dangerous days

now, what harm could come from this??

our summer vacation is on its last leg today and the weather is like shit in your rice outside, thus i'm spending my last vacation day inside doing this.

people frequently ask me why i like gangneung so much and i always give one of the usual answers, depending on where i am, what the weather is like, what clothes i (don't) have on, the degree to which i've avoided sobriety, or what newcastle's recent form is (usually as good, these days, as your feeling would be if you had a red-hot poker lodged indelicately in your liver and shooting sparks into your nearby intestinal tract): the beautiful, cloudless, blue skies so frequent in spring and autumn; the proximity to the beach and mountains; there's a factory that makes my favorite brand of soju located here; there are no really tall buildings and even less air pollution; good people abound, both koreans and non-koreans alike; its english spelling is never the same from place to place (does is start with a K or a G?); and other salacious bits of answers.

however, the most underrated, yet obvious, answer is this: where else in korea can you find a bar run by korean (gyung-sup lee) that sells no soju, has imported beer from various western countries, more liquor from western civilisation than is probably allowed by korean law, the opportunity on any random friday or saturday for nakedness, madness, and passing out on the bar? oh, and, as the picture above correctly advertises, all-you-can-drink nights for KRW30,000 (around USD30 or GBP15)...

can you imagine: as many drinks as you can pour down your piehole--and delicious food, to boot--for less money than it takes to spend 5 minutes with a hooker? if such an event were held in the u.s. or u.k., it'd be outlawed by the religious right, castigated by the litigious left, reprimanded by AA, revoked by the neighborhood watch group, stereotyped by neo-nazis, lambasted by newspaper editors, savaged by dildo saleswomen (have you ever noticed that a bottle of bailey's could rival one of those pockmarked vibrators that resemble a lumbering crocodile in making a woman's heart flutter at the thought of an impending rush of giddiness?), and overturn the results of the last two american presidential elections. there is no liquor off limtis to this craziness, although several beers are, guinness being the most prominent in my memory. nontheless, good times, pandemonium, and nights unremembered are had by all and sundry.

ahh, such is korea, such is gangneung, such is this bar called bumpin', and such is the man who runs it and those of us who provide him his income...