Koreatown at next cookbook club meeting in Squirrel Hill, November 13.

Koreatown by Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard will be featured at the November 13 meeting of the Dish! cookbook club at the Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill. A summary, from the book's official site:

A trailblazing book featuring nearly 100 recipes, essays, profiles and documentary-style photography concentrating on many of the lesser-known aspects of Korean food, drink and culture. The book is co-written by Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard, two authorities in the exploding Korean food movement in the United States and abroad. Together Hong and Rodbard spent over two years traveling to the Koreatowns of the United States, researching the book and interviewing over 100 chefs and business owners. Once back in their New York City kitchens, they developed recipes that reflect traditional home and restaurant cooking — translated with historically rich (and entertaining!) notes and easy-to-follow directions.

The event is free but online registration is required.

Free Chinese, Japanese, Korean classes in Pittsburgh in November.

by sama093 (Creative Commons)


The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will continue to offer free Chinese, Japanese, and Korean classes at some of its branches this November. Check out the class information below in addition to its language resources on the shelves and online.

As the library notes: these classes are free; registration is not required; no materials are needed and nothing needs to be bought; new participants are welcome at any time; classes are for adults (unless otherwise noted) but well-behaved young people are welcome to join as well.

KPDC Fall 2019 Showcase: Uprising, November 17 at Carnegie Mellon University.

Carnegie Mellon University's K-Pop Dance Club will present its Fall 2019 Showcase: Uprising on November 17.

******** FREE ADMISSION ********
✨💎✨💎✨💎✨💎✨💎✨💎✨💎✨💎✨
Join KPDC at our 2019 Fall Showcase on Sunday, November 17th from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm in UC Rangos! Come see what our talented dancers have been working on this semester, along with a guest performance by KASA. Doors open at 7:45 pm.

The Rangos Auditorium is located in the Cohon University Center on Forbes Ave. (map).

Jin and V (of BTS) cup-sleeve event, December 14 at Ineffable Ca Phe.

A Singular Epiphany will hold a cup-sleeve event on December 14 to commemorate the December birthdays of BTS members Seokjin (Jin) and Taehyung (V). It will be held at Ineffable Ca Phe in Lawrenceville (map) from 11:30 am to 6:00 pm and those interested in a sleeve will need to purchase a beverage.

Films from Korea, Japan, China, and Thailand at Pittsburgh Shorts Festival, November 1 through 7.

Films telling stories from Korea, Japan, China, and Thailand are among the dozens playing at the 2019 Pittsburgh Shorts Festival from November 1 through 7.

Bong Joon-ho film Parasite (기생충) in Pittsburgh from November 1.

The acclaimed 2019 Bong Joon-ho film Parasite (기생충) will play in two Pittsburgh-area theaters from November 1. Tickets went on sale on October 15 for screenings at the Squirrel Hill Manor Theater, and showtimes were recently added to the AMC Loews Waterfront.

Bong Joon Ho brings his singular mastery home to Korea in this pitch-black modern fairytale.

Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist, to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide “indispensable” luxury services while the Parks obliviously bankroll their entire household. When a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystem between the Kims and the Parks. By turns darkly hilarious and heart-wrenching, PARASITE showcases a modern master at the top of his game.

Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Tickets for the shows from November 1 through (at least) November 6 at the AMC Loews Waterfront and through November 7 at the Manor Theater are available online.

BTS World Tour film Love Yourself: Speak Yourself [The Final] in Pittsburgh for live-streaming event, October 27.

The final installment of the BTS concert film series Love Yourself: Speak Yourself [The Final] will play in Pittsburgh on October 27. It will be simulcast live throughout the US and Singapore, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea. The three-and-a-half-hour concert will play locally at the Southside Works Cinema and the Cinemark in Robinson, and tickets for the 8:00 pm movie are available online.

The concert movie BTS World Tour: Love Yourself in Seoul was released in Pittsburgh in January 2019, and their film Bring the Soul: The Movie played here through the summer.

Justin Chon film Ms. Purple in Pittsburgh, November 9 and 14.

