Korean Christmas 2

Last year I wrote a painfully uninteresting and undetailed account of my Christmas. But this year, don't fret my friends, I had a particularly interesting Christmas, so I'm in a gooooood mood, and I'm ready to share this all with you.

As I had mentioned before I got to attend a bunch of cool events last week, starting with Fever Seoul Live and ending with the T Social Party. I'll review these events and include some pictures and videos for all of you to enjoy.

Fever Seoul Live was interesting. It was much shorter than I anticipated, but it was pretty cool. It was definitely centered upon bboying, which I liked, but I would have liked to see more dumbfoundead and less Jay Park. Don't get my wrong, I like Jay Park, but he seems to me to be just pretty good at everything and not particularly awesome at any one thing. He's a pretty good bboy, he's a pretty good singer, he's an okay rapper, but nothing he does makes me want to jump out of my seat. Korean people like him because he's cute (but his ears are distractingly large) and he speaks Korean and English (wow). Dumbfoundead performed She Don't Care acoustic with David Choi on the guitar, and Manifest beatboxing. He also performed Liquor Store Blues with David Choi, which isn't my favorite but that's okay. And he did Bullets of Truth which is probably my favorite of his old songs (download it y'all! Support him... he's dope). And he did Clouds with Jay Park which has a dope verse by dfd, but Jay Park's verse is kind of lame compared to his other stuff (I actually really like Bestie, which he performed)

DFD (left) and Jay Park (Right)

I went there with my friend Dre, which was fun. I hadn't hung out with him in a long time.

Then on Friday after school I basically sprinted home (okay, so I didn't actually run anywhere, I took a taxi) to get ready for the T Social Christmas Party. The party began at 8 p.m. and was all the way in 강남 which is pretty far away. I thought I was really lucky because my co-teacher got invited as well and she would drive me. I got off work at 4:15 (yay sneaking out early!) and she was going to be at my apt at  5:20 so I had to book it home and get ready. I wore this gorgeous new Lanvin <3 H&M black one shoulder dress with exposed zipper and some new heels I got in 이태원. I unfortunately don't have a picture of the whole outfit, which is super unfortunate. I did my make-up blingbling-tastic (that was the dresscode... bling bling). I forgot to put on mascara in my run out the house a full 5 minutes late. I was supposed to meet my boyfriend in Gangnam at 6:45. Unfortunately, we got stuck in some really horrifyingly bad traffic. Basically, it would take about 50 minutes to 1 hour to get to Gangnam from where we live, but since it was rush-hour on a Friday which also just so happened to be Christmas Eve, after one hour, we were still in Incheon, barely to Bupyeong. I was really really upset, because I didn't want to be late, and it was really boring. I could have just taken the train and it would have been easier. We finally got moving only to get stuck in even worse traffic in Youngdeungpo, which is about 10 minutes driving (usually) from Gangnam. After sitting in that traffic until about 7:00, I was like fuck this. I told my co-teacher that I would find the subway and take the subway. I got out of the car in the middle of the street, and crossed through oncoming traffic in -15 degree Celsius weather, hailed a cab and had it take me to the closest subway station. It took me another 30 minutes on the subway (i had to transfer twice), but I still beat my co-teacher by something like 2 hours. She evidently took a wrong turn and got onto a highway headed to Busan (the southernmost point on South Korea basically... not good). I met my boyfriend and we walked to the club (after a minor detour where we got totally lost and I had to call Mina to get directions). Got to the club, with unusable fingers due to the cold, and was really snappy to my boyfriend (Sorry BOOOOO!) but then we were inside! We didn't miss anything except 360 Sounds' DJ set. We saw Leessang (리쌍) and Se7en (세븐) and GD&TOP. Our view wasn't the best, but since we are both really tall, we could see well enough, in spite of being a bit far from the stage. The performance was a little underwhelming, because there were too many people at the club and people were acting really stupid. But Se7en, GD & TOP were all really awesome. Se7en sang Digital Bounce, I'm Going Crazy, Better Together, LaLaLa, and 열정(Passion, my FAVORITE). And GD came out and sang Heartbreaker, and TOP sang Turn It Up and then they both came out and did High High, Oh Yeah and 뻑이가요 (Knock Out). OMG SO FUCKING AWESOME.

