Is it really only my third full day here?
My mother has arrived...
& I've taken more photos with my iPhone than with the 'real' camera.

My eyes have seen so much...surely I've been here for more than just three full days?

It is getting late, too late to write a lot, so this will be more of a photo-essay. (Incidentally, I was browsing through a Korean magazine while on the bus from the airport into the city, and I learned how to say 'photo-essay' in Korean--phonetically: poh-toh-eh-seh-ee. Seriously. So many loan-words from English have entered the language here...the equivalent in America might be the use of French here and there--you know, it's chic, it has that certain je ne sais quoi, it just sounds so, well, cool, to use the mélange of languages, no?)

So, Mom flew in last night. I left my hanok lodgings in Bukchon...made my way out to Incheon, and welcomed my mother at one of the International Arrival 'welcoming areas...' So surreal to be welcoming her to her own country...Just as surreal was my own arrival a few days ago--some childhood friends of mine from back in Georgia (who've been married for over a dozen years!) WELCOMED ME AT THE AIRPORT!! They live in South Carolina, but happened to be visiting Korea, and the last day of their long-planned-for trip coincided with the arrival-date of my kind-of-last-minute-planned-for trip...And so they welcomed me, and we sat and ate together and hung out for about an hour-and-a-half before they had to board their own flight back to the States. Fun and weird.

But, back to Bukchon. Before heading to the airport, I spent the morning wandering the neighborhood--up to the hilly streets with views over the city...

Schoolkids on an architectural field trip--just so cute!!

Lovely traditional details on these hanok--gives you the feel of what the entire city was like during the Yi Dynasty (Joseon) period...

...and looking back down the street, a classic view of Seoul--upswept tile roofs framing the skyscrapers of the old center. The 'mountain' is Namsan--the hill that used to define the southern boundary ('nam' means 'south') of the Royal Capital--it's now the center of the megalopolis, and the tower on the peak gives you a 1500'-high revolving observation deck...But check out the 'hollow' building in the middle distance... 

It's a pretty audacious building, no?

Here's another view, from closer in--I haven't made it to the building yet, but I've gotten close. It was designed by an Argentinian-educated Uruguayan architect.

 ...back to the hills of Bukchon...
and the view from them--this is toward the mountains that 'guard' the NW of Seoul--wealthy leafy enclaves that include the rear grounds of another of Seoul's Palaces as well as the present-day Presidential Palace--also called 'the Blue House,' due to its blue-tiled roof--a reference back to the Royal Period, when only the palace could have blue-tiled roofs; commoners would have thatched roofs and the nobility used black tiles...

 ...from vistas to the charming little details on the hanok houses--check out this turtle-knocker:

...the residential rooftops--upswept eaves and black tiles--no longer common in most of Seoul...

 (I had fun with the 'miniature'-effect on my camera...thought it would go well with the intimacy of these courtyard-homes...)

Before heading to the airport to meet my mother, I stopped at a street stall for some traditional street-food:

 Yep. All cultures love fried food. That's why God made oil...

...ah, the Seoul of old...but also new Seoul--check out this façade, immediately across from the traditional food-stall where I ate:

Indeed--that's a Starbucks. There are SO many coffee-shops in Seoul--both local and, yes, Starbucks. This city might even make Seattle look non-caffeinated in comparison! Incidentally, I believe South Korea is the only place in the world where the Starbucks signage is not required to be in the Roman Alphabet--it's been Han-geul-ized...

(I haven't been to one yet, though.)

...and on to the airport.

It's an amazing airport. Architecture. Amenities. User-friendliness.

Consistently ranked, since its opening a few years ago, as the 'best airport in the world.' 

 ...it even has a botanical garden with an orchid section, cacti, palms, ferns...all above the transportation hall where the subway/trains/buses, etc. head from the airport into Seoul....and the airport is built on land reclaimed from the sea...

...after I met my mother, we went to a nearby hotel--I wanted her to not be too exhausted on her first night, so I found a place in a 'new town' near the airport...at any rate, in the room, on the 6th floor, I saw this:

I've never stayed in a hotel room with an escape rope.

I get how to use it...but, what in the world is a "CENDING life line?"

I've submitted this photo to Engrish.com, incidentally.

(If you don't know what 'Engrish' is, GO to the website--it's been a source of laughter-therapy for us for years...)

And the view out that rope-escape-route--typical for a provincial Korean 'new-town:'

They do love their neon...

