Month End Review: November (Day 103)

November had many solid music videos in it. Some were fun. Some were serious. Some had ridiculous scenes. But which one was the best? Here's the list of music videos shown.

2NE1	Clap Your Hands
2PM	Heartbeat
AA	So Crazy
B2ST/Beast	Breath
Bach	Cello: The Silence Before Bach
David Bisbal	Buleria
David Bisbal	Oye el Boom
David Bisbal	Ave Maria
David Bustamante	Dos Hombres Y Un Destino
David Bustamante	No Soy Un Superman
Fahrenheit	Ai Dao
Girl's Generation	Gee
Gold Miss	Gee
Hangeng	My Logo
Hangeng	Fire
Henry Lau	Baby
MYNAME	Message
Nerd Alert	SCV Love Song
O-zone	Dragostea Din Tai
Rain	Love Song
SHINee	Juliette
SHINee	Replay (Japanese, & Korean parody)
SS501	Single 3rd
Super Junior	Boom Boom
Super Junior	Sorry Sorry
Super Junior	Sorry Sorry
Super Junior	Bonamana
Super Junior	Mr. Simple
Super Junior	A-cha
Super Junior M	Super Girl
Super Junior M	Perfection
U-KISS	"0330"
ZE:A	Heart For 2

Since there were so many good music videos, it is fortunate that some are disqualified for being shown before. These would be No Soy Un Superman, Sorry Sorry, Bonamana, Perfection (oh the bad hats!), A-Cha, and Oy El Boom.

Top marks go to Gold Miss's Gee, David Bisbal, and Ozone's Dragostea Din Tai. This month is a tie between my personal favourite of the month - Gold Miss's Gee - , and the music video that can be watched the most without getting bored - David Bisbal's Ave Maria. Congrats to both.

Misused Christianese (Day 103)

I have an issue with pop groups trying to be sexy and then using Christianese. It may be me being a hypocrite, but it is something that seriously does annoy me.

I have two examples. One is NSYNC's Christmas album and the other is TVXQ's song One Last Cry.

NSYNC. NSYNC is American and therefore anything Christianese will improve their saleability. My biggest issue with the album is the focus on Santa (and love) with the vaguely Christianese statements thrown in (vaguely Christianese statements with messed up theology). For me at Christmas there are two things that don't mix, Santa and Jesus, because only one can be the reason for the season. Therefore, a song about the meaning of the season should not mention Santa...and romance...and God as the reason for the season. Pick one. You can't have all three.

TVXQ. Their song One Last Cry has these lyrics. "A dame and shit and drunk, you came to get it onnnnnn. That's when it all got started (I mean) Back then I wasn't so cold hearted. With every stanza came an extravaganza. For every question he got one less answer. I was tryin' to but the futuro take. Now I Lay me down to sleep (And I) I pray the Lord my soul to keep (If I) If I should die before I wake (Then I) I pray the, let's get on our knee's. Now I Lay me down to sleep (And I) I pray the Lord my soul to keep (If I) If I should die before I wake (Then I) I pray the Lord my soul to take (Follow Me) Now I Lay me down to sleep..." You get the picture. My question is what is this song trying to say? How is it connecting drunken hotel sex to a well known prayer? And why?

For both, it's like they are saying two (or three) different things in one song and trying to connect them because they sound cool, and that's not cool.

Music Video Of The Day: 2PM (Day 102)

Today's music video was randomly selected by my brother as the only K-pop song (other than Super Junior) whose name he knows. Yes, that means 2PM's Heartbeat. Hearbeat by chance, is one of those songs which repeat its name over and over within the song, making its name easy to remember.

2PM's Heartbeat begins with an awkward rewind scene, followed by close up shots of the member's constipated heartbroken faces. If that isn't promising, what is? Then there is the glowing heart and twitching chest, the underwater aquarium of depression, and the zombie dance moves...all within the first minute-thirty. Is there anything that can top this? Maybe the puppet dance? Or the paint brush ponytails? Answer...nope, the first minute-thirty cannot be topped. However, we do get to realize that the whole thing is ridiculous. This is good, because the dance isn't very entertaining. Thank you zombie dance/constipation faces/ponytails for making the music video memorable.

A Short Bit (Day 102)

In the first two weeks of November it snowed. Or rather, it hor frosted, which was really pretty. Then, when we safely thought the snow was permanent. BAM! The southernly winds decided to melt everything, in a sickening couplet of bad roads and grimy road surfaces. Not to be defeated, the snow snowed and snowed and snowed. Everything was covered again. It was really pretty. But those south winds decided to fight back and tried to melt everything again. Oh the snowmen that were built and died. Where is this going you wonder? Well, no where. I just wanted to vent a little at the wonderful weather and bad road conditions that are not allowing me to blog about winter. It would be a lot easier to talk about snow if it were around...like it's supposed to be.

Music Video Of The Day: Super Junior Blitz (Day 100)

Since today is the 100th music video, that means that today is special. Afterall, a randomly selected round number is often used to commemorate(sic) or celebrate things in our lives. Therefore, today is a Super Junior music video blitz. Super Junior is my favourite K-pop group because of their numbers, singing, dancing, and the fact that I know all their names and can connect them to faces. There is no going back once you have memorized all of Super Junior's names and faces. It is just too much work invested. Here's a short word on them all.

Sorry Sorry. The song that started it all...for me.

Bonamana. I totally learned this dance routine.

Mr. Simple. Mostly well done.

A-Cha. The first 15 seconds rock.

Super Girl. The song where we learn that if you are beautiful it is okay to reject people because you deserve someone cool and beautiful. Hangeng also leads this one. Oh yeah.

