Drama: Meow The Secret Boy Genre: rom com fantasy Starring: Kim Myung Soo, Shin Ye Un, Seo Ji Hoon, Kang Hoon Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
Another perfect fluff (literally) drama for these hard times. LOL.
So, our guy is a cat. But he can turn into a human when he's near our girl. So he does. And he lives with her. As both cat and human. Meanwhile, the guy who owns the cafe across the street who once liked her but rejected her decides he likes her again. But now has to compete with the cat.
But dang this is a cute cat!
So how long does it take our girl figure out the guy and the cat are the same? Um... awhile. She thinks he is the landlord's son, who she expects to be also living there. So he, the cat, just lets her believe that.
It's a very simple story, with no "bad guys." I like it when we don't have a terrible antagonist to worry about you know. I mean there is one dude who is... weird and scary. A little.
It does have the theme of abandonment, so even in it's simplicity and fluffiness, it's still giving a message and making us think. I also love that.
Mostly this whole drama I was worried about how they could end it happily ever after. Which I knew had to happen given the nature of the thing. And yes, I was left a bit unsatisfied with their solution to this. But it was okay.
Anyway, that's not why I watched it... I watched it for the cuteness. Of both the story and the characters (and actors.) Our kitty is played by Kim Myungsoo also known as L from the band Infinite. He's adorable.
So, we had a blast watching this one and giggled a lot! So much fun!
Here's a quick little trailer:
And this beautiful song from the drama song by our very own Kihyun from Monsta X. YES!
A few weeks ago, we had pretty much the most craziest kpop adventure yet! Nearly four years of doing this, and this one topped them all in the CRAZY department!
Earlier this year when we found out Monsta X would be at the iHeartRadio Musical Festival in Las Vegas, we thought.. that's like RIGHT HERE (lol it's only 6 hours instead of 9 hours away!) and so we HAVE to support!
Also, it wasn't that expensive for a ticket, so we were like, what the heck.. and bought tickets. Kathy (who you will know here from Read This Instead from back in the day) and I planned to drive together, and pick up Toto at her school on the way.
So that's what we did! And the adventures began!
First adventure was starting out in a pouring rain storm, but that was not bad and quite nice actually, and didn't last long. All was well.
Next adventure was arriving in the dark in Las Vegas, which wasn't too bad either, but always a bit edge of your seat-ish. We stayed at the Stratosphere, a first for me and so that was exciting. We got discounts on the elevator ride to go up the tower, so that became our adventure of the night, it was a good one. We saw the scary rides up there at the top and people bungee jumping. So crazy!
Then the adventure became trying to find ice cream, which we ended up getting just at the McDonalds at the casino. Ha. But it was ice cream and tasted pretty good.
During the night we were all woken up by some sort of siren or alarm. Kathy thought it was inside. I thought it was out, but regardless... it woke us all up... and then we realized the power was out. Kathy called the front desk and they said, yep. We don't know what's going on, but it's out. The water too.
We were like, SERIOUSLY??? But I figured it would be back on by the time we really got up. We had about 2 more hours of trying to sleep, but when we woke up... it was still out. It appeared we still had water though, however, we were scared that it would suddenly shut down on us. So we took modified showers... by the light of our phones... and then we got out of there!
When we checked out the hotel gave us the room for free, and complimentary breakfast buffet coupons. So... awesome! We ate breakfast, then headed to the concert.
It was the day stage, which we had learned lasted much longer than we thought. It was scheduled to go from 11 am to like 6 pm. And we learned our boys would perform at 3:15 pm. one of the last ones on the list. So the debate was... do we go early enough to get close, or do we not stress about it?
Well... of course we wanted to be close! I mean, after all the effort it takes to get there, you want to be able to actually SEE them, you know!!
But we didn't go and stand in the line at the gate, we just went and got in about the time the gates opened, which was at 10:00 am. and piled in with the crowd and just went straight to find a spot at the stage.
