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.
So that Onew tribute video I watched yesterday – check the previous post for the link – inspired me to do a similar post about SHINee as a whole. I wrote it out at work but then I forgot to pick up the papers I wrote it on so I’m doing it off of the top of my head now. By the by, I’m not saying these are the only reasons – just some of the major ones. Well, here goes…
So have you heard of IU? Yes? That’s good. No? Then this post is for you. Mind you I’ve never written a pimp post for an artist before, particularly not for one who I only discovered about fifteen minutes ago but there’s a first time for everything, right? So here goes…
Hi! So since this is my intro post, I figure I should tell you a bit about me. My name’s Maki and I’m not really new to the blogging thing. I had a blog, abandoned it and then created one recently on Livejournal to post my fan-fiction. Anyway I’m starting to get back into the feel of blogging so I decided to create another one for my personal use so that my poor LJ friends won’t have to sort through all of my rambling to get to my stories.
Anyway, I really intend to post about whatever’s tingling my fancy at the moment (which could be just about anything). Right now, I’m getting into K-pop – I’m still a noob so if I make any mistakes, feel free to correct me and I’m turning into a total fangirl, oy! Honestly, the real reason that I created this blog – the real impetus behind me joining WordPress – is SM Entertainment’s new group, SHINee.
The SHINee boys
That’s them! Ha, they’re a Korean boy band that just debuted and fortunately, they’re receiving a lot of support (Yay!). Anyway, I’m developing a serious obsession with them – I got their album the day before yesterday and it’s been on repeat nonstop since then. I could talk your ear off about them but since this is my first post, I’ll stop here. I’ll probably say more in my next post and I really want to do a full review of their album, The SHINee World (which is amazing – I seriously suggest you check it out) but that will be for another…hour probably. edit: Read the album review HERE.
So it’s actually a duet between her and a Canadian singer named Nikki something (I don’t really know her, sorry) but it’s still very nice. They both sing, alternating verses while IU accompanies throughout on her guitar. She looked very pretty, her hair’s growing out and her outfit was very cute. As a duet, it seemed a bit awkward since the girls didn’t have that much interaction but they both sounded very good. This Nikki girl has a soulful voice and IU’s voice is a lot softer and more delicate so they balanced each other out nicely. The only thing is that IU’s accent is a bit more obvious here as she’s singing after an English speaker but she sounded so lovely, I’d hardly call it an impediment. So without further ado, I leave you with the video – if you liked it, please go to CodeMonMon’s channel and say a word of thanks for posting!
So I was going to start regularly consolidating my K-pop celeb birthday posts into digests like I did last month but I feel that this guy deserves one of his own.
Today, Donghae, on your 23rd birthday, I just wish you lots and lots of happiness. If there was anything I could wish for you right now, it would be that you could have a birthday (and subsequently a year) full of joy and good times and laughter and fun because I think that you deserve it. Not just because you’re my favourite Korean boy but because you’re a beautiful, kind, pure, loving person who always tries his darnedest as well. In addition, I hope that you’ll continue to be content and find fulfillment in the life that you’ve chosen for yourself, I hope that you’ll grow closer to God and I hope that you’ll continue to blossom into an even more amazing human being.
I love you, Lee Donghae and I wish you all the best on today, your 23rd birthday. Saranghae. ♥
I like this a lot. They’ve returned to that R&B style that I loved from them. I really feel like they did R&B so well – I mean, I like that they branched out as well but this is their forte, imo and I’m happy to see that they’ve returned to that. 😀 Can’t wait to hear the full thing! The teaser’s already on repeat.
Also, does this boy not look fantastic? I love this look on him already.
Credit for the subs goes, of course, to the magnificent soshisubs
If you’re an SNSD fan and you haven’t watched this, I’d suggest you go about rectifying that right now. This goes beyond funny – it is the actual embodiment of hilarity. I mean, when I first heard that Soshi were going to be on Intimate Note, I couldn’t figure why because I thought that they got along fine and I couldn’t imagine that they’d really have that much to talk about.
Well, I was wrong.
This is just about the craziest episode of Intimate Note that I’ve seen to date (Okay, I’ve only really watched two but whatever) – everyone goes off on everyone else and no one is safe (well, except for Tiffany because she wasn’t there). But seriously, they just went to town each other, airing all their greivances and the majority of them are silly and petty and ridicuously amusing while a few hit closer to home (feel free to ‘aww’ at the appropriate moments). TaeYeon, SooYoung, Jessica and SeoHyun really stand out here but HYOYEON is comedy gold – I knew she was funny! She cracked me up non-stop! I think in trms of variety shows, she’s really beginning to come into her own and I’m glad because hopefully, it will mean that she’ll get more notices that we will get to see more of her in the future. But anyway, they all have their moments to shine and generally this episode is just a big barrel of laughs and the MCs just make matters even worse, what with trying to generate a ‘scandal’ surrounding SooYoung and their manager, Moon HeeJun acting like a love-sick schoolboy over Taeyeon and the like.
