tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52003877009848224922024-03-12T22:41:51.741-06:00The Mind Of An AppleThe life and insight to a female college student and fangirl.Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-73432542404066845792014-10-28T22:38:00.001-06:002014-10-28T22:38:03.632-06:00Top 15 Albums of February 2014 - Part 2Oh My Goodness!! So my plan was like the biggest failure of all my blogging history. It's not almost Halloween and I am still on February. Well, I guess expect a bunch of posts coming up throughout the next month. I am setting a schedule and STICKING to it this time! I promise myself! Let's try to get caught up! :) As for charts, those are all done for the months except for Quarter 3. I need to finish compiling July, August, and September; but it will be done! :)<br />
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Okay, anyways, let's get start with the top 5 album releases of February (dated around the end of February)!<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxhIZVHZS9TJ-RAwatcQkzwq" target="_blank">Youtube Playlist</a> for February 2014</div>
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| <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/08/top-15-albums-of-february-2014-part-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> | <span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Part 2</span> |</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">05. Arashi - Bittersweet </span>Released: February 12, 2014 [105 Points]</b></div>
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In mid-February Arashi released their 42nd Single, Bittersweet. Bittersweet was the theme song for MatsuJun's drama <i>Shitsuren Chocolatier</i>. The "B-side" track to Bittersweet is Road to Glory, which was the theme song on NTV for the 2014 Winter Olypmics. The other two tracks on the single, beside instrumentals, are Sync and Motto, Ima Yori. Bittersweet is an upbeat track that has that classic Arashi sound and feel. Just listening to it makes me think, "Yes, this is Arashi." It actually is my second favorite song off the album however, my first being <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1bxuz8_sync-sub-esp_music" target="_blank">Sync</a>. Sync is what I would classify as one of their "experimental" songs. It's a little different than most of the music they've released, but that doesn't really matter. The song starts off a little slow, but has a very strong metronome feel to me and I love the small plays they did with temp throughout the song. And even though I'm not the biggest fan of electronic manipulations, I feel it really suits the song and it's not 100% of the song. It's only at certain parts and really is blended well into the other pieces of the song. It's hard to explain how much I like this song since I'm not too knowledgeable about all of technology, but it's a great song! As for Bittersweet's PV, it's nothing too amazing. We see Arashi on a train in various places and at the platform, mostly looking deep in thought or melancholy. However, I love the scene when three members end up sitting together and the almost instant smiles and laugh they share. And the town that they are going through makes me think of the town from like <i>Sleeping Beauty </i>or <i>Beauty and the Beast</i> or some other fairy tale!</div>
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<b>And since Arashi Videos are hard to find online, <a href="http://en.musicplayon.com/play?v=608436" target="_blank">here is a link to watch it</a>! Sorry couldn't find any good embedding codes! </b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">04. Lee Min Woo (M) - M+Ten </span>Released: February 6, 2014 [107 Points]</b><br />
February 2014 saw the return of Shinhwa's main dancer's 3rd Mini Album. The mini-album was long awaited, the last time Lee Min Woo releasing a solo album being in 2009. The promotion song for M+Ten is Taxi and features the leader of Shinhwa, Eric Mun. The mini album has five tracks on it, my favorite being the promotional song, Taxi. Taxi has such a fun, funky groove that you can't help but nod along, or shake your shoulders, or tap your foot. It's such a great groovy song! As for the MV, it's got some pretty funny scenes and basically follows Lee Min Woo as he drunkenly stumbles around an alley, a bathroom stall, and of course the back of a Taxi. The dancing is pretty cool too, though with Lee Min Woo I don't expect anything less! :) Also, we see a cameo of Sam Hammington, an entertainer from New Zealand working in South Korea! Definitely check out the fun video and funky song!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">03. Sunmi - Full Moon </span>Released: February 17, 2014 [108 Points]</b><br />
Late February saw the debut mini album from return artist Sunmi! Sunmi was formerly a member of Wonder Girls, but in 2010 left the group for academic reasons. However she has reentered the lime-light, this time as a solo artist! The promotional song off of the album is Full Moon, and also includes her previously released single 24 Hours. Four other songs were included on the album, Off the album, my favorite songs are definitely Full Moon, Burn, and Who Am I featuring Yoobin (the current rapper of Wonder Girls). Of those three songs, it's hard to pick just one. All three songs are great and unique and something new to the Kpop industry I feel. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qG11ba7W30" target="_blank">Burn</a> is a more electronic pop song with a great chorus that's just fun to sing out loud when driving, especially with the windows rolled down! :) As for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMKreisx7UI" target="_blank">Who Am I</a>, it's a great chill song. What I mean when I say "chill song" is a song that you can put on and just listen to. It's faster tempo, so between the stages of a ballad and dance song. It's hard to explain, but definitely check it out! As for Full Moon, this song and MV is awesome! And fits today's timing! In the MV Sunmi is a vampire and is seducing a young man to be her lover and turn him. WoooooOOOOoooo~~, scary! Well, not really, but it's a great music video and doesn't go overboard with the Vampire theme. It's almost simple in that respect, but done masterfully. The song is awesome, another one of those songs with a faster tempo, not a ballad, but not quite the norm as far as pop music. If you check out any of these songs, I would definitely suggest Full Moon being at least one!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">02. Super Junior Donghae & Eunhyuk - Ride Me </span>Released: February 26, 2014 [112 Points]</b><br />
Late February saw the release of Super Junior's Donghae & Eunhyuk's first full Japanese album Ride Me. Included in the 13 tracks are the previously released singles Oppa, Oppa (amazing song) and I Wanna Dance (also a great song). The promotional single off the album is the song Motorcycle. It's the same kind of dance pop song that one would expect from Donghae and Eunhyuk. It's a great fun song, and makes me giggle a lot at the double entendre English! :) However, my favorite songs (besides the previously released) are definitely Android Syndrome and Hello. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kCzNcfP7-o" target="_blank">Android Syndrome</a> is along the same lines musically as Motorcycle, and just a fun song! "You're my adrenaline!" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJYW7VqpDLI" target="_blank">Hello</a> is a little on a different pace, with a slower tempo and more of a pop-ballad. It's just a fun song in general and another great one to sing along too! As for the Motorcycle MV, you just need to watch it for yourself. And trust me the giggles will arise when watching them as "bikers." Plus we get a great surprise cameo from Siwon and a great dance complete with the backup dancers acting as motorcycles! I know I say this a lot, but this is definitely a must watch MV, if nothing else then for the lolz factors! :)<br />
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<b>And as we have another Japanese release, <a href="http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/SUPER-JUNIOR-DONGHAE-%2526amp%253B-EUNHYUK---MOTORCYCLE/53854ca91f5588c73880fe89f060834d" target="_blank">here is a link</a> to a good HD version of the Music Video! ;)</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">01. BAP - First Sensibility </span>Released: February 3, 2014 [136 Points]</b><br />
Early February saw the first full album release from popular Male Group BAP. The album, containing 13 tracks, has 1004 (Angel) as it's promotional song. Fun side note, for those that don't know Korean, how you pronounce 1004 is <i>cheonsa</i>, which is also the word for Angel. Hence the English name of the song! Okay, I'm going to say it, 1004 is my favorite BAP. This song is just magic for me and I really doubt that BAP can release something that will topple it from the top. It's just great with Zelo and Yong Guk's rapping through out and the great guitar riffs that really just kick the song up a notch! I just can't get over how great this song was for BAP, well at least how great it was in my book! :) And just for kicks since they've topped my chart, we'll go ahead and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIcMHPooJjQ" target="_blank">post a live video</a> as well. The dance is pretty cool for the song. As for the rest of the album, I really liked <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzMyQ1nnzBk" target="_blank">Bang x2</a>, a more rock style song that's really fun to sing along too and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brEFFKAXzTI" target="_blank">Save Me</a>, a slower song that's a little more rock and uptempo than the normal kpop ballad but great. Actually, now that I think about it, these to songs are also in my top 5 of BAP's songs. They're both really great! Well back on track a little, the video is a little weird, and I really want to know where Yong Guk is with that giant bone formation. And why isn't he blocked off from just digging there? It makes no sense. But as I mentioned before, the song is awesome-sauce! :)<br />
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And there you have it folks! February is finally up! Stay tuned for March and soon after Quarter 1 of 2014! As always, here is the link once again to the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxhIZVHZS9TJ-RAwatcQkzwq" target="_blank">Youtube Playlist</a>.Questions, comments, concerns, and random scribbles are always welcome and highly encouraged!<br />
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<br />Stasi ♫Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-80323566453030161552014-08-14T20:43:00.000-06:002014-10-28T22:40:01.631-06:00Top 15 Albums of February 2014 - Part 1I am finally back! I am so sorry for those that were following along! I really suck at updating in a timely manner, but I do have all of my formulas finalized through June, including Quarters 1 and 2 as well as the first half of the year! What I'm going to try to do here is get caught up by the end of August (by Tacticon)! So expect quite a few posts within the next couple weeks! :) Also, I have created a <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/08/20132014-master-list.html" target="_blank">Master-List</a> and will be updating it with each post, so you can always go there if you're looking for a specific month or time period! Let's get started with February! :)<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxhIZVHZS9TJ-RAwatcQkzwq">YouTube Playlist</a> for February 2014</div>
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| <span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Part 1</span> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/10/top-15-albums-of-february-2014-part-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a> |</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">15. Alphabat - Attention </span>Released: February 25, 2014 [77 Points]</b></div>
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In late February rookie boy group Alphabat brought fans their first mini-album "Attention." The promotion song off of the album is 딴따라 (Ttan tta ra) and more of a hip-hop style song. Also on the album was previously released ABCity, Always, and Surprise Party. As for my own thoughts, I wasn't drawn to Ttanttara right away, but the more I heard it (thanks to my Alphabat obsessed shuffle) I found my self jamming to the chorus and singing along after only a few listens. As for the rest of the mini-album, I enjoyed ABCity when it was released in 2013, but my favorite song off of the album is definitely <a href="http://youtu.be/w1d-ueF6ac8" target="_blank">Always</a>. Always is more of a pop-ballad with a little bit of R&B flavors. I find the song just really pretty and swaying when my iPod shuffles it up! I feel like the raps in Always also fit. They have a bit of sadness in the tone and it doesn't seem odd or random at all (as some raps in Kpop do). Anyways, definitely click the link above to listen to Always! It really is a pretty song! As for the MV for Ttanttara, it's a more harder and darker style similar to BAP's Warrior. I also find it interesting and unique that their dance uses a police baton with a flashlight as a prop. It's very different. Check it out, if for anything, then the chorus that will get stuck in your head and the snazzy dance! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">14. Pro C - Love Hurts </span>Released: February 5, 2014 [81 Points]</b></div>
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Pro C, short for "Problem Child" debuted in late 2013. Love Hurts is their 2nd Digital Single and includes their previously released debut song Bad Memory featuring K.Will. Love Hurts features solo singer Ailee! Okay, this two song digital single is amazing! I love both songs. For those that don't know about Pro C, they are from JTune Camp (the company started by Global Superstar Rain and also home to MBLAQ). So I completely missed their debut and honestly listened to this single for Ailee. She's definitely in the top 5 of my favorite solo artists. So Pro C are actually a duo that focuses on rapping, hence the two features in their songs. Love Hurts is a great song and the MV is what you can expect from a song called Love Hurts. But the reason why these two songs have so many points is due to <a href="http://youtu.be/RDsn-ez8H88" target="_blank">Bad Memory</a>. I love K.Will, also one of the top solo artists in my book (he even has his own playlist!), and I find that this song is just....how should I put it....Magic? This is the most played song from February, the next closest being Sunmi (see February Part 2 when it's up), but that's 15+ plays behind. This song just does it for me. I love the vocals, I love the rapping, I love the melody, and it's just amazing. If you only have time to watch/listen to one of the songs, I will definitely push you towards Bad Memory! :) The MV is cool, with them being in shadows and mysterious (and no K.Will as per usual), but the song is really why you need to hear. Click above or right <a href="http://youtu.be/RDsn-ez8H88" target="_blank">here</a>! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">13. 2NE1 - Crush </span>Released: February 27, 2014 [83 Points]</b></div>
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In the end of February top girl group from YG 2ne1 released their second full Korean album Crush. Now, disclaimer, I am not a blackjack (2ne1's fanclub). I like Dara and I find 2ne1 promotes well and are really talented. I also respect them heavily for what they bring to the mainstream Kpop industry. However, a lot of their songs I just have a hard time getting into. Especially their earlier stuff. Don't get me wrong, they have a few songs that I love from them, but I find I either love it or don't. No middle ground. Disclaimer over. So, I do have to say that I enjoyed a bigger chunk of this album compared to previous releases. The title song Come Back Home however, I just have issues with. I start getting into the song with the verse and when I expect super powerful vocals from Bom for the chorus, we get a weird electronic breakdown. To put it in a metaphor, it's like hiking and you can see the summit and you are almost at the top, but you suddenly go crashing back to the bottom of the mountain. It just ruins the song for me. However, my favorite song off the album is <a href="http://youtu.be/mOUtXfhlWQk" target="_blank">Scream</a>. It doesn't have any sudden cliffs and I find that this song just works! Listen to it! Going back to Come Back Home, the music video is really cool (outside of the weird electronic breaks) and very moving and powerful! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">11. Park Ji Yoon - Inner Space </span>Released: February 17, 2014 [87 Points]</b></div>
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Mid-February saw the comeback of Model/Actress/Singer Park Ji Yoon with her digital single Inner Space. This single includes two songs, both with music videos, Beep and Inner Space. Of the two, I enjoy both, but I listen to Beep more. Inner Space is slower more funky type of pop-ballad. Beep however is completely funky and just a lot of fun to dance to, especially the "What? What? What? What?" part in the middle! I will put the Beep MV below. Beep is kind of mashed up with old videos from Soul Train (a dance/music show popular in the 70's) and has an older, funkier feel. We also get fun cameos from Jay Park, Yoo Jaesuk, Haha, and a few other popular comedians in Korea. I like the styling they did for Park Ji Yoon as well, a more modern and "stylish" feel of the 70's outfits for today's fashion! It's a great song and fun MV, so definitely check it out. If you want to watch the Inner Space MV, click <a href="http://youtu.be/2IhEHEch0io" target="_blank">here</a>! It's not as fun or entertaining, but the song is good! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">11. Girl's Generation - Mr.Mr. </span>Released: February 24, 2014 [87 Points]</b></div>
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SNSD is back! Like 2ne1, I have this weird love/hate relationship with Girl's Generation. However, GG is back! The title song Mr.Mr. has more of the feeling of the SNSD songs I fell in love with (back before The Boys and that one song that shouldn't have been released...) and I enjoy every single song on the album. That's right, every single one! My favorite off the album is definitely <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO_1yKHIDdo" target="_blank">Goodbye</a>. It's more of a slower song, but almost a happy pop-<span id="goog_575388521"></span><span id="goog_575388522"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>ballad. It just doesn't give me the "I need to go sit in a dark corner and gorge myself on ice cream until I stop crying" type of feeling. Not that I've ever done that..... But anyways, it's a great song. Mr.Mr. is great too, but the MV is a little weird. Let's just say if any of the girls say they are opening a hospital in the future someone needs to stop them. However, I enjoyed the dance. And can I just say something, SNSD are the sexiest I've ever seen them. One of their dance outfits is a fitted suit with fedora and all of them just look sexy as all heck. Way sexier than with their short skirts and weird hospital garb. I just really found it nice, partly because it didn't seem like they were trying to hard to be sexy. Anyways, definitely check out their new(ish) song Mr.Mr. and the entire album if you haven't already! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">9. CN Blue - Can't Stop </span>Released: February 24, 2014 [89 Points]</b></div>
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CN Blue made their comeback with their fifth Korean mini-album Can't Stop late February. Keeping true to their pop-rock style and fun songs, CN Blue doesn't disappoint once again! Can't Stop starts out a little slow with Younghwa playing the piano, which caused fans like me (who prefer the more faster rhythm songs) to hold their breath. However, CN Blue reaches a climax at the end of the verse and pulls out the "rock" strings at that point! The song is entirely full of swells, but it doesn't seem like odd changes. The rise and fall of the melody and tempo seem very natural. The MV is as per usual for CN Blue, complete with a foreigner (yay!) and just general band playing areas and Younghwa following our leading lady around somewhat creepily. However, I really enjoyed the raining inside part at the start of the second verse (1:38 on the MV). There was also some cool tricks done with the giant mirror/one way window. As for the rest of the album, my favorite song is definitely <a href="http://youtu.be/JInofF6Eafw" target="_blank">Diamond Girl</a>. Diamond Girl is along their usual style of songs (without the slow ballady intro) and features spelling! I don't know why, but when it's done right and appropriately, I really enjoy spelling of words in songs. Sings "You are my D-I A-M O-N-D Gi~~rl!" Such a great song! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">9. DBSK - Spellbound </span>Released: February 27, 2014 [89 Points]</b></div>
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The end of February (so many came out around this time) also saw the repackaged version of DBSK's 7th album Tense. The repackaged version was titled Spellbound, also the title song. Spellbound is along the same lines as Something with a big brass sound, a little jazzy and definitely with a big band flavor! And let me just say, if you didn't know already, I love the big band era and Frank Sinatra is my favorite all time ever across the globe singer. But back to DBSK! The MV is pretty cool, another one of the single take dance videos from SM. But I really enjoyed the dancing, and the back-up dancers certainly were an integral part of the video and I think did really well! The only thing, THE ONLY THING! Them dancing with trumpets, cool! However, the part of me (like 90%) that is a band geek (woot, woot!) just wanted to shake those girls and say "THAT IS NOT HOW YOU PLAY A TRUMPET!" But, the dance was still cool! As for the reset of the album, the only other new songs on the repackage are solos by Yunho and Changmin, both more along the ballad lines and not really as jammin' as Spellbound! I think Spellbound is the best off the album, all versions included!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">8. Kim Bada - Moonage Dream </span>Released: February 19, 2014 [93 Points]</b></div>
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In February we also saw the comeback from legendary Korean rocker Kim Bada. His second solo album is titled Moonage Dream, also featured the title song of the same name. Moonage Dream is a great album (I'm always willing to listen to more rock) and is definitely what I would call "feel good rock." He has some great messages throughout the album and it's just overall a great piece of work. What one would expect to come from Kim Bada! Moonage Dream and the first track on the album are my favorites, the first track being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7PhMIerGkQ" target="_blank">이기적인 너</a> (Royal Straight). If you are into rock, definitely check out this music video and the album!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">7. Nell - Newton's Apple </span>Released: February 27, 2014 [97 Points]</b></div>
The end of February also brought fans the third and final release in the Korean Indie Rock Band Nell's "Gravity Trilogy." Newton's Apple was released in a two-disc set that included 11 new songs as well as the songs from the previous two parts (Holding Onto Gravity and Escaping Gravity). This is their sixth full album. The title song off the album is 지구가 태양을 네번 (Four Times Around the Sun) and is one of their slower songs. The music video is great, and I particularly love the artistic feel without it being super in-your-face artistic (Red Light anyone?). I really enjoyed the way they switched between the different band members' scenes. My favorite song off the album is actually the title song from part one of the trilogy 백야 (White Light). You can watch its MV <a href="http://youtu.be/filhfToaks0" target="_blank">here</a>!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">6. Ga In - Truth or Dare </span>Released: February 6, 2014 [102 Points]</b><br />
And Ga In breaks into the 100s points-wise and finishes up Part 1! Hot after her prereleased track Fxxk U (see <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/top-15-albums-of-january-2014-part-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1 of January 2014</a>) Ga In's third mini-album Truth or Dare was released early February. The title song, Truth or Dare, is fun play on rumors in the entertainment industry and how it can affect idols. In this version however, Ga In portrays that if people want to listen to rumors, it's their own fault. If they aren't true eventually the ones who get hurt are the ones that cause the rumors. She's just happy people are talking about her! The song has a super catchy melody and I really enjoy the more jazzy feel to the song. The music video pokes fun/mimics Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," however I think this one is more tastefully done, and I definitely like the song WAY better. There are actually two music videos, the performance one is <a href="http://youtu.be/dmUwNaIEZ1g" target="_blank">here</a> if you just want to watch the dance. The other version is interspersed with idols and staff "talking bad" about Ga In. That one is posted below. And for those that don't really know, I think it's funny because from what I've come across, the exact opposite is true. As for the rest of the album, my favorite song is definitely <a href="http://youtu.be/_IFSwlVRaMs" target="_blank">Black & White</a>. It has the same type of feel as Truth and Dare with not strictly "pop" genre, but I like it just a little more! Maybe because it was produced by Lee Hyori, yes THE Lee Hyori!<br />
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So there we have it! Part 1 of February 2014! Expect Part 2 to be up soon! As always, here is the link once again to the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxhIZVHZS9TJ-RAwatcQkzwq" target="_blank">Youtube Playlist for February</a>! Questions, comments, concerns, and random scribbles are always welcome and highly encouraged!<br />
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Stasi ♫Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-33493068419284327812014-08-14T15:30:00.002-06:002014-10-28T22:39:46.093-06:002013/2014 MASTER-LISTHello! Welcome to My Master-list! Below you will find links to all of the posts I have made! Feel free to roam about at your pleasure! :)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Monthly</u></b></span></div>
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<li>January 2014: <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/top-15-albums-of-january-2014-part-1.html">Part 1</a> ~ <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/05/top-15-albums-of-january-2014-part-2.html">Part </a><a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/05/top-15-albums-of-january-2014-part-2.html">2</a></li>
<li>February 2014: <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/08/top-15-albums-of-february-2014-part-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> ~ <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/10/top-15-albums-of-february-2014-part-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a></li>
<li>March 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
<li>April 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
<li>May 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
<li>June 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
<li>July 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
<li>August 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
<li>September 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
<li>October 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
<li>November 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
<li>December 2014: Part 1 ~ Part 2</li>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Quarterly</u></b></span></div>
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<li>2014 Quarter 1 (January - March): Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3</li>
<li>2014 Quarter 2 (April - June): Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3</li>
<li>2014 Quarter 3 (July - September): Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3</li>
<li>2014 Quarter 4 (October - December): Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3</li>
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<li>2014 Half 1 (January - June): Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3</li>
<li>2014 Half 2 (July - December): Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3</li>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Yearly</u></b></span></div>
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<li>2013 Top 50 Albums: <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-50-41.html">Part 1</a> ~ <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-40-31.html">Part 2</a> ~ <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-30-21.html">Part 3</a> ~ <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-20-11.html">Part 4</a> ~ <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-10-01.html">Par</a><a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-10-01.html">t 5</a></li>
<li>2014 Top 50 Albums: Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5</li>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Miscellaneous</u></b></span></div>
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<li><a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/surprise-2014-comeback-top-25-most.html">My Top 25 Songs of 2013 (Based on Plays)</a></li>
<li>My Top 25 Songs of 2014 (Based on Plays)</li>
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Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-41425805472597548312014-05-03T17:28:00.000-06:002014-05-03T17:31:22.389-06:00Top 15 Albums of January 2014 - Part 2So I'm back with part two of the Top 14 Albums of January 2014! This will be the top five albums, the other ten in the previous blog post (see part one below). I won't blabber too much here, so let's get started. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxhD2X1G7fr3WZI6gJZggd-N">YouTube Playlist</a> if you usually check the videos out that way!<br />
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| <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/top-15-albums-of-january-2014-part-1.html">Part 1</a> | <span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Part 2</span> | </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">05. Dal Shabet - BBB </span>[104 Points] Released: January 8, 2013 </b></div>
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Early January fan saw Dal Shabet's comeback with their seventh mini-album BBB. BBB stands for Big Baby Baby. The album concept and music video is a little darker compared to Dal Shabet's previous releases and really focused on showing their more mature side. BBB keeps a little bit of the disco feel that Dal Shabet is known for, but I have to say I still like some of their previous works a little more. However, I definitely like this song, especially when compared to other girl band releases in January. Girl's Day released around the same time (they end up doing that a lot) and I have to go with BBB over Something with like 60 to 40 percentiles. As for the rest of the mini-album, I really liked <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1swIYwAD2ro">Rewind</a> as well. Anyways, the music video is pretty simple, but has some interesting choreography at parts. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">04. Kim Jaejoong - WWW Makeup Repackage </span>[115 Points] Released: January 20, 2014 </b></div>
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Yes I know that Kim Jaejoong's WWW was released in 2013 and ended up as number 2 in the <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-10-01.html">Top 50 Albums of 2013</a>, but he released a repackaged version in late January with two new songs. Since I've already gone over the rest of the album, I'll just share my thoughts here on the new ones. My favorite of the two is Makeup, a remake of a Japanese song I believe. Here is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ugtpKWUzOU">video</a> with English subs. It's such a pretty ballad that has a lot of emotion both in his vocals and in the melody. The other song is another ballad, but a duet with talented female solo artist Gummy. The name of the song is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qIW0d0uUiQ">Heaven</a> and is also really pretty. Jaejoong is so freaking talented, pulling off some more rock songs, and then pulling out ballads like this. Gummy really fits with the duet well and I really like the way their voices harmonize. Well, as for the music video, I'll just post Just Another Girl Again. It's still the video that goes with this album, so enjoy again if you want! XD </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">03. B1A4 - Who Am I </span>[117 Points] Released: January 13, 2014</b></div>
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B1A4 came back with their second studio album in January! Over half of the songs on the album were actually produced by leader Jinyoung. One of them being the promotion song Lonely, with Jinyoung and Baro (the rapper) writing the lyrics. Being super excited for B1A4's comeback, I was a little disappointed at first with the slower song and not as much covered in the pizzazz that usually accompanies B1A4. However I think it fits well with the Korean industry's usual winter songs (I don't know why everyone things Autumn and Winter means ballads?). However after listening to the song a few times and throwing away my predispositions, I really came to love Lonely. Even though it's more of a Ballad, there still is a feel of it being B1A4, especially just listening to the song itself. I also found the dance choreography pretty interesting and it even has a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmBwMGWU1og">practice video</a> (I love those if you haven't noticed!)! As for the music video, it has a lot of snowy shots and is more depressing, but I did like the way that Jinyoung's girl turned into a balloon and the scenes with them on the couch. As for the rest of the album, I really liked <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a0a56_hd-b1a4-who-am-i-member-color-coded-english-sub-romanization-hangul_music">Who Am I</a>. It was also produced by Jinyoung with the lyrics by Jinyoung and Baro. It's style is more closer to their previous releases, except it sounds a little more mature. Definitely check it out if you haven't heard it before. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">02. Seo Inguk - Everlasting </span>[137 Points] Released: January 15, 2014</b></div>
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Seo Inguk released his first full album in Japan halfway through January. It has a few of the previous singles he's released there, as well as a smattering of new ones. I really love Seo Inguk's voice and was super excited to see a new release! I really love this album, with a good chunk of the songs having over 30 plays each! The promotion song for the album is Everlasting Love, a ballad (no surprise here) with a sad, reminiscent music video. It's a pretty song, but not one of my favorites. In no particular order, my favorite songs off the album are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXjrGEuL-gM">Toxic Girl</a>, <a href="http://nhacso.net/nghe-nhac/space-de-tour.X1tTVkdabw==.html">Space de Tour</a>, <a href="http://nhacso.net/nghe-nhac/hands-up.X1tTVkdabg==.html">Hands Up!</a>, and <a href="http://nhacso.net/nghe-nhac/lovely-girl.X1tTVkdbag==.html">Lovely Girl</a>. All are a little more in pop genre, except for Lovely Girl; it's more of a pop-ballad I guess. I'm really hoping Seo Inguk releases something else this year, and soon! I can't wait to hear what he does next. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">01. Rain - Rain Effect </span>[142 Points] Released: January 2, 2014</b></div>