Before going to sleep, we went for a walk to the nearby supermarket...You won't see this in Tucson, I bet:

It looks so cruel, but dried-fish is one of the world's great staples...just not in, say, Omaha...

So. Food.
Today, then...

We slept in, then mid-day made our way into Seoul...Found our quiet alley-way hotel in the middle of everything, then went to "GwangJang Market," which has been around for decades--a maze of arcades and alleys, including little traditional food-stalls where there's just enough room for maybe 6 or 7 customers at a time to crowd around the griddle/pot/pan where the food is being cooked, and to commune with each other and the cook while eating and imbibing...Think of each stall as an Asian miniaturized version of Waffle House, and then multiply that by hundreds and you'd better not be claustrophobic! AND you'd better love garlic. And red pepper. And be an OMNIvore...

I love the juxtaposition of fine traditional tailoring (custom-made silk hanbok-boutique) and hearty, staining, 'peasant-food'...

We picked this one for our lunch:

The owner/chef gladly posed for a photo with my mother--especially since she's mildly famous here--a few months ago, an English-language weekly photographed her for their cover; she epitomizes 'market ajumahs' and their delicious offerings...("ajumah" literally means 'auntie,' but it's a respectful term that is used to refer to all married women 'of a certain age' in public situations...)

It ended up being quite poignant, eating at her stall; something in her voice, as she said to us to 'come sit here and eat' while handing us a sample, just made us stop and sit with her instead of continuing to wander...

...she and Mom 'hit it off,' and the conversation as we ate (we were her only customers while we were there) was short but eye-opening; quick encounters can sometimes open up a surprisingly meaningful glimpse into someone's life...

...Mom complimented 'ajumah' on how beautiful her skin was--and then asked how old she was (not necessarily a rude question in Korea)--she's in her late 60's! But mom also said to me--all these years spending everyday working in the food-market, sheltered from the sun--that's also why she has such good skin...Thirty-five years--that's how long she's had this food-stall! Put her kids through school selling fritters and makkoli (the milky rice-wine that you usually drink with such food; I had a bowl of it, yes, a bowl)...Also, she and mom talked about how hard life was right after the war, when they were both still kids...how little there was to eat, and how tired they got of eating 'jook'--porridge--because there was NOTHING else to eat, and grandmothers had to find ways of turning one serving of rice into something that can feed an entire family...How much the country has changed...Family and raising children--how she raised hers, how my mother lost a baby daughter...raised me in a foreign (for her) country...how willing you have to be to work at ANYthing when you have a family...

...before we left, she wanted to give us extra food to take with us--she took my mother's hand and said something to the effect of  'we're of the same age, we understand each other, it's been so nice to meet you--please let me offer this food to you!' She took my hand as well as I told her that in a week and a half or so, I'll plan on returning with my wife (who arrives here a week next weekend) to eat again at her stall. So...stall # 38 in Gwangjang market, down the street from the ancient East Gate of the city--we have a lunch date in mid-June..with this lady who personifies the hardworking, friendly spirit of so many of Seoul's working-class...

 After lunch, we walked a block to Chong-gye-cheon--a relatively new green space in the middle of the city.
The last time I was in Seoul, Chong-gye-cheon was a noisy traffic corridor--an elevated expressway charging through the city over a paved-over streambed...The current president of South Korea, when he used to be Mayor of Seoul, had an audacious idea--get rid of the expressway (what? where will the traffic go?), and 'daylight' the stream to provide the citizens of Seoul with some much needed ecologically-friendly open space...And it's been a spectacular success:

 ...great to cool off...and people-watch...

 ...and there are even mulberry trees with ripe fruit right now--
mulberry trees--used to feed silkworms in sericulture...

...and speaking of silkworms, behold:

...on one of the bridges crossing the stream--a snack-cart...do you want ice-cream cones?...or, maybe...some silkworm pupae?! "Beon-te-gi."

I have had it in the past...but not today...nothing but pure clean protein, when you think about it...

Tastes like boiled peanuts. Really!

I mean, the silkworms are clean and hard-working--they only eat mulberry leaves, and what they produce is one of the strongest natural substances on earth....and when you boil them to get the silk threads off, why should the self-sacrificing creatures be thrown away?

Tastes can be arbitrary.

If you have a silk scarf or a tie--remember--the threads came off these little guys...and some Koreans may have eaten them afterwards!

Back down to the stream...

 ...that is a fashion-runway getting set up in the middle of the waterway...
and here are the models getting their faces on...

(more about the fashion show further down...)

