The Downward spiral into K-pop

While out in he actual world I came across a music genre called K-pop, the first time was through a K-drama called Boys Over Flowers back in 2011, while the drama was really entertaining and kind of fresh to watch, I was really interested in the OST, a few clicks later I was in K-pop world.

I'm actually one to like Asian cultures specially the Japanese, I've read my fair share of mangas, watched a ton of anime and all that so the transition from Japan to Korea was fairly easy, two more K-dramas and that was it, I was a fan!

My first approach was a girl group named Kara, I like them because they are very bright and energetic, very similar to what I was used to listening to Japanese artists, I particularly enjoyed the dances they are very fun and very good exercise, from Kara I went to SHINee and from them I learned that there are 3 big entertainment agencies in South Korea, SM, JYP and YG, I ended up listening to all their artist and I found my favorite among them, which is Big Bang.

Then Psy came with Gangnam Style and the whole thing exploded, at first I actually wasn't a fan of the song alone I found it very repetitive and plain, but after watching the music video and I found that I kept murmuring the melody all day long. I loved the music video specially because of the cameos.

After that a lot of new groups debuted, I became a fan of B.A.P, Beast, Orange Caramel, Teen Top, EXO and more recently GOT7 and WINNER.

What I find very interesting is that I can actually understand like 40% of what they say in a show, I can sing along to my favorite songs, it's a very fresh feeling actually, it kind of reminds me my way into English, being a native Spanish speaker my favorite groups were all English artists, like Radiohead, Oasis, Muse, Linking Park, NIN, so I learned English through music, movies and eventually books, I sometimes catch myself thinking Korean responses, it was very weird at first but after Gangnam Style it's all more accepted, even though my family still thinks I watch "Chinese people".

Looking back, I think this was all a downward spiral, at first is interesting then is fun then is like I can't past a day without watching something in Korean. specially the K-dramas but that's another subject.

So, if you are curious about K-pop just be aware that it's very addictive and a very expensive hobby,  they have ton of merch that is actually good, before K-pop the last album I bought was Muse's live album H.A.A.R.P. a very common double CD-DVD case, but these K-pop albums are a piece of art, the first thing you notice is the format, I have not seen a classic CD case in K-pop and that's saying a lot, they know their audience and the love to please the fans, so that's always very welcomed and one of the reasons they still sell a good amount of physical music, compared to the rest of the world.

Photo Source: http://24hrkpop.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/kpop-logos.jpg

Jane by Design and the Spring Finale

I'm not going to even mention that I haven't posted anything in half a year now, so let's get to business.

Jane by Design started as this little show about a girl that gets a work in fashion but she's really a teenage school girl, so far really cute, right?

I honestly believed that I was going to be sick of this show by the third episode but it turns out it became a guilty pleasure, next thing I knew I was expecting the next episode every week and really getting the characters and all that jazz.

But then (there's got to be a but) the spring finale came, I had a few days to digest that now and I really didn't like it! Billy was so OOC that it was awkward to watch him, I mean ok (and here comes the spoiler) Billy realizes that Jane is the love of his life and whatever, but I really feel that those things take time, it was all so rushed the last few minutes between Jane and Jeremy and Billy was so fake to me, I applaud the plot about India though I really thought she was the mole, I feel sad for her just when we really got to see the real India, she gets fired. I hope she comes back with a bang.

Anyways, I think I owe it to the show to keep watching, but if they keep rushing stuff I don't think they are gonna get anywhere. Andie Macdowell rocks too.

True Blood & Charlaine Harris's books

I just wanna do a little comparison between the tv show and the books by Charlaine Harris, let's start with the books (because I don't think that all the viewers have read the books).

So a little background is required, I think it was the first week of January of 2009 when I downloaded a ton of e-books and among them was Charlaine Harris's books series, by that time I was a little biased with the whole Twilight Saga thing so I went for the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, "vampire" being the key word keeping my attention, anyways, I read the first one, Dead Until Dark in an afternoon, I found it kind of short really, and with no surprise I was totally hooked by the story and it's not that this is the greatest book of the decade, because it isn't, for example; the writing sometimes goes off point and some of the characters are just so over the top, but like I said I liked the story.

The way Sookie's brain works is really interesting, I can just imagine what it would be like to hear everyone's thoughts with no filter to them whatsoever, an absolute nightmare, so to go from that to then met a Vampire and hear nothing (they are supposed to be dead with no electric brain waves, so Sookie can't pick up their thoughts or at least that's the explanation of the book) must be an absolute relief, so I don't blame her for getting involved with vampires in any way.

Also what I really liked about the books is the way that the vampire big revelation works, (they reveal themselves to the world because of the synthetic blood, meaning that they don't need humans to feed) . I don't really think this is a big theme in the show, although it's kind of there and assumed, it doesn't have the big impact portrayed in the books, because there you really get the whole accepting/rejection of people, Charlaine describes this in the books like the situation is kind of the same thing we face today with the Gay marriage laws, for example, where we see all these people against it while others are in favor. So it's a really interesting theme that is present throughout the books.

Now, after reading the first I couldn't just stop there, so I read a book a day until I was finished (at the moment there where 8 books, now there are 10 and counting) and what I have to say after reading them all is that Eric Northman is one of my favorites characters ever, that's why I read them really and Charlaine must have realized what a strong character he is too, because Eric slowly made his way into the spotlight and obviously, I'm not complaining about it.

Others characters I really liked and I hope I will see in the TV Show are Amelia, Claudine and Claude, they where really fun to read, I love Amelia's personality and I absolutely adore Claude's attitude, he's such a bad ass, Claudine actually appeared in the latest episode of True Blood, I don't really get why are they portraying her as a fairy straight forward, but honestly the show has its own way to tell the story.

In the process of comparing the books with True Blood I must say that my conclusion is that I like them both for very different reasons, I love that they kept Lafayette around in True Blood for example, and the little side stories they have added, like Godric being Eric's maker, and Jessica's story (I really like how her role is to explain what is like to be a new vampire).

The only thing that concerns me though, is that I don't know how they will evolve from those story lines, because every time they change something it gets more complicated to follow it from the books perspective, like with Eric's maker, we know that it wasn't Godric but Appius Livius Ocella a very disturbing roman vampire who made him, so there you have it and as much as I like were this is going, I just can't wait for the Eric show time (this meaning the adaptation of book 4), I hope they make it good, and knowing the boldness of Alan Ball I know it will be good.

To finish this post, I will say that I still recommend reading the books, because it's always good to read, but keep in mind that what you'll read is not True Blood, but the story that inspired the series, which can be very different.