A Maker of Mischief

So some people asked...

2009-11-13T13:54:31Z

I had a few people who really enjoyed the lovely little Kangta samples I left on my post recently, so I decided to do all of you a faaaavour and upload the other albums. Just because. Because he has the voice of an angel and everyone should love and adore him as much as I do.

Here are the downloads for the rest of his albums:
Kang Ta Volume 1 - Polaris (77.4MB) [download]
Kang Ta Volume 2 - Pine Tree (46.5MB) [download]
Kang Ta Volume 3 - Persona (42.5MB) [download]
Kang Ta Mini Album - Eternity (31.8MB) [download]

And just because, something completely different:
Kang Ta & Vanness - Scandal (34MB) [download]
Please keep in mind, his collaboration with Vanness is QUITE different to his usual stuff XD; so not all of you will like it. I, on the other hand, love it.

TRACK LISTS & ALBUM COVERS

-Polaris-
01. 오! 그대를 (Falling In Love)
02. 별의 고백 (Longing - Interlude)
03. 북극성 (Polaris)
04. Thanks God
05. 스물 셋 (My Life)
06. 겨울 (Last Winter)
07. In Your Eyes
08. 당신이 알고 있던 난 (Still)
09. Doodidub
10. 나 세상 나 (I Will)
11. 그해여름 (Last Summer Night)
12. Blue Moon
13. 하얀 얼굴로 (With Your White Face)
14. 오늘같이 이런 창밖이 좋아
15. 북극성 (Polaris Instrumental)

-Pine Tree-
01. 햇살 (Spring)
02. Happy Happy
03. 사랑은 기억보다 (Memories #1)
04. Propose
05. 바다 (Summer)
06. 고백 (Confession)
07. The Best
08. 노을 (Autumn)
09. 추억은 기억보다 (Memories #2)
10. Flower
11. 2032 In Cuba
12. 눈 (Winter)
13. 야상곡 (Nocturne)
14. 이별 후에는 (One Snowing Day)
15. 상록수 (Pine Tree)

-Persona-
01. 가면(Persona)
02. 쓰레기(Illusion)
03. 느리게 걷기(Agape)
04. 마비(Paralysis)
05. 하루만큼만(Just One Day)
06. No More Than My Dreams (꿈일 뿐이죠)
07. 일어나기(Reminiscence＃1)
08. Blue Snow
09. 그녀의 목소리가 들립니다 (Always - ft.송광식)
10. 잠든 기도(Prayer)
11. 느리게 걷기(Agape Instrumental)
12. 그녀의 목소리가 들립니다(Always Instrumental)

-Eternity-
01 어느날 가슴이 말했다 (Eternity)
02 너를 닮아 (Still With You)
03 책갈피 (Reminiscence)
04 그래서 미안합니다 (Since you’ve gone)
05 7989 (Duet. Tae Yeon of So Nyeo Shi Dae)
06 가슴에 남아 (Still my heart)
07 어느 날 가슴이 말했다 (Eternity) (Inst.)
08 책갈피 (Reminiscence) (Inst.)

-Scandal-
01 . SCANDAL
02 . 127日
03 . Good Vibration
04 . One Day
05 . 한걸음
06 . SCANDAL(Eng ver.)

And that's it, ladies and gentlemenz~! Enjoy the lovely crooning of Kangta, and may he give you sweet dreams.

AHHHHHH.

2009-11-11T07:46:17Z

BEAUTIFUL. STUNNING. ~~FLAWLESS.~~ JAEBEOM IS STILL MISSING.

But you know what? I miss him and I want him back in the group, but these boys are STILL so amazing. They were my gateway into K-Pop and I will always love them, whether they be 6 or 7.

Warning: A little fangirlism. Okay? Okay.

2009-11-08T09:56:10Z

And no, you bitchez don't get an LJ-cut.

Keep in mind, I haven't been in the k-pop fandom for very long. In fact, I think I only discovered it just before I went on my major holiday this year, which would make it about... 6 months? But during that time, I've been avidly exploring the fandom with the help of omonatheydidnt and a bunch of awesome people on my f-list. K-Pop is one of those snowballing fandoms; you'll find one ~~thing~~ band that interests you, and then that ~~thing~~ band will cross over with another, intriguing you and causing you to look further into the shiny new ~~thing~~ band.

The point I'm getting to is that recently I've been on a bit of a H.O.T kick recently which stemmed from the fact I looked up the original video of Happiness, which Super Junior had done a cover of. After that, I ended up looking up a buttload more MVs before downloading their discography and rocking out to it for a while. I like pretty much all music from the 90's, it seems, whether it's in English or not XDD

But yes, my H.O.T kick brought to my attention two of the individual boys and their solo works; Moon Hee Jun and Kangta. As awesome as Hee Jun is, today I'm going to ~~fangirl~~ talk about Kangta.

Throughout the H.O.T music videos, I always liked Kangta's voice best; he sang beautifully and so when I found out he had done solo work since H.O.T, I decided to do a little searching. My searching didn't last long, though, I looked up some MVs and kind of went 'Ballads, oh, okay' without really stopping to listen to it. At this point, I was pretty much fangirling the man rather than the voice, essentially, since I was now so used to pop music that the soft and slow songs didn't really catch my attention.

However the other day I was in Sunstar with Hattie, and lo and behold, on the K-music shelf was the Taiwan release of the Kangta & Best CD/DVD that I had been ogling on YesAsia. Since I'd been fawning over him a fair bit I decided to grab it, since it looked pretty and it only cost me AU$18 so I honestly couldn't complain. Here's a pic of the packaging:

The grey cover is a cardboard slipcase while the box (on the right) is made of wood. Inside, the cds are simply in a sleeve, nestled in amongst some very nice pictures :D I didn't realise how shiny it really was until after I opened it, so whee for happy surprises.