 And then, back up to street-level--to the market-area around Dong-dae-mun--the East Gate of the city, dating back to the 1390's:

The city spilled beyond the gates and walls long ago, but this is still major landmark, and marks the boundary of the ancient city...and it's still a shopping area...and even in this WIFI-crazy country, produce-vendors still use time-tested wooden carts, darting between motorcycles and hybrid cars...

Some of the city walls remain...

Mom stopped for a few minutes to cool off and have a drink inside a fast-food joint facing the gate;
after I walked around photographing the gate, I joined her inside--fun to look out at a merchant and his customer, with a medieval rampart as their background!

 ...from up a nearby hill, you can see the new construction that dwarfs the Gate...and more cranes in the distance...

...the last time I saw this gate was when I was fourteen years old; see the horrible elevated-expressway?

Good riddance to all that elevated pavement--and a lovely early summer evening all these years later to enjoy the historic waterway:

 to

Now--back to the fashion show on that waterway--a brief clip:

Seoul.

=========================================

As I mentioned, I've taken more pictures with my iPhone than

with the 'real' camera...such a convenient, travel-friendly 'toy!!!'

Can you tell which?

=========================================

We'll be here until Tuesday, when we go to my Uncle's in Sokcho, on the opposite coast from here.

Then, next Saturday I'll make my way back to this city to welcome my wife to her first visit to "The Land of the Morning Calm"...we'll have a few days together here, then back to Sokcho...a few family days all together, then my mother, my wife and I will leave cool Sokcho to go down to the volcanic subtropical island of Jeju-do, just off the SW tip of the peninsula...then Mom leaves for the East Coast (of the U.S.)...then my wife flies home a couple of days later...and finally, at month's end, I'll be back in the Sonoran Desert...

The first views from Seoul:

After eighteen years, my first evening in Seoul--

from my hanok-room... 

Ahh, feet up after hours and hours of planes and crossing the date-line over the Pacific...The Bukchon neighborhood is an oasis of calm in this post-modern megalopolis with ancient roots...

Yes, that is a little rooster you see. As I was saying, this neighborhood is peaceful encalve of traditional architecture and ambiance in the middle of this monster-sized city.

He didn't crow this morning until about 5:40 or so, though--and I was already awake. so no annoyance...

And in addition to Mister Rooster, there is a resident rabbit who acts as if he is a puppy:

For my first couple of nights, then, I am staying in one of these hanoks that has been converted into a guesthouse--some are luxurious bed-and-breakfasts, others are more like pensions, with shared bathrooms. Mine is pretty simple--but to have an inexpensive, quiet place to sleep in the middle of a posh historic district around the corner from former royal palaces in a city of well over ten million: nice. 

The rabbit's name is Mitchee.

From quaint lanes...

 ...to neo-traditional designers...

 ...and gallery rooftop modern art installments--is that a crash-test-dummy take on the Pietà?

...and heading out of the Bukchon village area toward the skyscrapers; no that's not camera distortion, those buildings are curving...

(This used to be a palace guard tower; now it's a traffic island)

I decided to go for a walk last night--wasn't sleepy. I think I may have avoided the worst of jet-lag by foregoing sleep my last night in Tucson. I had to be at the airport so early, so I decided I would just stay up, then try to rest on the plane, then hit the ground running in Seoul, staying awake until local bed-time.

It seems to have worked.

So, anyway--I went for a walk with nothing but my iPhone in my pocket...

This is Kwanghwamun Plaza, a relatively new pedestrian-zone in the heart of the city--lanes and lanes of traffic were reclaimed and converted into a vast plaza with fountains and statues. Kwanghwamun is the fortified gate in the distance--leading to Kyongbok Palace, which was the principal seat of government during the Yi dynasty. (Think Seoul's equivalent of Beijing's Forbidden City.)

Along one side of the Plaza is the Sejong Performing Arts Center--Lincoln Center in New York might be a good equivalent...I happened upon a performance; turns out that during May and June, every weeknight there is a free outdoor concert (dance or music, traditional and modern, Western and Eastern), using the steps as seating. 

Young and old, kids on their way home from school, businessmen in suits, office girls, and a few Western tourists--all on the steps enjoying the dusk performance; last night was classical Korean dance--court and folk-tradition--it's corny-sounding, but the only word I can come up for the ambiance and the quality of the performance was 'magical.'