Perfection. Oddly placed fur costuming. Lame English rap. Fun fun fun.

How To Get Away With Drinking Jello Juice (Day 100)

In my household, the privilege of drinking jello juice (aka, jello before it's jelled) is a great one. I realize that this is far from normal, but so it is. So how does one get the privilege of drinking such a tasty (sugary) and delightful (warm) beverage, when the proper way to serve it is as jello? Easy.

The Steps:
1) Get sick. This may require throwing up.
2) Ask your parent for jello juice.
3) They make it.
4) Drink it. If you leave it for too long, you will end up with jello.

My preference is to drink it out of a glass measuring cup through a straw, but you may prefer a different beverage holder. I also like it when some juice is added to the jello instead of water. It increases both taste and nutrients.

Music Video Of The Day: The Silence Before Bach (Day 101)

And now for something completely different. As some of you may know, the cello is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments. It can be deep and it can be mellow, and it is almost always heart moving.

This clip of Bach's Cello Suits No. 1 The Silence Before Bach is to be appreciated for a number of reasons.

1) The sheer number of cello players

2) The song

3) The camera work. The camera person had

to move soundlessly around all those cellos

and holding posts on a moving subway train,

 while holding the camera steady. Impressive.

Music Video Of The Day: ZE:A (Day 99)

What kind of group makes half a music video? ZE:A, that's who. With Heart For 2, they do everything required to make half a music video. Bad lighting. Check. Only two outfits. Check. No storyline. Check. Only one set. Check. Members becoming flashes of light and changing outfits like power rangers. Check. Actually, that was the best part. I also liked the very emotional grabbing of the heart region, the dancing, and the artsy drawing style scenes. This halfie is a slick piece of work. I wish I could have seen more of it, but a minute and a half will have to do until they come out with another music video. 

Music Video Of The Day: SHINee (Day 98)

Since I missed yesterday, I suppose today would be a good day for a comparison. Thanks to a parody Replay is one of my favourite SHINee songs. Thanks to SM Entertainment (or is it EMI Music Japan?), it was redone in Japanese, when the SHINee boys were mostly legal.

What is there to say about them, other than the Japanese version has really cool winged shoes (and capri's that remind me of Ronald McDonald)? The dance is mostly the same. There is one female lead in both. SHINee are in both. I still can only connect Taemin's name and face (sorry Onew). The biggest difference is that they are trying to be cool now, whereas before they were mostly trying for cute and refreshing. It's probably a good change considering their ages, but I think SHINee is essentially a cutesy group so they need to keep that cutesy edge going.

And here are the contenders... er versions.

This is the parody version...in Korean. 

And this is the Japanese version. Can you see the winged shoes?

Childhood Social Rejection (Day 98)

Today I was witness to one of those childhood dramas (social rejection) that can scar a person for life. It was a little bit scary, because I also had to deal with it and minimalize the damage done. I hope it went well.

This child reminded me of my own childhood traumas. I think everyone has them. For me, my most painful elementary moment was about grade two or three. Two of my friends (Friend 1 and Friend 2) were in Daycare at my house and another one was over (Friend 3). The two Daycare friends (1 and 2) decided to run away from the visiting one (3) and therefore me as well, because I was hanging around with her and couldn't bike fast yet. Whenever one of us caught up to them, they ran away again...and again...and again. The point of this story is that even though now I look back at it and see it as a simple issue, I know that those simple acts of rejection can hurt children deeply, if not for their whole lives. And, now that I think about it, it must have been the most painful for Friend 3, because I wasn't standing by her. I was trying to be accepted by the other two.

Children doing things like that don't know how they could permanently affect another person. That's why I hope the child I saw today wasn't traumatized by social rejection and will eventually forget what happened today. If they can forget it, it usually means that the scar of hurt didn't go deep.

Music Video Of The Day: Bustamante (Day 97)

Today's theme is food, so today's music video is David Bustamante's No Soy Un Superman which features a coke filled kitchen area with island. Is this music video actually a coca-cola commercial in disguise? Who knows, but the amount of junk in his kitchen should not be letting him smile like that in the end. He didn't even finish cleaning it up.
Today, unfortunately, the link didn't want to show up so you will have to click on the link to watch Valemusic's wonderful 90's inspired music video. Here's a live performance instead.

Where I Complain About a Recent Editorial (Day 97)

The editorial page in the newspaper is consistently an interesting page to look over, if only for the political cartoon. This time I decided to read some editorials and was somewhat incensed with one about how price protection on eggs and milk in Canada is bad.

Their points were these: price protection increases the cost of eggs and milk, and is bad for trade.

Yes, price protection is bad for trade because other countries don't like it. On the other hand, many Canadian provinces produce just enough, if not too much, milk and eggs for themselves. Do we need more of these things imported? While I do not think importing these is the real trade issue, the impact that protecting farmers here have on other potential trading is real.

The author of the editorial explains that price protection was used to offer income security to farmers. I am all for income security for small farms. It is good if their revenue can cover their costs. Most people don't know that a milk producing cow produces milk for only about 6 months and has to be bred again before it produces more milk. That means that there are two shifts of cows producing milk over the year (twice as many cows as you imagined). Meanwhile, there are other costs like feed, taking care of non-producing cattle, breeding costs, medication, etc., and the only revenue these farms get to cover these costs is through milk sales.

