The search for Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium

While not quite as cool as participating in the Olympic torch relay (a tradition going back to 1936), I visited a friend in Wonju Monday and we drove off to go look at Olympics sites, with some success.

Leaving the freeway, we took the scenic route. It's always nice to get out of the city and into the countryside.

After more than an hour of driving, we arrived in Pyeongchang. There were Olympics 2018 flags, an Olympic market...

...a display counting down the days until the Olympics open...

...Pyeongchang Water at the convenience store...

and nothing else. Pyeongchang doesn't seem to have anything to do with Olympics. You might think, "Wait, what? That's - -"

My, what a large broccoli sign you have! (To clarify, it was 20-30 meters behind the bus stop.) I'd like to think a competing supermarket has a slightly smaller broccoli sign, and every day the owner of this store pauses, looks up at this sign, and cracks a very satisfied smile.

Once we realized there were no Olympics in the town they're named after, we decided to resort to Google. It turns out the opening and closing ceremonies are to be held at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium in Daegwalleong...60 kilometers away. So off we drove to Daegwalleong. The route to the stadium on the regional highway was rather unclear since there was only the occasional small sign above one of the lanes marking it as an "Olympic bus lane" to clue in drivers that they were headed in the right direction. Perhaps there are clearer signs on the freeway, but even after passing the toll booths and heading into Daegwalleong, there were no signs marking the route to the stadium. While not on the level of essentially denying foreign Olmypic visitors access to the KTX during Seollal (the 1988 Olympics also took place during Chuseok), or the difficulties to be found in securing accommodation (or the faceplant ads like these bring on), it's still a bit perplexing that there are no signs. On the other hand, it won't be surprising if they get put up at the last minute.

After asking directions we eventually found the stadium. Here's a Daum Map image of the town with the stadium at the bottom left:

A large town it is not.

We passed by an avenue of flags and headed toward the stadium.

The road wound up around the stadium and we passed two entrances with security guards, but at the end of the road was a parking lot with tents and people (workers and people rehearsing the ceremonies, including a few foreign-looking faces) walking around. Here workers were about to lift the Olympic rings into place.

As it turned out, we seemed to have timed it well, and by walking around like we knew where we were going, we were able to approach the stadium...

...enter it and climb the stairs...

...and take in the sight.

Admittedly, were were pretty thrilled we'd managed to get in. Some part of the either the opening or closing ceremony was being rehearsed.

The four towers surrounding the stadium support the ring suspended above the main stage. The stands also sport a light show facilitated by this array of LEDs - almost one for every seat.

One wonders how many zip ties will be needed rein in all of those cables.

If you were wondering why the stadium had no roof, or what in the world a small town will do with the stadium in the future, the answer became clear as soon as we walked up the steps: it will be torn down once the Olympics end.

While there is a concrete base, the rest of the stadium seems to be made of bolted-together steel beams and poles. It's not meant to be permanent.

After watching the rehearsals for a bit we walked out. On the way out I realized the tall structure the crane is tending to below is very similar in shape to the torches being used in the torch relay. I imagine it will host the Olympic flame.

Upon leaving we drove past the river bed and I noticed a large mound of snow. There wasn't a lot of snow in the area, and it seems the solution was to have three snow making machines on hand to provide the snow and construction equipment available to move it around. I'm not sure if there are any other events in the area; perhaps the snow... is just for show?

The freeway tunnels have Olympic rings which make for a rather "2001 stargate sequence" experience.

If it had been earlier (and if I'd realized how close Gangneung was) we might have tried our luck attempting to see the skating facilities. Instead we headed home.

A quick Korean reference on the Simpsons

I've noted other such references here.

More Korea references in the Simpsons

The hotties that he chills with...

On this week's Simpsons, Marge and the kids end up in an Ethiopian restaurant* after their car breaks down, and though skeptical, they love the food and, after meeting foodies, become food bloggers themselves. The foodies don't come off too well:

Foodie 1: "We discovered Korean barbeque in this town."
Lisa: "Uhhh... before the Koreans?"
Foodie 2: "Oh sure, they cook it, but they don't get it."

Of course, the Simpsons has taken on hipsters for a couple decades now, and that conversation pales in comparison to (and takes as a blueprint):
[Sarcastically] "That's cool."
"Are you being sarcastic?"
"I don't even know anymore."

It also pales in comparison to this evisceration of foodies (the responses are just as much fun).