Turns out our spot wasn't bad at all. So we were happy. And as each band performed, things would shift and we ended up closer.. .and closer... and closer.
our view at the beginning for one of the first bands
But... we had to last the extreme endurance test now. It was 90 (or more, not even sure) degrees... with the sun beating down on us. So we had to stand there... from 10:00 am until 3:15 pm... waiting for the moment we had come for. So we stood for an hour before anything even started, and then after that, we at least had bands to watch....that would help, right?
We had one water bottle each, so we played the drinking game, where we all got a sip from our bottle after each band. We had to make it last the whole five hours, and try not to pass out from dehydration, which lots of people were doing actually. They did pass us water a bit, but it was quite the scramble to get your hands on one. We did each end up with one, and so then we felt good passing them on to others after that. They really did try to make sure we all didn't faint.
I had brought a little paper hand fan, and that thing saved me I'm pretty sure. Seriously. It was BAD. There were several moments about half way that each of us thought... how are we going to make it??? Like it was so hard, and truly an endurance test!
The things we do!! It's so crazy!!!
Anyway, the bands that came on before.. some where okay, and fairly enjoyable to listen to, and others.... not so much. And there was a spell there in the middle where i thought we would all fall asleep on the spot. Ugh. It was LONG... LONG LONG LONG to wait!! And all that time, you have to be very aggressive to keep your spot, and not let tons of people push in front of you. It was so painful to maintain the spot... really. This is almost the worst part of it all.
And then finally it was almost our turn, and suddenly I realize two people had come up behind me, each with HUGE cameras (which are not allowed) and I was so mad... like HOW DID THEY GET THEM PAST SECURITY??? And they just put them in your face and couldn't care how they are blocking your view! Or banging your head with it or whatever.
And they tapped me on the shoulder and were pointing up ahead (acting like they didn't speak English) and basically asking to go closer and get to the front. I was like... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? No FREAKING way!
But I calmly shook my head and simply said.. no. you are not getting in front o me. No, you can not just show up, after I've stood here for five hours, an expect to get to the front. No, no and no. They looked at me like I was the worst person in the world. And if I was, I sure didn't care. No way was I going to let them get closer. I couldn't believe they'd managed to push their way as far as they did. I guess they really intimidate people with those cameras.
So Kathy asked them.. are you guys fansites? And they were all, yeah... so proud of themselves. And Kathy asked, which one? So one of them revealed herself, so we could look her up later. The other we figured out who it was on our own later.
Anyway, so fansites are people who dedicate their lives to one member of a particular group. Basically, a stalker fan/groupie, who follows them everywhere (including on the plane they are on, and hotels they are in,etc.) to get pictures. They sale stuff and make money somehow, to support the endeavor. People, other fans, love them because they get all these awesome amazing HD pictures with those huge illegal cameras. But I have never supported them (that I know of) and can't stand seeing them at events, because they break all the rules and feel so entitled just because they have thousands of followers and because the boys actually know them. Ugh... so annoying.
So, it's about to start finally, and I have this to deal with. I was so mad. SO MAD! So when they came out and started singing I (and Kathy too I know) made ourselves as annoying as possible, making sure our hands, and arms and elbows and phones got in their way a lot. Geez. It's a ruthless game! After awhile, I did forget about them, because I needed to enjoy the show, you know?
But i was getting banged on the head constantly, and the one was still trying to push closer. And then at one point there was a HUGE surge and someone barreled into me and I was like WHAT THE HECK.. NO!!! And it appears that they had really pushed to the point several of us went flying. RIGHT WHEN MY FAVORITE SONG WAS STARTING! (And yes it's all on camera, because i was ready to film that song!)
Anyway... we survived it and regrouped and watched the song and screamed for the boys and loved (lol) every second of those 15 minutes (and 5 songs) they were on stage! Every single precious second!
Our view at the end. The person with the paper never gave up and held it the WHOLE time.
Shownu throwing water on us
Minhyuk and his out of control tongue
Wonho looking fine
Jooheon with his dimples out (you might not see them, but I know they are there!)
