Concert Report: VanLadyLove

We've seen a bunch of concerts this summer, and I've managed to record highlights for a few of them. Here's one that I wanted to share from the VanLadyLove concert held at the city park in July.

I was blown away when I realized they would be here. I thought they were a widely known popular band. But I found out they are local and were just going to appear at the park for fun and free! What? Crazy?

I've loved their Neverland song for awhile and it was regularly blasted pre-kpop era (before January) and when I remember my love for it, I find it to be one of the best songs ever.

Anyway. I was excited to go and support them and enjoy a nice evening in the park.

Here's some of their highlights:





What do you think? You like this kind of music? Have you heard of these guys before?

Stay tuned for at least one more concert report from this summer! (I'm bummed I didn't film any Boyz II Men. Oh, well.)

Movie Review: Pete's Dragon

Movie: Pete's Dragon
Genre: Fantasy
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Oakes Fegley, Robert Redford
Rating: PG
My Rating: two thumbs up


A few weeks ago we found ourselves with an empty Tuesday night, so we ended up at the movies. We settled on Pete's Dragon, which turned out to be a perfect choice for our exchange student and her still limited English. Most of the movie was told through emotional scenes and little dialogue. Perfect!

I can't remember the original Pete's Dragon very well so I can't say if this was a faithful re-telling. But either way, it's a simple story about a boy who is lost in the forest after a car accident and is saved by a dragon. He lives with this dragon for like six years or something and then is discovered by the environmental lady.. a lady whose father in the past had also had encounters with a dragon and yet no one believed him.

It's the sort of ET story that when the dragon is discovered by the people, they attack him and tie him up and kidnap him. I hate those kinds of stories. But you always know it will end up okay. But never without a goodbye scene that will kill you every time. This movie is no exception.

But I think the scene that killed me more than the good bye scene is the dragon realizing that this boy needed a human family and deciding to let him go. Sob.

The boy was a great little actor. The dragon was okay.... but furry. It was fun to see Robert Redford as the grandpa. And whatsherface...Bryce Dallas Howard,  is always a little weird for me, but she was okay.

Overall, it's a great feel good movie with some pretty awesome flying scenes.

Here's the trailer:

The Kpop Konverters Channel Trailer

Over on the YouTube playground, we've made a lovely funny channel trailer. And I thought it would be fun to share here.

Do you know what a channel trailer is? It's like a movie trailer, you know, that thing that gives you an idea of the what the movie is about? Well, a channel trailer gives you an idea of what a YouTube channel is about. Make sense?

And because I figured most of you my bookish friends (if there are any of you left here) probably haven't clicked on the channel that's about kpop music of all crazy and weird things... maybe you'd click on the trailer just out of curiosity to see what we think we are about!!!

Want to give it a try?





And there you go... a sampling of what we are doing over on the YouTube channel talking and fangirling about this crazy fun music genre.

Maybe it looks a little fun to you after all?

Kdrama Review: City Hunter

Drama: City Hunter
Genre: Drama/Suspense/Adventure
Starring: Lee Min Ho and Park Min Young (who also starred in Healer for those of you familiar!)
Rating:  ❤ ❤ ❤


In my quest to see everything Lee Min Ho has done, this one ended up next in the long line up of dramas to watch. And can I just say first off, it really isn't going to matter to me what the drama is... just watching him is pretty much heaven.

So that being said, here's the story of the drama: An incident happened in 1983 right about the time our hero boy was born. In this incident, a bunch of guys were doing this mission to North Korea.. which was successful... but on the way back home... their own guys (South Korea yes) killed them all. Except one. The one guy who survived has lived all these 28 years to seek out and destroy every single one of the five men who were involved in this fiasco and betrayal.

Our hero... Lee Yoon Sung (aka Lee Min Ho) was kidnapped by this one survivor when he was a baby and raised pretty much as the weapon he planned to use to accomplish this revenge. When Yoon Sung comes of age, he sets out to find and kill all these guys and do whatever his dad (because he calls this guy who raised him his father) wants him to do.

Along the way, things change and he realizes that his way of taking revenge differs completely from his dad's. And so he becomes this vigilante type dude, that everyone calls City Hunter, and he catches the guys so that they can suffer the justice, but he does not kill them.

But more importantly for him, he finds out what happened with his kidnapping as a baby..... he finds out the truth surrounding the whole mixed up business. And he is MAD.

An almost kiss.