At any rate, they end up hitting all kinds of restaurants, and make a trip to "K-town":

(I guess the coffee is hot...)

There's quite a bit of detail - comics, noraebang, video, pharmacy, galbi and even a golf place:

(Not being American, I knew nothing about Pinkberry)

One more step in the globalization of bibimbap and bulgogi, I guess....


*I've never come across an Ethiopian restaurant in Seoul. Has anyone ever seen/ been to one?

Kim Jong-il on the Simpsons

The second-to-last scene in the season premier of The Simpsons had the guest star reminisce about "when I was in a North Korean prison being forced to write a musical about Kim Jong-il with a car battery hooked up to my nipples." Said musical was titled "Being short is no hindrance to greatness," and a snippet of the musical was shown:


"K is for Korea, just the north part,
I is for the internet he bans,
M is for the millions that are missing,
J is for our human-tasting jam,
O is for the Oh boy we love our leader,
N is for the best Korea, North,
G is for gee whiz we love our leader…"

A little too grim to be funny.

The "Taiwanese animated dramatization" of an incident in the show, on the other hand, was hilarious:


Other examples of such animation can be found here and here.

Rat Tales

On January 21, 1972, the Korea Herald reported on an odd economic venture - one which PETA would likely not approve:


I couldn't help but remember this story; the Simpsons episode where Fat Tony runs a rat-milking operation to supply the school cafeteria also comes to mind. The comment "I wanted to make them compensate us for what they have done to us" is interesting in the light of the economic damage rats are portrayed as causing in the article.

One wonders what became of this venture. I somehow get the feeling that when Korea and Canada celebrate the ways in which the two countries have worked together in the past, this is something that is not brought up.

Still, the Korea of ten years later, in 1982, would not have been imaginable to those living ten years earlier in 1962, and as odd a tale as it is, it points to the measures people were willing to take to create wealth and pull the country out of poverty.

Seoul-inspired Simpsons opening?

I caught the latest Simpsons episode, and it has a rather interesting opening, which was created by street artist Banksy (also here):



I love the final image - the producers having creative control must annoy the hell out 20th Century Fox sometimes. I couldn't help but remember the last time the Simpsons referred to Asian sweatshops (an obvious reference to the show being animated in Korea), but figured the panda seen in this opening pointed to China. According to this article, however, China may not have been the inspiration:

Banksy is said to have been inspired by reports that Simpsons characters are animated in Seoul, South Korea.

Despite the presence of Gangnam, Seoul isn't that bad - perhaps he read one of these textbooks (or one like this).

Homer wants Bart to become Korean

So on last Sunday's Simpsons episode (a pretty good one, actually), Bart fails to do his homework yet again and his parents come for a chat with the principal, who shows them the a stack of homework - an entire month's worth - that Bart has failed to complete.


Marge and Homer have different reactions, as the following conversation shows:

Marge: One month? That's a heavy workload for a fourth grader.
Homer: I say this boy needs more homework. (I don't have to do it with him, do I?)
Principal Skinner: No.
Homer: Pile it on! I want him to be Korean by the time he's done.

I wonder how Korean students would react to seeing the stack of homework in the photo above.
I was also curious as to whether this Korea reference was influenced by President Obama's comments about the Korean education system. I could remember a few other references, however, and this guide gives us a list of all the previous references to Korea in the Simpsons (I remembered the references to Korean gangsters and to the broken-legged gymnast, along with another shown below).

Of course, another reason for the Simpsons to refer to Korea would be because the show is animated in Korea, as this interview with Nelson Shin (신능균) shows. Be sure to watch it - not only is there a behind the scenes look at the studio, and animation in progress, but we learn a little about Shin's past (While I was aware he had animated the Transformers cartoons in the 1980s, I had no idea he'd animated the Pink Panther or created the rotoscoping for the lightsabers in the first Star Wars film - very cool).

At the end of the clip, the interviewer mentions a scene I remembered well from a 1992 episode which featured Kent Brockman reporting from a studio in Korea showing how animation for American shows was done (click to enlarge the panorama):



I suppose that was during Roh Tae-woo's presidency, and Chun Doo-hwan had been voted out only five years earlier, but, as the interviewer mentions, Shin must not have been very impressed animating the scene (though he responds diplomatically, talking about cultural difference).

I've made brief references to the Simpsons before here and here (and more here that I forgot about), though not quite as often as you would expect from someone who did an undergrad thesis on the Simpsons, and who once had a student draw a 'map' of my brain with 'Simpsons' at the center.