This weeks TL;DR is quite the gossip mill question…let’s all gather around the water cooler (or the Coway Water Dispenser) and talk about Simon and Martina fighting over stuff! OOOMMMGG!!! Last week, they, like…totally…disagreed about…that song…and Simon was like…”Ducky, you’re the best” but I could sense sarcasm hiding under that comment of…affection. *cough* Alright, so we don’t fight. It’s not like we don’t have disagreements. Of course we do, but we don’t do that whole dramatic yelling and fighting and rushing out of the room in tears and stuff. When we disagree with each other, we both maintain the perspective that we don’t want to be fighting, so we try to come to a middle ground or understanding as soon as possible.

The biggest disagreements we have are over creative differences since we both have different perspectives on scripting ideas for our movies. When that happens we argue like coworkers rather than as a couple. At first, it was something we had to discuss so that we knew we weren’t attacking the person personally as a wife/husband, but just as one co-worker being critiqued by another co-worker. It wasn’t easy, at first, because it’s a confusing and bizarre position that we’re in, but we’re used to it now…kinda!

If you’re having problems with fighting, we both read some awesome books on how to discuss things without causing people to feel offended, either close up, and/or explode. Here are the little tips we have!

1. Never use superlatives such as “always,” “forever,” “every time,” “never,” “constantly,” “not once,” etc. For example, if you are angry and you tell someone that “they are ALWAYS late” they will feel the immediate urge to correct your sentence since they will feel like you’ve over exaggerated, since maybe they’re late 80% of the time. They’ll defend themselves by suggesting that your accusation is not true! They’re not ALWAYS late. And how could say that? Thus, the whole focus of your point is lost. Instead of using a superlative, you have to practice re-wording your claims, for example, “I’m just feeling a little upset right now because we’re currently running late, and I don’t feel comfortable being late.”

2. Always remember that you are on the same team. Act like you’re teammates and you have to work together or else you’ll lose the game (the game of…Life?). Don’t treat your relationship as one-on-one, as if you’re on opposite teams, playing defence against the other person’s attacks and working for a different goal. Use terms like “we” and “us” instead of just “you”. Don’t try to bully them into changing or agreeing with you by proving they’re wrong.

For example, “I’m feeling a little upset right now because we’re running late. What can we do to keep this from happening again? Can I help you pick out your clothing ahead of time, or perhaps we should wake up earlier? What do you think we can do?” This is the kind of thing Simon would say to me (Martina) because I’m the tardy one. When he says something like this, I feel like he wants to work with me to help me be on time for the both of us. If Simon feels stressed out at being late, I don’t want him to feel this way, especially if he wants to help me improve myself.

Here’s how Simon could have said it that would have really got me mad. “I’m feeling a little upset right now because you’re making me late again. I’m always early and you always do this. Why can’t you just get up earlier?” That would piss me off. I know that I’m in the wrong, I’m the one running late and it is totally 100% my fault, yet wording it this way just causes irritation. “If being late is such a big deal, then go alone without me! ARGHHH!” Not a good way to start a night with two divided people.

3. Give two good statements for every one bad. If you’re having a big discussion where you’re bringing up lots of faults and problems about a person, it can be a pretty crappy feeling to have someone list all your failures. Instead, we rely on the 2:1 ratio. For example: “You look super hot right now, I love that outfit on you, and your hair looks amazing, but I’m feeling a little upset right now because we’re running late. What do you think we can do fat head?” Actually, leave that “fat head” part out, but feel free to include any other important cute nickname you use! You can see how it’s pretty hard to be really mad at someone who is complimenting you but still trying to help you improve yourself.

Of course, we didn’t meet each other and immediately start talking with the above tips. We both came out of different relationships that had left us with some baggage – as most people do when they meet new people – and it takes time to realize that the new person you’re dating is not the last person you were dating, so doesn’t react to everything you do and say the same way. Communication is the key. If something ticks you off, you should probably let them know right away rather than letting it build up to a random explosion. And communicate it without sounding like a screaming psycho because NOBODY reacts well to being yelled at, especially bears. They either run away or attack you and you don’t want your boyfriend or girlfriend to do either of those things.