The 2019 American film Ms. Purple will play in Pittsburgh on November 9 and 14 as part of the Three Rivers Film Festival. The Sundance Institute provides a summary:

In the dark karaoke rooms of Los Angeles’s Koreatown stripmalls, Kasie works as a doumi girl, a young hostess paid to cater to rich businessmen’s capricious whims. As she struggles to hide her sorrow through soju- and MDMA-fueled nights, her mind is focused on one thing: earning enough tips to continue providing for her bedridden father. When her father’s caretaker unexpectedly quits, Kasie seeks help from her estranged brother, and the siblings are forced to reconnect and reconcile the suppressed trauma that lead to their separation.

Writer/director Justin Chon returns to the Sundance Film Festival (after winning a 2017 NEXT Audience Award for Gook) with another emotionally powerful love letter to Los Angeles. With a lavish sense of atmosphere and authenticity, Ms. Purple charts the lives of internally writhing individuals trapped by the expectations of their own family. Tiffany Chu perfectly embodies Kasie’s distress and anxiety as she grapples with the self-imposed burden of honoring her immigrant father until the day he dies.

It will play at the Regent Square Theater from 4:00 pm on November 9th and at 7:00 pm on November 14, though tickets are not yet available.

"Why BTS? Why K-pop? Global Success and UK Reception," October 24 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center presents Dr. Haekyung Um and her talk "Why BTS? Why K-pop? Global Success and UK Reception" on October 24.

The international breakthrough of BTS is marked by their success in the USA and their albums, Love Yourself: Tear and Love Yourself: Answer, in May and September respectively. Their EP Mal of the Soul: Persona, released in April 2019, also topped both the UK Official Chart and teh US Billboard 200 Chart. The global, US, and UK reception of BTS in the past few years, has shed a light on how K-op has been evolving and how Asian pop music genres have been received by both the mainstream music industry and consumers in the west. This process has been taking place in the context of a fast-changing ecology of the creative industries, shaped by digital technology and social media, which in turn mobilize and above all, empower the fandom and audiences engaged in this music form.

The talk starts at 5:00 pm in 232 Cathedral of Learning (map) and is free and open to the public.

2018 Korean film House of Hummingbird (벌새) at resurrected Three Rivers Film Festival, November 9 and 12.

The 2018 Korean film House of Hummingbird (벌새) will play in Pittsburgh on November 9 and 12 as part of the Three Rivers Film Festival. The Tribeca Film Festival writes:

Set in 1994 in Seoul, House Of Hummingbird is a touching coming-of-age drama centered around the quiet, unexceptional eighth-grader Eunhee (Ji-hu Park). Struggling to make passing grades and subject to non-stop screaming at home, she spends her time finding meaning in the love and friendships of her peers, in shoplifting, and in karaoke bars. It’s in her cram school professor (Sae-byeok Kim), however, that Eunheen finds the answers that she seeks, as the two form an unlikely friendship.

In her feature debut, Bora Kim puts Korean culture and mores on display, gently criticizing the reduced role where women are pressured to exist. The film’s measured pace allows it to examine the many moments between despair, contrasting the joy of adolescence with its miseries. Bora Kim presents an honest and poignant take on youth, filled with warm cinematography from Gook-hyun and introduces a powerhouse performance from the young Ji-hu Park. An assured debut, House of Hummingbird cements Kim’s place as an upcoming auteur to follow.

It will play at the Harris Theater at 8:30 pm on November 9 and at 6:00 pm on the 12th, though tickets are not yet available.

"Why BTS? Why K-pop? Global Success and UK Reception," October 24 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center presents Dr. Haekyung Um and her talk "Why BTS? Why K-pop? Global Success and UK Reception" on October 24.

The international breakthrough of BTS is marked by their success in the USA and their albums, Love Yourself: Tear and Love Yourself: Answer, in May and September respectively. Their EP Mal of the Soul: Persona, released in April 2019, also topped both the UK Official Chart and teh US Billboard 200 Chart. The global, US, and UK reception of BTS in the past few years, has shed a light on how K-op has been evolving and how Asian pop music genres have been received by both the mainstream music industry and consumers in the west. This process has been taking place in the context of a fast-changing ecology of the creative industries, shaped by digital technology and social media, which in turn mobilize and above all, empower the fandom and audiences engaged in this music form.