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January 2014 saw the return of World Star Rain! His first release since 2011 and after completing his military service, Rain released Rain Effect, his sixth studio album. Along with the album, two music videos were released. 30 Sexy and LA Song were the two chosen promotion songs and both have music videos. LA Song is my favorite of the two songs and music videos, but I love them both! 30 Sexy is pretty much just Rain dancing (which is always amazing). LA Song is a more fun music video, with Rain dancing as well as other "random" people. Since this will be a shorter post, I'll go ahead and post both videos below! I was so happy Rain was coming back, I've been a big fan of his since <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3T_FqYBaBk">Rainism</a> and <a href="http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Full_House">Full House</a> (the kdrama). His first glimpse of a comeback came during the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L45Y2r7wR8">2013 MAMA</a> awards. And boy was I surprised. We had to pause it while I completely fangirled out and got super duper excited. The rest of the album is pretty good, my other favorite songs being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAfnYJXzbCY">Superman</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=carGc79-VL0">Found Out</a>. </div>
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January is officially done and over! Stay tuned for February (hopefully I'll start knocking this out faster!)! As always, here is the link to the YouTube Playlist. Keep rockin' and enjoyin' music from around the world! Any questions or comments below will be answered! Until next time! </div>
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Stasi ♫Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-4790801232419583732014-04-23T20:02:00.000-06:002014-05-03T17:30:52.902-06:00Top 15 Albums of January 2014 - Part 1Hello fellow Music Lovers! I'm finally getting started on 2014's Music! Before we get into the nitty-gritty of it, just a side note. I just noticed the last post was my 50th! And it was the top 10! If only I noticed before! Anyway, I just wanted to thank those few that have been with me pretty much from the start!<br />
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Now on to music related things. I have finally came to a decision on how to do countdowns for the smaller amounts of time. I will be doing the top 15 for every month, top 25 for every quarter (three months), top 30 for half years, and top 50 for the entire years (like previously). If you're curious, I just figure I could go through and figure out how I want to split the posts up within the rankings, and it looks like we'll go with two a month, three every three months and six months, and five to close out the year! Yeah, so now it's solidified, lets get started with January!<br />
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And as per usual, the link to the videos in playlist form on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxhD2X1G7fr3WZI6gJZggd-N">YouTube here</a>!<br />
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|<span style="color: #6fa8dc;"> Part 1</span> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/05/top-15-albums-of-january-2014-part-2.html">Part 2</a> | </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">15. Kiss&Cry - Domino Game </span>[60 Points] Released: January 24, 2014 </b></div>
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Domino Game is the debut song of a new four member girl group known as Kiss&Cry. Oh my goodness do these girls have some vocal power. For being a new group, most of the members have previous debuts and have done work in previous groups or as a soloist. They're concept is also more sexier for their debut, and it didn't feel as forced as others tend to be. I am so impressed by this new group and can't wait to see what else they do in the future. They are also pretty <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpF9ScmG5zo">good live</a>, so definitely watch it if you enjoy live shows! As for the song itself, it has a really fun and funky Latin vibe with trumpets galore. It's one of those songs where I just sing and dance along while folding my laundry. It's just got a fun beat! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">14. A-Prince - Yes Or No </span>[61 Points] Released: January 15, 2014 </b></div>
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Mid January newer boy band A-Prince released the single Yes Or No. This is a more normal dance pop Kpop song, and my favorite of A-Prince's. I especially really like the chorus. It's so much fun to sing along too! As for the music video, they are a new band and not from one of the top production companies. It's a little disappointing, but they do upload their music videos with English subtitles which it nice to see for international fans. The music video, just seems like a B-movie. But, if anything just focus on the lyrics. The song is really solid and one of my favorites of 2014 so far! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">13. GaIn - Fxxk U </span>[64 Points] Released: January 27, 2014 </b></div>
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News of GaIn's impending comeback came out in January along with a risque and sexy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x5tRFKCN10">teaser</a> for a pre-release single. Now, for those of you who know me personally know that I'm not very fond of cussing and very rarely do so myself. I just find it a turn off a lot of the time. However, there are times where I've seen where those types of words are needed to get across a certain message. I think that this song is one of those few cases. Going into the lyrics, Fxxk U tells the story of a couple (played by Gain and actor Joo Ji Hoon [I love him]) that in a relationship that is intense, rocky, and both physically and emotionally abusive. It has such a strong message, which is something I really respect about Gain, and Brown Eyed Girls in general. When songs like this come out, I really am grateful to those artists (no matter where they are) for trying to bring to light issues that plague humanity. Yeah, so going back to something a little more light hearted, Bumkey features in this song (he has a really good R&B voice). I will post the music video below, but just be warned that it could be a little graphic at times. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">12. Ailee - Singing Got Better </span>[68 Points] Released: January 6, 2014 </b></div>
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Ailee cameback in early January with her third digital single, Singing Got Better. Singing Got Better is more of a Rock Ballad that really shows off Ailee's power voice once again. Everything I hear from her just has such power to her vocals. And live, she's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c7AdAugkmw">incredible</a>. I would love to see Ailee in concert one day. As for the music video, it's in a flashback format. We have Ailee famous and reflecting on a previous relationship that ended badly when she was still training. Lee Joon from MBLAQ plays her opposite. Yes, the song is a little slower, but it just has so much power. If you've enjoyed previous works of Ailee I've posted, definitely check this out as well if you haven't! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">11. Got7 - Got It? </span>[78 Points] Released: January 20, 2014</b></div>
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January brought JYP Entertainment's new boy band's debut, GOT7. The promotional song for their debut album is Girls Girls Girls. It's a hip hop style song produced by JYP (because that's a surprise XP) and is said to have JYP's style of Swag. I enjoyed the song, although the lyrics are pretty cocky. But hey, it fits the concept they were going for. The dancing is pretty awesome and fun. Here's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKFrVY2GNVo">practice video</a> to show more of the dance that also has large name tags! I also really like the editing with the different split screens. I really like what JYP Entertainment does with their music videos, and this one is another on that very long list. For my readers out their more into hip hop, definitely check out Girls Girls Girls (and let me know what you think). Plus we also get Sohee (from Wonder Girls) famous "Omana" featured throughout the song. Back to the album, I also really liked <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZxw3yGOcfM">Like Oh</a>. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">10. Royal Pirates - Drawing the Line </span>[81 Points] Released: January 15, 2014 </b></div>
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Finally mid-January we got the first extended play (EP) from Royal Pirates, Drawing the Line! Royal Pirates is a Korean-American indie rock band that have been pretty big on YouTube for a while and I'm glad they have finally officially debuted. The title song is Drawing the Line, and the EP contained two versions, one in Korean and one in English! The official music video is in Korean (obviously), but here is a link to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M6zHsRfZhI">English version</a> as well! I love the fun song and music video, and really enjoy the flavor of rock music that Royal Pirates produces! I can't wait to see what they'll release next! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">09. DBSK - Tense </span>[82 Points] Released: January 6, 2014 </b></div>
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Early January we saw DBSK's seventh album release Tense. This album was also in celebration of their 10th year anniversary, which occurred December 26th. The title song is Something and has a big band and swing jazz feel to it that really struck a cord with me. For those that aren't aware, if I were to pick my favorite singer of all time, my number one has been Frank Sinatra for years and I grew up with my dad singing his songs all the time. But back to DBSK, talking album wise, I just wasn't as grabbed as I was with Something. Something has the most plays, with the second most only being played three times. I feel bad, but as an entire album, it just didn't grab me at this time in life. Who knows though, maybe three years down the road it'll be exactly what I need to listen to. But back to Something, the music video was true to SM's style, but the dance was pretty nifty with all of the string work. I really liked the little shuffle step during the chorus as well. And oh my goodness! Look at all those foreigners! XD </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">08. K-Much - Beyond the Ocean </span>[86 Points] Released: January 7, 2014</b></div>
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January 7th saw the debut of a new five member boy band, known as K-Much internationally. Their debut album is Beyond the Ocean, with the promotion song Good to Go. Having only three songs (as well as the instrumental versions) made their first foray small, but impressive. I enjoy all three of the songs, my favorite is either Good to Go or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khmbnbRQryk">I'm Sorry</a>; but I also really like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHjFJFXyXPI">What Should I Do?</a> Anyway, I'm pretty impressed with their first album and look forward to what else they'll release!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">06. J-Min - Cross the Border </span>[91 Points] Released: January 22, 2014</b></div>
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J-Min is a Korean singer-songwriter under SM, but she's mainly active in Japan. She covers a bunch of genres, most of them fitting into what I would call feel good pop rock. She's released a few singles and mini-albums before, but Cross the Border is her first Studio Album. It has a few of the songs she previously released, as well as two from a single that was cancelled. I love a lot of the songs, but since there's no official promotion song (that I could find), I'll be posting one of the music videos from one of her previous singles that is included on the album. It's called If You Want. She also has a video for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EpTsORQYxA">Heart Theater</a>. As for the rest of the album, my favorite song is <a href="http://nhacso.net/nghe-nhac/earth-aholic.X1tTVUNYaw==.html">Earth-aholic</a> followed closely by <a href="http://nhacso.net/nghe-nhac/knock-the-walls-down.X1tTVUNZZg==.html">Knock the Walls Down</a> and <a href="http://nhacso.net/nghe-nhac/knock-the-walls-down.X1tTVUNZZg==.html">Song On My Guitar</a>.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">06. Girl's Day - Everyday III </span>[91 Points] Released: January 3, 2014</b></div>
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Early 2014 brought about Girl's Day's release of their third mini-album. The promotion song selected was Something, a slower but more sultry song. Girl's Day amped up their sex appeal as they get older and I think they did it well without seeming to off or just wrong with this dance and music video. I still prefer their more pop songs though. As for the rest of the album, I also really enjoyed their song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMh-RXLoQy8">Whistle</a>. </div>
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Alright, well there is Part 1! Stay tuned for the top 5 albums of January (hopefully will go out sometime this week)! As always, stay jamming! Once again here is the videos in a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxhD2X1G7fr3WZI6gJZggd-N">YouTube Playlist</a>. Comments are always loved and answered!</div>
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Stasi ♫Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-23053639807634999782014-04-08T02:02:00.001-06:002014-04-08T02:07:14.302-06:00My Top 50 Albums of 2013: 10-01Finally, we are finishing the countdown of 2013! I'll save my thoughts until it's actually over (the end of the post), so let's get started with the final ten albums! And as always, here is the link to my <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxgr688B3Mfqm4ncQQC8Y1ba">Youtube playlist</a>!<br />
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| <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-50-41.html">Part 1</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-40-31.html">Part 2</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-30-21.html">Part 3</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-20-11.html">Part 4</a> | <span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Part 5</span> | </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">10. U-Kiss - Inside of Me </span>[257 Points] Released: July 24, 2013 </b></div>
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In 2013 Kiss Me's (U-Kiss' fanclub name) were graced with U-Kiss' second full Japanese album. Beside adding several of their previously released single songs, the album used it's namesake song for promotions. The way I feel about Inside of Me is that it's a good, but interesting mix of pop and ballad styles. Just listening to the instrumental track, it could be a superb pop song, especially if we kick the bpm up a little. However the music is paired with U-Kiss singing more in a ballad style that gives it a nice song that can fit in both of my slow and pop playlists. Even the rap is a little more slowed down to match the overall feel that just the lyrics give. The music video is fairly straight forward, with U-Kiss belting it out in various dimly lit rooms and giving sad yet hopeful faces. Plus we get AJ since he was on a break from Columbia University! I love the black and white clothing choices, especially in the apocalypse room. Except for Hoon. <a href="http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n96/guinluvsc/444091332_640.jpg">Poor Hoon</a> looks like he got attacked by zombies, so they used someone's pants to make a giant chest bandage for him. (Oh, and side note, U-Kiss, you're doing it wrong. If you are going to board up the windows, don't use such flimsy boards and leave more than enough holes for the zombies to come through. Just saying.) Back to the album, it generally has a more ballad feel to it, besides the singles that were compiled into the album that I love (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUe7S0qW7zQ">Alone</a> anyone?), I also really like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkHK47a-da8">Play Back</a> (more pop-rock) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z8JzgXru18">The Only One</a>. Also, I just want to point out that the Intro and Interlude songs that U-Kiss usually have are really good and sometimes I find myself listening to them more than the actually songs. Don't know why, but I guess they do them right! (Especially in their latest Japanese Album!) Alright, I think that's enough ranting for now, because I could go on more, but I don't want to bore you! If you made it this far (I know it's just the first one), thank you! Without further ado, here is the PV for Inside of Me (yes it's the short version; Why Japan, WHY?). </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">09. Kerli - Utopia </span>[264 Points] Released: March 19, 2013 </b></div>
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I was super excited before 2013 even rolled around knowing that Kerli was planning on releasing a full album in early 2013. I stumbled across Kerli when her first album came out in 2008. I stumbled across one of the songs on YouTube while at work in the basement of Candelaria. After that I was hooked. I googled her and looked up everything she had done before that point. I was such a fan of Kerli because her first few singles and album were super unique and so original compared to anything I had heard before. So this led to my excitement for her next album. I will say however that my first impression of Utopia was fairly bad. Most of the songs fit into the European Electronica genre and felt like it was missing the certain uniqueness I was expecting based off of her previous songs. After not listening to it after a week or so and sitting down to listen to it with a fresh mind, I liked it a lot more knowing what to expect musically. I once again enjoy 90% of the album, with two songs not necessarily fitting my tastes. And a few of her songs actually have some uniqueness, just not of the same variety from before. Since I love almost all of the songs, I could post links to all of them, but I think I'll just post a select few. Okay, this will be tough, I should try to do this objectively. So the songs I am going to share with you are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnvO8eGXkIw">Sugar</a> (not as electronica and more similar to her previous unique songs), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n2pEqamm8s">Last Breath</a> (my favorite song off the album and my most played), and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9CMLn7d6CY">Chemical</a> (a more acoustic feeling ballad). Also on the album is <a href="http://youtu.be/MEkS_mQ0GlI">Zero Gravity</a>, one of my favorite Kerli songs of all time and one that was previously released as a single. If you haven't listened to any of Kerli's stuff before and you are interested in more Indie, feel-good, pop/folk, weirdness, please click here and at least check out her Music Videos (there are four more that have been shared in this post, one from the Tim Burton's remake of <u>Alice in Wonderland</u>!). Side note, she also have really fun and quirky fashion!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">08. Super Junior-M - Breakdown </span>[288 Points] Released: January 7, 2013 </b></div>
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The first week into 2013, started one of my favorite Kpop boy bands' sub-unit released a new album! This is their second album and was a comeback for the unit, after not released anything since Perfection in 2011. I was super excited (as one can expect) and totally love Breakdown (the promotion single). It is one of those songs that just gets me nodding my head and singing along (in nowhere near correct Chinese). They released two version, one in Korean and one in Chinese. For those that do not know, Super Junior-M is a sub-unit of Super Junior that mainly promotes in China; the M standing for Mandarin. Besides Breakdown, my favorite song is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8_060FRgMM">It's You</a> and has the same amount of plays as Breakdown (+/-1). As for the MV, I have embedded the Chinese version below, but if you would rather watch the Korean one, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgdbf--9es8">here is the link</a>! Both versions are pretty much the same, just with different audio. It's also a classic Super Junior music video, with the group just dancing in oddly lit rooms interspersed with singing close-ups and the members getting attacked by feathers. Also, I just want to point out that Siwon is wearing a fuzzy hat, and that is odd, and that is all. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">07. Gackt - Best of the Best: Mild & Wild </span>[309 Points] Released: July 3, 2013 </b></div>
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In the summer of 2013, Japanese star Gackt released a compilation album split into two CDs. Mild contains more of his pop and ballad songs, while Wild tends to have more of his rock songs. I love this compilation album. It's always been on my list to go through and see what I'm missing from Gackt's discography that I love, but now I don't necessarily have to anymore! Also each version has one new song, Mild's being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0hpbJvyMLg">Sakura, Chiru...</a> and Wild's being Claymore. My favorite of the two is definitely Claymore. This album just has A LOT of good songs, and all of my favorite Gackt songs. Looking at the Mild version, my favorite is definitely <a href="http://youtu.be/C3Uw9YClm2E">Ghost</a> and has been my favorite Gackt song of all time since it's release in 2010. Seriously click the link to watch the PV, it has really cool choreography and is an awesome song (and has clips from <u>The Sarah Connor Chronicles</u> since it was used as a promo song for the show in Japan)! As for the rest of the Mild version, I also really like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBTuGQq9K0M">Missing</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb83fmI47KQ">Vanilla</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHvoJ3bP52k">Dispar</a>. Even though I tend to choose rock over pop most of the time, I definitely listen to the Mild version more than the Wild. Wild still has some great songs on it. We have the new song Claymore (the PV below), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kahscNQIUhE">Jesus</a> (one of my favorite Gack PVs after Ghost), and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aBChrgoXgQ">Ever</a>. To try to keep this short (we aren't even half way done), here is the PV for Claymore. Definitely check out the other links above, at the very least Ghost. Trust me, you won't regret it! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">06. Lunafly - Fly to Love </span>[330 Points] Released: April 3, 2013 </b></div>
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Oh my goodness. Lunafly is so awesome. They are a very talented trio that debuted in September of 2012. Fly to Love is their first full album and chalked full of feel good music. Lunafly has an acoustic type feel to their music that I absolutely love and cannot get enough of. Plus, the leader Sam is from England, so a good chunk of their songs are also released with English versions. If you look at their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/officialLUNAFLY/videos">YouTube</a>, they also have a lot of really good covers. I particularly like the more acoustic versions of their own songs. Maybe one day they'll release an acoustic album. One can hope. Anyways, back to the album at hand. The album was split into two discs, pretty much an English and Korean version each. This may be weird, but there are some songs I prefer in Korean, and some in English. Don't know why, but some of them just sound weird in a different language. The promotion song for the album, is once again its namesake, Fly to Love. This is actually a weird one for me, because I prefer both versions equally. Fly to Love is just a great, feel good song with a fun upbeat melody. I'll have the English version below, so if you would like to view the Korean version, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME3_w-Hwq4I">just click here</a>! Here is the link to a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd1emFJOuiI">live version </a>as well (the singing starts around 1:10)! A good chunk of the songs we actually previously released, just not with an English version as well. Here is the rundown of my favorite songs. I prefer the Korean version of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks5JIzsLvTc">Super Hero</a>, the English versions of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkB4Rw5ssgw">One More Step</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx61sdCgGXo">What's Your Name?</a>, and both versions of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNRFUjAAbn0">You Got That Something I Need</a>. Trying to cut back, if you enjoy acoustic, feel good music without a lot of bells and whistles, definitely check out Lunafly! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">05. Fall Out Boy - Save Rock & Roll </span>[397 Points] Released: April 12, 2013 </b></div>
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Number Five! And look at that point jump! So it is all thanks to my little sister Ariel that this album is on this countdown. During our road trip back from Arizona (after picking her up from college for the summer), she had us listen to Fall Out Boy's new album. My Mom and I completely latched on this was one of the albums that all three of us listened to a bunch that summer and fall. As for MVs, they are doing an entire series, where each song off of the album has its own music video and they all are telling one story. WARNING: Before you watch them, they are very graphic in a violent, bloody, gross way, but extremely interesting and I can't wait for them to finish releasing them. Currently 9 out of 11 have been released, with the latest just coming out March 6th. So back to this album, it is freaking AMAZING. I love or really like all of the songs. There is only one song that I don't listen to as much and it still has 16 plays. My favorite song actually has over 60! Since they are doing something for their videos, all videos that are in this rant block are not going to be the actual music videos so nobody watches them out of order or gets really confused. However you could just watch the entire series so far! So the favorites of my favorites are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0PdWGXtrDs">Where Did the Party Go?</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A9o8MNn0nQ">Death Valley</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoOJwolw5EQ">Young Volcanoes</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIPTUSr1tPA">Rat a Tat</a>. Actually, I just love all of the songs, and my least favorite is the last, Save Rock and Roll. It's just a slow finish to a superb album. Seriously, if you enjoy Rock, or Alternative, or Punk, or whatever, just listen to the songs. IT'S SOOOOO GOOD! Trust me! Without anything further, I bring you the first video of <u>The Young Blood Chronicles</u>. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">04. Shinee - Misconceptions of You </span>[408 Points] Released: February 19, April 26, & August 8, 2013 </b></div>
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So I did a little weird thing here with Shinee's album Misconceptions of You. The way that Misconceptions was released is Chapter 1: Dream Girl was released in February, Chapter 2: Why So Serious? was released in April, and then they were combined into one album and released with two tracks. So to make to easier, I just combined the plays and points from all three releases into one! We'll start with Chapter 1 first. Chapter 1 is Dream Girl and the music video I'm placing below because I like it a little more than Why So Serious? and it was released first. Dream Girl was a fun, quirky, Shinee-esque song with a really fun microphone stand dance. I also really enjoyed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX7Lk17VDaA">Hitchhiking</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj2ummyxJ2g">Beautiful</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNIQ3xKvzns">Dynamite</a>. Chapter 2 had the promotion song of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgeAmF7bgoE">Why So Serious?</a>. I really enjoyed Why So Serious? and it has probably my favorite lyrics of any Shinee song. I just love how fun it is, and I love the zombie dance. From Chapter 2 I also really like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MXZvE9HelE">SHINe (Medusa I)</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5CPYyNsexo">Evil</a> (EVIL!(my Mom's nickname...and she's a shawol...just saying! XD). As for the two new songs from the combined version, they are two pretty ballads (and Shinee does good ballads as some don't know from their dance pop promotions), but I wasn't as excited for them as other songs. So in trying to keep things short, here are the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNaAY2yn6g">Dance Version MV</a> of Dream Girl, and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZESm8OOjjM">live version</a> of Why So Serious? with English subtitles (so you can see the dance and see the lyrics)! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">03. VIXX - Hyde and Jekyll (Repackage) </span>[410 Points] Released: May 20, 2013 </b></div>
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WARNING: I will try to keep from fangirling too much, but seriously, it's Vixx's Hyde & Repackage Jekyll. Rounding out at number three we have Vixx's first mini-album Hyde and the repackaged version called Jekyll. Now if I didn't have a point system here, this album would be tied for first with the album that is first on this list. That is how much I love this album. A good chunk of the songs are still on my everyday playlist, and it has almost been a year. On & On really put VIXX on the map for me, but Hyde really nailed it in place. VIXX is now number three on my list of favorite Kpop boy bands and probably won't be going anywhere anytime soon. As I stated before, I love that they do things a little bit darker and Hyde is currently (as of this moment) the most listened to song in my iTunes (over 150 plays), that was released in 2013, plus it's just my favorite song of 2013. I just can't even properly express how much I love this song. So I'll just pepper you with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2BKlfai7Do">live video</a>, a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvbmFvVmBeM">dance practice video</a>, and the music video below! As for the rest of the album, I also really enjoyed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NgOYQVzUOE">Light Me Up</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkoS1oD8R28">CHAOS</a>. As for the repackage song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vIZT-aIUKc">G.R.8.U.</a>, VIXX went with the more cutesy style, as most Kpop groups do. However, there was something different about the way they did it. It wasn't over the top with aegyo (the cutesy stuff) and the music video had a really cool start with everything in reverse followed my newspaper stop-motion and a fun dance (that has a Hyde flashback). As for the repackage songs there were only two more besides G.R.8.U., and one of them is my favorite VIXX non-promotional song, and definitely in the top 5 of my favorite VIXX songs. It's called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uajybKt3AFs">What To Do</a>. It's just a fun feel good song, and you just have to listen to it yourself. So once again, I leave you with a few more links; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI1zKzCURjo">G.R.8.U dance practice video</a> and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddfGumOv_I4">live version</a> with English subtitles! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">02. Kim Jaejoong - WWW </span>[506 Points] Released: October 29, 2013 </b></div>
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Another big point jump! October brought many wonderful things, my favorite holiday and Kim Jaejoong's (of JYJ) first full solo album. After his solo debut earlier in the year, I super excited to see what he was bringing us again, especially since he was continuing his foray into the Rock genre. The title song is Just Another Girl, and good rock song to kick off the album's tone. Before the album was officially released, two songs were pre-released; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ffpnpU9_fE">Sunny Day</a> a ballad featuring Lee Sang Gon of ballad group Noel, and the rock hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfUt1fIaH58">Butterfly</a>. Side note, Butterfly is still my ringtone. I was pleased with both, and even more pleased with the entire album. The night it was released (night for me here in America) I immediately got it and listened to it. I was so impressed with all of the songs and that most of them were rocks songs. There are a couple ballads and more mainstream pop songs, but overall the album was very well rounded and one of my favorite albums of the year. (And will pop up in future ratings as well since the repackage came out in 2014.) As for other songs, I have to narrow it down (and not include the ones already linked above XD). Okay, I am going to go with my favorite of all of Jaejoong's ballads (and the song I was listening to when I got in my big accident - but it didn't ruin the song for me) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdWHE2QwBSM">Paradise</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvyGsJNJfR8">Rotten Love</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XErBohjpfDw">Don't Walk Away</a> featuring Young Junhyung the rapper of B2ST. As a last note, I also would like to add that Jaejoong did lyrics for 10 of the 13 songs, as well as composed four of them! I love it when artists take part in writing their own songs! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">01. Kim Jaejoong - I and Y </span>[773 Points] Released: January 17, 2013 </b></div>
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The final album, and my top ranked album of 2013. I bring you another large point jump and Kim Jaejoong's solo debut Mini-album I and the repackage, Y. For I I was super duper excited when Jaejoong released not only that he was doing a solo album, but it would be rock. Mine is the promotion song, a fun rock song with a lot of meaning and wonderful cinematography. It totally blew me away, and I immediately latched onto the song. When the rest of the album came out, I was a little disappointed the rest were more ballad and pop songs, but boy are they still some of my favorite songs. Of the seven songs of both the normal and repackage versions, Jaejoong wrote the lyrics for six and composed four again. My favorite song off of the album is definitely Mine (with over 120 plays), but I loved them all, including the two repackage songs. And since there are only seven songs and this is the number one album of 2013, I'll list them all! :) We have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=310fSLDRHy0">One Kiss</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5SMEoTr5NM">Healing For Myself</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmWKD7D_FUk">You Fill Me Up</a>, and my favorite of the ballads <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbbJEDZurnA">All Alone</a>. The repackage has two songs featuring Flowsik (who I am a big fan of, especially when paired with JYJ), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkvwfVMrMA0">Kiss B</a> (my favorite of the two) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xH3ye5keaM">Only Love</a>. And without further ado, I bring you the last music video of my 2013 countdown, Kim Jaejoong's Mine. </div>