Meanwhile, he falls in love of course, but he has decided he can't love anyone because of the mess his life is turning out to be. And of course the girl he loves is all mixed up in this mess too!

Sigh.

Here's the smile/laugh I'm talking about.

I loved this one for the fact that LMH has so many smiling scenes! In the other two dramas I've watched with him he is one serious dude... sheesh. And if he cracks a smile it a rare rare thing. And you must know that when LMH smiles, it is the best thing ever. BEST THING! And so to have him so smilely in this one, I was dying.

But then, when things start getting rough and sad and shall we say.. dramatic.. those smiles stop again. And then he made me crazy with his sob story.. the whole "I can't love you because I'm so terrible thing" MAKES ME CRAZY!  And then, he was too sad to smile any more.

A very popular Lee Min Ho gif comes from this drama. 

And another one. :)

So the first half of this drama was great. The second half sort of dragged for me and I was just wanting to get to the happy ending. And I must say, the ending was a massive let down. But I was glued. And I was weepy. And I was very very into it! But there was just something missing from the overall satisfaction, dang it!

Still... if you are a LMH fan like I am... you have to watch it despite that frustrating ending!

Oh, P.S. let me just also say... I could watch LMH doing fight scenes, like, all day. His grace for such things is amazing.

Here's a trailer:
(this one narrated by the dad who raised to be a revenge machine)




And of course some mushy scenes and some more fight scenes all set to the lovely songs from this drama:



Next LMH drama I plan to watch... Heirs. Stay tuned!

Book Review Thoughts: P.S. I Like You by Kasie West

Book: P.S. I Like You by Kasie West
Genre: YA contemporary
Rating:★★★★☆

This sort of book is exactly the sort of book that I'm in the mood for these days. Just a fun simple romance, with a bit of drama thrown in. In this story, we have Lily who is bored during Chemistry. She doodles on the desk, some random song lyrics from an obscure band. The next day, someone has doodled more of those song lyrics. She is blown away that someone else knows of this band! She is so excited. She reponds and before she knows it, she has an on going communication with some unknown person.

At first, she doesn't want to find out who it is but then she gets more and  more curious. Meanwhile, she is trying to be brave and go out with the mysterious cool looking kid she's had a crush on her whole life. And her friend is trying to set her up with some other dude that she thinks will be perfect. (Her friend thinks not Lily... Lily is all... whatever.) And she keeps wondering if one of them is the writer of the notes.

But when she finally finds out who IS the writer, she pretty much goes crazy.

And all that crazy turns out to be quite fun.

Yes. I so enjoy these sorts of books. Bring them on.

Bottom Line: Read for fun and fluffiness.

Other Reviews:

Kasie West writes the most adorable light teen romance ever. Her books are drop-everything-and-read-NOW books for me. From Sarah Reads Too Much

As with all Kasie West books, this also had great friendships and family relationships. From YA Romantics

YA gets a bad rap for dead or absent parents, and you will definitely not find that here! From The Fake Steph

Utah Book Week Day Six: FIVE

Here are five books by Utah authors that I would recommend you read ASAP:

Well, that's just a start, but the prompt is only FIVE after all!

Utah Book Week Day Five: 2016

The past couple of years I've posted a list of all the Utah authors I've read that year. My list is smaller this year, but I've still been reading them!

So... here's my list for this year, 2016, the Utah authors I've read since August last year at Utah Book Month:


Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage: A girl and a boy follow clues left by the girl's father and discover the mystery of their underground village.

Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis: Essie is surviving just fine and then a ship crash lands on her planet and she realizes that she needs to make some changes and stop running away from her past.

Year of Origin (beta read for Maren T.): Blue finds herself Displaced into the future and all she wants to do is find her family.

Heir to Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson: Philip's brother dies, he has to take over the estate even though he'd rather not, and now everyone wants to marry him!

Eleanor and the Iron King by Julie Daines: Eleanor is sent to marry the king of the rival kingdom but when she gets there, she gets confused as to who's the good guys and who's the bad.

Endure by Sara B. Larson: The final installment of this fantasy trilogy where there is an epic showdown between the kingdoms.

The Pages Between Us by Lindsey Leavitt: A fun middle grade book about two friends who write stuff to each other in a notebook they pass back and forth between them. Cute!

Summerlost by Ally Condie: A sweet story about how a young girls deals with grief during a summer stay in her grandparents home town.

Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie: Sometimes when you can feel the emotions of everyone around it can get awfully confusing!

Have you read any books by Utah authors this year? If so, let me know which ones and if you liked them!