So remember! YOU ARE TEAMMATES! Make up a team cheer! We totally have one which I will not type for you because it’s all inside joke gibberish that will translate very poorly, but whenever one of us feels grumpy or down, the other will sing it and it takes us out of our rut right away. If that doesn’t work, there is always interpretive dancing to Xiah’s “Intoxication”…can’t stay mad at ANYONE dancing to that song.

Now we’re gonna stop sounding like Dr. Phil. Thanks :D

Side note: this is gonna be or last video of the week. Turns out we’ve got more than just interviews to plan for the upcoming Google Kpop Concert, and we’re spending today and tomorrow preparing for it, when we usually spend those days WANKing and editing our WANKing. Sorry! Then we’re on a plane Friday to Canada, then to California on Saturday. Meaning: no time for KpopCharts, K Crunch Indie, or Music Monday either. This is gonna be the last video up for a good week or so. Sorry guise! We’ll be in Canada from Tuesday onwards, and we’ll be back to making videos then, though our schedule will probably be lighter than usual because we want to spend some time with our families. We’ll let you know more in the future :D

For the original post on Our Biggest Fight Ever – TL;DR, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

Oooh! Wasn’t sure if this was gonna last a second week on top of the KpopCharts, but Taetiseo’s “Twinkle” pulled in a womping 22,000 votes. Huzzah!

And Ms. Trololo makes a comeback! We had to put her in here because – for the love of all that is holy – it seems like we can’t talk about Girl’s Generation without people thinking that we hate SNSD, even though we compliment them A LOT! Yes, in an interview a long time ago we talked about why we think 2NE1 would do better in the US than Girl’s Generation, and – for some reason – people viewed that as a statement that we don’t like Girl’s Generation. Come on! That’s not fair! I think Michael Jordan in his prime could beat Kobe Bryant in his prime, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like Kobe! By the way, that metaphor is not something Martina would ever write. She’d probably be like “just because I think Sailor Venus is stronger than Sailor Mercury it doesn’t mean that cutey cutey hello kitty Twilight Spudgy bla bla.” Long story short, Girl’s Generation often make awesome songs. Some we like, some we don’t like, but that has no impact on how we feel about them as a whole.

Anyways, we like this song! It’s a really big change from the Girl’s Generation stuff we’re used to, in terms of its sound, and we like it. The lyrics, though, aren’t really our thing. Is it just us, or does it seem like Girl’s Generation seem to date exceptionally unappreciative men? This song talks about indifferent guys, Run Devil Run talks about bad boyfriends, Hoot as well. WTF?! AYO! SNSD: I know you read this blog religiously. Let us help you out. Just, give us a call (you have our numbers) and we’ll hook you up with guys that will treat you well and who won’t be checking out any other girls. Seriously! Stop dating dummies.

On that note, this is the last Music Monday for two weeks. *GASP!* I know. We’re flying out of Korea on Friday and we’re in California for a few days, notably, the days that we take to make Music Monday. Sorry everyone. We’re going to get something worth the sacrifice, though, since we’re going to be doing videos with MBLAQ, Sistar, Wonder Girls, and B2ST. Sure, it won’t be a Kpop Music Monday, but it’ll be cool, at least! So, consider yourselves warned!

As always, if you like the song as much as we did, you can pick it up via iTunes or you can get the album mailed to you via YesAsia. And – again as always – we’ve got bloopers. This week, though Martina got her voice back, she still really sucked at speaking. DAMMIT MARTINA! It’s EXO! NOT E-X-O!!!

For the original post on Taetiseo – Twinkle: Kpop Music Mondays, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

Ok, I swear! One of these days Martina’s voice is gonna be fully back, and I’m not gonna have to do these videos on my own. She just started to get her voice back on Saturday but after using it in a couple videos she strained it and it started to get all crackily and painful, so we had to get her a rest. Ah! And I filmed this late at night, which is usually when coughs and colds flare up the worst. So I was coughing a lot here in between scenes. Sorry if I seem off here, because I was a bit. But the show must go on! There are some good songs we wanted to share. We can’t just NOT share them, you know?

