Wednesday, September 23, 2009

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Semiotics: Anyone else bothered that a blonde is teaching our kids local history?

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Saying it the way it is.

It is much to my annoyance that some people treat me like a half-wit. It makes me reflect upon my actions, if ever have I unknowingly pulled a Ris Low.



I'm sure she thought she was pretty Boomz herself.

Okay, so back to a little on what I've been busy with lately. I have a fast approaching exam sometime soonish. I'd like to take some time to study hard for it. I'm down to 3 modules to graduation yo! Calls for a celebration, looking back, the past 2 years have been crazy. I've had so many ups and downs.

You could say that the last month has been a real test of my tenacity and character. It was after much deliberation that I decided that I am only slightly masochistic to do this over again for almost the same amount of time.

What does that really mean?

I am in preparations of embarking on another perilous journey filled with toil and possibly heartache. Looks like I'm quite destined to be a poor student for a little longer than I expected. As to why now and not later? I really don't want to let this pass and habour on another year or another of what ifs or regret. So with a little luck, prayer and elbow grease. I see hope.

I guess as plans firm up closer to confirmation, I'll be posting more about it. This will serve as a teaser for now. *fingers tightly crossed*

My Kmusic consumption is not limited to pretty dancing boys lah. For one thing, I cannot stand talentless dancing pretty boys. To be fair, their idea of mainstream has progressed towards Americanisation hence making it more easily digestable to other cultures across Asia. It is only until lately that they've been making waves with the Asian Americanisation and garnering more support. Circa 2005-2006, if you youtube the stuff, the dance battles, music and fashion is quite a vast improvement from where it is now. It's a pity that Taiwan hasn't caught on and HK is quite adamant about preserving their Canto roots.
I like Loveholic, Clazziquai and Epik High on the more eclectic range. I reckon their brand of pop is more skewed to MandoPop which is alot more easy on the ears. Most importantly no high pitched screaming girls. I'm quite sure that this model was probably pioneered by the Japanese (I might be wrong) but recent trends show that it has been perfected by the Koreans. Artist management also maintain to capitalise on the popularity of their moneymakers as well as take an interest to training them across different disciplines. Acting/singing/DJ-ing/MC-ing/Entertainment Monkey.

From a media's perspective, I would think that it is a very exciting time for them considering that Billboard is expanding into Korea taking cue from their exploding popularity in the US and cultural exchange in the case of Wonder Girls or culture copy.


Example of culture copy: Nick Bass who has worked with American big wigs - JT, Britney Speares and Janet Jackson with SuJu.

One cannot help but wonder how long this fad will last, will Japan fight back or most importantly ... What next? After all it all translates to dollars and cents $.$

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Boybands fascinate me to no end. The concept of the manufacturing of idols especially. I caught the Attack of the Pin-Up Boys over yesterday and I must admit it annoyed me lesser than Detroit Metal City. Which led to checking out Super Junior over youtube. I've always remembered them as the group with too many people.

13 is a production logistical nightmare. It's simply too many to fit into one frame over a 3-5 minute MV unless you're a bollywood movie. In any case if it was, the focus would be concentrated onto the hero and his best mate. Everyone else just fills space and extra heros always die.

One thing their management did right was to split them into sub-groups to capitalize on their talent pool.


SuJu does make SS501 look like amateurs in this dance battle, based on just dancing alone I think it was a great injustice that they lost.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Love from the interns

"It's the truth, I love you."
"The truth's generally disasterous."
"I have so much love for you that I believe you will come to share some of it, no matter how hard you try to fight it."
"It doesn't work that way."
"If I believed that, I don't know how I could go on."
"You'd go on. Everybody does. Or mostly everybody."

I like the 2nd line.