Contemporary classical composer Ryu Jea-joon’s music is new, but familiar

Five inaugural exhibitions reveal rare pieces of traditional Korean art as well as design exhibits featuring high-profile designers

William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh BackBy Ian Doescher (Quirk Books)A long time ago in a galaxy far, far ― well, really about a year ago, William Shakespeare (died 1616) teamed up with Oregon author Ian Doescher to adapt filmmaker George Lucas’ “Star Wars” into a peerless 16th-century play.Now there’s a sequel, “William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back,” and it’s just as much fun.As the original film, “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” was darker and romantic than its predecessor,

The Way of All FishBy Martha Grimes (Scribner)Martha Grimes is best known for her novels about British police detective Richard Jury, his aristocratic friend Melrose Plant and other residents of the postcard town of Long Piddleton. Those 22 novels meld the traditional village mystery with the police procedural, giving the plots a hard edge balanced by satire and humor.Jury and friends are absent in “The Way of All Fish,” Grimes’ 31st novel, but they won’t be missed in this witty satire on the pu

Bruce Weber claims that traveling by bicycle isn’t “the contemplative, mind-meandering activity that it is generally presumed to be.”And the New York Times writer, whose “Life Is a Wheel” chronicles his 79-day, 6,600-kilometer pedal from Astoria, Oregon, back to his apartment in Lower Manhattan, has a point: riding 70, 80, 90 kilometers a day, sometimes on busy blacktops with tractor trailers rocketing alongside, on county roads that suddenly dissolve to gravel, through endless prairies wonderin

If you adore Lorrie Moore, as so many of us do, you’ll find much to enjoy in her new collection of eight stories, “Bark.” All the sparkly balls are in play ― puns, politics, pop culture details, sometimes all at once, as when a character confuses an unnamed torture prison with a line from Jabberwocky, “the mome raths outgrabe.” (Abu Ghraib for $500, please.)Every story delivers the classic Moore club sandwich of melancholia and humor, and if none is the equal of the best stories in “Birds of Ame

Chief overseas PR man stresses tailored approach to further promoting Korea

Seven of Korea’s oldest newspapers have been made available to the public in an online archive run by the National Library of Korea, the state-run library said Wednesday. “A digital archive of old newspapers published from 1939-1949 is now searchable online,” it said in a press release. At www.dibrary.net, the archive covers a total of 146,736 articles printed in seven dailies ― Kukmin Shinbo, Dongnip Shinmun, Daehan Dongnip Shinmun, Dongnip Shinbo, Minjung Ilbo, Joseon Joongang Ilbo and Joongan

SEATTLE ― In deciding which classes she’ll take every quarter, Alissa Ramberg often applies the textbook-cost-factor test: She figures out which professors require pricey textbooks, and avoids those classes.The University of Washington senior and student-government senator, who is majoring in political science, has also put off taking classes ― and even chosen alternative courses that still fill the requirement ― to try to control how much she must shell out for books.The price of college textbo

HACKENSACK, New Jersey ― Vikki Ruisch had a fireplace in her house, but it was in a room her family barely used. So during a remodeling project last year, she had a fireplace built in her heavily trafficked living room, where everyone could enjoy it.Ruisch figured it would add value to her Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, house, but that wasn’t really an incentive. She grew up having a fireplace in her home and just wanted one, or two. She also had one put in the master bedroom.“I don’t know anyone w

Daegu-based art magazine (b)racket has expanded its circulation to Seoul and Busan.Its March edition will be available at four locations in Busan and 11 locations in Seoul, mostly in the Hongdae and Itaewon areas.Magazine co-founder Jess Hinshaw said that increased support from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Design Center had allowed the magazine to double its print run, allowing it to expand to new cities and bolster the supply at its roughly two-dozen Daegu locations.Hinshaw said that there were no immed

SIWA will hold its annual fund-raising gala on April 12 with a “Sunset Safari” theme.The SIWA Charity Gala is one of the association’s major charity events, along with the SIWA Bazaar, and has raised about 21 million won ($20,000) for local good causes each year. The money goes to a fund managed by the SIWA Welfare Committee, which chooses charities to support, although additional donations for specific charities will be accepted on the night. Last year, major donors included Anna’s House, which