After they were done, (the fansites had suddenly disappeared) we had to make our way out of that pit. It was another adventure to be sure. We had to push and shove and squeeze through so so many sweaty stinky slimy slick people! I thought it would never end! They were surging forward to get better spots for Billie, and we, all the MX people, were surging back to get out. It does not work well!!
Pre endurance test (with new MX friend Liz)
Post endurance test
Whew, but we made it out, and then went to find water and to just breathe. We found Emily (internet kpop book friend) to say hi to, and just sat and talked for a bit, before Billie came on. At which point, we went back to the BACK of the crowd to enjoy her!
Seriously though. It was the craziest mosh pit experience yet!
And the most interesting thing about it is that we were not in a crowd of kpoppers. This was a mixed crowd, so it was very interesting to see the reception people gave our boys. Of course, we had lots of MX fans with us, but also lots of Billie and other fans. They were blown away by our craziness I know, but I don't know if they fell in love with our boys. I watch them and think, how can you not? They are amazing. But then, I think many people watched them and thought... what's the big deal? Sigh. It was really interesting to experience that too.
We left and went and got food and drank so much soda until we all felt hydrated again. And then we found our second night's hotel, and just had the most relaxing evening ever! Ah, that was probably the best shower I've had in a long long time! LOL!
Then we drove home the next day, and that was the end of our adventure... except for all the looking up of the fansites and seeing how they moaned about the mean racist people who wouldn't let them go in front of them... and then we debated about revealing ourselves, which we eventually did and bam... they up and deleted their posts! LOL! Well, so we got some Twitter attention for a minute about that. And vented all kinds of righteous anger. But in the end, the fansites will still get tons of love and money from their followers and lots of attention from the boys who benefit by their pictures too. (Though I do think the boys aren't too fond of the stalker behavior, yeah?)
Anyway. Yes, the most crazy thing we've done yet. I need a break.
(But only two weeks later and I've bought tickets for the next concert... but NO MOSH PIT!)
Anyway, here is everything caught on video. The sound is bad because the bass was so intense our phones totally freaked out. I've been to a lot of concerts and this was the most intense bass I've ever experienced. It was extremely painful. So add that the endurance test! Also, Toto's phone can't handle screaming, so that's a problem.
It was also sad because the boys had a ton of technical difficulties. And we learned they basically got into a fight with staff before they came on stage. So what you see here is them performing but being mad. Ugh... but they seemed to shake it off and do well in the end. They are amazing. Really and truly.
Everyone says, but... was it worth it? To that I say... YEP!
Book: Stories for Children by Oscar Wilde, Illustrated by P.J. Lynch Genre: children's illustrated short stories Rating: ★ ★ ★
I picked up this one to read because we are doing The Happy Prince for the Kpop bookclub this time around and I found it in this compilation and decided to just read all the stories here, because it will also fulfill another category on the book challenge I'm doing!
This particular edition included six stories. Here's a summary of each:
The Selfish Giant: A giant gets bugged when he discovers children playing in his garden, so he bans them from coming. But then his garden is cursed with winter until he realizes why and has the kids come back. One particular kid catches his eye...
The Nightingale and the Rose: A young boy wants to give something to a girl to make her fall in love with him. The nightingale learns of this plight and sacrifices himself to create the perfect rose, but the boy takes no heed and all is in vain.
The Devoted Friend: A miller has a very warped definition of friendship and works his "friend" to literal death.
The Happy Prince: A statue of a the prince notices the suffering people in his kingdom and he gives everything he has, with the help of his sparrow friend, to ease their suffering.
The Remarkable Rocket: A firework, intended for the celebration of the marriage of the prince and princess, decides to start bragging about how wonderful he is and ends up exploding in a very unremarkable way.
The Young King: A pauper turned king has three dreams on the eve of his coronation which makes him decide he does not want to be a pompous king and he refuses to wear the riches prepared for his coronation.
Basically, every single story is extremely depressing! Except maybe the Selfish Giant which still ends in death. Yeah. Every story is also quite sarcastic and expresses the author's feelings (I'm assuming they are his feelings) in quite an unsubtle way. Of course, most of this would go over a kids head, so I was baffled they are considered "for children." They are pretty morbid for children too! More like parables for adults here! They did feel like twisted Bible stories in a way.