It was nighttime when the performance ended--back in Kwanghwamun plaza...In the distance you can see giant LED screens--they're throughout the city; makes sense, I guess, since South Korea is the world's largest manufacturer of high-definition large-screen televisions and LCD panels...
The street vibe reminds of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, actually--people of all ages out and about--strolling, snacking, still on the way home from work/school at 9 and 10 p.m....

Dominating the plaza in front of the Performing Arts Center is this statue of King Sejong the Great--fourth king of the Yi dynasty, who ruled in the first half of the 1400's...The base shows the original stylized forms of Han-geul, the Korean alphabet--the world's only alphabet that was specifically and scientifically designed to make literacy quickly attainable by all; until this invention, the Korean elite had traditionally used Chinese characters for writing--a cumbersome and time-consuming custom that made literacy all but unattainable for the vast majority of the 'common' population. Sejong and his cabinet ministers came up with Han-geul to remedy that situation. South Korea is perhaps the only nation in the world that has a national holidy for its alphabet. Seriously. It's October 9th.

Back to Kwanghwamun, now lit up...

And...since I'm still awake, I may as well post a few photos from today.

Heading down into the subway:

 Before I took the train, this morning, though--I needed coffee. Seoul is FULL of coffeeshops (including, yes, Starbucks) but many of them only open mid-morning (!?)...but they stay open very late. Fortunately, right as I got down into the subway, I saw a "Paris Croissant" café. Yep--in the underground, here in Seoul. French bakeries are very popular here--so along with your kimchi you can get your croissant-fix.

As I sat there, having my pain-au-chocolat, I was having 'place-dysmorphia,' if I may invent that term.
What I mean is, I know I'm in Korea (duh), but sitting having a flaky pain au chocolat, with signage in French, and seeing people pass by on their morning commute into the subway, ladies wearing silk scarves, men with leather attachés, and EVERYONE on their smart phones--it felt like an Altaic-language-speaking version of Paris. Really. It did. Except for the fact that everyone has black hair and I can't speak their language fluently. (Yet. I hope.) I was taken back to when I lived in Paris. I'm not just saying that, either, just so I can say 'when I lived in Paris'...I really was.

Most of the rest of today was commune-with-nature-and-old-architecture-time.

The Huweon garden compound, to the rear of nearby Changdeokgung palace, (one of the other royal palaces in town), was originally built to be a forested retreat for the royal family. For years many people referred to it as Biweon--the 'Secret' or even 'Forbidden' Garden...but the official name is, again, Huweon. ("Who won" the game? Think that. The 'eo' in the official Romanization is phonetically misleading.) Nestled in the middle of hilly old-growth forest are pavilions, streams, and a vacation villa for the Yi Royal Family...

No traffic sounds...fresh arboreal air...tons of birds--to my eyes, now acclimated to Tucson, it seems almost tropical...

 (The last time I visited these grounds was when I was fourteen years old...)

...and beyond the Huweon walls, the official, public part of Changdok Palace--Injeongjon Throne Hall:

Okay. Bedtime has hit.

Tomorrow afternoon I go back to the airport to 'welcome' my mother back to her own country...

We'll stay in Seoul for a few more days, and then early next week,

we head over to the east coast of the country, where her brother lives.

Watch out--it's not on "The Sea of Japan;"

it's on "The East Sea" when you talk about it on this peninsula.





From Charles V to Yoda--languages and my upcoming trip to Korea

To begin with, a quote attributed to Charles V (1500-1558):
     "I speak Latin with God, Italian with musicians, Spanish with the troops, German with lackeys, French with ladies, and English with my horse."

A linguistic snapshot, (tongue-in-cheek, even in its day), of the Rennaissance-world...

I've always found the words of this polyglot ruler fascinating; they get me thinking of my interest in languages and what I've ended up using them for.

Hmm...to adapt Charles V's language-list to my life:
English as a matter of course--everyday life in the U.S....Spanish and French as my wage-earning tools...Spanglish with my Hispanic students...Franglais simply to torment my wife...French when irritated while stuck in traffic...French when my wife and I want to speak in public in Tucson without being understood...Spanish when wanting to get good, friendly service in restaurants in Tucson...Spanish and French also closely linked to our volunteer work...German as my 'fossilized' childhood soundtrack...and Korean--on the 'backburner' my entire life--always on a low simmer, but never fully boiling to fluency--not yet at least. Yes, I know, it's an awkward metaphor, but...

I grew up speaking English, the mother tongue of neither of my parents: my mother's first language was Korean, and my father's first language was French. And my first memories are from living in Germany--everyone outside our home spoke German and to this day, although I have not 'mastered' that language, it sounds like home...