Small farms can run cleaner and more organically than factory farms, which I fear a price decrease on milk would cause. Small businesses (farms included) provide more new jobs than large companies, so by extension, having many small farms means more agricultural jobs than having few large producers would. Not only that, but I think people get more satisfaction out of successfully doing their own thing which in this case is farming. As for price protection increasing the cost of our milk, the producer gets about 20 cents per cup of output (restaurants charge about $2 for the same). That's about $2.40 per gallon, not including that anything without a blue cow on the side is only 85% milk. I am okay with paying that much (plus plant and grocery store fees) for milk that I trust.

What really got me was the author saying that the only people who would care about price protection going by the wayside would be the 20 000 dairy/poulty farmers of Canada. This person, I think, forgets that farmers deeply affect the areas they live in. Farmers provide employment. Farmers donate with great regularity of both their time and money. Farmers buy stuff in town thereby supporting other employment. The point is, there are far more stake holders in the issue than 20 000 farmers. A decrease in revenue for farmers with a potential accompanied increase in competition hurts all rural agricultural communities, and if the author didn't notice, Canada has a lot of rural.

Music Video Of The Day: Nerd Alert (Day 96)

Due to the amazing and shocking and amazing Starcraft 2/Korean Air commercials that I found today, the theme of today will be Starcraft. You will not be surprised to know that there is a group that has made songs about Starcraft. They go by the name of Nerd Alert, and they sing the classic but slightly racey ballad SCV Love Song, which is about the human Terran units that build stuff in Starcraft. It's very moving, but if you haven't played Starcraft it won't make sense. Apologies.

WHAT? (Day 96)

I was zipping around on Youtube today, or rather, shambling about, when I discovered some videos that blew my mind a little. Have a look see.

WHHAAAAAAATT???????

What they have done here, advertise both Starcraft 2 and Korean Air, would be like advertising Air Canada and Halo....together. How does that even work?

Not only did they succeed in making ads about two totally unrelated topics (like ice cream and penguins would be), but they also managed to make them creepy. Why? I can't even think straight enough about these to analyse it appropriately. All I can do it tell you non-Starcrafters what those species were.

First commercial - A Protoss Dark Templar creeping on a woman in the airport. They can self-cloak so the only problem would be why creep on humans.

Second commercial - A Terran Dropship scaring the local airport control tower man.

Third commercial - A Zerg Hydralisk on the airplane. That guy had a reason to freak out. Zerg are not nice.

Word of the Week (Day 94)

Since words are so much fun, we're back to Webster's Third New International Dictionary and Seven Language Dictionary Unabridged: Volume 1. Today's randomly selected word is "dissuade".

"Dissuade. 1.a.To advise or exhort against b. to advise a person against something. 2. to divert by advise or persuasion."
The rest of the definition is examples taken out of book quotes from H.E.Scudder, Theodore Dreiser, Jane Austen, and H.G.Wells.

Phrases to use: "Let me dissuade you on this...", "Shall I dissuade them for you?", or "I dissuaded them."

Music Video Of The Day: SHINee? (Day 94)

Continuing on with SHINee, I recently found this parody that they participated in. Gold Miss parodied  Girl's Generation's song Gee. Gotta say, I'm impressed by Gold Miss. Their parodies are well done, and they themselves are probably over 10 years older than the original performers which makes them more funny.

One of my favourite parts is how Gold Miss used this as an opportunity to pose with and fake marry members of SHINee (of whom only one would have been legal). That's not even mentioning the fake baby scene.

Included is the original Girl's Generation song for comparison. Enjoy.

Music Video Of The Day (Day 95)

Today's music video is chosen because it was on the list. The Excel spreadsheet list. It was also chosen because it is ridiculous. Never before had I seen random shirt lifting and body waving to a sad slow song... or creepy bed hovering in a non-funny way (because SS501 and ZE:A both do creepy bed hovering in a funny way). And that's not even mentioning the glitter muscle outfit and absurd amounts of sweaty lack of shirt. So ridiculous. So here it is, Rain's Love Song.

Music Video Of The Day: Juliette (Day 93)

I realized that SM Entertainment's SHINee hasn't made an appearance for awhile. Because their songs are so...light and fluffy, they deserve to be watched too. Here's SHINee's Juliette.

Just some things to consider. 1. I watched SHINee's music video Oxygen while considering what SHINee to show and have concluded that they were originally an ode to Michael Jackson. Oh, the 80's pop vibe. 2. Yes, that is a Detroit Red Wings shirt. 3. They made a good effort, but have long fur fringes ever looked good?

Minus Temperatures (Day 105)

While the weather has been having technical difficulties, I kept on wanting to post about this, but it didn't suit because of the positive temperatures.

Basically, I think, from Nov 30 until the end of March people should be able to refer to the temperature without the "minus". As in, "It was four outside today", meaning minus four. My reason for this is 1) because it's easier and 2) because we alllllll know that winter in Manitoba is minus temperatures exclusively (or at least it's supposed to be). Thus, even without the minus we should know that it is minus. If, in a freak weather pattern positive temperatures did happen we can call them "positive temperatures". This would save us time and effort. And, if we could agree on it, it would actually work.

Here is some early November hor frost pretty winter conditions for further explanation. Does this look like the "minus" needs to be added in for definition? No. No it does not. It looks like winter, that's what.

Music Video Of The Day: Ave Maria (Day 92)

David Bisbal's Ave Maria. My second favourite David Bisbal song. It's cheeky, but David Bisbal is so irresistable in it. The spins! The kicks! The hip movement! It's only defeated by the Operacion Triunfo performance of Dimelo where he catches a pair of underwear out of mid-air and scrunches them into his back pocket with barely a ripple in the performance. I watched that thing three times before I even noticed it. Anyway, the point is that David Bisbal's Ave Maria is a fun and ridiculous music video that contains all the spinning, kicking, and random clapping that one could desire out of a David Bisbal music video...plus it's a good summery song to wisk the winter blues away.

