Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna, in die illa tremenda

Again, literally nothing to do at work (I'm a fast worker, sue me). Soooo... meme time!

This is actually a kpop meme, but I'm making it a cpop meme. Because recently, I've been feeling the cpop love more.

( Cpop meme... with pictures! )

- Fahrenheit is set to release a new album in August. This news is old (from JANUARY... how did I miss that?!), so I wonder if the date will be pushed back due to Wu Zun's drama with Rainie. Either way, I am greatly anticipating this album. I love Fahrenheit (second favorite Asian boyband), and I want to see the new stuff they come up with.

- Aaron Yan is also set to release a solo album towards the end of the year. This half makes me sad, since it's the beginning of the eventual breakup of Fahrenheit (they only have one more album in their contract). On the other hand, yay Aaron!

- Jolin is also going to release an album this August. I've seen her concept photos, and they look pretty awesome. I'm excited!


This August is going to be crazy with all the new releases. Fahrenheit (...maybe?), Jolin, and Big Bang (at least their new Japanese single - "Beautiful Hangover", but hopefully their Korean comeback as well)! Good thing I am currently employed, because goodbye monies.

(Yay for being awake at 2am, huh?)

Today (or yesterday, rather) after class we went to Ximending. Ximending is an area in Taipei that is likened to Tokyo's Harajuku district. This is apt. It is also the closest you'd get to Japantown here. Japanese pop culture influence is EVERYWHERE. There was even a maid cafe!

We basically just walked around for awhile. Our mission was to find the eslite bookstore, which was quite the feat, as apparently eslite owns several mall-type buildings in the area, so we kept ending up in those. And then when we finally DID find the eslite, they didn't have what I was looking for (MUSIC), or what Lisa was looking for (manga that wasn't in Chinese). We did, however, amuse ourselves by looking at the magazines. It's interesting, because all the magazines are plastic wrapped, which is, I guess, so people won't read the magazines while sitting in the bookstore. (But OMG there were some NICE magazines. Mike He is on the cover of Men's Uno, Joseph Chang is on another magazine, Wu Zun and his utterly flawless face were on yet another, and finally there was one with Cheryl Yang!!!)

We ended up at a Daiso, a store I know of from when I was all into bento-ing. In Japan they're 100 yen shops. In the US they're $1.50 shops. In Taiwan, they're NT$39 shops (~ $1.18 USD). There was much amusement to be had at these shops because the engrish is just amazing. I haven't seen a LOT of amusing engrish (or rather, chinglish) in general here. Japan seems to be the master at engrish, as I saw more in Daiso than I have in my entire time here so far.

We also visited a music store that DID have the Big Bang CD I was looking for. However it was weirdly wrapped in paper, and it was kinda sketchy, so I decided against buying it because seriously, wtf?! I'll just wait to buy it... (Seriously, though... Why does Taiwan hate Korea?! Again the only Korean music I could find was SuJu, SS501, the Boys Before Flowers OST, and a random Kim Jeong Hoon "John Hoon" album.) Also, interestingly, we found an alley of tattooists.

Walking around Ximending was amusing, mostly because I kept stopping to take pictures of ads. Because, hello, FAMOUS TAIWANESE PEOPLE ARE MY FAVORITE. (Speaking of! I keep seeing this ad in the subway of a guy hugging a golden retriever while advertising for mooncakes, and I swear to God it's Eric Tsang, but why the hell would he be advertising mooncakes while hugging a dog on a subway advertisement?!)


Ximending is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Taipei that I've seen so far.
( More pictures, including highly amusing engrish, scary shop buildings, fun ads, and what Ming Dao does in his spare time )

Other awesome tidbits from Ximending!
- There's a restaurant there called "Cola Forest" that is American themed. They have a HUGE drink menu, and some interestingly named food, notably the "chicken naggets"... (NOW the chinglish is starting to rear it's head!)
- Apparently Show Luo is a spokesperson for EVERYTHING. I saw him in ads everywhere. I only really remember the Edwin Jeans ones though. I still prefer Brad Pitt though.
- Have I mentioned how awesome Taiwanese Haagen Dazs' are? The one in the 101 has these awesome ice cream mooncakes that I'm dying to try!
- We were apparently around an area that is famous for it's corn and peanut ice, but we didn't try it. Sometimes I wonder about the preoccupation they have with corn here.

Recently I've had little time or energy for dramas. Lots and lots of work stress compounded with immense fatigue. So basically everything had fallen to the wayside (seriously, it's all I can do most days to not fall asleep immediately after I get home from work).

That's why I've been posting on music more recently, it's quicker! I'm still watching dramas though (albeit slowly)! I just finished episode 17 of My Queen (SO GOOD!), and I plan on watching episode 3 of Atashinchi no Danshi tonight (or at the very latest tomorrow). I'm also watching Nodame Cantabile actively, but much slower than normal.

Anyway, I've been asked a few times, so I decided to do a post with some of my mandopop recs (to be clear, I only listen to Mandarin music. I try not to listen to things in Cantonese, not because I feel it's inferior or anything, but because it confuses the hell out of me since I'm learning Mandarin).

Mandopop is, sadly, mostly ignored outside of Chinese cultures. It's not like Jpop, which is widely spread. It's not even like Kpop, which has recently gone international. I know when I first got into Taiwan, I had a hell of a time finding mandarin music. Over time it's gotten easier for me, but I figure a lot of people have the same problems, which is why it's underrepresented in the blogsphere (*snort* I said 'blogosphere'!).

