Spring has almost sprung.

Aside from yesterday which was extremely sad and cold and rainy (it actually snowed in Gangwon-do, which is RIDICULOUS) the weather has been getting nicer and nicer. It's been sunny and warm and bordering on hot. Sunday I work shorts AND a tee-shirt and was perfectly comfortable. AMAZING.

Aside from my ankle (doctor tells me I tore two of the lateral ligaments in my ankle... level 2 ankle sprain), which is still a bit bothersome, everything is looking up.

I saw Big Bang on Sunday in a stroke of pure luck thanks to two co-teachers and some fast ticket buying at the last minute. To make it even better, due to an unfortunate incident involving SNSD's Taeyeon, everyone got full refunds for their tickets. This means I went to LotteWorld Amusement Park and saw Big Bang for FREE!! Gotta love it. Oh, and Park Bom of 2ne1 waved. TO ME!

Anyways,  my birthday is soon, and I'm gearing up for that, but more importantly, this weekend I am going to Jeju for a frisbee tournament that I'm not supposed to play in because of my ankle. I'm playing anyways.

Also, my baby sister, Melly officially got accepted to graduate school, and put in her deposit at Indiana University and she is going to get her master's degree in Water Resource Mangement and I couldn't be more proud of her if I wanted to. She is growing up and she is becoming a lovely, intelligent, well-spoken, beautiful woman. It's so exciting. I miss her so much. Like more than anyone. I just want her in Korea with me. Korea needs to work on all Resource Management, including water, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll come here one day. lol. not likely.

I also got my Dream Concert ticket/invitation. It's really complicated because it's not really a ticket. A student gave it to me, then I had to go to this random website to register my number and then there is a random drawing for 25,000 people to go the concert. I also had to use Hoon's name, not my own because evidently only Korean people can sign up, which is dumb.

That's it for now, I think. I have to make exam questions for my mid-terms today!! I can't wait for midterms. It's the start of a nice little mini vacation for me, and I'm very much looking forward to it. ^^

One little kpop spam

Okay, so I've been pretty good at keeping this mostly k-pop free because, well, I started that tumblr account of mine that is pretty much strictly dedicated to all things k-culture (pop, drama, culture) and this is going to mostly anecdotes and stuff from life in Korea, food, school, activities, events, etc. If you are interested in that stuff, I recommend you head over to tumblr and subscribe/rss feed/read religiously/ask questions/etc!

But, tonight at 12 a.m. marks a major moment for me personally here in Korea. It's BigBang's comeback (after 2 years and 3 months... but who's counting?) and as lame as that may be, I am anticipating this and hyped for this more than perhaps anything in my whole life. This, to me, is more exciting than making the varsity basketball team, getting into college, starting university, turning 21, getting a bid to college nationals for ultimate frisbee, getting a job right out of uni, leaving America to teach English in another country, traveling to 3 continents in less than 12 months, and any other major life moment I can remember.

It's just that this group has really defined my experiences here. If it weren't for bigbang, I think a lot of my life he would just be lived in a state of: "this is just temporary, so don't bother getting attached" but via my love of bigbang I have been able to engage my students and initiate deep and meaningful relationships with them, have opportunities to meet people (both famous and not) that I'd never have met before, and learn a tremendous amount about the culture I am living in first hand.

If it weren't for big bang, I think I'd probably still believe that my living in Korea is 2-5 year commitment and just a break from a "real" life beckoning from America. However, this "temporary" Korean life has become so much more than that, and I can frankly say that this 2-5 year commitment has suddenly developed into a love that will last my whole life for a culture that I was turned on to at age 21 when I first saw the video for 거짖말 on youtube.

Thanks big bang for 2 years of memories and amazing experiences, and hopefully to many many more years filled with your music and concerts!!

Anyhow, here's the last teaser before bigbang has their comeback at midnight tonight. I hope you can see in it some little sparkle of love that I have huge quantities of.

p.s. In another life update, I'll add that I got my first kitten, Casanova, last friday, and am picking up my other lovely baby tonight. He doesn't have a name yet, but I will post pictures tomorrow. I promise.

p.p.s. OMG BIGBANG BIG SHOW IS FRIDAY. I'm dying.

Korea

A full update on my life was promised so here goes. The good and the bad.

1. I got food poisoning on Wednesday/Thursday. I was up all night doing, you know, food poisoning-related things, and not sleeping at all. I called in sick because at 6:30 when my alarm went off I was like oh good, I've slept a total of 40 minutes or so, and I just threw up 20 minutes ago. This doesn't bode well. So I slept all effing day and ate nothing while trying to let my body recover. Korea is dealing with some serious livestock diseases, but i don't think that's what got me. I think it was veggies that came in contact with raw meat and then weren't cooked thoroughly. But anyhow, I'm all better now thanks to lots of sleep, and plenty of water.

2. On Tuesday I bought two first floor standing tickets to the Big Bang Big Show which I am SUPER excited to see. I'm basically dying, I'm so happy. I will be among the first people to see Big Bang perform new songs live after a two year hiatus from Korean promotions. Granted, they have performed at YG Family Concerts and last year's Big Show, but nothing new, so this is super exciting. Their album will release the day before the concert and I will go get it and memorize every song in 24 hours if it kills me. Then I will buy the official Taeyang usb drive at the concert sales booth and then I will fangirl spazz for 2 hours while my boyfriend questions why he ever started dating me.