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Well that wraps up my countdown of the top 50 albums of 2013. Stay tuned for the first few posts of 2014! I hope you enjoyed going through some of last years best music with me! If you have any comments or thoughts please actually comment! I look forward to seeing you all in the 2014 rankings! Keep on rocking! </div>
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Stasi ♫Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-29114885352973378972014-03-27T20:50:00.001-06:002014-04-08T02:08:11.304-06:00My Top 50 Albums of 2013: 20-11Okay, finally back! Going to try to get these out quickly! Getting down to the wire! With out any further rants, I bring you numbers 11 through 20 for 2013!! As always, here is the link to the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxgr688B3Mfqm4ncQQC8Y1ba" target="_blank">YouTube playlist</a>!<br />
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| <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-50-41.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-40-31.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-30-21.html" target="_blank">Part 3</a> | <span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Part 4</span> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-10-01.html">Part 5</a> |</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">20. Voodoo - Vixx </span>[216 Points] Released: November 25, 2013 </b></div>
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Oh this album. In 2013 I became a big, a huge, a ginormous fan of Vixx. I had seen their music videos and listened to the singles they released for their debut year in 2012, but Oh My Goodness have they stole 2013 for. They started off the year with On & On (AMAZINGNESS), brought out the mini album Hyde and repackage Jekyll for the summer, and ended the year with another single with Okdal Girls and their first full album, Voodoo. As far as On & On and Hyde/Jekyll go, they'll be further up on the list. Honestly, the only reason that isn't in the top ten is because of it's late release. I still have been listening to a good chunk of the album a bunch, and it's almost to the end of March. Starting out with Voodoo, the promotion song, oh my goodness. Now this song has a little bit of the genre mash-ups that was popular in 2013 for Kpop, but I think this is one of the ones that is done right. The song just completely grabbed me and the music video is full of wonderful and gross creepiness. The dance is really awesome, especially with the stick the members pass around and stab each other with. I'll post the clean version below, but if you want to watch the rated one, click <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOG7BexjPjM" target="_blank">here</a>! Also, if you enjoy the live videos, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yer4uX5et0" target="_blank">here</a> is a comeback video full of fan-chants! I also bring you another <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4NcBm4CUhU">practice video</a>! As for the rest of the album they have a good mix of ballads and dance, with my favorites off the album being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PloGIVyezCw" target="_blank">Beautiful Killer</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_lgsZF9JQg">B.O.D.Y</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZtLa_MoWRI">Secret Night</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyuVd_UDruU">Say U Say Me</a> (besides Voodoo). Honestly thought, just looking at plays none of the songs have less then 10 plays (and Voodoo above 50 at this point). Anyways, if you enjoy the more darker side of Kpop, definitely check out Vixx and their MVs (especially from 2013 on). Before I continue ranting for the rest of the blog post, I bring you Voodoo! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">19. Incredible - Xia </span>[228 Points] Released: July 15, 2013 </b></div>
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July of 2013 brought one of the former members of DBSK and current member of JYJ, Xia Junsu's comeback with a second album. The promotion song (and title of the album) is Incredible. Most of the album is ballads, which isn't really what I want to listen to in summer, so I mainly just listened to Incredible, but that song alone has over 80 plays. Incredible was produced by Bruce Automatic and features Quincy who is P.Diddy's son. I had to look that up when they announced he was featuring.... Just saying. Anyways, the music video was also filmed in California, so it's mainly foreigners (to Korea)! Yay! It's a simple video with the setting a pool party in Cali and a girl creepily wandering around Junsu's bedroom. Plus we get some really good dancing. Also, Quincy's rap is a little....let's just say JYJ certainly picks odd features when they choose American rappers. I still have no idea what he means when he says he wants me to "shake my spaceship candy," but whatever. Xia also released a music video for the ballad song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cuorSMOvDQ">11am</a>. The video is pretty cool, because the first three minutes or so is just Junsu singing out in a field with no music or anything; then a piano comes in. It has a very pretty acoustic feeling to it. Definitely worth checking out as well!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">18. Endless Game - Arashi </span>[231 Points] Released: May 29, 2013 </b></div>
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Yay! Arashi's 41st (yes 41st) single came out in early summer of 2013 and the title song Endless Game was the theme song for rapper Sakurai Sho's drama Kazoku Game (Family Game). With just a single, Arashi once again grabbed me with just a few awesome-sauce songs. And speaking of Arashi, I just want to throw out there that I have now officially listened to Arashi for 11 years in January. I don't remember the date, but yay! I also want to through out that September this year will be Arashi's 15th anniversary! So awesome! I wish I could go to their concerts! Okay, focus, back to Endless Game. I don't know how else to describe it besides being very Arashi. It's got their great harmonies and solo parts, and I guess has a little more of a pop-rock feel to it. The other songs on the single are Intergalactic (LOVE), Monochrome (SUPER LOVE), Magic Hour (LOVE). Magic Hour is a little more of a ballad feel, while Intergalactic is a fun pop song with lots of space references. Monochrome is my favorite song off the single with it's fun guitar opening and just good melody. The first time I listened to it I was smiling before they even starting singing. It's just a song that makes me feel good and happy and like I could walk in the sun forever. It's got this fun little funky twist to it that reminds me a little of the french film <u>Triplets of Belleville</u> soundtrack! So if you like Arashi, definitely check out this single!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">17. Collage - U-Kiss </span>[237 Points] Released: March 7, 2013 </b></div>
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2013 brought fans U-Kiss's third full album Collage. The promotion song for Collage is Standing Still. Standing Still is a great mix of a dance pop melody with ballad type singing and lyrics, and is absolutely brilliant. I love Standing Still even now, and it is one of my favorite U-Kiss songs, and is my favorite when I look at Korean promotion songs. The music video has a good feel between U-Kiss' spot on dancing and belting out close-up moments. My favorite dance move is during the chorus when they pop their knees out and travel going both directions. I don't know why, but I just find it incredibly sexy (weird I know) and it also looks really easy. However I think I would break my leg or something if I tried to duplicate it. Going back to the music aspects, Collage has a lot of great songs, some of my favorites being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ8p83mH-Yc">Sweety Girl</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gAew_Ntapw">사랑하니까</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW5cq3qnCC0">Party All the Time</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHD2W72HBDk">Can't Even Breathe</a>. U-Kiss are one of my favorite bands so if you like Kpop definitely check them out. They also release some songs in English, and are very active in Japan as well! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">16. Calling/Breathless - Arashi </span>[243 Points] Released: March 6, 2013 </b></div>
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In early 2013 Arashi released their 40th single Calling/Breathless. This is another one of their double sided singles, with both Calling and Breathless being promotion songs. Calling was the theme song for Aiba's drama <u>Last Hope</u> and Breathless was the theme song for Nino's movie <u>Platinum Data</u>. The single overall has a rock tone to it, which completely excited me when Aiba mentioned it in interviews before it was released. Then it was released and I couldn't stop listening to 3 of the 4 songs. The fourth song is full of love and a ballad, which completely got overshadowed by the others. Now a funny story, when I pre-ordered Calling, for some reason I completely missed that there would be two versions of the DVD version. I ended up getting the Calling version and was super excited when it came, watching it immediately. However, when I went on Live Journal to fangirl I saw a second PV. Completely flabbergasted I searched and searched for the Breathless version, which of course was out with preorders in Japan. However I got lucky and stumbled across a version that was released in Korea, so the packaging is a little different, but I was able to get all versions and see both PVs. Anyways, I'll only be posting Breathless since the PV is a bit more entertaining. If you would like to watch Calling, click <a href="http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Arashi---Calling/2b0957248a7a86aa7dd65bfd24d031d9">here</a>! As for the other song on the single, it's <a href="http://mp3monkey.net/mp3/Alright_Arashi_.html">オーライ!!</a> and is a completely fun song that has me jumping up and down chanting オーライ! along with the song! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">14. On & On - Vixx </span>[245 Points] Released: January 17, 2013 </b><br />
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In Januray of 2013, Vixx officially not entered my top ten favorite Korean boy bands, but my top five! On & On really brought me into the Vixx fandom and even now it's one of my favorite Vixx songs. It's got such a good rhythm and beat, plus is super catchy. "I need therapy. la-la-la-la-la therapy!" This song itself is one of my most listened to songs at 98 when I started typing this paragraph. Honestly it'll be over 100 once I sync my iPod and finish this blog post! The dance is super awesome and fun, the music video is super weird and a little darker with their concept being space vampires. The other song on the single is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9h59kxekaA">I Don't Want to Be an Idol</a> and is a pretty ballad, but nothing else can really compare to On & On...except maybe Hyde and Voodoo. But anyways, here is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFDsAP70EM">the link to a live performance</a> so you can see more of the dance and be blown away at how good they are live; they had only debuted the year before and released only two singles! Also I am giving you the link to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13yeFLqKTIA">dance practice video</a>! As stated above, Vixx popped into my life with this song and I'm so happy they have. If you would like to know their current standing, wait for the last part of my 2013 countdown! Anyways, please join me in the amazingness that is On & On!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">14. What's Happening? - B1A4 </span>[245 Points] Released: May 6, 2013 </b><br />
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"Everyday-ay-ay-ay-ay...Ya!" Okay, so when B1A4 released their min album What's Happening? two very big things happened. First, I was completely addicted to What's Happening the song. Second, I got it stuck in EVERYONE's head, including my own. This song is so fun and addicting and makes me laugh. B1A4 is another band that is in my top ten that I adore and have since they debuted. I remember reading all the articles about them before their debut and the endless teasers WM Entertainment released (granted not as endless as EXO). Anyways, What's Happening? is a great song that's catchy and has a really fun and crazy music video. My favorite scene is Baro's rap in the elevator! It's very B1A4! Currently it's the 4 most listened to song that was released in 2013 (after On & On and two songs to come!). Of the few other songs on the extended play I also enjoyed Yesterday, but let's be honest. What's Happening? has like 70+ more plays than Yesterday. Anyways, if you have seen B1A4's music videos before and somehow missed What's Happening?, YOU NEED TO WATCH IT NOW! That is all! XD<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">13. The Classic - Shinhwa </span>[248 Points] Released: May 16, 2013 </b><br />
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In 2013 many fans were greeted by Shinhwa with their 11th studio album, which also happened to coincide with their 15th anniversary. Apparently I like bands with older members... Anyway, This Love is a pop song that they meant to be for an older audience (most Kpop fans in Korea are around the high school/college age). Anyways, Minwoo (one of the members) choreographed the dance (once again) and it has some elements inspired by Madonna's Vogue. I loved this album, particularly the songs Scarface and Hurricane. This rant may seem a little smaller, but I have to make dinner soon, and I already have a few longer rants above, so the song is good. The album is great, as well as the other songs I've linked above. They also have a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObYM7G5AJMw">dance version</a> of the music video, so check that out as well if you want!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">12. Super Show 4 Concert Album - Super Junior </span>[253 Points] Released: June 28, 2013 </b><br />
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Super Junior finally released the live album from Super Show 4 recorded at their Seoul concerts in the summer of 2013. I had been waiting what felt like forever since I wasn't able to see them live and just had to fangirl with partial fancams. I was super excited when I found out it was finally getting released, and the album is to no disappointment. We've got rearranged versions of several hit songs (Bonamana, Superman, Don't Don, etc.) plus we have all of the members solo songs! Just listening I love Teukie's version of She, Kyuhyun's version of Kyuhyun, and Shindong's fun song Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. As for watching the DVD, it's Ryeowook's Moves Like Jagger. We also get Henry and Zhoumi songs for the first time! Yay! Super Show 4 is also the birth of Oppa, Oppa by Donghae and Eunhyuk! Anyways, this is a great version and so much fun live, and it get's even better once you've seen the DVD so you can picture it as well. Since there isn't any real promotion songs, SM Entertainment has posted two different highlight clips for Super Show 4. Displayed below is Opps featuring f(x). This song is awesome, each corresponding member wrote their own rap. Plus we get a VR version of Heechul since he started his mandatory military service right before Super Show 4 started. The second clip is of White Christmas a remake of an old song. The clip is fun and cute, so check it out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQvoKJiVpiE">here</a>!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">11. Pioneer - The Band Perry </span>[254 Points] Released: April 2, 2013 </b><br />
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Rounding out our top 20 albums of 2013 is country group The Band Perry with their second album Pioneer. I saw them perform <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB-N9-pw2_A">Better Dig Two at the Country Music Awards in the end of 2012</a>. I was super excited for their next album and couldn't wait for Pioneer to be released. Once released, I saw them perform <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYfTT9L8sAs">Done on Ellen</a> and knew I had to get the album immediately. I love the album, ballads and all. My favorite songs off the album are Better Dig Two, Done, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q8qjpQ9svk">Chainsaw</a>. Below I have the music video of my favorite song Done, but they also released one for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIdCo_QAz_E">Better Dig Two</a>. We've got another American band on the last, and only a couple more!<br />
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That's it for Part 4 of the 2013 countdown. Stay tuned for Part 5, the top ten albums of 2013! Until then, keep listening to the music that moves you!<br />
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Stasi ♫Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-2574689651649528402014-03-06T15:19:00.001-07:002014-04-08T02:11:31.788-06:00My Top 50 Albums of 2013: 30-21Okay, well now that things have calmed down a little bit, I'll finally be posting the rest of my countdown. I also have the stats for January and February all ready, so expect the both of those to be posted by the 15th! (That's my goal!) Anyways, sorry for the delay! Let's get right back into it! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxgr688B3Mfqm4ncQQC8Y1ba" target="_blank">YouTube Playlist!</a><br />
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| <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-50-41.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-40-31.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a> | <span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Part 3</span> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-20-11.html">Part 4</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-10-01.html">Part 5</a> |</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">30. All About My Romance OST - Various Artists </span>[189 Points] Released: April 24, 2013</b></div>
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Once again we have the cute and fun Akdong Musicians gracing the list! Now I enjoyed All About My Romance as a drama. It was fun a quirky with a political setting (which I was hestitant on at first). But honestly, with Dal Shabat, Tiffany, and various other artists contributing to the soundtrack, Akdong Musicians really grabbed me. I loved the Music Video released (which didn't really have anything to do with the drama) and was as cute and sugary as the song is itself. If you like K-Drama soundtracks definitely check out the All About My Romance OST, and if you like K-Drama, All About My Romance is definitely lolz worthy at times. If you enjoyed the previous Akdong Musician song (Kkong Ddeok Bing Soo) I think you'll like this one too! </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">29. Eraser - ALi </span>[192 Points] Released: January 30, 2013</b></div>
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So ALi has got to be one of my favorite South Korean solo female singers. Scratch that, just one of my favorite solo female singers. PERIOD. I love the uniqueness of her voice. Her first full album was released in the end of 2011 and I was immediately hooked. The tone and power of her voice just grabbed me, as well as the accompanying music video. Anyway, she came back with a mini album here (YAY!) and I was super happy. The main song is Eraser, a pretty ballad (and the music video down below). However, my favorite song of the album is Selfish, which has more of a pop-rock vibe and completely became my anthem for the first half of 2013. Unfortunately, there isn't a music video for Selfish, but <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcMVfqL1h_M" target="_blank">HERE</a> is a live video for one of her comeback stages. She sings Selfish and Eraser, but Selfish is first. I really implore to click <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcMVfqL1h_M" target="_blank">HERE</a> and be sucked into vocals made of amazing. She has released other songs since this album, but most of them have been digital singles or songs for dramas. Which are amazing, don't get me wrong, but I want another album, mini or full. Please ALi, bring us more music with that amazing voice of yours!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">27. Letter From Secret - Secret </span>[193 Points] Released: April 30, 2013</b></div>
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Yay! Secret came back in late April with a fun, summery feeling mini album. Secret (for those that don't know) is my favorite girl group in the Kpop industry! (Sorry but worldwide Spice Girls is still #1 in my heart!) I really enjoy all of their personas, from cutesy to super sexy spy/assassin/saloon girl (Poison anyone?). The promotion song for Letter From Secret is Yoo Hoo and more along the lines of their cutesy image. I enjoyed it and it was on my main playlist late into fall! Also on the album were three other songs that are ballads. I enjoyed them as well, but my favorite of the three is B.O.Y (Because of You) (can someone explain to me why a lot of these abbreviations are missing the last period? I don't get it. T_T). It's really pretty and stayed on my playlist almost as long as Yoo Hoo did! The Music Video is fun and summery, involving Secret's boat somehow leaving them stranded on an island. I won't spoil the ending, but it's cute and fun and silly, and will bring a little warmth into this crazy cold! :)</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">27. No. 1 - Teen Top </span>[193 Points] Released: February 25, 2013</b></div>
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"La-la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-laa-laaa" Teen Top presented fans with a full album late February. One of the songs, I Wanna Love, was pre-released digitally and had a music video. The promotion song is Miss Right (if you've heard the song, you understand the previous las) and also had a music video. I enjoyed both songs, but I think overall I like I Wanna Love just a tad bit more. Miss Right involves a silly video where the boys get stuck in jail with one girl (WHAT?) and sing about her. I enjoyed the dance a lot, and the Las as well as the "몰라몰라몰라몰라몰라." Honestly, those make the song for me. Plus CAP's hair. Back to the music, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1pNnvXMHBI">HERE</a> is the link for I Wanna Love, my favorite of the two. It's more of a pop-rock-ballad-electronic mix (that's mixed well) and I really enjoy the song. The music video pretty much has them being sad (or eating unusually large amounts of canned fruit) and wandering the streets, out in the world! Once again, check both of them out! Let me know what you think in the comments between the two!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">26. Boys Meet U - Shinee </span>[197 Points] Released: June 26, 2013</b></div>
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Mid year Shinee released their second full Japanese album. I enjoyed a good chunk of the songs on the album, including a few from their previously released singles (Dazzling Girl & <span style="font-family: inherit;">1000年、ずっとそばにいて…). Of the new songs, their PV was for Breaking News (PV=MV in Japan), my second favorite song off the album. My first though is Kiss Yo which is just a fun song that has some hip-hop undertones with Key's awesome English rapping. Plus, I like to make fun of the ending. So the song starts off with the sound of a telephone ringing. At the end of the song we here a dial tone and then Key asking, "Hello? Would you like to kiss me?" I don't know why, but I always say the same stupid line and laugh to myself afterwards. But the music is fairly SM-like, focusing on Shinee's dance and close up of the members singing. But Shinee is a group of awesome dancers, so I'm not complaining! Above I linked the previous singles that were compiled into this album, although I think they're are a couple more. But I liked those the best. Also, what PVs that get posted on YouTube are almost always short versions, so if you would like to see the entire video, try <a href="http://www.downvids.net/-mv-full-shinee-039-breaking-news-039--467717.html" target="_blank">here</a>! PS: EVIL! You better watch all of them because I'm pretty sure you have seen them all. Bad Shawol! XD</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">25. XOXO - EXO </span>[208 Points] Released: June 3, 2013</b><br />
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Oh EXO, I was super impressed by the promotion songs they released for XOXO, both the normal and the repackage versions. Below is the first, Wolf. This song has some parts that have odd lyrics, but has a fun chorus! I showed it to my roommates and Billy kind of walked around for a few days randomly going "a-wooo." She probably will now since she's listening to the song again with me.... but that's beside the point. I thought the drama version was cheesy, but I really enjoyed the dance. And the vocals were really good, especially during the crooning parts. And for those that haven't seen the lyrics for it....some of those lines. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TppRHDHEzXY" target="_blank">Here</a>'s a link, the official video is below and doesn't have lyrics. As for the second promotion single, I actually like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3dezFzsNss" target="_blank">Growl</a> more. It has a really good R&B feel to it. Also the dance is pretty cool and the music video is all filmed in one shot. I like things like that. The only thing I don't get is why are they dancing in an empty warehouse? Eh...it's SM. Oddly lit rooms for everyone! Check out <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3dezFzsNss" target="_blank">Growl</a> if you haven't already! Especially if you like more of the songs that have good head nodding grooves. Just saying; I head nod to it. You should too.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">24. Re:Blue - CN Blue </span>[209 Points] Released: January 14, 2013</b><br />
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In January of 2013 CN Blue released their fourth mini album, Re:Blue. The promotion song for Re:Blue is I'm Sorry, a good pop-rock song. I really enjoyed the mini album overall, my favorite songs are I'm Sorry, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_QEq_6UzrI" target="_blank">나란 남자 (Guy Like Me)</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSU8blmR-F8" target="_blank">Coffee Shop</a>. They also released a song completely in English called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8rX8CYIWpI" target="_blank">Where You Are</a>. I enjoy Where You Are, although sometimes it makes me laugh at how it can be misconstrued as a stalker song. "I'm searching where you are." Although if it's where I am, why is he still searching? I don't know, but I enjoyed the mini-album overall. Another fun lyric: "Oh please touch my body and my face." It just makes me giggle. Don't mind me. If you're a fan of the more pop rock style and looking for something Korean (or just foreign), definitely check out CN Blue and this album (also FT Island {speaking of FT Island, anyone else watching Bride of the Century and completely addicted already?}). Check out the links above for the other songs I enjoyed, otherwise just watch the video for I'm Sorry. It involves CN Blue playing on a rooftop and kind of just being miscreants around a city. Plus Jonghyun has his hair styled up, and goodness gracious does it look good. Plus we get to see his forehead/face. Just saying. :)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">23. The Blessed Unrest - Sara Bareilles </span>[211 Points] Released: April 23, 2013</b><br />
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Oh my goodness this album. I love love love Sara Bareilles and was so happy and excited when she announced a new album. I immediately got The Blessed Unrest and still have a few of the songs on my main playlist. What would be considered the promotion song in Korea is Brave. The song itself is amazing, with such a wonderful message lyrically, but just has a melody that makes a person feel good. Well, at least it's a feel good song when I listen to it. As for the other songs, some of my other favorites are <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZTTEfzTQSM" target="_blank">Hercules</a> (the video has some info about the name of the album before her singing), <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0z64rwqhnw" target="_blank">Little Black Dress</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8e5VTlzXgU" target="_blank">I Choose You</a>. My favorite song off the album, with over 60 plays (just in 2013 - it's gone up since then) is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB4c_FIR5r8" target="_blank">I Wanna Be Like Me</a>. I find it completely empowering (like most of Sara's albums and songs) and was completely sucked in only after a few seconds. It's got some fun background sounds and is a good mix of string instruments and more electronic tones. Seriously, I can't fully express how much this song means to me both musically and how it just generally makes me feel. Please, please, please <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB4c_FIR5r8" target="_blank">listen to it</a> and share it with anyone and everyone. It needs to be heard. So check out the fun music video of people dancing in random areas and pay attention to the great lyrics!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">22. A's Doll House - Ailee </span>[213 Points] Released: July 12, 2013</b><br />
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Ailee came out during the summer, promoting with the diva-licious song U&I. I love Ailee and I love this mini-album. Ailee has such a powerhouse of a voice and definitely in my top three female solo artists in South Korea (with ALi and BoA). <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAQAxD0owjw" target="_blank">U&I</a> has some big trumpet parts and gives it a little bit of a big band vibe, which I find completely awesome and music-licious. Apparently Ailee just has -licious descriptors. Back to the music, Ailee is one of the singers referred to as Korea's Beyonce, with her power voice, strong rapping and snazzy moves. To top it off, I also give major props to Ailee for not being obnoxiously stick thin. She's got some thunder thighs and some curves, and a lot more sexy to me than some of the really popular girl groups out there. Most of the other songs on the album are more ballady, but I really enjoyed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcLmudT5On8" target="_blank">No No No</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6wWMWYIxA4" target="_blank">Rainy Day</a>. Honestly though I love everything Ailee's released so far. Her voice is so pretty. Excuse my fangirling, but really. If you enjoy Beyonce and power vocals, definitely check out all of Ailee's stuff. Plus she just debuted within the past couple years. Big stuff already! Also if you didn't notice, most of what I linked above are the live versions. Yes, she's pretty good live as well!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">21. Black Box - Brown Eyed Girls </span>[214 Points] Released: July 29, 2013</b><br />
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So I have to say, Brown Eyed Girls definitely popped back up into the top of my rankings with this album. A big part due to the promotion song Kill Bill. The normal music video (posted below) is a fun take on Quentin Tarantino's hit movie series <u>Kill Bill</u>. Now for the actual song, I love it. The girls and back-up dancers look cute and sexy in their western/cowboy styles and the opening dance move in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx8mmWZxWuQ" target="_blank">dance version</a>...holy guacamole! Plus...let's just say I have a thing for cowboys...and dancing....and the back up dancers.... <_>_>... So the music video is a fun parody (but more serious than most parodies are), the dance is fun and sexy (as one would expect from BEG), and I just overall love Brown Eyed Girls and the more mature material they grace all Kpop fans with! <!--_--><!--_--></_><br />
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Well that's all for now! Stayed tuned for the last two parts of the this countdown, as well as countdowns for January and February! Any comments or questions, leave them below! Until then my music loving peeps! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxgr688B3Mfqm4ncQQC8Y1ba" target="_blank">YouTube Playlist!</a><br />
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Stasi ♫</div>
Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-7034934170042409352014-01-31T13:22:00.001-07:002014-04-08T02:12:22.987-06:00My Top 50 Albums of 2013: 40-31<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">So I’m back with
the next ten (finally)! I’ll try to get the rest posted asap, soon followed up
by my review of January 2014! So without further rants, let’s get to it! Once again, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxgr688B3Mfqm4ncQQC8Y1ba" target="_blank">here</a> is the link to the video playlist on YouTube!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">| <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-50-41.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> |<span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Part 2</span>
| <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-30-21.html" target="_blank">Part 3</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-20-11.html">Part 4</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-10-01.html">Part 5</a> |<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">39.
Block B – Very Good</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [171 Points] Released: October 2, 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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was excited for Block B’s comeback with their new company. I loved what they
did with Very Good, just the craziness I’ve come to like and love from Block B.
The song is very fun, as well as the music video. I like the almost 50/50 split
between rap and vocals, and boy do they have some talent from both spectrums.
It just has me dancing and singing along. Releasing this album also got me back
into their older songs and I became addicted to Go Crazy again (probably my
favorite of their songs so far). As for the rest of the song, on a more ballady
side they also released a music video for Be The Light. It’s a slower song, but
still powerful, just not in their usual way. I liked it a lot, just not as much
as Very Good. If you haven’t see any of their videos and like some of the more
hip-hop styled K-pop, definitely check them out!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">39.
