Seoul is ready to be terrified

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Seoul is ready to be terrified

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Halloween in Korea has more than arrived, it has become a fixture on the list of fun themes that weekend revelers use as an excuse for some hard partying.
Although All Hallow’s Eve, to give the day its proper name, does not fall until October 31, the celebration of the macabre in Seoul kicks off tonight when the Chosun Hotel’s Compass Rose serves wine and dinner with waiters dressed as vampires from 5 to 9 p.m. After dinner, there is a Vampire Wine Party. The dinner costs 110,000 won ($120) and the party 42,000 won (plus 10 percent VAT and service charge).
Haunted at around the same time on the other side of the city is Brauhaus, located inside the COEX building in Samseong-dong, where a “Happy Hippie Halloween Party” will be held. For 10,000 won, hippies, dead or live, can get a devil’s head band and one complimentary cocktail plus set meals of assorted barbeque and home-brews, for 35,000 won and 55,000 won. The best dressed will get a chance to win special prizes.
Near sundown tomorrow, the walking dead can moonwalk to the Peninsula restaurant inside the Lotte Hotel where the world-renowned DJ Andy Caldwell will perform live. And don’t miss Korea’s best-known go-go boys, Adonis, in their skimpiest, scariest fashion. A ticket at the door is 30,000 won; an advance ticket 25,000 won. Prices include one free drink and VAT. For inquiries, call Peninsula at (02) 317-7121.
Ghosts from around Namsan will be cooking a caldron full of fun at the Halloween Masquerade Party at J.J. Mahoney’s, which originated Seoul’s Halloween parties. Tonight and tomorrow the bizarre and the beautiful dance together in a “Carnival of Venice.” There will be live music by J.J.’s new band, Finness. The party is from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., and admission is 45,000 won. For more information, call 02-799-8601.
For real style zombies tomorrow night from 11 p.m Riskei, Seoul’s well known party planner, brings hip musicians to the dark basement of the Sheraton Walkerhill Hotel at the eastern end of Seoul.
Top of Riskei’s bill from Tokyo’s uber-cool district of Shibuya will be Studio Apartment. The Gayageum Hall in the hotel’s basement opens at 11 p.m. A ticket at the door costs 30,000 won, an advanced ticket is 25,000 won. For inquiries, visit www.riskei.co.kr.


Studio Apartment full of surprises

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For Halloween, Riskei will host Studio Apartment from Tokyo. Dubbed as the new wave of Japan’s club scene, Studio Apartment’s ttwo musicians ― Masanori Morita and Noboru Abe ― have combined jazz, house, samba and vocals to create a sophisticated club music.
Studio Apartment may be new to fans of European and U.S-based electronic music, but both Morita, on the remix, and Abe, on the arrangement, are already established names in Japan and among music industry professionals world wide.
Their three sold-out albums over the past two years include “We Are Lonely”(featuring Terrence Downs) and “Isn’t She Lovely” (featuring Kenny Bobien). Their 2006 hit singles by Juno records, “Dazzling” and “Landscape,” proved Studio Apartment are now officially a trendsetting act.
The IHT-JoongAng Daily had a telephone interview with Morita of Studio Apartment:
Q.Where are you from?
A. I was born in Osaka and grew up there. When I was 19, I moved to Tokyo to study architecture. I never got around to becoming an architect though. Abe was born and raised in Tokyo.

How did you become a musician?
During my junior and high school years, I was a vocalist in a rock band. And then while I was still in college, I began to work as a DJ. As a start-up DJ, working in a big-name club is hard, of course, so I began working in small clubs.

How was Studio Apartment formed?
When I organized a party eight years ago, Abe, who had his own Latin band, named “Mizu,” meaning “water” in Japanese, came to perform live. It took two years to work it out between us, and six years ago we formed Studio Apartment.

What will be your theme for the Korea party this weekend?
We’ll do the usual stuff, something fun and playful. We’re flying into Gimpo Airport around 3 p.m. today. I have a few friends in Seoul, so we’ll go out to eat and hang out a bit.


by Ines Cho
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