Category: Music

  • April Blessings~

    It’s no longer Whee-in’s birthday in S.Korea, but it still technically is here— so, Happy Birthday Wheepup! You Spongebob-laughing tripe-and-raw-liver-eating laughing machine you. I still haven’t check out the recent Bday Vapp, but bless you, Mamamoo kids.

    April started with blessings of Shiina Ringo releasing her concert DVD/Bluray Hyakkiyagyo 2015 (百鬼夜行2015) [which is the term used for onis, yokais, monsters and spirits whatevers doing a conga line through the night (LOL)]; then Gesu Kiwami are finally releasing their Daruma Ringo (達磨林檎) [which was supposed to released last year], which are set to be released in May. There were also announcements of a new BiBi album and a Mamamoo comeback.

    Mamamoo, of course, have been blessing us all year— I’ve sorta lost track of the many song releases, but I’m pretty sure it was like this: LOVE for the Goblin OST, Solar’s collab with Luna and Hani for Honey Bee, Solar’s Emotion Part 4, San E’s collab with Hwasa in I Am Me, Jungkey’s son with Whee-in Anymore, Double Trouble Couple for the Strong Woman Do Bong Soon OST, and now eSNa’s collab with Hwasa Love Comes. Bless and poor, yo!

    I’ve also just discovered DADARAY, Residente (otherwise known as the voice of Calle 13) released his new album [1]… and so did La Vida Boheme [1], Mary and the Witch’s Flower (メアリと魔女の花) LOOKS FREAKING AMAZING, I’ve been watching Sister’s Slam Dunk Season 2 and loving every minute of it, and Minzy’s made her official comeback with the release of Minzy Work 01 UNO and NINANO, as a main single.

    Last night, of course, started with Minzy’s comeback, but got so much better with the announcement that Shiina Ringo did a CM for a Luxury Mall, but the song they did expanded into a digital single called Menukidori (目抜き通り), which is set to be released on the 20th, which is the day of the mall’s inauguration [1]. And then I found out that Jambinai released a new song called Damdamhi Jeogsigona (담담히 적시고나), which translates to “slightly wet,” which features the voice of folk singer Park Min Hee (박민희) [1].

    Then I went to bed, and Mamamoo was in it. I talked (and laughed) a lot with Whee-in [this is the first time I interact, in broken English, with Mamamoo]. It was a party, and Shahrukh Khan was also there hahahahaha, so I got to shake his hand xD and then I went to talk to Hwasa, and she was telling me she was planning to come to Peru to visit Machu Picchu, so I was like- giving her tips. Sting was also there (so random!), and he had hair. HAHAHA.

    Bless my Wheesa dream, though. Wheesa’s not my bias OTP, but bless them.

  • Mayday 3DNA: I Never Forget my Promise~

    I recently bought myself a bluray copy of the Mayday 3DNA film/concert, which I didn’t love at first. But Mayday was my dad’s last favorite band, and I found that he had been carrying Mayday’s music on his phone and on a USB drive, alongside a copy of the movie; so now it just brings memories of him to me.

    I remember I re-watched the movie on his first commemorative month, and I cried a bit with the whole Lam Suet is a dad LOL but I just truly lost it with the storyline of the brother and sister. On last night’s rewatch, however, it was all tears when listening Ashin singing during the concert. Even during Liang Ai-I-N-G (戀愛ING) [MV] LOL I need the subtitles, though.

    so I’m all like~ Huh… this movie is not that bad. I still think the ending feels very forced with the stealing (WHY couldn’t they all go to the concert, yo!). But feelings nonetheless~ I miss my dad, but specially yesterday. And it wasn’t even any special day… just one of those blue ones.