Then boo and I took a taxi back home and ate McDonalds.

I will tell you about my actual Christmas more specifically later!

New Things

Tonight I'm going to a big b-boy event in Seoul. Also, Dumbfoundead, David Choi, and Jay Park will be performing. I'm really excited about this. The unfortunate thing is that the event starts at 7:00 on the complete opposite side of Seoul from me. I checked the subway distance, and it looks like it's about 100 minutes via train (but it should be less given that I'll be taking the rapid), but that's really far, and I have to be at work until 4:30. So that means, I have to haul ass to the subway station after school is over in order to make it in time to meet my friend. I'm currently looking at time tables and route information to determine if I can go home or if I have to go directly to the concert... hmmm

Anyways, I'll take lots of pictures and videos and post them tomorrow hopefully.

Also, in other big news, my GD/TOP cd giveaway entry period is almost over, and I currently have some 120-something subscribers, so I will be doing the giveaway as planned. Just gotta reserve the cd sometime soon and go pick it up on the 24th or 25th. ^_^ yaaaaaaay! Hopefully I can get two copies at once. idk how that works.

xoxo
A

R-16 part 1

Last weekend was r16, a big international bboy competition. I had been looking forward to the competition since I bought tickets over a month ago. It turns out I reserved tickets 20 and 21 of everyone there. I also went to the r16 preparty, which was hella dope.

Anyways, I guess first I'll talk about the pre-party since that's the first thing that happened on my weekend. I went with M and Dre to Lotte Hotel in Jamsil (which by the way is hella fucking far from Incheon... 2 hours-ish). We got there early and we had time to eat dinner. Actually, where we ate there was a restaurant called Uncle Wong's. This is particularly interesting because in Dumbfoundead's Grindtime battle with Tantrum, Dumb says, "You're not just an Uncle Tom, you're an Uncle Wong."

Then, after eating, we headed to the party. It was a little confusing to find because we weren't really sure where we were going. naturally. We got to the place eventually and it was still hella early, like 8 p.m. At that point we caught the tail-end of some pre-competition elimination popping and locking battles. They were okay, and at the time I thought pretty good, but nothing compared to what we saw the following day. But that's for later.

Then, after the competition was over, we took a break and just sat and rested. It was kind of strange being there because I am not really part of the break dancing community. I mean, sure, I listen to hip-hop a lot, and I've watched a whole shit-ton of graffiti, scratching, and breakdancing videos online, but as for actually participating in the hip-hop culture, I fall definitively into the observer category. It's not that I'm a bad dancer, it's just that I'm not a bgirl.

Anyways, so it was weird with everyone being so talented and then me just kind of hanging out and watching.

While I was standing around one of the dance circles (everyone was breaking in circles which was cool to watch), I saw DJ Zo, and he said hello to me and gave me a hug and we chatted. Then later in the evening I saw dumb and said hello and he also recognized me and gave me a hug. I know that I probably sound ridiculous and fan-girl-y hear, but they just seem so cool and chill. I know they aren't super famous and it's not like they have millions of people banging down their doorstep for autographs and shit, but still, I've seen less famous people act like total dicks to their fans. It's nice to see artists who haven't let a little bit of fame and internet popularity get to their heads. In the off chance that one of the two of them sees this post, thanks guys for making my night a little bit more than just a concert, but an interaction. You guys are cool as fuck and I hope y'all stay that way.

So a bit later, dumb and djzo hit the stage. They absolutely fucking wrecked it. They did most everything that I really wanted to see and I got some great pictures and footage and whatnot. They did bullets of truth, Mr. Nice Guy, plus Dumb freestyled a whole lot. Plus he even called up other MCs and invited them to do a short freestyle on the mic. It was really cool. Like 4 or 5 people came up and spat verses in English and Korean. It was really cool.