Anyway, on to the recs!
( Mandopop recs )

And yes, that is all I will do for right now, as I'm tired!

I took less pictures this time around, because I figured not everyone is as obsessed with seeing pictures of everything as I am.

I got these last week, but have been either sick, or too tired to do much about it until now.

In these two shipments I got the Big Bang Always Mini Album, and the Fahrenheit Final Collectible Edition.

( Always Mini Album )

( Fahrenheit Final Collectible CD )

I'm almost certain I'm going to preorder Jolin's new album... just, apparently, not yet.

Fresh off my icon contest joy, I decided to post some icons I've had hanging around for awhile.

There's only 14 this time (I'm telling you, I'm REALLY slow). Mostly Taiwanese. Two Korean.

Icon Batch 1 Here

I think I've gotten better!

Teasers


( Icons! )

After viewing darkeyedwolf's Yoon Eun Hye picspam, I felt the incredibly urge to icon her. So I did, and now will share! I only made a few this time, but I have a ton more ideas. Also, since I was making pretty girl icons, I of course needed to make one of Qiao En!

Teaser


( More icons! )

I woke up this morning (...actually this afternoon...) to an awesome unexpected surprise. My third shipment from YesAsia had come! This one contained The Big Bang Number 1 DVD (Japanese limited first press edition). Aka, the most expensive CD I've ever bought. Why are Japanese albums SO EXPENSIVE?! The package also contained my DVD version of Eternal Summer (the best movie EVER).

So I took pictures. LOTS of pictures. And since I hadn't taken pictures of the Big Bang The Great Concert DVD I got, I took some (read; a lot) pictures of that too. I'm SO happy with the quality of everything I've gotten. Nothing was damaged from the shipments (and they came from Hong Kong, so that's saying something). I still haven't gotten my posters yet, though...

Some of the pictures (mostly of the photos) came out kinda crappy. I didn't want to bend the books too much, so they're weirdly alligned, but whatever. Better than nothing! Also, I took these without flash, so they kinda came out yellowish.

WARNING: This post is VERY image heavy
( Big Bang The Great Concert DVD )

( Big Bang Number 1 CD+DVD (Japanese limited first press edition) )

( Eternal Summer DVD (Taiwan version) )

I also figured out today (Don't know why I didn't figure it out earlier...) that I can play my Chinese drama DVDs in my DVD player (I thought they'd be a different format, but it occurred to last night that since they're being sold in the US, they're probably format 1. They are. Not like it matters a ton, they don't have english subs.

Oh, and here are the high quality scans of from the Fahrenheit Love You More and More DVD booklet. The scanner kinda screwed them up a bit, but they're still usable!

Keep in mind, these pictures are HUGE. All but one of them are over 2000 x 2000 pixels large (the last is about 2000 x 1000 pixels). These are just thumbnails.

( Fahrenheit HQ pic thumbnails )

Feel free to take these if you'd like. I would appreciate it if you credited me for the scans if you use them to make icons / banners / etc though.

I'm bored at work, so naturally that means shopping.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy Fahrenheit's other two albums. There's two Taiwanese movies I want to buy. I also kinda want to get Zai Zai's "I'm Not F4" album as well. Plus all of Big Bang's albums (all 10 of them).

I also want to get lots of collectibles and merchandise, but I'm pretty sure I won't, because that might be taking it a BIT too far. Just a bit.

I saw a marionette keychain while browsing stuff. *shudder*

OMG I finally got the first of my YesAsia packages!!

Package 1 -> Fahrenheit's new (well, new in January) album, Love You More and More, which I reviewed here, on the day it came out (obsessed much, eh Meredith?).

So naturally, when I got it today, I kinda flipped out a bit, and took pictures of EVERYTHING.

( PICTURES!! )

Excuse the fangirling. Fahrenheit are my boyband (well, so are Big Bang... it's a tie), so I tend to flip out a little about them (I blame my insanity on the fact that I never got into American boybands when I was a teenager. I've been storing my fangirling up... plus, they're Taiwanese, and I'm already batshit crazy over anything Taiwanese).

My next package -> Big Bang's The Great concert DVD (with a photobook!!). Should be coming tomorrow.

God knows when I'm getting my posters, or my Big Bang CD/Eternal Summer DVD.

I should just stay away from the asianfanatics news section. I always end up spending LOADS of time on there... some current news stories that interested me (Taiwanese and Korean);

( Stories about Vanness Wu, Big Bang, Wu Zun, Jiro Wang, Lee Min Ho, hot boy lists, Chinese F4, Kim Bum, Superstar Express, Rainie, and Zai Zai )

Also, the cast of BBF must be cursed when it comes to car accidents. Bummie's gotten in two already, Kim Hyun Joong and Kim Joon each had one on the same day, Lee Min Ho was previously injured (badly) from a car accident, and just today Koo Sun Hye had a car accident! Thankfully in most cases, the injuries were non existent or minor (save for Min Ho's). But it makes me wonder, are car accidents in Korea THAT prevalent? I know Taiwan is notorious for car accidents (that's why a lot of times deaths in dramas are due to car accidents), but I didn't know Korea was as well. And really, shouldn't they be hiring better drivers to escort these major stars?