More narrative
Now we begin with December 12. There was one more palace to visit, so I did that first. Now, let's contrast the ambient populations of the three palaces. Did I do this already? I think I mentioned that the second palace I visited was a very popular spot for Seoul's seniors to putter away their twilight years. Actually, it's extremely good puttering ground. In the future, Seoul may become a popular destination for foreign retirees because of the quality of the puttering available there. (And also across the street at the royal shrine.) The first palace was a younger crowd, but not a markedly young crowd. The final palace was all school tour groups. The kids that day were even more outgoing than the ones in KyeongJu. Almost up to the level of, say, Aurangabad. One boy even hugged me. I did observe, though, that mostly the little boys hung back, while the little girls tried their English, whereas in India it's the reverse.
One thing that worked out well was that I arrived just as they were doing some sort of procession. Maybe it was a changing of the guard ceremony. Anyway, their were guys with thrichurs (or what do you call Shiva's spear-- anyway a three pointed spear) and various exciting-shaped shiny blades on the end of sticks, and guys with banners and drums and horns, and someone dressed like a monk who went out and beat on the big drum (probably you've seen the big traditional Korean drums) for a while. So that was fun.
Off to one side there was some neat stuff. Pieces of an old water clock, a big bell, and also a pretty old rocket launcher. The rocket launcher was made of wood, and structured as follows. It had two wagon wheels and a flat part which looks a bit like a workbench. On the end of the workbench is what looks like a wooden orange crate. Now I said the workbench was flat, but of course it's not horizontal, because one end's on the wheels and the other's on the ground. So, it's angled up at one end for rocket launchin', and the upturned face of the orange crate's got a bunch of holes in it for rockets, and I guess that'll do it for description.
Now, another thing that was kind of interesting about this particular palace was that it was the one that was in use up until the end, and so it has one building which looks like the Capitol. Which is to say, it's whatever that Western style of architecture is. There was a second building which was somewhat Western-style but a better style and a little more of a hybrid maybe. What it reminded me of was a school of art, which existed, I think in Vienna, that Klimt was a member of. Is there an artist named Klimt? Is there a building in Vienna where he did a frieze all the way around the top? Well, anyway, I think I have pictures.
The final thing which was neat about that particular palace was that the gate of it (the palace) went directly out onto a very busy street in the a part of the city that feels like Wall Street.
That's it for the stuff that's been languishing on my desktop since the last time I felt like I had time... so I'll take it as a friendly nudge that my memory gets staler by the day and I'll thank myself if I write something now...
One thing that worked out well was that I arrived just as they were doing some sort of procession. Maybe it was a changing of the guard ceremony. Anyway, their were guys with thrichurs (or what do you call Shiva's spear-- anyway a three pointed spear) and various exciting-shaped shiny blades on the end of sticks, and guys with banners and drums and horns, and someone dressed like a monk who went out and beat on the big drum (probably you've seen the big traditional Korean drums) for a while. So that was fun.
Off to one side there was some neat stuff. Pieces of an old water clock, a big bell, and also a pretty old rocket launcher. The rocket launcher was made of wood, and structured as follows. It had two wagon wheels and a flat part which looks a bit like a workbench. On the end of the workbench is what looks like a wooden orange crate. Now I said the workbench was flat, but of course it's not horizontal, because one end's on the wheels and the other's on the ground. So, it's angled up at one end for rocket launchin', and the upturned face of the orange crate's got a bunch of holes in it for rockets, and I guess that'll do it for description.
Now, another thing that was kind of interesting about this particular palace was that it was the one that was in use up until the end, and so it has one building which looks like the Capitol. Which is to say, it's whatever that Western style of architecture is. There was a second building which was somewhat Western-style but a better style and a little more of a hybrid maybe. What it reminded me of was a school of art, which existed, I think in Vienna, that Klimt was a member of. Is there an artist named Klimt? Is there a building in Vienna where he did a frieze all the way around the top? Well, anyway, I think I have pictures.
The final thing which was neat about that particular palace was that the gate of it (the palace) went directly out onto a very busy street in the a part of the city that feels like Wall Street.
That's it for the stuff that's been languishing on my desktop since the last time I felt like I had time... so I'll take it as a friendly nudge that my memory gets staler by the day and I'll thank myself if I write something now...
posted by GB at 2:24 AM
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