Anyway, still I learned lessons. Things like: be a true friend, don't be selfish, don't be a braggart, help the poor people, don't be prideful, give of yourself, know the true meaning of love. Etc. :) Also, I know I was supposed to pay attention to the illustrations, and they were okay, but they didn't really stand out to me.
I.M aka Im Changkyun of Monsta X
We read this one because recently I.M (aka. Im Changkyun) from Monsta X read The Happy Prince for an audiobook production. I found it on Youtube and thoroughly enjoyed listening to him read it to me! He knows English well, but has some interesting pronunciations for some words which made me smile and was so very cute. Here it is if you are interested. I know he did a Korean version too, which I would love to listen to. But I haven't found it yet.
We are also reading The Little Prince for this bookclub this time around, so look for that to come later!
A week before KCON was the Monsta X concert! So we flew there for that... came and went... and then a few days later we drove back for KCON. Yeah, it was a crazy couple of weeks. BUT, the Monsta X concert!
The only group now that I've seen twice. (Not counting like the few songs we saw of Seventeen at both KCONs now... I guess I've seen them twice now, but not full concerts.) So you could say this group is one of my favorites if not my favorite!
We had a struggle getting tickets for this one and ended up in the wrong place so even though we got the tickets, we didn't get the ones we wanted which meant we ended up with seats quite far back. Sadness.
So while that was a true disappointment to deal with it when it come right down to the day, it was still an amazing awesome concert and seeing these amazing awesome guys is just... AMAZING! LOL! And it was so fun to see the change in them over the year. Last time they were cool and had a great stage presences... but this time that was ratcheted up several notches. Their ease on stage and ability to work the crowd was EVEN BETTER than last time.
Also last time, they had an interpreter and hardly spoke any English except for I.M who knows it quite well. THIS TIME, they all spoke English very confidently and it was awesome. I love seeing them trying to learn to hard just so they can communicate better with us. They all said their ending comments in English (we are so sad to not have captured on video both I.M's and Minhyuk's thoughts) except for Jooheon who had something so important to say he wanted to make sure and say it right, and then he brought us all to tears with his words. Gah. They killed us in the end there!
They cracked down on video taking this year, but we still snuck in a bit. However, for the most part, we just put the phones away and enjoyed. But here's our vlog of the experience and a few pictures:
One of the best things about concerts is meeting up with people we've befriended from other events or talked to online, and meeting new friends, and finding people who love our channel! It's so fun! Dang but I wish that LA was closer. Or that kpop groups would decide that oh, lets say, Salt Lake, would be a great city to try! :)
Everyone is SO EXCITED because J-Hope from BTS has finally announced the date he will release his mixtape. March 2. The world will never be the same again!!
Wooshin
Honey10s (fans of Up10tion) are sad because we all thought Wooshin was coming back to re-join the group. Man they made a lot of hints, but it looks like it was just wishful thinking so far. But please, let him come back soon.
Monsta X announced they'll be going on a world tour again, but no LA dates have been listed yet. Our dilemma... do we get to have second helping of Monsta X? I would love to!
Super Junior has still not announced an official date for their tours in the US. It's killing us. I'm not sure what's happening. But they have been working a ton on their TV show, which I have yet to figure out how to watch, but we are seeing a bunch of fun clips now and then.
Hyuk (from VIXX), for his graduation present to us his fans, released a dance cover. Dang, that boy is growing up!
We continued to fall in love with qpop group Ninety One and the day is not complete unless their songs have been played. We discovered all their instagrams and get fed often with their cute faces there.(I can't find that clip, but here's one of them just being them for you to see what I mean.) After Korean, we'll all be learning Kazakh next. Wait for it.
SHINee had their concerts in Japan and sang without Jonghyun for the first time. I will never forget this image. Even if you aren't into kpop and don't know these guys at all, you have to admit this is a very moving image. Yes?