The point of this post, ultimately, was to explain that this man's voice makes me want to melt into a puddle on the floor. I am not a big fan of ballads but all throughout this album I was just sitting there with this *-* look on my face--also usually when I listen to music I'm doing a million other things, but I actually found myself just sitting there and at one point lying down on my couch while I just listened, and honestly, the boyband pop music is fun and well, but I think this is an album I will be having on repeat a lot.

Annie, you wanted recommendations? I'mma upload this album for you, because his music sounds like it belongs in a jazzy piano-lounge and I think you'd like it.

Here is the music video to Polaris, the first song on the CD. This vid apparently won some awards, and I'm not surprised, it's gorgeous:

If you want to watch any of the other videos, I'm sure they're up on Youtube, I don't know. I haven't checked them all yet. But what I WILL be doing, is ripping them from my DVD and uploading them for you guys here, as well as zipping and uploading the entire music CD because honestly, it's beautiful, easy-listening, and ugggghhhh why am I always in love with music from forever ago?

Links will be updates as my files are uploaded. All will be hosted on Rapidshare, and none are subtitled, but honestly, for that voice you don't need any subtitles. I suggest at least watching/downloading Polaris as it is beautiful and--and--AHH JUST DO IT.

Full album:
KANGTA & BEST.rar (36MB)

Music Videos:
01 - Polaris.avi (40MB)
02 - Thanks God (Thanks 8).avi (48MB)
03 - Memories.avi (38MB)
04 - Propose.avi (48MB) (This video is the dorkiest/cutest thing everrr omg)
05 - Confession.avi (47MB)
06 - Persona.avi (67MB)
07 - I Swear (Group S).avi (49MB)
08 - I Was (Group S).avi (34MB)
09 - Love Is (Group S).avi (55MB)
10 - Special Interview.avi (50MB)

I literally only bought this album on Friday and I'm already so in love. BRB, downloading EVERYTHING he's EVER done. And for those who give him a go now (or those who have listened to him long ago already) I would like to hear your opinions.

Kangta comes back from the military mid next year. I would like some more plz, IDEC if you're old 8D

EEEEE A.N.JELL

2009-11-07T06:50:41Z

These little dolls are the cutest thing I've seen in aaaaaaages @__@

And speaking of You're Beautiful (which everyone should be watching, btw), the end of episode 10? Hell to the YES. *waves Team Shinwoo banner around*

OH LORD.

2009-11-04T11:33:03Z

THIS SHOW IS GOING TO BE EPIC HATTIE I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE INTERNET'S ALMOST CAPPED, HAVE A LOOK AT OUR BOOOOOYS!!

EDIT: BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

DSFHKSHFKAJSLFKFS

It doesn't even need to be subbed, there are SO many ways I find enjoyment in this @_@

Why don't I go out more?

2009-11-03T09:29:45Z

A bit of a side note before I get into the real post; I did a fantard-y thing and signed up for Key from SHINee and Doojoon from BEAST at a roleplay community based around J and K entertainment XD Key's LJ is unlockyoursoul and Doojoon's is b2stlyleader (CREATIVE, RITE). _syunikiss_ , I totally took icons for Key, but have credited you 8D; YOU SHOULD TTLY DO SOME BEAST ONES BECAUSE I LOVE ALL THE ICONS YOU MAKE AND WOULD TOTALLY USE THEM. Ahahah XD yeah, I don't have any icons for Doojoon yet.

OKAY, that's over and done with.

Last night was aaaall kinds of awesome, although this is going to be an extremely watered down version of events.

We went out with four of the peeps from Carpe Diem; Hye Young, Jin Seok, Hee Young and Jae Hoon. I am kicking myself for not bringing my camera, because a lot of lulz were had and it would have been epic to capture some of them, wahh. We started off the evening having dinner at the Spaghetti Tree (Hye Young's boyfriend Luke tagged along too... and then paid for the bill before we could even do anything about it o_o) and that killed time until 9pm which was when Hee Young and Jae got off work at Korean Palace. We dropped by there and picked them up, and headed out for drinks.

The whole night was awesome. We started off at the Lounge on Swanston Street, and had a lot to drink from the get-go; we stayed there for a couple of hours just chatting, buying each other drinks and generally getting way too excited. Once we were well on the way to tipsy-town, we headed off to Transport Hotel where we could dance. After Jin Seok went home (I felt he wasn't having as much fun as the rest of us >: wahh), we moved on to a place in Crown casino, where they had some good music for dancing, and by that point I was pretty drunk so I was just like 'WHOO LOOK AT ME I'M HAVING AN AWESOME TIME.' The girls were really into it, and so was Jae; he seems so shy at his work, but he was talkative and enthusiastic when we went out <3

The girls headed home not too long after though; Hye Young's boyfriend came to get her. Jae had run into a friend at the bar and it ended up being the friend (whose name I never caught), Jae, Hattie and I. We got tired pretty quick and ended up collapsing on sofas in the venue and just chatting until the place closed. We said goodbye to Jae's friend, and caught a cab back to Hattie's--we took Jae with us since he lives in Richmond anyway and it was easier to just let him crash at her house.