Getting Along With The Neighbours (Day 92)

Welcome. There are two things to comment on today, one being Beiber going for that paternity test and the other being someone's search terms. I hope that those aren't supposed to be a secret because I found this one curious.

Bieber. Yes, I did spell it Beiber just over there, but that's no matter. A week or two ago I commented on Bieber's new baby scandal. His lawyers, upon Bieber being accused of siring a child, said that they would deal with it in court. I said that he should just go for the paternity test already. Then millions of mildly interested people can find out if this child really is or is not Bieber's baby. Well, according to today's newspaper, he is going for that paternity test and there will be no court proceedings. Yay Bieber. Way to downplay the issue and deal with it concretely. Also, good job on giving various personal items to charity just after your scandal. That's good publicity.

 Search terms. In Blogger stats, if someone used a search term to find your blog, they inform you what it was. I got one yesterday that said, "pleated skirt blogspot". Personally, I'm kind of proud that someone who was looking for a blog about pleated skirts would look at my blog, but then again, why would they bother when my blog didn't have them? Also, one has to be pretty tech-savvy to think of looking up pleated skirts on a blog. What's the point of this? Nothing I guess. I just found it fascinating.

Music Video Of The Day: 0330 (Day 91)

Almost every boy group has a high school uniform music video. Super Junior has one. B2ST has one. 2AM has one. And now U-KISS has one. U-KISS's does have some things that the others don't though. It has a tortured piano (Think of the varnish! The mechanisms! That poor piano.), guys shimying (I clearly don't know how to spell this), and, is that Seoul's skyline? Indeed. The camera work is very nice on this one.
Here's 0330.

Monday Review: Tunnel in the Sky (Day 101)

When I told an engineering friend that I had Robert A. Heinlein's Tunnel In The Sky sitting around my room waiting to be read, he told me to read it right away. He was right, I should have read it right away.

Once I started it, I read Tunnel In The Sky in a period of less than 12 hours. Sure it's only about 214 pages long, but that means that it was interesting enough to read the whole way through.

Plot: Things go wrong on an absurd off-world survival test. Things are killed. Teenage romances occur...ish. There is mention of paper. Tiny mutant rabbits viciously attack an encampment. There are no poop jokes.
Characters: Likeable. A lot of them were two-dimensional, but nicely two-dimensional. There were several strong female characters as well.
Action: Several fights occur. Nothing naughty occurs. A lot of the suspense is political/survival related.
Ending: Agrivating yet not. I could have read more, but it is tied up pretty well in a semi-unexpected way.
Antagonist: There doesn't need to be one because the enemy is death/chaos/anarchy/alien animals.

I can't really describe it without giving away too much of the storyline. Thus, I should just say that it is incredibly well written sci-fi from the 50's. It is inventive (although the planet names sound like they were used by all 50's sci-fi writers), works with its different phases of story development well, has remarkably little sexism (especially for the 50's. I've read 80's books that were more sexist.), and has a constant edge of uncertainty that keeps the reader's interest the whole way through. Basically, it is a compelling and well written story about maintaining humanity in a dire situation.

I give Robert A. Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky a 4 out of 5.

Music Video of The Day: Clap Your Hands (Day 90)

It's about time for 2NE1 again. This time we meet them on the forest moon of Endor. Well...maybe not, but it sure looks like an homage. Clap Your Hands has three main sets, one being Endor complete with floating Ewok chair. I especially like the costumes in this music video because they prove that female groups can look good in non-skanky clothes. I also enjoyed the choreographed dance as one of 2NE1's best. It was dynamic because there was alot of movement, up and down and in circles and backward and forward.

Adventures With My Car (Day 90)

My car being old, I have many adventures with it. Just this week I took it in for an (overdue) oil change and an anti-freeze leak fix. When I got a call back from the garage they told me that I shouldn't drive my car even 15 KM or it will overheat. In fact, they said, "Don't drive your car. We can fix it on Friday. Do you want to leave it here?" I complied since I don't want my car to die, but it made me think. What fun posts could I put up on Facebook about this? "My baby's in the hospital getting a gasget(sic) fixed." "I won't see my baby for a week." Etc. Etc. What kind of scandal could I cause for a day. Turns out none, since I didn't post about it, but who knows about next time.

Monday Review: Shotgun Love (Day 95)

Instead of finishing Personal Taste, as my cousin has been urging me to do, this week I watched the movie Shotgun Love. I found it to be well done. The characters were believable at all stages of their development and the plotline had variety.
The plotline went something like this: Man who eats food for living is star struck by co-worker, but the co-worker already has a lover. When she gets pregnant her lover says "Get rid of it. Me me me me." and she says goodbye to the guy. She and the man who eats food have a misunderstanding and she uses it to convince him to marry her so that she won't be a social outcast for her entire life due to her unborn child. Funny things ensue. People fall in love. People try to break them up. Sad things happen. Baby is born. Story ends. La Cucaracha is used as a credits song.

I enjoyed the movie a lot. It had humour. It had heart wrenching parts. It had relational drama. It made you like the characters after showing their unnattractive sides. And, as a fan of poop jokes, I was pleasantly surprised by an amazing yet gross poop joke.

I give the movie 3.5 stars out of 5. I really enjoyed it while I was watching it, but it's not one that I would readily rewatch. The joy is in watching the emotional drama unfold so once you've seen it there isn't really a desire to see it again. Well... maybe the poop joke could use some more watching. So good.