3. I bought the Taeyang Solar Concert DVD. I made a youtube video about in case anyone hear reads my blog but hasn't subscribed to my youtube channel (Uh... SUBSCRIBE NOW PLEASE). Anyways, it's awesome except for this one hilarious and awful English mistake where a page reads, "Let's get start it" which obviously makes no sense. This is disappointing because YG has tons of high level English speakers, and you'd think that for once they would check something like this. Over 100,000 of these DVDs were produced and no one thought to go to a native English speaker and say, hey, is this right? Listen, YG, I'm your girl. I can do this free of charge (except every English grammar proofreading required document must be personally delivered by either Taeyang or Se7en, but that can be arranged, right?)

4. Frisbee practice started this weekend. We had practice on Saturday and Sunday and I am sooooo tired. But it was really fun, and I'm really really looking forward to more practices in increasingly warmer weather.

5. Last weekend I played in a volleyball tournament. I've never had so much fun playing volleyball. Somehow, I think I got better at volleyball via not playing it for 8+ years. I remember kind of sucking back in my freshman year of high school and thinking, welp since I literally can't do anything except blocking (I was a beast at blocking but I couldn't hit, which made me mostly useless) I'm gonna go ahead and quit and focus on bball. And I did just that. But volleyball was awesome and it makes me wanna play a whole bunch more.

6. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I am actually pretty excited for it. Hoon and I are going to have a quiet night in. I am going to make dinner (maybe a revised hopefully even more delicious than last time tomato cream sauce pasta with garlic bread if I can figure out how to make garlic bread without an oven; can't I just crush some garlic, mix it with basil and butter, spread on a thick slice of baguette and sautee?) and give him my gift. In Korea, V-Day is different than back in the States in that only a girl gives a gift and the boy will give a gift to his girlfriend or crush or significant other on White Day which is on March 14th. So I will give a gift, which I will take a photo of and post later, and we'll do something again in another month. I like this time because Feb 5th was our 200 day anniversary (they celebrate every 100 days or at least the first couple, plus 1000, and then they stop, I think), then valentines day, then white day, then one month later is Hoon's birthday, and then two weeks after that is my birthday so it's like nonstop celebrations until May rolls around (but then our one year anniversary will be in July~ hahaha)

7. I might go skiing this upcoming weekend with Hoon and his family. Except we will go only one day and only at night, from like 9 p.m. until maybe 5 a.m. which will basically kill me (I have to go to frisbee the following day at 11) but I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully I can not totally suck at skiing so Hoon won't think I'm a completely uncoordinated loser.

8. I am trying to convince Hoon to get some of his Physical Education classmates to make a frisbee team to send to Jeju. I said I could be the coach. I think it'd be really fun and since they are all athletes (we're talking seriously jacked, run a marathon and then benchpress twice their weight, and then swim 4 miles and then take a 100 question exam on history of sports, sports rules, and human physiology without hardly breaking a sweat-type athletes... this includes the girls) they would probably dominate all the other beginner uni teams because they can run for hours without getting tired. Plus then I'd be obligated to get in better shape and practice frisbee with them too. Win-win, you see?

9. My school had graduation on Friday. I went, and it was only a little sad for me because I was still recovering from food poisoning and had to concentrate really hard on not falling over from fatigue during the ceremony. But, now that I think about it more, I'm pretty bummed. I've known all these students for two years, and they are AMAZING girls. I've gotten to known some of them (maybe about 15 or so) really well and I will certainly miss their smiles, hilarious jokes, helpful Korean lessons, sincere interest in English, enthusiasm for my class, and all-around good attitudes. The prospect of having these students in my classes later in the week helped me get through all the whiny, misbehaving, snarky students I had to deal with from time to time. I will miss them!!!

Also, in case you didn't know yet, I have a tumblr at www.reallywally.tumblr.com. It's basically 100% Korean culture all the time. Emphasis on kpop, but also with touches of food, drama, models, konglish and other interesting tidbits.

That's it.

xoxo
A

YG Family Concert Picture

OH. MY. GOD.

So at the concert, after the encore was finished, Se7en or G-D said, hey, we're gonna take a picture of YG family and the concert goers. I think they only did this for the last concert, but I can't really be sure since I wasn't at the other concerts. Anyways, the picture was just posted on the YG-life Blog, and I pulled up a bigger picture and OMG I am in it. My face is super washed out, but my hand is the one like a whole foot higher than everyone elses. And my boyfriend is next to me (hand also really high and making a peace sign) and you can see him too! It's soooooo cool! Anyways, here's the picture with a convenient circle around each of us. I'm on the left, my boyfriend is to the right. *^____^*

YouTube Videos

My youtube channel is currently ranked at the #46 most viewed South Korean channel of the day. This is a pretty awesome accomplishment. I'd like to thank GMarket for being amazing at finding me really close seats less than one week from the concert date, and YG Family for making an awesome concert.

Anyways, here are the videos from YG Family concert:









Share them with your friends, and get me even higher on the most viewed list!! And subscribe to my youtube channel!

YG Family Concert

I had a really great time at the YG Family Concert. Thanks to Miranda, I got a really awesome signed Taeyang cd (they went on sale at 10 a.m. and my concert wasnt till 7... so hells naw).