The morning was not quite as awesome XD; I felt somewhat queasy and had a headache, but at least I didn't get sick :Db I took painkillers and had a cup of coffee, but that was pretty much it. We had to wake up Jae at about 10:30 since Hattie's parents were going to be coming home and we needed to get ready to leave. Looking a bit worse for wear, he also had coffee and we pretty much stumbled out the door. I was lucky though; I didn't have to work tonight, he did.

He was meeting friends in the city but was early, so we hung out together in Melbourne Central and rehydrated a bit XD we chatted and exchanged numbers because we hadn't had the chance to do that during the night out, and it was generally fun <3 We both agreed that next time there would be a bit less drinking and more dinner/chatting. ...yay X3

It was all awesome, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

<3

Weekend shiz.

2009-11-01T04:23:05Z

Went out last night to see Paranormal Activity with Torri. I recommend this movie if you like the old-school 'things that go bump in the night' type horror instead of the currently popular blood-and-gore genre, because this movie scared the crap out of me AND the completely filled cinema we went and saw it in. It's been a while since I've actually been affected by a horror flick like that XD; It's filmed Blair-Witch style, about a couple who are being haunted and who are trying to catch some of it on film so that they can get help or advice on what to do about it.

Honestly, when the premise was explained to me I was a bit 'yeah, okay' about it and I only went because Torri didn't want to see the film by herself. But jeebus, I would not have seen that film by myself, it freaked the hell out of me. I do want to see it again, but even knowing what's going to happen, I still want to have someone there with me XD;;

Afterwards we went to Carpe Diem again of course. There was a private function on, but they still had time for us :D the restaurant was closed by the time Torri and I got there to meet Hattie and Tash, so the waiting staff had headed upstairs to C.D. for food and to help out with anything that needed helping out. This meant Jae was there, plus a girl who I didn't know the name of, but I think Hattie said her name was Ruby? idk. We didn't stay too long but that doesn't matter--it was hella fun anyway, it always is whenever we go.

In fact, I'm going again tonight, hahahah 8D;

We're going out with the crew from Carpe Diem on Monday night, dinner and dancing. It's going to be so awesome to be able to hang out with them outside of their work ^^

Blerrggghh random post is random. I need to clean my shit up around here and burn stuff for Hattie. Laterz~

Unf~

2009-10-30T22:15:18Z

...why HELLO THERE.

Jeebus, why do they look so good =__= I still feel a bit weird for drooling over ~~Key~~ SHINee the way I've been doing recently D: why are they so youuung...?

WHAT.

2009-10-29T12:57:50Z

The You're Beautiful drama has been delayed due to translators on Viikii flipping out about someone apparently stealing their translations and claiming them as their own.

IRIS has been completely removed from Viikii and won't be uploaded anymore due to copyright issues.

I AM VERY DISPLEASED. I DON'T THINK YOU HAVE QUITE ANY IDEA HOW DISPLEASED I AM.

ARGH.

*fumes quietly*

On another, somewhat more pleasing note, I ended up sitting next to a girl who knew who SHINee and Big Bang were on the train home tonight. I'd gone out with Hattie to Carpe Diem, and on the way back we got talking because she was scribbling their names in her notebook. I let her listen to/watch Big Bang's Koi wo Kikasete, and left my LJ URL. Because honestly, it's hard enough to find people in Melbourne who know wtf I'm on about... the only Melbournian I've found so far is aiturnizzle , and the only other Aussie is mazohyst_ruki but she still lives so far awaaaay.

So that was nice. And another evening at Carpe Diem was nice. We finally exchanged numbers with Hye Young so now we can actually contact her if we want to XD now it's uber late, so I'm off to bed, g'niiiight~

lolboredom.

2009-10-28T00:55:13Z

I'm five minutes into my lunchbreak, I'm up to date with email, LJ friends list and communities... I've run out of things to do and now I'm bored D:

I'm listening to asianpopaddict on my Zen at the moment. Just so you guys know, they're awesome and you should probably jump on board and listen to them. They've been going for 16 shows already, one a week, and although I've listened to the most recent ones, I'm starting from the beginning now. It's good to hear varied opinions on the things I love :D so yeah, I've gone and downloaded them all. I'll make my way through them slowly but surely.

Have a bit of my new MBLAQ bias:

Om nom nom nom, G.O. Click on this fine young man for more sexy.

MBLAQ > BEAST?

2009-10-27T08:18:58Z

At the beginning of this year and going through all the way until recently, there had been a slew of new girl-groups debuting in the k-pop world. As adorable or sexy as they all are, the fandom was beginning to get just a liiiittle tired of seeing girls, girls, girls. This was worsened by the fact that the boy-bands that were available for fangirling began to go through scandals one by one, making the boy-band fandom a rather unhappy one all around.

Things started to pick up as word of new bands came around; first, YJ entertainment decided to give us SHU-I with their track 'Bomb Bomb Bomb', who I did a brief write-up about, and the general consensus on them seemed to be that they'd need to do a little more to get people's attention but that they were on the right track, and with the lack of new bands they were happy to give them a go, since it was something.

Teasers for BEAST--then known as B2ST--had been circulating for a while due to the documentary leading up to their debut (now being subtitled by b2stlysubs). The band was interesting because it involved a lot of boys who had already been part of other projects before, such as Hyun Seung who worked hard to be a part of Big Bang, but didn't make the final cut. Fans of the individual boys were already on board, and the group was beginning to look mighty promising.

Then news of MBLAQ appeared. It seemed Rain had decided to produce his own boy-group, and this news was received with some amusement at first, but it soon became easy to get excited--after all, it was Rain in charge, these guys were going to able to dance like WHOA. The teaser pics we got first were a bit... sparkly, and the reactions were mixed between 'LOL' and 'HOT'. Oh, and 'LOOK AT THE PORN-STACHE GUY'.