Music Video of The Day: Sorry Sorry (Day 89)

Super Junior's most famous song, which according to lore every South Korean knows the dance to, is Sorry Sorry. It was the first Super Junior music video I saw and led to my Super Junior fandom. Sorry Sorry was for me the peak point in Super Junior's career because they; still had Hangeng still had all 13 members, they all look good had good stylists, became very very famous, and made a lot of fun songs. When you watch this, skip the first 14 seconds though. I felt like it detracted from the music video. Enjoy.

Review Day: Thumbelina's On The Road (Day 89)

This morning small children invaded my house and at one point started to watch Thumbelina. I had forgotten that there were Spanish toads. Creepy kidnapper Spanish toads that in a feat of amazingness are convincingly Spanish. At least the speaking part anyway. They, in the storyline, want Thumbelina marry the grumpy son and sing, making them rich, and thus must convince her not to marry Prince Cornelius(what an amazing name). Here is their song of convincingness, On The Road.

Spanishness: 1) They use real Spanish words. 2) Their accents are believable most of the time 3) Happy impulsiveness which reminded me of Spain 4) I think they tried to make Mama Toad look and act like a flamenco dancer. She has big hair, a dotted "dress", and does salsa/flamenco dance moves.
Song: Fast and fun. "You're not a toad, but that's what make-up's for", "You're in the union, yes?"
Dance: It had a dance. As cartoons go, it was pretty good.
The 'Why' Factor: Mama Toad has scary scary circle boobs, a dress that does not cover what it is intended for, and huge feet. Why? The clown toad is also super creepy and has a 'stache. 

Other than that these are evil(creepy) toads intending to make Thumbelina their pawn, this song is probably my second favourite song of the movie. I give it a 3.5 our of 5.

Music Video of The Day: Hangeng's Fire (Day 88)

Thanks to Youtube's suggestions, today you get to watch Hangeng's Fire. Once again, I have no idea what his production team was thinking, but I find the zombie kitty Thriller dance entertaining. It is supposed to be a serious song about his experiences though, so I suppose laughing at the dance/costumes is not nice. I'm a bad fan to be laughing at him.

Music Video of the Day: 'Boom' (Day 87)

This may not match the theme of the day, but I had the idea to compare these two songs last week as I changed my tires for winter, and I think it's time they got compared.

These two songs are about the same thing. The hearts of the men go 'boom boom' when the woman they like passes by. One song is in Spanish and is from about 2004. The other song is in Korean and is from 2010. They are Oye el Boom by David Bisbal and Boom Boom by Super Junior. For fair comparison, both will be shown in the live version format.

Oye el Boom
Artist: David Bisbal (db)
Singing: Good. David Bisbal can sing well. Fact.
Dancing: Check. Mostly back-up dancers, but db does a spin/kick/drop at the end which rocks. They clearly tried to make this performance sexy.
Costumes: Tight pants, open shirt, and cross necklace. Classic David Bisbal. Back-up dancers in db logo clothes. Nice.
Random Fact: According to the comments one of the back-up singers is an algebra teacher.
Overall Performance: Pretty smooth over all. I cared more about the music than the dancing though.

Boom Boom

Artist: Super Junior

Singing: Mediocre. Since they also dance while singing this can often be forgiven.

Dancing: Check. Since Super Junior is part dance crew, part singing group I would have liked to have seen cleaner/slicker dance moves so it was a little disappointing. Also, their dance moves looked like butt slapping and Eunhyuk does a mini strip-tease at the end. Why? On the positive end, the best dancing occurs during Eunhyuk's rap while the top dancers danced alone.

Costumes: Mostly fine. They look like the Bonamana(same album) costumes.

Random Fact: Whenever I hear "Twinkle twinkle little star" I think of this song.

Overall Performance: Okay. I liked the freeze posing at the beginning and the rest, while not bad, was not fantastic, as I have begun to expect from Super Junior. 

Based on those considerations, David Bisbal should win. However, I declare it a tie. There were things in both to like and dislike. I disliked the swearing in Boom Boom and the tiny skirts in Oye el Boom while I like David Bisbal's spins/jumps and Super Junior's togetherness. You may choose to disagree.

A Little Bit (Day 87)

Yesterday was Canadian Remembrance Day. Stevie of the blog Life is Too Short to Learn German wrote about it being Remembrance Day. I especially liked her last comment, "this [Remembrance Day] is an important day and I propose we use it to remember the horrors of war, the people who died senselessly and remember that we must do all we can to make/ keep peace in the future."  Isn't the point of remembering war to both honour the people who protected our/other's rights/lives and to remind ourselves to avoid war? Isn't learning history about learning from past mistakes?

Thanks Stevie for making such an astute comment.

The only other thing I'd like to voice is concern for where views of my blog have been coming from recently. Based on the traffic source names it sounds like revolutionists are using my blog as proof that capitalism is bad. I think a lot of people can agree that capitalism has its faults, but so does every other market system. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but thus it is.

Pretentious Word of the Day (Day 86)

Since I have given myself the task of trying to blog every day yet have no topics ready to discuss, let's talk about being pretentious. Sometimes people can be pretentious to you. One way to ward them off is to pretend to be pretentious yourself. Other than filling your house with hardcover classics that have tea stains on them, a good way of being pretentious is to use big words that no one else uses.

Our word today comes from Webster's Third New International Dictionary (and Seven Language Dictionary): Unabridged, Volume I, which was published in 1966 by G. & C. Merriam Co. Volume I contains the letters A-G. I have randomly selected a word from within and it is 'cabildo'. 'Cabildo' is either; "the chapter house of a cathedral or collegiate church", or "a town council or town hall in a country that was formerly a Spanish colony". I might use it like this in conversation: "I was in the cabildo the other day when I saw....(fill in with something worth talking about)." Why don't you go ahead and try it out? See what ways you can think of to talk about a cabildo. Have fun.

