Maids - first impression

 

   We're having Chuno reunion here, ladies and gentlemen.

The official website is here.

[Book Review] Mark James Russell - Kpop: The Korean Music Revolution

   

   This will be my shortest review ever - don't bother reading. In this book you won't find the title "revolution" explained in detail, you will not find any in-depth analysis of the phenomenon. Instead, you will find:

• Profiles of all the current K-pop artists and their hits
• A look at Seoul's hippest hot spots and hangouts
• Interviews with top artists like Kevin from ZE:A (that's a stretch!!) and Brian Joo from Fly to the Sky
• A look at the Kpop idols of tomorrow *

And that would be EXO all over the place.

But at "The End Of The Day"...

...it all comes to Jonghyeon.
Bow down, nations.

"November Has Come"

   Some music for the lovely month of November. This time, I went ballistic, you will have teuroteu, Morrissey and Kpop.

You have been warned.

Who likes Ddeokbokki?

   Park Myeongsu's Ddeokbokki of course^^ Ever since hearing this song for the first time, it's on my daily "Feel Good" playlist. It has this familiar, rural-stylized feel, catchy rhythm and absolutely positive flow. With a substantial dose of weirdness.

Wake Me Up When...

 

  

    ...Koreans get their priorities right. Oh well, let's not be biased, let's say - when fandoms get their priorities straight, because what's been happening in September in our lovely Hallyuland, can turn a normal person into a raging Hulk within 0.00000001 sec.

September is an eventful month in this particular world. Kdrama-llama land may be barren and boring for months but when events start to happen, it's a deluge.

7 Deadly Sins

   This is probably the most shocking, politically incorrect, disgusting and heavy thing I have watched in 2014. This 20-something minutes per episode show will not triumph at Emmy's Awards. Or maybe it will, who am I to judge?

Yiruma - Atmosfera

 

   

   New album of our favorite piano composer. And this time it's not only piano.

The observant listeners will probably spot the very craftily inserted the title of his most known piece up to date.

Utopia - Second Season

   

   The acid trip continues. 

The very first episode took us back to the seventies (1974) when Philip Carvel created Janus under Milner's threat she'd harm Jessica. But neurotic Carvel (played by Tom Burke) tricked everyone by hiding Janus project in... as we got to know at the very end of season one - in the body of his own daughter.
And we're only at episode 3 so far...

Summer screen

   This season is exceptionally filled with good dramas. Last year I had I Hear Your Voice and Monstar to spazz about, this season - few of them. Both Korean and western series.

Miss Saigon trailer

There are no words that could express what I feel right now. Powerful, soul-tearing, scarring...

Looks like my Mr. Hong Kwangho took a great opportunity to shine.
I thought I could watch it, but my UK trip next week somehow put all kinds of obstacles to it. I can hope for DVD out of it, right?

Through June With Music

   Or whatever is left of June anyway. My persistent habit of writing random words into YouTube, and now spotify, has been always paying off with finding few really nice artists like Jordan Chan Siu Chun (Traditional Chinese: 陳小春) whose album was a pleasant surprise (oh well, year 2001 in Asian R'n'B was a good year). Or some progressive metal band...

Special thanks go to Viande, who linked Yong Junhyeong's mini album and I fell for it hopelessly. My neighbours are probably less grateful to you, hon^^

Video heavy.

Dominion - First Impression

   I had little trust in the series based on movie "Legion", but I said to myself: whatever, it can be different, the creators could just borrow one or two elements and make a nice series after all. If "Dominion" is a nice series, it's not visible yet. There were only two episodes so far (it airs on Thursdays), and with some series it's hard to say whether they are good or not, especially after 2 episodes. I will continue just for the sake of some research points I can see here.

뮤직 Mju:zik - first impression

   Mnet released new music show, called [mju:zik]. It's hard to judge whether the show survives or not, but this one has a very unique premise which may turn out as just the right thing or, on the contrary - bring the downfall.

Blue Night Update 3

  

   I know, I'm not a good blogger recently, but I have no time these days. Granted, I watch dramas and try to commit to watching them (although God's Gift is somehow on hold now), and even to re-watch some dramas (hey, ladies!), but reading all the time allows me to listen to music more. And since I heard that Spotify actually pays a bit artists, I decided to go there whenever possible. They don't have everything but for most of the time I'm not complaining.

I also have my other source of music, that is Blue Night radio show. I have to admit, sometimes I feel like I'm making those playlists, but sometimes I don't know even a single artist there. Which is good, because I learn this way.
Beware, the post is video heavy so it may load slower.

Three Nights With Chunnie

   Except for Secret Love Affair, this is the only currently airing series I'm loving to bits. I'd add God's Gift Jo Seungwoo, but as much as I love the said gift, the drama does not keep me engaged as others. Proof? I still have 4 last eps to watch and somehow always find something else to do.
However, Witch's Romances started as some wicked fun, so I had to add it to the list.

Kim Jonghyeon - Gloomy Letter

 

Joanna Wang in Wonderland

   I wanted to include her in the previous post, but this album, Midnight Cinema deserves a separated entry. New album of Joanna Wang is... hard to describe. Absolutely amazing. Songs aren't new, those are reinterpretations and covers but done with such a class!

