End of Year Special Stages

Be on the lookout for content to come out on the web on the end of year specials by each broadcast network. I believe KBS is doing a Road to Faith special with FT Island and Juniel amongst other artists that will be broadcast on December 31st.

And, the MBC Gayo Daejun will feature FT Island, CN Blue and Juniel performing Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are".

It sucks that most of the world can't watch it live, but we're still looking forward to it!

Source: Primadonna Indonesia's Twitter

Hong Ki's Festive Nail Art

Long-time buddies Lee Hong Ki of FT Island and Heechul of Super Junior got couple nail designs to celebrate the upcoming holiday. Hong Ki loves to decorate his nails. He loves to go to nail salons period. It stuck with him ever since FT Island released their song, "Hello Hello". If you ever watch that video, he uses his hands a lot during the chorus. He's often said in interviews that his hands become the focal point when he's on stage.

Photo courtesy Lee Hong Ki's Twitter

Going along the same lines(I know that Green Tea will be interested too), I thought it would be kinda cool to post a couple of videos on nail art design.

Happy holidays and happy decorating!

Santa's Coat Nail Art Theme

Glitter Snowflakes and Snowmen Theme

(Videos courtesy of "Lenysea". She has a bunch of other videos on nail art, check those out along with videos from "IHaveACupcake" as well.)

Never forget to say "I Love You"

In the US, we have gone through another day of completely senseless tragedy.

Today, in the little town of Newton, Connecticut, a 20-year old boy opened fire in an elementary school classroom killing 20 kindergarten children and 6 adults including himself and his mother (not on scene).

I have to ask myself why? How does this make any sense?

Little children anxious to go on Christmas break, waiting to see what their parents bought them, ready to rip open presents under the tree. Simply gone. Without any rhyme or reason.

The world that we live in has changed so dramatically. Ten, maybe twenty years ago, we worried about strangers kidnapping kids. Now we have to question if even the most innocent lives are safe in a place we thought they were the most safest in.

We get so caught up in our lives, the day to day grind. Or studying. Or even going gaga over the latest scandal over a star, tweeting their adoration. Do we even take a look around at who matters the most to us?

I bet those that rushed off without hugging their brother or sister, parents that promised to take their kids somewhere nice after school was done, or not even taking the time to say simple words of endearment, are looking back with regret.

What I'm trying to say is always remember to take a step back and remind yourself of your priorities. Cherish your memories with each other, whether it be a sibling, spouse, parents or children. And tell them, nay, show them, how much you love them. Someone else may take the opportunity away from you.

Where Did FT Island's Lee Jae Jin Go on Twitter?

That's the question I am posing to all of you.

He was on my very short list of people I follow and he's not showing up anymore.

Does anyone know if he closed his Twitter account and why?

I really like him, he's not my fave out of all of them. But he has a nice voice.

His Twitter handle was @saico011. Anyone?

SHINee covers Wild Eyes by Shinhwa

While looking at my favorite videos on YouTube, I came across this video of SHINee's cover of Shinhwa's Wild Eyes.  This is one of the songs I like from Shinhwa and SHINee is singing it.  cool.

This video was uploaded in 2009, so I'm guessing this was around the time they performed it.  SHINee debuted in 2008.  Still young and they look it.  Look at Taemin's bowl cut hair. =D

You can't but help compare and the original usually sounds the best.  For someone who loves both Shinhwa and SHINee,  I really like both but I prefer Shinhwa's version the best.  I'm just glad SHINee covered it.

SHINee nailed the choreography.  They were really great but how could you doubt them even at that age.  They were usually great at their dancing.  I must say this is a complicated choreography and they had to sing on top of that.

Now, the singing part.  It sounded a little weak especially in the chorus.  Onew and Key sounded the best and the rest were ok.  I think Taemin struggled vocally.  Minho did all the rapping and english is not one of his strong skills.  Shinhwa had two advantages, Eric and Andy,  they were fluent in english.  I'm surprised Key didn't rap since his english is better but then again he sang the most.  This would have been an all Key version of Wild Eyes. hahaha.

I'll give props to SHINee for performing Wild Eyes, maybe they should have done T.O.P. instead.  Or maybe they did and I haven't found it yet. =)  I think if SHINee performed Wild Eyes now, it would be a whole lot better.

Here's the SHINee cover of Wild Eyes, uploaded by Josefine Kaiser.

JYJ and SM battle finally ends

photo: mtviggy.com

I'm a little late but good news for all JYJ fans.  JYJ and SM Entertainment legal battle has finally ended on November 27, 2012 after almost 3/1/2 years of fighting.

Seems like both JYJ and SM has agreed to withdraw all their lawsuits against each other. JYJ, whose members are  Kim Jaejong, Park Yoochun, and Kim Junsu,  were the first to initiate the lawsuit, in 2009, citing that they wanted out of their contracts because of the unfair terms.

Since the legal battle started, JYJ had spent most of their time promoting outside of Korea, going between Japan and Korea.  In 2010, they even started having U.S. tours.  Yea!

Now that the legal battle is over, hopefully JYJ can move forward.  Hopefully, we can now see them perform on the music shows like Music Bank and Music Core.  Also, appear on more variety show.  I hope they don't stop the U.S. tours since they can perform on Korean broadcasted shows now, because many of us still have yet to have a chance to see them perform.

Hwaiting JYJ!!

Source/Photo: Allkpop

Post 2012 MAMA

They performed, gave out the Awards and now it's done.  After all the fan voting, what was the result? Let's start out with the positive.

First off, I didn't watch the whole 5 hours show but I did catch some of the ones I wanted to see.  I really enjoyed the performances by SHINee and Super Juniors.  I'm glad SHINee won the Best Dance Group Award but I think overall Super Juniors are a bit better this year.  SHINee should have won last year for Lucifer.  I'm also happy that Kara and Super Junior won for Best Global Group. 

I'm glad some of the groups I like won some of the awards (ie. Super Juniors) but I still have issues of who won the MAMAs.  

My grip?

Based on the online voting, practically most of the groups/singers that won their category did not win the award.  What. Is. With. That. HUH???  The ones that were far ahead in the lead by the online fan voting didn't win the award.  What happened to Shinhwa in Best Artist of the Year? Taeyeon for Best OST?  FTIsland in Best Band?

How the heck did BigBang out win Shinhwa in Artist of the Year? They weren't even close.  Super Junior was in second place.  And if you're going to have a board voting as well, how can you not pick Shinhwa?  In Korea, they are the group that stayed together the longest, 14 years.  The groups that started around their time are no longer around.  They didn't drop or add any new members.  After a 4 year hiatus to fulfill their military duties, they had a wonderful comeback in 2012 with Venus.

Taeyeon for Best OST was ahead by a landslide.  I didn't vote for her but how could she not have won?    Ok, so if FTIsland didn't win for best band, how come CNBlue didn't win?  They were  a close second place.  Busker Busker?  I listened to their song and I still don't understand how they won Best Band.

If the MAMAs are not going to take the fan voting into consideration then why do it in the first place?  All they are going to do if frustrate fans like me who try to vote everyday to help the groups/singers they want to win.  It just looks like they had the judges vote who they want and that was it.

And I must say, from the looks of that evening performances, whoever performed, won that night.  Somehow, for an awards show that's growing, they didn't invite all the nominees to the show.  It looks like they only invited the winners and had them perform, with the few exceptions like Adam Lambert and Roy Kim.  Did anyone see Shinhwa, FTIsland, CNBlue, SNSD or TVXQ there?  I didn't.

Next year....I don't know about participating again in the online voting.  It's so frustrating.