1) Gogostar “Black Comedy”

Ok. I’ll admit it. I like Gogostar. They’re really cool. Their videos aren’t really my cup of tea, but their songs are funky enough for me to like them, but Martina’s totally nuts for them now, though. She really liked them before, and after hearing this song, she went out and bought all their albums on iTunes. We do strongly encourage people to support the artists by buying their music. Buying the music I’m ok with. But the playing them on loop? MARTINA!!!! *shakes fist at her* It’s almost as bad as when Martina first heard MBLAQ’s “Cry” and played it on loop for a solid month. Except now Martina isn’t dancing all over the floor. That’s a good thing. Oh wait, I take it back…yup…Martina just broke into interpretive dance. *sigh*

2) J Rabbit “Happy Things”

I feel gross watching this. Not bad gross, but that kind of gross you feel when you see something overly sweet, like two people skipping and holding hands under rainbows, and you’re like “Ahhh WTF! I can’t watch this!” not necessarily because what you’re witnessing is intrinsically bad. It’s just…ugh! Too damned cute! Wait, is that how people feel about us when we’re goggly with each other? OH DEAR GAWD NO!

But we like the song at least, even though the video’s too saccharine. The song has a very dreamland epic feel to it, and it sounded like it’d be perfect for Howl’s Moving Castle. Something you sing when you’re telling everyone that climbing the mountain will be a great idea, because all of your friends will be there, and you’ll come to realize something wonderful about your friendship! Wait: that could be interpreted as something from Lord of the Rings. Ok – no death armies waiting on this mountain. It’s supposed to be a friendly mountain.

3) Walrus “Seoul Witch” feat Kim Jae Wook

Ah yes, good old Rock and Roll. It’s kind of hard to find a simple genre band now and days, everyone is mixing and matching little bits of this and that from all genres and creating their own unique sound. I feel like Walrus is a return to a simpler rock sound. The video isn’t riveting, but still I find myself unable to look away. I want to see what adventures unfold! What will occur when two ridiculously good looking people happen to find each other out in the middle of a desert and hang out on a road trip adventure! Actually, I expected this video to take a rated R kind of turn, but no, innocent innocent stranger danger adventures ensue. Also, can anyone tell us where this video was filmed? Our guesses: USA, Australia, or New Zealand.

For the original post on K Crunch Indie: Happy Black Witch, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

Ok, so here’s the deal. We’ve been sitting on this for a long time and we’re SO STOKED TO TALK ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW!

We’re going to the Google Kpop Concert! MBC is bringing Sistar, B2ST, Super Junior, Kara, TVXQ, MBLAQ, Girls’ Generation, f(x), and Wonder Girls to perform at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, and we’re gonna be there, too!

But – here’s what’s cool – we’re not going just for the sake of it or because we’re two crazy fans with thousands of dollars to blow on plane tickets there and back. Nope. Come on! We live in Korea! We can go to concerts here just fine! Fact is, we’re going to this concert on official business. We were invited by YouTube to come to the event and record some of the activity, as well as some special videos before the actual event.

The day before the actual event, we’ve got something very special lined up. So far, we’ve got MBLAQ, B2ST, Wonder Girls, and Sistar confirmed to do videos with us. There are other artists that we’re HOPEFULLY gonna be able to do things with, but everyone’s schedules are really tight. It’s not like they fly in and wander around waiting for people to film stuff with them. This took a lot of work to get set up, so we’re actually quite lucky to be able to do videos with so many artists :D

Big point of this all is where you – you awesome people you – come in: we’ve always been interested in connecting Kpop artists with their international audience, so we asked – when we’re talking on film with the Kpop idols – if we can ask some of YOUR questions as well, rather than just ours. This is your chance to get Kpop Idols to answer your questions, to talk back to you! So, leave your questions for whoever you want us to ask in the comments section below, either on this page or in the YouTube video comments. If we pick your question, then it’ll be pretty cool if you have MBLAQ say your name and Wonder Girls say where you’re from. No? At least I think it’d be cool :D

We’ve got some other surprises in store for this event, and we’re gonna be getting some pretty cool stuff, which – of course – we’d like to give back to you, our awesome viewers! We’ll be giving it, of course, to people who Subscribe to us on YouTube, Follow us on Twitter, and Like us on Facebook, because we like you more than other people :D

Otherwise, we’re not ONLY making videos before the concert. We’re gonna be attending the concert as well, and so should you! Tickets for this event are free! All you gotta to is Request Tickets online on this site on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 7:00PM PDT. That’s it! So get on that page and start refreshing like crazy and, if you get tickets, we’ll hopefully see you there! We won’t be on stage performing any F-art songs, though, so don’t get your hopes up!