Music Video of The Day: Message (Day 85)

Today I was zipping around Youtube when I stumbled across a group that goes by the name of, drum roll please, ............. MYNAME. I for one hope that it's an acronym or means something in another language because in English it sounds... redundant. They are a rookie group with Leon Entertainment and I think that they have a chance of making it big. Their sets, their dance, the camera work, are all solid. Leon Entertainment clearly invested money in them and I think that they'll get a good return. I have minor questions about their costumes (like for example, are the pants tight enough yet? Is that guy wearing a garter? Is that a pair of sleeves on a guy?), but this is a good first attempt from a rookie group. I think the breakdancing moves will help differentiate them. Here's Message by MYNAME.

Words That Aren't Words: Shambled (Day 85)

I think I should confess something. That dreaded and most overused word, 'shambled', is a real word and I found out about it several weeks ago and didn't tell you.

You may want some background on the word 'shambled'. My old D&D DM (the guy who runs Dungeons and Dragons for the group playing) used this word over and over...and over...and over again, as if it were the only word he knew to describe menacing but slow (and/or fast) movement. Plus it's not a verb! He used it for zombies, and wolves, and ogres. If anyone 'shambles', it's zombies. I don't think anybody else does. The point is, 'shambled' is about the most annoying word this year, and it shouldn't be real. I thought it was a made up/misappropriated word.

Turns out I was wrong. I was listening to someone read Tolkien's The Hobbit at work the other week when, to my great shock and horror, Tolkien used the word 'shambled' AS A VERB! The conflict was then obvious. If Tolkien, a great fantasy writer of the 20th century, used shambled, then it must be a word. A real word. But it's not a word. It's hijacking "in shambles", as in a 'state of ruin/falling apart', and using it to describe shaky movement. However, Tolkien used it.

I have to concede now, because of Tolkien, that 'shambled' is a word. I am however, not planning on telling my D&D group that. Maybe they won't find out. 

Music Video of The Day: O-zone (Day 84)

In honour of my first Romanian reader, here is O-Zone's Dragostea Din Tei, better known in Canada as Numa Numa. This song was so cool during my graduating year, and, having just watched the music video I understand why. O-zone could compete with David Bisbal for random cheesiness. They'd loose of course, but they could still compete. I especially enjoyed their strutting through the airplane and the random cartoons they transformed out of. Good job guys.

Music Video of The Day: AA (Day 86)

Once again I was 'zipping' around on Youtube when I found a group that I had never heard of. This time it was AA with a music video that came out yesterday. Once again Leon Entertainment is the parent company. Once again the production quality is tops. This is leading me to believe that Leon Entertainment is going to be a contender in the K-pop big leagues. They'll get to face off against SM, YG, JYP, and Cube for producing top groups.

Currently AA doesn't impress me too much. Their dancing is not very interesting, although it may prove to be their differentiating aspect since it is "sexy"/girl groupy and no other male group has done that mix yet. It also confused me as to why a stylist would give someone the opposite of Leeteuk's Mr. Simple photoshoot hair on purpose. If it didn't look good the one way, it won't look good the other way. On the other hand, there are some intriguing costumes (and a spine necklace). I think that they have potential so we'll see where they end up. Here's AA's Crazy.

Music Video of The Day: Hangeng and Fahrenheit (Day 83)

In honour of today's topic, My Kingdom, here are two music videos. One from Hangeng's solo career, and one from Wu Chun's boyband Fahrenheit.

Unfortunately, Hangeng's solo career music videos are usually a let down after watching him in Super Junior. He can dance and we all know it, but his solo career displays very little of that. On the positive end of things, the female back-up dancer isn't just relegated to the sexy moves in My Logo. She gets to do the normal choreography too. Yay!

Fahrenheit is a four member Taiwanese boyband. The interesting thing about them is that every member has at least a bachelor's degree and at least one has a masters degree. You are thinking they must be old. Indeed, for a boyband they started late. The members' ages float around the 30 year mark and the group started up only about five years ago. Wu Chun, a star in My Kingdom, is the one that doesn't smile. Here's Ai Dao by Fahrenheit.

Music Video of The Day: Beast (Day 82)

B2ST/Beast. Song: Breath. There's not much to say about this music video. I like this song. Sadly, the beginning and end are not very interesting. The dance is pretty good though, especially just after 0:47. The costumes remind me of a mix of Stargate SG-1goau'lds and a computer chip. That said, I like them. Stargate has a soft spot in my heart. Enjoy.

Review: My Kingdom (Day 83)

My Kingdom opened in theatres on September 12, 2011 with a name that didn't give a hint as to the plot line. The plot line is...a shamed master opera warrior's protege's go to Shanghai to reclaim their master's honour and things happen from there. I would never have imagined that that would be the plot line. Opera warriors.