Then M and Dre left because they were tired and dumb finished and that's the only reason they really went. Unfortunately, I wasn't ready to bounce so I was pissed and ended up staying alone to watch DJSoulscape (basically a Korean legend as far as DJs go). Soulscape was just ridiculously talented, and it turned out to be better than I had expected in spite of being alone. This Korean girl came up and talked to me and said I was a really really good dancer, and she thought I was a dancer (not that I was like poppping or breaking or anything), and that was very flattering since there were a lot of other dancers there and she was impressed by me.

Anyways this is the video I threw together this afternoon of the video/pictures I took during the concert. Enjoy, and check out my other videos over on my youtube channel! Thaaaaanks!!

Hip Hop Playas vol. 37

So one of my recently created like goals has been completed. Tonight I saw Dumbfoundead live in concert. Man, he really is the bomb. I've mentioned him before, in previous posts, but he is so awesome he definitely deserves more attention on my blog and in the general hip hop scene as well.

Anyways, me and Miranda went to see the HipHopPlayas.com show this weekend. I was initially going to go with Andre, but he bitched out on me. So I called Miranda and told her there would be lots of hot Korean dudes at this show and she was sold. So we headed out around 5 from Incheon.

Got to Hongdae at about quarter to 6. Scarfed some BK down and headed to the show. It was difficult to figure out how to get in, but we figured it out.

By the time we had gotten there, it was pretty much packed. We saw Hot Clip perform first. They are NOT hot chip, the American group, but they are still good. One of the guys (Beatbox BG) beatboxed for a while. That was pretty tight. And Beenzino spat some fire. It was definitely a good start.

Then (I think) B-Free performed (I could be mixing up the order of Hot Clip and B-Free, it's hard to remember exactly). B-Free was cool, but I don't remember much of the performance.

Then, the highlight of the night. Dumb and DJ Zo!

I pretty much lost it as soon as I saw DJ Zo... (너무 멋있어요! 사랑해요 오빠!!)  They set up a different computer and I was just gaaaaaaaah! ZO~~~~!! He was so sexy on the tables, hat backwards and just killing it. And then Dumb came on. His first song was Bullets of Truth, one of my favorite songs by him. Then (I think) he did She Don't Care, which is my favorite song on the Fun With Dumb album (buy here-- support a bomb-ass rapper). DJ Zo then scratched a bit. This was probably my favorite part of the whole show. Really, it kicked ass. Then Dumb did Mr. Nice Guy off of his latest album Clockwise with Wax (man if only Wax would come to Korea, now THAT would be tight). I also really love this song. It's just so fun and cool. Everyone around me was like da-yumm, that girl is fuckin' crazy. I was gettin' down on this song. Then Dumb did Clouds. Everyone at the show lost it because that's the song that DFD did with Jay Park. And of course, everyone loves Jay. There were desperate squeals of girls hoping that Jay would just walk out. I mean, I was kind of holding out a tiny hope in the back of my head.that he would, but I wasn't holding my breath. If he HAD come, I would have lost it and so would have EVERYONE and then I would be able to rub it in my students faces HARD. Honestly, Clouds isn't my favorite song in the world. I love watching Jay dance, and he is a talented singer. But, I'm just not the biggest fan in the world of his rhymes. They're just kind of average for me. But Dumb just performed his verse, which was fine by me. Last song was Vacation Song, which is a song I really like. I don't know it as well as I know his other songs, but it is a really great song. I'm a little bummed he didn't sing Pushin' which is pretty much my favorite song ever by Dumb. Also, I really like Cockblockers because it's just such a funny awesome song. But, I was still so thrilled to have seen Zo and Dumb in concert. There was some Dumb freestyling mixed in somewhere, and I may have mixed up the order of a song or two, but that's the set to the best of my memory. The freestyling was pretty awesome. It was Konglish/English/Korean and I was pretty amped because I understood a good bit of it, even the Korean shit. p.s. I love it when Dumb pantomines being an orchestra conductor on stage when Zo is scratching and he isn't singing. It's so funny/awesome.