JH and I headed over to the concert at about 5:30. It was just enough time for us to exchange our tickets, pick up our wristbands, buy him a toast, let me guzzle my disgusting 한약, before we scramble to get in line just as our section was being let in. Thank GOD! It was JH's first concert ever, which is kind of shocking given we're both in our 20s and I've been to perhaps 30-40 concerts (my first being when I was maybe 11). I also had to give him lots of warnings about the crazy-ness of these fans (legit loco) and just before it started, I had to scold him into picking up his backpack off the ground. A good call because maybe 45 seconds later, the house lights dimmed and the intro to fire started playing and the crowd surged forward, pushing us a full 15-20 feet from our original position.

Anyways, the concert was pretty great. I'd have to say Se7en was the best in terms of overall quality of performance. His vocals were completely perfect, in my opinion. He looked amazing, and his voice matched impeccably. He and Gummy are obviously the really singers of the family, but Seven is an all-around performer. Plus, it seemed like his performance didn't have any tech errors, and the dancers he worked with were impeccable.

I was really impressed with Gummy, who displayed a lovely range of songs. Even though I'm not particularly familiar with her (I have maybe 2 Gummy songs), I enjoyed her performance (even though I thought it was too long...)

2ne1 was full of energy and really brought the fun. I used to really really like minji while bom and cl vied for second and dara was way behind. But seeing them perform, I thought they were just so perfect all together. It's hard for me to pick a clear favorite. CL is such a badass, and bom is just so fun, and dara is cute (at first I didn't like her cuteness, but in the show it was engaging), and minji is just this little spitfire. It was really cool to see them perform live.

Psy was fucking awesome. He's by far the oldest YG family member (born in 1977, he's nearly 5 years older than Gummy, the next oldest, and a full 17 years older than Minji, the youngest in YG), but he's also by far the most eccentric and engaging stage performer. His voice, his excitement, his crazy ass dance moves brought every single person in the crowd to a complete, standing roar of excitement. Through all of the songs he sang (4 in total), every single person was singing and screaming and jumping like some extra-human thing entered their bodies and took control. It was awesome. Psy had everyone hanging on his every word, his every movement. It was cool.

Big Bang was, shockingly, not my favorite. I already said Se7en was my favorite, so I guess you know that. But what I mean to say by that is I was a tiny bit disappointed by Big Bang's performance. Some things from Big Bang were really awesome: GD and TOP: 전화본호 in fur coats, 뻑이가요 (holy jesus this song is absolute fucking FIRE), GD/TOP/Taeyang: Hot 뜨거, 마지막인사, but the Daesung solo had a major mic error, which Daesung desperately tried to make funny, but without too much success, and the 승리 solo was way too much talking. Plus the boys looked a little tired. At the end of the encore, Taeyang wipe his face and breathed what seemed to be a sigh of relief that the concert's exhausting preparations and execution were finally over. Also, it seemed like a lot of Taeyang's solo vocal belts seemed out of place or strange.

I don't mean to say that the Big Bang performances weren't great, because they were. There just seemed to be an air of tiredness and a sense of rushed organization that usually isn't present in YG performances, especially from Big Bang.

I just hope our boys can get a tiny bit of rest in (especially Taeyang... he's been promoting for Solar since July and now is preparing for the Big Bang comeback) before they come back in February. I know TOP and GD are going to be doing promotions in December, but those guys (esp GD) have been pretty off the map for a while. I just hope that my taeyang can get his rest and charge up for a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE comeback.

Other stuff not kpop related coming soon!

A

My addiction to buying shit.

So, this weekend my phone broke. And by that I mean the scan completely got fucked up and I couldn't read anything on the screen and so I couldn't really receive texts (or read them at least) and I couldn't tell who was calling me. So anyways, I went with the bf to the cell phone store Friday night to try to acquire a new phone. I have been saying I really wanted the Galaxy S phone really really badly, but I didn't have a reason to buy it. But, now was the perfect opportunity. But, to my dismay, E-2 visa holders cannot purchase a Galaxy S smartphone because it requires a two-year contract and there isn't a two-year E-2 visa. So I was looking at some other phones (iphone 4 still has a two week reservation wait, which wouldn't have worked, and also no-go for E-2 visa holders). But, then, my boyfriend proposed that he sign the contract for me in order for me to avoid the prohibition on my smartphone purchase. But, I was a little hesitant to accept right away because, god forbid, something terrible happened (either in my life or in our relationship or in my job) and I have to leave Korea (or we break up *shudder*) he could get totally screwed over. I would never intentionally do that, but sometimes crazy shit comes up. I just don't want things to be too complicated or pressured because he did this for me. But he insisted that it was okay. And he called his parents and made sure they thought it was an okay idea and they said yes (I also briefly talked to his mom to say hello and she said she missed me. I miss her too^^) He seemed to really be in favor of me getting the galaxy s (living vicariously through me maybe?) and so I finally caved. And he signed the contract (all the bills go directly to me, it's just his name on the contract, not mine). So I'm really thankful for that. I find it really sweet because he anticipates us (probably) staying together for at least a significant amount of time, and because he obviously trusts me enough to do that for me.