Both BEAST (who had changed their name from the original 'B2ST') and MBLAQ moved fast, though, while SHU-I stayed in one place, with only one song (they also had 'Please Help Me' but haven't yet promoted it, which is a shame because it's much better than Bomb Bomb Bomb). As much as I wanted to support SHU-I, I was quickly getting distracted by the new groups. BEAST released not just one, but two album teasers, both of which were FIERCE, while MBLAQ opened for Rain's concert and released their MV for their title track 'Oh, Yeah' super fast. BEAST soon-after released an MV for their album's title song 'Bad Girl' and both bands were enthusiastically received by the fangirls starving for some sexy male newbies in the industry.

So which of the two bands that debuted around the same time is better?

Well, let me throw my own little personal opinion out into the world-wide-interweebz.

BEAST/B2ST

L-R: Doo Joon, Dong Woon, Yo Seob, Ki Kwang, Hyun Seung and Jun Hyeong

I was on team BEAST from the get-go; I kind of felt I had to be, since I'd watched member Hyun Seung in the Big Bang documentary. Plus, the boys looked great and their teasers showed an awesome bad-boy street style which is what I originally loved about Big Bang as well. I eagerly anticipated their first full length song, especially after the second teaser they released which showed some awesome dancing skills.

But then... they came out with 'Bad Girl'. Don't get me wrong. It's a great song, it's very catchy, but it isn't at all what I wanted, and sadly neither was the rest of their album. Again; they were fun songs... but 'fun' was not what I was after. They seem to be pursuing a bizarre 2PM and Big Bang mix, and the hard-hitting intensity of the teasers melted away into typical boy-band pop. I like them enough to keep them on my MP3 player and I get the feeling I will be fangirling individual members (Yo Seob is bloody adorable and Doo Joon is just UNF--and together they make dooseob , don't ask me why but it WORKS AHH). But ehh... I'd like to see them pursue the street-style hip-hop more D: The boys also seem very 'young'. There's something about their image, or the way they dance or something that I can't put my finger on... it's kind of like the problem I have with Big Bang and 2PM; they're around the same ages but 2PM actually seem a lot younger to me, I don't know why. With BEAST for some reason that bothers me, I was hoping they'd pursue a more mature look.

MBLAQ

L-R: Cheon Dung (aka Thunder), Mir, Seung Ho, G.O and Joon

Then there's MBLAQ. Excited for and focused on BEAST, I wasn't paying a great deal of attention to them at first, beyond the point of responding with 'lol, Rain'. When their MV was released though, I was happy to sit back and watch it.

My initial reaction to 'Oh, Yeah' was something along the lines of o_O; since it was so different to the electro-pop k-pop bands had been churning out recently. I found the Spanish guitars in the song weird at first, but the more I listened to it, the more I LIKED the fact it was different. The repetitiveness of the song annoyed me a little after a few listens as well, though, so I can't listen to the MP3 for too long, but funnily enough it's just FINE when I'm watching a performance of it 8D these guys are HOT. They're dancing is HOT. Their singing is HOT. ASJFHJFAHDSAJK. Joon's smile is adorable, leader SeungHo is bad-ass, little Thunder is a cutie, rapper Mir is awesome when he's doin' his thing and adorable when he's behind the scenes, and once G.O takes off the stupid aviator sunglasses he always wears, I'm totally his.

I like both of the new rookie groups, but I'll be keeping a close watch on MBLAQ. Whenever Inki or MuCore are on I'm still happy to watch BEAST, but I'm preeeeetty sure I'm on the MBLAQ bandwagon. With only three songs out on a single cd, they have to catch up to BEAST who already have a mini-album, but I hope they're totally going to pwn the music industry.

MBLAQ fighting~

WAHHHHH

2009-10-26T10:36:09Z

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!

HEART IS BROKEN.

As one person appropriately commented: "OMFG K-POP DO NOT TALK TO ME ANYMORE, OKAY!?"

BOOM, STAR KING WILL NOT BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOU!!

Korean Army, why do you take the people we love? ;_; I guess... I guess on the flipside it'll be awesome when DJ Tukutz and Boom come back around the same time...?

...no, I can't make this a positive thing T__T

Epic weekends.

2009-10-25T08:10:36Z

The weekend was once again awesome. Sadly, due to me not having my camera or anything with me, there aren't any photos >: aww.

A few weeks ago it was Hattie's birthday and she decided to hold her party at Ripponlea as a nice picnic :3 luckily for everyone the weather was positively gorgeous to the point where I'm sure some of us got a little sunburnt, and spending such a lovely day on the lawns of a lovely estate was perfect. There was a lot of food and lovely company and people in nice clothes and I can't stop thinking of the word 'lovely' because honestly that sums up the whole afternoon. I got to see people like Tash (<3) and Milliekins again, people who I really don't see as often as I should, considering I really do love them to bits XD so that was fun.

