Another end to another glorious 3-day weekend!
Another 3-day weekend has come to an end. What did I do? Absolutely nothing! I guess that’s what the weekends were meant for…I have a nagging suspicion that that’s not quite the case but I’m just going to let it slide :p
Well, I didn’t do ABSOLUTELY nothing 
I spent these glorious 3 days trying to read Fei Xiatong (Chinese sociologist) and his book on peasant life in China. Along with that, Hansen and I were trying our best to become friends, yet again (Chinese history)! Somewhere down the line, I believe I did try to sound out some Mandarin pronunciations to my friend who was practicing her Japanese! Very productive indeed…ahem.
Protect the Boss was back with Episode 5 and 6!!! Yay. It’s getting gooood. So for those who haven’t watched it yet and who do follow K-Drama’s then I recommend this one for you! But this is coming from the one who hasn’t watched such classics like Autumn In My Heart or Full House etc. Instead, I watched such ‘wholesome’ and ‘nurturing’ movies like June’s Diary and one where a woman dies in the trunk of a car with her married lover after miscarrying…inside the trunk of the car….Yah…..Hmmm….I also don’t know what to say, I seem to be blessed and cursed when it comes to movies. Sighhhh.
Yesterday was Janmashtami, a festival celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna. Since my flatmate and I are both Christian, we didn’t know exactly what to celebrate as we sat down to have our meal of very oily but ‘oh so good’ macaroni with cheese. Then a ‘lightbulb’ moment came for my friend and she suggested for our ‘Janmashtami’, we should make it a celebration of being able to ‘feast’ despite being in actual poverty! LMAO!!! So I thought, ‘right on’! and we feasted. 
So to the rest of India, let’s get started with our Tuesday blues!
Appreciation….
I told my friend I was going to do this and I feel it’s only right since she probably is THE number one fan of DBSK in India! Lol. Also the number one fan of JYJ in India! Double Lol.
Before the global fan community begins thrashing us, we couldn’t care less about the internal politics of whatever is going on with this group and their management. This is a post purely dedicated to the MUSIC and an appreciation to my friend for introducing their music to me. So there!
I have to say, I knew about Big Bang long before I had heard about DBSK. Lol. But a year back I realized the first ever Korean music video/footage I had seen was of DBSK performing Rising Sun on some MNet show/awards ceremony! Go figure. So technically, my interest in Korean music happened to have started with DBSK and I just didn’t know it! Lol. Still love Big Bang though…
I was pretty clueless about what exactly was happening with the band and their contractual issues with their company. I’m just glad that both groups (DBSK and JYJ) are continuing doing what they do best and that is making music. It is never a happy moment when something comes to an end or is forced to come to an end. I happily tagged along with my friend as she went down the path of a good, highly objective, fan girl who kept filling me in on what was now happening with the group and what would be the fate of JYJ :p
I was listening to a few songs from JYJ’s first English feature album, The Beginning and the more I kept listening, the more I started realizing that I kind of quite like their music! Lol. They really should have been given far more credit for the work and quality of the music that they produced and that too in another language! Except for ‘Hey Girl’ (which is still a terrific song but needs some reworking), I love ‘Be My Girl’ and ‘Empty’. Probably ‘Empty’ would be my fave. Then TVXQ came out with ‘Keep Your Head Down’ and the music was just awesome! Gave me goosebumps and made me feel like I was getting ready for something big. So, they both ended up coming out with some great music.
I guess, in the end, what I’m trying to say is that I was wrong about them. They are truly, indeed, five incredibly talented young men. As a group, they were magic and you have to see some of their live performances to see what I’m talking about. Sometimes Westerners don’t get East Asian music especially K-pop, J-pop and J-rock but likewise, plenty of Asians don’t get Western music either! So we can agree to disagree if you like. But whether you’re East Asian, American, European, South East Asian, African, South Asian etc. one thing we can all agree to is that music, regardless of language, genre and style, touches us in more powerful ways than race, religion or politics can.
My friend has an incredible collection of photos of DBSK that she painstakingly collected and compiled into a really awesome blog. The link to it is here under ‘My Inner Sanctum’ and is the one entitled ‘TohoPhotoDom’. Please check it out. Here’s the link to make it easier: http://tohoshinkiphotodom.blogspot.com/. As for what is happening with all the members, that, I will leave to my esteemed friend to fill me in on. All I know is Yoochun was in a Drama entitled Miss Ripley which is so good that you’re going to hate the female protagonist! Lol. Jaejoong is also currently in a Drama entitled ‘Protect the Boss’ and his character is, to say the least, very suave, not all that saintly but incredible to watch. The show, in itself, is a great show. A lot of laughs!
P.S.- Yes, the costumes are strange but before you jump to judge, ahem, do the words Lady Gaga and Madonna ring a bell? Thank you.
I’m putting up a video of one of their songs. This song brought them to my attention properly and I fell in love with this song. Still gives me goosebumps. It’s called ‘Why Did I Fall In Love With You’. It’s in Japanese. Yes you read correctly, these boys are trilingual and very fluent in all three, Korean, Japanese and Chinese! So the song is called ‘Doushite…’ (has a longer title but unfortunately do not remember it) and the video is their live performance.