The talk starts at 5:00 pm in 232 Cathedral of Learning (map) and is free and open to the public.

"Curative Violence: Rehabilitating Disability, Gender, And Sexuality In Modern Korea," November 1 at Pitt.

Eunjung Kim of Syracuse University will discuss her book Curative Violence: Rehabilitating Disability, Gender, And Sexuality In Modern Korea at the University of Pittsburgh on November 1.

Bong Joon-ho film Parastie (기생충) in Pittsburgh from November 1.

Tickets just went on sale for Pittsburgh screenings of the acclaimed 2019 Bong Joon-ho film Parastie (기생충), which will play locally from November 1.

Bong Joon Ho brings his singular mastery home to Korea in this pitch-black modern fairytale.

Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist, to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide “indispensable” luxury services while the Parks obliviously bankroll their entire household. When a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystem between the Kims and the Parks. By turns darkly hilarious and heart-wrenching, PARASITE showcases a modern master at the top of his game.

Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It will play at the Manor Theater in Squirrel Hill (map) from November 1 and tickets are available online.

BTS World Tour film Love Yourself: Speak Yourself [The Final] in Pittsburgh for live-streaming event, October 27.

The final installment of the BTS concert film series Love Yourself: Speak Yourself [The Final] will play in Pittsburgh on October 27. It will be simulcast live throughout the US and Singapore, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea. The three-and-a-half-hour concert will play locally at the Southside Works Cinema and the Cinemark in Robinson, and tickets are available online.

The concert movie BTS World Tour: Love Yourself in Seoul was released in Pittsburgh in January 2019, and their film Bring the Soul: The Movie played here through the summer.

Unexpected Korean fortress at Chuck E. Cheese's.

It pleases me that the Ken Chuck-e-Derby at Chuck E. Cheese's has a course through a Korean fortress.



These particular shots were taken in the North Hills, though you'll find videos of this level around YouTube as well. Details about the particular game are scarce. The Chuck E. Cheese's version seems to be a modification of the "Junior Jockey" program by Christer Kaitila installed on a horse-riding game by Universal Space.

English-Korean Language Social Hour, October 11 at Pitt.

via travel oriented (Creative Commons)

The University of Pittsburgh's English Language Institute and Asian Studies Center will present its next English-Korean Language Social Hour on October 11.

Join us for an evening of language and cultural exchange between Pitt students and international students.

It runs from 4:30 to 5:30 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map).

Tickets now on sale for Amber Liu show in Pittsburgh, February 9.

Amber Liu will perform in Pittsburgh on February 9, 2020 as part of her North American "X" Tour, and general admission tickets went on sale at 10:00 am. The concert will also feature Meg & Dea and Justin Park and will be at Rex Theater in the Southside (map) from 7:00 pm.

Amber Liu coming to Pittsburgh, with Meg & Dia and Justin Park, as part of North American "X" Tour in February.

A concert with Amber Liu, Meg & Dia, and Justin Park was recently announced for the Rex Theater on February 9, 2020.

Presale VIP ticket packages are available now, but general admission tickets will go on sale on Friday, October 4, from 10:00 am.

Free Chinese, Japanese, Korean classes in Pittsburgh in October.

via @japangov


The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will continue to offer free Chinese, Japanese, and Korean classes at some of its branches this October. Check out the class information below in addition to its language resources on the shelves and online.

As the library notes: these classes are free; registration is not required; no materials are needed and nothing needs to be bought; new participants are welcome at any time; classes are for adults (unless otherwise noted) but well-behaved young people are welcome to join as well.

2018 film Swing Kids (스윙키즈) at Pitt, September 30.

The University of Pittsburgh chapter of Liberty in North Korea and the Pitt Korean Student Association will present the 2018 Korean musical film Swing Kids (스윙키즈) on September 30.

Come join KSA and LiNK as we watch Swing Kids, a Korean musical drama film that focuses on a North Korean soldier (Rho Ki-Soo) and his fight for freedom. The theme will be SAUNA NIGHT - we'll be selling face masks and giving massages by the one and only, Phillip Lok, as well as cookies and drinks. BRING YOUR OWN RAMEN - we'll be supplying hot water.

It runs from 9:00 to 11:00 pm in 203 Lawrence Hall (map).