[Misc] Thought Corner: Goodness Gracious GFriend

Oh yeah, we're definitely in the endgame now. It is what it is, but let's talk about GFriend briefly. Um. They're dumb. Really fucking dumb. Photos with a Nazi mannequin? Saving said photos as "Kitler?" That ain't it. Like at all. I don't care what kind of excuse you have, that shit is inexcusable. These members aren't some doe-eyed babies either. Maknae Umji turns 21 this year. Even if we were somehow in a bizarre alternate timeline where the Korean education system taught absolutely nothing about WWII history, surely a Hitler-inspired nickname would have raised some flags? No? Okay then. Later GFriend, it's been real. I think I remember some vague news from a few years back about BTS also being under fire for some Nazi-related shenanigans and it's pretty baffling that we're seeing something similar surface again in modern day. Of course there was some half-baked apology and whatever but yikes man, yikes.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Kpop Hopes In 2021

It's been tradition over the last four years to start the blog off with this type of post, so despite less attachment to the Kpop world, here we go. Linked is another SM rendition of "Hope" with their current roster, and man... It feels me with equal amounts nostalgia and depression seeing all the people who are no longer there. Heechul (and Sungmin) not there. Taeyeon and Taemin the only representatives of their groups. EXO with just Kai and Baekhyun. No f(x) at all. NCT members are like 40% of the entire present roster, and I'm pretty sure there are more of them that aren't in the video. It's crazy seeing the evolution and passage of time within a company, and in general. No BoA is omega cringe, but at least Kangta was there at the end. Anyway that's enough of that. Now let's look back at what I looked forward to during January of 2020, before the world-shattering events.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Goodnight Irene

Oh Irene, you fool. There's been quite the commotion surrounding her over the last couple of days. I'll spare you the details because I'm lazy and also not fully informed but man. Irene's been putting in work in the wrong departments. To sum things up in one sentence? Irene harasses people verbally and people are bring it to light. There hasn't been released evidence or anything like that sure, but the fact that Irene had to post an apology and meet with the accuser personally says everything. You truly wonder what was said on that recording...

[Misc] Thought Corner: Refreshing The Office

Even though I'm not in school anymore, September ushers in the new semester and we're gonna do some cleaning around the blog house. It's still a crazy world out there but we're gonna try and set some standards and protocols to help drive the site forward. Hell I nearly went for making a new season before realizing that Season 10 started this January. Anyway, first things first I'm gonna be revamping the Recurring Series Directory (may or may not have already been done by the time this goes live). I love that post as the central hub for someone of my favorite excerpts over the years and it needs a refresher. I'll figure something out. Second, the latest Girl Group Power Ranking has to be revised since I somehow let Dreamcatcher slip out of the writing there. But that's enough of fixes, what about moving forward?

[Misc] Thought Corner: Life Is Fun

Hello, it's me. Your friendly neighborhood Korean music blogger, coming at you with a post serving as a hybrid update and excuse. I got sent to the hospital yesterday after collapsing due to fatigue, and spent a couple hours in the ED. As far as all my signs go, I don't have COVID-19 and I'll hear back from the lab tests tomorrow or Tuesday. All this to say that I'm not gonna spending much time at the computer over the next couple of days. Just focus on resting and drinking plenty of water (as I always do). Stay safe, everyone.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Kpop Hopes In 2020

First, check out this absolute slapper of a mashup. It's really well done and gave me the chills at various points throughout. Makes me wish I had a penchant or talent for mixing music like this. Anyway it's 2020, goddamn. We're gonna start fresh and mark the new year and new decade with a new season. Unlike previous years I won't go back and proofread anything or make edits to mistakes. It's about moving forward to another year of blogging. This will in fact be one of my resolutions: to have a more productive year than my 2016 campaign in which I churned out 90 posts. So we start with the new tradition of my short list of hopes and predictions for the new year. But before we look ahead, we'll look back on my predictions at the start of 2019.

