새해 복 많이 받으세요! Happy New Year, everyone. Hopefully, you’ll all have time to visit family, eat some good food, and get your red envelope. Now, on to 5 Things: a hot indie band’s new album, Almost Paradise, fun at the jjimjilbang, some hot chocolate, and woohoo for WooU. These are the 5 Things that happened in Kpop last week that I think were a little bit more special than the rest.
Walrus releases their 1st single album
Who’s Walrus you say? Well, if you’re a fan of Kim Jae-wook you’d know that that’s the name of his indie rock band and they just released their first single album last week on the 24th. The band is made up of Jae-wook on lead vocals and guitar, Kim Tae-hyun on drums, Yoo Seung-bum on lead guitar, and Yang Shi-on on bass. They have been together more or less for nine years (under different names also) after having met and become friends at Seoul Institute of Arts (did you know that Jae-wook graduated with a Music Degree?). The album which they produced themselves has three songs on it: “To Be,” “Mozaic,” and “Seoul Witch.” Check out their MV for “To Be” it kind of reminds me of Nine Inch Nails. Yes? No? oh well.
All three songs on the album are different, “Mozaic” is a little more mellow than “To Be,” but still has a driving guitar and drum, while “Seoul Witch” is even mellower with hints of 60’s rock which might not be so unheard of since the band are fans of The Beatles (they take their name from their famous song “I am the Walrus”).
Paradise Ranch gets off to good start
I mean c’mon with scenes like Da-ji (Lee Yeon-hee) falling face first into horse doo and sucking up her beer with a straw off the bar and Dong-joo (Shim Changmin) streaking through his room with a winged heart over his parts, how could this not be a good start.
I’m not sure why they were so embarrassed about that scene considering they were married for six months, but hey it wouldn’t have been as funny if they weren’t, right? (I personally think that someone in power was a Changmin fan and wanted to see him with as little on as possible, why do I think this- the swimming scene in this week’s episode he’s half naked, too) I found the drama to be okay, nothing great, but not bad either, I think I’ll keep watching. One question for you guys though, what’s up with the neckerchiefs on the dudes?
Fun at the jjimjilbang
Last week’s Running Man sent the crew to a Korean sauna where again they had to find their guest, who was gag man Kim Byeong-man, and had a good game plan with the extras at the sauna to fool the cast. Unfortunately, kids aren’t very good at keeping secrets. One of their missions was singing on a karaoke machine while doing various exercises and trying to get the top score, check out the pink team of Jong-kook, Ji-hyo, and Gary doing DJ DOC‘s “Run To You”
Of course Jae-suk needs to get in on the fun and teasing Jong-kook along with Haha doing his “Lovable” was lovable.
The funniest segment though, was when the cast took on Byeong-man in doing some of the tricks he can do, although the dude is smaller in stature he is super strong and fast and has mad physical abilities (watch him in Dream Team 2). While it was fun seeing the cast taking on Byeong-man it was the opportunity to get caps like this that made it all worth it.
OMG, Joong-ki hoovering a banana, I can’t even… kinky. And this one of Jae-suk… I LOVE Running Man.
Hotties on Chocolate
The last episode of Kim Jung-eun’s Chocolate had some hot namjas as guests this week. First up, DBSK with the song many have said should have been their title track “Maximum.”
The only thing that marred my enjoyment of the performance? Yunho‘s patterned suit… stylists, WAE? Watching Yunho dancing is usually a treat, but this kind of made me dizzy and not in a good way. And their encore a medley.
Okay I only liked it they did okay, didn’t love it because no matter how many back up dancers you got, it’s not the same.
Lastly, I had to put in Park Jung-min‘s performance of “Not Alone.” I really think it was an excellent solo debut song for him.
Dream High got WooU
It’s official I’m totally a WooU shipper and a new fan of Wooyoung and IU. They are so cute. I love how the unofficial couple finally got some screen time and some quality time at the noraebang.
How adorkable was their Heartbeat? And, Pil-sook on the stairs... total win. By the way, her Jason doll is a hot commodity.
It is a real doll by blabla, it’s called the Otto mini. It is a free-trade product handmade in Peru with natural fibers and certified eco-friendly. It has a slightly unfriendly price of 54,000 won (about $49 us) and can be ordered here (unfortunately, I’m not sure that international fans can order it).
Hye-mi and Sam-dong also brought about some warm and fuzzies with their showcase finale. Love the rest of the cast too, just enough serious and funny for me. Episodes 8 & 9 were soooooo good, but that’s for next week’s 5things.
Those were the 5 things that I LOVED in Kpop last week, were they yours?
