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

So I actually finished Ikebukuro West Gate Park. LOVED IT. Loved Nagase's face. Loved Hikaru (kah-razy). Loved baby!Yamapi. Loved it ALLLLLL. It's the first drama I've finished in MONTHS. (It was all highly satisfying to see stuff take place in areas I'VE ACTUALLY BEEN! I was in Ikebukuro West Gate Park, I ate at that McDonalds, I was right by that Tokyu Hands, I SAW THE IKEFUKURO! Highly satisfying!)


Baby!Yamapi, Nagase, and Sato Ryuta chilling on the sign, which guess what... I SAW! I even took a picture of it!

It's my last night here in Japan. Tomorrow we leave for Taipei, where we'll be for a couple more days before HOME.

We're both SO READY to go home. I've really enjoyed my time in Taiwan, and my vacations in Korea and Japan. But I am so so so ready to go home. So ready.

We've recently been obsessed with imitating SS501's totally adorable english. Especially "Hollywood Bowl"... It stems from GD (in his infinitely great "American" accent) not being able to say "heart", but being fully capable of saying "heartbreaker"... No idea.

SS501 to advance into the American market?

Soooo I agree with most of the commenters on the article, in that a move to the US probably isn't a very good idea. At least not now. As one commenter said; unless they're quite proficient in english, they'll never become popular. Even Asian artists who ARE fluent in english are having trouble getting into the American market (like the aforementioned BoA and Se7en). For some unknown reason, Asians do not have a huge space in the American entertainment industry. Utada Hikaru's recent release is a huge step forward in American's accepting Asian music (but it was also a big surprise, to me at least).

I like SS501 a lot, and I hope eventually they do have extended success in
the US, but right now... not a good idea.


YG will change ‘female Big Bang’ English name from To Anyone to 2NE1

This one... well... at least they're keeping the "21". I kinda hated the "To Anyone" anyway. Though admittedly the "2NE1" thing reminds me of those late 90's / early 00's bands, like 3LW, Blink-182, 98 Degrees, 311, ETC. Thus I am apt to dislike it. For some reason the name doesn't really sit right with me (too pop-ey), especially when a cool-ass chick like Park Bom is in the group. Course it IS different in Korea, land of strangely awesome band acronyms.

Still super excited for their debut!