Radio & Hapkido
February 05, 2007
Today was an awesome day. Definitely one of the
best I've had in Korea. Since I've been missing acting quite a
bit lately, I've been trying to pursue possible avenues to find
acting gigs. A great contact and new friend is Mr. Joo.
I met him at the Hapkido dojang I study at and we've hit it off.
He's a local radio celebrity and was super kind to give me a tour of
his radio studio and other parts of his building today. We saw
the room he does his daily broadcast in, different production areas,
a sound stage, and a TV studio.
It was a lot of fun and it felt great to be around
entertainment technical equipment again. It may sound odd, but
as we started to get close to a sound stage, I could recognize the
smell. I also started to get goose bumps because it's so much
fun for me to be in that environment. I'm such a nut. On
a set, I get excited about seeing cables all over the place. I
think the entertainment business, especially movies, is magical and
when I see all the equipment and all the people running around, it's
such a thrill. You can see the magic happening and feel the
energy everywhere. It's a beautiful joyful feeling. As a thank
you to Mr. Joo, I printed the above photo in color and framed it for
him. I think it's a great photo of us!
After the tour, it was time to head off to the
Hapkido dojang. To warm up, we played a game they call "Hand
Ping Pong." It's basically a small toy rubber ball that you
hit with your hand over a mat placed in the middle of the room.
Much like normal ping pong, there are lines you must stay in and a
certain number of bounces that need to take place in between hits.
These guys have been playing this for 10 years so they were totally
kicking my ass.
After that fun and great warm up, we worked out for a
while and Mr. Joo showed me a new move. There are numerous
kicks and various punches that we do daily but we also learn
different joint locks and throws. Once I have a pretty good
handle on one technique, they show me another. Today I learned
what we've been calling skill #4. I love doing Hapkido.
It's great fun because I'm exercising, but it doesn't feel like I
am. Since I'm the king of the lazyland kingdom, it's a perfect
trick. My body is getting exercise, but my mind is having a
great time!
What I learned today about Korea: 1)
I like the smell of
sound stages!
