Super Junior is BACK.
Not content with 5-6 members in a boy band, a few years back the Korean entertainment company SM entertainment created Super Junior. Super Junior has 13 members - one for every flavor, I guess. They have handsome guys, boyishly cute guys, girlishly cute guys, singers, dancers, a chubby guy, a Chinese guy. It's really not a bad idea - there's bound to be someone in the group who floats your boat. And once you've committed yourself to actually learning who all the members are, it seems like you've invested too much to move on to another pop idol. Super Junior's songs were never very interesting to me, until their latest release, "Sorry Sorry." I CANNOT get it out of my head. I've tried, and now I've just decided to embrace it. Anyway, here it is: Listen to it, love it, boggle at how they fit all 13 members in the video.
Super Junior "Sorry Sorry" MV with English subtitles
Friday, March 20, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Well, at least Kim Jong-il likes good food
Kim Jong-il isn't exactly a great guy. But he likes Italian food, so we know he isn't completely soulless.
If you don't want to go read the article linked to above, basically, North Korea's Great Leader is opening up the nation's first Italian restaurant. I'm sure your average North Korean would prefer if he focused on getting enough rice to all the commoners first, but hey - when you're craving pizza there's not much you can do. Even though I went grocery shopping just the day before, last night I decided that I really just wanted a good slice of New York-style pizza instead.
As someone who's part Italian and cooks and eats that kind of food fairly frequently, I can't fault him for wanting to open an Italian restaurant (wanting is one thing, actually doing it is another). And maybe, just maybe, the endorphins released by consuming a quality marinara sauce will put Kim Jong-il in a good mood and perhaps make him less inclined to be so antagonistic towards...well, almost every other nation on Earth, but particularly South Korea and the U.S. Although frankly, if the food there resembles your standard pizzeria in the South, I doubt it will help very much.
EDIT: Maybe it's working already?
If you don't want to go read the article linked to above, basically, North Korea's Great Leader is opening up the nation's first Italian restaurant. I'm sure your average North Korean would prefer if he focused on getting enough rice to all the commoners first, but hey - when you're craving pizza there's not much you can do. Even though I went grocery shopping just the day before, last night I decided that I really just wanted a good slice of New York-style pizza instead.
As someone who's part Italian and cooks and eats that kind of food fairly frequently, I can't fault him for wanting to open an Italian restaurant (wanting is one thing, actually doing it is another). And maybe, just maybe, the endorphins released by consuming a quality marinara sauce will put Kim Jong-il in a good mood and perhaps make him less inclined to be so antagonistic towards...well, almost every other nation on Earth, but particularly South Korea and the U.S. Although frankly, if the food there resembles your standard pizzeria in the South, I doubt it will help very much.
EDIT: Maybe it's working already?
Monday, March 9, 2009
O M Gee
In case you're wondering, yes, I am still following K-pop. Perhaps not as actively as I was a year ago, but by and large I'm aware of what's been going on. So this next song is one that's been out since January, and I've resisted posting about because it drives me crazy. It's this uber-cheerful "Look at me! Love me! I'm so cuuuuuute!" kind of song with a melody that just won't get out of your head. Like, it enters your brain through some secret passageway the first time you listen to it, locks itself into a dusty room in there that you had forgotten about, and then starts pounding at the walls and howling until you're humming it to yourself while washing the dishes, exercising, trying to LISTEN TO OTHER MUSIC FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Yeah. It's that kind of song.
But it's huge in Korea right now, so I figured it was time to post about it (that, and so others might share in my misery). Last year K-pop group Jewelry placed number 1 with their single "One More Time" for seven weeks in a row on a music entertainment program. Well, recently, this song broke records and placed first eight weeks in a row. So without further ado:
Girls Generation (SoNyeoShiDae) "Gee" Music Video
The group, Girls' Generation, is a nine-member girl group similar to the Wondergirls, except with slightly different concepts. The Wondergirls seem to have a lot of gimmicks in their styling, while Girls' Generation's concept is explicitly CUTE. They're cute girls, they make cute faces, sing cute songs, and have cute dance moves. Last year they weren't quite as popular as the Wondergirls, but maybe that will change with "Gee."
In case you're curious about other music from Girls Generation, here's the video for their first single, also titled "Girls Generation," which for some reason I liked a lot more than "Gee." It's enjoyable in all the same ways, and I guess I just find it less maddening.
Girls Generation "Girls Generation" Music Video
But it's huge in Korea right now, so I figured it was time to post about it (that, and so others might share in my misery). Last year K-pop group Jewelry placed number 1 with their single "One More Time" for seven weeks in a row on a music entertainment program. Well, recently, this song broke records and placed first eight weeks in a row. So without further ado:
Girls Generation (SoNyeoShiDae) "Gee" Music Video
The group, Girls' Generation, is a nine-member girl group similar to the Wondergirls, except with slightly different concepts. The Wondergirls seem to have a lot of gimmicks in their styling, while Girls' Generation's concept is explicitly CUTE. They're cute girls, they make cute faces, sing cute songs, and have cute dance moves. Last year they weren't quite as popular as the Wondergirls, but maybe that will change with "Gee."
In case you're curious about other music from Girls Generation, here's the video for their first single, also titled "Girls Generation," which for some reason I liked a lot more than "Gee." It's enjoyable in all the same ways, and I guess I just find it less maddening.
Girls Generation "Girls Generation" Music Video
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