After that we went back to Hattie's and killed time until it was about time for Carpe Diem to open, then Hattie, Tash and I headed into the city to go and see the awesome people that work there 8D honestly, they really make my weekends sometimes, the atmosphere is just so friendly and they're always good for laughs. That night we found out their Korean names too; Sally's is Hye Young (the only one I'm certain of the spelling of), Matt's is Jin Sou, Jay's is Jae Hoon, and the cute waitress from the restaurant downstairs is Hee Young. I'm pretty sure most of them prefer their Korean names, but I do understand that in an English speaking country having English names is easier. Someone who was absent that evening was Steve, aka Ji Soo, who in all the times we've been there we've only met once, but that once he had a lot of stories to tell about Big Bang's SeungRi and DBSK's Yunho and how he went to school with both of them--even doing dance for four years with Yunho. He apparently has the pics to prove it. If I see him again I'll ask him about it :3

When we got in, the first thing we got from Hye Young was a scolding; 'Where were you yesterday? I waited for you...!' Apparently she has especially brought in G-Dragon's music to put on in the bar for us, and had waited eagerly for us to visit Friday night but we had taken an early night and gone straight home after work. I felt bad XD she's so adorable and gets so excited every time we come in. Sadly she also really wanted us to come tonight T_T but I have no money left and I'm so tiiired, I just don't have the energy. I wish I had her number to let her know so she's not waiting for us D:

I tried the seafood pancake thing they do, this time. It was huge and tasty but I so couldn't finish it by myself, Tash helped 8D the food they do there is soooo om nom nom tasty @_@ I could so spend my entire paycheck eating at the restaurant every night, ahh. I wish I could eat spicy food more, though T_T I can't tolerate spiciness too much, so that limits my menu choices D: but what I can eat is awesome. We introduced Tash to everyone there, and she sang S.E.S's Dreams Come True on the karaoke system, much to the delight of everyone. I did a couple of English songs with other people, and we had a lot to drink--in the morning I was not feeling well and was like 'But I only had three drinks DD: but then remembered that no, I only had three drinks that included spirits, one of those was a deadly Long Island Iced Tea, and I also downed several beers. So that might have contributed to my illness a bit.

We invited everyone to come out for drinks with us the Monday night before Cup Day. It means they won't be working, so we can just hang out, and we'll have all of Tuesday to recover~ now I just need to find a decent place that does cheap drinks where we can also dance, because from what I could tell, the general request was a club. I'll find someplace decent at work, I'm sure.

Sunday we spent catching up on sleep (since we got home at 2am) and we watched the first two episodes of the Korean Boys Before Flowers, since Hattie had found it at Sunstar, along with I Am Sam. I like it, so I want to watch more :D

Now I'm just chillaxing at home. It'll be an early night tonight, for me.

Oops, I arted.

2009-10-23T11:06:57Z

idek. IDEK.

The whole concept of the Ring Ding Dong music video is so hilarious to me, that I knew something bizarre was going to come out of it onto my sketchpad. And I had to include those ridiculous wings somehow, so ta-da. Honestly though, between having to watch dramas (8D), do a crap-ton of other things and then Photoshop deciding that it HATED ME, by the time I got to Minho and Taemin as the last two, I was about ready to give the hell up. This is why there is no real background; because I couldn't be bothered hahahah. I already spent a helluva lot longer on such a silly picture than I should have :P I'm especially pleased with how Jonghyun turned out, for some reason.

Because the pic is made up of many different similar shades of DARK GREY it may look a bit dark and crappy on darker compy monitors. It looks alright on mine though, I mean, I can see the shading on the shoes/pants so...

RING DING DONG RING DING DONG RING DIGGY DING DIGGY DING DING DONG RING DING DONG RING DING DONG RING DIGGY DING DIGGY DING DING DONG IF I LISTEN TO THIS SONG ONCE IT STAYS IN MY HEAD FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL HOURS.

So fantastic, so elastic.

New glasses~

2009-10-23T01:04:36Z

I'm getting new glasses soon, yay~!

For those that don't know, mad_hatter__ stepped on my current glasses XD it was my fault as well though, they were beside the futon I was sleeping on at her place and she didn't see them so our combined silliness (well, mostly mine) caused my glasses to go crunch. Actually the break wasn't that bad, it snapped clean through the bridge of the frames and the lenses are still intact, so a few drops of superglue did the trick just fine, at least until my new glasses come through. I needed new ones anyway; my prescription has changed, now I'll be able to see perfectly again!

I went to Specsavers and got the buy-one-pair-get-one-free deal, which ended up costing me AU$299, but for two pairs that's not too bad, especially since one of them is a designer pair, this Red or Dead pair in white/silver. So different to my usual glasses, but I really like them 8D

The other pair are thick-ish plastic frames that are black on the front but the inside of them is ACID GREEN, and when I put them on I could see NEON GREEN in my peripheral vision. I'm kind of in love with neon colours so I bought them; I can enjoy them while other people see the black exterior 8DD

They'll be done next week and I'll take photos. Yay new glasses~

You're Beautiful

2009-10-20T02:06:05Z

We’re four episodes into the show, another two are airing this week, and I think it’d about time I did a review/synopsis for it.

The premise of You’re Beautiful—in a nutshell—is that the manager of a fictional 3-member male idol group called A.N.Jell decides to recruit a new member to give the group a fresh, new image. Problem is that 1) the boys of A.N.Jell don’t particularly agree with this idea, and 2) the new recruit—Go Mi Nam—has an accident beforehand, so the desperate manager makes Mi Nam’s twin sister Go Mi Nyu take his place.

Let’s talk a bit about the characters. There are no spoilers beneath the cut I was very careful to keep it safe for people new to the show.

Park Shin Hye as Go Mi Nam / Go Mi Nyu

At the beginning of the series, Mi Nyu is a young nun-in-training and doesn’t know a great deal of the outside world, so idol groups and the things a typical teenage girl does/likes are completely foreign to her. Next thing she knows she’s thrown into this bizarre, flashy world she’s unused to, but decides to do her best for the sake of her brother’s career. Not only does she have to be careful to not expose her true identity to the other band members, and thus the media and A.N.Jell’s fans, but she has to prove herself worthy to the boys. The lead vocalist, Hwang Tae-Kyung, is especially convinced that an additional member is a waste of time and space, making her situation very difficult.

