the roadtrip soundtrack

we've gone on three field trips so far: (1) a school junket to nami island--a riverine islet named after some ancient general that's actually a shrine to the winter sonata TV series, (2) the ACPI-sponsored field trip to historic gyeongju city that included an overnight stay at the golgul buddhist temple where someone threw my slippers into the barnyard*, and (3) the SYWF field trip to a traditional village, a temple and a confucian academy down south in andong or thereabouts.



on all three trips, i found myself surrounded by people sleeping with their mouths open. so for lack of anything better to do, i listened to mp3s on my trusty palm tungsten. i could've read wyslawa szymborska or j.g. ballard but i didn't want to risk motion sickness and the possibility of high velocity vomiting in front people i actually respect. so... here are some of the songs playing in the background as fields, mountains and various greenery rushed past my window:

blister in the sun (violent femmes)
tainted love (soft cell)
life in mono (mono)
caramel (suzanne vega)
love will tear us apart (cover by jose gonzalez)
an ocean apart (julie delpy)
knowing me, knowing you (cover by the lemonheads)
killing moon (echo & the bunnymen)
summertime (cover by janis joplin)
nothing but the sky (ivy)
un rayo del sol (le mans)
#41 (dave matthews & tim reynolds)
with or without you (cover by keane)
moonchild (cibo matto)
je t'aime tant (julie delpy)
come here (kath bloom)
marlene on the wall (suzanne vega)
for nancy (pete yorn)
les kid nappeurs (marc collin)
adios ayer (jose padilla)
bright yellow gun (throwing muses)
in a little while (u2)
devil mood (smoke city)
hwc & supernova (liz phair)
underneath it all (no doubt)
homeward (the sundays)
two of us (the beatles)
our house (madness)
into your arms (lemonheads)
cry me a river (ella fitzgerald)
teardrop (massive attack)
teardrop (cover by jose gonzalez)
what i am (edie brickell & the new bohemians)
mrs. robinson (cover by the lemonheads)
tropicando (thievery corporation)

a little crazy, no? keep in mind, folks, that these were three different trips made in a span of a little less than 30 days. plus my playlist was set to random. heh heh.

NB: photos takes april 14th during our trip to nami island, by the talented jose carrrrlos**. they have a swervy music video look to them, probably because the bus was swerving at the time, the photographer had little space to maneuver, and he was restrained by the length of his ipod earbuds. anyway, they also look like they belong to the inside of a CD sleeve. the photo below would be the cover, i think. the snooty artistes among you will immediately recognize the inspiration for it***.



* still haven't figured out if this was (a) the result of some territorial dispute with a band of scary mongolian chicks, (b) a manifestation of how much i am hated because most people here think i'm the girlfriend of a certain beautiful boy, or (c) just some idiot prank pulled by a couple of filmmaker chicks from singa & injaaa. three weeks after the fact, C looks to be the most likely explanation.

** a bad approximation of alejandra c's chilean/argentinian accent. probably the coolest girl i'll ever meet this year. God, please prove me wrong!

*** marcel duchamp's 1919 work/vandalism entitled LHOOQ, which is a cheap postcard-sized reproduction of la joconde plus a mustachio hand-drawn over that very famous smile of hers. francophones, kindly stop giggling and/or rolling your eyes.