Actually, the store we went to didn't actually have the phone on hand, so they had to get it delivered from another place. And so they were gonna call my boyfriend and have us come pick it up again. He had to go to the library to study, and I was meeting up with some friends to hang out at the Soongsil University festival. Basically lots of drinking and a music performance and playing. So we parted and he said he'd bring me the phone when he could. I went off with my friends, and he hit the stacks, and I got my eat and drink on. About an hour and a half later he came back with the phone store bag and I got super excited. And to make it even better, he wrapped it up in Hello Kitty wrapping paper like it was a special gift. And he wrote me a note too. It was adorably cute. He's freaking wonderful. Unfortunately he had to go back to studying.

Got my phone. Had someone else who has a galaxy s help me get on the internet. Took some pictures. And then got down to the business of drinking more. Gotten pleasantly tipsy. Saw Beast (b2st, 비스트) perform three songs. Complained a bunch to my boyfriend about it being cold (via textmessage) and he surprised me by coming back. And then we went to one of the booths that was really awesome. At that booth, there was a dj and it was like a club but open air and all Soongsil students. And it was super awesome. And we danced a lot and took shots and it was ridiculous. Promptly proceeded from tipsy to drunk.

Went home.

Saturday morning met M & C in Myeongdong. I bought a new dress and a vest (hahahahahah PAIGEY) and they are both super cute (ESPECIALLY the dress, omg)

Went to the War Memorial for the Seoul Soul Festival. Was like 5 people away from Se7en and Taeyang and it was amazing (review in full coming later). Went to a chicken hof with the girls. The chicken hof place had the most amazing 모든감자튀김 (mixed french fries). There were regular crinkle cut fries, tater tots, sweet potato fries, waffle fries, onion rings, smiley face shaped fried potatoes, and the most awesomely delicious fried mashed potato dallops (there isn't a good way to explain them. Imagine mashed potatoes pushed through a frosting bag/tip to create a ridged mountain of fried mashed potato goodness). And the chicken was pretty good. But omg, the french fries. to die for.

Then we went to Hongdae and I got my tragus pierced. It didn't hurt very much then, and I hardly notice it now. Sometimes if I play with it, it tickles my ear, which is strange.

My league team won our Sunday game. I had mandoo and bulgogi with a friend for dinner. Things are looking up.

I finished my worksheets for this week already and there are no high school classes!!

NICE-UH.

xoxo
A

Taeyang Solar Concert Review

As I mentioned, I went to Taeyang's Solar Concert this weekend. He had two concerts, one on Saturday, Sept. 25 at 7pm and another on Sunday, Sept. 26 at 6pm. I attended both, sitting on the first floor, 21st row on Saturday and second floor 14th row (?) on Sunday. I thought the concerts were both really amazing, but too short.

The set list and a short review of the performances will be posted below.

A few preliminary notes: The Sunday show was supposedly sold out, and I almost arrived late. The shows were both at 경희대학교 which is a beautiful university campus (Kyunghee University), and I highly recommend any potential Seoul visitors to go there and look around. It's incredibly scenic, with beautiful buildings, especially peace hall, which is where the concert was actually held. It's also quite hilly, so it's good for a bit of walking exercise. Also, as I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm totally YB-, BigBang-, YG Family-biased, so probably the review will come off exceedingly positive (although I do have a couple complaints). Last, the concert on Sunday was 18+ so the things that were different (which were fewer than anticipated) will be noted in a different color. Also, this was Taeyang's second and third solo concerts, not his first as many mistakenly say. He had a solo concert for HOT a while ago, but it wasn't a full length concert because it wasn't a full length album.

Pre-show: Before the show began, beside the main stage were two large screens showing various Taeyang videos, as well as a couple 2ne1 videos (at least one). My seats on Saturday were a bit stage left, and my seats on Sunday (which I barely made it to on time) were a bit stage right, which was intentional so as to best enjoy the full experience of the show. Sitting on the second floor was actually really great because I could see the whole stage, and the venue was still quite small so I was rather close.

Intro: The show began with the house lights dimmed, the intro music for Solar playing, and an artistic video of Taeyang preparing to enter the Hall playing. Then, as the intro picked up in the middle, suddenly Taeyang began his descent from above the stage in a white circle lit from all around. All the lights were on him as he stood posed and ready while the circle descended to a few steps when he officially began the concert. He was wearing an all white ensemble with aviator sunglasses. He had on a white vest with the very large collar that is eternally popular amongst celebrities here in Korea. The vest was heavily studded with silver and was quite blingy.

기도 (Prayer): His first song was 기도 which he went right into after descending from the circle thing. The performance was pretty standard. Since it was one of his singles, the choreography wasn't much different for the performances. I had been keeping my fingers crossed that Teddy would come out and do his rap verse, which would have been really awesome. Unfortunately, at neither did he come out. Instead, they played the vocals for the song and Taeyang danced enthusiastically. This seemed to really stand alone from the rest of the choreography as particularly impressive. I really enjoyed it.

I'll Be There: After 기도 Taeyang transitioned very smoothly (props to the music and sound techs who organized what appeared to me to be a very very clean sounding concert, with the mild exception of a mic problem on Sunday) to I'll Be There. He sang, as expected, the Korean version, which I happen to like better. The primary stage prop was a circular set of all white stairs. The stairs ascended and wrapping around the stairs from the bottom right to the upper left of the stairs was a sort of slope quite similar to rock cliff that appears in Taeyang's I'll Be There music video. Just as he does in the video, Taeyang climbs the sloping white stage prop and drops to his knees as he sings. It was nice, but I did happen to think the glistening white stage didn't quite create the same effect as the overgrown graveyard in I'll Be There provided. See below for a reference on the slope thing.