Mi Nyu can be a little ditzy at times but she tries so hard to please everyone around her, going out of her way to show she really is doing her best despite the fact that at times everyone seems to be against her. Most of her ditziness simply comes from the fact she has no idea what she’s doing, and is doing her best to bluff her way through everything. This can be both adorable, and also a little annoying at points XD;

Still, Coffee Prince was ~~the first gender-swap drama I saw~~ actually the second gender-swap drama I saw, the first was Hana Kimi, and both were done so well that I look at You’re Beautiful and wonder how on earth they can possibly mistake her for a guy. Oh well, let’s not spoil the fantasy, Hahah.

Jang Geun Suk as Hwang Tae Kyung

This bad-ass mofo is A.N.Jell’s lead vocalist, Tae Kyung. He has one of the most terrifyingly smouldering glares I have ever seen in any drama EVER, and unfortunately for Go Mi Nyu, it’s usually directed at her (pic is not of said glare). I’ve only seen four episodes but I haven’t yet seen Tae Kyung smile; smirk, yes, sneer, often, but Tae Kyung just generally seems to hate EVERYTHING and it’s incredibly difficult to please him.

When the manager first explains his plans to bring in a new member, Tae Kyung is the one most opposed to the idea, and as things go ahead anyway against his will he just gets more and more angry at everyone around him. Mi Nyu cops most of his backlash, especially since she ends up in some very unlucky situations with him, usually when she’s trying to do a good deed that goes horribly wrong. It doesn’t help that Tae Kyung has an OCD about cleanliness, which just makes it all the more easy to annoy him.

Mi Nyu knows he’s the one she has to prove herself to most of all, so much to his disgust she sticks close to him and does her best to do nice things for him—most of which go COMPLETELY wrong, leading to some incredibly entertaining misunderstandings.

Jung Yong Hwa as Kang Shin Woo

I didn’t really notice Shin Woo at first, his name was the last of the lead characters that I learned, simply because he’s so quiet and laid-back compared to the other two guys in A.N.Jell. He’s almost the mother of the group, stepping in to quiet arguments and stop conflicts, and to quietly wait to offer a shoulder to lean on if it’s needed. He’s a soft-spoken sweetheart and although I didn’t really notice him in the first episode, I soon began to like him more and more, especially with how supportive he is of Mi Nyu and how he tries to help her feel more welcome to the group. He’s the neutral one, just wanting everyone to get along.

That said though, there’s not a lot about Shin Woo I can say without revealing spoilers. You’ll just have to take my word on the fact that he is an awesome guy and I think he really deserves some love.

Lee Hong Ki as Jeremy

British-Korean idol Jeremy is the last of the members of A.N.Jell and probably my favourite of them all; he gives so much meaning to the phrase 'dumb blonde', I can't even begin to tell you. Although he seems excited about the prospect of a new member at first, he soon becomes suspicious of Mi Nyu/Mi Nam's motives, and amongst his wild imaginings he starts to think that Mi Nam is trying to seduce his fellow bandmates, although he's thoroughly convinced that she's a guy. Growing more and more paranoid every time he catches Mi Nam talking alone with Tae Kyung or Shin Woo, he becomes determined to find out what this strange new member is up to, to 'save' his bandmates from her clutches. Problem is, he begins to find himself attracted to her as well, and his conflicting feelings frustrate him to no end.

He's a good boy at heart; he loves his bandmates like brothers and has everyone's best interests at heart, but his problem is he's dumb as a post--which makes things a bit hard for him XD. He's a ditz but not in an annoying way; he's truly adorable and he pulls some of the greatest facial expressions I've ever seen. His dog's name is Angelina Jolie, or Jolie for short, which is hilarious but not very surprising. I'm seriously looking forward to the time he finds out Mi Nam is actually a girl 8D

I actually think he might have some bizarre crush on Shin Woo XD I don't even need to have my fangirl specs on to wonder about this, since he gets outrageously jealous every time Shin Woo does anything nice for Mi Nyu. I would like a bit more bromance between these two, please.

The drama is very promising so far. It's funny, touching, colourful and doesn't take itself too seriously. It's meant to be a bit of an insight into the lives of idols as well, and you get to see the crazy fans, the way the media starts rumours, the way everything they do is blown out of proportion by people... it's fun and interesting with a very humorous twist and I'm thoroughly looking forward to how everything develops. Episode 4 ended on a note I can really fangirl about and I'm super enthusiastic about episode 5 which I will be able to watch on Thursday night. I really love nasty, angry Tae Kyung but I'm looking forward to seeing him thaw out a little. I can't decide who I want to end up together in the end... I love them all too much, and all for different reasons!!

There are other characters who are also made of awesome but I'm out of time to write more; the band's stylist, played by UEE from After School is eccentric and fantastic and I love her, and Go Mi Nam's manager is awkward and hilarious, but really caring and fatherly :3

I'll probably write more about this drama as it unfolds. There are two episodes a week, airing Wednesday and Thursday, and they're usually up on Viikii with subs a day later, so along with IRIS, Thursday and Friday have become my drama nights.

If you're interested in watching, the Viikii channel is here. It's definitely worth it.

LOLRANDOM

2009-10-19T09:59:13Z

HATTIE. IN CASE YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW, SHINEE'S NEW MINI ALBUM IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD. YOU CAN THANK meccamputech CUZ THAT'S WHO I GANKED IT FROM.

