Thoughts on Jonghyun

I learned through friends and All Kpop that SHINee's leader, Jonghyun passed away from suicide. For fans, like a friend of mine, a light was dimmed forever.

We will never fully understand his thoughts leading up to his death...but from just observation, the K-pop culture lended a hand in that direction. Years of training, years of pushing, practices, non-stop schedules, all the doings of labels trying to milk their artists.

The signs were there, although maybe not as clear as others. He was given help, talked to a shrink, only to not really receive any help for goodness sakes.

When I think about all the artists in the same boat, it makes me fearful that they will one day "snap". When will companies stop monopolizing their times and energues?

As fans, there is not much we can do except to be supportive. As friends and family members...if you love and care for someone, you help them get help. If something doesn't work, keep trying.

Now, I can't be entirely sure that everything that could be done was done. But I wonder if someone had asked themselves if it was enough?

Keep trying. Don't give up. Depression and suicical thoughts are hard to deal with. Scary too. I personally have a friend that I am trying to help keep her head up. It is damn tiring. But you know what? I would rather be tired than knowing I did nothing. Try. Help anyone you know with thoughts like these. Don't turn your head and look the other way. Help.

RIP Jonghyun. A light dimmed below, now shining brightly above.

Free K-Pop Concert in LA!

It was announced back in February that KBS and the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles were teaming up together to put on a FREE K-Pop concert in Los Angeles on April 12th at the LA Memorial Coliseum. Yes, you read that right. I said "FREE".

They weren't much details at that time, but today they sent out an update via social media that tickets were going on sale via Ticketmaster starting Saturday, March 29th at 10am PST.

Do the groups SHINee, 2PM, CNBlue and SISTAR sound familiar to you? They're just part of the lineup for the concert!

So if you live within the greater Los Angeles area or are willing to drive down to watch the concert, make sure you get your tickets before they run out!

Get your tickets while they are hot on Saturday, here!

Good luck all you lucky people!

Source: All K-Pop

SHINee Covers Day

I have a friend who does these cool drum covers of songs from various artists. He posts them on to YouTube from time to time. He's a music teacher, so this is his way of sharing his love of music. He often gets requests for K-Pop songs from followers or friends, and he just posted a SHINee one called "Dream Girl". He never used to like K-Pop, but I don't know if it's because he never knew about it, or was only into American Pop, like I was. If you like K-Pop or SHINee, check it out below. Enjoy!

And just in case you haven't gotten enough of SHINee, here's a cover my friend did on one of their other hits, "Sherlock".(Clue + Note)

Funny how he knows about all these K-Pop artists. He has some KARA and T-Ara on his channel, too. He posted once that he recognized a K-Pop song while he was out eating with his family at a restaurant. Who does that? I told him he was "K-Popified", lol. Goes to show how much the Hallyu wave and K-Pop has spread.

Sources: Xymbalreborn's YouTube Channel. All rights to the covers go to Xymbalreborn. All rights to the music and music videos of SHINee go to SM Entertainment.

Review: K-Pop Tasty Road

As I was looking through a bunch of movies and TV shows on Hulu, I came across a TV series called "K-Pop Tasty Road". It's a spinoff of a Korean food and culture series called "Tasty Road", only this was about K-Pop.

They hired two idol MC's, NS Yoon G and Eli from U-Kiss. Since they were gearing this more towards a global audience, meaning outside of Korea, it was essential these MC's speak fluent English. Both Yoon G and Eli were born and raised in the United States so they know English very well. It was easy for them to converse in Korean and English, especially Yoon G, who did most of the talking.

Each episode would have a certain theme: a management company tour, dating/love tour, sites, etc. In the episode they would show you places that idols recommended foreigners to see, eat or shop at. And sometimes they would even have a special idol guest.

I love that they picked up on places that were unique and showed places that may be familiar to K-Pop fans. For instance, they showed the little cafe CNBlue's Jung Yong Hwa had taken his pretend "bride" Seo Hyun (SNSD) to eat when they were on "We Got Married" (if you want to watch some of their episodes, look up "YongSeo Couple" or "Goguma Couple").

They showed where groups like SHINee, TVXQ, Super Junior and FT Island like to do their nails, hair, shop and workout. If you ever want to try to spot an idol, this show will give you hints.

The only two gripes I have about this is that not all the episodes have been translated into English. The first 3 on Hulu are, but the other 5 aren't. The only times you will be able to understand them are when they choose to speak in English. Which brings me to my second gripe. As the show progressed, they seemed to be speaking more and more Korean. Very hard to understand.

But, I would still recommend this because Yoon G and Eli are both funny and adorable. They have a special interaction as "Noona-Dongsaeng". You can see that since they weren't raised in the U.S., they are still learning a bit about their own culture, so it doesn't seem like they're talking down to you, but you're learning along with them. Hope you all get to watch it! Two thumbs up!