Also, just a heads up: since we’re gonna be spending Sunday and Monday at this event, there will be no Kpop Music Monday for the 21st of May. Sorry guise! We’re spending a lot of time working on these videos instead. We’ll upload our special videos for the event ASAP, so hopefully that’ll make up for our not making a Music Monday.

For the original post on Join us at the Google Kpop Concert, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

It’s the Kpop Chart Update for the week of May 12th 2012! If you didn’t read that in a cheesy talk show host voice, go back and do so now.

We’ve got a lot of rookie-like bands in this update, Hello Venus, A Pink, and ULALA Session. The only exception is with IU who released a 26 minute long “music video” on May 10th which is more like a documentary, but we won’t be talking about it today, I just wanted to mention it so you know that it’s out and to take the time to watch it!

Hello Venus “Venus” – Vote for them here!

First up is Hello Venus, the newest female rookie group from Pledis Entertainment, the same label that brought us After School, Orange Caramel, NU’EST, and Son Dambi.  When we saw the teaser photos, we were really excited about this group.  They had crazy coloured hair and an interesting and quirky Alice in Wonderland feel to them, but it wasn’t too over the top.  We thought – considering Orange Caramel – this group might be the middle ground between After School and Orange Caramel.  They’d be quirky and unique, but not as extreme into role playing/cosplaying as Orange Caramel, and they’d be serious and strong females like After School, but with less Pussycat Doll sexy sass.  I thought the name “Hello Venus” and the teaser photos suggested a liking to the famous Greek goddess, Venus aka Aphrodite, and she is a strong, powerful, yet beautiful woman. Then the name of the song is Venus! I’m like, “OH YEAH, here we go! Strong female band FTW!”  However, after watching their debut music video, we got the worst case scenario: yet another cutey girl band making faces at the camera.

Warning! Incoming rant!

I really really really don’t get enjoyment out of this cutey girl/boy image.  To begin with, it is really forced to me.  We can all tell that they’re acting, especially with the girl in the coffee shop uniform, and it makes me feel irritated seeing them make these forced faces at the camera.  I just don’t understand what’s wrong with letting a rookie group come out with a little strength and sass?  There are three really good examples of fabulous debuts by girl groups, 2NE1, 4Minute, and Miss A.  I feel like Miss A made the strongest debut for a rookie girl group to this day.  “Bad Girl, Good Girl” blew my mind with both the choreography and their attitudes, and they didn’t try to hook people with extreme fashion or trendy blank blank.  I was immediately drawn to them.  I’ve really loved everything they’ve done ever since.  Even their quirky and bizarre music video for “Breathe” set them apart from all the other groups. With the latest addition of new girl groups to the kpop world, and I’m talking about A Pink as well, I don’t see anything special or unique about them to set them apart from one another.

Now, of course, if you’re a dedicated fan who is following the group, there will be lots of special details you’ll know about these bands.  But people need to acknowledge that there are different levels of kpop consumers, some who are extremely steeped in the fan base culture, watch all the shows and interviews and are up-to-date on information. Then there are those that really love kpop, listen to the music and watch the music videos but aren’t interested in learning the background culture of the groups they like.  That’s where Simon and I fall in: we are very interested in the music and music videos and we take those at face value.  Hence why we can openly admit to loving 90% of one bands’ songs (for example, 2NE1) and then frankly admit to disliking another 10% (I didn’t like the song Go Away or the music video for Ugly) .  It’s possible for us to share this opinion because we aren’t steeped in the part of fan culture which dictates that we MUST LOVE EVERYTHING otherwise we’re betraying the band.

This is usually where we run into problems with people who are a part of the extreme fan culture and who can’t understand the perspective of an average kpop consumer.  The main problem occurs when an Extreme Kpop Fan feels offended that something we’ve said is disrespectful because they themselves are steeped in Kpop Culture, and they’re unable to accept that some people just like the bands for their plain old music.  When we say we don’t like a song or video, it has nothing to do with the band personally, we don’t even know them personally (and neither do the kpop fans)!