One space in the middle left for empty for Jonghyun.
But even through the sadness of this, the remaining four look like they are surviving, yes?
On our channel we reacted to many things this week, but here's a very short compilation we did of five kpop songs that feature whistling. You might really quite enjoy it. And it's only two minutes!!
Are you watching the closing ceremonies for the Olympics tonight? We are really hoping to see EXO on there! Let me know if you see them and what you think!! :)
I guess that's it for this week! The kpop life continues to be full and happy and wonderful!
Well. SO MUCH IS GOING ON in the world of KPOP! And I haven't kept up on my idea to do these weekly/biweely posts, and so I'm going to touch on some of the highlights of the past while.
BTS COMEBACK
While I was on the trip, BTS had a new album come out. It's called LOVE YOURSELF "HER" and it has some really fun songs on it. DNA is the title track and I love it, but I especially love Mic Drop. Here it is:
Speaking of BTS, they arrived in LA today and they are going to be on like a bunch of talk shows here in the US (James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen so far) and then perform at the AMAs on Sunday. WATCH THEM! YOU WILL BE BLOWN AWAY! They will perform DNA at the award show we've been told.
Anyway, this is huge for them and I hope America loves them and is nice to them and I hope they aren't corrupted by America. I hope it all goes well.
SUPER JUNIOR COMEBACK
Our favorite boys, the ones that started this whole obsession, also had a new album come out last week. They look and sound amazing. Even though they are all "old" now, they still have what it takes! Here's what they look like doing their title song from their album: Black Suit:
As part of their comeback, they've been having a daily "behind the scenes" show be aired that let's have a glimpse of what it's been like for them getting this album ready. I love seeing all their personalities come out during this kind of thing. It's been so fun to fall for them all over again.
OTHER COMEBACKS
Many of our other favorite groups have also had new albums come out this past week too. Monsta X, Block B, SEVENTEEN, Astro and Wanna One.... to name a few. All their new songs are so much fun! We can't get enough of them. And just yesterday, Monsta X won their first award! YES! They cried! It was awesome!
THE CHANNEL
Our Youtube channel has partnered with one of the biggest Korean entertainment companies (the one that puts on KCON, among many other things!) which means for us that we get some perks (hopefully) should we ever visit Korea, and we get some other opportunities that we otherwise wouldn't. It's been a scary thing, but we hope it's a good one in the end. Mostly we hope that when KCON rolls around again, we get to be more a part of the festivities on the front lines as we saw many other Youtubers doing last year. We'll see I guess.
Well, as I said... them's the highlights! So much is going on. It's so crazy. I just am constantly blown away by this music, this fandom, this industry... everything about it. Wow. It's a blast
So it's been two weeks. And we are still thinking about it. Seeing Monsta X live. Guys. It was awesome.
We (Toto and I) arrived on Friday evening, after a tiny little plane ride, and met up with Megs at the airport. In the shuttle ride to the hotel, we discovered the other passenger was also there for Monsta X! Instant bonding!!
That evening we walked to a local hamburger joint and that was interesting, but at least we weren't hungry anymore. Then we spent the evening signing the backs of Monsta X pictures that we had printed and planned to pass out at the concert. We had a blast just doing that!
The next day we spent the day exploring LA. First we found a laundromat where the kpop group SEVENTEEN filmed a music video. I thought Toto would die of excitement just being at that laundromat! LOL! Then we spent money at our favorite kpop music store, Choice Music. Those guys there are awesome! Then we headed to Santa Monica to hang out and people watch. We thought maybe the Monsta X guys would be there (because in the past for both SHINee and BTS, the band went to Santa Monica the day before the concert!) but after we got there we learned they had just landed at the airport. Oh, well. It was fun to walk around and see the street performers and get pizza.
Soon, we got tired and went back to the hotel to hang out and do some reactions for the channel together.
You can see all that in this video if you want the visual!
