speaking of korean...

...the 11th annual chicago korean festival was this weekend. now, my exposure to all things korean is usually limited to my mom and her cooking once a week, so i figured it was important for the family to trek out to the festival and let cadence have a taste of her partial heritage.

...we got to see a performance by il kwa nori, a chicago area traditional korean percussion ensemble. their name means 'work and play' in korean, and the nomenclature is quite appropriate for them. i love the syncopated rhythms of traditional korean music and dance. cadence loved it too and clapped and danced along.

...we also got to see the jesse white tumblers perform, and they were absolutely breathtaking. there was a huge crowd of spectators who were only too happy to ooooh and aaaah and clap enthusiastically for these young acrobats. jesse white himself (who happens to be secretary of state for illinois) was there as well. it was quite the thrilling performance and captured cadence's attention for at least a good 5-7 minutes.

my brother jim and ted's bro dave and dave's fiance becki joined us at the festival, and we got to eat some spicy korean food. there was a group of middle-aged to older-than-middle-aged korean men sitting in a circle of chairs on the sidewalk adjacent to the food vendor where we sat down to eat. there were about 10 empty soju (rice wine) containers strewn about their approximate vicinity, and they seemed perfectly content, smoking like chimneys and just shooting the breeze. i thought it was quite amusing.

after dinner, becki and i got huge bowls of potbingsoo, a korean dessert made of shaved ice, sweet red bean, a variety of fruit, and ice cream. i thought that was the best part of the festival, food-wise. it is the perfect dish for a hot summer night, and although it was pretty cool for august in chicago, it was still yummy and refreshing.

...we were about to go home for the evening, when we heard some emo-ish popish punkish music coming from the modern stage. we decided to check them out, and it was a band called quarter mile. cadence loved the music, and she was dancing up a storm. there was a runway off of the stage that had been used for a fashion show earlier in the evening, so we put her on top of the runway and she put on her own show for us. if you have broadband internet, you can see a video clip right here. otherwise, you'll just have to catch her when she starts headlining her own shows.