New Taiwan Releases

   William Wei has released new album yesterday. There are also new releases by Stefanie Sun and Joanna Wang. Few days ago I wrote that, so far, Roger Yang's "Beast in the Dark" is the best musical album of 2014 and this still stands. However my longtime affinity to Weibird makes my heart easy to embrace his release. 

And his album is weird.

I'm Unique. Like Anyone Else...

   Having read tons of books on human behaviour, cultural patterns, language and anthropology makes it easier for a person to see patterns and set a distance between you and things you observe. I always talk with students about stereotypes, because it's fun and, surprisingly, educational. However, without the right tools to do that, the talk about stereotypes can turn into: a) bashing, b) nonsense, c) personal opinion based on one (1) person's view. Anyone who heard anything about sociology knows that one person's opinion is worth less than a toilet paper (on the second thought... no, wait...)

We had this talk about overfloated individualism lately.

Hellish Helix Overview

      I'm going to write more about Kdrama the moment I will have some more time, don't worry. This time, Occidental shows.

Yes, I do continue The Mushiteers known as The Musketeers, for reasons unknown. I'm surprised the screenwriter actually gave out her name, because the show is such amount of crap it astounds even me, a faithful admirer of crap movies such as Mega Shark ver. Giant Octopus. 

March Music

After cursing to 10th generation, I started using different browser and until I fix problems with the previous one, I'll be posting using this. I stumbled upon some nice music all alone, since my work prevents me from listening to uri DJ on Blue Night (worry not, I manage to listen to the program nevertheless, nothing with mah baby can escape me!)

Blue Night Update 2

   Some people remember me doing similar thing when Namstar was appearing on Immortal Song 2. I guess I will be making a post once a week to present few songs from Jonghyeon's Blue Night radio show. I have to admit, his music scope is really, really borderless.

The Three Days With Chunnie

I can't possibly miss Chun's new drama. I could miss it only if it was a medical one. Thankfully, it is not. According to AsianWiki, the drama takes place when "The South Korean President travels to a villa to enjoy his vacation. After three gunshots are fired, he disappears. His bodyguard Han Tae-Kyung (Park Yoo-Chun) attempts to find the President."

Age of Feeling Overloaded

   Yes, the main winter drama is this terrible lack of snow. And then in the summer we will get a lot of bugs and I will have to buy another pair of slippers just to kill them. Yes, I kill bugs. I kill spiders too. Sue me.

Two songs from Blue Night

   

   I know no one in the whole Galaxy will take this seriously when I say I find Blue Night, objectively speaking, a nice radio show. Jonghyeon being the host has absolutely nothing to do with this. Have no idea where people get this notion.

He prepares some nice music, and as everybody (every every body) could suspect, most of these songs are ballads, R'n'B and the likes.

Today's program taught me one name and I have to thank uri DJ for introducing one name to me.

Handful of music

   In the previous post about Taiwan music, I mentioned the new album of Anthony Neely and now I am after listening to it. The opinion? Sadly, the album is nothing special. If it wasn't for Neely's rich voice, I wouldn't even be bothered to listen to it. OK, I lied, I would, because I listen to a lot of albums. But it's nothing memorable, that's it.

OK, back to some more music.

Dystopian "Utopia"

   And this picture above would be actually everything non-disturbing, that can be presented from Utopia. Places and scenery are beautifully shot, with vivid, lush colors which sometimes can make you dizzy.

But colors are not the main problem here. The series is sick.

Jonghyeon's Blue Night

   Oh, it won't be all that blue when I'll... oh, nevermind... 

The man loves music and songs and as I'm listening to it right now, Jonghyeon beside being his normal dorky self, introduces some nice songs as well, and sometimes (once so far, but it's only 33 minutes of the program) he sings as well.

My nuna hart can barely contain all these feels...

Hong Kwangho news

I admit, Miss Saigon is not my favorite musical. Or was. Now it is!

Following people who don't tweet for half a year was a good choice afterall.

We haz snow... and series!

 

   Finally, the winter arrived here and I'm sure I will hate it by the mid-March. Few new series started, few ended, some went on a hiatus. And since none of Fall/Winter Kdramas were doing it for me, I naturally went back to the pond I crawled from in the first place. 

Handful of taiwanese music

   I wrote on Twitter once that I happened to create an account on Spotify out of boredom. This way, I got access to millions of songs and albums absolutely for free. I'm abusing Vivaldi and whole Decca, yes, that's true, but in my ventures to world playlists, I discovered few other artists I could discover months later. 

There is something nice in the ability to listen to Top 100 from Peru or Taiwan.

Speaking of the latter...

Let's sing the 2013 off!

   Oh well, not every year may be the fountain of new music springing from the depths of the world (and internets). 2013 was not that year.

World went crazy for Miley Tongus' racy video which for me was just a plain attempt coming from an attentionwh*re, thankfully Gangnam Style stopped being played in every damn radio station all over the globe, million new bands debuted and EXO had their ball-of-fur comeback.