We heard that people were already lined for the concert on Saturday, but we didn't arrive until the next morning at about 10:00 am. And yes the line was already huge. So we joined the party where we stayed for the next ten hours! We spent the time making friends with everyone, interviewing for the channel, passing out the pictures and basically having a ton of fun. We lucked out and ended up in the shade much of the day, so yay for that. I think I might have died otherwise. It was hot!!
Because of our ticket status, we were able to bypass much of the line and get ahead of most of the other GA people Yay for that too! And finally, they let us in! We ended up with a pretty good spot in the pit on the floor, where we stood for the next nearly hour before the concert actually started. That was the hardest part of the whole day.
But finally it started! And for two and a half hours, we totally forgot about hot, and standing and hungry. Just sang and danced and laughed and screamed. A lot! They were so awesome. So totally lived up to the expectation. We loved every minute.
Afterwards, those of us with the high touch (getting to high five the band afterwards) were lined up in this big huge line where we waited again, but not for long. Pretty soon that line was moving and before we knew it, it was our turn to file past the boys and high five them! It was so fast! And so frustrating. But also so worth it! It was basically an opportunity to just see them up close, grab their hand for a split second and say thank you. Ah. Yeah. We did that.
Back at the hotel, it took us two more hours (until 2:00 am) to calm down and go to sleep. And then the next morning we headed back to the airport... waited again for a long time... and finally got home! And then we thought about the concert and relived it for days.
Here's the video we made of the concert and the high touch (well, audio of the high touch) and at the end, you'll see a lovely slide show of the awesome still shots. Guys, we were so close!
And if you are interested in the fun interviews of fellow fans, here's that video:
So yeah. These guys. They are for sure one of our favorites. I hope we can see them again sometime!
Up next for our kpop adventure: KCON... we'll be heading back to LA in two weeks! AH!!!!
Well, I really didn't plan on doing one of these kpop news posts EVERY week, but since this past week was just as much, or even more so, crazy as the week before, I figured... why not.
The biggest things that happened this past week revolved around Super Junior. We fell in love with them last January 2016... and promptly discovered that several of their guys were currently in the military. Seriously? Yes.. and so we realized that we had to wait for more than a year to see them doing their Super Junior thing. Which actually gave us plenty of time to catch up on all the stuff we'd missed!
And so, finally, this past week, two of our very most favorites were released from their service and are back in the "idol" spotlight once again! Eunhyuk and Donghae are back! And these two guys are like the best of best friends and have their own little duet sub unit of Super Junior, so it's just so awesome that they both got done within the same week.
(This is what Yesung, also from Super Junior, posted on his Instagram the day Eunhyuk was released. The guy in the gray shirt below is Donghae, who has two days until his release at the moment this was taken.)
But the very best thing about this is the very next day... KCON announced that the two of them will be coming to KCON LA in August! Guys. I can't even explain how flipped out we were over this. All our thoughts of "should we or shouldn't we" about KCON totally went out the window. We HAD to go now. Like, HAD to.
(If they do this song and we have this view, we will be very happy indeed.)
And the, VERY NEXT DAY after that, the tickets went on sale. We opened all the tabs and were totally prepared with what we wanted when the counter counted down. And then for 45 FREAKING MINUTES we waited for tickets to become available. It never let us select a price level, so we were just trying for whatever popped up. And nothing did. Over and over and over again. After 45 minutes, we gave up. Then my husband (who is always on board to help enable this ticketing buying thing!) called me back and said.. so I just got floor tickets... do you want them? Of course I said yes and we bought three tickets. General admission... in the pit... on the floor!!
Now, I'm okay standing up the whole time. I'm okay with bumping elbows with the crowd... but what I'm nervous about is the fact that the line for GA tickets starts in the morning, which means standing in line all day and then not being able to do anything else at KCON at all. This is what I have a problem with. So I'm not sure how this will all work. You'll have to stay tuned for the end of the story in about a month! (Most likely we'll not be very close to the stage and will have a hard time actually seeing them!! Ah...dang it!)