When I was seven years old, I ended up spending about five weeks visiting Korea, and by the end of that winter, I was comfortably conversational with my relatives. (Ahh, the ease with which children 'pick up' a language...) When I returned at the ages of fourteen and eighteen, no such 'miracle' occurred. Alas...

Meanwhile, I had begun studying French in school...I'm not sure if I took to it, or if it took to me more easily, but whatever the case, my father's mother's tongue became my ticket to studying abroad and to my college degree, to living abroad...and now, to my bread-and-butter as a language teacher...When I was in college I also continued studying German (I fit in one year in high-school) and then added a bit of Spanish...
...and I never would've guessed that one day I would marry a woman who would willingly leave the civilized Pacific NW to go live in hot, lowland Nicaragua with me, where we both were immersed in the language! And so with that experience, Spanish, too, is now part of my pan y mantequilla as a language-teacher.

In graduate school, I was able to squeeze in a year's worth of Korean classes 'on the side...'
And the past few weeks, my drive to- and from- work has become my own personal Pimsleur-CD-Korean school...

Korean is classified by the U.S. State Department, along with languages such as Chinese and Arabic, as being among the most difficult for native English-speakers to learn. Why? Well--to begin with, there are few cognates...I mean, come on--having to learn the French liberté and the Spanish libertad for the English freedom--it's not exactly rocket science, eh? Science--science--ciencia...no?

So, Han-guk-eo is challenging because there are few cognates....and of course, there is the different writing system (although the Korean alphabet is actually scientifically logical and super easy to learn)...and finally, the SYNTAX.

Here's an example.
In English: "I often travel to Seoul for business."
In Korean, literally: "I-as-for often Seoul-to business travel-do."
Got it?

One more.
English: "Our house is in front of the pharmacy."
Korean: "Our house-as-for, pharmacy-in-front-of  located  is."

And then there's the question of the verb-endings--the grammar changes depending on social standing--who are you talking to? what's your relationship with that person? That changes the grammar itself, and occasionally, the vocabulary.

One does get used to it, though.
But 'getting used to' is not the same as 'becoming fluent quickly.'

Learning, and re-learning, my mother's tongue, then...
Some people jokingly refer to the syntax of the Korean language as being 'Yoda-like...'
...this reminds me of another quote...yep, this time from Yoda himself--the wisdom of Star Wars:
   "Do, or do not; there is no 'try.'"

Succinct advice for language-learners.
Either I'm going to do it, or I'm not.

Yeh, han-guk-o-reul bae-u-go-shi-po-yo...keu-reom, keu-geol ha-get-da.

A while back, I mentioned the African proverb:
When an old man dies, it's as if a library burns down...

Language is the key to that library when you have elderly relatives abroad...
I hope to get in before it's too late...

============================================

       So...thinking of where I'll be in a week,
I came across this photo earlier this evening--gives a good idea of the mountainous terrain of Seoul, along with the grounds of Kyong-bok-gung palace in the middle of the city. You can see the upswept roofs of the ceremonial gates leading to the throne hall of the Yi Dynasty palace:

(taken by R. Koehler, the author of the best Seoul guidebook out there,

from: http://www.seoulselection.com/)

======================

So, next week, I leave for Korea;

after eighteen years away, I'll be spending about four weeks there,

in Seoul and also on the opposite coast, in the city of Sokcho,

at the foot of Seoraksan Mountain National Park...

No other country in history has modernized as rapidly as South Korea;

within one lifetime--my mother's--from completely war-shattered third-world ruins, it has become the world's most Internet-connected society, one of the world's largest computer, cellphone, automobile and ship manufacturers; the world's tallest building, the 2000-ft+ Burj tower in Dubai, was built by a South Korean company, Samsung.

Crazy.

Here's one of the last photos (scanned; taken by a cheap point-and-shoot camera)
I took the last time I was in Seoul:

...one of my last days there, in the fall of 1993--

new construction going up just behind
the grounds of Deoksugung palace,
(late XVI c.)

I can't wait to see what else is new...
With the ubiquity of wi-fi in South Korea,
I hope to be posting while there...
'stay tuned'...
==========================================================

A complete change of subject:


...I just had to post this whimsical doodling of one of my students. He's a quirky, but very bright kid,
and completely unbidden, he produced this parody of Botticelli's "Birth of Venus," entitled "Birth of Vinnie," (ha!) and it's even signed with a nom de guerre artistique:  

I love the facial expressions!