Imagine this scene but minus the graveyards, cloudy skies and overgrowth and add a glistening white veneer and a live band.

죄인 (Sinners): After I'll Be There, Taeyang performed 죄인, which happens to be my favorite song off his first mini-album, HOT. Also, I happened to MUCH prefer this performance to the performance in his first solo concert for HOT promotions. In the old performance, Taeyang dances with a girl who has ugly clothing and is only kind of pretty and it involves some weird shit on a table and it doesn't really make as much sense. This time, the girl is only somewhat involved, and Taeyang really got into singing this song. He moved around the stage quite a bit and got on his knees and really sexed it up for us. This time instead of a table, they used a plush armchair. The sexiest part was when the dancer bent over at the waist and touched the ground and Taeyang came from behind her, grabbed her hips and did a mild body roll towards her. This was the moment when all sanity kind of left me on Saturday and I was mesmerized. Taeyang also did his favorite move when singing where he turns sideway giving his most popular profile view, spreads his arms out wide and throws himself back from the hips and just hits the note with full on intensity. He loves that pose. And frankly, so do I.

After this, he talked briefly and a little dolly rolled out and on it was a white jacket (he had removed the bedazzled vest earlier, perhaps during I'll be There or Sinners, I can't entirely remember). The new jacket has his face bedazzled in silver studs on the back. I bit much I thought, but so goes it. He introduced himself, and welcomed all of us to the concert. Then he introduced his next song, Just a Feeling

Just a Feeling: I thought this performance was just okay. I also think this song is just okay. Perhaps my lack of enthusiasm regarding the song inhibits my ability to fully appreciate the song, but whatevs. It was good, but really there was nothing special here. Just a lot of dancing and such. kind of standard I though.

Move: Now this song is when Taeyang really starts to bring the sexy. Again, no teddy, but his rap section is included. The stage prop had turned at some point between I'll Be There and Sinners (I can't seem to remember it actually turning around) and it revolved once again to reveal the steps. However, this time, on the steps were three stripper poles extending upwards from the stairs. As the stage thing revolved, two dollies which also had stripper poles attached moved onto the stage creating a five girl stripper triangle of sorts, with Taeyang as the sixth on the bottom center. The girls were dressed in white button down dress shirts, black panties (of the cheeky boy cut variety), stockings and black heels. They were dancing really suggestively on the pole both on Saturday and Sunday. The dance was pretty much the same both days. This song really ramped up the sex factor. The girls were almost half-naked and dancing as glorified strippers while Taeyang walked around staring at the girls and sang lyrics like "move move, baby don't stop it" On Sunday the girls took their shirts off to reveal black satin lingerie. On Saturday, this did not happen. Additionally, on Saturday, parts of Teddy's rap lyrics were censored. The words censored were body and play, which seemed odd, because it was in the lyric: "You're body is my wonderland, I can play all night" and the lyrics: "I'm so vicious like Sid with my sex pistols" and "Niagra Falls, baby girl I got you wetter than" were not censored. Clearly the censors were not native English speakers and didn't grasp the excessive sexual nature of the latter lines. On Sunday, from my seat I could see the girls prepping for this song in the brief couple seconds between songs, and I was really impressed. This one girl came tearing across backstage and lept onto her stripper pole while buttoning her shirt just in the knick of time. The stage prop thingy rotated around at just that moment. Nice work lady.

Then there was a video. This (and the shirtlessness during Move) was the biggest difference between Saturday and Sunday. The video showed Taeyang dressed in white lying asleep on a big plush white bed. Then, his opposite, that girl, she is shown kind of looking for him. Also, between scenes of Taeyang in bed and the girl looking for him, there are images of him in his You're My get-up but more gripping, with focus largely on his hands. On Sunday, the video featured the two of them together in bed, snuggling and touching each others faces and holding hands and even at one point Taeyang rolling over and climbing on top of her. Also, there was even more focus on his hands, specifically the ring he always wears. At the end of the video, I could be mistaken, but it appears that the girl removes his ring from his finger, although I'm not clear what that was supposed to signify (holding onto his love, or ending the love...?)

Ma Girl: Then he said Ma Girl, which was pretty good. I thought the video graphics for this song were kind of eh, subpar. I thought they were pretty tacky. Otherwise, the performance was great! Ma Girl is one of my favorite performances because it's always really sexy. He sort of humps the ground and then lays on his back and body rolls and omg, it's so wonderful.

You're My: I hate this song. A lot. However, Taeyang was super super super super sexy when he sang this song because he was in a full suit and just look unbelievably handsome. Just impeccable, really. Plus, the live version of this song wasn't quite so high, because that would be difficult in the one opportunity he has on stage. It could strain him a lot. Still, this wasn't my favorite. I can't help but be reminded of the shitty English that I see everywhere else in this country when I listen to this song.

Talk: Taeyang talked briefly here about some things. And then said he'd be doing I Need a Girl.