So, we come full circle to A Pink and Hello Venus.  When we say we don’t like their songs and music videos, we don’t mean for some people to take this personally.  We don’t like the image their company is giving them.  There are two forms of “sex sells” in the Korean music industry, one is obvious sexy, like how Cube is marketing Hyuna, and then there is discreet sexy, which is the cutey girl aegyo image.  Don’t be fooled, cutey overacting girls is still a sex sells method.  There is only one Korean idol out right now that I think is the right amount of non-forced cute, and that’s IU.  She doesn’t make too many faces at the camera, and she doesn’t super duper overact, she strikes me as genuinely classy cute.

RANT OVER!!!

Ah!  Ok, that was a long rant …sorry we didn’t talk about the Ulala Session video, we just had to get this off our chests because watching those two videos in a row killed me. KILLLLLLLEEEDDD MEEEEE!!!!!!

PS: OH! ALSO! I’ve made a scale to understand our perspective of Kpop Consumption! Thoughts? Additions? Where do you fall in?

(E-KF) Extreme Kpop Fan Culture: I follow the band as if they are Idols in a religion to be worshipped.  I respect everything they do, I don’t share any negative opinions (or else you are a “jealous hater”), I feel extreme offence when someone expresses that they don’t like my band, feels extreme offence when someone doesn’t know all the background information about their religion…I mean…band.

(EM-KF) Person in-between these two

(M-KF) Middle Kpop Fan Culture: I really respect this band, I know details about them, I might watch their TV shows, interviews and so on, but I can compare and contrast their songs and videos, and make preferences of one song over the other. For example: I don’t like this song as much as their last, I love his guy liner

(MA-KF) Person in-between these two (Martina falls in this category)

(A-KF) Average Kpop Fan Consumer: I will watch this video/listen to this song and form an opinion based on my impressions of this video, rather then with my research on this band

(AN-KC) Average-Non Kpop Consumer: not necessarily a fan of kpop, but they listen to it rarely

(N-K) Non-Kpop Consumer: WTF did I just watch, why are there so many people in this band, why are they wearing the same clothing, why is that guy wearing make up, is that a even a guy, what crappy English, haha now I will mock Asian pop music

For the original post on KpopCharts Update: Hush Hello Ulala, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

So, Martina’s voice is still not back yet. *Sigh* It’s getting better, at least! She can squeak out a few words here and there, which is a lot better than how she was on Saturday, but she’s still in no shape to speak a lot on camera. We were pretty deeply scolded by the doctor to rest rest rest. No whispering! Looking at you JYP…and Martina. Did you know whispering is harder for your vocal chords to do then normal speaking? You learn something new everyday. So, we would have skipped this week’s FAPFAP, but considering how we skipped it last week because Martina was hung over from her crazy birthday party, we didn’t want to miss out on two weeks in a row. So, this was the best we could think of. A silent movie! Sure, it’s not as informative as our regular FAPFAPs or WANKs, but you can’t really be that informative without talking, you know? Ah! Hopefully you won’t feel totally ripped off at our semi-FAPFAP, we put a lot of thought into making it a little more entertaining then Simon talking for 8 minutes and Martina sadly nodding or miming.

We still had fun filming it, though! It’s quite a break from what we’re used to normally doing. We like being, um, “creative” every once in a while and make something that we’re not used to making. Today, this is one of those movies. Hopefully you’re still semi-entertained, even though it’s not as food-porny as we’re used to making our FAPFAPs.

If it’s information about the stuff we ate you’re looking for, though, this blog post’s the right place for you to look! Today we tried three different things. We’ll talk about them here:

1) Baked eggs: You can grab these at any local convienece store for a great quick snack, and they’re really delicious. They’re baked, not boiled, and often steeped either a soy sauce, or black garlic, or something sauce that gives them a tint when you open them up. Plus, they taste a little bit saltier then usual. Also, supposedly there is no chloresteral in these eggs because it is absorbed or pulled out or something because of the baking. I have no idea if that’s just magical herbal medicine talk, but there you have it. If you head to a jjimhilbang which Martina often does (but I, Simon, do not) you MUST have an egg! Okay, no one will murder you but it’s like tradition. though you’ve been quite a few times.

