The Korea Herald

Hipsters and greybeards clink pints at U.K. Beer Festival

Food&BeverageAug 11, 2016

LONDON (AFP) -- Grizzly-bearded ale swillers and well-groomed hipsters jostled for bar space Tuesday at the Great British Beer Festival -- with the latter group driving the U.K.’s craft beer boom.The two tribes do not make for obvious bedfellows, but a love of traditional beer -- plus obscure facial hairstyles -- is more than enough to bring them together.And though some hoary old-timers are quick to point out the difference between the new wave of craft beers beloved by hipsters and unpasteuriz
Beyond wheatgrass: vegan junk food is all the rage

Food&BeverageAug 11, 2016

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Vegan diets are considered by most as healthy and environmentally responsible, with celebrity poster children touting benefits like weight loss, clear skin and increased energy.But even vegans -- who eschew all animal products like meat, eggs and dairy-- crave junk food. As the movement becomes more and more popular, temptations including donuts, pizza and mock hamburgers allow vegans to eat just as badly as everybody else.“There are a lot of unhealthy options. It's hard to r
Feeling the heat: public saunas cool again in Finland

TravelAug 11, 2016

HELSINKI (AFP) - Is stripping down and getting sweaty with strangers your kind of thing? In Finland, despite an astounding 2 million private saunas, the hottest trend sweeping the sweat tank loving country is public saunas.They’re Helsinki’s coolest spots this summer, drawing Finns and tourists of all ages to unwind on wooden benches in slick waterfront locales where the mercury hits at least 80 degrees Celsius.A trendy new boutique sauna called Loyly (Finnish for “Steam”) opened its doors on th
Daesan announces winners of translation grants

BooksAug 10, 2016

The Daesan Foundation, dedicated to supporting and promoting Korean literature, has announced the recipients of this year’s Grants for the Translation, Research and Publication of Korean Literary Works, providing funds for 13 works of Korean literature to be translated into 10 languages.The works selected include those by emerging authors such as Hwang Jung-eun’s novel “Let Me Continue” (unofficial translation), the winner of last year’s Daesan Literary Award. Hwang’s novel about the relationshi
Michael Jordan pledges $5 million to African-American museum

CultureAug 10, 2016

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Michael Jordan has made another major donation, pledging $5 million to the Smithsonian's new African-American history museum on the National Mall.　 Officials at the National Museum of African American History and Culture announced the gift from the basketball great Monday. The museum is set to open Sept. 24.　 In recognition of the gift, the museum will name a section of its sports gallery after Jordan. He also donated a jersey he wore during the 1996 NBA Finals to the museum’s
‘Not Pretty Enough’ review: Entertaining bio of Helen Gurley Brown

BooksAug 10, 2016

“Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown”By Gerri HirsheySarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (500 pages, $27)If there’s nothing more American than a rags-to-riches story, then Helen Gurley Brown was truly an All-American Girl. The author of “Sex and the Single Girl” and later editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, writes biographer Gerri Hirshey, began life as “a very poor and traumatized child of the Depression,” the fatherless daughter of a miserable mother, a skinny
In ‘American Heiress,’ Patty Hearst case evokes the dark side of ’70s

BooksAug 10, 2016

“American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst”By Jeffrey ToobinDoubleday (384 pages, $28.95)In modern media culture, news stories blow up, consume us and then, in a matter of months, devolve into trivia, pop-culture reference material and, in the end, a footnote.Take the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patricia Hearst. The case dominated America’s consciousness for most of two years, especially after she announced she had joined her captors, a homegrown terroris
Ruth Ware returns with nightmare cruise thriller

BooksAug 10, 2016

“The Woman in Cabin 10”By Ruth WareScout Press (340 pages, $26)Laura Blacklock is a writer for a British travel magazine. When a dream assignment lands in her lap — covering the weeklong inaugural cruise of a five-star “boutique” ship with just 10 swanky cabins for passengers pursuing the Northern Lights in the Norwegian fjords — she leaps at the chance.But the poor girl is off to a rough start. Her flat is broken into just before she leaves for the trip, and her encounter with the masked burgla
Screenwriting guru Robert McKee writes his story's next chapter