  • Top50 Songs of 2016

    Here it is! My final list of 2016~

    I usually post my Top50 right after my Music Highlights, but my schedule has been all wonk this year. I know I’m very inactive on this blog, but I still hope the very few of you that still visit the site had a wonderful holiday week and that you are having a blast this New Year’s Eve. I wish for y’all’s good fortune this coming 2017 because we know we’ve had a rough 2016. Let us all recharge, and cross fingers for some very need good vibes~

    Leave y’all with the link~

  • Music Highlights of 2016!

    They’re up! It took forever to put together because I expanded the list from 10, coz I couldn’t make up my mind, to 20 (and bonuses!) LOL! The funny thing was that when I expanded the Top10, the positions changed! If that makes any sense. I had only been able to put together half the list, when some work-related business came up, so went back to it last evening and had to stay up until 6AM to be able to post today ASAP. My Top50 Songs post is still a work in progress, though~ I got enough songs (too many), so it’s just a matter of cutting down.

    Without further ado~ happy listening!

  • One reason I don’t stan boy groups~

    …

    sighs-boy-groups

    it’s like impossible for girl groups to make it.

    We’re all missing out on this amazingness~

  • V Live + Showcases and Fandom Interaction

    I’m not a social media fan, though I do spend a lot of time posting links on the YAM Magazine Twitter account. Less active on Facebook, though I regularly use my own profile. No Instagram or any other site. I’m mostly active on movie websites— still active on IMDb, because they make searching for stuff easier [year, country, language, etc. filters], still active on MUBI (and helping with profiles and database submissions), and Letterboxd coz they help keeping an orderly diary of movie-watching.

    No longer have music sites, and Living Social FB apps have long gone.

    I’ve always been reluctant in creating new profiles, new accounts, new emails and different passwords. However, my level of obsession with Mamamoo has reached such point that I finally logged in V Live with my real-life identity, and though I’ve only left like 3 or 4 comments (so far), I’m a Level 5. Each artist you follow starts with a Level 1, adding points by watching videos, leaving comments and who knows what else, but I digress~~~ I wanted to comment on V Live as a platform. I’m amazed by it. I don’t exactly know why. I’ve seen countless of web stream concerts [1][2], I’ve seen a couple of Facebook Live sessions, but somehow V Live sessions make me feel closer to artists.

    Of course, they can start a random session just like in Facebook, though FB is always a 1:1 ratio, no? There’s comments, and the artist can actually reply to your comments, which is something V Live doesn’t have since comments are live, they scroll as they keep coming just like in a YouTube stream. But YouTube streams always seem so impersonal, more like online TV broadcasts, which is actually GREAT for TV broadcasts [KBS World 24][KBS World]. Add to V Live multi-camera broadcast, HD quality, multilingual subtitles and there’s just this added something to it.

    I recently saw Brown Eyed Girls’ JeA’s Orgel Live with JOKER, a 50-min multi-camera phone shot in portrait. I didn’t watch it live, because the show began at 6AM, but the replay was available quite fast — in probably just a few couple of hours — with subtitles in English, Chinese, Viet and Korean; and available auto-translate for others like Spanish. They started reading some of the comments, I lamented not being able to say hi to JeA [this is what I’m talking about], and proceeded to perform a couple of songs, while also going through the live comments.

    Fans are also allowed to give ‘hearts.’ Though, I haven’t actually figured out how to give hearts (it’s not by clicking the heart icon, lol), I supposed it’s just pasting hearts in the comments, and that’s why users can give multi-hearts all around. Since a video can have 200k views and one million hearts. :P

    And apparently, if you have the V Live App, you can chat with your faves. I don’t have mobile, so……………….

    jea-joker-live-v-live

    If you could do this for movies, it’ll be amazing. About 8 years ago, I wrote a proposal for screening movies like this xD but I didn’t know how to go through with it. Imagine you have a screening event, fans gather online 30min. before the movie begins, they chat among them. The movie streams, and afterwards there’s an online Q&A with the cast/crew. Because videos from the Q&A and the movie to be screened are different video sources, you can only have the Q&A available for replay instead of the movie.

    See? Someone make it happen.