Meanwhile, fanwars between BTS fans and pretty much everyone else continue to happen over on Twitter. Getting on Twitter these days is a very risky thing if you are following kpop stuff at all. We are trying to stay out of things, but it's so crazy that it's hard to do! And yes, we are BTS fans, but...we totally hate the fanwars and the idea that many have that in order to be a true fan you can only like one group and etc. Seriously, this fandam is the craziest thing I've ever seen. That's including all the fandoms I've experienced at Comic Con and other places. This takes the cake.
Yes, my feelings exactly.
Oh, and then we've been planning for our upcoming Monsta X adventure. That's this weekend. I'm so nervous!!!! Sadly, I think Hyungwon is still sick and won't be with them. This kills me. And I didn't know I wanted to see him so bad until they said he won't be there. And now...um.. yes, I want to see him. And we have GA tickets for this concert too, so yeah. We'll be filming and instagraming like crazy as we sit in line all day long...so be sure to come and keep us company at all the social media places.
(Here is a brand new fancam of Monsta X at their concert just last night in Atlanta. If we get this view, I might just die. But our luck is NEVER this good!)
Hyungwon... who has some sort of weird infectious disease and hasn't been touring with them. I'm so sad.
Anyway, that's about it for the big stuff this past week. It feels like we haven't had a fun intense comeback from anyone for a long time! But, that will change tomorrow when EXO has a comeback. Check out the channel for our reaction to that!!
Guys, so much happened in the kpop world this week. I feel the need to share and maybe vent a little even.
First, BTS ended their months long world tour and said they were off to "rest." Well, so, the VERY NEXT DAY they uploaded a cover song, and revealed a new logo and even want us English speaking fans to call them by a new name. WHAT? Ah, these guys never let us breathe!
We reacted to the new song here. It was a bit of a depressing one to me:
And here's the new logo and name. Maybe we'll understand more about what's behind this as time goes by:
And now they are talking about a comeback. I find that term funny when they've not gone anywhere really and having been feeding us nonstop all year. Ha. Comeback. LOL.
Let's see, yesterday Sungmin, from Super Junior, got on Instagram and announced that due to unhappiness in the fandom about how he handled his marriage three years ago, he had decided to not join the group in their comeback this fall. (Now THIS is a true comeback.. nothing from these guys for two years!) Oh man. This really KILLED me and we (Megs and I) took to Twitter and vented our hearts out. We don't get how a bunch of stupid fans can have such power over these guys. Anyway. we are going to miss him in a big big way.
In other news, we had a pretty impressive giveaway on our channel to celebrate 10,000 subscribers. Today we've had fun with an announcement video... here's the results:
We fell in love with a new group called Day6 because one of their guys is HILLARIOUS on Twitter. His name is Jae and you can check out his tweets here. And this is one of our favorite songs of theirs. Jae is the blond one in glasses.
KCON in LA is happening Aug. 18-20. We hope to go. Tickets go on sale next week. Groups are being announced and we are DYING at the thought of seeing them:
VIXX
SEVENTEEN
NCT 127
SF9
GIRLS DAY
KARD
COSMIC GIRLS
WANNA ONE
HEIZE
I can't believe I might actually get to see VIXX now too. First SHINee, then BTS... then Monsta X in a couple of weeks and now maybe VIXX? Seriously. I really might die. I will do a more detailed VIXX post later, but first, watch this to meet them:
Okay. What else happened. This isn't kpop but kdrama, but guess who's getting married? The two costars of Descendants of the Sun. (read my review here.) I love it when costars fall in love! And then.. they are actually getting married! It's the best thing ever! They are so freaking cute!
Um.... oh yeah! Up10tion went to KCON NY and SLAYED it! They are such a newbie group that it was their first time traveling out of Asia and they got to come to NY and perform at KCON and everyone fell in love with them! We knew they would. We had already fallen, but now, everyone else knows about their awesomeness. Here's their new song that we absolutely love:
Sadly, they too had to have their comeback without one of their members who is taking a mental health leave. Yeah he was harassed by "fans" too awhile back. I just...it's insane...
Anyway, Toto instantly learned their dance and uploaded it too:
Okay, I'm pretty sure more stuff happened, but I'll leave it at that for now.
