Pansori is defined as a Korean traditional narrative song that one sorikkun(Korean: 소리꾼), a singer, weaves a story with chang(song), aniri(descriptive speech), and nurumsae(motion). The name of the song is also known as gapga, bonsaga, changga in Chinese, but it has been called pansori in Korean. The term pansori first appeared in 'Mae-il Shin bo' (the name of the newspaper in 1910s in Korea) in 1913. Pansori is a performing art which one sorikkun, and one gosu (a drummer playing a barrel drum called buk (Korean: 북)) sing a song of a long story to the audience. 'Pan' in pansori means 'a place where many people gather', and 'sori' means 'sound'. Pansori represents voluntariness and impromptu which are the characteristics of Korean traditional music. For example, before Heung-rok Song period it had been orally narrated without any exact scripts by extemporarily inserting songs handed down orally and witty remarks into the stories taught by a master.
Pansori is a professional art which requires sorikkun to have a high level of singing skill. Also, it is a performing art because one singer takes roles of various characters in a story. Music, literature, and play are the key elements that coexist in pansori. It was established as an independent performing art by associating with many adjacent genres of Korean traditional music such as Minyo, Mooga(songs that shamans sing in a performance of exorcism), Sijo, Japga(a folk music sung by common people during the latter part of Joseon dynasty), and Gasa. It is also the only genre that started with popular arts and led to ethnic arts in Korea.
There is an opinion that in the traditional society Pansori indicated Ba-tang sori (Korea:바탕소리, a song that includes the whole story) and if a singer sang certain parts of a story, usually famous parts, it was called just 'sori'. Today if a singer sing a full story, it is called Ba-tang sori whereas, if a singer sing just some parts of the story, the sori is called Toe-mak (Korean:토막)sori or Ma-di (Korean: 마디)sori. Toe-mak sori was mainly sung by sorikkun in the 20th century. However, after Dong-Jin Park, a famous male sorikkun, sang the full story of Heungbuga for five hours in 1968, many sorikkun tried to sing Ba-tang sori which requires sorikkun more efforts to sing.
Lord of War
Lord of War is a crime thriller movie released in September 2005. It is directed by Andrew Nicole and starred Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto and Bridget Moynahan. It deals with a story of gunrunner, named Yuri, who deals in arms trafficking. It is based on a real person named Victor Bout who was a notorious arms dealer.
The movie describes a person who deals in firearms as a "Merchant of Death", since by selling guns to people, Yuri is selling and bringing them death. At the end of the movie, an additional credit title points out the irony in that the five biggest arms exporting countries, the U.S., UK, Russia, France and China, are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
The main character Yuri Orlov (played by Nicolas Cage) is a Ukrainian-American. He persuaded his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) to be his partner in his arms trafficking business. They made a great success. Another important character, Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), is an Interpol agent. Jack finds out that Yuri is a gunrunner. From the first moment Jack met Yuri until the ending, he tried to arrest Yuri but every time Yuri escaped capture. At the last moment when Yuri finally got caught by Jack, Yuri said to Jack that he would never be sent to jail because he himself was a "necessary evil". He also told Jack that the U.S. government, which Jack was working for, also knew that and they needed arms dealers just like Yuri. In the end, Yuri got freed from capture and kept his business for the purpose of arming people in the world.
Westphalia
Westphalia () is a region in Germany. The cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Bochum, Detmold, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Minden and Münster are in its centre. In 1946, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was created, which includes part of the historical region.
Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, north and south of the Ruhr River. During the course of history, different places and regions were called "Westphalia", the borders of the region can therefore not be defined exactly, as they depend on the entity and time talked about. For the same reason, there are different specifications of its area and number of people. They range between in land area, and between 4.3 million and 8 million people. There is a consensus that Münster, Bielefeld and Dortmund are part of Westphalia.
A linguistic definition of Westphalia (see Westphalian language) includes the former Prussian Province of Westphalia (except Siegen-Wittgenstein), Lippe, the region around Osnabrück and the greater area of the Emsland. Present-day common use, however, often restricts the notion to the present part of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Westphalia is known for the 1648 Peace of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years' War, as the two treaties were signed in Münster and Osnabrück.
Empress Myeongseong
Empress Myeongseong (19 October 1851 – 8 October 1895), also known as Queen Min, was the official wife of King Gojong. King Gojong was the twenty-sixth king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. In 1902, she was given the honorary name of "Hyoja Wonseong Jeonghwa Hapcheon Honggong Seongdeok Myeongseong Taehwanghu" (Hangul: 효자원성정화합천홍공성덕명성태황후, Hanja: 孝慈元聖正化合天洪功誠德明成太皇后). It is usually shortened to "Myeongseong Hwanghu" (Hangul: 명성황후, Hanja: 明成皇后).
The Japanese felt that she was being politically unhelpful to them. After China was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War, Queen Min tried to get help from Russia instead. She wanted to stop Japanese influence from spreading in Joseon, where it was getting stronger.
In the early morning of October 8, 1895, men who said that they were commanded by Miura Gorō went into Gyeongbok Palace. When they went into the Queen's Quarters (Okhoru), they killed three women whom they thought were Empress Myeongseong. When they proved that one of the women was Queen Min, they burned her body in a forest in front of the Okhoru.
In South Korea, people have recently begun showing interest in Queen Min. Novels and musicals have been made about her.
Empress Myeongseong (Min Jayoung) was born at 1851, as the daughter of Min Chirok in the province of Gyeonggi. She lost her father when she was eight, and grew in a scanty livelihood. Because the Heungseon Daewongun who was the father of King Gojong and the most powerful politician in that period, wanted the queen who had no political ambition or close relatives who would influence the queen, she was chosen as the queen of the Gojong by the recommendation of Yeoheung Budaebuin who was the mother of the King.
At first, she was not wecomed in the palace. Her husband already had a concubine, and no one helped her in palace. But she decided to confront with her father-in-law Heungseon Daewongun, because of the heir problem. She started to be active in politics, and made her relatives royal officers. The queen finally forced the Heungseon Daewongun to retire by arguing that Gojong, now twenty-two, should govern in his own right and banished the concubine. However, her policies about foreign countries made complaints from commons, and eventually the army rebelled against her, and for the Heungseon Daewongun to be restored. She evacuated from the palace, and returned by depending on Chinese army.
Callosamia promethea
The Promethea Moth ("Callosamia promethea") is a species of moth. It belongs in the family Saturniidae. It is also known as the Promethea Silkmoth or the Spicebush Silkmoth.