*Martina here*

2) Shikhye:

Side note: we love Shikhye because it reminds us of Flight of the Conchords. A SHIKAY SHIKAY! A SHIKAY SHIKAY! A SHIKAY SHIKAO! Ten points to whoever remembers what song that’s from. This drink too a while to grow on us. Granted, Shikye in a can isn’t great, it’s a little too sweet for us, but if you get the chance to try homemade shikhye in a local market place or in a jjimjilabng (also a tradition) it’s really really refreshing. It’s made with rice, malt, sugar, and water so it has an almost honey flavour to it. Funny story, the first time we ever made a video about this was way way way long time ago and we mentioned that we didn’t like the flavour and thought the rice was weird floating around. Whoa, the internet did not like that. That was the first time we experience netizen RAGE telling us to leave Korea and go home because we’re horrible people for insulting shikhye. Apparently some very sensitive people out there who realized a fairy dies every time someone confesses to not liking this drink.

3) McCol’s Soda: Do you remember this from that Valentine’s Day Wank Episode? Martina lost the challenge, and then she was supposed to drink McCol’s soda, but then she was sneaky enough to rig it so that someone would accidentally kick it over. Clever girl. UM. I totally didn’t rig that Simon. Anyhow, we just wanted to buy a bottle today to remind you not to drink it. It’s NAYUSTY. OOH MCCOL’S YOU SO NAYUSTY! *McCol’s squeezes its cleavage together*

4) King Watermelon Bar / Ice Cream Red Bean Paste Sandwich Thingy: Yay! Our favourite part of the video! Since we’ve started our diets, we haven’t had any ice cream. This is, like, the first time in over a month (when we used to have it a couple times a week). Anyhow, these King Watermelon Bars were a huge favourite of ours for the summer seasons. For starters, we love their Korean name “Wong Subak Bah!” Secondly, it’s pretty uniquely delicious. It’s made to look like a watermelon slice, and the seeds are made out of chocolate. Brilliant! It is painfully delicious and addictive because it’s not too sweet and not creamy but just refreshing enough for me to want to fill a pool with them and swim around with my mouth open. The other Red Bean ice-cream sandwich thingy is actually based on a Korean street food bread which is shaped like a flower too. It’s filled with red bean and the dough is usually slightly undercooked so that it’s a bit creamy. This ice cream sandwich is actually really delicious (as long as you like red bean which I do, but Simon isn’t totally into) with a thin layer of dduk (chewy rice cake) and red bean surrounded by vanilla ice cream wrapped up in an ice cream cone. That’s totally an ice cream cone, even though I totally thought it would be pastry. Nope. I thought it was lovely but Simon wouldn’t let me eat it all. Sad face. Has anyone else tried this?

Yeah! That’s it for this week. Next week is going to be our last Korean WANK for a month, because we’re gonna be going to California and Canada until June 18th. Sweet! We’ll be doing videos while we’re there, so expect some WANCing and…WANCing…wonderful adventure now Canada and California are the same. DAMN! We’ll have to think of something new! If you see us running around your neighbourhood make sure you jump onto camera and photo bomb!

Also, we’re going to California for Google’s Kpop Concert to do something special. Yay! We’ll tell you more about it in the future once we have everything set in stone. STONE DO YOU HEAR ME KPOP BANDS! NO BACKING AWAY FROM US! But for now, we’ll just be teases. YOOHOO! :D

Anyhow, we’ve got a few bloopers for this video, including a man who was really curious about what we were doing. Hmmm…

Otherwise, we’ve done this topic many times in the past before, but if you’re new, you should check out our Korean Convenience Store Dining and our Korean Convenience Store Raids, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Yeah. We like Convenience Stores here. SO WHAT! They’re awesome!

For the original post on Korean Convenience Store Food – FAPFAP!, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

Ok, so this is a fairly short and not all too in-depth TL;DR this week for a couple of reasons. 1) If you watched our Music Monday on B.A.P.’s “Power” you’d remember that Martina lost her voice. It’s still lost. Slowly coming back, but she sounds like a 439 year old witch whose lungs are made of dust. So, I had to do this TL;DR by myself. Also 2) I’m kinda sick. Not voice-losing sick, but coughing up randomly and uncontrollably. So, the less talking the better. Kinda can’t do that when your only job is to talk on camera! Ah! So, like the shorter and easier Music Monday, we’ve got a shorter and easier TL;DR.

But it’s good that I did this one on my own, because it’s a question that’s geared at me specifically, about being a tall guy in Korea, which Martina can’t really answer. Though she did remember a lot of the things that I don’t remember about being tall in Korea, like almost bumping my head on low-hanging signs. Some of these things you get so used to that you just don’t think of anymore!