Lee Hyori – Monochrome</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [171 Points] Released: May 21, 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">The
return of Lee Hyori definitely started off the summer hits. I was excited to
see what she was coming back with and I wasn’t disappointed at all. She
pre-released </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huu3H5ei_-8" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Miss Korea</a><span style="font-size: small;"> and it completely blew me away. The message just said
more than anyone could’ve possible expected, and even though I’m a Caucasian
woman living in America, I found a lot of </span>perspective<span style="font-size: small;"> and empowerment through
</span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huu3H5ei_-8" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Miss Korea</a><span style="font-size: small;">. Hyori’s next music video release and promotion song was Bad Girls.
This music video was gold. With the comic book styling and just outrageous
situations I was hooked. The song was really good as well and every time I
heard “bad” I would instantly sing “b-b-b-bad girls” in my head. She also
released another music video for </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOOhXvjSSwI" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Going Crazy</a><span style="font-size: small;"> which included Hyori cross-dressing. I
found the music video entertaining, but I think I was more impressed and hooked
with </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huu3H5ei_-8" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Miss Korea</a><span style="font-size: small;"> and Bad Girls. Below I have Bad Girls, but if you want to check
out </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huu3H5ei_-8" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Miss Korea</a><span style="font-size: small;"> or </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOOhXvjSSwI" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Going Crazy</a><span style="font-size: small;">, click one of the links posted throughout this rant!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">38.
MBLAQ – Sexy Beat & Love Beat</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [176 Points] Released: June 4, 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">So I've included the repackage here since they’re pretty much the same album (as I
did with other repackages), but this album has one of the best songs of the
Summer (in my opinion). Smoky Girl just hooked me right from that first beat
and the R&B flavored with smooth vocals and dancing quickly morphed into a
type of electronic club song and you </span>couldn't<span style="font-size: small;"> help but start dancing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">37.
Master’s Sun OST</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [182 Points] Released: August 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">Oh,
Master’s Sun. This drama was magic and the soundtrack was as well. First of
all, I think Master’s Sun is the best drama of 2013, and I even got my roommate
Billy to watch it with me! And she doesn’t watch Korean Dramas. Funny side
note, I was watching Answer Me 1994 the other night on the Roku, and she turns
to me and says, “I want a second season of Master’s Sun.” How cute! I think I
got her hooked! Anyways, the soundtrack really brings a lot of good fluffy
memories back for me, both in the drama and the experience of watching it!
Probably my favorite song on the compilation is Seo In Guk’s single (big
surprise). </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH8BYNwmR5Q" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Tasha a.k.a. Yoon Mirae’s song</a><span style="font-size: small;"> also popped out of nowhere and
surprised me completely. I knew she could sing, but I’ve mainly only heard her
more R&B and rap stuff she’s put out, but I loved her drama ballad florae. Other
notable artists from the soundtrack are </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqnGBWAW7wQ" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Gummy</a><span style="font-size: small;">, </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Iov70BaXM4" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Hyorin (SISTAR)</a><span style="font-size: small;">, </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALdhqC2-eBE" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Jung Dongha</a><span style="font-size: small;">,
and </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOwXuU949_8" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Melody Day</a><span style="font-size: small;">. I’ll post Seo In Guk’s glorious ballad, but definitely check
out the other songs </span>I've<span style="font-size: small;"> linked too if you enjoy drama soundtrack songs!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">36.
Hong Jin Young – Boogie Man</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [183 Points] Released: March 22, 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Man is a piece of Trot amazingness. I am a fan of trot, Korean’s almost
precursor to pop music. It’s more of a traditional type of music, but I love it
soooo much. Especially this song. I will say this was my favorite Trot song
released this year. As soon as it was released I had this song on repeat. It’s
just good Trot, and a little modernized to attract younger crowds. I just wish
she would release more. Here’s hoping Hong Jin Young will release something
else in 2014! If you like Trot and haven’t heard this song, definitely check it
out! Plus she sang it this year at one of the Daejun’s! Totally surprised me!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">34.
Arashi – LOVE</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [185 Points] Released: October 23, 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Oh
Arashi. This album honestly should be a lot higher in the rankings. If only it’d
come out sooner in the year. Starting with the main song PARADOX, oh my
goodness fangasm. The moment I watched the PV for PARADOX I 100% back on the
Arashi train. I always love Arashi, but PARADOX has such a</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">great beat and melody. On top of all that,
the dance is sexy and Sho’s low register rap, holy cow! I don’t want to fangirl
too much, but oh my gosh is this song good. On top of collecting their single
released since their previous full album, we also got a small collection of new
songs, including solo songs for each of the members. I think my favorite solo
song would have to be either MatsuJun’s Dance in the Dark or Sho’s sugar and
salt. I think besides those my other favorite song of the album is Rock
Tonight. Also, as a side note it has been officially 11 years since I first
listened to Arashi. And this year in September will be their 15</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
Anniversary. If you haven’t joined the Arashian fandom, please join me now! I
promise it’s awesome!</span></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="304" scrolling="no" src="http://www.jpopsuki.tv/media/embed?key=ec196f1cba6e183bd64ab03b3712f3e0&width=720&height=304&autoplay=false&autolightsoff=false&loop=false" width="720"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">34.
Henry – Trap & 1-4-3</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [185 Points] Released: June 7, 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Another
Happy Birthday to Me this year was Henry’s first solo EP. I was super excited
for Henry to get some more spotlight in Korea, and I was completely blown away
by this EP. I love Trap, especially the different openings he did on the music
programs. I love the original piano opening, but the violin one also had a
special twist to it. Also, his back-up dancers wear <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVqMGTm2e5g&list=FL83sNar68V13g4lC-oJJGiw" target="_blank">Bronco Jerseys</a> in the video
(and on a couple live performances). GO BRONCOS AT THE SUPER BOWL! Anways, I
also really enjoyed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVse8hfaO4s" target="_blank">1-4-3</a>. I placed them together since <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVse8hfaO4s" target="_blank">1-4-3</a> was on Trap, but
then later released as a digital single. The digital single included an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz5PPCnWu2w" target="_blank">Englishversion of Trap</a> as well as an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPjmOR-Nckw" target="_blank">acoustic version</a> and remix of 1-4-3. And as those who
know me are aware of, I love acoustic versions of songs. It’s just so magical.
Anyways, I’m linking <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVse8hfaO4s" target="_blank">1-4-3</a> so definitely check it out beside Trap!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">32.
f(x) – Pink Tape</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [186 Points] Released: July 29, 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">First
of all can I just say I was skeptical of the promotion song Rum Pum Pum Pum
since I am not a fan of The Little Drummer Boy, AT ALL. But I was pleasantly
surprised with Rum Pum Pum Pum and that there were no other references to
Drummer Boy. f(x) really hit it out of the park with their quirky style again.
I love this song, both through the awesome metaphor and the cool round robin
verse they had in there (my favorite part of the song). For those that haven’t
seen lyric translations of the song, it’s drawing similarities between first
love and someone’s first wisdom tooth. Hence the headache lines and such. I
also enjoyed Shadow off the album, but my favorite song is Rum Pum Pum Pum.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">32.
Dal Shabet – Be Ambitious</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [186 Points] Released: June 20, 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">“Boys
be ambitious!” This was another song that was a summer anthem for myself. Dal
Shabet returned with another mini-album of amazing. I really like Be Ambitious.
I found the music video hilarious, and just enjoy the more disco-y feel of Dal
Shabet’s sounds. I was excited to see what they were going to release since the
last thing they did was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6yPTVCBOmA" target="_blank">Have, Don’t Have</a> (also made of amazing). I </span>wasn't<span style="font-size: small;"> let
down at all, and still listen to Be Ambitious quite a bit. The other song I
really enjoy is Let It Go, which actually had the lyrics written by Serri, one
of the members! Please join me in the amazingness that is Dal Shabet! (Side
note: They’ll be in my January countdown with their new song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGKeA3xUzxU" target="_blank">B.B.B.</a> Preview: I
love it!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">31.
Seo In Guk – I Can’t Live Because of You</span><span style="font-size: small;"> [187 Points] Released: February 4, 2013</span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Bringing
up the end of Part 2, I bring you Seo In Guk’s single I Can’t Live Because of
You. This song features Verbal Jint, a good rapper and perfect for this song
opposite Seo In Guk’s vocals. I can’t tell you specifically what it is about
the song I like the most, but this is most likely my favorite of all of the
songs Seo In Guk has released so far. I love this song, it almost has a ballady
feel, but it’s a little more up-tempo and has a little bit of a pop feel to it.
It just makes me feel happy and warm when I listen to it and I can’t help but
sing along and give in to the feels!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Okay,
well this wraps up part 2. Look for part 3 soon (very soon) since I’ll want to
finish posting them before I start on January’s countdown! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxgr688B3Mfqm4ncQQC8Y1ba" target="_blank">Here</a> is the link for the YouTube playlist one more time! Till then!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Stasi <o:p></o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">♫</span></span></div>
Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-76795215496848388982014-01-18T03:21:00.001-07:002014-04-08T02:14:06.778-06:00My Top 50 Albums of 2013: 50-41Well, here we are kicking off the countdown! I bring you albums 50 through 41, complete with thoughts about the songs and even accompanying music videos! WARNING: will quite possibly be video heavy. And with no further ramblings, I bring you Part 1! If you just like to skip my ramblings, or read them all and then watch the videos, here is a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxgr688B3Mfqm4ncQQC8Y1ba" target="_blank">playlist</a> I'm updating with each post on YouTube!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
| <span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Part 1</span> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-40-31.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-30-21.html" target="_blank">Part 3</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-20-11.html">Part 4</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-10-01.html">Part 5</a> |</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">50. Lee Jung Hyun - V</span> [156 Points] Released: July 22, 2013</b><br />
I love this song and music video. It's so creepy and weird. Despite being a single, this ranked pretty high on my list (considering there ended up over 100 that I looked at specifically). The music video is directed by the same guy that directed the original Old Boy. It's dark, but funny, and definitely creepy. I don't know why, but I always have a soft spot for the music videos and songs that have a darker side.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">49. Zion.T - Red Light</span> [159 Points] Released: April 9, 2013</b><br />
I enjoyed Red Light overall, but I think that Babay is the best song on their and probably my favorite song released in the Spring. It's crazy and funny music video paired with the funky rhythm and beats is just pure gold. I found myself singing along pretty quickly and it became on the jams I listen to while folding laundry. I haven't listed to it in a few months, but going through everything for this has boosted it back up to my everyday list. I love the sound and tone of Zion.T's voice, and it pairs really well with Gaeko (from Dynamic Duo) in this song. Prepare to have your funky groove bust out!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">48. Shinee - Everybody</span> [160 Points] Released: October 14, 2013</b><br />
Despite coming out later in the year, Shinee's Everybody has made the top 50 list! I wasn't as impressed with Everybody as much as I was with Dream Girl and Why So Serious? at first, but this song really grew on me. Plus anytime I hear someone say "everybody" I can't help but singing it. As with Shinee the dance is really cool, I love the toy soldier beginning. It gets a little repetitive, but I found that I'm not as bothered by it anymore, especially since it makes it easier for my Mom to sing it with me! The EVIL Shawol. Anyways, the music video is pretty simple (as we come to expect from SM), but really Shinee's music videos are watched for the dancing. I also enjoyed watching the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUf7hbpmFLg" target="_blank">Dance Practice video</a> (the dance starts around the 1:45 mark), so check it out if you really want to see the choreography without all the other distracting bells and whistles! The rest of the album is good as well, some other favorites off the mini album being Symptoms and Destination. A lot of people are surprised, but Shinee has some really nice ballads under their belts.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>46. Super Junior EunHae - I Wanna Dance</b></span> <b>[162 Points] Released: June 19, 2013</b><br />
I Wanna Dance is the 2nd Japanese single that Super Junior's subgroup (affectionately called by ELFs as) EunHae. This song is just what we would come to expect from them, especially after Oppa Oppa in 2011. It's got a good dance beat, the pair being their crazy personas in the music video, and is just plainly a lot of fun. The music video has some good funny moments between the two and even includes some cameos from other Super Junior members. The other song released on the single features Henry and I enjoyed it as well, just not as much! I was excited to hear with what they were doing after Oppa Oppa (it's still on of my favorite Super Junior songs) and I wasn't disappointed at all. Plus it doesn't seem weird that it's Japanese and not Korean (sometimes you can tell it's not their native language or just sounds odd). I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">46. Akdong Musician - Kkong Ddeok Bing Soo</span></b> <b>[162 Points] Released: May 23, 2013</b><br />
So the translation for this song comes out to Bean Rice Cake Bing Soo. For those not familiar with the popular Korean summer time treat, Bing Soo is shaved ice that is topped with various things, commonly fruit or ice cream. This song was actually released as a promo for Paris Baguette, a cafe chain found around the world. The accompanying music video is more of a behind the scenes shots of the duo during a photo shoot set to the song. The song is very happy (as most of Akdong Musician's music) and just has a good summer time feeling to it. Plus every time I listen to it I want Bing Soo. :( Go ahead listen, bringing some summer to this cold winter!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">45. Infinite - Destiny</span></b> <b>[166 Points] Released: July 16, 2013</b><br />
*Sings* "You are my Destiny woo~~ wooo~" This song grabbed me from the first beat and took me on a wild ride. With Infinite's amazing choreography, catchy chorus, and Sung Gyu's many solo parts I was stuck. Destiny is my favorite song of the year from Infinite. I can't say how much I like it without repeating myself. It really just grabbed a hold of my ears and lulled them into a sense of security before stripping them of all cells. I don't know....that metaphor just got weird, but back to the song. The choreography is really, really cool with the members weaving in and out of each other like one organism. As for the other songs on the album I also really enjoyed Inception. It's got a great beat and just makes someone bob their head along without really noticing. Plus the flutes in it really give it a cool twist paired with the electronics. The video below is version B, which was the only one that was released officially. There is a version A, you can find it on Youtube, but around the time of the release there was a plane crash and version A is set around some junked planes and stuff. Hence the creation of a version B that was released instead. "You Are My Destiny!"<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">44. AA - Come Back</span> [167 Points] Released: March 27th, 2013</b><br />
AA (pronounced "Double A") really struck gold with this mini album. Come Back is a good song and I like the music video (which is the one below), but reason why this album is ranked so high is for the sixth, and last, track of the album: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1x61pCjCb4" target="_blank">Call Me</a>. This song. Oh my gosh this song is so pretty and I think is the best song that AA has released. I would classify it as a fusion song, with ballad lyrics and undertones, but with a quicker and more upbeat melody. I can't quite find the right words to convey how much I love this song. It's good. You should listen to it (the link) and revel in the amazingness I stumbled upon. The music video below is the promotion song and showcases their dance talents well. Don't get my unenthusiastic rants wrong, I think it's a good song, but it just can't compare to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1x61pCjCb4" target="_blank">Call Me</a>. (See that! I liked it again. That's how much I want you to listen to it! XD)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">43. Vanness Wu - Different Man </span>[169 Points] Released: June 7, 2013</b> (My Birthday!)<br />
The first Chinese album on my list comes from Vanness Wu! Released on my birthday, I jammed out to the Different Man music video when I got home from work. Shortly after I listed to the full album, quickly adding Different Man and one other song to my everyday playlist. The other song that I latched on to is<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdCRusGJGI" target="_blank"> Love Overtime</a>. Love Overtime is an awesome song that has it's own music video and I highly recommend you watch it as well. Vanness did it as a tribute to Michael Jackson and Prince, so it's no wonder I like it. I still have Love Overtime on my everyday playlist, one of a few songs to last so long. I also like the song Let It Go featuring Flowsik. Please listen, and if you're a fan of Michael Jackson or Prince, definitely also check out the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdCRusGJGI" target="_blank">Love Overtime music video</a>! (See, I posted it again! XD)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">41. C-Clown - Shaking Heart</span></b> <b>[170 Points] Released: April 18, 2013</b><br />
Tying at #41, we have C-Clown's hit of the year, Shaking Heart. This song has a good R&B feel to it with the vocals, paired with some really solid rapping throughout. And instead of the rapping just being a small verse or a "cameo," instead about half the song is rapping, which I actually really enjoyed. There are only a few other songs on the album, another one being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a--0LrYaa0s" target="_blank">Do You Remember</a>, a collaboration with ALi (my favorite female solo singer). Her unique voice paired with C-Clowns smooth raps and vocals really made a great pair for another great song.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">41. John Park - Inner Child</span></b> <b>[170 Points] Released: July 3, 2013</b><br />
John Park, for those that aren't up on Kpop, but have watched American Idol, he should sound familiar. John participated in the 9th season of American Idol, leaving as a semi-finalist. He then went to South Korea and competed on one of their music shows. Inner Child is his first full album, and holy cow do I love this album. The entire thing is pure magic and just makes me feel warm and cozy. Like curling up on the couch with a hot cup of tea, good book, cat on my lap, and snow slowing falling outside. Out of all the songs, I really like Baby the best. It's the promotion song and he has such a good, yet unique tone that really stands out to me. I the song Baby, and for some reason I found the music video funny, especially at then with all the things falling down in the background. Don't ask me why I found it funny, I just did and almost died laughing. But back to the song, it's just an all around feel good song with a great melody, John Park's amazing voice, and just leaves a warm feeling in your soul. I know I'm repeating it, but really guys, really. If you haven't heard it already, please listen to it and join me in the cozy feels.<br />
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Well that's it for videos 50-41. I hope you enjoyed my small rants and listening to some of the music that got me through this past year. We're only going to get bigger and better from here! Once again if you would like to watch all the videos in succession with out worrying about my rants, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgkZuyD1gxgr688B3Mfqm4ncQQC8Y1ba" target="_blank">here is the playlist</a> I will update with each post. Stay tuned for more of the countdown!<br />
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Stasi <span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">♫</span>Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-1091630519097979732014-01-11T17:15:00.004-07:002014-04-08T02:15:17.526-06:00Surprise!! 2014 Comeback & Top 25 Most Played Songs in 2013!<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Happy New Year!! </span></div>
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So to start 2014, I wanted to try to get back into blogging again. Although with more purpose. For those that have read my blog previously, I love music. It's been a life affair and I though I would starting trying to review and put my own thoughts out there. Anyways, I've been working on some formulas and have finally came up a with a good system. I'm going to try to do a post for each month, and possibly quarters and halfway through the year and stuff. Anyways, they'll probably be pretty video heavy or just have a lot of links, so I'll separate them out. Anyways, to give a little sneak peak while I finish preparing the rest of the posts, I'll give you the top 25 most played songs of 2013!! Stay tuned for....<br />
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My Top 50 Albums of 2013!<br />
| <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-50-41.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-40-31.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-30-21.html" target="_blank">Part 3</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-20-11.html">Part 4</a> | <a href="http://themindofanapple.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-top-50-albums-of-2013-10-01.html">Part 5</a> |</div>
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Oh, and just a side note. These list will be a mixture of Kpop, Jpop/rock, American Releases, and even some random Cpop. Who knows! Maybe they'll be other speckled in! Until then....<br />
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My Top 25 Most Played Songs in 2013!</div>
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24. Dream Girl - Shinee (Misconceptions of You Chapter 1) [49 Plays]</div>
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24. I Wanna Be Like Me - Sara Bareilles (The Blessed Unrest) [49 Plays] </div>
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23. Rat a Tat ft. Courtney Love - Fall Out Boy (Save Rock & Roll) [50 Plays]</div>
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21. Boogie Man - Hong Jin Young (Boogie Man) [51 Plays]</div>
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21. Alone - U-Kiss (Alone Single) [51 Plays]</div>
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19. It's You - Super Junior M (Breakdown) [52 Plays]</div>
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19. Breakdown - Super Junior M (Breakdown) [52 Plays]</div>
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18. I Can't Live Without You ft. Verbal Jint - Seo In Guk (Y.BIRD from Jellyfish Island) [53 Plays]</div>
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17. I Love You - Akdong Musician (All About My Romance OST) [54 Plays]</div>
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16. Ghost - Gackt (Best of the Best Vol. 1 Mild) [55 Plays]</div>
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14. One Kiss - Kim Jae Joong (I) [56 Plays]</div>
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14. Standing Still - U-Kiss (Collage) [56 Plays]</div>
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13. Kill Bill - Brown Eyed Girls (Black Box) [57 Plays]</div>
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12. Where Did The Party Go - Fall Out Boy (Save Rock & Roll) [58 Plays]</div>
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11. Paradise - Kim Jae Joong (WWW) [60 Plays]</div>
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10. G.R.8.U. - Vixx (Jekyll) [61 Plays]</div>
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8. This Love - Shinhwa (The Classic) [67 Plays]</div>
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8. You Fill Me Up - Kim Jae Joong (I) [67 Plays]</div>
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7. All Alone - Kim Jae Joong (I) [68 Plays]</div>
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6. Healing For Myself - Kim Jae Joong (I) [79 Plays]</div>
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5. Incredible ft. Quincy - Xia (Incredible) [81 Plays]</div>
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4. What's Happening? - B1A4 (What's Happening?) [90 Plays]</div>
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3. On & On - Vixx (On & On) [95 Plays]</div>
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2. Hyde - Vixx (Hyde) [117 Plays]</div>
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And last but not least, my most listened to song in 2013 is:</div>
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Mine - Kim Jae Joong (I) with 119 Plays!</div>
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So that was a little snippet. I'm still listening to Hyde. Outside of plays, my favorite song from 2013 hands down is Vixx's Hyde. I love that song and it's still on my playlist. Also to put it into perspective a little more, Jae Joong's I was released in January and Hyde was released in May. Just sharing. Anyways, I haven't synced my iPod for a couple weeks, so there might be a few more plays on some of these, but I didn't want to risk adding 2014 plays onto.<br />
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I'll stop here. Definitely stayed tuned if you're interested and keep you eyes open for more posts!<br />
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Stasi XDStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-38251957729498119312011-12-09T09:13:00.001-07:002011-12-09T13:24:05.113-07:00Happy AIcemBA!!Ohisashiburi Minna-san!! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in almost a month! (I haven't posted on my <a href="http://theexaminationsofanapple.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Examinations blog</a> for a few weeks as well, but I'll do that later today.) Things were pretty crazy starting around Thanksgiving. Thankfully they've calmed down a bit lately, so I finally have time (and the motivation) to write a post! Anyways, first off, Happy December!! (I'll explain the title later!) I hope that whatever holiday you celebrate will be wonderful this month and that you're ready for the New Year!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">One of JYJ's Lotte Duty Free free wallpapers for December!</span></div>
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First off, I hope those in America enjoyed their Thanksgiving break and holiday!! Thanksgiving for me was a little hectic this year, with plans changing last minute...once again. It was good to see some of my family though! I actually spent pretty much all day Wednesday cooking. I ended up making two pumpkin pies, two cheesecakes and my Aunt's recipe of twice baked potatoes. I really enjoyed cooking all day, although I just love cooking anyways. Especially when it's for a large group of family (or friends)! Also, my Mom was pretty happy because all she had to do was pack things Thanksgiving morning before we headed over to my Grandma Brown & Aunt Mary's place. Although, since I didn't help her, she forgot quite a few things. She's so EVIL sometimes! Anyways, it was fun, although I was pretty exhausted by the time it hit 2pm, and by then I was very close to being in a food coma.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Cheesecakes and 1 of the Pumpkin Pies I made for Thanksgiving!</span></div>
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Continuing on, I went Black Friday shopping again. It was at least the 7th year I've gone, but now that I think about it, maybe it was the 10th. Anyways, it's something my Mom and I usually do every year and make a big thing out of it. This year the stores kind of screwed us over. In previous years we've been able to come home around 10pm and go through the ads and make a plan on where we want to go and what we want to get at each store. Then we'll usually head to bed around midnight or 1am, get one or two hours of sleep, and then head back out to be in line for the store to open at 3/4am. This year though, a lot of stores opened at midnight, with some opening at 9 or 10pm Thanksgiving night. This year, by the time we quickly went through the ads, it was time to leave and head to Target to stand in line. It was crazy, and a lot busier this year. It changed the whole day, and I'm not sure if they really got the results they wanted. Before, people were able to get a bit of sleep before hand, so people would show up around 3 or 4am and then spend the rest of the day shopping. This year, each line was a lot longer and busier, but because of the time change, people were done shopping pretty much before 5am. It really emptied out pretty quick. We ended up being home around 3am and just heading to bed. I saw an interview with some store manager person, and he was talking about the time changes. He said they made the times earlier because customers had mentioned that they wanted the sales to come earlier. My response: "I'm pretty sure by earlier they meant as in days or weeks, not hours." Anyways, I spent about $120 and didn't really find any Christmas presents or anything besides DVDs. I ended up with a pretty good load thought for that price. A small list to show the great deals I found were particularly for the TV Shows on DVD. Beside the 10is movies I got, I also got X-men, X2 and X3 for $5 on Blue Ray (Yay for PS3), and the first 4 seasons of Psych as well as the first season of True Blood! I was pretty happy with my spoils, but it's a little sad that I was only really into the movie sales again.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">One of the True Blood Season 1 ads!</span></div>
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The only other really big even that happened since Thanksgiving, was the weekend I spent up at my Dad's house. I love going up there, and this time I went up to house and dog-sit. I was a little sad that Dad and Diane weren't there for most of it, but they weren't on vacation as long as I thought they would be, so it was nice to hang out with them a bit. Plus, Jack (the Puppy Monster) was pretty excited. I'm pretty sure he thinks the only reason I came up was to play with him. If he wasn't sleeping on me, he was trying to get me to play with him. Such a freaking Puppy Monster, but he's so cute! Anyways, I always love going up to their house. I don't really have phone service and they don't really have much for Internet service, but it's nice to be able to escape from everything for a bit and relax. Plus it's absolutely gorgeous up their. Especially since it snowed the day I went up, everything was covered in white and really pretty. It was freezing though, but they have a fire place, so it was nice to keep that roaring away! I always love the smell of fireplaces. Especially when there's some good smelling wood in there!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Jack a.k.a. Puppy Monster!</span></div>
