The Korea Herald

Judge could rule in row over King’s Bible, Nobel medal

Jan 12, 2015

ATLANTA (AP) ― The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s traveling Bible hasn’t gone on regular display since President Barack Obama used it while taking his second oath of office two years ago. The public hasn’t seen the slain civil rights icon’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal in recent years, either. Both relics reside in a safe deposit box, the keys held since March by an Atlanta judge presiding over the latest ― and in many eyes, the ugliest ― fight between King’s heirs. The Estate of Martin Luther Ki
Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival starts 23-day run

Jan 12, 2015

The famous ice-fishing festival Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival has started its 23-day run in the northern town of Hwacheon, with more than 150,000 people visiting on the first day, the event's organizers said Monday.Opening on Saturday, the wintertime celebration will run through Feb. 1 in the Gangwon Province town, some 118 kilometers northeast of Seoul, offering 60 various programs and activities, including mass fishing and sleigh riding.The festival has drawn over 1 million visitors every year
[Herald Interview] Preserving tradition

Jan 11, 2015

Gugak chief on mission to popularize neglected traditional genre, while upholding artistry
[Weekender] When modernity meets tradition

Jan 9, 2015

Mong-ryong uses his MacBook to study while talking to friends on a smartphone. Chun-hyang wears canvas shoes under her short pink dress. They first meet at a club. The state-run National Changgeuk Company of Korea’s production of “Different Chunhyang” (2014) by Andrei Serban was very different from any of the previous productions of the classical Korean love story ― between Mong-ryong, the son of a nobleman, and Chun-hyang, the daughter of a low-class retired female entertainer, during the Joseo
Calendar

Jan 9, 2015

Dance“Multiplicity, Forms of Silence and Emptiness”: Kicking off the 2015 ballet season, Universal Ballet Korea will be staging Nacho Duato’s “Multiplicity, Forms of Silence and Emptiness” as its season opener. The 1999 ballet is one of Duato’s best-known works and landed the choreographer the prestigious Benois de la Dance prize. As a homage to one of classical music’s greatest, Johann Sebastian Bach, the two-act ballet tells the story of Bach’s music by combining both baroque music and modern
[Weekender] Era of collaboration

Jan 9, 2015

From art, fashion and technology, crossover collaboration inspires new creations
Author touted by Zuckerberg suggests novel for Facebook CEO

Jan 8, 2015

NEW YORK (AP) ― The author of Mark Zuckerberg’s first book club pick has a suggestion for future choices. Moises Naim, whose “The End of the Power” hit the top 20 on Amazon.com soon after the Facebook founder’s recommendation, thinks Zuckerberg should take on more fiction. Zuckerberg announced on his Facebook page last week that he plans to read a book every other week in 2015 and that he hopes to learn more about different cultures and technologies. Naim, interviewed Wednesday by the Associated
Time capsule dating to 1795 contains coins, newspapers

Jan 7, 2015

BOSTON (AP) ― Boston residents in the newly formed United States valued a robust press as much as their history and currency if the contents of a time capsule dating back to a decade after the Revolutionary War are any guide. When conservators at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston gingerly removed items from the box Tuesday, they found five tightly folded newspapers, a medal depicting George Washington, a silver plaque, two dozen coins, including one dating to 1655, and the seal of the Commonwealth
Paris’ Louvre world’s most-visited museum

Jan 7, 2015

Louvre MuseumPARIS (AFP) ― The famous Louvre in France received 9.3 million visitors last year, retaining its title as the most-visited museum in the world, the Paris attraction announced Tuesday.Foreign visitors represented 70 percent of ticket sales, with Americans, Chinese, Italians, Britons and Brazilians visiting in strong numbers over 2014, the Louvre said in a statement.The total number of tourists who came in to admire works of art and antiquities including Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, was up 1
Sting unable to save his Broadway musical

Jan 7, 2015

NEW YORK (AP) ― Sting will be going down with his ship.Producer Jeffrey Seller said Tuesday that the Grammy Award-winning songwriter’s Broadway musical “The Last Ship” will close when his stint in the show ends Jan. 24 at the Neil Simon Theatre.Sting, who wrote the songs, jumped into the musical in early December, playing a shipyard foreman that had been portrayed by Jimmy Nail. While that improved sales, they didn’t skyrocket and the future looked bleak without him.“We made the musical we wante
Dog, shelter reunite after 900-mile trip from NYC to Chicago

Jan 7, 2015

CHICAGO ― A suburban Grayslake animal shelter welcomed back a dog adopted more than a decade ago after it was found at a shelter in New York.The American Staffordshire terrier known as Moonbeam recently took a three-plane, nearly 900-mile trip from New York City to Save-A-Pet shelter.Moonbeam’s odyssey started Nov. 23 when he was left at the Town of Huntington Animal Shelter. After his microchip was scanned, the shelter called Save-A-Pet.Local shelter workers checked their adoption records but c
Korean art among digitized collection of Smithsonian Museum

Jan 6, 2015

More than 700 pieces of Korean art in possession of the Smithsonian Museum are now available to view online as the Washington-based museum released some 40,000 digitized images of ancient Asian art on its website (open.asia.si.edu). The Korean collection includes celadon of the Goryeo period (918-1392), Buddhist paintings, folding screen paintings, porcelain and a lacquered wood box inlaid with mother-of-pearls that date back to the Joseon period (1392-1910). A Buddhist painting dating to the G
Haruki Murakami to be online agony uncle

Jan 6, 2015

TOKYO (AFP) ― Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami is to offer advice to troubled readers in an agony uncle column on his website, his publisher said Tuesday.The website, named “Murakami-san no tokoro” or “Mr. Murakami’s place,” will solicit problems from fans of the surrealist, whose novels are published in dozens of languages around the world.The publicity-shy writer will pen answers to queries, offering his opinions and advice on how to tackle all manner of difficulties, said Shinchosha Publishi
‘Nanta’ sets milestone with 10 million ticket sales

Jan 6, 2015

“Nanta,” a nonverbal performance produced by Song Seung-hwan, has been seen by over 10 million people around the world, the show’s production company said. The show, which premiered in 1997, is Korea’s first performance to hit the mark. The milestone was set on Dec. 29 and the ticket sale tally stood at 10,085,010 as of Dec. 31, PMC Production said. Based on events in the kitchen of a Korean restaurant, “Nanta” is mainly carried by percussive rhythms created by cooks drumming and banging knives,
Sartre’s ‘Non’ to Nobel prize came too late

Jan 5, 2015

STOCKHOLM (AFP) ― A letter sent by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964 declining the Nobel Prize for Literature came too late to avert one of the biggest debacles in its history, Swedish media reported.Sartre’s letter arrived nearly a month after he had been picked as the top choice by the Nobel Committee, the daily Svenska Dagbladet reported, based on archival material made available at the end of a customary 50-year period of secrecy.The report throws light on the sequence of events le