phone a few times since I had arrived in Korea, and we had both expressed our mutual desire to meet, so I had suggested meeting him near his workplace about 90 minutes before he began working. He had agreed to this, and so we met at Gangnam, exit #6.
We walked about 5 minutes to the karaoké bar where JK worked, and he invited me inside. He showed me the karaoké system, and I asked if he would like me to sing some English songs for him. He agreed that was a good idea, so he gave me the list, and I made my first selection: “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”, by George Merrill & Shannon Rubicam. The backing track began to play and I came in right on cue:
The clock strikes upon the hour, and the sun begins to fade...”
JK was impressed with my knowledge of every little detail of the song, and the key change especially added to his appreciation. Fortunately, I had chosen a song which matched my vocal range, so I was able to sing strongly, which enhanced my performance.
I sang a few more songs, including “Eye Of The Tiger”, “We Built This City”, “Nothing Compares 2 U” and “Beat It”. I repeated “Beat It”, replacing Michael Jackson’s original lyrics with “Weird Al” Yankovic’s 1984 parody “Eat It”, which JK had not heard before, and he found it very amusing. He was particularly amazed that I was able to remember all the lyrics from memory, a feat even I did not believe at the time.
All good things eventually come to an end, and JK had to start work shortly, so I left the karaoke bar and headed off to meet Jack for another FX recording session. I wasn’t due there until 2000, which was still 2½ hours away, so I decided to go to Yongsan first, to try to find a few audio plugs which may be needed during the recording session. I managed to find another canon to ¼” jack adapter, and a 1/8” splitter plug, which I thought might come in handy if I needed to use two pairs of headphones from the CD player.
I went back to Yongsan station with 70 minutes to get to Suwon. I then encountered a problem: I couldn’t find a train going to Suwon, they were all going towards Incheon! I waited for 30 minutes at Yongsan, before deciding to catch a train to Guro and wait there for a train going to Chonan.
I eventually made the connection, and arrived at SungKyunKwon University (P152) station at 2020. Jack was waiting for me.
I had finally used up all of the W60,000 credit in my pre-paid mobile phone that I had put on at Bupyeong almost three weeks earlier. My sister had told me that Jack could get it recharged for me. He did not really know what to do about it so late at night, as most of the phone shops would be closed by now, but he said we should go to Suwon and try to find something. We would use the train, because Jack said it would be difficult to park the car in Suwon. Jack had not brought his wallet with him, so I gave him W5,000 and my #1 transport card, and asked him to recharge the card with the W5,000 and use it to come to Suwon and back with me.
Upon our arrival at Suwon (P154), Jack began looking for a solution to our problem. He understood the importance of getting my mobile recharged quickly, and he made it his personal mission to make sure it was done. It didn’t take very long at all, as he soon found a kiosk selling recharge cards, and I bought a W10,000 one, Jack said I could find kiosks like these all over Korea, so I should be able to recharge anywhere. I had not known about this.
I was silent as we returned to SungKyunKwon University (P152) station, and drove back to the café again. Jack directed me to a smaller room to the side of the main room, and said we could set up in there, so I began preparing the equipment.
I had decided not to record any more vocals with Jack, as his voice really was not recordable, so I explained that I only wanted guitar tracks from him. He tried a few songs, including “Amazing Grace”, which were good, but not fantastic. I asked Jack to record vocal tags in English and Korean, as Jimmy had done in Daegu, and I said that would be good enough. I thanked Jack for his willingness to help, even though it was a disappointment to me that his contribution was not at the standard that I had expected. I didn’t want to waste his enthusiasm or discourage him, because he had given me his best playing and also six hours of his time (and he was very busy), so I had recorded as much as I could. I doubted if any of it would be useful, but I decided to keep it anyway, reasoning that I might be able to salvage something from it and make it listenable later on when I got back to Australia. At least the vocal tag would make it onto the CD, so Jack wouldn’t be totally absent from the project, even if everything else was eventually scrapped.
During the recording session, I had written a short note to Jack about my concern for his severe scatological intolerance, as I believed that such a polarised attitude was not healthy. I left it in his car so he would find it after I left, not wanting to confront him about it directly right then.
Jack took me back to the subway station, and I returned to the guest house. It was the first day that I had not been to a Korean restaurant, and the hunger pangs were gnawing at me, so at Hongik, I bought some sandwiches on the way to the guest house for W4,000. It was not really good value, but I was craving for something – anything – to fill the hole before I went to bed. I snarfed all the sandwiches upon arriving at the guest house and retired to bed at around zero hour.
Day 23 (2005-08-18) / Day 24 (2005-08-19) / Day 25 (2005-08-20)
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