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Before I get started on fandom related things, Christmas is coming up! I'm pretty excited to head home later today to get the tree and Christmas decorations. I'm just hoping that I can find them easily in the doom that is my Mom's basement. I'm super excited for Christmas though, it always puts me in a good mood. Plus, I have a good excuse to do a lot of baking and cooking for people (which I love to do)! I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping, I just have one more present left to buy and then the ones I make. I'm also going to get Christmas/Holiday cards soon, so hopefully I'll be sending those out by Wednesday next week! So, if you would like me to send you a card, just contact me in any way (comment, twitter, fb, email, etc.)! I'll probably upload pictures as I decorate and finish on my twitter, so you can check that out if you want! Hopefully as Christmas comes, I won't fail as much in posting. I'm thinking I'll have at least one more post around Christmas. Possibly one more before New Year's, we'll see!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Santa Claus, Is Com~ing to To~wn!</span></div>
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Now on to fandom related things! First off, I'm not really a Kiss Me, (U-kiss fandom), but I really enjoy their new song. A lot of Korean bands have been moving over to the Japanese market lately, so there's been a lot of Japanese singles sung by Korean bands. Most of them have been Japanese versions of songs that were originally in Korean. Some of them have sounded odd, but I'm pretty excited with U-kiss's Japanese debut song. Not only is it a song that wasn't one of their previous Korean hits, but really good and addicting. The choreography for the dance is also done really well. The song is called Tick Tack and has a lot of clock like movements. The song is really addicting, but I also really enjoy the dance. The only problem I have is that I keep wanting to call it Tick Tock. Do clocks in Korea go Tick Tack (is that how they sound out the noise since things like that differ between countries and languages)? I don't think the Japanese sound for clocks is Tick Tack, but I could be wrong. When I was in Japan I didn't really learn a lot of onomatopoeias. Anyways, check out the MV <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOeZsTS4-n8&list=FL83sNar68V13g4lC-oJJGiw&index=3&feature=plpp_video" target="_blank">here</a>. I think it's the best Japanese debut single to come out of a Korean band so far!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">One of my favorite dance moves from Tick Tack!</span></div>
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I have found myself dragged into another fandom. I watched season 1 of the Korean Variety show Sesame Player and it featured MBLAQ. Well I stumbled across season 2 a couple weeks ago, only this season they featured Infinite. I had listened to a few of their songs before a liked them, but watching this variety show, I got hooked. They quickly became one of my favorite Korean bands (behind Super Junior and TVXQ/JYJ)! I really do enjoy their sense of humor and cohesiveness as a group. They also have really good choreography that's usually pretty in synch. Also, in BTD (Before the Dawn) they have this really cool scorpion dance. I find myself really getting drawn into their choreography and songs the more I listen and learn about them. Also, they aren't too young so I don't feel like a pedophile in saying I like them. Plus the leader is born in 89 and before me, so I'm not older than all of them! Anyways, check them out! Here is where you can find their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/woolliment#g/c/707858D317611E16" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>. I'll like you to their debut song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi54WjHr-DA" target="_blank">Come Back</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvNUilVWFDs" target="_blank">BTD</a>, and their latest promotion songs for their first album <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqC8AmuZuLI" target="_blank">Be Mine</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j56dftJ-Ts" target="_blank">Paradise</a>. Just a heads up though, I'm linking to a live version of Paradise not the MV because I really like the dance and the MV doesn't show it. Also, if you just want to check out the scorpion dance, here's a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z8bA49F0U4" target="_blank">compilation </a>made by a fan!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Scorpion dance move from the BTD MV!</span></div>
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Okay, so switching gears a bit, we're moving from music to manga. So the new Chapter of Skip Beat! came out a bit ago! Chapter 183 picks up after Yashiro-san's phone hangs up on Kyoko. She keeps trying to call him back, only to realize that he probably touched his phone with his bare hands. Kyoko, wanting to get more information ends up calling President Rory!! Yay!! Not only do we get to see Yashiro again after a while, but Rory too! Rory is pretty serious in this chapter though (no crazy antics). Kyoko talks to him and explains that she's worried about Ren. In the end, Rory tells her that he won't tell her any details about what's going on because it's not his place, but that Ren's going through an inner battle. He convinces her that she just has to be there for him and not really do anything in particular. We also find out that Rory put Kyoko with Ren on this assignment not only to help Ren get through his issues, but to try to get him to be a "man" and make a move on Kyoko. His ulterior motives are to Ren put Kyoko's trust in men again and regain what she had lost (due to Sho)! About two thirds of the way through, we see back on set for the movie. A couple of the actresses are afraid of Ren and hiding behind Murasame-san. He tries to calm the girl by saying that "he's just a human," but then he makes eye contact with Ren and he freaks out himself. We then cut to Kyoko freaking out because she was sleeping and it's now Noon. She's trying to hurry to the studio to catch up with Ren, but she's also trying to stay in character and walk slow acting like she doesn't care. Anyways, the chapter ends with Kyoko coming onto set with a lot of people bleeding and hurt. The last frame has Ren holding Murasame-san in what looks like a choke hold, possibly over a ledge of some sort. I'm not sure if it's part of the movie or if Ren just kind of snapped again. I'm hoping the first. So the next chapter comes out January 4th, so we will have to wait a bit. Although, with the holidays I think the time will go by a lot faster!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Kyoko's reaction to finding out she slept until noon!</span></div>
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Another small update about Skip Beat! the drama, SM released a preview teaser thing on their site. You can watch it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPFXqrXcYYE&list=FL83sNar68V13g4lC-oJJGiw&index=5&feature=plpp_video" target="_blank">here</a>! I'm pretty excited to watch this and see how they are going to play the different things. I'm also really interested to see how they are going to do Kyoko's little demons and angels. Anyways, it'll start airing here in the next couple weeks, so they'll probably be spazzing happening within the next few posts about that! Oh, and going back to the teaser, you can also hear a bit of the song Super Junior - M sings for the drama! I'm also excited to hear the song Donghae wrote (his first in Chinese) for the drama and his role! Overall, I'm just pretty excited about all the new Skip Beat! happenings!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Donghae gif from the Skip Beat! promo video.</span></div>
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Well, switching gears back to music fandoms, I'll start with Super Junior (since they were mentioned with the Skip Beat! rants)! There's actually been quite a few happenings with SuJu that I want to rant about. First off, the SS3 DVD has been released for pre-order! It comes out on the 21st! I'm super excited, but at the same time a little confused by SM. I think it would've been a better idea to release it a little earlier, so that people can get it for Christmas, both in Korea and abroad. Anyways, it's exciting because it's only going to be like $30, which is so nice. I love Japan, but why are their DVDs and CDs so expensive? The SS3 in Japan DVD is like $80 before shipping. And speaking of Super Show things, it's time for Super Show 4's first world tour stop. The boys are in Osaka, Japan (and I'm really jealous because I really want to go to Osaka again) and the concerts will happen in the next couple days. I just hope that they release the dates for if they are going to come to the US. If not, I would seriously consider flying to a different country to see them. Especially before Teuk starts his military duties. Continuing on with the association, Donghae's solo song from SS4 (with Eunhyuk) will be released as a digital single. Him and Eunhyuk are forming their own unit and going to promote the song next weekend on two of the music shows. If I remember correctly, it'll be Inkigayo and either Music Bank or Music Core (I always get them mixed up).<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Eunhyuk (yellow) and Donghae (red) during SS4.</span></div>
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Before heading on to my last rant, there is another small Super Junior update I would like to talk about. On December 4th, Leeteuk and Eunhyuk temporarily said goodbye to their DJ spots on Sukira (Super Junior's Kiss the Radio). They've been the DJs for over 5 years, so it's really sad. I've only been listening to Sukira since I was in Japan (over a year), but it's sad that I won't be able to listen to my two biases every morning. Instead of getting other people to replace them (there were rumors it would be Infinite), the producers I guess decided to keep it as Sukira, so Ryeowook and Sungmin are the new DJs. EunTeuk said that it was better for them to quit since both of their schedules are getting hectic and full lately. As much as it's saddening, I think that it's good for them to cut back a little bit. I hate it when they look so exhausted and like they haven't had any sleep in years. It's a different Sukira with RyeoSung, but they are both such cutie pies, especially Ryeowook. When he gets so hyper I just want to grab him and shake him (I don't know why it's shaking him & a little violent). Anyways, they are super cute and it'll be fun to watch them develop some DJ skills. EunTeuk have said that they are planning on coming back, so I'm sure we'll see them DJing again!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">New Sukira DJs! Such cutie pies!</span></div>
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Okay, so on to my last rant, this time switching continents to Japan! There actually isn't too much news about Arashi. Just new dramas and starring in each other's shows and specials. Anyways, to finally explain the title, it's Aiba's Month among Arashians (what I call Arashi fans)! His birthday is the 24th, but Arashi fans tend to dedicate the entire month to the member. Aiba is my second bias, so all the Aiba things being released are pretty exciting! Anyways, one of the fansub groups I follow (AST) has dubbed December AIcemBA! So, that's why the title is Happy AIcemBA! In other small fangirlisms, this means that next month is my Arashi bias' month! Yes, that's right, we see Sakurai Sho's birthday next month (as well as Jaejoong's, my new JYJ/TVXQ bias [Sorry, Sorry Yunho])!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The rare serious side of Aiba-chan. He's so pretty!</span></div>
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Okay, so sorry it was long, but a lot has happened since I last updated! If you made it this far, congratulations! I hope I didn't bore you too much! Anyways, I'll leave with a gif as always! This time I'll leave you with Aiba-chan, our dear birthday boy! This is a popular gif from Himitsu no Arashi-chan (one of their variety shows) where he falls off his chair from laughing!<br />
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Ja ne~<br />
StasiStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-39630255595551008492011-11-08T21:28:00.001-07:002011-11-08T21:31:08.231-07:006 Years + Love Song + New BeginningsHello dear readers! I am back, and in a more timely manner! So I only have a few items to talk about today, but a couple them could turn out pretty long. Anyways, I hope you are enjoying the month of November so far! It's been getting a more colder lately, so please take care of yourselves and don't catch colds if you're in an area getting colder!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A picture I took last Tuesday while walking home during the snow storm!</span></div>
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Okay, so first off, I would like to share my life changing decisions. As I am kind of tired of being an Accounting major and only chose it since I was good at it, I have made the decision to change to an Asian Studies major. I know that I only have one or two years left, but honestly, I feel so much interested and engaged in classes that I enjoy. I'm good at Accounting, not so much the other business classes. I just feel like I could do a lot better. What's really nice, is when I was talking to Bea about it, she brought up a very good point. I guess one of her art teachers was talking about being happy in your major and your career in life. I agree, and think that people should try to find jobs that they both like and can enjoy. For me, I enjoy learning about different cultures, especially Asian ones. I also have enjoyed learning Japanese and trying to figure out Korean on my own! I am really excited and feel so much happier and less stressed now that I feel like I can get on the right path. Since UNC just established an Asian Studies Major, there really aren't that many class options. Seeing as the only Asian languages that are offered here are Japanese and Chinese, I feel a little constricted. I would eventually like to learn Chinese, but I would rather learn Korean or even Vietnamese or Thai first. So, taking that into consideration, I am going to try to transfer to University of Colorado - Boulder. They have a lot more extensive program, and even off I think three years of Korean. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to transfer smoothly. Plus it'll be nice to still be in Colorado, and in an area I somewhat know (my grandfather lives outside of Boulder). As for plans after I graduate, I am planning on teaching English in Korea or Japan for a few years. Honestly, I just want to get out of the US. I really felt so much happier and healthier when I was living in Japan despite missing all my friends and family. Although, I didn't miss them as much as I thought I would. I guess I just felt at home there, which is more than I can say for Greeley. It's familiar, but it's never really given me the feeling like I belong. I feel like I'm just here for a bit. I hope that makes sense. Thinking about it, I honestly wouldn't disappointed in my life if I spent the rest of my time teaching English abroad. The funny part is when I was talking to my Mom about it, she mentioned that when I was little I wanted to be a teacher for a few years, and she thought that was what I was going to be. When I mentioned it to my Dad, he told me straight out: "I never really understood where you got the idea to be an Accountant." So I think that my family pretty much agrees with my decision, which makes me feel like I made the right choice even more. At least, I hope they're okay with it. Anyways, I just wanted to share some of the thoughts that have been going through my head lately, and that I finally feel like I'm headed to a goal in life that I can reach and be happy in. I think it would still be fun to work on variety shows, but I'm not really sure how that would pan out. I think at most I could work on ones that deal with people learning English or having English segments or something. We'll see. You never can know what happens.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Game of Life! XD</span></div>
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Okay, sorry for that huge chunk of text, but I didn't really want to separate it and have it seem like I was switching topics. If you made it through, congratulations! I hope everything made sense. Anyways, time to move on! Before moving on, I would like to give a small update about NaNoWriMo. So far everything is going pretty well. I didn't really want to write yesterday, but I was so tired I didn't want to do anything. At least I worked a lot on it this weekend and have goals to get to 15,000 words by midnight tonight! Right now I'm just under 14,000, so about an hour and I'll meet my goal! I can't remember what all I mentioned earlier about my novel, but I've decided to write and adventure type story, well, at least that's what it is right now. Basically, I'm using my experience studying abroad in Japan to write a story about a girl that moves to Japan right after college to teach English and find a new life! I hope it turns out well, but we'll see if I ever share it with anyone.<br />
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Moving on, Skip Beat! chapter 182 came out on the fifth! The first part of the chapter was okay, a lot of inner monologue from Kyoko. The ending though, was EPIC! We see a return of Yashiro-san (Ren's Mangaer)!! He's one of my favorite characters, so it was fun to see him again after so long! Anyways, so the chapter is about Kyoko analyzing what happened with Ren the night before, a.k.a. last chapter. She comes to the decision that he wasn't in character last night, and that he was having some sort of issue. He seems okay now and is giving Kyoko clues to not really bring it up and stop worrying. He tells Kyoko to go rest since her eyes are red from staying up all night thinking and worrying. On the way to the room to rest Kyoko calls Yashiro-san. Of course I almost fangirlled since Yashiro-san is one of my favorite characters along with Takarada Rori! Anyways, she wants to ask Yashiro-san about Ren, but a problem arises. In his rush to answer the phone right after getting out of the shower, he answered the phone bare-handed. In case you haven't read, or don't remember, Yashiro-san's bare hands kill electronics in I think 30 seconds. Of course, he goes to answer Kyoko and his phone dies. The chapter ends with Yashiro-san looking in horror at his dead phone. It was hilarious, but frustrating at the same time. At least the next chapter comes out on the 19th, so I only have to wait a little less than two weeks for the new chapter!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Yashiro-san's reaction to finding the phone dead and realizing he answered with bare hands!</span></div>
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Okay, before I get into my two main biases, let me just start with something else! Wonder Girls have released their second album! It's titled Wonder World and the promotion song is Be My Baby. I am completely addicted to this song! It's so good. I used some of my leftover Soribada money to download the CD. The song is so good, and I really enjoy the dance and the MV. If you haven't heard or seen the song and MV, click <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fy4cqWMhyI&list=PL37F8B25BE7A9347A&index=8&feature=plpp_video" target="_blank">HERE</a>! It'll most likely get stuck in your head and you'll want to hurt me, but it's good. I'm really happy to see them back with such a good song. I honestly haven't been too impressed with their couple latest releases since Nobody. Nothing against Sones, but I kind of want them to blow SNSD out of the water! Anyway, please check out the MV! It's good, I swear!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">From the MV! The focus is on my favorite member, YeEun or Yenny! XD</span></div>
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Moving on, Arashi's new single "迷宮ラブソング" (Meikyu Love Song) came out! It's so good! I love this song! The MV is so much fun too! It's such a fun and cute MV! I busted out laughing a few times, plus it shows them in all their adorkable glory! As for the other songs, there were three other songs on the regular edition single. They are "together, forever," "うたかた," and "wanna be..." and one extra song on the limited edition, "消えぬ想い." Honestly, I prefer the three on the regular edition better. I particularly like "うたかた" a lot. It's such a peppy song and they have some great harmonies in it! I also really like "wanna be..." It has a little of a rock feeling to it, but it works well I think. "消えぬ想い" is also good, but I think it's my least favorite of all the new songs. I'll post a link to the PV <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-TbPDkEQ24" target="_blank">here</a>, but I'm not sure how long it'll be up. If you aren't able to find it through google and want to watch it, let me know and I'll try to send it to you! Anyways, I really enjoy their latest singe (Number 32!!) and highly encourage you to check it out!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Cat Ohno! Yes, he's turning 31 years old this month! XD</span></div>
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Okay, last, but definitely not least, Super Junior ranting will commence. Okay, so this might be a weird section, just warning you. On November 6th, Super Junior celebrated their 6th year anniversary! As I mentioned in my last post, I can't believe that six years have passed this quickly, and for me I've been their fan since 2008, so three years for me. Anyways, I just wanted to post a little blurb dedicated to them. I know they most likely won't ever come across it and read it, let alone be able to understand it, but I just wanted to share because you never know! Anyways, you don't have to read this and can just skip it if you want!<br />
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Dear Super Junior:</div>
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First off, congratulations on 6 years together. You've broken the curse of 5 years! I want to express to you that I will support you forever, no matter what. I will always be your fan, your support, your Ever-Lasting Friend. There is so much I want to convey to you, but I'm not quite sure how. I am so thankful for so many things. You have given me so much and enriched my life greatly. I wouldn't be the same person I am today if it weren't for you. Your presence in my life has brought me tears, laughter, happiness, hope, and so much more. I've able to meet wonderful people from all over the world through being your fan. My prospective has opened on so many things thanks to you. There is so much more feeling I wish that I could write and convey to you, but I can't quite figure out how to put in into words. I'm sad that we aren't all together anymore, but I believe that one day all 13+2 will stand together, on one stage. I know that as you all get older you'll be temporarily leaving to complete your mandatory service to your country. I just want you to know that I will always support you, no matter what happens. I will always wait, no matter how long!</div>
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Your Ever-Lasting Friend, Stasi</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I love these boys so much! </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span>❤</div>
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Okay, so I hoped you enjoyed this blog post and thank you for once again reading through all my rantings! As always, I'll leave you with a gif! This time, I'll leave you with the only Super Junior member I haven't posted a solo gif of, Hankyung! </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Hankyung from Super Junior-M's Super Girl MV! XD</span></div>
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Ja ne~</div>
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Stasi </div>Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-11074297555570487552011-11-01T21:40:00.001-06:002011-11-01T21:44:23.538-06:002 Months & Counting...Hello!! So, once again I am coming to you after a couple weeks, or maybe more like a week...but anyways, Hello again! I can't believe it's already November! This means that Thanksgiving & Black Friday are soon, as well as Christmas and 2012! I hope you're all ready for the end of 2011!! Anyways, lets get started since I have quite a few topics/rants today!<br />
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First off, last night was Halloween! As much as Halloween is my favorite holiday, unfortunately time got away from me and I wasn't able to finish my costume. I still have everything for it, so I might just wear it next year or to a con or something! It was a kind of a bummer since I ended up working for 12 hours that day. I didn't really see anybody else, and I wasn't home until late so I didn't see an trick or treaters either. Major Sad Day! I ended up doing my laundry and cleaning the closet the day before and found my beanie with cat ears I bought at NDK a few years ago. I wore it all day so at least I was dressed up a little bit! Two of my roommates and I did end up carving pumpkins though! We were trying to figure out when to do it, but last Wednesday ended up being a snow day, so we stayed home and did them then! Adrienne carved a ghost coming out of a crypt/coffin, Katie did Batman, and I did a Japanese Kabuki mask! It was the hardest design I've ever carved, but I think it turned out really cool! Unfortunately I carved it a little low on the pumpkin so it looked like he was staring at the ground. It's all good though! I also did decorate the yard, but the snow day happened a couple days afterwards and kind of ruined it. I'll be cleaning it up here in the next couple days.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Green: Adrienne's Pink: Mine Yellow: Katie's</span></div>
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As for other happenings recently, I attended Billy's bachelorette party and Billy and Curtis's wedding was on the 29th. The ceremony ended up happening at the same place as the reception instead of at a cemetery, but I think it turned out really nice! They both looked so happy. Well, actually, they both still look really happy! I'm just sad I forgot my camera. The bachelorette party was a lot of fun too! We played Dirty Minds, watched Rocky Horror Picture Show, chatted about random things, and went to Old Chicago's! It was a blast! The reception was a lot of fun too! Sam and her brother (Pikachu a.k.a. Alex) also came to the reception, so it was really nice to catch up. She's still up in Greeley, so I think we're going to try to get together sometime soon! Anyways, back to the happy couple, I'm so excited for them! It really turned out nice! I never really have thought much about my wedding, but going to theirs I am a little now. It's hard though since I have no idea who I'll actually end up marrying!<br />
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Oh, speaking of meeting with Sam, she convinced me to do NaNoWriMo this year. I've always been interested in it, and it starts today. I'll actually get started here when I'm done posting this. I'm not exactly sure how it'll end up since I've never attempted something like this, but hopefully I'll at least make the 50,000 words by the end of the month!<br />
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Okay, so for my fangirl rants! They all will be rather short though! First off, a small Skip Beat mention! The new chapter doesn't come out until the 5th, so I don't actually have any news about it! I can't wait though! I'm excited and hope it's not a shorter chapter! We'll see. Anyways, expect another update around then.<br />
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Also most like going to be in that post will be information and rantings about Super Junior's 6th anniversary. It's coming up quickly (on the 6th)! I can't believe that I've been in the fandom for three years now! Then again, Arashi is currently in their 12th year and I've been their fan for...eight years now. Wow, and I though three years was long! Also, Super Junior released their Super Show 3 Live Album! It's awesome! I'll link you to <a href="http://kpop.soribada.com/En/Artist/album.php?AID=AK007896&TID=" target="_blank">Soribada</a> so you can listen to the songs if you would like! I love them and can't wait for the DVD to be released! Since I don't really have any other Super Junior updates, I'll get on to Arashi! They still haven't released the single Meikyu Love Song yet, but that should be coming up soon as well. They did release the short PV a bit ago, but most of the links have been taken down. I'm sure that'll be coming up soon in one of the next couple posts!<br />
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Well, I think that's all that for this post! Not much fangirling this time, but there were some exciting things to update you all on! Hopefully I'll be more timely with my next post! Today's gif will be Kibum since I haven't posted a solo gif of him yet! It's from the U MV! XD<br />
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Ja ne~<br />
StasiStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-14218644981901714742011-10-21T02:16:00.001-06:002011-10-21T02:17:55.083-06:00October Love!Ohisashiburi Minna! So, I was planning on writing my first blog post of October earlier, but nothing too exciting has been happening. I have a few things to rant about today though, so I hope I don't bore you too much! XD<br />
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First off, Halloween is only a couple of weeks away! I've been procrastinating on decorating the yard. Every time I have the motivation to do it the weather is uncooperative. Hopefully I'll get it up this weekend. Also Halloween related news, I have decided on my costume for this year! I am going to be a Jedi! Woooo! I'm pretty excited about it! I bought a blue lightsaber and the fabric to make the cape and outer layer tunic. I won't be too authentic, but hopefully I get it done on time. I just have to stop sleeping in and start waking up early to work on it all that I can. I think I can get it done. First I have to clean my room though. But anyways, I'll probably post a couple pictures (if I actually take any)!<br />
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Speaking of future October plans, it's almost time for Billy and Curtis's wedding! I can't wait! I'm really excited for them! I actually just got their wedding presents and we've been planning the Bachelor and Bachelorette parties! This Saturday are the parties, so I'll probably do an update (most likely) sometime this weekend or early next week relating the craziness that ensues. Tomorrow I'm making inappropriate cupcakes for the parties with Billy and Zeva, so that'll be fun too! Hopefully they turn out right! I'll most likely post pictures on my Twitter, but I might share them here. We'll see how they turn out! XD<br />
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Well, since things are progressing quickly, we are already to the fandom related rants of my posts! The new Skip Beat! chapter came out today! Woooo!! I really enjoyed this chapter. It's been a while since there's been a chapter that actually makes me laugh out loud more than once! It was a nice change, but there also was some good plot movement as well. I won't go too deep into what happened (for those that are reading it as well), but basically Kyoko is coming to realize that the issues that Ren is experiencing are not part of the characters' he's playing, but his own "demons." I can't wait for the next chapter, and it comes out on November 5th so we don't have to wait too long again!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Kyoko can't sleep, so she's creating and counting fairies!</span></div>
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As for other fandom updates, I'll start with Arashi! Sakurai Sho's new drama with Kitagawa Keiko has started! It's called <a href="http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nazotoki_wa_Dinner_no_Ato_de">Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</a>! I really enjoyed the first episode! The instructor was ridiculous, but in a funny way. It was interesting to see Sakurai-san as a butler, but I'm excited to see how things will progress throughout the season! I also love the theme song! I'm not sure when the single is going to be released (I'm too lazy to look it up right now), but the song is Meikyu Love Song and I really love the song. They've released the PV (promotional video) teaser, but most of the ones online have been deleted already, so I can't share it. It looks really good and I can't wait to see the PV in full! I also can't wait to listen to the other songs that will be released with the single. If you haven't heard, and want to check out the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF0h2mJvpHA">Meikyu Love Song</a>, click it's name and you'll get to hear it in full.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Kageyama's (Sakurai Sho) tea time! XD</span></div>
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Last, but not least, my ELF fandom. First off, Super Junior has had their goodbye stage last weekend. I can't believe that 5jib promotions are already over. I'm sad that we won't be able to watch them every weekend for a while, but it's also nice becuase they are able to have a little bit more free time (hopefully). I know that Leeteuk has been really busy. I'm happy that he's doing so many things, but I think the company and his own choices are spreading him too thin. On top of all the shows he MCs, Sukira with Eunhyuk, and Hello Baby Season 4, he has started with the actress Kang Sora on We Got Married. I just hope that he's able to take some good rest during their upcoming vacation. Especially since SS4 will be starting soon. I'm worried about all the boys though, it's just that Teuki is more obvious in his exhaustion.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">These four boys terrorized Teuk and Sora! It was hilarious!</span></div>
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Also, the wonderful month of October has brought us both Henry's and Donghae's birthdays on the 11th and 15th respectively! I just wanted to wish our Mochi and Fishy Happy Birthday once again (I sent them messages on Twitter)! I hope that they had wonderful days and that their new ages bring them many wonderful things!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Henry "teaching" Donghae how to play the violin!</span></div>
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Well, I think that is all that I wanted to update on! As for this post's gif, I bring you the cuteness Sungmin!<br />
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Ja ne~<br />
StasiStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-84667419927340356122011-09-30T16:29:00.000-06:002011-10-21T02:22:38.019-06:00Moving OnSo once again, I am a huge slacker and am taking forever to update my blog. I'm sorry. But, at least I made it back to have an end of month post for September! So I made a list of what to go through on this post and it's pretty long. I'll just get into the thick of it! CAUTION: Long Rants Ahead!<br />
