Ancient Tranquillity (태고의 평온)

My first track, using Logic Express.

Copy and Paste

I don't mind a bit of YG Family Electro Pop now and then. Se7en is alright, and so is Big Bang. I also didn't mind 태양's first EP (i refuse to call it a "mini album", it's an EP!). G-Dragon's latest effort, Heartbreaker, is sickly sweet to the ears, like when you've just eaten too much double chocolate chip chocolate ice cream with quadruple choc pudding with chocolate fudge sauce with white chop chips on top, just for the color contrast.


For me, it looks like some people have watched a Lady Gaga video, listened to Right Round by Flo Rider, and listened to any american rapper trying to sing and fixing with Autotune.

But hey, I'm still listening to it :p

"new" Scooter Single

I'm using the term "new" very loosely here, since Scooter do use a lot of elements from other songs, to make their own songs.

The latest instalment, due out next month, is most definitely not an exception.

New ATB Single

When I first heard Future Memories, this song stood out as one of the best from the album, and I'm so glad that it's a single.


ATB pres. Flanders - Behind

I got it from the Australian iTunes Store. You can also get the original version and an ambient version from the album Future Memories.

My Top 40

Weekend

Bought Future Memories (the latest ATB album) from iTunes on Friday, and had a chance to listen to it. It's not too bad. I also ordered the 2CD/1DVD version from Amazon Germany. Here's what I thought of it.


Last weekend, when I got home from Adelaide, I set up the bookshelf that I bought from IKEA, and put it in my room, and got it all full of my junk. I like the design (I've a very design conscious person), and like the way it looks. Other than a bookshelf, it's acting as a desk, and an Entertainment Unit. And, for $129, it's doing a very good job.


While cleaning my room, I found 3 of my old mobile phones that I had used before I left the country. I took them into a phone shop to recycle them. From left to right: Sony Erricson, Nokia, LG. Japan 2, Korea 1. hehe


Lately, I've been playing Star Trek: Conquest on my Playstation 2. It's a strategy game, where you have to take over the galaxy. It's kinda like Risk, but with a Star Trek theme. I'm not doing too bad, i think.

My Top 30 for 2008

Thought I'd make a list of my Top Tunes in my iTunes for 2008. Here's the parameters for the smart playlist I made to get my results (and is sorted by how many times played):

Date Added: From 16/11/2007 To 31/12/2008
Last Played: From 1/1/2008 To 31/12/2008

30: Alcazar / This is the World We Live In
29: 이효리 / U-Go-Girl (featuring 낯선)
28: Josh Gallahan / 1st Strike (Radio Edit)
27: Seal / Amazing (Kaskade Edit)
26: Peter Gabriel / The Tower that ate People (Steve Osborne Mix)
25: iiO vs Freemasons / Rapture vs Love On My Mind
24: Alcazar / This is the World We Live In (Almighty Radio Edit)
23: Scooter / Behind the Cow (Radio Edit)
22: Army of DJ's and Vanessa Amarosi / Absolutely Everybody (Army Liberation Mix)
21: Alphabeat / Fascination (Bimbo Jones Remix)
20: Scooter / I'm Lonely (Radio Edit)
19: Nature One Inc. / Wake Up in Yellow (ATB and Josh Gallahan Short Mix)
18: Moony / Dove - I'll be Loving You
17: ATB / Justify (Club Mix)
16: T-Funk featuring Katie Underwood / Be Together (Video Edit)
15: George Michael / Amazing
14: 태양 / 나만바라봐
13: 빅뱅 / Always (Korean version)
12: Alex Party / Wrap Me Up (Radio Edit)
11: Fedde Le Grand vs M/A/R/R/S / Put Your Hands up for Detroit vs Pump Up the Volume
10: Marcia Hines / You (2005 Radio Edit)
9: September / Cry For You (Spencer and Hill Remix)
8: Scooter / Neverending Story
7: YMGA / Tell It to my Heart (featuring 엄정화)
6. DJ Bobo / Somebody Dance With Me 2002
5. Scooter / And No Matches (Radio Edit)
4. Madonna / 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland)
3. Jaybee / Shattered Dreams (featuring Morris) (Radio Edit)
2. Alcazar / Physical (feautring Londonbeat)
1. Se7en / Girls

Other decent tracks in my Top 100:

36: David Guetta / Delerious
40: B-52's / Funplex
41: Kylie Minogue / Wow (CSS Remix)
54: 에픽 하이 / One
62: Yelle / A cause des garçons (TEPR Remix Edit)
67: Daft Punk / Touch It / Technologic (Live)
75: Alex Kunnari / Lifter (JS16 Remix)
84: Daryl Braithwaite / As the Days Go By (Extended Mix)
99: Tim Minchin / Inflatable You

텔 잇 투 마이 하트

YMGA (from YG family), have taken and turned Taylor Dayne's track, Tell it to my heart, and made their own... kinda. I don't mind the way it sounds.