Anyways, then MYK performed. He wrecked it, but unfortunately there was some kind of strange miscommunication/problem with the dj-ing. I can't tell if it was an issue with the dj or with the tables or what. It was strange. It was a bummer because it was on the last song. Anyways, MYK is fucking tight.

The Quiett performed next. I don't know him as well as MYK or DOK2, but I've heard some of his shit and thought it was tight. He looked a lot different than I expected. Like smaller or something. I dunno. He was also all blinged out which was kind of weird. But his set was really good and I enjoyed that.

Double K was up next. This set was easily the most energetic. It helps having more people on the stage (there were three of them on stage, which is misleading because Double K is just one person). I don't really know him AT ALL. But his shit rocked. I'm definitely going to find his shit and buy it all up.

Then last, but certainly not least was DOK2. One of my students, Chaeyoung loves him. Like a lot. He started the show by throwing hats out into the crowd. That was cool. Unfortunately I was too far away to see that. Dok2's set was really fun also. I knew a few of the songs, and he had lots of stage presence too.

Then, everyone came out for an encore which was really awesome because they sang lots of the map the soul songs and freestyled. I also almost got my head chopped off my a ninja star-like DJ Zo cd. It brushed the side of my face as I ducked away, and it hit the wall and landed right at my feet. Jackpot!

After the show I stayed a bit and had dumb sign my ticket and zo sign that cd he tossed at my face. They seemed really cool and I got a picture with Zo, so that was cool. People were all losing it over Dumb. All I could hear was screams of 오빠! 오빠! over and over. The best part was that DUMB KNEW WHO I WAS from twitter/facebook. omg love it! I will see them again at their next show July 2nd. I can't wait!

Now I'm just chillin' at Lemon PC 방 waiting for my peeps to get to Hongdae so we can hit Ska2 and get our dance on! ^_^

So I lied

I said my next post would be about my school trip. Well, frankly these music videos were TOO crucial for me not to share. While I was gone on my school trip, I missed a whole slew of music world releases. Plus there is this one song I knew before I left but basically fell in love with while on the trip. So, for your listening/viewing pleasure:

1. f(x)- Nu-예삐오 (NU-ABO). f(x) is a group that hasn't really made it into my top k-pop list until now. They released a couple okay songs not too long ago, including the popular lachata. However, this song absolutely blows me away as it is the catchiest damn thing I've seen in about 5 years. Also, I think if I were a lesbian I'd totally want Amber, the kind of guyish one. Seriously, everyone in Korea is up in arms about whether she's a guy or a girl (obvi she's a girl) and then if she's a girl whether she is gay or not (who effin' cares? she's hott regardless). Anyways, I'm gonna see this group at Dream Concert on Saturday and I think I'm most excited about this one.



2. Jay Park- Best I Ever Had/Whatcha Say. Okay, so Jay Park is my newest love after f(x). I mean, sure, maybe he's not the greatest rapper to ever spit 16 bars, and no, maybe he isn't the best dancer since Michael Jackson hit the stage with his siblings. But, he is the finest piece of Korean ass I've ever seen. And he is legitimately a great dancer and a very talented singer. He is going to star in a movie about b-boys called Hype Nation and he's coming back to Korea in a few weeks and I'm pants-peeing excited about possibly seeing him. Granted, so is every Korean girl between the ages of 11 and 20, essentially. This video isn't his best, but good god is he fine as ever!



3. Dumbfoundead- Mr. Nice Guy. My favorite rapper absolutely kills this track. Just fucking smashes it. I love him. He's coming the same time Jay Park is here and I can't effing wait. If I don't get to meet dumb, I'll pretty much be devastated. I'm not crazy about the beat on this song, but dumb's definitely been gettin his bars up, as he likes to say. *^___^*



4. Big Bang- Tell Me Goodbye. My beloved boys are finally back with a new song, which is the title track for a Japanese Drama. The song is only in Japanese (with the exception of a few snippets of English). Seriously though, they sound effing amazing (god, they have gotten so much better) and all of my boys, especially Daesung, really ramped-up the handsome-ness for this video. So classy, so sexy, so serious. G-Dragon is especially handsome and I continue to fall more and more in love with Taeyang and Daesung as the days go by. The only downside is T.O.P.'s weird-ass gray/red hair. If you watch this video, you'll see what I mean. Seriously. Why?