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So, first off, I thought I'd catch up on things I mentioned my last post (on the 8th). So the weekend after my last post was NDK! I had a lot of fun. There were a few small issues, but it wasn't the fault of the Con, but people there. I just tried to ignore it and enjoy what little time I had there! I was able to go to quite a few panels this year! Most of them were costuming/wig panels, but we also got to head to a few others. Also, I went to the AMV contest (like every year I've gone). It was good this year, but I was a little disappointed with the variety of animes selected. I don't know if it was the NDK judge's fault or just what the submissions were like. I did enjoy the ones that I saw though! I also got to finally see Derek and Travis. Oh how I've missed those two boys! Especially Derek! Things have been pretty different without him around. Hopefully we'll get more chances to hang out soon! Since, I have a lot more I could say, but I want to try to keep things short, I'll end my NDK stories here! I did buy a lot of artwork and a couple really cute plushies! If you want to know more just leave me a comment or send me a message and I can let you know more! I also need to upload the few pictures I took off my camera. Yes, I know, I fail.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Myself and 1 of my new plusies, NemuNeko (Sleeping Cat)!</span></div>
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Okay, so I'm going to try to keep this short, and a warning for those that have gotten this far, there will be a lot of fangirl rants later on! But you'll know more if you actually get that far! XD Anyways, continuing on... Before I get too much into the next few rants, I just wanted to to send out a little promo for my <a href="http://theexaminationsofanapple.blogspot.com/">Examinations Blog</a>! I'm currently doing a 5000 Question Survey (broken into parts) and would love to have more people check it out. There's a link on the side bar or you can just click above or <a href="http://theexaminationsofanapple.blogspot.com/">here</a>! Anyways, I'd love to have more people check it out and let me know what they think. Also, if you have any quizzes or surveys or psychological tests or anything you want to share, don't hesitate to send them to me! I'd love to take them, post my results and share them with my other readers!<br />
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So now that I got that out of my system, I also want to do a small rant here. I know this should probably be at the top, but I wanted to say something to all of you! Thank You!! I really do feel happy when I see that someone is reading my posts. I haven't really gotten many comments, but that's okay. I just hope that I'm not boring you too much with all my randomness and weird rantings! There is a reason that I'm bringing this up though! I was messing around in the statistics area of the new blogspot dashboard and found something interesting. As of this morning, I have had viewers/readers from the following countries: USA, Argentina, Philippines, UK, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Indonesia, Russia, and Brazil! I honestly thought that most of the people reading were in the US, but I feel happy and amazed that people from so many countries have come across my blog! Anyways, thanks to all my readers! I hope that I keep you entertained until I stop writing!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The readers chart from the statistics area!</span></div>
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So there's something else I want to post in my blog, but I think I'll wait a couple more days before I post it. It's the longest rant of all the ones I have planned, and I think I'd prefer to just do a post about it and not really have it surrounded by other happenings. I will be posting within the next week (for the first October post), so keep your eyes peeled for that! Speaking of October, it starts tomorrow! I'm so excited! I love October! Fall is my favorite season and Halloween is my favorite holiday. Also, my good friends Billy and Curtis are getting married this month as well! I'm really excited for the weather to start changing (hopefully *knocks on wood*)! I also need to start figuring out what my Halloween costume will be. I'm currently floating between a few ideas, but I need to make a decision fast so I have enough time to make my costume before it arrives!<br />
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Okay, so before I start on my Asian Pop group fangirlisms, I am watching a LOT more American TV shows this season. It's crazy. I don't think I watched this many shows before I was watching more Japanese and Korean shows. But anyways, there are a lot of good shows this season, so I thought I'd share what ones I'm watching and let you know my quick thoughts! First off, I'll mention those that haven't premiered (or I haven't watched yet). <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/private-practice">ABC's Private Practice</a> premiered last night, but I'm still only about halfway through Season 4, so I need to catch up first before I start the new season. Also, one of my favorite shows premieres October 12th! It's <a href="http://www.usanetwork.com/series/psych/index.html">USA's Psych</a>! I love this show! Shawn and Gus are hilarious and I can't wait for this show to start back up! Also premiering in October is ABC's new show <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time">Once Upon a Time</a>. It starts on the 23rd and is created by the writers of Lost. I watched the first half of season one of Lost and enjoyed it, but I missed one episode and got lost after that (ignore the bad pun). I really enjoyed what I watched though. Anyways, it looks to be about fairy tales and looks really good from the previews. I'll definitely be watching the first couple episodes and then decide from there!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Ignore the date and time! Psych now airs on Wednesdays!</span></div>
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As for shows that have already started airing, and I've seen I'll just do a quick run through. When I start the shows mentioned above, I'll be watching a total of 11 American shows this season! I don't think I've ever watched that many before. Anyways, I'll do this by days. I am watching three shows that air on Tuesday evenings. My favorite of the three is CW's new show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (I love her) in <a href="http://cwtv.com/shows/ringer">Ringer</a>. I am really addicted to Ringer. It is so freaking good. Plus, I'm really happy to see Sarah Michelle Gellar active again! She's one of my favorite actresses. It is really good. I really recommend this show to a lot of people. Anyways, I'll stop ranting about Ringer and move on. The other Tuesday shows that I'm watching are <a href="http://www.fox.com/glee/">Fox's Glee</a> and <a href="http://www.fox.com/new-girl/">New Girl</a>. This is the third season of Glee, but honestly, I'm only watching it for Harry Shum, Jr. He's such an amazing dancer! As for New Girl, I'm really enjoying this odd comedy. Zooey Deschanel is awesome (as always) and I'm really loving here character Jess! If you are into comedies, definitely check it out! Moving on, the only Wednesday show that I watch (until Psych starts) is the <a href="http://cwtv.com/shows/americas-next-top-model">CW's America's Next Top Model (ANTM)</a>. We are on Cycle 17 (I can't believe I've watched 16 seasons before this) and Tyra has finally decided to do an allstars season! It's been interesting so far, and I've been loving the photo shoots! The last one had the models on stilts! So crazy! Thursdays leave me with new episodes of <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/greys-anatomy">ABC's Grey's Anatomy</a> and <a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory/">CBS's The Big Bang Theory</a> (and eventually Private Practice). Both shows are two of my favorites! The Big Bang Theory is starting Season 5 while Grey's Anatomy is currently in Season 8! The only other day that airs shows I watch are Sundays! That leaves me with <a href="http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/storm-chasers/">Discovery's Storm Chasers</a> and <a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/">CBS's The Amazing Race</a>. Both are really good shows, but completely different. For those that don't know, Storm Chasers is a series that follows meteorologists and storm chasers during tornado season. The Amazing Race is a reality show where there are teams of two and it's a race around the world. What I really enjoy about Amazing Race is that they get to participate in cultural activities, that sometimes leave me feeling so jealous. So those are the shows that I'm watching this season. I've linked all them to their websites (if you didn't notice) in case you want to learn more! I hope I've helped you a bit with Fall TV line-up! Feel free to comment below and leave me any recommendations!<br />
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Well, keeping on with TV Shows, but jumping to Asian ones, I'll start off talking about the Korean Drama <a href="http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Protect_the_Boss">Protect the Boss</a>. I honestly can't remember (and don't want to backlog) if I've mentioned it before, but I love this show. It's one of my favorite Korean dramas hands down, and definitely my favorite of the year. The main actors play really childish characters and there's so many funny moments. I've gotten several people hooked to it, so have seen up to episode 10 at least 4 times already! The last two episodes aired this week, so by the beginning of next week the English subs should be up so I can finish it. I'm sad it'll be ending, but at the same time I'm happy. Some American shows go on WAY too long. Also, with Asian TV shows, Skip Beat! the Taiwanese live action drama has released an airing date. I've heard two different dates (December 18th and 24th), but since they're both in December, I'm pretty sure that it'll start then. I'm sad because it's still a couple months away, but then again I've been waiting over a year for this, so a couple more months won't hurt! Plus, I know that it's already been filmed!<br />
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Keeping with the same thought train, the new chapter of <u>Skip Beat!</u> was released on the 20th! I can't believe we're already on Chapter 180! So this chapter started out with a flashback. We see Ren back when he was Kuon in an alley (presumably in the States) beating up some Americans. Suddenly...I think his name is Rick...runs up and tries to convince Ren to stop fighting. While thinking about his flashback, Kyoko appears and is confronts him about his reactions (more specifically the smile) during his fight with Murasame-san. I'm excited for this because we are learning more and more about Ren's back story. I can't wait until it's all revealed! Also, Ren is super cute in this chapter. Most of the chapter takes place in their hotel room, and Ren is like huddling under the blanket. The end of the chapter leaves us with Kyoko stepping out of an elevator (she went to the convenience store) and Ren in front of it draped in the blanket. As a side note, I was talking with Pri about <u>Skip Beat!</u> earlier, and she mentioned that we haven't seen Sho lately. I wonder what he's up too, but guessing off previous frames, he's probably sulking somewhere picturing Ren and Kyoko on dates! The next chapter comes out on October 20th, so we have a little bit of a wait. I don't mind though. It's more normal to have an update monthly, and it's way better than the two month streak we had a little bit ago.<br />
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Okay, so now I'll start the more serious fangirl things. I'll start off slowly though, which means the smaller rants! I'll also be starting with my Japanese fandom, Arashi! It has been released that Arashi will be singing the theme song for Sakurai Sho's new drama <a href="http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nazotoki_wa_Dinner_no_Ato_de">Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de</a>. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but it's a new Japanese drama! It starts airing for the Winter Season (I believe) and stars not only my bias from Arashi, Sakurai Sho, but one of my favorite Japanese actresses, <a href="http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Kitagawa_Keiko">Kitagawa Keiko</a>. If you've watched any Japanese dramas before, she was in Buzzer Beat (with Yamapi). She's also in the Japanese Movie adaptation of Paradise Kiss (which I really, really want to see). I just hope to finish the last drama Sakurai-san was in before this one starts (Tokujo Kabachi). Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty behind overall in Arashi dramas since My Girl.<br />
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So moving on to Korean fandoms, Brown Eyed Girls made their comeback! They are one of my favorite girl groups out there! Not only are they older than most of current groups, but they are so strong. I really think that they are the Queens of the girl groups. Anyways, the new song is awesome. It's kind of an onslaught to the senses though with their vocals and the instrumentation, but from the second listen onward I was hooked. This is one of the few songs I rock out to when I have to walk anywhere. These girls are so talented, plus this MV and song is sending a message. What's nice is that everyone can interpret the message differently, but at the same time everyone also understands that it's also sending a message to the censor board that pretty much reads as "Fudge You!" (I rarely cuss. Don't hate!) I really recommend you check out their new song if you like music. Oh, I forgot the most important part, it's titled "Sixth Sense." They've also done their comeback on the music shows, and boy are these girls amazing live as well! I'll give both links to the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdH1GwyZJuY&feature=autoplay&list=PL37F8B25BE7A9347A&lf=mh_lolz&playnext=6&shuffle=341198">MV</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PErUVipJK0o&feature=related">LIVE</a> here. Just as a side note, I'm going to stop embedding the videos here on my blog to help with the play counts. Please still check them out though! <br />
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Quickly, before I get to my main fandom, I wanted to share a little bit of TVXQ and JYJ news. TVXQ has released an album in Japan! I really love the song B.U.T. (Be-au-ty). It's a good one to walk too as well. I'll link you to the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXNvJZJr9w4&feature=related">MV</a>! Also, JYJ has released their album In Heaven. The songs on this CD are so good. I really love these songs so much. Plus, what makes it even more exciting is that these boys had a hand in each of these songs, with some of them being completely composed, lyricized, and arranged by the members. I am such a fan of this CD that I caved in and bought a copy. I'm not buying at least two of each version (like with Super Junior), but I did want to show them my support. I'm going to have an Asian artist poster on my walls that isn't Super Junior! But anyways, they've released two MVs with the CD. The first is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G8EjLW2CCc&feature=related">In Heaven</a> which is a ballad song that Jaejoong composed, arranged, and wrote the lyrics for. I just want to give a little background. The story in the MV is about a man (played by Junsu) and his girlfriend that dies. In reality, Jaejoong wrote the song after a friend of his committed suicide. The second MV is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Kb6ytVDao&feature=BFa&list=PL37F8B25BE7A9347A&lf=mh_lolz&shuffle=341198">Get Out</a> and one of my favorite songs off the CD. This song is also one of the ones on my walking playlist! The music and lyrics were written by Jaejoong and Yoochun. Jaejoong also helped in the arrangement of the song. Anyways, check them out. If I had to choose just one for you to check out though, I'd go with Get Out. It's one of my favorite songs, of pretty much all Korean music. Not many artists other than Super Junior have made that short list!<br />
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Okay, so finally to the big boys (hee hee), Super Junior! there is actually a lot of information that's come out with Super Junior since my last post, but I'll just keep it down to a few major happenings. First, Mr. Simple Version C, the repackage has been released! The title track is A-CHA. They have released the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTaLTTanJc&feature=BFa&list=PL37F8B25BE7A9347A&lf=mh_lolz&shuffle=341198">MV</a> and performed it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zXeDHbmO_M&feature=related">LIVE</a>. There were three other songs that were added in the repackage as well. Oops! (featuring f(x)), A Day, and Andante. Andante is another one of my favorite ballads, and once again composed by Henry and Leeteuk. I also really like A Day (which features all of the members). Oops took me a bit to get used to, but the turning point was when I read the lyrics to the song. Leeteuk, Donghae, Heechul, Eunhyuk, and Shindong wrote the rap for the song and knowing what they are singing really makes the song a lot better. But, back to A-CHA! Once you listen to A-CHA, I am warning you that it will be stuck in your head. I though Rokkugo was bad, but A-CHA is at a whole new level! This song is very, very addicting! I recommend you check out both the MV (which I have some issues with) and the live to see some more of the dance! Honestly though, the MV bothered me a bit. The only saving grace it had was that the boys looked amazing in it. Anyways, that's a whole different rant. Just a reminder, if you didn't click them before, check out the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTaLTTanJc&feature=BFa&list=PL37F8B25BE7A9347A&lf=mh_lolz&shuffle=341198">MV</a> and/or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zXeDHbmO_M&feature=related">LIVE</a> of A-CHA!<br />
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For a smaller and quicker rant, Heechul has finished his four week basic training. He started his service yesterday. I am glad to see him complete his training and to hear that he's back living in the dorm with our boys, even if he isn't promoting with them currently. I just hope that the fans and reporters stop harassing him and let him do his duty in peace. It was wrong for him to be accosted like that. It also bothered me a bit that they are showing more interest in him now that he's not promoting anything and trying to live as a soldier or citizen and not an idol.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Kim Heechul at training.</span></div>
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Leeteuk, our dear leader, has started Season 4 of Hello! Baby with Sistar. There are five episodes out so far, but I've only seen the first one. I tried watching it when it first came out, but I was so confused and got a little bored not being able to understand...pretty much anything. There has been only one episode released with good subs, so I'm still waiting for more. But, Leeteuk is so cute dealing with the baby Kyumin. He's so adorable! lately, many different things have made me think about having a family and more specifically a baby. One of the things to blame is this show and Leeteuk. Anyways, Leeteuk Appa (Dad in Korean), Fighting! <br />
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Okay, so there is one more small thing I want to mention/rant about before I leave you. Our Shindong's birthday was on the 28th of September. I sent him a small message on twitter that day, but I wanted to say a small message to him. I know that he most likely won't see it, but I still want to write it out and post it on that small chance!<br />
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To Shindong:</div>
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Happy Belated Birthday! I hope you had a wonderful day! I did see the celebratory message and picture you shared on Twitter. I just wanted to say thank you! You've made me so happy to call myself an ELF. You really are someone that has had a rough time being in Super Junior, but I and ELF love you. I know that I've said some things about your surgery, but I honestly don't really care. You will always be the same Shindong to me! Whether you lose 15 more pounds, or gain it all back, I will always support you! I wish that I was in Korea to send you things, or spoke Korean well enough to send you this message and hope that you see it and understand it, but I'm happy knowing that I can still do my small part from America to support you and the Super Junior family. Forgive me for rambling on. I just wanted to say Happy Birthday! and Thank You! You really have given me hope and laughter and can always brighten my day when I'm feeling down!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">One of the photos Shindong tweeted. He's with the other Super Junior members!</span></div>
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Okay, so you didn't really have to read that, but I just wanted to get it out. Anyways, I'll leave you with the customary gif! This week's gif is the birthday boy Shindong!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Shindong from the A-CHA MV Teaser.</span></div>
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Ja ne~</div>
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Stasi</div>Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-68504822697344484062011-09-08T13:52:00.002-06:002011-10-21T02:23:21.193-06:00September Love!Hello my dear readers!! So I was going to do a quick small post today! I have a few things I would like to share as well as a an update on the new Skip Beat! chapter! Woo Hoo! So lets get started!<br />
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So first off, I want to say that yesterday was such an amazing day, until I stopped at the ATM. The night before I had deposited my return deposit from my previous apartment. I was super excited to get the $250 check, especially since <a href="http://ndkdenver.org/">Nan Desu Con</a> (NDK) is this weekend! Well, I waited for a day to withdraw the cash (since I'm going to make NDK a strictly cash event for myself). Last night, I pull up account on the ATM only to find that the $300+ I had in my checking account had magically changed into a $4 and change balance. I completely freaked out. I then proceeded to call Wells Fargo and try to figure out what happened. To make the long story short, they filed a claim and told me it would be resolved in 10 days. I then proceeded to freak out again since that was my NDK money and it was this weekend. Thankfully though, when I checked my bank account this morning it was all there. Now I just have to call them and see if they can remove the fees that they charged me. It's not my fault your system screwed up. I'm just happy I printed out a receipt (I usually don't and will from now on). I've checked it a few times today just to make sure that it doesn't disappear again. I guess I'm kind of freaking out a bit!<br />
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Anyways, since I already mentioned it, NDK is this weekend! Woo! I'm super excited for this year, but it's sad that the people I've gone with the past couple years aren't coming this year. Anyways, I'm looking forward to completely geeking out this weekend! Plus I'll get to buy some Japanese goodies, albeit overpriced goodies. Hopefully I'll remember to charge my camera and take it with me this year (last year I pretty much failed). This year I'm not really planning on cosplaying (due to money and time constraints). I did dig out my <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sugexp=crnk_spiketing&cp=12&gs_id=17&xhr=t&q=matsumoto+rangiku&qe=bWF0c3Vtb3RvIHJh&qesig=JoYorBuR0e_WGP-LL9QLzQ&pkc=AFgZ2tkXAO6AFg5t2m3wCmq-GQ6buE0aXKEvUIIHIom4tLySoE6_CWXP6u2RLCfKTzbKzHHs2IOr-8N_9sb8ViWo7Z276Cg5dQ&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1280&bih=895&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi">Rangiku</a> (from Bleach) cosplay, so I'll bring that along and might do it on Saturday. We'll see. Anyways, if you follow me on twitter (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/busy_bee44">@busy_bee44</a>) I'll most like be updating all weekend! So, if you don't follow me and want to see my fun updates (I'll try to update more this year), then go ahead and follow me!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My self as Cooking Mama & my friend Dan as BJ from Soul Eater at NDK 2009!</span></div>
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Okay, now on to Skip Beat! chapter 179!! Can I just start by saying that this chapter was intense and amazing and awesome and I can't wait to read more. We pick up at the beginning of Ren (as Cain Heel as BJ) and Murasame-san's fight. It changes from the choreographed fight into something completely new, different, and real! Suddenly Ren gives this creepy smile and comes after Murasame-san. The director calls cut when Ren is holding a knife to Murasame-san's throat and Murasame-san is about to break Ren's arm. Then we get to see Murasame-san freak out in his dressing room and give us some hilarious panels. Kyoko doesn't show up until the chapter's almost over, but when we do come to her she's contemplating what she saw. She then begins to question who was fighting. She felt that it wasn't Ren's, Cain Heel's or BJ's character. Basically we're all wondering what in the world took over Ren's body! I'm sensing some amazing Ren backstory information coming up soon, and I can't wait to read it! I love Siwon, but I'm glad they filmed Extravaggent Challenge when they did. I'm not 100% sure he could pull off some of the more recent chapters. Who knows though? Siwon's acting has really grown since A Battle of Wits (Chinese movie starring Siwon and Andy Lau {I love Andy Lau <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span>❤}). The next chapter comes out on the 20th (of September), so I'm happy we don't have to wait two months again!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Ren's creepy smile & Murasame-san & Kyoko's reaction!</span></div>
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Okay, so lastly is my fandom rants! There isn't too much that has happened since my last post. First, Super Junior is going to be promoting Mr. Simple again this week on some of the Music Shows! I'm excited to see them again, but at the same time it'll be sad without Heechul and Siwon (he's filming his drama Poseidon from what I've heard). They also said that this week they'll be performing Superman again or prerecording it for the Chuseok special. Anyways, it'll be exciting to see them perform it again as well. Also, they've released some photos of Heechul in his training. He still looks like our lovely Heenim, just in soldier form! They also posted that he's doing really well and took first in something. I'm glad that he doesn't seem to be having too rough of a time! As for other fangirl things, there isn't much. I kind of went crazy on Tumblr this morning (and almost every time I get on) and end up posting/re-blogging a lot of things. I just want to say sorry to all my Facebook friends and Twitter followers that don't like it. There are a lot of fangirl things I post, but there's also a lot of really funny things. I'll post my favorite one (that's not fandom related) that makes me crack up all the time! It's a motivational poster! <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This just cracks me up! XD</span></div>
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This week's ending gif is Siwon! On my list I realized I haven't used Siwon as a closing gif, and since I mention him specifically a couple times I'll do him this week. The most iconic of all Siwon's gifs I've come across, Shibrows (Siwon's Eyebrows)!<br />
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Ja ne~<br />
StasiStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-29440102934138969022011-09-01T20:35:00.003-06:002011-10-21T02:25:45.955-06:00Stressful HappeningsHello my dear readers! So today is the first day of September! Yay...kind of! This year has gone by so fast. To start with (and how I usually start), I'm sorry for not updating again at the end of August. I kept telling myself I needed to do it, but things just got so stressful and crazy that I just didn't feel like it. Well, I realized this morning that it's already September, so I fail, big time. But, on the plus side I still have posted twice in August, so I'm not too bad! So I have a lot of things to update on, so I'll just get started. Sorry, but it's going to be a long post again. You've been forewarned!<br />
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So first off, I'll start with something I mentioned in my last blog post. The 2011 DCI World Championships have come and gone. Honestly though, I went up to my Dad's house the same weekend and had a lot of things to deal with when I got back, so I didn't look too closely at the scores. I can say though, that the Blue Devils didn't win. Yay! I don't dislike them and they have a lot of talented kids, but I just didn't feel the connection like I did with most of the other top 7 corps. If I remember correctly The Cadets won this year and I'm not disappointed! I really enjoyed their show this year. Once again, my issue (and my family's issue) with The Cadets has nothing to really do with the Cadets as a corp, but their director George Hopkins. (I'm sorry but woodwinds do NOT belong in drum corps. Then it would just be big Marching Bands. GRR!) But, that's a whole other rant, and not really new so I'll just skip that. If you want to know more or want to read my rant about it let me know and I can add it to a future post.<br />
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Continuing on, and since I've already mentioned it, I went up to my Dad's house! It was so nice! I was only able to be there for a few days, but it was so relaxing and nice to hang out with my Dad and my sister before she headed to Arizona for college. I was able to help my dad make bullets again, although we didn't go shooting this time. I did ride the four wheeler a lot and got in the hot tub almost every night. It was really nice. Plus, my dad was came and picked me up in Greeley and dropped me off. The day he dropped me off we left in the morning and I went with him to do errands and other things, so it was nice to just hang out and chat with us two for almost and entire day! He also took me shopping to Tigge's Farm! They're a local farm that sells really delicious fresh veggies! They also grow a lot of peppers, so I got some of their hottest peppers and some really good sweet banana peppers! Before I end this small rant, I'll just mention that my sister made it safe to Arizona. She has started classes, but I don't really know how they're going or anything. We've been chatting about other things. Plus it's a little odd that she now has Internet 24/7. I guess I'm a bad older sister. ~_~<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My little sister and I way back when. I was probably like 7ish.</span> </div>
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So now come the biggest rant and most stressful thing that happened, so if you would like to skip this part, go ahead. For those who don't follow me on twitter or are my friend on Facebook, I am taking this semester off. I'm not as frustrated now since it's been a couple weeks since I found out, but basically I was told by a counselor to take the semester off and work full time and then come back. Honestly, I've always had issues getting my financial aid, but it's gotten worse since I went to Japan. But to try to keep this rant short (and since I've pretty much already vented a lot of it out), I'll just try to update on what's going on because of this. First, I've been looking for a part time job. I'm still currently working at the computer labs on campus, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to. I've been applying to places that I can easily walk to or that has a bus stop that doesn't take too long to get to. Finally, I got a call a couple days ago from the King Soopers just a couple blocks away. I have my interview with them tomorrow. It's actually a part time job, so they guarantee 20 hours. Since I'm not taking classes though, my schedule is more open and that gives me the chance to pick up some more. I just hope it get it so I can feel like I'm doing something with my time. Second, I'm seriously considering transferring schools. I know what I want to do with my life now, I want to produce variety shows in Japan and Korea. I actually started checking out some schools that had Korean classes (since UNC) doesn't have any. I actually found one school in Washington state that I really like and the other school I'm considering is CU in Boulder. I'm still not sure if I should just finish up my Accounting degree here with my Asian Studies minor and then head to grad school or what, but I'm still trying to figure out what would be the best. I could go on, but I'd rather just stop here and move on. A lot of things are still up in the air, so we'll see what happens.<br />
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Okay, so before I get into my fandom updates (there's quite a bit as well), I'll just finish up with a few small updates. First off, because I was so stressed, I cut my hair! I got some long layers and trimmed a couple inches off and got bangs! It's weird having bangs, but I just wish my hair was thicker. Plus I just found out the other day that the girl cut them crooked both in length and the section that she cut (the line in my hair) isn't straight either. I need to find someone to fix it. T_T Secondly, gaming has started again! Most of the people that were in gaming guild (and my own gaming group) aren't gaming this semester, so I'm with completely new people except for Curtis. I know the people who I'm gaming with, I've just never gamed with them. Trying to keep this short, we're doing a string of round robin one-shots so we all get a chance to play and dm! My character is a Dinosaur Druid and has a Stegosaurus as an animal companion (like a pet)! She pretty awesome so far and I can't wait to develop her further.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Stegosaurus I found at the dollar store!</span> </div>
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Lastly, I'm going to do a bit of advertising for my new blog <a href="http://theexaminationsofanapple.blogspot.com/"><b>The Examinations of an Apple</b></a>. I have mentioned it before, but I have posted the first part of the 5000 Question Survey, so check it out! Now on to fandom things!<br />
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So first off in fandoms is <u>Skip Beat!</u> and the new chapter (178)! It was pretty short considering it was a month and a half since the previous release, but the next one comes out on the fifth! Hopefully we won't keep doing this "two chapters in two weeks and then waiting for almost two months for the next one" thing anymore. I digress. In the latest chapter, Ren (as his character's movie character BJ) and Murasame-san's character are having their first battle scene. They are supposed to be practicing the choreography, but it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. They don't start fighting right away as per the script, but Murasame-san gets angry and decides to show Ren that he does know how to fight. I'm thinking that someone is going to get hurt for real. I can't wait to read the next chapter! <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Mursasame-san attacking Ren.</span> </div>
