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Kgot Boda Namja * Boys Before Flowers: Take Two

Posted in Drama, Seoul, TV with tags , , , on January 22, 2009 by illdielaughing

Man, this drama is the thing that’s really not good for young minds, forget about Mirotic.

jandi_junpyo_wrist-grab2jandi_junpyo_wrist-grab1

Of course, if you watch Korean dramas long enough you get used to seeing the rampant sexist attitudes towards women. Women are more often than not grabbed by the wrist and dragged from one place to another in this drama. Or if they’re white women they’re sexualized and basically made into accessories (or put on a pedestal), which is something else I’ve gotten used to in Korean dramas and movies. Kind of like how one gets used to see minorities in American films get constantly type cast. In both instances, I’m used to it but it still bothers me and my being used to it doesn’t justify it’s existence. Read more »

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“After School” is a bit too much

Posted in Music, Seoul with tags , on January 19, 2009 by illdielaughing

Man these girls are trying hard. 

There are a few things I really like about this group. They’re all age appropriate ranging from 20-29. I like that there are older women in this group because I’m sick of the obsession with young talent in the music industry. It’s nice seeing older women being sexy and not 16 year-olds feigning sexy. I mean, the Wonder Girls aren’t this blatantly sexy but So Hot left a really bad taste in my mouth. Anyway, in After School, they can all dance better than most of the girl groups in Korea and they are actually good performers. But on the flip side they are obviously trying to be the Pussycat Dolls and they’re pushing the Sexy past it’s limits into trashy. Read more »

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Kgot Boda Namja * Boys Over Flowers

Posted in Seoul, TV, ^_^ with tags , , , , on January 14, 2009 by illdielaughing


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LOL “Borbes”… I hear it’s a GREAT magazine Read more »

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Oh “Gee”, what an SM creation

Posted in MV, Music, Music Video, Seoul with tags on January 7, 2009 by illdielaughing

SM has not let the saccharine sweet cute image die for SNSD. And they wouldn’t because it would be ridiculous to completely drop a groups concept just because it sucks. Gee is actually a rather cute, addictive song until they start with the high-pitched whining. Beware: after a while your ear will be leaking….something. Here’s the mv:

God, that horrible dancing puts those gorgeous pumps to shame. I hope their feet bled after daring to do such choreography in them. Just kidding, guys. The girls of Girls’ Generation continues to fuse cute with skimpy. Now skimpy is a strong word but I promise I mean to use that adjective in the least offensive way possible.

Pairing up the booty-shorts with cutesy dance moves that would be cute on a toddler is rather interesting to watch. It’s not remotely unexpected from SNSD. SNSD has become less blatant lolitas but they are still the mascots for the team. 


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Gold Miss and other Korean Variety Shows

Posted in Hmm..., Seoul, TV on January 6, 2009 by illdielaughing

I wasn’t going to write about Big Bang Gold Miss Diary, but as I watched it I couldn’t help but wonder why 10 minutes of a half-hour show is spent guessing the women’s ages. This is one of the things that I can’t stand about Korean variety shows, this obsession with youth and the jeering at older women or older men by the younger of the opposite sex. I couldn’t put my finger on it before, exactly what irked me even while I laughed at the antics on Korean shows, but in this post I pretty much go through what it is. Everything seems to be looked at through the lens of how much of a man or a woman you are through the eyes of the opposite sex. So when all of Big Bang guesses how old the women are it’s kind of like going through who’s dateable/doable and who’s not. And likewise, when, say, a member of SNSD guesses the age of an oppa or ajussi like Yoo Jae Suk and Kim Soo Ro, it’s like saying where they stand with these girls.

After the age-guessing bit of Gold Miss they go into “If you go back 10, no, 15 years, who would you approach first?” Once again, we see this idea that a woman is only as good as the man that will have her and vice-versa.  Read more »

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No more “crack” for Seungri

Posted in Music, Seoul, WTF? with tags , on January 5, 2009 by illdielaughing

 

Seungri was banned from performing Strong Baby on KBS because he used the word “crack” in the song. The nitwits at KBS believe that he is alluding to crack cocaine. 