I definitely can say that I feel like Korea is a smaller country than Canada. Geographically, obviously, since Canada’s the second biggest country in the world, but in terms of real estate and architecture: things in Korea are a lot more crammed, and so – being a big guy – I feel it a lot more than other people would, I think. Or maybe I don’t? Maybe short people feel cramped more than I do? Maybe all of the people ricocheting off my body affect you more than it does me? I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like flipping a car over to try to get some room.

Simon scares Super Junior

Also, just in case you forgot, this picture is and always will be relevant. Just in case you don’t know where this is from, it’s from long time ago when we did an episode of Star King with Super Junior. Super Junior, and everyone else for that matter, were quite short compared to us. People theorized that the picture was doctored, or that I’m 7 feet, 32 inches tall, or that the lens barrelled and warped people into being taller/smaller. Not the case. Totally undoctored. Just…an awesome picture. One of my favorites ever :D

For the original post on Being Tall in Korea – TL;DR, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

After a bagillion votes and shares and tweets and comments, B.A.P.’s “Power” came out as the top ranked video of the week. Check it out if you haven’t already:

For starters, we know that this is a shorter video than usual. Our Music Mondays can get to be quite long. Today, we kept it short because, well, we’re both pretty damned sick. Martina can’t even speak. Kinda hard to do a speaking show if you can’t speak. We sure couldn’t skip this, though! You all voted insanely, and if we didn’t do a Music Monday it sure wouldn’t stand a chance next week when video decay on the charts kicks in strongly. So we made a compromise: kept the video shorter, but hopefully still entertaining. We’d like to have Kpop Music Mondays this length, we think. Keeps it snappier, no? Let us know what you think: if it’s too short or if it’s alright :D

Anyhow, with a shorter video, the results are lots of ideas that get cut out. We were planning on talking about the crash scene. Something we found interesting about the video: from our understanding, B.A.P. is playing off their whole alien shtick, in which they say they’re otherworldly, which explains the spaceship crashed in the desert. What we want to know is this: which one of them was the one driving it, because they are soooooo gonna be grounded. You gotta be, like, at least 37,000 years old to get your UFO driver’s permit, which means someone here took their mom’s alien minivan for a joyride. Our guess: it was Zelo. That guy looks like nothing but trouble. We were gonna do a skit about this but naahhhhhh. We’re barely functioning as is :D

Otherwise, we announced in this video that we’d be giving away the new B.A.P. Power album along with their poster. Yay! We said it’d be for our YouTube subscribers to leave their answers in the comments, but we’re also leaving this blog post open for comments, but you need to leave your YouTube username in the comment so we can check if you’re subscribed, obviously :D. So, feel free to let us know what you think B.A.P. is spraying. Or, if you feel your chances are better on Facebook, do so on our Facebook Page’s Contest Thread. Yay!

If you’re not the luckiest person out there, but you still want the album, you can pick it up either via iTunes or YesAsia. Huzzah! Or, if you’d rather skip those two and just get our awesome Shower rendition instead, you can check it out here:

Lastly, if you’re interested in checking out the bloopers and the mass amount of difficulty which Martina’s lack of voice caused, or if you’re looking to see who won the U-Kiss “Doradora” giveaway, this video’s for you!

For the original post on B.A.P. – Power: Kpop Music Mondays, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

1) Hugh Keice “Drink in the Desert”

Yay! Another Hugh Keice song. In case you missed it when we reviewed Hugh Keice last time, Hugh Keice sings entirely in English, and that’s cool! Come to think of it, though, I’m not sure if Hugh Keice really qualifies as Korean Indie by our standards, you know? Hugh Keice is Korean, but he’s based out of the UK and sings in English. That’s kind of like Far East Movement, in a way, and we wouldn’t really consider Far East Movement Kpop. Ah well. I think we’ll be more strict in picking our Korean Indie artists next time, because we’re trying to reflect what Korean Indie music is being played in Korea, kind of like how we’re trying to show what Korean Pop music is being played in Korea. Problem is, we can’t know for sure what indie music is being played in Korea because, well, it’s Indie, which makes it not easy to pinpoint. Ah! Rambling! Anyhow, moral of the story: cool song and video by Hugh Keice.