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I don't really have any Arashi updates that I can think of, so I'll just go straight in to Super Junior! First off, I finally received my package!! I have the photobooks, posters, buttons, and goodies! I looked through them all and there are so many pretty pictures. I'm also afraid to use some of the goodies (like the parkjungsoo.com sticky notes). I don't want to use them because they're special goodies, but at the same time I want to use them and show them off. What a dilemma! I put the two posters up and I put the two buttons on my Phantom hat that I bought at drums. I just need to find my Arashi buttons that I got in the Harajuku idol shop and put them on there too! I've also ordered my 5 jib version B CDs! I also got my Leeteuk 5jib from AngeLeeteuk just the other night! It's so pretty and I totally forgot that I had ordered one through them. I was really confused on why I had a package. I ended up getting the special 3 photos (from Lees Music) and I ended up with Leeteuk, Heechul, Ryeowook. Since I'm going to end up with like three of the posters, I thought I'd share and gave the one I got the other night to Bea. She seemed pretty excited!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My Leeteuk Mr. Simple album, 3 photo cards, & poster (folded)!</span> </div>
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Continuing on with Mr. Simple related news, Super Junior has won the triple crown on two of the three music shows! It's really exciting, so we just need to help them get the last win for the last show (I believe it's Music Bank)! Unfortunately, I've heard once they get the triple crown (winning three times), they can't take first anymore. Unfotunately, we've lost Heechul for the rest of Mr. Simple promotions. Today (but it was yesterday afternoon/evening when counting the time difference), Heechul entered into the military. He's only going to be working in community services or something like that, so he won't actually have to move out of the dorm and can live at home. He just can't do promotions or anything else besides his service. It's pretty sad to lose another boy, especially one that is so much in the front and in so many different shows like Heechul. He will be gone for a month though for basic training. I think that his two years of service will go by quickly though. Kangin's already more than half-way through his time. I'm just disappointed that I won't get to see him if the do hold SS4 in the US. I'm really hoping to see Leeteuk before he enters the army as well. They haven't really mentioned anything much about SS4, but they did release a few days ago that they are holding SMTown in New York on October 23rd. I just wish I knew about it before hand because it's going to be really expensive. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to go. I mean the tickets themselves are almost the same price as the flight. These are the times when I wish I had a rich family member so I didn't have to worry about missing out on things like this. I'll just try to save up and keep hoping that SS4 comes to the US. Plus it'll be a little easier and cheaper for me to go to LA instead of New York.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The last photo Heechul tweeted before leaving for basic training.</span></div>
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Okay, so the last thing I'm going to mention real quickly is that we have passed both Kibum and Yesung's birthday! I didn't get a chance to post a special birthday post, but I thought I would just post something small now, even though it's so late. <b>Happy Belated Birthday Kim Kibum and Kim Jongwoon!</b> Kibum's birthday was on the 21st while Yesung's was on the 24th! Also, I want to wish Leeteuk, Eunhyuk, and Sukira's staff a Happy 5 Year Anniversary! I can't believe you've been doing Sukira for 5 years already! I look forward to the years to come! Hopefully I'll get to go to the open studio at some point in time! <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Our mystic boy, Kim Kibum!</span></div>
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<b>To Kim Jongwoon aka Yesung:</b>Thank you so much! You are the one that got
me into Super Junior with your gorgeous voice and weird personality. I
truly feel so grateful to you for introducing me to both Super Junior
and all the amazing ELF friends I have made. You're
still one of my favorite voices of all time (only second behind Frank Sinatra)
and hearing you sing always leaves me weak-kneed! Really, really thank
you Yesung! I would be a completely different person if it wasn't for you. I feel so much thanks to you that I can't even express it all through words. I just wish I could hear you live and be able to give you a big bear hug to show you how grateful I am.</div>
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Okay, so I'm going to wrap things up here! As always I'll leave you a gif, this time the lovely dance skillz of Kim Jongwoon aka Yesung. By the way, these are some of his new moves that he learned and revealed a couple of months ago! (Yes he turns from charismatic guy above to the goofball below!) XD</div>
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Ja ne~</div>
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Stasi</div>Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-70845413172324015972011-08-09T12:45:00.000-06:002011-10-21T02:25:16.174-06:00Happiness!Woooo!! So I'm excited!! Are you excited!! For I'm updating when I said I would update!! I'm super proud of myself for not procrastinating too much this time!! Sorry, I'm just happy! Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up!<br />
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Okay, so first up, I'm going to start a new blog channel (I know I hardly use the other ones). I was given a 5000 question survey to do, so I though that would be a fun thing to post on the blog. Granted, I'm going to break it up into smaller parts. I was thinking about it though, and it would be weird to have those post randomly between my "normal" posts, so I thought I could do an entire different channel (I know that's what their called on YouTube, but I don't know what to call them on here). Anyways, I'll start that sometime soon. I think I'm going to come up with a schedule, like to 10 questions every Monday or something like that. Although, I should probably do more than 10 if I don't want to be filling out the survey for forever. As I was thinking though, I've posted surveys and quiz things on here before, so I thought I could just start posting all those things on my new blog. I haven't created it yet, but I'll link you to it in my next blog when I get it figured out and post for the first time!<br />
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Just another small drabble, but I finally was able to find the small index/blank flash cards that are common in Asia and used mostly for vocabulary words. They aren't whole punched, but I thought I could start using them to help supplement my Korean and Japanese vocabulary. I already have Kanji flashcards, Hiragana/Katakana flashcards, and Hangul flashcards, so I thought this would be the next step (although I haven't finished the Kanji cards)! I'm really excited to start it, so I was thinking of starting out with key words for the Korean set. So, if anyone has a list or anything to suggest, please do! I need all the help I can get to learn Korean, especially since there isn't a class offered at my school.<br />
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Moving on, my Aunt Rowie and Uncle Jerry came down from San Diego (California)!! Wooooo!! I was sad we only got to hang out a couple times and not for very long, but it was still really fun! First off, Thursday night we went to Red Robin for dinner. It wasn't just a fun dinner though, we were also celebrating my Grandmother's birthday which was on the 31st of July! It was really fun catching up! I was really excited for my sister to see Rowie though. She hasn't been able to see her as many times as I have and get as close, so it was really neat to see Rowie see how grown up Ariel has become! (UWAH! I just started tearing up! I'm such a sucker for these things! It made me really proud of my baby sister seeing how grown up she is and all her plans for life!) Anyways, it was also really neat to update her on everything that's been going on in my life too! I was thinking, and the last time she came out to Colorado was my graduation. That was four years ago! I wish she lived closer or we were richer so we could visit her more often! I just hope I get into the Grad School I want, so then I'll only be a couple hours away! But anyways, it was a lot of fun! Rowie and Jerry were surprised because I got a Peach Daiquiri and they were both exclaiming how weird it was that I was drinking! I guess the last time they saw me I wasn't even 18 yet!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My sister and I when we were young!</span></div>
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We didn't hang out on Friday unfortunately because my Mom and I couldn't take off work. We did get together on Saturday though! We had lunch at Qdoba and then we went to a park! Qdoba was fun, and we got to talk about more personal things like how life was and then just goof off some more!! The park was really fun. Although, at one point I got bored and slap happy at the same time, so I was just running around like a little 5 year old playing on everything. We're talking I was swinging (which I always do at parks), then on the basketball playing with an imaginary ball, then walking along the patch next to the creek only to get distracted by a squirrel, then dancing with my sister to these huge ants and leaf statue! Of the corny person I am, lied down in front of the leaf statue and waited for my aunts to come over. Once all of them were there I said "Fan me my aunts/ants!" They all just looked at me like I was weird and lame, but I was having fun laughing my butt off! The ant statues had weird faces, so when I lied down on the leaf I told my sister that they had knocked me out and I was their sacrifice and they were going to eat me alive. My sister just agreed and said they had creepy faces too, but I'm still not sure if she was just pacifying me! Anyways, we took lots of pictures with the ant statues. Then, they wanted to hear me sing some Korean and Japanese songs. I ended up doing Sorry Sorry and having my Mom and Sister do the dance with me! Although, after the chorus, I wasn't too sure of the dance, I did an imitation of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmQLHv2PrC0&feature=related">Yesung dancing</a>. Anyways, I found out afterwards my uncle video recorded it. Oh noes! I'm not sure if I'll share the video or not yet...I haven't seen it...GAH! It was sad to see them go and I hope we can get together sometime soon! <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">When I googled hyper person this popped up & I liked it!</span></div>
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So for a quick news and preview for my next post, the Drum Corps International 2011 World Championships is this week!! The fun starts on Thursday and ends Saturday. Unfortunately I won't be going to it (since it's in Indiana and a lot of money), but we can see a live broadcast of Thursday's events in the movie theater, so my family and I are heading to that! So sometime this weekend or early next week I'll update about the ending scores and my thoughts on what happened and such! I just can't wait to see how much SCV and Phantom have improved. Plus, I'm excited to see The Cavaliers finished drill and the crazy upside down tenor feature!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Crazy upside tenor feature. Credit to The Cavaliers twitter!</span></div>
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As for Skip Beat! news, the new chapter still hasn't come. It still a couple weeks away! It comes out right before the beginning of the new semester, so hopefully I won't be too distracted and not be able to read it for a bit! Thankfully there's been so much going on I've been distracted from the waiting! As I mentioned last post, they've finished the filming. There have been tweets that it should be coming soon, so I'm hopeful that it'll start airing before the end of the year! I can't wait to see it! Although, I hope it'll all be in one language. I don't know if you remember the preview, but it was half Korean and half Chinese. It was a little odd. We'll see!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Cute Skip Beat! chibis! Plus Kyoko's demon things!</span></div>
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Okay, and lastly (as always), fangirl time!! There isn't much Arashi things lately, so I'll just get right into Super Junior! First off, the official MV has been released!! Wooooo!!! It's so good!! I'll give you the link <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6TwzSGYycM&feature=channel_video_title">here</a>! I won't post it on the blog though because I want to help increase the views! It's only been out a few days and we're already over 4 million views. There have been tweets going around and now ELFs are going to try to get the view count to be the highest ever! The current champ is Justin Bieber ( *throws up* ), so we definitely need to surpass him! Also, last weekend was Super Junior's comeback on the weekly music shows! There weren't on Mnet M!Countdown last week, but they will be this week. If you click on the names of the shows, you can watch <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_212889&v=awK8iEXvjeU&feature=iv">KBS's Music Bank</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVxC-wQWgGc">MBC's Music Core</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_92817&v=c8kl0sqCNuM&feature=iv">SBS's Inkigayo</a> comebacks!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A cap from the MV!</span></div>
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Okay, and for my last update, my package will be here very very soon! I got the tracking number for it, and the estimated delivery is the 11th! I've been checking it everyday, and a couple days ago it reached Alaska! I was super excited! I was telling everyone that it was on American soil! Granted it was in Alaska, but I was still super stoked! I'm just sad that I'll be gone that day. Hopefully my roommate will be home when they come to sign for it. I might have to wait a couple days before I get it and can be home otherwise. Anyways, I'm sure my twitter will be updated quickly and rapidly when I get them! I can't wait to look through everything and spaz!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I got the Leeteuk & Eunhyuk badges!</span></div>
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So I'll wrap up things here since I'll be posting again in a couple of days! As always, I leave you with a gif! This time I bring you the wonderful Kangin playing with the glass when DJed a radio show! I can't wait until he gets out of the military in a year! XD<br />
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Ja ne~~<br />
StasiStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-23745586991077182102011-08-05T10:38:00.001-06:002011-10-21T02:26:42.139-06:00A Busy Busy Bee<div style="color: red;">
*Author's Note: So I wrote this Wednesday afternoon/night. Since I'm a huge procrastinator and got distracted (majorly), I'm posting this now. So, I'm lazy and don't want to go through and re-edit everything and add more updates (I'll just do another post in a couple of days). Anyways, I just wanted to let you know to read this as if I posted this on Wednesday afternoon/night not now (Friday morning)! Sorry it took so long!</div>
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Once again it has taken me forever to post again. Things have been crazy lately, both in real life and in the fandom world. As always though, I'll start with the real life things for those that don't care about my fangirl rantings!!<br />
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Well, a lot of things have happened since we last spoke, but I thought I'd just focus on the most prominent happening. Last weekend, I went to my first family reunion. Granted most of the people there were my Mom's third cousins and distant relatives to us, it was still really cool to see all these people that I was related to and had never even heard their names before. It was a BBQ at Washington Park (something like that) in Denver (or Golden or one of the nearby cities, but I consider everything Denver being from Northern Colorado). Anyways, it was awkward at first because everyone was kind of separated and just sat and hang out with the people they already knew. My older aunts knew a lot more of the people than my Mom did, so I spent a lot of time just chillin' with my sister. At one point we ended up going to the nearby playground and playing on the swings. Of course, as we were bored, I kind of started serenaded the playground. I was singing mostly Korean and Japanese songs, so a lot of little Denverites were introduced to foreign music, granted it was sung horribly and with out background music. My sister would join in on the English lines she knew, but we just kept ourselves entertained! I think at some point my Aunt came over and recorded us, I'm not sure why. It was really funny though, because my swing didn't make any noise, but my sisters sounded like a baby elephant. It was hilarious. I was laughing so hard for at least 20 minutes listening to the sounds that were coming out of the swing. I was thoroughly amused. What was funny was that it was even making the same noises for the little girls that were playing on the swings after us!<br />
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Anyways, back to the reunion. After we were done playing on the swings, we went back to where everyone was still chilling. About half the people had left at that point, but some new people had shown up. One was my Mom's third cousin. She apparently had been born and raised in Greeley and is now living in Windsor (a city that's like 20 minutes away). She brought a lot of old photos and information about the family tree that she's researched. It was really cool, and things that I've always wanted to know. There never has really been much history available about our ancestors due to our family being secretive and not wanting to talk about the past a lot. What's even cooler is that we found out we have family buried in one of the cemeteries here in Greeley. Then when my Mom was looking up the cemetery information the other, she found more family (from a different side) and I guess one of them is my Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. I'm super psyched, and when my Mom picks me up tonight we're going to go check it out! I still can't believe that we've had family here the entire time, but we had no idea!<br />
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As I learn more, I'll be sure to update the more exciting things. Although one thing I learned from my Mom's cousin, is that far along our line is a Scottish rebel. I guess he tried to overthrow the king way back when, but it's hard to find hard information. I guess he ended up changing his name and fleeing, so everything is a little sketchy and hard to dig up. I find that really cool and fascinating though. My Mom also found out that a few (like 5) generations ago, one of our ancestors immigrated from Russia and his wife from Germany. We also found some Cherokee Indian in the mix too. So one thing has been cemented for me, I'm a mutt. I knew before that I had mixes of different countries, but after finding all this information there's a lot more different lines of blood in me than I thought!<br />
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To continue on with family events, my Aunt and Uncle from California are flying out today! My Aunt has her high school reunion, so she's coming! I'm so excited! I haven't seen them since my high school graduation! That was four or five years ago, something like that! Anyways, we are doing dinner tomorrow night and then a brunch type thing on Saturday morning. I'm excited to see them and sad that we won't have too much time to hang out together. Anyways, I'll update again in a few days to share all the hilarity that will ensue!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Aunt Rowie & Uncle Jerry when they were on vacation in Australia!</span></div>
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Okay, so before I get too heavy into fangirl stuff, I first would like to do a small update about Skip Beat! The latest chapter still hasn't come out, but the Taiwanese drama has officially finished recording. They had the celebratory party like last week, so hopefully it'll start airing. They haven't released the official date it'll start airing, but hopefully they'll start releasing news!<br />
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Okay, so a small Arashi update! I promised on my last post that I would post my favorite songs of the album and the ones to check out! There hasn't been too big of news otherwise though. So as I mentioned before, my favorite solo song is Sakurai Sho-san's このままもっと (Konomama Motto). I have to say though, that my favorite song is まだ見ぬ世界へ (Mada Minu Sekai e), the one they released a music video before (I posted it a while ago). Just as a side note, I'm not going to consider the songs that were previously released as singles (like Lotus and To Be Free). So my other favorite songs are morning light, negai, always, 虹のカケラ~no rain, no rainbow~!! If you have a chance, definitely check out the album or at the very least the songs I've mentioned. Honestly though, I love all the songs! It was hard to narrow it down and not list them all!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I love they're all in sync and in time, but doing the move differently!</span></div>
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Okay, and onto the biggest fangirlisms in a little over a year and some very exciting news!! Super Junior's 5th album "Mr. Simple" is out! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I can't tell you how much I love this album. I looooooove all the songs so much. I can't wait to see them perform Mr. Simple (the title track) live! Also, the MV hasn't been released yet. It gets released tomorrow (or today in Korea), so there will be those fangirl rants once that comes out! SM has posted two teasers (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIR5rGA-yNc&feature=feedu">Teaser 1</a> & <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiv8_q8_7B4&feature=relmfu">Teaser 2</a>). I would post them here, but I want to try to help with views, so I'd rather you go to their page! Anyways, enjoy! I've been so excited for a while. They've been releasing teaser pics for over a week and the other day the album was released on Korean digital sites. Please if your going to download, do it legally. You can buy it at itunes, but if possible please buy from one of the Korean sites so we can get Super Junior the awards they deserve!!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Leeteuk cap from the MV teasers!! XD</span></div>
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As for the album itself, they are coming out with 10 different types. Each album will have a front cover that is of one member with back cover having all 10 members. The album itself is really big, so I'm hoping that the photobook itself is big. Anyways, I've ordered two through <a href="http://sj-world.net/">SJ-World</a> and one through <a href="http://angeleeteuk.com/">AngeLeeteuk</a>. That means I'll be getting two random members and then for sure Leeteuk! I can't wait to get them. As for the album itself, gold. I love all the songs so much. My favorites are constantly changing every time I listen to a different song, but I've finally been able to narrow it down to three. My top three favorite songs off of "Mr. Simple" are Mr. Simple, 라라라라 (Be My Girl), and My Love, My Kiss, My Heart!! There is one song composed and written by Donghae and Chance. That's really good too! I just hope there will be a repackaged version, because I remember hearing somewhere that Leeteuk composed another song. I hope that it comes out!<br />
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Anyways, I don't want to spaz too much about 5 jib right now, since I haven't even gotten my copy and there are no live performances or music videos to share. My last exciting news is that my Photobooks and other Super Junior items I ordered have been shipped! I'm so excited! I can't wait to get them! This is my first time being able to afford the fanclub goods, so I can't wait to look through both Leeteuk photobooks!! Also, I'm getting a couple posters, a couple buttons, and a Super Show bag!! I'm sure I'll be tweeting and spazzing a lot when I get that package. It should come here in a week or so, so I'm sure that will be included sometime soon in another of my blog posts!!<br />
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Okay, so I'll stop here for today!! Since I've been waking up early every morning to watch Sukira (Super Junior's Kiss the Radio) I've been kind of exhausted (stupid time difference). That will get a lot worse though, especially with this upcoming debut! Ah, the point of this rant, is I'll leave you with a cute gif of a sleepy Leeteuk!<br />
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Ja ne~~<br />
StasiStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-16100796548615711782011-07-13T19:35:00.002-06:002011-10-21T02:27:38.947-06:00Fangirl Madness!! XDGood Afternoon my dear readers!! So, just a warning, this post will have A LOT of fangirling, but over different things!! Anyways, since I'm starting off with the biggest fangirl rant, lets get started and keep me from rambling on too much!! XD<br />
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So this past weekend was Drums Along the Rockies (DATR)!! For those who aren't aware of drum corps, it's similar to Marching Bands. The differences between the two are that Drum Corps only have brass and percussion instruments accompanied by the color guard (marching bands have woodwinds). In drum corps, you travel the US for about two and half to three months playing approx. 11 minutes shows (marching band shows are a little shorter). You travel on chartered buses, sleep on high/middle/elementary school gym floors (or wherever else you can fit 135+ people). Days are spent rehearsing, from sun up to sun down. If there's a show that day, then you practice until a few hours before you have to go on. It's a lot of hard work, requires a lot of discipline and is very fulfilling! If you want to know more, check out the Drum Corps International (DCI) website <a href="http://www.dci.org/">here</a>! <br />
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But anyways, my mom marched in 1984 with the Casper, Wyoming Troopers (check them out here!) and I followed suit marching in 2005. In the year that I haven't marched and for as long as I can remember, we have attended the Denver competition DATR. There was one year there wasn't DATR, but that was because the World Championships were in Denver in 2004, so there was no need to have the normal show! Yeah, so last year when I studied abroad in Japan, it was the first year since I can remember that I didn't have any drum corps experiences. It was sad, but at the same time I was doing something amazing! Thankfully the weekend of DATR last year I went with Sharien to Kyoto, so it helped keep my mind of what I was missing back home!! Being that it has been two years since I've seen a drum corps live, I was super psyched! What's even more exciting, is that they have added a new show! A couple years ago they added an extra small show in Windsor (a small town north of Denver), and I guess last year they switched locations to Loveland (a bigger town than Windsor, also north of Denver). I was so excited to get to see two shows this year! So, to continue this rant, I'll just do a breakdown of the two days!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The old finales, the top 12 corps on the field in 2001.</span></div>
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So on Friday, my Mom was busy, so I chilled at home in the morning and caught up on the latest season of "So You Think You Can Dance." She came home around noon, and then we went corps hopping! Corps hopping is when we go and watch them practice. It might sound really boring, but I find it interesting and entertaining. Especially with ensemble practice! Oh wait, let me explain this real quick for those that might not be band geeks or know! XD In drum corps, there are three types of practices: Sectionals, Visual, and Ensemble. They are actually pretty strait forward. Sectionals is when each of the groups break up into their parts (guard, percussion and brass/horns) for separate sectionals. Sometimes it gets broken down even more (like pit, battery, bass, tenors, snares, etc.). Visual is when the corps get together to work on the drill, or the marching movements and shapes that they form on the field. Most of the time they don't play when they work on visual, especially in the beginning of the season. (During visual the pit just still does sectional practice or practice for moving onto and setting up.) Lastly, and the one most fans flock to see, is ensemble. Ensemble rehearsal is when everyone is together on the field and they try to fix melding and drill issues and see how things blend together and just perfecting the whole package of the show. Most ensemble rehearsals end with a run through, which means that they run their whole show like they were at one of the competitions. It's really fun to watch and see how they fix little segments of the show and slowly improve (but maybe it's because I've marched before that I find it so interesting ~_~). On show days, you can tell that they hold back to not tire or wear themselves out, so even if you happen to see their practice, it's a completely different ball game that night with the lights, uniforms, and the member blaring (or performing for the guard) their souls out to the audience!<br />
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Okay, so since I've explained that, what my Mom and I did for most of the afternoon on Friday was watch Phantom Regiment's (my favorite drum corps) ensemble rehearsal. It was so much fun! I kept getting excited and wanted to scream and cheer and clap, but it was just practice. I hadn't heard a live drums in two years though, so instead I kept grabbing my Mom's arm in excitement. What really made it fun though, was that we were both reacting the same way! Like at one part in the show that night, I turned to tell my Mom that I just got chills and she had her hand over her heart and seemed to be completely drawn into Phantom's World. We did small things like that both nights! But anyways, that night was DATR Loveland. It was really weird for me at first. The show was held at Thompson Valley High School. That's were our regionals<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Phatom's closing from this year's show, Juliet!</span></div>
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The next day, we had to pick up my aunt and grandmother, so we didn't do as much corp hopping. My mom, younger sister and I woke up early and checked out Santa Clara Vanguard's (SCV) rehearsal. Based on their online schedule, I figured it would be visual or sectionals, and it ended up being sectionals when we got to the high school. We watched the percussion sectional for a few hours. When they broke for lunch, we headed home and prepared everything for the big show. After picking up the family in Longmont, we headed to Denver and good ole Invesco Stadium (Home of the Broncos! XD). I call this the "big show" because it had two more corps that didn't perform the night before and it's in a nicer stadium for both the performers and audience. What's sad though, is that during the Seattle Cascade's performance they were pulled off the field. It was raining, so we thought at first it was the pit electronics, but then the lighting warning went out right after the sound of thunder, so everyone was told to take shelter. I definitely wouldn't want to be one of the members holding a giant metal horn or flag pole in the middle of thunder storm! After like 15 minutes they let everyone back out into the stands and the Cascades restarted their show. I just felt really bad for them. It really screws with your mental game when you have to sit there and wait to start the show, let alone have to stop in the middle of a song and then come back a little later and restart. The adrenaline in your system isn't as strong, but thankfully it didn't seem to affect them too bad! SCV and Phantom both had someone slip in the show, but it didn't seem like anyone was too terribly hurt. I felt that Phantom and SCV did a lot better the second night, but it ended up being the Cadets that took home 1st place. I don't really know why. Their drill looked really sloppy to me and their pit was way too loud (as well as the 2nd place Blue Devils). I was bewildered along with the rest of the audience, so when they announced Phantom in 3rd place, the entire stands actually booed the judges. The Cadets show this year is probably the first I've ever enjoyed, but it seemed sloppy to me and just didn't have that something special. As for the Blue Devils, the last show I really like from them was in 2005, and this year's show didn't seem to have much emotion in it. I don't know why. But I do have to give it to their hornline. Yeah, so beside the disappointing score results, I had a really fun weekend. It flew by way to fast and I'm sad it's already over. Also, I was sad that I wasn't able to see the Troopers (Proud Alumni Here) or the Cavaliers (Their tenors (the multiple drums/quads/quints play upside down). If I had the money I'd fly to Indianapolis in the beginning of August for the world championships. To end this rant (otherwise I'll keep going forever...trust me...) I'll say that if you want to check out more there are links to each of the corps on the DCI website as well as a bunch of other goodies. (I'll post the <a href="http://www.dci.org/">link </a>again so you don't have to search for it again!!)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The picture I tweeted, notice the grayness of the sky!</span></div>
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Okay, so to get me off my drum corps high (it's still running through my mind and will be until August most likely), I'll start my next fangirl rant, but this one is shorter! The latest chapter of <u>Skip Beat!</u> was released!! It came out on the 5th, and I read it the next day. It seemed a little short, but the previous chapter was a released two weeks beforehand, so that's probably why. In this chapter, we saw the conclusion of the first confrontation between Cain Heel (Ren) and Murasame-san. Following that, there was some cute interactions between Kyoko and Ren, where Ren left Kyoko utterly confused and questioning herself as an actor (like usual...). I won't rant too much about this, so if you really want to know more details, check it out! It's chapter 177 (we're already on 177 O_O)!! The sad thing is, we have to wait like another two months until the next release. Chapter 178 is not released until August 20th. It's so long away! T_T<br />