Ah. Seriously. There is never a dull moment with this fandom.
In a couple of weeks we'll be heading back to LA for our third kpop concert experience. This time we'll be experiencing the group called MONSTA X! Guys. I'm so excited my stomach hurts! But since they are coming up soon, I figured it was also their turn to get highlighted here on the blog.
This group sort of appeared out of nowhere for me last summer. I was just opening up to exploring the whole black hole of kpop music, allowing myself to listen to other groups besides Super Junior. I'd embraced a few others by then and suddenly, this group appears. From the very moment I saw that very first video I was entranced.
The first video I saw from Monsta X. This song is called Hero.
Then they went to KconLA in July and though we didn't get to go to the event, we had fun streaming it and watching it at our house. But when it was Monsta X's turn, the stream failed. I thought I would die of frustration. It hit me then.... this group was turning into more than just another group to check out. I was invested. I had fallen. It was over.
Then one day I happened to be watching V-Live (an app where these kpop stars log in and talk to fans in real time) and Minhyuk was on. And I was mesmerized by his soft spoken voice, his humbleness, his realness. And how he could so easily just talk to us like everything was totally normal. I fell again.
The are a fairly new group, debuting in 2015, and starting to become noticed last year in 2016. (They actually performed at the my exchange daughter's school in Busan before they debuted. She told us..."they were THIS FAR AWAY" and she indicated only a half a room's length. Ah! Lucky her!!!)
So, who are these guys? Here we go:
Shownu is the oldest and the leader. When I watched them at Kcon last summer (when the stream finally started working again) he was the one that stood out. His dancing is AMAZING and then when he sings, it's like this pretty angelic voice. The body and the voice don't go together at all and I was in awe. But dang. His dancing. It's just... crazy. Oh and yeah. He's kinda known for his biceps...
Wonho is the other one that stood out at first also because of his dancing. He has an attitude that portrays total and complete confidence. He seems to be like that when he's just being himself too. Not an act, just how he is. But without arrogance. It's a weird thing. He's extremely sexy and he knows it and he uses it and we all eat it up. (Mostly likely you will notice him quite a bit in the above Hero MV!)
Minhyuk, mentioned above, is like this calming balm. I'm addicted to his talking voice. Sadly, he doesn't have many singing parts in this group, but when he does, I melt. He seems to be the nurturer of the group and also, the life of the party. He's calm on one hand, but the silly clown on the other. Another weird combination. In real life, I think he would be sweetest nicest friend a person could ever have.
Jooheon I think is one of my favorite rappers. (Don't tell Rapmon!) His enthusiasm and energy is CRAZY! I love it! He is so so so much fun! And then... ah... the dimples. He is giving Rapmon a run for his money on that count too! He is adorable and funny and sensitive and as cool as they come. (He stands out in the Hero MV too. He's the one that starts the song in that so very Jooheon way!)
I.M is the other rapper and he, like Hyungwon, escaped my notice at first too. Then, like Hyungwon, I watched him with the kids and melted. He is a true sweetheart. So so soft. Why are the rappers always the soft ones? It doesn't make sense. He's adorable. And he's the only one that knows a little English (having been an exchange student) but he forgets it a lot and then it's fun to laugh with/at him as he tries. So cute. He's also the one that says "guys, just calm down" so much! I love it!
Together, these guys have a very distinct sound that I can't describe, but you can always feel it when a MONSTA X song comes on. The two rappers stand out, and then those angelic voices mixed in... it's just... the best. And then when you watch them dance on top of that. It's over.
Here's a compilation of bunch of their songs just to give you an idea:
I love them and can't wait to see them. To MEET them actually. We have pit tickets this time, which makes me nervous, but should be a blast if we can survive, and they come with a hi-touch, which means afterwards, we'll get to go up on stage and high ten them all! Hopefully with "crossed fingers" included! Ah. I might die.
This video shows what I mean by a hi-touch and crossing fingers:
Here they are performing their newest song which came out just last week;
Genre: rom com fantasy