The protege's (Hangeng and Wu Chun) go to Shanghai to opera duel the man (bad guy) who defeated their master.  Hangeng and Wu Chun have an epic martial arts fight on the opera stage with said bad guy, with hundreds of people watching...in costumes. They win and instantly get high paid careers as opera stars. Hangeng is interested in the female lead (Barbie Hsu) right away. Wu Chun goes after married ladies instead. Hangeng decides that now he has a high paid career, he can seek revenge on the prince regent for the slaughter of his entire family. Thus, he goes off and assassinates people. But wait! The police suspect who is doing the assasinations and try unsuccessfully to capture him. He then discovers that Wu Chun, his childhood friend and 'brother' is the prince regent's son and thus must die. Wu Chun also knows this and they are both very sad until they have an epic fight (Two popstars in a sweet action scene. Didn't expect that.) where Hangeng cripples Wu Chun. Wu Chun disappears from the story. Hangeng creeps on Barbie and finds out that she had an affair with the bad guy that he and his 'brother' dispatched so long ago. She attacks him with some scimitars and then they do the implied nasty. This leads to my least favourite part of the movie. Cue naked chested sweaty Hangeng (EEEEEWWWWWWW!). "I love you". And then she's all like, 'Oh there there. Shush. Don't speak.' The next day he retires so that he can marry her but she tells him to forget it and, GASP, he has been poisoned so he looses his voice. Thus he and Wu Chun are reunited and go off on a train together reflecting on the bad decisions they made in life...or not reflecting on them. Either way.

The good things.

The fights in this movie were mostly spectacular. The costuming was good, the choreography solid, and the general tone dynamic. Everyone involved could act and you believed that they wanted to hurt/not hurt each other.

The movie was intriguing. I had never heard of opera warriors and still question their historicalness (not a real word), but the concept is cool. A martial artist who sings and dances upon the stage. Cool!

Although though the pacing went from slow to fast and back again I don't ever remember being bored. The plotline was intriguing with its various twists and turns and focuses.

Even though Hangeng was very handsome and lovely to look upon, Wu Chun was even more attractive. The movie even succeeded at making them look related.

And the not so good (bad) things.

The movie was depressing. Most of the plot points weren't sad, but the intensity of the storyline/acting/scenes made the movie almost overwhelming and thus depressing.

Implied naked sweaty Hangeng. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. That was one scene I didn't want to see, and it is stuck in my head tormenting me.

I give this movie a 3.75 out of 5. It's not quite a 4, but it's better than 3.5 and I'd definitely watch it again, as long as I could skip the half naked Hangeng part.

How To Change Clothes' Colour: Part 1 (Day 82)

How to Make Your Clothes Turn Blue

Have you ever wanted all your clothes to be blue? While I know that I haven't, it is possible for clothes to be bluified.

The Steps.

Step 1: Do your laundry in Germany
Step 2: Do lots of laundry in Germany. It could take awhile.
Step 3: Randomly have a wash load be turned blue

This method is rather hit or miss, although it does work (It happened to my cousin...and then someone else the next year). It might just be easier to wash your clothes with lots and lots of new jeans/new blue cloth.

Music Video of The Day: Buleria (Day 81)

To continue the David cheesefest, here is David Bisbal's Buleria. There is a lot of stories for me that revolve around this song. First, it was my first David Bisbal song. Then, four years later, it was my first David Bisbal music video. People broke their wrists trying to dance like this song. People thought about poisonous beets because of this song. People went to concerts in foreign countries because of this song. It's got history.

Please note the dance fight (epic), and the yelling in the rain, as these are the best parts. The Romeo and Juliet theme is also kind of fun too, although there is rather a lot of romantically rolling around.

Adventures in Car Fixing (Day 81)

First things first. Hangeng's movie, My Kingdom, was posted on Dramacrazy today. This is good news for me, who didn't get to see it in theatres since no local theatre had it. Plans for this evening include watching My Kingdom and thinking about how handsome Hangeng is.

Now unto business. I have an old car. It's 25 years old and still kicking...make that rolling. Last year at some time, I lost one of my mud flaps. Then, leaving a friend's house, I backed up a little too close to a rock garden. Pop! Off came another mud flap...on the same side of the car. To make my car even more ridiculous than having only one side of the car have mud flaps, another flap decided to slip off of one of its screws. Now it dangles sideways at a funny angle. So that means I had one good mud flap, and so it is  until today.

I am a little slow at car repair. Thus the one year without mud flaps. Tonight, I had finally collected two mud flaps, and marked where to drill holes in them. I went into the garage to scout out where a drill was. Aha! I found one. Didn't know how to change the bit. Aha! I found another one. I changed the bit and loaded my new mud flaps into a vice...because there wasn't something horizontal to work with. Drill. Drill. Drill. "Argh! Why won't it drill?" thought I. Then I had an idea. I put a piece of wood behind the mud flaps. It worked. I drilled and drilled and drilled and went out to put the flaps on my car. And they didn't fit. For the one wheel well the holes were wrong but for the other...there wasn't even a place to put it. One hole had a rusty screw in it and the other hole was EXPLODED OPEN!!!!! How am I supposed to screw a mud flap into a hole that is 1) huge and 2) has jagged explody edges.

Needless to say, my car sits as it did before, with one mud flap and a half, hanging wildly off at an angle. It's a pretty stellar car though. I will try to work on my mud flap situation...a little later.

Celebrity Gossip (Day 80)

Celebrity gossip, like politics, seems to be one of those things that are almost always mildly interesting and  on rare occassion, are very interesting. This week's celebrity gossip is all about Kim K.'s divorce and now...Justin Bieber's alleged baby.

Now, most of us who aren't having our careers threatened by a potential 'Oops Child' are sitting back at home going, "Get a paternity test dude. If you didn't do it, get the paternity test already. Fastest way to prove that you're innocent... if you indeed are..." I was infact thinking these things when I heard about Bieb's situation on the radio. When I went to read the tidbit on it in the newspaper it was all about his accuser is 20 and they, the Bieber reps, are going to fight the allegations. I thought the part where it would be easiest to do a paternity test was missing a little bit there. Then I looked at the next page. There, in big letters was, "Get a lawyer; make sure it's his kid", compliments of Miss Lonelyhearts. Thank you Miss Lonelyhearts.