Now if my lovely mini-review hasn’t changed your mind, you can check out my full spazzing over the actual parts themselves here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. There are actually six parts but I didn’t feel like blogging about the last two. So go watch it, you guys – you won’t regret it!
So there are a number of K-pop celebs who are September babies (comme moi!) and I just wanted to wish them all a collective bonne anniversaire! I’m just writing this off the top of my head though so it might be a little odd. If so, I apologize in advance.
NOW. No, I mean, right now – like right this very second. Just click on that little video that I’m posting down there and listen to the song. Your life will not be complete until you hear it. It’s ‘The Greatest Story All Over The World’.
Credit: iluvyesung
Sooooo I love this song – I’ve only listened to it once but I love it already because it’s so moving. Is it not moving? Are you not being moved while listening to it? If you’re not, then listen to it again and again and again until you are successfully moved. But seriously, this is such a beautiful song – Yesung’s voice is so soft and soothing here and you really do get the sense of a story being told from the way that he’s singing – this is a duet by the way, between him and Lee Sejun – and this could possibly be my favourite thing that he’s ever done ever. And that’s only enhanced by the fact that this is a Christian song and that the proceeds from the sales go to charity and I mean, you have to be able to appreciate that at least, right? Honestly I didn’t even know that Yesung was a Christian until he released this but that’s very good, you know – I am one too and you should totally look into that (yeah, you, the person reading this) if you’re not. It’s not a bad way to be, imo. But I digress – so yes, check the song out – it’s beautiful and I am going to try to see if I can buy it from mnet.com or somewhere like that because it is for charity and all.
Also I can’t not post about this a.k.a. THE BEST TEASER IN THE HISTORY OF TEASERS
Well, after watching that, I’m excited. I mean, I was excited before but this has taken my excitement to a whole other level. Everyone looks fantastic, especially Siwon – HOTNESS! – and I’m finally noticing that Zhou Mi is actually pretty hot too. (OMG, when did this happen?! I’m shocked!) Also I think their style here seems to be a mash-up of ‘Sorry, Sorry’ and ‘It’s You’ and this song appears to be the one they mentioned that would be in a similar style to ‘Sorry, Sorry’ so I’m not complaining – this should be good. So yes, if you’re not into SJ-M, I suggest you get into them like now, right now – no, right this minute! – so you’ll be able to fully appreciate this sure-to-be-epic comeback. Okay? Got it? Okay, good! ~Wo shi ni de Shupaman~
I’m off to enjoy my day now. Have a good week-end, all!
So I’m sure that you all know by now that Jaebum, the leader of 2PM has officially left the group. Sources say that he chose to resign his post – and I honestly believe that. Now I haven’t posted much about 2PM before because I’m honestly not a big fan and I don’t know these boys that well but I can’t sit here and just say nothing.
I’m going to start with f(x) since they’re the rookies here and this is our first opportunity to see them on stage together.
Credit: SmoothyEco1st
So I watched both of their performances, the MuCore one as well as this one and I have to conclude that this is definitely the better one. I guess they relaxed a little because you could see that they enjoyed this one more and their vocals were a lot better here. As far as vocals are concerned, they’re not bad – they seem to have a good foundation and I don’t sense any actually weak singers in the group so that’s a plus. If you watched their first teaser, you probably saw the ‘Asia best pop dance group’ label or whatever at the end of it and I have to say that I can see the focus on dancing here. Their choreography may look easy but it really isn’t, by any means and all of the girls seem to be fairly adept dancers, Luna in particular. Seriously, watch that girl (the one in all black in case you didn’t know) while she’s dancing and you’ll see the concentration and determination on her face – she is a serious dancer, I can see that already.
Yeah, so their dancing is pretty good – I love their choreo for ‘Lachata‘, I really do – it’s just so fun and cool-looking, I really want to learn it and I already told you that I love the song. The girls themselves seem all right on stage – they work well as a group, although you can see that they’re not fully in synch yet but that’s okay considering they’re just starting out and all. Now I know it might seem like I’m being overly critical and maybe I am but it’s just because I’m rather fond of the majority of the talent that SM produces, I think that all of their groups do very well for themselves and I expect these girls to follow suit. I just have high expectations for them, that’s all. So I am being critical but it’s just because I want to see them do well, you know, I want them to come out good and then steadily improve and so far, they’re not doing too badly in that respect.
Flavour of the week 