[Misc] Thought Corner: SuperM and Supergroups

Not sure how I wanted to categorize this post since I'll be talking about SuperM and their upcoming debut but also expanding it to some group theory. Ah whatever there's always post-publish editing to utilize. Let's not talk about some other posts that should have been out for months by now...

[Misc] Thought Corner: China Trouble

If you've been living under a rock lately, you'll know there's some shit going down in Hong Kong. I'm not the person to best summarize the situation, but there are plenty of places for you to catch up. Basically there's a fuckton of protesting going on in Hong Kong, and as someone with Cantonese blood in my veins and plenty of family living there right now, it's pretty personal.

There's uproar all over the place, but in the Kpop sphere, many of the Chinese idols have been voicing their support with the mainland, and Hong Kong police. You can find plenty of this evidence on social media like Instagram, Weibo, etc. Lay, Victoria, Jackson, etc. Now, an average person jumps to conclusions and claims these guys are pro-China and all that jazz. While that might be (and in some cases probably?) true, it's not a blanket statement that could apply to every single idol that has posted about it. These are Chinese idols with a career and family, the Chinese government isn't exactly gonna let them off easily if they didn't say anything - or dared to support what's going on in Hong Kong.

So while I am definitely disappointed in some of these posts - Victoria especially - it's certainly not a good spot to be in for anyone. It's a fucked up situation through and through. There is always conflict in the world. Who knows how things will play out with this one. Have a nice Sunday.

[Misc] Thought Corner: The Great Seungri Scandal

It seems that 2019 will be remembered in Kpop (and general Korean) history for a long while. If you're an avid Kpop follower there's no doubt you've heard all the shenanigans regarding Seungri (and others like Jung Joonyoung) that dates back to January when the first reports surfaces out of Burning Sun club. I can't even put a video or image in the header, this is too serious and sinister to even poke fun at. This will be a messy Thought Corner because there's simply so much bullshit to try and sift through. I'll probably go back and edit this a million times over the next couple days.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Red Velvet Redmare

Red Velvet was one of the remaining groups from SM Entertainment that I haven't seen live, since my first Kpop concert back in 2011 was SM Town. This concert leaves only EXO and NCT on that list, though who knows when I'd have the opportunity for those squads. Anyway, I don't really know how I'm gonna format this post, so it'll mostly be a messy stream of consciousness just going by memory. Plus my past three concerts were of multiple groups so this was gonna be different by default. It's not meant to be lengthy and detailed (but I'm sure I'll ramble), only reactions and the general ilk.

In the grand scheme of girl groups, I consider Red Velvet a top-tier team. They rocketed up my Girl Group Power Rankings throughout 2017 and since 2018 started have been a perennial contender for being the best. Irene and Seulgi headlined my biases, while the rest of the gang made up in the variety aspects. Their addicting dance numbers were sure to get love - though I was dreading a couple of them. I was really hoping we'd get a live "One Of These Nights" because slower Red Velvet songs are my favorite but admittedly I wasn't counting on it.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Kpop Hopes In 2019

Welcome to 2019. Kpop Hopes takes over as the first post of the year, and I'll begin to reclassify some of the older blog posts as Thought Corner posts. Kpop Awards are coming, but first let's look at predictions from the past and for the future. It's always hilarious to look back and see exactly how dumb I can be. This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill. We're going hard or going home. Before we look ahead, we'll take a look backwards at my 2018 predictions.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Fall Cleaning

Ayo it's that time of the year. Winter is coming and the house needs cleaning. Fall cleaning doesn't quite have the same ring to it as spring cleaning, does it? Anyway here's some word salad.