The only thing better than Miss Lonelyhearts 'telling' Bieber what to do was Mom's reaction to the situation. "Oh look," she said,"there's a picture of the mother on the front page." I, curious, looked for said picture and was forced to reply, "Mom. That's Justin Bieber." If life were a tabloid, it would use this situation to say "Justin Bieber mother to his own child". Life isn't a tabloid though, and Bieber's career is going to take a hit no matter what the truth is. So is his personal life for that matter. We'll see how this turns out.

Music Video of The Day: Bustamante and Baby (Day 80)

Because today's number, 80, is divisible by two, today is a double whammy. Not only do you get to watch the super cheese music video Dos Hombres y Un Destino, you also get to see Henry Lau.

Dos Hombres y Un Destino is sung by David Bustamante. He won Operacion Triumphe, but I think he ultimately lost to David Bisbal, maybe because David Bisbal is better at dancing. In Dos Hombres, he sings with another Operacion Triumphe. The fight over this woman who they both want to do naughty things with. She I think just wants to do naughty things with both of them. Thus said, this ones not really for children. This one is the short version.

Also, speaking of naughty, Justin Bieber is currently having to contend with the young woman accusing him of siring her child. Justin Bieber is going to loose a lot of fans over this, whether it's true or not. Thus, in honour of the situation, here's Henry Lau's transposed (and better) version of Baby.

Music Video of The Day: SS501 (Day 79)

It may or may not surprise you to learn that I keep an Excel file on which music videos I've posted. It includes ideas for future posts, and in that list is David Bustamante's Dos Hombres Y Un Destino. Have no fear Stevie, David Bustamante will be there, but for now it is SS501. I decided on this music video yesterday. It is cheesy and weird, but I enjoy the way all the members of SS501 get rejected by one woman.

One thing to note is that most of the situations shown don't make sense. Why is that car parked on a colourful curb? Why is he twirling his tie? Why did she wake up if she was unconcious? Why is he reacting like that? Why is he sleeping on the floor? Are they allowed to show people imbibing during prime time? Why is one of the dance moves touching their bums and wiggling them?

Maybe these questions can become your questions. Here's "Single 3rd" by SS501.

Comic-con: The Super Compact Version (Day 79)

So you are clearly wondering what Comic-con was like, since you read my blog on Saturday. Here's my review.

Good Stuff: Costumes, costumes, costumes. Seeing Kevin Sorbo pose for pictures with people. Watching random amateur wrestling. Chasing a giant dwarf through the crowd. First centaur costume I've ever seen. Miniature dalek costume. Not getting bored because there was too much to do in too little time. Three Batmans beating up one Joker.

Bad Stuff: Long line-ups for food. Getting scared of talking to celebrities. Ended too quickly. Long costume contest in a cold room. ATMs ran out of money, so what cash you brought was what you had.

Random Stuff: Amateur wrestling...at a comic convention. As in comic books, and games, and comic book art, and comic book costumes comic convention. Where does the amateur wrestling come in?

That's not very coherent, but it was a good time. I stood there with three other women discussing if we could share the cost of taking a photo with Kevin Sorbo, 15 feet away from Kevin Sorbo. We didn't, but it strikes me as interesting that the four of us, with different t.v. tastes, should all want a photo with the fellow. Evidently he is one of those super likeable celebrities.

Music Video of The Day: Month End Review (Day 78)

Here it is again! Month End Review. When I get to remember the randomly selected music videos I posted through the last month. Here's the list.
 

2NE1	I Don't Care
Arrogant Worms	The Last Saskatchewan Pirate
B2ST/Beast	Bad Girl
Beyonce	Love On Top
BoA	Bump Bump
Boyfriend	Don't Touch My Girl
Buck	Truth and Life
David Bisbal	Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
David Bisbal	Oye El Boom (Japanese version)
David Bisbal	Como Olvidar
DBSK/TVXQ	Wrong Number
G-Dragon	Heartbreaker
ILHC	lindy finals 2010
Infinite	Be Mine
Infinite	Paradise
Infinite	Nothing's Over
Lady Gaga & Tony Bennet	The Lady is a Tramp
LPG	I'm Sorry I'm A Noona
Mother Mother	The Stand
SHINee	Ring Ding Dong
Spoken	Falling Further
SS501	Love Ya
SS501	Ur Man
SS501	Love Like This
Super Junior	Mr. Simple
Super Junior	Bonamana
Super Junior	Pajama Party
ZE:A	Mazeltov

Ah, what a wild and crazy month.
Disqualified for being shown before are; ZE:A's Mazeltov, Super Junior's Mr. Simple, Beast's Bad Girl, TVXQ's Wrong Number, and 2NE1's I Don't Care. I mention them because they would definitely put up some competition if they were in the running. However, they already had their chance.
While Infinite's Paradise is a very nice song to listen to, the music video includes no dancing and no cheesy funny parts. David Bisbal's The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore is the same boat, having neither dancing nor funny parts. Therefore, SS501's Love Ya will go head to head with David Bisbal's Como Olvidar. Here goes.

 ...Or not. I searched and searched for Como Olvidar and found all of David Bisbal's videos except that one. Here's The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore in its stead.

I think David Bisbal wins, even though his music video is being difficult. He is the super cheese, with the bad chase scenes, the fight scenes, the Charlie's Angels scene, the jumping into a pool at a dance party scenes, etc., etc. His cheese just barely won though. SS501 pulled out their sexy in a good way for Love Ya, and even managed to look cool in suits that have back ventilation. That's tough competition for cheese with little dancing. Good job to both David Bisbal and SS501.