  • No, Seriously~ I’m Mamamoo-shaken~

    Someone, please, call 911.

    And they’re all wearing their suits. Blessed.

    After the initial hiccup with the release of the Decalcomanie MV, we’ve put that behind us (but shouldn’t really, because it’s important to talk about these things). RBW has promised to release a brand new video once Decalcomanie (all CJ+Mamamoo uploads combined) reaches 3M views. At the moment, the CJ one has 1.127M while the Mamamoo one has 211k, so do the math.

    Oh, and there’s also that one-shot M Countdown fancam.

    Moonbyul looks so happy with all those layers of clothing and actual pair of pants. lol

    I can’t wait for all the other performances, once the jitters of the first performance has gone.

  • Someone, Please, Call 911~ Mamamoo’s Coming back~

    Someone please call 911
    Tell them I just been shot down
    and the bullet’s, in my heart~

    Coming back in the Korean sense of the word, that is~ Mamamoo’s released 3 songs [sub-unit songs Dab Dab and Angel, as well as New York], and they’re back again with the release of a proper EP/Mini, despite having released their first full length this past February.

    And despite the fact that everyone was worried about the red sequin gochujang dresses, having Solar to tell us to love the gochchujang in her most recent solo VApp,to later flip tables over when Moonbyul (and Hwasa) slayed us all with their tuxes.

    Now RBW is telling us that their Decalcomanie comeback might have a Bond Girl 007-related theme?

    mamamoo-decalcomanie-001

    Everyone’s dead. Everyone.

    And the girls did another crazy VApp where Whee-In is wearing crocs and playing with a stuffed panda, Moonbyul plays with Solar’s new braid and turns her into a propeller, and Hwasa tickles Solar to release her dolphin seal laugh.

    Dead, I tell you.

  • Throwback Mamamoo with Piano Man for Kpop Awards

    I am obviously not a true Mamamoo fan, because I wasn’t aware of this performance until today. I’ve reached a point in my fandom life where a Mamamoo-related site is one of my top visited websites. I visit it three or four times a day, at least. LOL I’m shameful.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzEVl9aPQGE

    I’m also saving money for a YesAsia purchase of their Moosical DVD and/or their upcoming album/mini, and possibly other stuff- I mean, have you seen The Handmaiden? LOL

  • 1000 Days of Xiami

    I’m about to clock 1000 days on Xiami logins xD

    xiami-1000-days

    Sad for this excitement, I know. LOL But I get obsessive-compulsive over these things easily. I took a screen grab because I don’t know whether the count will reset to zero or continue. Back in March when I went to Japan, I told my friend to login for me, so I don’t lose my clocked days, and there was a weird bug that made the counter go back to zero, so we thought for a while that it was done. A couple of days later, it went back to normal :P

    I’ve been using Xiami for a lot longer, of course. And gone are the days when you could find everything on the site for stream and download :P Though you can still find stuff and download, it’s often the case when albums are empty. Recently, Xiami has taken to just be able to stream music (which is better than having blank albums), without download capabilities— Faye Wong’s most recent track is only available for stream, so you gotta find it elsewhere if you want it. The site is still a great source for Chinese music, especially from the independent scene. However, now Xiami-approved artists are allowed to mark their music as only-Mi tracks, meaning that you have to have Xiami credit on your account and not download music from your VIP free-tracks perk or use your red envelopes (points).

    Having said that~~~ I have like +500 points (you get points for single days and months counted, albums added and music shared, etc.) and haven’t used them in so long. What the heck~ What are the perks of the VIP account if you still gotta pay for the Chinese music that you download; at least make it so that you use twice or thrice the # of downloads for those.

    I still haven’t figured out what the note reputation is (eg. Re*), but I’m just a few hundred away from reaching the other level. Increasing my stars is a little trickier because English reviews don’t get as many likes or comments. lol

    Also~ OMO! 1000 days on the 10 of 10. xD