2PM, again? Why yes. The dorky septet have started promotions last week for their new single, I Hate You, a track that can be found on their second mini-album. The song is alright - quite frankly, it's just another track emerging from the vast sea of already existing contemporary pop records. What amazes me though, is the amount of effort and energy this group puts in its live performances (which includes the promotions for their latest song release). Each live performance is an improvement from the last one.

Watch 2PM's Live performance of 'I Hate You'. See? There's some hard work going on there huh? I just have absolutely no idea what the face mask(wtf??) and sunglasses are about.. I know it's supposed to look cool/complement their outfit, but in my opinion it looks rather freaky (in the not-so-good way).


2PM does pretty ok as well on a larger (more concert-like) stage, even sans one member;

You'd have to excuse the first guy (Wooyoung) that starts singing in the first song, his timing is a bit off. What I like about these larger stages is that it goes to show that Yunho (the second guy that starts singing in the first song) has the best ability to combine both dancing and maintaining stable vocals at once on stage - go him.

Isn't it amazing how 2PM fans record each and every move that 2PM makes in medialand? And don't we all adore YouTube? ... at least I do. And let's see if I'm crazy enough to post again when the official MV for this song comes out.

Katy Perry - Waking up in Vegas
(Buy via iTunes or Amazon if you like her music)

Waking up in Vegas is your radio-friendly pop-rock song and the first by Katy Perry that I instantly like. Her previously released singles didn't persuade me to actually listen to her music. This one though, has such a free-spirited vibe, it's infectious. Before this song, the only way I knew about Katy Perry was through her much talked about wardrobe choice in the media.

The music video is equally nice. It's colorful, energetic and the couple in the video (=Katy Perry and some dude) is funny and slightly weird, which is good! I love the extravagant and somewhat eccentric touch to the whole setting (check out the bowling alley slide and subsequent parade at 1:40 and onwards - looks so happy, right?).

Waking up in Vegas MV on YouTube.

Lastly, something on the music video of Lady Gaga's Paparazzi song. For me, this new music video certainly has a high must-see factor. It's original, quirky, futuristic and just plain disturbing at the same time. It looks like the child of a Japanese manga scenario and avant-garde fashion brand ad. Special, that's for sure.
Go have a look on YouTube if you haven't seen it already.

It's ... 2PM.

So, 2PM is actually a boyband. Erm - cough. It's the latest wonder child of JYP Entertainment, one of the leading record labels in South-Korea's prolific music industry. This is also the company that brought forth demi-god Rain (Bi). Before I continue this media-filled post, I would like to say that I didn't think I'd ever write a post in which I recommend a song by a boyband. This comes from a person that has her old Bob Dylan tracks playing again since his latest album release; a person who turns up the volume whenever an AC/DC (♥!!) song plays on the radio... yeah, I'd like to keep an open mind when it comes to music - something. Anyway, let's cut to the chase.

2PM is a 7-member, all-male artist group that started in 2008. They made a comeback with their second mini-album release "Time for Change" last April. The lead single release called "Again & Again" seems to gradually claim smash hit status (if it isn't already by now). And "Again & Again" is exactly the highly recommended song of this post. The song has a perfect beat-melody combination. Due to its slightly sad undertone and agony-expressing lyrics, it has a surprisingly mellow and balanced atmosphere. A mellow pop song? It doesn't seem to be the most efficient formula for a meant-to-be pop hit, but this song manages to pull it off. It's catchy, trendy and its entire vibe feels right. I listen to the song, I end up humming along making (silly) head moves. I watch the MV, I end up wanting to learn the choreography of the entire dance routine.




01. What Time Is It Now - this is a short but nice interlude for the next track.
02. Again & Again

And here's where one has to mention that 2PM wasn't meant to be a regular vocal boyband. Each and every member went through extensive training in vocals, dance and acrobatics(wtf?!). I think JYPE wanted to produce all-round music performers, not just your classic vocalists. Hrm. Well they definitely did a good job, because from the music video performance to pretty much every live show, the 2PM guys dance with such a disciplined routine, it's almost creepy. (It's like, oh I don't know.. it's like watching musicians perform with the efficiency of the Chinese State Circus.) The result however is that 2PM knows how to give a good performance live on stage.

Again & Again MV:

@YouTube

• Watch one of the Again & Again Live performances in HQ, including 2PM doing the exact same dance moves as in the MV.

• Watch the dance-only version MV with only the choreography and without any scene edits. It looks like it was shot in one take. Impressive (if that was the case).

How does a person like me end up listening to a Korean boyband? XD It's because of the hilarious 3rd Season of Idol Show (or Idol Army) in which the 2PM members appear as show hosts. I accidently stumbled upon a random episode after some related YouTube video browsing. The episodes started airing in December last year and ran every week. The show basically follows the band members doing assignments every episode at a different location and with different (female) guest appearances. The assignments range from chicken fights and snow races to going out on the streets to test how long it takes before individual band members are recognized by random people. To anyone who is in for a good laugh and likes to watch hilarious variety shows: this is definitely worth the watch. Really. I laughed my face off during some episodes because of the huge amount of dork displayed by the 2PM guys. They make fun of each other during the show and don't take themselves too serious. It was only after watching some Idol Show that I watched the Again & Again MV (out of plain curiosity). The transformation from hilarious dork on TV show to cool dance dude in MV was a bit of a surprise XD But I guess that's where my sympathy for these guys comes from; they're just dorky people having fun in a laid-back TV show setting, but once they have to get on stage for a performance, they get to it and do the job right.