With Season 9 underway, I'm going to go back and proofread all posts from July 2018 and on - I do this every couple of months for minor fixes like spelling, grammar, and etc. I won't go back earlier than July because that was my vacation in Hong Kong so setting the "gate" there seems like a good spot.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Cube's Conundrum

Should probably have had some more of these throughout the years - they're simple, easy to write, and have basically no restrictions on what or how I want to write. Anyway, Kpop has had an...interesting week. All kinds of news and most of it is not the good kind. The main headline is of course that Hyuna and E'Dawn would be leaving Cube Entertainment. This comes a month after their revealed relationship which has been a thing for over two years. Buckle up because this is quite the doozy.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Secret's Out

There's finally some fucking closure because Jieun has announced her departure from Secret. More importantly, this also means she is leaving TS Entertainment. They've been on hiatus since 2014 with the linked "I'm In Love" (which was a good release, hell I reviewed this song way back then) after Sunhwa got out of dodge quick, and as a group did absolutely nothing until the news today. What a waste and shame on TS, honestly. We were supposed to have a group comeback "sometime" last year but that never came to fruition for whatever reasons.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Kpop Hopes In 2018

Y'all know me I'm a sucker for series and continuity on my blog and in general. Here's some hopes and dreams I have for the Kpop industry in the year 2018. Like last year, they range across the spectrum - from realistic to borderline impossible. But before those meaningful thoughts hit the page, let's check back up on last year and see what happened with my 2017 hopes.

[Misc] Thought Corner: Black Pink Fade

Apology for poor English. Where were you when Black Pink was kill? Seriously, the new Twice teaser images got me thinking. In the NFL subreddit, team flairs get faded when a team no longer qualifies for the playoffs. If there was a Black Pink / Blink flair (and Kpop playoffs) it'd be hella faded right now. They haven't been around for two years yet and their inactivity is already that of a veteran group. YG is really doing something impressive here. Maybe modeling this group after 2NE1 was a little too close to home...  They're a powerful group with loaded potential but they lack the action to show for it.

[Blog] End Of A Generation

Pack it up y'all, the girl groups we used to love are all dead and gone. Girls' Generation is the proverbial nail in the coffin, with recent news reporting that some members did not resign with S.M. Entertainment. Seohyun, Sooyoung, and Tiffany will not remain under the label, while everyone else - Taeyeon, Sunny, Yuri, Yoona, and Hyoyeon - will resign. Whether it's official or not, Girls' Generation is finished. Yeah they may not have disbanded, but you can't realistically expect all the members to come together in the future when they're under different management. I also feel there's no way S.M. would let that happen, this is S.M. we're talking about.

[Blog] KCON 2017 NY

KCON was something that had been on my radar in the past, but never had the opportunity to attend. This year was my first KCON, and additionally third Kpop concert following concerts in New York 2011 and Hong Kong 2012. I decided against writing about the non-concert aspects of the event, because honestly there was so much that happened throughout KCON I feel like I could write a book. Anyway the concert was truly the main draw of the show. Here are a little bit of my thoughts on each of the performing artists, in the order that they performed during the concert.

[Blog] The New Guard

By time of writing, there are some 10 girl groups who have disbanded, will disband soon, or are as good as disbanded. Groups in the first category include KARA and Wonder Girls, groups in the second category include Sistar and T-ARA, and groups in the third category include miss A and After School. I'm really sad - stop taking them away! Frankly, it's harrowing to think so many of the girl group staples are never coming back. If you looked at a list of girl groups pre-2010 and their status in 2017, it paints an extremely depressing scene.

[Blog] The Argument For Subunits

Yeah, I know. Two consecutive blog posts, especially given the duration between posts is certainly unexciting. Even more dull (or annoying, depending on your perspective) is that I'm going to be talking about subunits again. The last time around I devised some subunits for girl groups I'd like to see, and that happened not too long ago. Do I feel cheap for doing so? Yes, but at the same time it's been busy busy busy for me (not to mention this is only the 7th overall blog post of this season) and this will be refreshing in some way. Upon closer inspection, I last wrote about subunits in November so it's not too bad.