I laughed for a while after reading this. I wrote a post about it on Seoulbeats and I still can’t get it out of my system. This is one of those WTF moments that you have every once in a while. Or more often, it seems, when involving Kpop. I wish these people would make more educated decisions when it determines someone changing their work. DBSK having to change “under my skin” to “under my sky” is almost as ridiculous as this. In the DBSK, there was absolutely nothing wrong with “under my skin” the people just didn’t know enough English to make an educated decision about it. In Seungri’s case, there were so many other reasons that they could have banned the song but they chose the use of the word “crack”. WTF.

Before all the bannings, I wouldn’t even have thought that anyone would have banned this song. To me, it’s harmless. But after the banning crusade of the Family office of welfair of whatever it’s called I expect anything from a male artist to be banned nowadays.

Still in perplexed shock. The worst is that I’m sure that some KBS employee thinks they’re really intelligent for “catching” that meaning of the word crack. Well, guess what, you’re an idiot.

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My Favorites of 2008

Posted in Music, NYC, Review, Seoul with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 4, 2009 by illdielaughing

Taking a cue from Amy (whose other blog you should read!), I decided to compile my favorite albums and songs of 2008. Now the songs or albums didn’t all come out in 2008 but I discovered them in that year. 

With albums:
 amy-winehouse_back-to-black
• Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black (2006)
 Beautiful, intelligent, infectious, addictive, tragic, cohesive. This was one of the best albums of 2006 and maybe my favorite album of 2008. It made me so sad that Amy Winehouse was at the butt of every joke and it also made me understand why she is who she is, to a limited extent. It was a raw and honest album and it had mass market appeal to boot. Songs like Rehab aren’t my favorites anymore but I still enjoy them. Favorite song off of this album, hard to choose, but would have to say Wake Up Alone. Biggest surprise on this album, Some Unholy War, the lyrics are golden. Read more »

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DBSK is allowed to date now

Posted in Rant, Seoul with tags on January 2, 2009 by illdielaughing

dbsk

Over at Allkpop there was an interesting interview with Dong Bang Shin Ki. The most interesting bit is this:

“I think we’ve become a national idol. There are a lot of older female fans that tell us now, “You guys all look like grown up men now. We see you as men now.” Our management even told us, “You can start dating now. It’ll help with your images, to look manly.” But we have no time to meet women at the moment.” said Hero Jaejoong.

I will never get used to a lot of things in idol culture, for example, the fact that every single aspect of their lives revolves around an image that their record company controls. It baffles me. It’s a problem I  have with Kpop (and products in any musical industry) because it makes them and their work seem inauthentic and fake. The fact that DBSK is told when they’re allowed to date is absurd and it is further ridiculous that they’re only allowed to date because it will help with their images. Sad how the industry works. Too hell bent on appeasing crazy and/or juvenile fans that these boys don’t get to have a life. I’m not surprised that, as Jaejoong said, they don’t have time to meet women because of they’re busy schedules but even if they could date, they would not be able to do so freely because they always have to deal with the backlash of individuals who shouldn’t even be called fans but instead possessive and obsessed people. Read more »

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“Strong Baby” is….

Posted in Music, Music Video, Seoul with tags , , on January 2, 2009 by illdielaughing

Me: Oh… Oh, God.
Steph: I can’t imagine him with a woman.
Me: Ugh God, stop touching yourself. 
Steph: I can’t believe he has abs, it’s like seeing abs on a ten year old.
Me: Ugh, this is so gross. Oh my… (*cringes*)
Steph: This is probably the first time he’s gotten so close to a woman. 
Me: Ahh!!!! I can’t watch this.
Steph: I wonder if she felt like a pedophile
Me: This is… 
Steph: He probably got a hard-on when she touched him. 
BOTH: (*Raucous laughter*) Read more »

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Star Wars

Posted in Concert, Music, Seoul with tags , , , , , , on December 29, 2008 by illdielaughing

Hmmm…. not as exciting as we would have liked. SBS organizers totally played the fans with that whack performance.


Taeyang and Junsu can both sing really well but it’s obvious that Junsu has the stronger voice. For some reason Junsu had back vocals which he really doesn’t need. Anyway, moving to the dance battle. I would have been able to take Taemin more seriously if he weren’t wearing tight shiny pants but regardless he did really well. Seungri dances a lot better than what he did for the battle, he barely does anything worth watching. Jaebeom won this because he’s a bboy and as such can do things that us normal human beings cannot do. Eunhyuk….poor guy. Yunho is still on crack.

Dance battle was okay, the Wonder Boys was horrifying. Did anyone catch Jokwon’s face? 
jokwon_wonderboys 

What a queen.

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