Good Ole Americana

So this is a little unusual for me but I decided to something different and recommend to you an American artist that I’m growing to be pretty fond of. She’s a new artist – new in the sense that she isn’t particularly well known as of yet in the States and she was only recently signed to a label – but she’s already released her first studio album, which I bought a few days ago – her name is Erin McCarley and her album, ‘Love Save The Empty’ is titled after one of the songs on the album.

edit: Oh, the official video for ‘Love Save The Empty’ was uploaded to Erin’s Youtube channel today and it’s also already on VH1’s Top 20 Countdown (number 18) so go vote for it, okay?

My Favourite ‘Couples’

So if you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you’ll know that couples aren’t really my thing for a number of reasons, but that doesn’t mean, of course, that I can’t appreciate when two people seem to have a really good rapport within a group or that two people are clearly very close and unabashed as to showing their affection for one another. I’m all for that – it’s cute. So in that vein, I’ve decided to do a post about my favourite ‘couples’ in various groups – because I just felt like sharing today. And if you think I’m weird and crazy after reading this, well then, okay – you’re entitled to your opinion.

So we’ll start with SHINee, right? Because well, I always start with SHINee, don’t I?

I’m (pic)spaaaaaaaming my own blog~

So remember how I said Key has like PERFECT cheekbones or something to that effect? Well, I’ve found the best picture to prove my point. etherenia, this is for you – thanks for all the comments!

Gosh, that boy's just so darn PRETTY!

Yeah, so I know I should be posting about AhMiGo but I don’t really feel like doing that right now. It’s not ’cause I don’t like the song though! I really like it, certainly heaps more than I liked LLO on first listen but I’m still processing it so I’ll be back with my analysis later. I am definitely looking forward to their performances of it though – it’s gonna be hooooot~

Maki

150 days with you…

So today is a V.I.D. in the SHINee World (V.I.D. – Very Important Day) – it’s SHINee’s 150 DAY ANNIVERSARY! Yes, that’s right – it’s officially been that many days since they debuted! But it feels longer, right? Hmm, that’s how it feels to me. Anyway I just want to say congratulations to the boys for reaching this milestone and that I hope to be with them until their 1000th day anniversary although we’ll probably stop counting by then, in days at least. They’ve come so far already – I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for us next (like their new song and MV, Ah.Mi.Go – already Number three on the M!Countdown charts and it’s not even out yet! Amazing~).

Now let me leave you with 2 pictures of the boys:

Shining SHINee just after debut

Shining SHINee now!

Oh, and to dilute the flood of Jonghyun posts I’ve been making lately, I’d like to share a lovely Onew tribute video that I got linked to from Soompi called ‘5 reasons why we love SHINee’s leader…’. Go watch it! It hits the nail on the head as far as Onew’s concerned although I think his smile should be a reason all in itself.

Going now! Have a good night!

Maki

Jonghyun has officially stolen my heart!

You know I tried so hard not to have a favourite in SHINee. Really, I did – but Jonghyun’s just so amazing and charming and suave and good-looking and cool and funny and smart and I seriously think that his voice is as close to heavenly as we’re going to get down here – for the moment. I’m sorry if that sounds a bit shallow but I’m not feeling particularly eloquent at the moment. Aish, I just like him so much! It’s such a shame we’ll never date. (I was going to put ‘meet’ but I still hold out hope. Who knows what the future holds?) Anyway, just watch this and you’ll see what I mean (about the voice at least).

credit: randy1997 on YT

Hmm, I think this song sums up my feelings towards him pretty well – focus on the chorus:

credit goes to musicfromgossipgirl

Hey SME person who I think could be reading my blog? (yeah right) Can I marry Jonghyun? Please, please, please? I promise I won’t tell anyone – really. I can keep a secret.

Ah, I’m going to go now and try to get my bearings. I’ll leave you with a picture of him – the one that set me off in the first place. credit as tagged and basmspasms on Soompi for the reupload

Hyunnie~

Good-bye,

a love-struck Maki

Sansogateun!

I just realized why I love ‘Love Like Oxygen’ so much. It’s the dance.

You see, I never paid that much attention to the Replay dance (although it still managed to impress me) and I only watched about two Replay performances while I’ve watched the LLO MV – regular and dance versions – tons of times and I’ve seen pretty much every performance they’ve done of it (only on music shows though) and I’ve really come to love it. You know I didn’t like the song on my first listen – I mean, I didn’t even listen to the whole thing – I was just like “Eew, this sounds like some kind of Michael Jackson knock-off” and closed it down and that was it, I was pretty much ready to wash my hands of them BUT THEN I was looking for the MV for my friend, who is also a big SHINee fan – bigger than me initially – and when I found it, I figured “Hey, I might as well watch it – I mean, it was their dancing that impressed me in the first place so maybe they’ll have a cool dance in this video too”. AND THEY DID!

That seriously simplistic video – made up of just them dancing and some very nice close-ups – is what renewed my interest in SHINee and that was why I ended up watching their ‘comeback’ performance on Inkigayo of SHINee World and LLO and THAT was what really impressed me. That performance was incredible and it put SHINee back on my radar in a big way. You see, that’s what I love about them – they’re performers and really good ones at that – and they’re only going to get better. It’s a very nice thought.

