Films Seven Samurai, Yojimbo in Oakmont this month.

Those interested in seeing classic samurai films will have a couple more choices besides next week's Rashomon. Oakmont's The Oaks Theater (map) is showing Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samruai (七人の侍) tonight and Yojimbo (用心棒) on July 21 and 24. Showtimes are 6 pm, tickets are $6, and the theater is a relatively short drive from Pittsburgh if traffic cooperates.

Rashomon for $2 at Melwood Screening Room, July 24.

As part of its occasional "Essential Cinema" series, the Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Melwood Screening Room (map) will show the 1950 Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon (羅生門) on July 24. The theater summarizes:

Considered one of the most brilliantly constructed films of all time, Rashomon has become synonymous with the subjectivity of truth. Set in medieval Japan, four witnesses give mutually contradictory accounts of a heinous crime. This masterpiece introduced Japanese cinema to the West, and was the surprise winner at 1951's Venice Film Fest, then went on to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

The movie starts at 8:00, is $2, and, according to the receptionist, is in Japanese with English subtitles.

"Japan is the Key . . . " through July 21.

"'Japan is the Key…': Collecting Prints and Ivories, 1900–1920" will continue at the Carnegie Museum of Art through July 21. It opened on March 30, though the Pittsburgh City-Paper and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette saved their profiles for this month.

Thailand's Cathedral of Learning.

Via Assumption University's Facebook page.

An errant Google search brought me to the Cathedral of Learning (อาสนวิหารแห่งการเรียนรู้) in Bangkok, a 159-meter landmark at Assumption University modeled after the original Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh. Wikipedia says the 2002 version is the fifth-tallest educational building in the world, one behind the first one, and the university website writes of it:

The centerpiece of the campus is the Cathedral of Learning, a 39-story tower which houses student support services, the library, reception halls, seminar rooms and offices.

Two Pitt student-athletes visit Vietnam in Coach for College program.

From the Coach for College Facebook page.

One benefit of the University of Pittsburgh's joining the ACC is its participation in Coach for College, a program "that brings together US student-athletes and Vietnamese university students to teach academics, sports and life skills at summer camps to children in rural Vietnam." An excerpt from a July 9 university press release, about two Pitt students visiting Vietnam this summer:

Alec Sheaffer has already returned from her three week stint in Vietnam, in which she taught baseball on the field and health in the classroom. She is a rehab science major, and her experiences through "Coach for College" have instilled in her a new career goal. "I was thinking about doing physical therapy, and I still want to do something similar, but now more related to kids, especially after my experience," she said. "It was an eye-opening experience for sure. It was something out of the ordinary because, as a student-athlete, you don't get many opportunities to do stuff like this because we have such a busy schedule."

The "Coach for College" program puts together two American athletes, two bilingual Vietnamese college students and one older high school student who previously participated in the program, and places them in charge of a group of Vietnamese students. The American student-athletes participate in the camp as coaches in their first year, and one of them can return for a second year as the camp director. Sheaffer had an "awesome" experience and thinks she might return for a second year next summer. "I was really close with my director," she said. "I want to more coaching and other stuff like that, so I am definitely considering becoming a camp director."

Seven Korean Pitt alumni receive University of Pittsburgh Medallion Awards.

Via 동아일보.

University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg was in Seoul on the 8th, at a reception at the JW Marriot Hotel "to celebrate Pitt’s continuing progress and the accomplishments of its distinguished South Korean graduates." Seven people received university Medallion Awards, given to distinguished alumni. They are, as seated in the photograph:

왼쪽부터 남궁근 총장, 김학준 동북아역사재단 이사장, 김신복 가천학원 이사장, 김신일 전 교육부총리, 노덴버그 총장, 이상주 전 교육부총리, 권병현 한중문화청소년협회 미래숲 대표, 정재희 포드코리아 대표이사.

