Category: Korean

  • Xiami Just Rolled Its Subscription-based Service

    xiami-subscription

    If you’ve (for some reason) been following this blog a while, you’d know that I’m a big fan of Xiami, the Mainland China-based music site that has never flashed me with a “this content is not available in your region” message. I’ve actually bought some tracks off of them, started way before iTunes became available in my country, and have continued with tracks that aren’t available in my iTunes store, or with overpriced albums/singles.

    It’s particularly useful for Chinese-based artists.

    In general, all tracks are priced at 0.8米 (Mi) and 1 Mi is 1 Yuan, which is about 0.16USD, which is like 1/10 of what iTunes charges. They accept Paypal as one of their paying options, which seems way simpler than paying with your credit card (I tried). And since Xiami is a community-based site, they give you points for activities. Every time you log in, you get points and once you log in for a whole uninterrupted week, they give you a red envelope which also serves to download tracks. If you log in every day for a month or a whole year, you’ll get even more for free downloads.

    Downloading tracks, adding albums, adding information (photos, lyrics, etc), participating in community discussions, and joining groups also gives you points to raise your Xiami level. Though, I still don’t know what’s that for, other than showing off and user respectability.

    (more…)

  • Guess Who’s Back- Hyori’s Back~

    Well, Hyori has earned her “Comeback” title alright- she’s been absent for… like, what? Four or three years maybe? Since her 4th bad luck album was such a bust, she’s been sort of hovering on our lives as Kpop seemed to rise and leak into the worldwide pop culture subconscious.

    Since those days, LOADS of rookie groups have debuted — all trained vocally and in dance ability, which puts them ahead of Hyori. But you know what? Who cares. Hyori is what I wanted Britney to be at some point. I wanted Brit to be well adjusted and charismatic, even if she had gradually lost her voice and, ultimately, her dance ability. One thing I never wanted her to lose was her ability to engage.

    Hyori engages with her audience. At the end of her celebratory comeback presentation, she brings back 10 Minutes, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and then she performs U-Go-Girl, with no post at ALL O_O You can hear her laugh while singing through the almost-bare and casual arrangements of the song, while she’s been squirted with water guns. And she tells them (and us) that she’s missed us. Or that’s how I’ve interpreted her bogoshippoyo.

    The water gun squirts borders on a wet t-shirt contest, but Hyori is wearing silver leggins throughout the whole show, which really surprises me — I mean, she could’ve been wearing black hot pants like her over-exposed back-up dancers, but she isn’t. She’s actually quite casual through the whole segment until the water squirting gets ridiculous and she laughs. I love that.

    Apparently the show lasted nearly 50min?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ySkD-05HpU

  • Even if I say so myself~

    I’ve got some pretty nice recommendations to share.

    yammag-amy-recommendations

  • Anna Kendrick Goes f(x)

    Fandom crossover… of sorts. Obviously, otherwise I would have known about this sooner rather than later- if I were a hardcore f(x) or Anna Kendrick fan. But the Kpop humor nearly kills me. Kkkkkkk xD

    My favorite detail about the clip, though, is when Kendrick is choreography-failing and she goes “Amber, if you could just teach me…” because you know what could happen when that happens. I see what you did there, Anna.

    I think she deserves her tag now.

  • SNSD’s Sleeping Habits

    I’m not particularly fond of Girls Generation, but I like them THEM – they’re funny. I ran into this compilation of everyone’s pointing out at each others’ sleeping habits… which, you know, they’re always interesting to find. That’s one of the reasons I strongly believe in cohabitation before marriage; it’s always good to know other people’s sleeping (and living) habits.

    My family’s habits are probably a lot closer to Taeyeon’s. My mother and I speak in our sleep — my cousin told us that there was once we were all on the same room sleeping, my mother sneezed in her sleep, I told her “bless you” and she responded with a “thank you” without ever waking up. LOL

    Then of course there’s the infamous time when I was visiting my cousin in Hawaii, and I was sleeping in her room. At that time I was surrounded by a lot of Korean friends in my daily life who would speak a lot of Korean among themselves. There was a point that it was so much Korean, that I started understanding words out of nowhere. Apparently, that night in my cousin’s house, I was speaking something unintelligible. That day I told her I had dreamed about my Korean friends. So what say you? Did I speak unintelligible Korean in my sleep?

    What language do you guys dream in?

    I usually dream in both Spanish and English — sometimes it gets wacky because friends that I would normally speak in English to start speaking Spanish in my dream. Then it all gets a little fuzzy. I’ve never had that happen backwards, though.

  • Odagiri Joe, Why So Beautiful?

    I was watching La Maison de Himiko the other day and my heart was struck once again by how beautiful Odagiri Joe is. I don’t think it translates too well in photographs, but his face on a movie screen while he’s doing his acting magic. It’s so alluring.

    Here he is in some photoshoot for Korean 1st Look.

    odagiri-joe-1st-look-003

     

  • Doona, You’re so Expressive~

    I didn’t know Doona spoke English this great, but I’m more delighted to see how expressive she is when she talks. xD

    No wonder she placed on #2 on my list three years ago, and I lvoe her even more so than I did then. If I were making that list again, she would be my #1.

  • TINY-G’s 90s Dancing

    I don’t want to say “POWERFUL!!!” because I will feel like the captioning person on Korean variety programs. However, I just stumbled upon this video of TINY-G doing the choreography of their debut [MV], which I liked more than the actual music video. For one, you can actually see what’s going on without much distractions, and you can appreciate that they’re bringing a lot of HMPH! to their dancing in the way that 90s pop music used to have women dancing in not-high-heels and stomping their feet looking that they’re dancing instead of seducing you.

    There’s still a long LONG way to go for TINY-G, and we still need to see if their management ever dares to push the girls for a super girly concept for a comeback single like they love to do in Korea — which, sadly, seems like a huge possibility from the few comments I’ve been able to read asking why these tiny girls need to wear such baggy clothing when they’re so minuscule. Apparently people have issues with baggy clothes. Is it not feminine enough?

    Would you rather see them stomping with high heels and minis, so they can eff up their kidneys… just so they can look feminine and show their slender bodies to you?

    Looking at TINY-G, it brings back memories of me rooting for Britney.

  • The Ultimate Guide to Boy Bands of the 90s

    yammag-ultimate-guide-boy-band-90s

    What started like a simple post, ended up taking a lot of hours of research and boy band video-watching. I may or not regret it.

    Voila! The Ultimate Guide to Boy Bands of the 90s ~

    There were boy bands I hadn’t even heard of… and some that I had to dust off my VHS tapes to get their names. Ha!

  • Minty TINY-G

    TINY-G’s concept is funny. Short girls, who don’t fit he Korean girl group standard of being 1.60m in height at least, are put together. They’re all 18 except for the member who is 15 (the short-haired one). And it doesn’t hurt that they’re all super cute in a non-lolita way. They wear super baggy clothing and look more like they can pull a prank on you than put a move on a guy.

    As far as Korean pop music concepts, it doesn’t hurt.

    Their latest single, MINIMANIMO [MV], is quite catchy. However, I’m most taken aback by the non-speaking member Mint, from Thailand. So she’s still learning to speak Korean (very well a commendable choice), I wouldn’t even mind at all if TINY-G ever decided to drop a whole verse in Thai just for kicks in one of their future singles.

    Having said that, I’m crazy for Mint’s hair. It looks flawless. And she seems to be the shortest one. She’s already become my bias in a group I don’t really have a bias for.