So because I loved the video, I kept watching it over and over and over and eventually the song grew on me too. I mean, it took some time but I came around and I’m glad I did. Otherwise I would have missed out on some really great performances – and a hilarious reality show and kind of getting to know five amazing boys so I can understand if SHINee’s not your cup of tea but I think you should at least give them a chance if you haven’t already.

Love Like Oxygen MV – Regular version, Dance version and the first performance (including SHINee World)

Ah, I love these boys too much! Adios,

Maki

SHINee Request!

Hi all you banner makers out there…yeah, I don’t care how lame and pathetic this makes me sound but I really want a SHINee banner for my Soompi signature. My signature is currently non-existent and I would really love it if I could get a nice banner of my boys to put there. Then I could write the names of the groups I follow underneath it and my sig would be all cool and pimped out like everybody else’s. So any graphics makers out there willing to make one for me?

I’d dedicate a post to you – and love you forever. ^_^

Maki

I can’t keep up…

You know it isn’t exactly easy staying on top of things in a K-pop fandom. I mean, if your artists are out promoting, it means that there are new performances and pictures and videos showing up almost every day and I seriously cannot keep up with all of this stuff. I checked the SHINee thread on Soompi around midday today after leaving it early last night and it had already grown by two pages, one of which was practically just pictures. And it seems like there’s a new WG performance every day -and while I like ‘Nobody’ and I think their performances are very good, I don’t think I’ll be watching all of them, like I do with SHINee’s LLO ones – I only watched about five and I’m kind of getting sick of it. Sorry, WG – trust me, I’m still supporting you!

You know the problem with having a bias is that sometimes I can’t tell if I genuinely dislike something or if it’s just a gut rejection. For example, I finally saw U-Kiss’ Not Young MV today and I won’t lie – I sort of went into it hoping to dislike it – that’s horrible, I know but it’s true – but it wasn’t bad. I won’t compare them to my lovelies because I don’t like when people do that but I will say that the one thing that SM did with SHINee that I think they should have done with U-Kiss is play up the young angle. I mean, they’re young – we know they’re young and I’m sorry but some of the members of U-Kiss have the biggest baby faces on the planet so it’s very difficult for me to take them seriously while watching them sing ‘I’m not young, I’m a grown man’. Yeah, I’m not buying it – that said, the song wasn’t bad, the MV was kind of blah – I don’t particularly care for Soulja Boy and since they incorporated some of his moves I wasn’t too impressed but the lead(?) singer or the one who sang the most in that song anyway – you know the one with the curly hair, yeah, him – he has a very nice voice, it’s very soothing and pretty . I’m not feeling the rap though but they’re not too bad, I guess. Oh, and I’m listening to their cover of BSB’s ‘As Long As You Love Me’ and it’s not bad – their english is actually very good.

I still have to watch SHINee’s performance clips from the Asia Song Festival but the few I saw looked pretty good. No surprise there though – I’ve never really seen them deliver a bad performance and this is me speaking totally unbiasedly. Now I’ll leave you with a picture from there. Enjoy it, okay?

SHINee at the 2008 ASF

Adios, Maki.

Double WG Post

Ok, so I haven’t got a lot of time and as such, I’m condensing these two very important things into one post. First off, I just want to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to the Wonder Girls for winning Number one with ‘Nobody’ on the K-chart after only one week. You go girls! Show all those naysayers they were wrong! In case you were wondering, they beat out Big Bang and Brown Eyed Girls for the top spot.

In addition to that, since it’s probably already the 4th in Korea, I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favourite female rapper, Ms. Kim Yoo Bin! Whoo, happy 20th/21st! I hope you continue to grow as a person and an entertainer and that you enjoy your success and hopefully get some rest on your special day. May God continue to bless you richly, YooBin unnie! Finally, someone’s older than me!

I’ll leave you with a picture of the birthday girl:

Happy Birthday Binnie!

Maki

SHINee Yunhanam Episode 10

So I just finished watching Episode 10 of SHINee’s Yunhanam and…I don’t really know what to say. It was funny – but in a weird way. And I know that all of the stuff that the noona did – which I won’t mention because you really need to see it – was probably totally scripted/fake and the whole point of this episode was to garner laughs but I couldn’t help feeling weirded out all the same. I mean, they didn’t need to make it funny – it was already hilarious. That said, there were some cute moments, a good bit of Onew sangtae (Condition) and um, the boys were very good-natured about the whole thing. I briefly wondered if they knew what was supposed to happen but I don’t think so – they’re not very good at masking their feelings and their facial expressions throughout this whole episode were pretty telling. People said that Key seemed upset throughout this eppie but I didn’t see it – he seemed his usual good-natured self to me, if a little quieter than usual. Anyway, I know that there are people who will watch this and laugh and others who will be annoyed and I guess I’m stuck somewhere in the middle. I’m just weirded out – Episode 10 definitely didn’t meet my expectations. *sigh* In a way, it was even more disappointing than Episode 6 was. Maybe I should stop looking forward to it so much…

Bye!