June in Instagram

June flew by.  The weather was perfect and I spent my weekends either chilling or exploring.  

July's monsoon season has now begun, as regular as clockwork, and I already want to go back to last month.

A collage of a sunny Sunday in Hongdae.

The last day of June brought miserable weather, making me cancel my beach trip : (

This is a new outfit I bought that cost me about 12 quid.  Shoes included.

Mandu (Chinese style dumplings) at the takeaway restaurant near work.

Delicious ice cream at a Patbingsu shop. The packaging lies: it wasn't really strawberry flavoured.

I went on a three day course to the mountains east of Seoul.  I managed to get in a tiny hike so it wasn't all bad.

Boyfriend outside a coffee shop.

A neon picture I took of a condom/ sex shop in Hongdae for Chinchagram.

A display at ALAND, the best chain shop in Korea.

My absolute dream bike.

All pictures are from my instagram @tallullahelle.

VLUF Party Video

Yeah, I know I'm like a broken record about all this VLUF party stuff at the moment.  This video is very groovy though, as well as informative, giving the background information behind all the playas that make up the V.L.U.F in VLUF. 

You can catch a glimpse of me in it, furiously grinning for a photographer while sitting on a dirty, vintage sofa.

Which is totes how I roll.  Nahhhht.

Hongdae Graffiti

Graffiti in Hongdae, known as the artistic, hedonistic area of Seoul.  Also known as my favourite place in Korea.

May in Instagram

An Americano outdoors. Trying to recreate some European vibez in my hood.

The quaint boat I had to get for my trip to Muuido, a sweet island off the west coast of Korea.

A shot of the audience absorbed in one of the films at a Future Shorts Film Festival some friends of mine put on in Gangnam, Seoul.

The river in Cheongju, the city my boyfriend lives in.

A shot of the river from another angle.

A faux vintage phone at Bar 14 in HBC, an expat village in Seoul.

A popping candy Korean ice cream and a glimpse of my friend Nick.

Suwon, the city I live in, from far away.  I chose a filter which makes it look like the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz (still one of my favourite films).

A bright green bridge in Chuncheon, North of Seoul.  This is a beautiful area.

I found these birds outside a bike shop on a dusty day.  They didn't seem to have any purpose other than as a shelf for some cardboard boxes that had been laid on top of them.

Groovy sixties style tiles at Namtaeryeong Station, slightly outside of Seoul.  I love how this feels like a futuristic shot from an old film.

Can you see the rainbow effect in the sprinklers?

The cutest coffee cup you'll ever see.

Summer clothes are finally in the shops! I've gone a little crazy with my money lately.

Meat on the BBQ. Korea has an abundance of indoor BBQ restaurants where you cook your own meat. 

Muuido at dusk.

Graffiti in Hongdae, my favourite area of Seoul.

Roses in full bloom. Summer is definitely in full swing.

UNIQLO ON CHINCHA

So, I've sort of hit the big time. My main website has it's first sponsor and it's only bloody UNIQLO. 

The ad is for a free alarm clock app which wakes you up by telling you what the forecast is for the day.  I think the Japanese must have been thinking of us Brits when they designed it, it's perfect for our weather-obsessed national constitution.

Click here to read all about it and for a link to download the app itself.

Loose Union Presents

I recently wrote a post for Chincha about Loose Union, a new record and videography company that a friend of mine and some other creatives have started up in Seoul.  The objective of Loose Union is to make live music videos of Korea-based bands, in order to capture the current Seoul music scene.

Loose Union held a launch party a couple of weeks ago where I was introduced to a friend of a friend, an event photographer from Durban, South Africa  He offered to send me some pictures (seen above) to put on Chincha.  I gladly obliged and asked if I could share them here too.  I love them - especially that last one of the sneaky tattoo.  I'm not usually a body art fan but there's something about that rose peeking out from underneath the girl's skirt.

The photographer's name is Matthew Stroud.  You can (and should) 'like' him on Facebook to stay up to date with his work.  

Here's the original post on Chincha.

Images: Matthew Stroud.

SuperColorSuper

SuperColorSuper are a small, indie booking agency with big ideas, located in Korea.  Unfortunately, because of the passivity of the prospective audience in SK when it comes to subcultural, international music, the collective are currently in dire straits financially and have warned that they may have to shut shop on organising gigs using foreign bands.

A poster for an Asobi Seksu gig, which is potentially the final international act SCS will be bringing to South Korea.


Some of my best nights out in Korea have been at events SCS have organised.  Jeffrey Lewis, Gold Panda and No Age (who I saw just last week) were all particularly impressive live, and I hope SuperColorSuper get the support they need to keep bringing incredible acts to this country.  The music scene here needs them.

  

The group made the inspirational video above as a call to arms to get the population of Korea interested in backing their collective.

If you live in Korea and want to support SCS, check out this post on their website. Scroll down for English.

Images: SuperColorSuper

April in Instagram

I haven't posted here for so so long.  Here's an update on my life through Instagram.

This is a picture of some flowers I took for Chincha for our monthly Chinchagram competition.  All you need to do is hashtag pictures on Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter with #chinchagram to enter.  We're putting the winners on the website.

One of my own #chinchagram entries, taken outside work.

The view from my boyfriend's rooftop in Cheongju, a city right in the centre of Korea.

A trippy drawing by one of my students,who is clearly a Beatles fan.

The newest coffee shop in my area.  Cute, eh?  They're all like this.

The first spring picture I took this year.  I looked up, saw blossoms, and realised I wasn't fucking freezing anymore.

Pork ramen soup from a local Japanese restaurant.  This costs about £3 and is machesoyo (bloody delicious).

Tree blossoms at night.

Promotional posters I picked up in Japan as wall posters for my boring apartment walls.  It looks so much better now.

A chicken dinner complete with a banana and strawberry salad.  This restaurant was such a good find.  It's ten minutes away from my house and lacks the strip lighting and banging tunes associated with most popular Western-style eateries in Korea.

Spring means seasonal strawberry juice. YUM.

This is a pretty normal sight to see.

Another rooftop view.

It rained and the cherry blossoms fell off the trees, looking pleasingly like confetti.

Follow me on Instagram @tallullahelle.