For anyone who is interested in a great laugh watching Idol Show and hasn't seen it already;
• This Youtube channel has two episodes you can watch, with incredibly well-done subs. It's obviously not the first, but Episode 11 is a good one to start with since it shows the band members goofing around in a winter holiday resort like college students. 2 members have to change into ridiculous outfits and relentless fun is made out of the whole scenario.
• Time2sub is also a good channel with a number of subbed episodes. They also have Episode 5, I ended up crying-laughing because of the hilarious hotdog game (the costumes!!) in this one. For a comprehensive list of episodes on YouTube, Soompi is the place to be.

If I hadn't seen 2PM in this variety show, I don't think I'd ever listen to any of their songs, since I'm just not, interested, period. in any of the boy or girl pop bands circulating nowadays. But this show; whoever came up with this concept, is brilliant. It's a great way to promote music artists and get high show ratings in one - it's a heck of a smart business move.

Wordpress?? Never mind.

And, this song is SO catchy, I love it! wheeee...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnTrZYHK_II (Kylie Minogue - Wow)

The grand "THINGS TO DO for 2008" -list:

Running Projects
1. Eden calls (the Soubi shrine):
- finish reading the remaining manga chapters
- continue writing after the reading is done
- come up with a new layout, because the current one appears rather.. huge (it's the header I guess)

2. blue cologne (Aoe Reiji fanlisting):
- start by renaming the damned thing. It will include the word rain. Something along the lines of 'my rain' or 'lluvia' or 'lluvia de estrellas'
- actually changing that layout after.. what? 2 years?

3. *Blade Driven (Bleach fanlisting):
- spare enough time to finally sit down and do a proper splitting of the information section and media section. Spiritual Candy is going to merge with Blade Driven. After talking it over with ruayla and some more thinking, it basically means that fanlisting and fansite (=info + media from Spiritual Candy) are to seperate.
- The new name for the humble Bleach fansite to-be: Code Orange.

Future projects
1. Velvet 18. What's that? The long planned George Koizumi shrine!! I have all this written material stuffed in a folder on my laptop.. it needs to get out in the public. I think 2008 will be the year when it does so. I mean, how long has Paradise Kiss been around now?.. Exactly. Well at least I already have the name out (if that counts for something at all).

2. *Mainframe.
- Oh my god. I just recently installed Wordpress on glassforte.com, and the amount of comment spam is already proportional. But, the mainframe is going to be in log/journal format eventually. In which I can write stuff about aspects of today's (or yesterday's) media.
- get a decent layout and domain section up.

*= most time-consuming

Well, that is quite a lot, even if it spans the whole of 2008. Talking about media; nice songs!

1. Romance - House Rulez (feat. Yujin)
The better electronica/lounge-sounds: you have the melody, the beats, the voice. If you like Clazziquai Project, you might like this as well (which isn't to imply they sound the same).

2. Forbidden City - 12 Girls Band
Their band name doesn't really improve persuasion power to get newbies to listen to them (it is rather cheesy, no?). But it's nice, and for anyone who wants to live up to the pretension of listening to so-called 'classical Chinese music', it's also a good choice.

Now to wrap this post up with an update on real life and my internship: busy.

Done.

On a quick mention: thanks arainymonday, missdeep, for reccing Eden calls. I know it is extremely late and I should be in bed. But an extremely tiresome day turned out well in the end because of your rec. You don't know how much of a boost this is for people to continue working on their sites; it's quite huge. Because really, inspiration moves worlds.

The Corinne Bailey Rae fanlisting has a new layout, tweaked content, improved coding and a new little music video section.

The plan was to finish the main domain layout as well, but that will have to wait until another Sunday, one which has enough free time for me to tweak around and come up with a nice design. (I have this Drew Barrymore photo that I probably will use in the layout, but it is so hard to come up with a fitting colour scheme; so I need a little more time on that.)

I can't believe my birthday is already in less than a month. Time goes fast!

Yay, I got myself a Last.fm account. (Care to friend, anyone? :D) Can't believe a music freak like me didn't get one of these sooner. It's really nice how they even keep you up to date with a list of gigs and performances on the agenda in your own country. And I'm kind of happy to see how the Red Hot Chili Peppers get the most play on Last.fm over here, seconded by Muse. They are after all, two very awesome bands(!). *bounces*

loud music makes glasses crack is now 6% more navigable than it previously was. This is all of the changes I can make to the domain for now. I need more inspiration gathering before I can get myself to make a new layout. Boo's.

After tweaking it on and off for the past weeks, arionwing finally receives a definitive new cover. I will settle with this for the coming time.

It now features the Versailles crew from Sofia Coppola's 2006 movie Marie Antoinette! I love that movie, period. The image comes from a Vogue photoshoot on location in Versailles (found at kirsten-dunst.org). I want to make layouts using every single photo that appeared in that Vogue issue, they're so pretty. (Next domain layout, maybe?)

The stylesheet is by refuted, so I really didn't do much to the design other than adding a header. Talk about convenience nowadays - oh lucky days.

The next update will pertain to the domain, and hopefully of more impact than this one. For real.