Shinee performs in Manila

yay! Shinee will come to the Philippines!!! This is the first time that a popular K-pop group will have a concert in here! Now I believe that there are more K-pop fans in Manila than those that I know ^^

Korean Cultural Festival to feature K-pop boyband Shinee


By sassygirl17 at 2009-11-10

Mark Angelo Ching

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
06:58 PM

For Pinoy K-pop fans, November is the season to be jolly.



To cap the year-long celebration of 60 years of diplomatic relations between Korea and the Philippines, the Korean Embassy will hold on November 19-27 the Korean Cultural Festival, which will let Filipinos have a taste of Korean food, dance, music, theater, and arts.



But the most-awaited event in the week-long festival is the free K-pop concert scheduled on November 27. It will feature popular Korean front acts like boyband Shinee, jazz band Winterplay, and energetic rap duo Mighty Mouth.



In an email message to PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal), Blaise Regacho, Executive Assistant on Economic & Cultural Affairs for the Korean Embassy, said the concert was borne out of several petitions by avid K-pop fans in the country, to bring Korean stars to the Philippines. Shinee was the first group they were able to get, she added. (CLICK HERE to read related story)



Composed of five the boys Onew, Taemin, Jong-Hyun, Key, and Min-Ho, Shinee is known for the group's danceable contemporary R&B songs. Since their debut last year, they have won music awards including Best Newcomer Artist in the 18th Seoul Music Awards. Shinee's fashion style of high-top sneakers, skinny jeans, and colorful sweaters created the "Shinee Trend" that's popular among college youth in Korea.



Winterplay is a group that mixes several musical genres like pop, jazz, blues, and bossa nova, to create a unique relaxed sound. The band is composed of vocalist Moon Hye-won, and her band Lee Joo-han (trumpet), Choi Woo-joon (guitar), and So Eun-kyu (contrabass).



Mighty Mouth is well-known for collaborating with famous celebrities like Sun-Ye of Wondergirls and Yoon Eun-hye of Coffee Prince fame. Mighty Mouth is composed of rappers 237 and Shorty j.



The free K-Pop concert is scheduled on November 27, 3 p.m. at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in Manila.



EVENT HIGHLIGHTS. The Korean Cultural Festival will open with "Taste Korea! Food Festival," on November 19-23 at Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong City. It will feature a cooking demonstration of popular Korean dishes, an exhibition of Korean agricultural products like Korean tea, and a presentation of Korean cookbooks and fine selections of special pots, pans, and dishes. Visitors will get a chance to eat samples of Korean food like japchae, kimchi, and bibimbap.



On November 25, the National Dance Company of Korea will present "Dance of Chun-Hyang," which will feature traditional Korean dances. Samulnori, a genre of percussion music that originates from Korea, will be presented on November 26 by the Noreum-Machi troupe. Both musical events will start at 8 p.m., at the CCP.



To cap the entire festival, a Philippines-Korea Friendship Parade along Roxas Boulevard in Manila will start at 10 a.m. on November 27. More than a dozen floats and thousands of marchers will demonstrate Korean customs and tradition. The free K-pop concert takes place on the same day.



For more information about the Korean Cultural Festival, contact the Korean Embassy at 811-6139 to 44.


src: PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal)
http://www.pep.ph/news/23817/Korean-Cultural-Festival-to-feature-K-pop-boyband-Shinee

Video of the Week: 8Eight feat. Jessica of SNSD - I Love You

This song is from the Korean Group 8Eight's Second Album which was released last year. Note that though it features Jessica of SNSD/Girls Generation, she isn't in the video. This is one of their uptempo/lively songs, since the group is more known for their ballads like Without A Heart and Goodbye My Love



src:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ibighit

US Cyworld is closing :(

I was surprised after getting a notice that the US service of the popular Korean Social Networking site Cyworld is closing its service in the US this month. I felt sad because before Multiply and Facebook came along , and Friendster was the popular networking site back then, I believed that Cyworld stand a chance since I like its site in Korean and was glad that I could have it in English. here's the message that I got from the site:

http://us.cyworld.com/

Cyworld Shut Down Us Cyworld Service

Thank you to all members with Cyworld

Due to Cyworld shuts down US service, US Cyworld will no longer be able to service.


We sincerely apologize for shutting down the service with unavoidable reason.

Before US cyworld close the service, you will continue to access to US cyworld contents but not

purchase items. Also, you will not use your acorns.

If you have unused acorns, you will be given a full refund for paid acorns only.

Refunds and data backup service is in progress, using the acorn will no longer be able to

purchase for miniroom items, skins, etc

schedule for closing US Cyworld service

Due to Data Back-up and closing service issues, the service

will be unavailable.

