So my SHINee World cd finally came today – after however many months (about two) of waiting for it. Apparently it got lost so Yesasia had to reship it – but whatever, the point is my SHINee CD IS FINALLY HERE! I’M SO HAPPY! I’ve been waiting to have it in my hands for the longest while and finally it’s here and in my hands (well, not at the moment but you get the picture). I’m just really happy and relieved right now. Now I’m wondering what I should order next…methinks Remember?
And to make matters even better, Jong-Hyun’s Arirang monologue was released today (well, on YT anyway) and it was really interesting. Jonghyun was really humble here, more so than I think I’ve ever seen him and it really struck me how the very first thing he said was that he had a long way to go vocally. Because he’s already come so far – trust me, he has – and his voice is already so stunning that to hear him say that really resonated with me. He really gave this interview (because that’s basically what it is) a lot of thought and I think you can really see that when he’s going through each segment. I really feel like I saw a different side to him here – he was so quiet and soft-spoken and honest. And all he did was talk about music, I mean, no matter what he was saying, the focus was always on music and I wasn’t really surprised at that because I think that with him, more so than any of the others, you can really see how important and how influential music is in his life. It is his life, it really is and since I honestly believe that music is his true calling, hearing him say that his goal in life is to be a true musician not limited by genre or style, writing and composing his own music is good because I really think that’s what he was meant to do. And he sang – of course, he sang – and it showed me that he’s really growing or already growing, I should say because before he would just sing and sing and they would have to stop him but this time he stopped himself. And I see him stepping back and letting the others get a chance in the spotlight these days, giving everyone a chance to talk and it really says something about the kind of person he’s becoming. I’m really glad – I was afraid that fame would go to their heads or change them for the worse but I don’t see that happening here and I really hope it never does.
I’ll be honest – before, like in the Replay days and the early days of LLO around the time the first few Yunhanam episodes came out, I really didn’t know what to make of Jonghyun. I mean, I liked him well enough and I thought his voice was incredible but I couldn’t figure him out – he always seemed to be in the middle of things and he was always singing even when they didn’t ask him to and he did most of the talking in interviews and such and I was just like “what is up with this guy? I mean, Onew’s the leader so maybe he should back off a little bit and let Onew talk”. I even thought him a bit arrogant but I realize now – well, I realized awhile ago actually – but this solidified it, that that’s definitely not the case. He always seems to be in the spotlight because he just thrives on attention, he can handle it well and as a result, it was probably a bit easier for him back in their just debuted days to take the lead in interviews and so on. And as for the always singing thing, I think he really can’t help it, to be honest – like he just loves singing so much that he really just cannot help himself when it comes to singing something (or I suppose, anything). And well, if I’d still thought that he was arrogant – which of course, i discarded a long time ago – this monologue would have done away with that impression. He’s not like that at all – he’s just trying to follow his dream and become the musician he’s always wanted to be – and I can respect that because as someone who doesn’t really have a dream, watching someone else follow their passion so wholeheartedly is always inspiring. So even though I didn’t get the warm fuzzies watching Jong-Hyun’s monologue like I did while I was watching Onew’s, I still feel like I learnt a lot from it.
Oh, but my point in bringing that up was that he talked about what it was like when he first saw their cd (the mini-album) and he was talking about how it brought back the memories of all of the hardships they had to go through to get there and it made him so grateful and appreciative and hearing that on the day I received my SHINee World cd is really touching – it makes me appreciate finally having this even more and it makes me really happy I made the decision to buy it and support the boys. It was money well spent – surely. Anything I can do to help their dreams come true is all right with me.
So anyway you go watch the monologue (if you haven’t already), I’ll go listen to my cd and we’ll meet up back here later, okay?
Adios! Maki
Flavour of the week 