I Need a Girl: totally one of the highlights. Taeyang went out into the crowd. On Saturday I was really close to him, but he still didn't see me (darn you security guard in my way) and he was singing to various audience members and I was jealous. But, I got even more jealous as he made his way across the hall and chose a girl  near him to come up onstage with him. He held his arm out and escorted her to the stage and had her sit on a chaise lounge. Then he danced around behind her and gave her a gift box, which she opened. Upon opening the gift, she discovered that it was a bra and panties, pink satin (On Sunday it was some kind of animal type printer and WAY sexier...) and then he sat next to her and proceeded to basically serenade that stupid little annoying girl (she wasn't stupid or annoying, I'm just jealous), while brushing the hair off her face and looking in her eyes. Then he turned sideway, and laid down and put his head on her lap!!!!! >.< And THEN he held her hand and he got back up and kissed her cheek!!!!! >.<   >.<   >.<  On Sunday he also picked up the girls legs and sat near her waist and leaned in to kiss her. She leaned away (CRAZY GIRL) and he ended up kissing her kind of on the neck. I was incredibly jealous. Then, as the song ended, he took her hand and they walked together off stage through a walkway cut out into the turned-around stage thingy.

니가 잠든 후에 (After You Fall Asleep): I hated this performance. Except for this cool horse gallop dance that Taeyang did, I thought this performance was really dumb. There was this big ugly looking bed that came out and Ji-Hye, his main dancer, is in the bed, and I was sure that something interesting was going to happen, especially at the Sunday performance and given the sexy bed scene famous in G-Dragon's solo concert, but ALAS, no such luck. He just stood on the bed and stepped over JiHye awkwardly. I hated this.

Connection: An all-English song which initiated a lengthy series of English songs. This song was on his solar international release album. I thought the performance was okay. The four main male dancers had little square risers that they set up in different groups and which Taeyang jumped on top of and sang from in various points across the stage. Meh. I was more entranced by the video in the background which had all the lyrics in a kind of interesting presentation, with the words dropping onto the screen and scrolling across is strange orders. It was pretty cool.

GUEST PERFORMANCE

Slow Jam (by Usher): Taeyang sang a duet of Slow Jam with IU. IU's voice was gorgeous. On Sunday, I thought her dress was really really beautiful. It had more flare from the hips and was all black and had this really cute big flowery bow on one shoulder. It was cute I was really impressed by IU

Better in Time (Leona Lewis performed by IU): Beautiful. I really liked that I knew all the English songs that they sang. IU is also super adorable and I love her. She's only 18, Korean age (so 17 everywhere else).

Baby I'm Sorry: Taeyang came back to sing this song, which I don't know well. He was wearing jeans and a black jacket now, if I'm not mistaken. I liked his jeans, but felt kind of neutral regarding the jacket. However, this song is gorgeous and beautiful and perfect. I LOVE THIS SONG.

Wedding Dress: Another classic. But, for some reason, probably the clothing, the performance just didn't do it for me. The back-up dancers kind of outshined Taeyang on this one. I might get crucified for saying that, but it's just my opinion.

Super Star: OMG I LOVE THIS PERFORMANCE. I keep wavering on how much I like this song, going between meh, it's just so-so and liking it pretty well (it's never been my favorite, but on good days it breaks the top five on Solar). The performance, though, was really great. It was based on a drumline type style, not too unlike the After School Bang performances, except without the drums, and without the ripped choreography. It was really fun.

Breakdown: Also with sort of the drumline feel. I LOVE THIS SONG. And the performance was just so upbeat and fun and so that was really nice. I enjoyed this. Their outfits were all red and the girls had cheer skirts on and those drumline hats with the poofy white feathers. And in the part where he says Elevator 저럼 let's go up and down, Taeyang jumped into the arms of the male dancers and the lifted him up in the air and back down a couple times. It was cool if not a bit too literal.

I Want You Back (MJ tribute): Taeyang did I want you Back and it made me happy. I love that song, it's so classic, and he actually sang it really well all in English. Taeyang really is a lovely performer. It was at this point that I just kind of thought, wow, I love him.

Closing Comments: Taeyang said a few last words. At the concert I didn't understand exactly what he was saying. On Saturday, it was quite a long speech. He seemed really moved and really sad. It turns out that was correct. Translations of portions of his speech: "The journey of my Solar album... as with all journeys, there were difficult and lonely times, but all of those times taught me great things" and "I think my next solo album... I think that it will have to take a long time. Because I think I'll only be able to put together a new album after searching more of myself and knowing more of who I am." "And I would like all of you to really be happy...and I want to say that I am truly thankful. Thank you so much." He cried, like seriously cried during this speech and I couldn't help but cry too. It was beautiful.  It should be noted that he didn't cry at all on Sunday and his speech was much shorter. He didn't seem nearly so sad. And I'm glad for that.

나만바라봐 (Look Only at Me): I cried my way through this song. Taeyang was a little choked up singing it so he let it go for the audience in the first verse a bit, and the audience really impressed me with their  enthusiasm and supportive singing. This song really isn't very nice lyrics-wise (Baby, even if I cheat on you, don't you cheat on me. Even if I forget you, don't you forget me. Even if I don't call and a I go out and drink and I meet eyes with another woman, only look at me). But, he did a remix at the end, and I'm fairly certain (although not positive, given my shaky on spot translating skills) that it was sort of an attempt to rectify the questionable lyrics. It seemed to me to be like, I love you more than anything type stuff. But it was really good.

Encore:
Where U At: Hoodies and baseball caps were worn for the encore performance. A side note about encores. When the fans shout for an encore, they all pronounce like N-core, N-core. Which I find quite annoying. But, so it goes. When in Korea, do as the Romans do. This performance was good. Standard Where U At.