The comments in omona give it rave reviews. Idk it might be terrible I haven't listened to it yet. *goes to do so*

EDIT: NEVER MIND. I'm actually a bit disappointed :/

Mini review? idk...

2009-10-17T01:59:46Z

Say hello to my little friend. Lol at 'Pocket Rocket'.

The V and Red Bull shots have been out in convenience stores for a while now, and I kind of fell in love with the V one. A handbag sized V? A 60ml baby bottle that contains the same energy punch as a 500ml can? This I had to try. Most of my IRL friends will know that I'm a V addict, I usually have at least one can on most days. But the thing is, I'm not an energy drink addict overall; I have not found any other energy drinks that I've actually thoroughly enjoyed, I like drinking V because of the taste, and because it's one of the few carbonated drinks on the market that doesn't make me feel nauseous.

That said, the V shot tastes pretty vile. This makes me sad because I wouldn't have minded a pocket sized burst of energy... but this is what I imagine V tastes like concentrated, before they water it down and put teh bubbles in. It tastes like some bizarre herb supplement; which is funny, since they do have the words '60ml dietary supplement' on the front.

Honestly? At $4 a pop, I'd much rather buy two 250ml cans and enjoy myself. But thanks for trying, guys.

EDIT: JFC but it sure hits you hard and fast @__@

OMGWTFBBQKEY

2009-10-13T09:38:43Z

JFC.

JFC.

OH KEY YOU SEXY THING. Haters to the goddamn left, I LOVE his new hair ARGH.

Taeyang wall art in Melbourne <3 So awesome~

2009-10-11T00:40:28Z

This video is one I took with my crappy digital camera, going up the stairs of Carpe Diem (although the sign outside says Karpe D.M I'mma go with what's scrawled on the walls). This is a little karaoke bar in Market Lane, Melbourne, which I found through a LOT of Google searching after I found some photos of the paintings on the internet.

Hattie and I are participating in the gdyb_project and we headed into the city on Friday night after work to hit up Officeworks for supplies to make our fan pages to send in and the sign we wanted to use for Taeyang's. We were also going to go and see a free performance by Transe Express which marked the opening of Melbourne's International Arts Festival, but since that didn't start until 9pm we decided to go grab some dinner first and also have a peek into Carpe Diem since we had no idea at the time what kind of a venue it was, nor whether we could easily take photos in there--which we wanted to do, for Taeyang's project.

We peeked into the karaoke bar first and kinda went *____* the bar itself is really small and totally cosy, and not many people seem to know about it since it was really quiet. The stairs just went up and up and up; first landing had the guys' toilets, second had the bar itself and third had the girls' toilets. When we came into the bar, there was a big screen playing an Inkigayo show and we got totally excited at the prospect of a bar we could hang out in, have drinks in AND watch Korean music shows in XD the girl who greeted us (who we later found out was called Sally) was really sweet, and we had a hard time tearing ourselves away from the place to go out and actually eat something.

We had dinner at White Tomato; we were drawn by the fact we could hear SHINee playing inside, and I had a nice seafood noodle dish :) after dinner we headed back up to Carpe Diem because we couldn't resist it anymore, the place just had a great, friendly atmosphere. We spent the next hour enjoying drinks and making friends with Sally and Matt (who are both Korean and I keep thinking 'Alex' when his name is 'Matt' because for some bizarre reason he makes me think of Clazziquai's Alex when they're actually nothing alike o_o; idek) and it was a blast. We were sad to leave XD

We came back the next day though~

I headed up to Hattie's about midday and we spent the afternoon watching Super Junior related things while we worked on the sign and a little bit of G-Dragon's stuff. In the evening when the sign was done we headed into the city again and took photos with some of Melbourne's cityscape. This is prolly one of my favourites:

I liked some of the ones of Hattie but I won't post them here XD

When it began to get dark we headed off to Carpe Diem again to take photos with the wall art. All those photos are on Hattie's camera though, so they'll have to wait. We ended up staying until closing time though!! Matt and Sally were just so much fun to fangirl(and boy...?) with, and a cutie called Jay turned up during the course of the evening as well. He was shy at first but after we introduced ourselves and talked a lot to him he loosened up. He stayed until closing too.

We were introduced to the owner who was apparently curious about the weird Aussie girls who knew more about Korean music than they did XD she proudly told us she'd had lots of famous people in her restaurant over the last several years, including Rain and several others I've forgotten. We left our phone numbers as she said she'd try and get in contact with the artist who painted their walls for us, which was nice~ we made friends and it was AWESOME. I might pop in and say hi again tonight.

2009 Dream Concert

2009-10-10T22:57:30Z

Mah boys looked really good, and their performance was wonderful.

But there is still a very big gap in the middle there, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

Fridays...

2009-10-08T22:02:20Z

Today is Friday.

Fridays are boring as HELL.

I might write up a post over the course of the day, one of the reviews I need to do; I wanted to do the Super Junior review (both the movie and the concert DVD) but my screencaps for both are on my computer at home. So maybe I'll do a write-up on Crows Zero since the only other one I wanted to review was Mr. Brain and I haven't watched any more of that yet.

Bad. Ass. I loved this movie, let's see how my review goes.

SHU-I, let's go!

2009-10-08T09:48:52Z

I have to write this up before I resume watching KM Idol World or I'll never get it done.

A little review--or perhaps simply my humble opinion--on the new Korean boy group, SHU-I.

L-R: Minho, Jinseok, Inseok, Changhyun and Hyungjun.