BooksAug 10, 2016

In the early 1990s, Robert McKee had a revelation that would change the course of his career and influence the lives of tens of thousands of other writers. At the time, he’d written “Abraham,” a four-hour biblical miniseries, for TNT and had sold several unproduced screenplays.“I looked at ‘Abraham’ and thought, ‘I’m a good writer, but I will never be Ingmar Bergman,’” McKee said. “The creative explosion is not happening. It’s professional, it’s actable, it’s entertaining. But I want to be the b
Teen girl’s trauma reveals truths about ugly, beautiful sides of life

BooksAug 10, 2016

"The Inseparables"By Stuart Nadler Little, Brown and Co. (352 pages, $27)The best fiction illuminates life’s realities, and Stuart Nadler spotlights the fact that we all skate on a very thin edge between joy and sorrow, respectability and shame, life and death.Or, as Henrietta tells her granddaughter, Lydia, in “The Inseparables,” you can be sitting next to a window in a restaurant having a perfectly nice lunch and, “A bird could come through the window right at this instant and impale you.”One
KOTESOL gears up for international English teaching conference

Expat LivingAug 9, 2016

English education association KOTESOL has opened registration for its 24th international conference this year, focusing on “Shaping the Future with 21st Century Skills.”The two-day Korea TESOL International Conference at Seoul’s Sookmyung Women’s University from Oct. 15-16 will explore the challenges that both teachers and English language learners face in the 21st century, particularly from advances in technology and the growth of global media. KOTESOL -- Korea Teachers of English to Speakers o
Applications open for October TOPIK exam

Expat LivingAug 9, 2016

Applications opened Monday for those wanting to take the Test of Proficiency in Korean on Oct. 16.Test-takers can choose to sit for the lower-level TOPIK I in the morning or the higher level TOPIK II in the afternoon at one of nine test centers across the country.The TOPIK I test runs from 9:20-11:40 a.m., awards grades 1 and 2 and consists of listening and reading sections. The TOPIK II, covering grades 3-6, has listening and writing sections followed by a separate reading exam, with the whole
Seoul Players auditioning for actors for 10 minute play fest

Expat LivingAug 9, 2016

Seoul Players will hold auditions on Aug. 27-28 for its sixth 10-Minute Play Festival and Competition.The festival runs across two weekends each fall and features 15 scripts from Korea and overseas that will vie in competition, with monetary prizes going to the top three groups. This year’s festival will take place in mid-November.Actors of all ages, races, nationalities, genders, physical types and experience levels are invited to take part. The auditions will involve cold reading, so no prepar
Seoul book club hosts panel with three illustrators

Expat LivingAug 9, 2016

Seoul Book and Culture Club will be hosting a panel session with three up-and-coming illustrators on Saturday. The group will be joined by Salgoo, Aeppol and Tokki -- three popular Naver Grafolio illustrators who attended the French International Book Fair in Paris earlier this year, when Korea was the featured guest country. The three illustrators have thousands of fans here in Korea and around the world, and will talk about their work in a panel session that will be in Korean and English, work
Punk stalwarts return from U.S. tour with new record

Expat LivingAug 9, 2016

Fresh from a tour of the U.S., Seoul-based melodic punk band ... Whatever That Means is gearing up for the Korean launch of its new record.The split 7-inch “Blowing Minds and Melting Faces” was recorded with U.S. punk rockers Burn Burn Burn. The first launch was in Seattle, with Burn Burn Burn as part of the band’s U.S. tour this month.It was their second U.S. tour, so knowing the venues made it easier to ensure the shows were good -- except perhaps one.“We’ve never had a tour where we don’t end