From Rennaissance Italy to 21st century Tucson...

'Vladimir' gladly gave me his permission to take a picture of his pencil drawing with my iPhone...

Merci!

...and...finally...

 ...unrelated--incidental--as the schoolyear winds down, (tomorrow is my last day with students!), this 'inspirational'-spoof from despair.com truly speaks to me:

(Does my finding delight in the poster above make me a 'bad teacher?') 

 Summer.

One more week, and I'll be on the other side of the world.

Han-guk-e ka-yo...


...can't wait to EAT!
Check out this TV spot--I'm not sure where it's airing,
but it's a visually fun (if somewhat corny) ad for bibimbap,
a typical rice and vegetable dish--and it includes some traditional costume dancing:

this year's nests--hummingbirds in the AZ Sonora Desert Museum aviary

...another out-of-town guest, another visit to the AZ Sonora Desert Museum this past weekend...we hadn't been since my wife's parents came last spring...and just like last year, we ended up timing it right for hummingbird nest-viewing:

 ...I didn't get any 'baby-feeding-shots' like last year, but still--it always feels like a treat to be able to see these birds and their nests up close...

 ...some claret-cup cacti in bloom...

 ...and in the other aviary, this male white-winged desert dove:

 ...we'd never seen one of these doves act this way; evidently he was trying to impress the ladies...

...and, on an evening walk in Sabino Canyon with our out-of-town old-family-friend the following evening:

===========================================

This out-of-town friend is much more than just a friend; she's known me since I was a little kid in Germany...long story, but she's now lived in Guatemala for several years...

Her home there became our home-away-from-home during our year of living in Nicaragua.

This is the view that she'll return to when she flies back down to Central America:

 The Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango volcanoes, to the northwest of Guatemala City, as seen from the approach to the airport....and, below, Pacaya, the country's most active volcano, as seen from our friend's neighborhood:

To the Arch and back...and PROOF of deteriorating standards in music...

Last week, I traveled to St. Louis for a conference. With storms in the mid-west, there were cancelled flights, so the itinerary turned into an all-day-long affair: Tucson to Dallas, then Dallas to Chicago, and finally Chicago to St. Louis, arriving late at night.

Since this was a work-trip with not much free time, I didn't bring my camera...I immediately regretted that decision the following morning when I looked out my hotel window, waking up to this view:

...from the 630-ft. high stainless steel Gateway Arch on the left to the old 1850's-era courthouse (site of the original Dred Scott court case) on the right...

(no camera, no problem...if your cellphone is charged...

I'm still amazed at what a cellphone camera can do...)

Even though there wasn't a lot of free time, it wasn't all work and no play--I did get a chance to run along the riverfront--glorious spring weather under the amazing Gateway Arch:

If you look carefully, you can just make out the tiny windows at the apex of the Arch--the surprisingly small observation deck...

...So--the view from the top of the Arch,

stitched together from four pictures--

looking westward over downtown, 

and then looking directly beneath the Arch,

then finally 'behind' to the Arch's shadow

stretching eastward over the Mississippi River:

To see more photos from St. Louis, go to:

http://exoculis.blogspot.com,

a new photo-blog I've started...

=====================================================

Now...the following is not a categorical rant on modern music--there IS some good stuff out there...but on the whole, inventive melodies and thoughtful lyrics are drowned out by canned rythyms and debased refrains, AND HERE's THE PROOF:

Narcisissm on Rise in Pop Lyrics

(click for NPR audio file and/or transcript)

and

A generation’s favorite tune: ‘I’m So Vain’

(from The Week newsmagazine--reprinted here:

Young people “love themselves more today than ever before,” says University of Kentucky psychologist Nathan DeWall, and the proof is in their music.

He and his colleagues analyzed the lyrics of Billboard Hot 100 songs from the past three decades and found a steady increase in self-centeredness and hostility toward others.

“In the early ’80s lyrics, love was easy and positive, and about two people,” study co-author Jean Twenge tells The New York Times. “The recent songs are about what the individual wants, and how she or he has been disappointed or wronged.”

The study found a marked increase in the prevalence of the words “I” and “me” in song lyrics, and fewer instances of “we” and “us.” It also registered a jump in angry lyrics about hating and killing, and a drop in songs containing positive words like “love” or “sweet.”

The researchers suggest that rampant narcissism may be making it harder for people to connect with one another.

They point to other surveys that show that more people are apt to feel sad and lonely now than in previous decades.