Birthdates (L-R):
Changhyun (전창현) 1988.06.09
Minho (박민호) 1989.02.01
Inseok (황인석) 1988.02.19
Hyungjun （박형준) 1989.01.26
Jinseok (박진석) 1991.01.22

Now, according to almost all sources, the layout of the group is as follows; Changhyun is Charisma, Minho is Lead Vocal, Inseok is Leader, Hyungjin is Pretty Boy and Jinseok is Dancer. I don't know if it's standard for k-pop groups to do this sort of thing, but I find that absolutely hilarious. While I was trying to find information on these boys (they don't even have a Wiki yet--gasp!) I kept coming across that list and after a while I realised they seriously meant that those were the boys' positions. After chortling for a while and shaking my head, I decided to just leave it alone and actually, you know, pay attention to the music/dancing.

When they were first mentioned on omonatheydidnt, I didn't really pay much attention. I'm actually pretty sure I was still on a G-Dragon high at that point and was also scandalised by the whole Jaebeom fiasco, so new groups were quite far from my mind. When an audio version of their debut song 'Bomb Bomb Bomb' was released I listened to it once, thought it was okay, then didn't really pay any attention to it after that. Their name supposedly stands for 'So Hot Union of Idols' which kind of made me go o__o; but I've started getting used to the cheesiness of band names in k-pop so I quickly decided to ignore it.

Occasionally, SHU-I came up in conversations I had with Hattie though, so when they finally released the MV for their song, I decided to go ahead and take a good look at them.

I'll be perfectly honest and say that at first I loled. Especially right at the beginning of the song, where they're obviously trying so hard to be gangsta. Still, instead of turning it off like I normally would after a bad first impression, I watched the rest of it; I'd already heard the song after all and knew I didn't hate it, so I wanted to give it a chance. I noticed that a lot of people commented that they appeared to be 'trying too hard' and on some parts I had to agree... not with the themes of the video, like some people seemed to think (I thought the concept of the video was pretty cool) but their dancing was a little sloppy and they seemed to be taking a big leap into trying to be edgy and cool when at some points it really didn't seem like they knew what they were doing. However I couldn't really blame any of the video's contents on the boys now, could I? The choreography wasn't created by them (I believe O_o) and the set/concept was most likely not theirs to choose either. So, putting aside all the things I couldn't pin on them, I focused on the things I could.

The dancing. The choreography wasn't dreadful but it could have looked so much better had their moves been a bit sharper and more in sync. I've been spoiled by 2PM I think; watching seven boys dance so perfectly together has ruined me for other dance groups, and watching SHU-I wounded me a bit because I felt like they probably needed to practice a bit more. The live version (one of them, anyway) was a little better, but while watching that I believe their singing suffered a bit, so I still wasn't content.

Regardless of the fact they were kinda newbish (despite the fact they've apparently been training for two years so they really had no excuse) I was morbidly curious and began to do a bit of digging. I found an adorable video in which they all introduce themselves, and a live performance they did on Sukira Kiss the Radio (the sound is out of sync though and I couldn't stop loling at how bored Leeteuk looks while they perform right behind him). They're lucky they're adorable, because that Sukira perf did not help, in my opinion; I don't know if it was because the music was way low, or because the recording was bad, but it sounds teeerrible.

Not feeling particularly optimistic about the newbie band, despite the fact that by this point their song 'Bomb Bomb Bomb' had really grown on me, I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue looking into them... until the following video was posted to Omona:

I laughed, and I laughed hard. I had been watching it very seriously right up until it got to Nickhun's part of the dance, which was about the point I went 'o_o; What are they doing--' and then I just ended up laughing. Because this is exactly what I wanted to see. I remembered again suddenly why I like most of these k-pop groups; it isn't just because of the songs, or dances, I prefer to like them for their personalities and how they interact with each other, and to watch these boys take this choreography and have fun with it made me happy. I watch all the idol shows because it gives me an insight into who these young stars are really, behind the scenes, and up until now I've gotten into bands waaaay after their debut so there's been plenty of videos for me to feast on and enjoy. Because SHU-I are so new and no one has really seen anything about them yet (aside from a couple of the members who have been involved in other projects) I found it really hard to thoroughly enjoy them.

The Again & Again video, however, gave me a tantalising glimpse into what could be an amusing little group; and like I said, I'm quite fond of their debut song. I think that once they get into it a bit more, get a bit more experience together, they might actually become something half decent. And even if they don't, they gave me a few laughs and--I have to admit--I am now rather enjoying them.

Thanks for reading~

Hahah XD

2009-10-07T22:00:14Z

The Potion Maker
no_genresium is a translucent, fine indigo powder extracted from the flower of a prickly-pear cactus.
nikki_mischiefium is a translucent, flaky amber powder extracted from the sap of a lily of the valley.
Mixing no_genresium with nikki_mischiefium causes a violent chemical reaction, producing a milky blue potion which gives the user protection from mischief.
Yet another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern

I loled.

Anyone wanna mix with me? ;D

The Potion Maker
nikki_mischiefium is a translucent, flaky amber powder extracted from the sap of a lily of the valley.
Mix with nikki_mischief! Username:
Yet another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern

PRESENTS.

2009-10-06T11:42:11Z

A huge thanks to aiturnizzle for making the awesome GD shirt for me!

You should totally check out her post about the shirts here and mebbe even buy one now that she's actually put them up for sale. I do believe she is putting shirt proceeds to the Philippines Red Cross Relief fund. It's so comfy aaah~ I love it Ai, thanks again, bb~