Take It Slow: I'm so happy that he saved this song for the end. This is the song he wrote and composed and it's beautiful. This is my favorite song on the album and I think it's a perfect conclusion to a wonderful concert. I LOVED this performance. He did another of his hands out wide and back bend thing and I wanted to cry again. I loved it.

Note: On Sunday there was a secondary encore performance that Taeyang did of 나만바라봐 and Take it Slow. For 나만바라봐 the audience sang the whole chorus and it was awesome. I LOVED it. And then Take it Slow AGAIN. A lot of people left before hand, but I was able to catch it AND take a video. So here's that video of 나만바라봐. I had to cut it off suddenly at the end because a security lady was coming over to scold a group of us for recording and I slyly hid it away just in the knick of time. For your viewing pleasure:




xoxo
A

Taeyang Solar Concert

OMG IT WAS AMAZING.


AND I'M GOING AGAIN TONIGHT.

YES YES YES YES YES.

The full details about the concert will be up tonight or tomorrow morning, korea time. ^^

Dream Concert 2010

So I'm clearly a lot late on this, but you know, better late than never, right?

In a change of pace from my last blog post, which was a relatively serious blog post about the recent development in the North Korea/South Korea dispute, I'll give you a review of last Saturday's (May 22nd) Dream Concert. I have mostly positive things to say, so be prepared for lots of doting on cute k-pop stars.

Me and my k-pop buddy!

The show was hosted by Kim Heechul (of Super Junior stardom), actress Shin SeKyung, and Ok Taecyeon (winner of the reallywally sexy body contest held last weekend at Dream Concert). Frankly, Shin SeKyung sucked ass. She was awful as a host, managing only to laugh uncomfortably at regular intervals and barely keeping up with Taecyeon, let alone the veteran Dream Concert MC (third year running) Heechul. Heechul was funny. This I could tell in spite of my not being able to understand 85% of what he said. Taecyeon did his best and mostly was just a walking, talking, singing image of sexiness embodied.

Hello Taecyeon. What's that? You want me to meet you backstage in an hour? Well, I don't kn... Oh, wow, lookie here, my clothes are already off.

There were a number of virtually unknown kpop acts that "opened" the show. I don't really remember them as being particularly interesting or talented, but who am I to judge (especially since I thought Ring Ding Dong by SHINee was the greatest music work to play on radio speakers since Michael Jackson sang Thriller).

Actually, come to think of it, they have a lot more in common than initially anticipated: red leather, intense hair, great dancing.

Then came the first of the 21 acts headlining the show. Those that are curious the total artists list is: U-Kiss, F.cuz, 4Minute, MBLAQ, SS501, ZE:a, Rainbow, SHINee, Kara, T-ara, After School, Davichi, Beast, F(x), Super Junior, SNSD, Rain, Lee Hyori, Wonder Girls, 2PM.

My friend and I were sitting in the SNSD section.

My favorite acts at the concert were the following:
1. 2PM~ clearly I am biased because I am a little bit in love with Taec, but yeah. They were really great, although I was really disappointed by other fan groups chanting "Park Jaebeom" throughout their performance. If I wasn't so in love with 2PM I'd totally become a hottest (their fan club member name)


2. F(x)~ shit they are good. And I've mentioned before my girl crush on Amber.


3. Rain~ Uh. Hello. You are the sexiest Korean man EVER. EVER. EVER. Oh, and he was really funny. It rained virtually the entire concert with the only break being when Rain performed. After his performance, he said, you know, I'm really sorry that it's raining (in korean it translates directly to the rain comes), but when RAIN (him) comes, the rain goes. kkkkk puns.

4. SNSD~ They were really good, and you know, as much as young girls (read: my students) hate them, they are freakin' gorgeous. Also sitting in their section was super fun and cuuuuute.

5. Super Junior~ A classic. Really, Super Junior is always epic. I love Shindong. Seriously. Love.

It's really unfortunate that he just proposed to his girlfriend and wants to get married asap. I'm hoping that sometime between now and his wedding, he will see me and fall in love with me. I love 통통한(chubby) Shindong. 너무 귀여워요!!

As I mentioned in my list, it rained. A lot. A whole effing lot. It sucked. I bought a poncho at the stadium and still my bag got completely soaked and one of the buttons on my poncho broke and I had to hold it shut for about an hour and a half of the concert. fml.

But, I did get to take about a billion selcas (self-portraits) in the rain and while waiting for the show to begin. It's a traditional Korean artform mastered by 14 year old girls. See below for my pathetic attempts:

(left) new outfit, special for dream concert (yes, I am that lame). (Right) the most popular selca pose these days. I'm not good at it.

My new kicks: Nike Legends in pink!!! *^_^*

boo rain.

still the cutest belles of the concert, even with the rain!

xoxo

A

Children's Day

Today is Children's Day, which means I do not have school which is a tremendous relief. I woke up late (9 a.m.) and did a load of laundry and cleaned my apartment (FINALLY). At about noon I left my apartment to go to 근린공원 for a Children's Day festival thing that my friend Julian's school was holding for students. It was really fun. I got there right at the break time (hahaha, typical) and so I got some capri sun and one of those rice ball things that I STILL don't know the Korean name for, (주먹밥) and it was delicious. Then I walked around the park, which was really pretty. Will have to go back when I remember a camera sometime. Then helped make clocks with children while dancing to kpop songs. Walked to 동인천역 with some of Julian's students. Their English was SO good.

