Love Me Tender

So Wonder girls got a boost in exposure by being featured (and praised!) by none other than Perez Hilton himself. Talk about lucky! And they’re not even the most talented artists in the mainstream Korean music industry. This might actually have benefits for BoA since she’s planning to debut in the US in the near future. I was really ticked off by some of the ignorant comments made on the post though. There were so many comments perpetuating stereotypes of East Asians with broken English, exoticizing East Asian women as sex objects, and just references to East Asain restaurants (as if that’s all they can succeed in, in America). Honestly, it is disgusting how much racism there still is. Anyway, I hope this exposure helps Korean artists trying to break into the American music industry. I hope that with representations from East Asians who don’t fit the stereotype of idiotic jesters that ignorance against Koreans and other East Asians (who tend to be lumped into a huge category despite their vast diversity) can diminish.

You can read the Perez’s post on the Wonder Girls here.

I don’t remember how but I stumbled upon Wikipedia’s page on the ‘V’ sign as an insult, and it had a section called “Japan and the V sign in Photographs.” It’s pretty interesting actually. I don’t know how much of it is accurate since many things need citations, but who really does studies on this. Well, maybe someone in cultural studies or social movements maybe. Anyway here is what it said:

During the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, figure skater Janet Lynn stumbled into Japanese pop culture when she fell during a free-skate period—but continued to smile even as she sat on the ice. Though she placed only third in the actual competition, her cheerful diligence and indefatigability resonated with many Japanese viewers, making her an overnight celebrity in Japan. Afterwards, Lynn (a peace activist) was repeatedly seen flashing the V sign in the Japanese media. Though the V sign was known of in Japan prior to Lynn’s use of it there (from the post-WWII Allied occupation of Japan), she is credited by some Japanese for having popularized its use in amateur photographs. According to the other theory (actually present in the Japanese version of this entry), the V sign was popularized by the actor and singer Jun Inoue, who showed it in the Conica photo camera commercial in 1972.

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Sorry for the lack of posting. My trip to Asia was great. I got to have a lot of family time and spend time with my grandmother. I enjoyed it very much. Big thanks to Kazuma for posting while I was gone.

So someone tried to leave a comment on my seemingly popular post about Tiffany from SNSD by leaving a link to an online petition for Tiffany anti-fans for SNSD to disband. What the heck? Seriously, people need lives. If the commenter is reading this, your comment went into my spam folder where it belongs. I personally don’t care about Tiffany or SNSD and while I am an advocate for free speech, I do not want to endorse childish stupidity or bullying when there are so many more serious issues that need the efforts of petitioning.

In other news, has anyone else noticed the increasing reunion tours/concerts/album productions by old disbanded groups? First it was the Spice Girls, and then it was Jewelry (yes, I’m jumping across nations here), then it was X-Japan and now it’s New Kids on the Block. When the Spice Girls first stated that they were going to have a reunion tour I thought to myself, who would be stupid enough to go see them. Well, I found out that there were many stupid people in the world including some of my friends. All I have to say to that is oiy! I didn’t care much for Jewelry and I found their debut song really annoying and sickeningly catchy. I was looking forward to the X-Japan tour and I was hoping to see them in New York if I could get tickets. So much for that. NKOTB…I actually came to Canada just after their craze had died down so I wasn’t really there for their initial hype. Their song Summerdays is really catchy (damn those catchy pop songs!) and I wonder if they will have the same success as the Spice Girls. Anyway, that is all. =)

I’m going to be going abroad for a few weeks so I won’t be posting on here until late June or early July. I am hoping that my guest bloggers will step up and keep this site alive during that time. Yes, that was an overt hint you two. =P

To my readers: Don’t give up on me! I’ll be back soon. Take care of yourselves.

I was checking my mail today and my friend had sent me a forward called “God’s Protection”. She sends me a lot of things like this, which is interesting since they’re usually Christian oriented and she affiliates herself (as far as I know) as a Hindu. But anyway, I opened it and it had a cartoon strip in English and Korean. I thought the Korean part was really random since it looks like the characters are all White. I just found it really interesting. Here is the cartoon.

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In a recent episode of Sang Sang Plus Season 2 (aired May 6, 2008), Solbi stated that she “like[d] guys with nice butts, [and] Andy has a nice butt.” I laughed so hard when I read this, not only because she’s so frank but also because I feel the same way - I like guys with nice butts too. It was one of the reasons that I liked Sungmin from Super Junior and Brian from Fly To The Sky. They had nice pinchable bottoms. From what I’ve gathered, it’s not a plus point to have a larger bum in Korea (you’ll get labelled duck butt or something like that). So sad…it’s such a nice quality. =P

Reference:
1. Coolsmurf: Solbi information

My fiance has gone on a trip with his best friend to Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. I’m so jealous, but I know we will eventually go together at some point. I’m so curious to see how similar and different things are in those places than they are in the portrayals of them in dramas and animes. It would also be so great to shop there too. I find it so hard to find clothes that fit me here because of my physique, but I’m a normal body type in Japan and Korea (or at least that is what I’ve been told). I would totally save up and splurge on clothes there, especially Japan because they have such cool fashion. I’ve looked at websites for Japanese and Korean companies, but I haven’t really found any that I would actually shop from. Some aren’t for customer purchase (more for retail purchase) so there is a minimum amount that you have to pay before they will ship abroad. If I find any good sites then I’ll post them here, but so far I haven’t really found any. So sad. =(

Anyway, I hope my fiance and his friend have a good time. They’ll be backpacking around for just over two weeks. I hope they will have a very safe and enjoyable trip.