School Trips and Winning

Today I'm off to Jaecheon with my grade 1 &3 middle school students. I'm really excited, especially since my co-teachers have indicated that we teachers just stay in a hotel room playing card games for money and drinking.

Also, I won a contest. It's not a really big deal. My favorite rapper, Dumbfoundead sometimes does contests and he did this photo contest where you had to submit a where you're from/where you're at picture. There were lots of really really great pictures, and Dumbfoundead chose one of mine. In fact, he chose my picture of me with a group of my students taken on my laptop in PhotoBooth. It's a really fun, real picture. I'm pretty excited. I am gonna get a free cd from him. I already have all the songs from the album on my itunes, but the album artwork is tight, and it's free. Plus, I love love love love Dumb. *^___^*

xoxo
A

One More Thing

You know, when I was living back in the United States, there were singers or t.v. programs or actors or things I really really liked, but I wouldn't say I had many obsessions (excluding my 3.5 year love affair with Rooney which now rests at a healthy level of enjoyment and has been tempered with time and distance). Now, however, my whole life is essentially composed of series of obsessions: Hello Kitty, Big Bang, Taeyang, Jay Park, John Steinbeck (finally breaking away from this one by reading the latest Pulitzer Prize winner Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout), Dumbfoundead, Strawberry Milk (yes, I still drink this almost everyday), etc.

I don't know what it is about Korean culture or life that accepts weird obsessions. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one though. The co-teacher I share an office with is OBSESSED with Gang Dong-Won (and understandably so, with the body and face that he has), my friend Miranda is obsessed with BigBang/TOP, and all my students are obsessed with some Korean celebrity or another. It's just okay here. acceptable.

 who wouldn't be in love with this slice?

oh, and Hello to you too, future husband

NEW JAY PARK VIDEO

So here's the new Jay Park video. He does some sort of flip jump thing I don't know the name of. He raps a verse and then sings the chorus of BedRock by Young Money. Then he covers Usher's Foolin' Around. Then there is some clip where is friends/roommates scare him while he is eating some Pocky.



Oh and one other thing, I LOVE JAY PARK.

Also also, if a bunch of tweeny Korean middle schoolers make me miss out on seeing Dumbfoundead, Jay, and some really kick-ass breaking at R16s, I'm gonna punch someone in the damn face. For Real.

April is filled to the brim with celebrations

This month not only has the birthdays of myself, three of my best friends back home, three other people who teach English in Incheon, three other people who play frisbee with me in Seoul, and four other people who I played frisbee with back in Gainesville, but also contains the birthdays of one of my favorite 교포, singer Jay Park, or in Korean, 박재범 (yesterday, April 25), and the funniest jokester of them all and member of my all-time favorite k-pop idol group, BigBang, Daesung, or more formally, 강대성 (today, April 26).

생일축하합니다! Happy birthday! Feliz cumple! rah rah rah.

And to celebrate, I figured I would include some pictures of my two birthday boys, plus the newest release from my boy Dumbfoundead, collabo with Clara Chung (winner of Kollaboration 10) and Jay Park himself. Called Clouds, the song is absolutely beautiful and dfd kills it, as usual. Clara's voice is also impeccable. Enjoy!

p.s. Daesung is the first three pictures, and Jaebeom is the smokin hot bod in the last two. *melts*

Word.

xoxo
A

More good things~~ Hot list 2

1. Jisan Valley Rock Festival: Thanks to Joe at You Can't Hold Me Responsible for This for posting this link to the Korea Times. I think I might be interested in going. I love me some Belle & Sebastian and a good concert or two. The Jisan Valley Rock Festival just announced Muse and B&S as artists to play. More artists coming later. If the set list shapes up as well as it started, I'm sure I'll hit it up. Last year they had Weezer, Oasis, Muse, Starsailor, and some others. Anyways, like Joe, I will be checking the site regularly.