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Okay, so finally, I'll talk (as briefly as I can) about fandoms! First off (because it's a smaller rant) is Arashi! Their new album was released on the 6th! I haven't gotten a chance to listen to all of the new songs yet (because I was busy with DATR), but I love the ones I have listened too. I also really like Sakurai Sho's solo song this album. I think it might be my favorite of his solo songs! XD Hopefully I get through the rest of them by my next blog post, so I can update you on my favorite songs and such! (See, I tried to make it short! XD)<br />
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Okay, so onto my final rants, which is my ELF fandoms (and what most of my rants are about, sorry nonfans)!! Anyways, first off, I want to wish a Happy Belated birthday to our Big Universe Star Kim Heechul!! His birthday was on the 10th! I did send wishes via Twitter, but I'd thought I'd post something small here as well!! (You can skip it if you want!)<br />
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Dear Kim Heechul,</div>
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I want to thank you as well as wish you a Happy Birthday! You are such a character and I love you as do all ELFs! It may seem like you have a lot of antis, but I have never met one or come across one! I love that you are there for the members, especially Leeteuk! You make me smile and truly give a good name to AB types! I hope to see you forever in your element, and can't wait to see you acting again! I hope that your last year in your 20's is amazing! We'll miss you when you go to the army, but we'll always be waiting for you!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My favorite Heechul gif! I remember watching this live in Japan!! XD</span></div>
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In other ELF news, I received my SS3 photobook and poster the other day!! I opened it up right away and spent over an hour slowly looking through the photos. I almost want to buy another one to keep safe and have one that I can look at regularly. I also was sad that the folded posters inside weren't unattached and like a seperate goodie so I can actually put them on my walls. But, I love it and had to rearrange a little to put the new poster up! (I don't know what I'll do when I get the 5 jib posters & the two SJ-H posters. ~_~) Oh, and speaking of 5 jib, preorders are starting to go out! I'm guessing that means that it'll be coming out soon (hopefully)!! I can't wait. The choreographer that was one of the dancers in BoA's American MVs and that choreographed TVXQ's Mirotic has tweeted about rehearsal with Super Junior. ELFs around the world (including myself) are ecstatic to see the new dance! (Especially since Mirotic had some really good choreography!) But anyways, I sure hope it comes out soon. I'm getting so freaking excited that it's hard to me to be patient for too much longer!!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">SS3 photobook with the bonus photos I got special from the seller!</span></div>
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Okay, so I'll stop ranting here!! As usual I'll leave you with a gif!</div>
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Ja ne~~</div>
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Stasi XD</div>Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-41686722970027405502011-07-01T09:36:00.005-06:002011-10-21T02:27:56.659-06:00Happy Happy Birthday To You!!So, as most of you know, it's July 1st!! Not only is this day the first day of July, but it also is the Birthday of my Bias and inspiration, Leeteuk of Super Junior!! He is turning 29 in Korea, so I'm going to share my Birthday wishes and thoughts!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I give you Leeteuk's Solo from SS3 Taiwan!! Enjoy!! XD</span></div>
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To Park Jung Su A.K.A. Leeteuk:<br />
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Happy Birthday! I hope you had a wonderful day! ELFs around the world are celebrating today. Without you there would be no Super Junior. You're the glue that keeps everything together. I really hope that your last year in your twenties is absolutely amazing! We'll miss you when you leave for your military duty, but I, and all ELFs, will await your return! We will wait forever, no matter how long it takes! You make my days brighter, and happier with your infectious laugh! I know that technically your birthday is over in Korea, but there's still 12+ hours left here in Colorado, and I plan on making the best of them! Once again, Happy Birthday. I'm pretty sure you won't read this, but I just wanted to post my "card" to you and share my thoughts and wishes!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR ANGEL LEETEUK!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This donation was made through 3 fan forums, 1 of which I am a member of & donated through!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Anyways, I'll leave this post short and sweet! As always, the customary gif, and for those that might not have figured it out, it's our Birthday Boy Leeteuk!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">LOLZ at CreeperKyu! Usually it's the other way around!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ja ne~</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Stasi </span>Stasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-86928342602774818822011-06-30T20:13:00.001-06:002011-10-21T02:29:03.466-06:00Thundering EndsGood afternoon my dear readers!! Once again I fail at updating at a more regular pace, but at least I've been making the "at least two posts a month" goal...lately! Well, as I sit here writing this, listening to the sound of thunder (and Super Junior XD), with the smell of rain wafting in, I feel really good! I love the smell of rain and when it's gray and cloudy outside!! But anyways, I have quite a bit to update on since my last post, so I'll get started!<br />
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First off, I'll do a small fangirl thing. I know it's usually at the end, but this is something recent and more urgent (in my mind). One of my favorite Arashi members Aiba Masaki has been hospitalized due to a spontaneous pneumothorax. T_T It has happened before, right after I became an Arashian. It's scary, but there has been reports that everything is okay and he's going to rest at the hospital for a week to recover! My cute little energetic Aiba-chan, get better soon and really let your body recuperate this week!! がんばれ~~!We'll be waiting for the album release on the 6th, as well as your release from the hospital! My thoughts and wishes are with you!<br />
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Okay, so I wanted to touch basis a little bit about the last post. I had posted about doing a giveaway and posted a poll. So, the results are in! Since there was only one vote on the poll and no comments about it, I'm just going to put it on hold for now! I have a few ideas and things to save for giveaways! I'll probably do it in a while. It might have to wait until I have more readers (that I know of)! So, keep your eyes open for when I start doing giveaways!! As for other things I mentioned in my last post, my new place! I'm really enjoying it here. The cats are adorable, the roommies awesome (I finally met my last roommie), and I love being so close to campus. One of my roommates and I have been watching a lot of movies lately, but a little over a week ago we found something amazing on Netflix instant play! The original series of Power Rangers!! Yes, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers!! I'm talking five members and before they brought in Tommy the green and later white ranger. We watched the first few episodes that night and it's so good. Especially for an early 90's show!! I'm going to try to find it on DVD or something! I would love having the show that pretty much was my life growing up! If any of you have Netflix and enjoyed the Power Rangers, definitely check it out!<br />
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Well, speaking of TV Shows, I'll do a little rant about those. First off, NBC's The Voice. I really enjoyed The Voice (it's over now). Beverly was my favorite, but I really enjoyed most of the contestants they had. I look forward to season 2!! Also, I just found out they are doing a concert tour (what TV show isn't now a days), so I might see if they're coming to Denver or somewhere close!! It might be too expensive, but I would love to attend it! As for other TV Shows, my friend Derek has gotten me back into Fox's So You Think You Can Dance! HOLY MOLEY!! I haven't watched it since they moved into the new stage (a few seasons ago), but this season is amazing!! There have been some absolutely amazing routines, and it's only been the first couple of weeks. I think Travis' statue routine from the first episode should be nominated for an Emmy, but we'll see what else he pulls out this season! Another thing, I enjoy all of the dancers this year. Usually there's a couple underdogs, but this year it's really hard to spot them. Nigel always talks about raising the bar (at least he used too), and this year I think they really did that! The B-boys are even great and picking up the other styles quicker than B-boys in the past!<br />
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My last TV Show to rant about, and recently became addicted to thanks to Netflix and too much time on my hands, is Glee. I wasn't really too interested in it before even though I love some of the Actors from it, but I gave in. I also didn't really want to watch it because soooo many people watch it and it's become somewhat mainstream, but the lack of Harry Shum Jr. in my life became too much! Excuse my fangirlisms, but Harry Shum Jr. is such an amazing dancer. I was little disappointed with the lack of Mike in the first season (Harry Shum's character), but he's already more apparent in the second season and I've only seen the first three episodes! But anyways, I'm enjoying the show a lot more than I thought I would. I have to say though, that I loved the Britney Spears episode. It made me want to do a Britney medley/marathon at karaoke really, really bad. Actually, I still want to do one. Yeah, but honestly, watching Glee just makes me more excited to see BoA's movie Cobu 3D even more!! I can't wait until it comes out! Anyways here's a video interview of Harry Shum Jr.!!<br />
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Okay, so there was this hug paragraph here explaining about me finally reading the last Harry Potter book. I don't know what happened to it, but it's gone. Anyway, the gist of it was I've been reading a lot and one of the books I read was the last Harry Potter book. Also, I'm excited for Part 2. Gomen ne~~! XD<br />
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Now onto my favorite part of my blog updates, Skip Beat! So the latest chapter was released on the 20th, and it was soooooo good (as always)!! I hated having to wait so long, but it was worth it. Actually, it always is! XD Anyway, this chapter we started to get into the meaty part of the Cain Heel arc (what I'm calling this arc)! The chapter started off with Murasame-san approaching Kyoko and pretty much hitting on her. He found out that Ren and Kyoko were portraying siblings. But, Ren appeared and threatened him. Not only did he threaten him, but he did it in Japanese! So the cat's out of the bag that he can speak Japanese, but it was also revealed that it wasn't part of the original plan. We also had a flashback section that was the meeting of Ren and Kyoko with the director. We find out that the director actually does know it's Ren, but is doing this for publicity I guess. At the end of flashback, we see the director looking forward to their performances, especially Kyoko's! Next we see Ren and Kyoko talking to each other. Kyoko is confused about Ren speaking Japanese to others and is trying to comprehend why Ren did that. Ren also yells at Kyoko about speaking too politely. He mentions that she sounds like a receptionist at a five star hotel speaking to guests. Of course when he asks her about it, she freaks out. Of course she's not going to reveal to Ren that she learned it working at Sho's parents ryokan. Then Murasame-san interrupts them and confronts Ren. He yells at him for not speaking Japanese freely and presents the challenge of forcing Ren to conform. The chapter ends with riveting panels of Murasame-san and Ren glaring at each other and the start of the confrontation and issue between these two!! The next chapter gets released on the fifth (of July), so expect an update around then with more rantings about Skip Beat! As a small side note, both Donghae and Siwon have mentioned that they have finished filming, so I'm really hoping that the drama will start airing with the Fall season!! *fingers crossed*<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Murasame-san's reaction to Ren threatening him in Japanese!</span></div>
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Okay, so the last bit of this post is going to be fangirlisms, and more specifically ELF fangirlisms!! First off, I finally got my 美人 (BONAMANA) CD and CD/DVD!! Yay!! *Side note, because I ordered them from YesAsia and it came from Japan I got a free capsule toy. I picked the One Piece phone charms, and ended up getting Colby!! Yay!!* I watched the DVD and opened them right away! I was lucky enough to make it in time to order the first press editions of both, so I not only got the photocards that came in each, but the mini poster that came in the CD version! I ended up getting Shindong's and Eunhyuk's photocards!! I know have two Shindong photocards! Bonamana Version A and the Bijin edition! I was also excited to get Eunhyuk's since he is one of my biases. I might trade Shindong's if I can get a Leeteuk card, but I'm not really worried about it. I'm think I'm just going to leave it up to fate. It would be nice to trade, but I think I'm just going to stick with what I have! I love all the boys, so I'm just happy that I was able to get a photocard in the first place!! What also came in the order, was the Chinese movie "A Battle of Wits." Not only does it star my favorite Chinese actor Andy Lau, but Choi Siwon as well!! I haven't seen it in a little while, so once I finish my current Netflix discs, I pop that one in!<br />
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In other exciting fangirl news, I have preordered the SS3 Photobook!! It gets released in Korea tomorrow, but I've seen some tweets and reports that some people in Korea already have theirs. But anywho, I should be getting it in like a week in the mail! I can't wait to check it out! Also in photobook related news, the people who I ordered my parkjungsu.com photobook through, has also received the Spotlight Leeteuk photobook! Now I just have to wait for them to receive the Daily Vita photobook and then they'll ship all three plus some other things I've ordered to me! I can't wait. They're estimating that they'll receive the Daily Vita books mid-July, so I've got a little bit of time to wait before they come! But, to tide you other fangirls over, I'll post the twitter pics of the photobooks and goodies as well as the ad for the SS3 photobook!! XD<br />
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Okay, so Heechul is apart of a new project called M&D with Trax's handsome and talented guitarist Jungmo! They have released a Music Video and the English title is Close Ur Mouth. I'll post the one with English translation for you all to view!! I really like it, plus it's more rocky which I love, especially when it comes to Heechul! I love the video too, especially all the Chocoball appearances. Also, Hongki's face is absolutely hilarious in the first encounter with Heechul, Jonghyun and him in the video! Keep an eye out for it!! XD Check it out!<br />
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Last but not least, I'd like to leave a belated Happy Birthday Shoutout to our little Powerhouse Ryeowook! His birthday was on the 21st, but I totally forgot to post something on here. T_T But, to make up for it (a little bit), this week's customary gif will be the cute little Wookie!!<br />
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Ja Ne~~~ <br />
StasiStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-8635625903289805782011-06-11T15:25:00.001-06:002011-10-21T02:35:05.677-06:00UWAH! So Many Rants!Once again, I come to you all later than planned. I'm sorry, I don't know why this keeps happening. I was busy at first, but then time just got away from me. ごめんね~~!But anyways, first things first, my blog has reached over 1000 views!! I'm a little surprised it actually got that high, but thank you to everyone reading my blogs and other random dallies!! But, to celebrate, I was thinking of maybe doing a giveaway or present or something. I'll set up a poll in the sidebar, so please vote on if you want the chance to do a giveaway! If the votes turn up well, I'll post the giveaway at the end of this month or in early July. So, vote away!! If you have any suggestions, just leave a comment below!!<br />
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I'll start with where the last blog ended, and that would be my little sister's graduation. I think it was shorter than my graduation, and we only had 99 people versus her 424. O_O It was kind of nice how quick it was. At the same time, it was a little odd and unorganized. But, the main point is that my sister is now a High School Graduate!! I'm so happy for her!! The next day we had a graduation party up at my Dad's house. It was really nice! My Favorite Grandpa (my nickname for my Grandfather) and his girlfriend, both my step-brothers and one of their girlfriends, and myself came up for it! We didn't too much, but it was really nice to just relax and hang with family! We did play like a 5 hour game of Apples to Apples. That game is really fun, but it started to get a little boring once the noun cards started to recycle. That was also the first time I lost at that game. I ended up in last place by at least 5 cards, and Shawn's girlfriend was first with 20 or something like that. I had 6. Yeah, I guess I just wasn't good at reading people. Well, that and I kind of had some horrible cards most of the game. Three of them I got in my original hand and ended up not using them until the very end they were so odd. ~_~<br />
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Now onto June! Well, June 1st was such an amazing day for me. It was probably the best day I've had this year. On June 1st I signed the lease and moved into my new apartment, picked up 13 hours at work, and just had a wonderful day overall. It was over a week ago so I can't remember everything that was going well, but it was just one of those days (in a good way)! Which leads me into my next update, I moved into a new place! I have to say, I love living there! The roommates are awesome (I haven't met one yet), there are two very cute cats, and it takes me less than ten minutes to walk anywhere on campus! It's so nice. Don't get me wrong, living alone and having my own bedroom and apartment was really nice, but I really like where I'm living now. The past few days my roommate Katie and I will start talking, and then next thing we know it's hours later! It's kind of how the talks I had with Naruto and Yeon Joo in Japan were! The sad part is the other roommate I met (Kayla) left yesterday for Basic Training. She's in the Army ROTC, so I won't get to hang out with her again until late August. :( Anyways, I have everything set up in my room, and did so just a few days after I moved in. I'm talking all my wall things and little decoration things and everything! They were a little surprised how fast it took me to unpack all my crap and settle in. I guess that's just what I do. I was thinking about it, and I had everything set up and settled pretty quick when I was in Japan. I guess I'm just a quick nestle and can be adaptable easily. XD<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The walls of my new room! XD</span></div>
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So last Tuesday was my 22nd Birthday! It was a rather uneventful day. I worked then came home and had leftovers and watched some dramas. My family is going to have a BBQ or get together sometime to celebrate it (maybe) in a couple weeks. We'll see. I did get a lot of birthday wishes and I would like to thank everyone again for you thoughts! There was only one thing disappointing that day. Nobody sang me the Birthday Song. I realized it as I was going to bed, and it was sad. Usually my Favorite Grandpa calls and sings it to me, but this year he texted me. It's weird. I actually convinced myself it was supposed to be. Last year I was in Japan for my birthday, so when everyone sang, I had never had that many people at one time sing to me. It was such a fun and touching experience for me. So, since I had so many people sing to me last year, it's only right that this year there was nobody. Oh...I just realized this is kind of depressing. I guess I'm just making excuses, but I honestly think that because I was able to gain that special memory last year, it's okay that nothing incredible happens this year. Anyway, I think sometime this week I'm going to treat myself to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in 3D in like a mini celebration! <br />
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Well, before I get onto my next update, I just wanted to mention to those of you whom didn't know/see the link, I have a tumblrtumblr to look at others), please do. I will warn you though, it's mostly fandom things, centering around Super Junior with a few Arashi and a couple other band posts when it's a funny gif or something. I also post random things that don't have to deal with Asian fandoms! Anyways, there's a link on the right of my blog, or you can just click <a href="http://busy-bee44.tumblr.com/">here</a>!<br />
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Okay, well now that my tumblr commercial is over (sorry about that to those that don't really care), lets continue on to the new happening in my life: Learning Korean! So instead of waiting until I go there or until I go to a school that offers Korean, I decided to start trying to learn it on my own. I (thankfully) picked up Hangul pretty fast. I can read most of what I see in Korean now, but I have no idea what it means. Yeah, so my rant about learning Korean, is the conjugation. Oh my gosh was my brain turned to liquid when I was reading the conjugation chapter out of my book. It's so confusing (as it was when I first started learning Japanese) and I was sitting in the living room for like five hours reading five pages on conjugation. And that was just the patterns, not all the different endings that you can conjugate with. *sigh* Well, I'll just keep practicing. I noticed yesterday when I was going through the honorifics chapter, that it was slowly starting to sink in. I think though now my main problem will be with knowing enough vocabulary (I have that issue with Japanese still too). Although, I am grateful that there's only one form of Hangul. I would like to eventually be efficient in Kanji, but that is so hard, especially being in an area where it's hard to reinforce everything that I've learned and learn more. *Side note, I feel like I've lost a lot of my Japanese, so maybe when I finish with this textbook I'll start reading through my Japanese texts and notes and try to keep both of them current. I'm also happy that Korean and Japanese have a similar grammar structure, so some of what I've learned isn't as hard as it was when I was learning Japanese. Yeah, but anyways, I'll this rant here. If you have any links to practice sheets or online flashcards or learning aids (for both Korean and Japanese), please send me a message or post a link in the comments below!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Hangul Alphabet chart!</span></div>
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Okay, well, to continue my thoughts on Korean and Japanese, time to get to the fandom parts of my blog. First off, I'll be starting with Skip Beat!! The newest chapter hasn't been released yet (I still have like 10 days), so that'll be in my next post (if I don't post one between now and then). But, in other Skip Beat! news, the preview trailer for the drama has been released!! I noticed parts of the manga in the preview, but then there were some parts I didn't. The only thing I'm confused about is Siwon and Donghae speaking Korean. I wonder if there's going to be dubs. I kind of hope not though, then we'll lose the sound of their voices and dubs are never quite the same as the actor/ess. We'll see. ~_~ Although, I do have to say that I am growing to like Donghae as Sho. What's nice about this role is that maybe he won't get stuck in getting the same sort of roles over and over (similar to what is unfortunately happening to Siwon). So check out the trailer below! (Hopefully it won't be deleted anytime soon.)<br />
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So to continue on with the Super Junior fandom news, I would like to start with what I mentioned in my last blog. Our Angel leader Leeteuk has released a song with JYP's Joo called "Ice Cream." Now, honestly, I downloaded it and watched the MV and all that good stuff because it had Leeteuk and I wanted to support him. Please don't kill me or go all anti on me, but I am not a fan of Joo's voice. I also thought it was odd that they paired them up together. To me, their voices didn't really seem to bled like other duets I've heard. The MV was cute, but (my bias is coming out) I though there was way too much Joo and not enough Leeteuk. But anyways, it's a cute summer song and the feel/mood of the MV is refreshing and adorable. Check it out for yourself!<br />
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Continuing on, Bijin (Bonamana), the Japanese edition, was released June 8th in Japan (the day after my birthday)! There's only three tracks on the CD, all Bijin. There's the Japanese version, Korean version, and the Karaoke version. I'm happy there's a Karaoke version so I can "practice" for when I go to Korean or go back to Japan! Other Super Junior happiness is various members mentioning and tweeting about already working on the 5th album!! I can't wait for it!! I left room on my walls for three more posters as well as starting to put aside money specifically for 5 jib!! There's been rumors going around the net saying August is when it'll be released, and I really hope so! I can't wait! This is one of my impatiently ranting about it, but in reality I'm being more patient that usual! I just hope it's Daebak!! And my last piece of Super Junior fangirlisms, is what is currently happening in Paris as I write this! That's right, SM Town Paris! I still wish I could've gone to the one in LA, but it's exciting because SM Ent is doing real time updates on their facebook page and have released some videos on their YouTube!! I'll post Super Junior's "Don't Don" for you all to enjoy, but if you go to SM Ent's YouTube page they also have videos of Shinee, F(x), TVXQ and Girl's Generation. I'm just bummed that Boa and Kangta weren't able to make it to Paris. Hopefully they'll be able to come to LA or the US again so I can try to go! I'd also love for SS4 to come to the US too! Then I'd definitely go! I'd sell organs to go!<br />
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Okay, the last thing I have to update is another fandom thing, but this time it's Arashi! Arashi has just released their latest PV!! It's for their new album "Beautiful World" which'll be released July 6th. The PV reminds me a little bit of their earlier days (plus they look like 10 years younger in the colorful set). At the same time, it's very modern and they've kicked up their choreography! It's exciting, but part of me thinks that they are feeling pressure from half of the Korean music industry lining up their debuts into Japan within the year. It's crazy how many Korean bands have announced their debut in Japan. I just hope Arashians around the world help keep Arashi getting #1 on Oricon anytime they release something!! But, anyways, enjoy their new PV "まだ見ぬ世界へ (Mada Minu Sekai e)"!! XD<br />
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Well, I think that's it for today. Sorry it was so long and that there were so many videos! I hope you enjoyed it none the less. Don't forget to vote and comments are always appreciated!! As always, I'll leave you with a gif! This week goes to the cute magnae of Super Junior-M Henry!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Such a cutie pie!! ;p</span></div>
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Ja Ne~~<br />
StasiStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200387700984822492.post-26213592524209248722011-05-19T14:32:00.000-06:002011-10-21T02:30:47.926-06:00Lateness...Once AgainSo once again, I fail at blogging at regular intervals. I thought I had posted earlier this month (before the latest Skip Beat! chapter was released), but there is no such thing. ~_~ So, to all my readers, Sumimasen. _| ̄|○<br />
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Well, since I just mentioned it, I'll update about the latest chapter of Skip Beat! We are up to 175! This chapter is the start of the Heel's siblings actual roles. For the first part of the chapter, the readers where given an explanation about the film that Ren (a.k.a. Cain Heel) will be recording. It's a really gritty movie about a serial killer. There are rumors going around that Cain was casted by the director specially for the role of the murderer, and we see his first appearance on set. He completely freaks everyone on set out, and one of his costars starts to get curious and competitive towards Cain. Also, this new character is attracted to Kyoko (a.k.a. Cain's Sister {forgive me, I can't remember her name for the life of me}). We also find out that he used to be a leader of a gang, so it seems like things might possibly get a little physical in the next few chapters. Another interesting thing is that Kyoko was whispering to Ren in English, so everyone on set is also now under the impression that even though Cain is of Japanese descent, he actually doesn't understand Japanese. I'm excited for the next chapter and to see where this arc will take us! A sad note about the next chapter though, it doesn't come out until June 20th. When I first read this chapter, I was disappointed that I would have to wait almost two months (compared to the usual one month), but as of my late updating, it's now down to one month! <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Director is "blue-in-the-face" after meeting Cain Heel for the first time!</span></div>
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Okay, in other news, the semester has officially ended. I'm still fighting with Financial Aid to get last semester paid, so that's frustrating. Actually, the frustrating fact is that I keep having to deal with the student employees, who don't know everything, or even enough to help figure things out the right way. UGH! But anyways, summer school has started. Since I haven't paid my bill for last semester (thanks to Financial Aid), I haven't been able to sign up for Summer classes. Right now, I don't mind just working. Hopefully I'll be able to figure things out before the second session though and at least take one class. We'll see what happens.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Good for stress and frustration!</span></div>
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Well, other things to update on, ummm, well last week my Mom went out of town so I watched the house and animals for her. It was really nice. I got to spend time with my cat, the other two cats, and our dogs. Although I honestly must say, our dog Nikki is so freaking annoying. There were many times where I quickly found myself getting really frustrated and yelling at her to shut up. She has the really high pitched bark, so eventually it gives you a headache, which in turns goes through more pain because she keeps barking. But anyways, I think I watched enough TV to make up for the past year with cable/satellite service. Honestly, I don't follow that many TV shows (especially when compared to my Mom), but it was kind of nice just being able to relax and not have to really worry about anything. At the same time though, I got bored really quickly. I ended up playing the dogs and cats a lot, so I'm sure they're pretty lonely now that I'm back in my apartment.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My cat was on my lap a lot when I was house/pet sitting! XD</span></div>
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Some other exciting things that have happened so far this month are the packages I've gotten! Not only did I finally get Super Junior - M's Repackaged Perfection (with poster), but I also got Lego Pirates of the Caribbean! Plus, because I pre-ordered it, I got a bonus Lego Jack Sparrow. He's really cute and I put him on my entertainment center with my other small figurines. I've played the first three movies completely through already, and have gotten halfway through the fourth movie. I've gotten the basic storyline, but it's odd playing it when the movie hasn't even been released to theaters yet. ~_~ But anyways, it's really fun. The only Lego game I haven't played is the Harry Potter one. I actually don't even own it, but I think it's on my Amazon wish list. I'm not as excited for it though since I was a huge fan of Harry Potter. Yeah, the book series was good, but I'm not really a fangirl. I actually haven't even read the last book (it's in my pile of books to read) and haven't seen any of the movies past the fourth. I think I'm just going to wait until the last movie comes out on DVD, and then netflix them or something and just marathon them. I own the first three, but I'm not sure if I'll add the rest to my wish list or not. It would be nice to complete the collection I guess, but they aren't the first movies I would buy if I had money. Oh well. We'll see what happens.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My Lego Jack Sparrow! XD</span></div>
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Well, that's all I can really think of right now. There isn't really much fangirling in this one, so sorry for my readers who read for that purpose, but I'll save some of that for the next post (in case I don't have that much to talk about). For one thing, I'll be posting my thoughts on Joo and Leeteuk's new digital single "Ice Cream." (A little preview! XDhoodie was soaked. Actually, I didn't really mind at all. I guess I'm just weird like that. What disappointed me about it was not being able to read my book the ten to fifteen minutes I have to wait for the bus. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My hoodie once I made it home!</span></div>
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Well, I'll most likely update next week! My sister is graduating from High School tomorrow and we're having a BBQ up at my Dad's house on Saturday, so I'm sure there'll be at least one story to tell next week! Until then my dear readers! As always, the customary gif! This time I bring you our Dancing Machine Jewel Guy, Eunhyukkie!! (P.S. I had fun going through my Eunhyuk gifs! XD)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Bahahahahahahahahahahaha! XD</span></div>
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Ja ne~<br />
StasiStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15729970105336953676noreply@blogger.com0