The Korea Herald

Man swipes Salvador Dali painting from art gallery

TheaterJun 24, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― A thief who swiped a Salvador Dali painting off the wall of a New York art gallery may have escaped, but experts say the painting will likely be recovered when it comes back onto the art market.Police are searching for a slim man with a receding hairline who walked into a Madison Avenue art gallery on Tuesday posing as a customer and walked out with the $150,000 Dali watercolor and ink painting in a large black shopping bag.The man asked a security guard if he could take a photo,
Star-studded K-pop concert in H.K.

Jun 24, 2012

HONG KONG (AFP) ― Thousands of fans flocked to a major K-pop concert in Hong Kong on Saturday, cheering an array of South Korean stars in the latest sign of the pop music phenomenon’s rising popularity.Music Bank featured eight popular South Korean artists and was the largest K-pop concert to be held in the southern Chinese city. Boy band TVXQ and singing starlet IU were among the groups that danced and sang to a sea of exuberant fans.“I am very happy that Hong Kong is able to organize such a la
2PM, 2NE1, Girls’ Generation win at Japan MTV awards

Jun 24, 2012

Boy band 2PM and girl groups 2NE1 and Girls’ Generation received major awards at the MTV Japan music video awards on Saturday, beating other internationally famous artists. 2PM won the Best Group Video with “I am Your Man” and 2NE1 received the Best New Artist Video with “I am the Best.” Girls’ Generation won Best Album with “Girls Generation,” their first regular album in Japan, released in June last year. The album has sold 206,979 copies, making it the 11th best-selling album in the first hal
Today’s movie princesses want more than a prince

FilmJun 24, 2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― For modern movie princesses, looking pretty and marrying a prince isn’t enough.Take “Mirror Mirror,’’ where Snow White rescues her prince from an evil spell, or “Snow White and the Huntsman,’’ where she becomes the hunter who avenges her father, marries none of her suitors and confidently runs her kingdom alone. Further upending the Cinderella syndrome at a theater near you is Pixar’s first ever female protagonist, the feisty Scottish Princess Merida of “Brave,’’ who demands
Jessica Simpson ‘stressed and overwhelmed’ about losing baby weight

TelevisionJun 24, 2012

U.S. pop star Jessica Simpson was spotted hitting the gym in West Hollywood for a private workout session after vowing to lose her baby weight.The 31-year-old actress signed a $4 million deal with Weight Watchers to slim down to 130 pounds(59 kg) before the end of the year.On May 1, Simpson gave birth to her first child Mexwell Drew with fiancé Eric Johnson and reportedly weighed 210 pounds(96 kg) during her pregnancy. In an interview with a U.S. magazine, close friends said that the new mother
IU heats up Hong Kong stage

TelevisionJun 24, 2012

IU poses before her concert 'Music Bank' in Hong Kong Saturday June 23, 2012. Music Bank, the multi K-pop artists concert including South Korean music group TVXQ, Wonder Girls, Beast, CNBLUE, F(x), MBLAQ, Infinite and IU. (AP-Yonhap News)IU performs during her concert 'Music Bank' in Hong Kong Saturday (AP-Yonhap News) From left, South Korea singer IU, Seong Kyu, a member of music group 'Infinite'
Box Office

FilmJun 22, 2012

I AM (Korea)Opened June 21Documentary. Directed by Choi Jin-seong. K-pop and talent agency S.M. Entertainment has created a documentary film to once again glorify their New York concert at Madison Square Garden. The movie is a cinematically edited version of SM’s 16 years of archived video footage -- from its 32 idols’ younger days as aspiring stars and SM-trainees to the day of the Madison Garden triumph last year. Featured stars include the legendary boy band H.O.T member Kang Ta, pop singer B
Eyelike

MusicJun 22, 2012

Justin Bieber’s new album impressesJustin Bieber“Believe” (Island Def Jam)Because Justin Bieber is Justin Bieber -- a Canadian teen singer heartthrob -- it’s hard to take his music seriously. Everything about him screams Tiger Beat, from the endless screeching girls to his relationship with fellow teen sensation Selena Gomez.And then there’s the song that has defined him most -- “Baby,” perhaps the most saccharine, bubble-gum song recorded in quite some time.It’s not surprising that few have tak
Abe’s a bust at vanquishing vampires ― honest

FilmJun 22, 2012

Hollywood has a long, rich tradition of historical abominations, but never has there been a history done more abominably than “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”If only they’d made this insane conceit more fun. If only they’d taken it all a bit less seriously. But this film, adapted by the same fellow who wrote the inexplicably popular novel of the same title, isn’t even bad enough to be camp.Seth Grahame-Smith’s silly script re-imagines the Rail Splitter as a vampire vanquisher, a man seeking ve
After School returns to Korea after Kahi’s departure

TheaterJun 22, 2012

K-pop group After School has returned to Korea with its fifth album “Flashback,” after a successful year in Japan.With the new album, full of electronica sounds and beats, the girls are trying to rekindle the image of their debut in 2009.“The album title ‘Flashback’ means that we are trying to go back to our initial image to the fans when we first debuted,” said Jung-A, the group’s lead vocalist, in a news conference held in Seoul on Wednesday.“For our new album, we are trying to show what fans
Ayumi linked to Japanese rock star

MusicJun 22, 2012

Image from the Official site of singer Ayumi(Iconiq)South Korean singer Ayumi is rumored to be in a romantic relationship with Gackt, one of Japan’s top rock stars, Japanese papers reported Friday.Tabloid magazine “Friday” published a photo of the 27-year-old singer dining at a French restaurant with singer and actor Gackt. One of the photos showed the two holding hands and gazing at each other.Ay
Rapid growth of concert market: Boom or bubble?

MusicJun 21, 2012

When YG Entertainment, one of Korea’s dominant entertainment companies, calculated its 2011 profits, its business strategy was confirmed a success ― domestic and overseas concert revenue accounted for 22.3 percent of its total revenue, a jump of 46 percent over the course of one year. With continued piracy issues and low margins of the local digital music market, the Korean music industry is shifting its focus to live concerts. According to industry experts, the Korean concert market was around
Artist LeRoy Neiman dies in U.S. at 91

TheaterJun 21, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― LeRoy Neiman, the painter and sketch artist best known for evoking the kinetic energy of the world’s biggest sporting and leisure events with bright quick strokes, died Wednesday at age 91.Neiman also was a contributing artist at Playboy magazine for many years and official painter of five Olympiads. His longtime publicist Gail Parenteau confirmed his death Wednesday but didn’t disclose the cause.Neiman was a media-savvy artist who knew how to enthrall audiences with his instant
King of Kitsch, Jeff Koons, in Frankfurt double exhibition

TheaterJun 21, 2012

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― Love him or hate him, there is no escaping Jeff Koons, the king of pornographic kitsch, in Frankfurt these days, with a mammoth double retrospective in two of the city’s main museums.Ubiquitous oversized posters line the river front and are plastered across every metro station proclaiming “Wow” or “Must See” for what is being hailed as the biggest-ever show of works by the 57-year-old American pop artist, opening here on Wednesday. The Schirn Kunsthalle, one of the city’s two m
Asia’s digital divide poses challenge for music industry

MusicJun 21, 2012

HONG KONG (AFP) ― Technology is the new rock ‘n’ roll as smartphones and digital services transform the music industry. But for those companies helping change the way music is consumed, Asia presents big hurdles.Apple’s iTunes music store ― which has stamped its presence in the U.S. and Europe as sales in traditional formats such as compact discs continue to fall ― is still a limited service in many parts of the region.Other global players and streaming services popular in the West such as start