2. Surilla: Another L.A.-based underground rapper. Found him through Dumbfoundead's youtube channel series, "The Homies" in which DFD interviews and chats with various rappers/entrepreneurs/alternative artists (taggers/bboys/etc). He just dropped his mixtape, Simon Says Vol. 1 (DL <----) recently and I dl'd it and am quite impressed. His flow and voice are unorthodox but interesting.

3. MARCH MADNESS: nuff said. It's been a crazy tournament so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing how regionals go tomorrow. Let's go UK and Duke!!

4. Big Bang: Downloaded some new songs I didn't have. A student told me today that BigBang is performing in Gwangju at the World Photonics Expo, which is basically a light festival that looks tight and will only be made better by BigBang singing and falling in love with me.

Alright, that's all I've got here.

My first ever Hot List

 1. John Steinbeck.
On Saturday morning on the subway I finished reading John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. It was an incredibly quick read (Started reading on Thursday, finished on Saturday... reading maybe an hour to an hour and a half/day), but impeccably well-written. I think John Steinbeck is rising to become one of my favorite authors of all time. In this novel we are introduced to Cannery Row, in Monterey, California. This small town gets by on fish canning, Lee Chong's tiny store but abundant supply of goods (and goodwill), Dora's Bear Flag whorehouse (operating illegally and under the protection of large charitable donations by the proprietress, the stunning, red-haired Dora), Doc's benevolence, and the sneaky, fool-hardy but good-intentioned actions of Mack and the boys up at the Palace Flophouse. This is certainly the best read I've had since coming to Korea, and I highly recommend it to those of you who enjoy fiction. This book runs very similar to Grapes of Wrath, without all the extra bulk. This is a story of the lives of what could very well be twenty or so real people in a real place.

 This man is my new hero/idol/obsession/favorite author

I'm hoping to pick up East of Eden or Tortilla Flat sometime soon. Both are supposed to be incredibly well-written, and having already read Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, and The Pearl, I feel like I must immediately absorb all of the rest of this great authors literary cache. Seriously, I become increasingly convinced that John Steinbeck is the true American writer of the 20th century.

It's unfortunate that English books are so damn expensive over here. I MUST go to What the Book? a.s.a.p.

2. Dumbfoundead.
A Korean American rapper from Koreatown, LA, California, this guy has hilarious rhymes, and his latest song, a collabo with Sam Ock, is basically on repeat for me these days. I've watched about a dozen rap battles he's done with grindtime, a battle rap organization in the States, and seriously, he is the funniest battler out there. He's clever as can be, and the music he's produced reflects that. "Hollyhood Rats" and "Rapper Os" are absolutely hilarious, and Night Riders and Different Galaxies are just brilliant. Also how can you hate on a guy who samples audio from the 1990s classic, Home Improvement?

3. Hello Kitty.
Seriously, I'm part embarassed by this newfound obsession, part completely okay and happy about it. I just can't get enough of this unbelievably cute little cat. It's particularly ironic given my absolute aversion to the species, but with that little pink bow, and the cute clothes she's always got, I just can't say no. Maybe this is just me attempting to relive my childhood, but everytime I see something Hello Kitty related, I pause and look and seriously think really do need a hello kitty toilet seat cover, or a hello kitty license plate (you  know, for the car I don't have).

4.McDonald's coffee
This only makes my list because I get it probably 4-5 times/week. I just can't say to no to a little java, and it's about the only place I can get decent coffee in my area. To get any where else, I have to take a bus or subway, and that's a pain, so every morning before school I go to mcdonalds to get my fix. I have coffee at home but it's instant, and that kind of sucks.

That's all for now folks. The only reason I made this list was for Cannery Row. I had to share it's amazingness with everyone. Plus, y'all, dumbfoundead is pure freaking genius.