Shop service will be unavailable since Nov 03, 2009

Club service, Profile photo/data upload serivce


will be unavailable since Nov 23, 2009

apparently Cyworld also closed their Taiwan and Japan service, with the latter closed already since August 2009 and Taiwan will follow suit together with the US service but The Chinese and Vietnamese Cyworld services will still continue. Honestly I like Cyworld's concept but they changed their US service into a more My Space type so it was more tiring for me to update when I was so active in theirs because I like the minihompy concept first, oh well....

Celebrity Deaths is the Top 1 Newsmaker for Korean Entertainment For The Past 10 Years

By sassygirl17 at 2009-11-04

MBC's Entertainment Program, Section TV recently celebrated its 500th Episode and in line with this, they have compiled the Top 7 Newsmakers in the Korean Entertainment Industry since the show's first broadcast in May 1999 until this year, 2009

so let's start counting

#7 - National Dramas of Korea - These are the dramas that hit the 40-50% audience share in Korea, making them National Dramas. Among them are Heo Jun (1999),Jewel in the Palace (2003) which contributed to the Korean Wave, Jumong (2006) and the currently airing drama, Queen Seondeok (2009) which has ratings of 40%. Most of the national dramas were historical ones but there were also notable hit trendy dramas during the past 10 years such as Lovers In Paris (2004), My Name is Kim Sam-soon (2005) and Coffee Prince (2007)

#6 - Star Scandals - Some of the newsworthy ones were the Drug Scandal of 2001, where some celebrities were caught and investigated for drug abuse, like actress Hwang Soo-jung. Actor Lee Kyung-young's Sex Scandal of 2002, Song Seung-hun and Jang Hyuk's attempt to evade military service in 2004 and most recently 2PM's Jaebeom leaving his group after a discriminating comment about Korea that he posted in 2005 was found by netizens, causing further uproar and causing him to leave 2PM for good.

#5 - Sports Stars - Ahn Jung-hwan, Park Ji-sung (Soccer), Park Tae-hwan (Swimming), Kim Yu-na (Figure Skating). Events like World Cup and the Olympic Games made these athletes more popular as they also appeared in various advertisements, solidifying their popularity

#4 - The Boom of Korean Cinema. Korea has seen a boom in their movie industry which has seen better years now compared to 10 years ago. Some movies got gross sales of about 10 Million or more. These films are Silmido (2003), Teagukgi (2004), King and the Clown (2005), The Host (2006) and Haeundae (2009)

#3 - Celebrity Confessions - Their confessions took a toll on their careers. Some of them were actress Oh Hyun-kyung's Sex Tape Scandal in 1999,actor Hong Seok-cheon's coming out as Gay in 2000, singer Baek Ji-young's private video, Lee Seung-yeon's Nude Comfort Women shoot in 2004, Kim Sang-hyeok's drunk driving incident, Celebrity Military Service Controversy in 2007 and Choi Min-su's assault case in 2008


#2 - Celebrity Couples/Weddings - a lot of Korean Celebrities and couples have emerged in the past 10 years - singer Kim Tae-wook and actress Chae Si-ra (2000), the year 2005 saw the weddings of actors Han Ga-in and Yeon Jung-hoon as well as Kim Seung-woo and Kim Nam-joo, Korean Wave actor Kwon Sang-woo surprised everyone when he married fellow actress Son Tae-young in 2008 and most recently the secret marriage of another Korean Wave star, Lee Young-ae in the US.


#1 - Celebrity Deaths - and I agree with their #1 newsmaker of the year, I've never seen the Korean Entertainmnent industry mourn so much about the loss of some great Celebrities; of course there are also important people/world stars that passed away in the span of 10 years. The most shocking ones were the deaths of actresses Choi Jin-shil (2008), Jung Da-bin and U-nee (2007) and Lee Eun-joo (2005) who all tragically died because of Suicide which were mostly caused by depression and malicious rumors that were spread about them in the Internet. Actress Jang Jin-young lost her battle to Cancer in September this year. World Stars that were mourned also were Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung, who also tragically died of Suicide in 2002, and Michael Jackson, the King of Pop who died last July. but Koreans were more shocked about the untimely death of Choi Jin-shil, one of Korea's Top stars and her decision to end her life in October 2008 sent shock waves throughout the nation.


original src: Yahoo! Korea/Newsen
http://kr.news.yahoo.com/service/news/shellview.htm?articleid=20091031075624533e7&linkid=4&newssetid=1352

More Oh Ji-ho stills from Chuno

After a few stills of Oh Ji-ho from the drama Chuno was released last August, a few more stills from the drama were released as the drama has already set their premiere date: January 6, 2010. The Official Site and Trailer is now out. Chuno will replace the current blockbuster IRIS on Wednesday-Thursday nights


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-29


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-29


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-29


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-29


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-29


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-29


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-29


View the Trailer here:
http://www.kbs.co.kr/drama/chuno/hunting/index.html

Official Site:
http://www.kbs.co.kr/drama/chuno/hunting/index.html

all credits to KBS

credits to Ziolette Jane and Kitland @ Soompi for the heads-up!