2) Mighty Coala “열대야”

Ok, this is not what we had in mind when we first heard of the name. First off, I never thought of “Koala” as being spelled with a C. Maybe it’s like those rare times I see Korea being spelled “Corea” as well? Also, this band has such an oxymoron of a name, isn’t it? In what way could a Koala be mighty? Supposedly they sleep more than any other animal in the world, because they eat lots of eucalyptus leaves and are constantly zonked out. Or, at least that’s what I heard on a random radio show we were on two or so years ago. MIGHTY KOALAS: SLEEPING LIKE NONE OTHER! But they’re bears, so they can be violent, too. I had to Google “Koala Attack” to see if I could prove my point, and give Koalas a greater sense of mightiness. Turns out there’s a band called Koala Attack. Ha! But wikipedia said Koalas are aggressive as well, so…yeah. I guess. Not that this song reflects Koalas attacking or being aggressive. This song fits perfectly with the sleepy koala stereotype, as it almost seems like a lullaby. Ha!

3) Nell “기억을 걷는 시간”

Ok, this song is going up there with some of our favourite Korean songs ever. Really: this here – QUALITY. We usually separate our Kpop Music Urges from our other music urges. Kpop has its time and place, as does – say – listening to Beach House, and the two don’t really cross paths for us often. Kpop makes us dance and have fun, puts smiles on our faces, gets us up and going when we’re feeling lethargic, but it doesn’t often have special places in our lives, it doesn’t really have a kind of life-essence beauty to it, you know? Ah! Don’t kill us for that. I think some of you will agree with us here.

Anyhow, this is a Korean song that we’ll put in our “beautiful music” rotation rather than our “kpop music” rotation. The last two minutes: some of our favourite Korean music ever. Really beautiful stuff. This is soundtrack-of-your-life kind of music, the end of a romantic comedy movie. It’s…just…so…good! So check it out, even if you’ve seen it before, watch it again, and if you haven’t seen it before, you can thank us in the comments :D

For the original post on K Crunch Indie: Koalas Drink Nell, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

1) Taetiseo “Twinkle” – Vote for it here!

First off, we gotta say that we’re very surprised that we’re not reviewing this for upcoming Kpop Music Mondays. Wow! B.A.P’s “Power” has received the most votes ever in the history of the KpopCharts, and – as it stands right now – it’ll take an army of Twinkies (that’s what we call TTS fans) to overtake first place. It’s doable – of course it’s doable – but I don’t think we’re on the best terms with a lot of SONES. Not that we dislike SNSD! We really like some Girl’s Generation songs, like we mentioned in some of our K Crunch Cocktails. We just really went off on The Boys a while ago and I don’t think we’ve ever been forgiven.

Anyhow, with the numbers that this video has now on our KpopCharts, it looks like it’ll take first place next week, as it would easily take first place any other week if it weren’t for B.A.P.’s incredibly strong voting happening now. Unless there’s some other mega blockbuster song coming out. Anyone?

2) BTOB “Father” – Vote for it here!

Not sure what we can really say about this song. I mean, it’s a ballad, and it’s serious, and it’s sad. Not our thing. We like being happy more than we like being sad. The song’s got a great message, though, which we can appreciate. Just…not fans of the video. Not really sure what we’d be able to say for it for a Music Monday. Maybe we can sniffle and sob for 10 minutes? That wouldn’t make for a good review. We’d call it the Jo Kwon Edition. Ha! Jo Kwon fans, don’t be mad! We’re just playing :D

3) JYP “You’re the One” – Vote for it here!

Ok JYP: you’ve gained our respect big time. These last two videos of yours are really well shot and produced. We loved Wonder Girls’ “Be My Baby”, and this video’s right up there with exceptional quality shots and editing. Seriously: who directs these videos? I want to shake his hand. It wasn’t the greatest video in the world, but it was just really interesting and really well done. The first person perspective with the woman’s hand was interesting, the transitions between different locations was cool, the bed sheet becoming a dropped curtain was clever. The lighting was great, the lens flares weren’t obnoxiously used. Just…well done. From our perspectives as people who spend countless hours making really low budget videos, we can appreciate this. Well done JYP! Doubt you’ll overtake Taetiseo, but if you did we’d be happy to review this video. Batooba…not so much :D

For the original post on KpopCharts Update: One Twinkle Father, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!