Romanizing Korean names is an inconsistent, imprecise task, so the hangeul will have to suffice for now. The group consists of: 남궁근, principal of Seoul National University of Science and Technology; 김학준, journalist and president of the Northeast Asian History Foundation; 김신복, Seoul National University professor; 김신일, former Education Minister and professor; 이상주, former Education Minister; 권병현 (Kwon Byung Hyun), former South Korean ambassador to China; and 정재희, president of Ford Korea.

They have to fix the mindset of white people like that.

Telling Kim Rae-won to get out, Episode 1.

Yesterday The Digs, a Post-Gazette tumblr that combs the newspaper's archives, profiled Pittsburgh native Frank Gorshin, best known as The Riddler on the 1960s "Batman" TV series. Gorshin may be best-known to some readers of this blog, though, for his role on the 2004 Korean TV show "Love Story in Harvard" ("러브스토리 인 하버드"), where he played an irritable, old law professor helping to assault the English language and American academic culture.

"Bo ssam Wednesdays" in Garfield.

Salt of the Earth in Garfield (map) is still holding "Bo ssam Wednesdays" from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am (or whenever it runs out).

Bo Ssäm Wednesdays: start tonight @10pm 2ppl 35$ 3ppl 52$ 4ppl 70 17$ per extra person Kimchi Gochujang Lettuce Oyster Scallion Pickles

— Salt of the Earth (@saltpgh) June 12, 2013

Bossam (보쌈) is a Korean dish consisting of pork wrapped (쌈) in lettuce with kimchi, rice, and garlic. Like with the ramen it served last year, Salt of the Earth's bossam is its own interpretation of it, with some obvious variations on the traditional ingredients.

Both Korea Garden and Green Pepper include bossam on their menus, too. For some pictures of what it often looks like in Korea, here's what they sell at Nolboo Bossam, a ubiquitous restaurant chain.

"Kawaii Wa: The Code of Cuteness", July 6th through 27th in Shadyside.

The Gallery 4 on South Highland Ave. in Shadyside (map) will present "Kawaii Wa: The Code of Cuteness" from July 6th through 27th. An excerpt from the gallery's webpage:

"Kawaii Wa" opens Saturday, July 6th, 2013 and runs through Saturday, July 27th, 2013 at The Gallery 4 (206 S. Highland Ave., Shadyside, 412-363-5050). The opening reception will take place Saturday, July 6th, 2013 from 7-11PM and will be opened to the general public with complimentary refreshments and hors d'oeuvres provided by The Gallery 4. The Gallery 4 is open Tuesday through Saturday 1- 8PM .

The Gallery 4 is pleased to welcome HIROMI to Pittsburgh! HIROMI was born in 1958 in Hachioji, a suburb of Tokyo, Japan. After her creative childhood, HIROMI studied drawing, painting, design and craft in Tokyo Metropolitan High School of Arts. In 1982 she started her career as an illustrator of corporate advertising, calendars, magazines, and children's books. At the same time, HIROMI also started to work as an independent fine artist in 1987, and has participated in numerous solo and group shows in Japan and abroad.

Gwangju students to visit Pittsburgh again.

Thank you, Geun-ae.

Students from the Gwangju National University of Education will visit Pittsburgh on July 5, part of a four-week teacher-training and cultural-immersion experience with the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council. According to a June 26 university press release, 60 students will visit San Bernadino and 20 will come to Pittsburgh from the 5th through August 3rd, with another 20 students participating in shorter programs in Vietnam and Malaysia.

The GPLC hosts these students twice a year, and posts updates on its Facebook page. Readers of Korean can learn more about the trip and the students' experiences by reading the trip reports prepared by the students each term, hosted on the GNUE website. The school magazine also published interviews with a couple students in 2011 and 2012 (issues 414 and 422), but they aren't interesting enough to reprint or translate.

These training and immersion programs have been going on between GNUE and Pittsburgh since 2009, shortly after Park Nam-gi was named school president. Park earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993, and worked two stints as a visiting professor at Pitt in 1999 and 2000-2001.


(Left) Poster for study abroad information session; (Right) At PNC Park, via the GPLC GNUE Summer Institute Facebook page.