Video of the Week: Be The Voice - Altogether Alone

There are some songs that are really familiar to you even if you don't listen to it everyday or you've just heard it once. This is one of them, Altogether Alone sung by the Japanese group, Be The Voice.I've heard it more than once as background music whenever I watch Korean Talk/Variety Shows. The song is very easy to listen to and the lyrics are quite meaningful,the lyrics are like this: even if you're alone, you can feel lonely but throw your problems away and everything will be fine...

More about Be The Voice through these links
Japanese
http://www.bethevoice.com/
My Space
http://www.myspace.com/bethevoice




It came It came like a thief in the night
I happened to be looking
Out through the window
I swear it was brighter than hell
Man, I saw a light through the window
It was hovering above
The house next door

I froze I froze like a stone
All alone
I swear my hair stood up
And I said a prayer to end all prayers
I reached for the phone
But the phone was dead
Next the glowing ball turned red
And a voice inside my head

Said, “Boss(Fred), go on back to bed
From now on You are gonna be able to see
From now on you are gonna be
All at once with peace and harmony
In rhyme and reason altogether alone”

It came It came like a song
In the day, the way I play
When I get off on a feeling
Of wheeling and soaring through space
Like the word what flows
Like the lover as it explodes
Kicking off the start of time

I froze I froze like a stone
All alone
I swear my hair stood up
And I said a prayer to end all prayers
I reached for the phone
But the phone was dead

Next the glowing ball turned red
And a voice inside my head
Said, “Boss(Fred), go on back to bed
From now on You are gonna be able to see
From now on you are gonna be
All at once with peace and harmony
In rhyme and reason altogether alone”

src:
http://www.youtube.com/user/checknoness

lyrics:
http://dorasakura.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/be-the-voice-altogether-alone/

Anything Random from Me...

I missed blogging already for a week! My computer really cranked out big time and luckily its still safe, but still under observation so yeah I feel a little bit anxious fixing it with my brother (though he did more than I lol!)so yeah hopefully I could catch up fast here in the World Wide Web as I felt that in the past week I was more in tune with reality which I forget sometimes when I'm in front of the computer.

Well this weekend I attended my friend's daughter, Phoebe's Dedication or similar to Baptism in Roman Catholic since she's a Christian. In the past few weeks and months I haven't seen my friends since I've been overwhelmed with work so I was glad to see them


By sassygirl17, shot with Canon PowerShot A470 at 2009-10-28


By sassygirl17, shot with Canon PowerShot A470 at 2009-10-28


By sassygirl17, shot with Canon PowerShot A470 at 2009-10-28


By sassygirl17, shot with Canon PowerShot A470 at 2009-10-28


By sassygirl17, shot with Canon PowerShot A470 at 2009-10-28

I'll be missing Phoebe and her family since they will already leave for the US this month and reside there for good so I really hope she will grow healthy and follow her parents ^^

on the other hand I had to catch up on my Korean Drama frenzy, as I got back also my internet connection together with the computer, I had to finish watching Last Scandal and My Fair Lady, since these 2 were the dramas I've got 2-3 episodes left to watch. I've finished watching My Fair Lady first since I got curious on how it ended after all the rants about it but still found the drama good and enjoyable despite what has been said about its ending. Will try to finish up all the other dramas I'm watching (check here) since there are now good ones out there right now...I need more time, permission to wish, can I have more time please ^^

Lee Byung-hun and Josh Harnett for Vogue Korea

**swoons, swoons** too hotties in one magazine spread! this is great! now if only I could get my hands on this one :(

Lee Byung-hun and Josh Harnett, star of the movie I Come With The Rain, team up for Vogue Korea's November Issue. The Photoshoot was done when Josh Harnett visited Korea recently for the Busan International Film Festival where his film with Lee Byung-hun and Kimura Takuya was screened.

src:
http://bntnews.hankyung.com/apps/news?popup=0&nid=02&c1=02&c2=02&c3=00&nkey=200910201019073&mode=sub_view

Lending a Helping Hand to Typhoon Victims

When Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) hit the Philippines a few weeks ago, I could never imagine how damaged it has given to the country as well as still many victims are still recovering from the after math. I wanted to help the victims but I don't really know how...I'm glad that there was this activity spearheaded by our company to help a school renovate/clean to prepare for the resume of classes of the students, it was held 2 Saturdays ago as we painted the school and also had fun at the same time. It's a nice feeling whenever you get to lend out help even in small ways


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-18


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-18


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-18


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-18


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-18


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-18


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-18


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-18

and the group here:


By sassygirl17 at 2009-10-18


thanks to Jhinx for uploading the pics on Facebook :)

Video of the Week: Davichi - I Made an Accident

from Davichi's recent Mini-album, Davichi in Wonderland, the song is good and the MV is a bit sad though :(



src:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GirlsHighOrg