Got home, and discovered this:

I'm SO going! In case you can't read Korean, it's for the R16 World Bboy Masters Championships. July 3-4. If any of you want to come with, hollllllla!

Now, I'm off to a tutoring thing and coffee.

Then, I'll pick up Melina at the airport!! *^_____^*

Brian McKnight concert review

So, I'm certainly biased in my sheer unadulterated passion for Taeyang, so my concert review will inevitably be biased. Unfortunately, the concert venue had a no camera rule for the concert. Naturally, I broke it for a couple stealth pictures, but they aren't very good. Because we were in the front row, virtually right in front of a bunch of security people's watchful eyes, I couldn't even take my camera out for a quick shot. All pictures (and a pair of really really short videos) were taking from behind my purse because I was terrified someone would see me and take my camera away. Anyways, I saw on allkpop.com that some people who were in rows like 6-10 got some great pictures/videos, because there were more people around them to cover up their illegal picture taking antics.

So this is how the concert went:

1. Before the show, we went to Burger King because there is no other food anywhere near that area. So, while at burger king, some people with yellow staff vests came into the BK and me and Miranda and my co-teacher joked about how we should talk to them and get in with the venue workers. But I was like, nah, homeboys just set up chairs and shit, they can't get us backstage. Remember this statement for a little bit later, because it bites me in the ass later.

2. We get to the gym and we go inside and we freak out a little because our seats are so incredible awesome. We just left of center, and oh my god, we were totally freaking out.

3. We waited a long long time.

4. Taeyang came out and OH MY GOD I WANT TO MAKE LOVE TO HIM. Sexy as can be.

5. Taeyang sings where U at, dances a lot and makes me want to cry.

6. Taeyang talks briefly to say he will only do one other song, Wedding Dress.

7. Wedding dress starts, i take stealth video (to be posted soon), and he walks over to the side of the stage we were near. While dancing, he accidentally knocks his glasses off. After knocking off his glasses, I lose any shred of sanity I had as Taeyang LOOKS RIGHT AT ME and smiles. For real. For real for real for real. Miranda AND my co-teacher will verify this. god. At that moment I just died.

8. Taeyang leaves and I am devastated.

9. Shortly thereafter some people in yellow staff vests come onto the darkened stage and I was like, oh look, the burger king boys are part of the sound tech or something. Note also this idiotic statement.

10. Then, the music starts, Brian McKnight comes out. I'd like to add that for age 40 (he was born in 1969) he looks damn good. I'd hit it.

11. Out walks Burger King/"sound tech" boys into the spotlight. One has a guitar and they other dances out. They stand immediately next to Brian McKnight and do back-up vocals. OH MY GOD I AM A FUCKING IDIOT. That was my shot at meeting Taeyang/Brian McKnight

12. I cry a little bit inside.

13. Brian McKnight is unbelievable. His performance was off the charts amazing. Honestly, his voice live is studio album good. Like, there were maybe 5 notes all night that could have been better. 5 notes. In a 2 hours performance. Seriously, his voice and his range and the smoothness are impeccable. The best live singer I've ever seen, hands down.

14. Also, Brian McKnight was very very funny during the show. He did/said lots of funny things.

15. Brian McKnight did a brief tribute to Michael Jackson.

16. Brian McKnight and I had eye sex like 5 times. I SWEAR TO GOD he looked right at me. Everyone around me was like oh my god, girl gettin' all the attention. He pointed to me and winked and smiled and licked his lips once or twice right at me.

17. Then, Brian McKnight, in his only real slip-up of the night introduced Taeyang for a duet, horribly butchering my beloved's name, but then realizing it and apologizing. They sing My Kind of Girl together, and Taeyang looked sexy as hell in his plaid shirt and faux-hawked hair. He danced a bit, and Brian McKnight played the acoustic guitar (he also played electric guitar, piano and bass guitar in the course of the night). It was beautiful.

18. Taeyang leaves. I am devastated again.

19. Brian McKnight sings Anytime and I melt. I literally thought I was going to die of joy.

20. Brian McKnight then says he wants to introduce his sons and I was like oh yeah, I read on allkpop that his sons would perform and then who walks out? BURGER KING/SOUND TECH BOYS. fml. I could have talked to/met/hung out with Brian McKnights SONS. Jesus Christ. I am a hugely stupid person. Also, if only I had flirted at BK, then I could be just stumbling home from a wild and raucous night with Taeyang, Brian McKnight jr and sr, and Nic McKnight.

21. The sons took center stage and got their singing on. Their voices are also amazingly good, and the younger one tore it UP on the electric. They are both really skinny, but the older one was mad tall and super sexy (unfortunately he's only 19 hehehe). He also had brief eye connection with me, during which he smiled and pointed to me and gave me a little finger curl like come here baby. ahhhhhhh.

21. Brian McKnight sang Back at One. I lost control and started weeping. Okay, so that didn't happen.

22. After the show, the sons were on stage and I got to shake their hands. I wanted to say something really awesome to the tall hot one (brian mcknight jr) but I was like uh, that was great, thanks. Fail. He did shake my hand and kind of hold on longer than most other people.

23. All in all it would rank as one of my top 3 concert going experiences of all time.

Now for your viewing please, a video from not me at the concert of taeyang performing where u at (he had some sound issues during his performance where his earpiece monitor thing fell and broke or something. I felt really bad for him)