Here's the video:

And there's a live performance.

Apparently, this was going to be a Jinusean (지누션, also in YG) track, but got passed over to YMGA.

here's a link to the original Taylor Dayne track, if you feel the need to go back to 1987-88. I'm sure there are a few other covers out there too.

Se7en can haz English?

I was checking some stuff out on Youtube today, when I found Se7en's Youtube Channel (and then Official Myspace page - all friendly with RnB artists in the US, and an Official Facebook - joined ^^) and heard the latest song Girls (produced by Darkchild). It's well produced. This video, Seven's Video Message to for getting his Myspace thing sorted, shows some of his Engrishee skills:


Better than Rain's Engrishee? I'd have to say, yes... just. (by they way, he starts talking at about 1:18). This other video has him talking for a bit.

When I was listening to his latest tasty sound byte of Girls, there were a few small fuck ups, but nothing too major. The main one that annoys me (which is something that annoys me with every Korean learning English until they get it right), is dropping off the "s" at the end of the word. In the song, there's the line "I like them girls, that’ll love to trip / Trying to spend 24 at Se7en’s crib", and I'm hearing "Se7en crib". You can check out the rest of the lyrics here. There are a few other Engrishee cringe moments for me, but the production by Darkchild is so damn good that I can ignore it. The generally bad but cool rapper's grammar can kind of hide some bad grammar, I guess. :p

Other lines that make me laugh from the song:
Like Will I’m Legend, feel me / You can Google me, baby
I wish I had a clone machine / Then I could make 6 more of me
I like them girls, shot calling a whip (WTF does that mean?!)

If you don't mind girls screaming, this video was recorded and has some decent audio. In May, Se7en was having small promo concerts in the U.S. Around the start of October, Girls somehow got leaked and found it's way on the net.

So, Se7en... When can we haz new Engrishee album?

South Korea vs South Park

So, I had a bit of fun with the South Park Character Creator thing that I found today. I started to think, what would some Korean artists look like, if they were on South Park. Here's what I came up with.

The first one. She's Hyroish - Hyori Lee (이효리):



Second. Seven (세븐). This one required a couple of minutes of work, to get the clothes right:




The last one, I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Epik High (에픽 하이). With their lovely white album cover from their third album (which has the songs Fly and Paris), Swan Songs.



I thought this one turned out so well, i made it into a 1920 x 1200 wallpaper ^^

Is there a Vulcan in the midst?

If you have been living under a rock for the past year or two, then you won't know who these five lads are. They're Korean Pop Boy band sensation, Big Bang. If you're not sure, and you've been in Korea for a while, you're teenage middle school female students would be all crazy over them, and you would have heard a line from one of their songs "I'm so sorry but I love you, 다거짓말 (it's all lies)" and million and one times. If you're interested, you can check out their latest song, 하루하루, 거짓말, 마지막 인사, and the only Big Bang song I like, Always.

I don't mind the occasional well-produced Korean Pop song, and well, for me, I'll be honest, Big Bang only make a good song occasionally (in my opinion, Always is their occasional good song). But, every time I see them, I always always reminded of this segment from John Safran's Music Jamboree:


Anyway, (as if I was writing for a Korean Children's newspaper), Let's meet the members of BigBang.

Taeyang (태양)
To keep with the N-sync analogy from the Joey Fatone Experiment, Taeyang is the Justin Timberlake of the group, meaning, he's the one with potential that when the whole boy-band thing wears off, and he thinks he's better than all the others, he's the one that will have the best solo career out of the five (which he might be trying already, with the release of his first mini-album). Within the band (and the five different personalities they have), he's the guy with the tough exterior, but is a real softie on the inside. He's also done the very fashionable thing of late in Korea of going to the gym and bulking up a little. It suits him, in my opinion.

G-Dragon (지용 / 지-드레곤)
He's the troublemaker. I mean, just look at him. He's fashionably rebelling. Such a rebel. He even (most likely by not paying attention to what he was told to wear) wore a shirt with some bad English language on it on a recent performance. Anyway, I've heard him sing. He did 나만 바라봐 part two, a sequel to Taeyang's 나말 바라봐. Personally, I don't like his voice. When I first heard 나만 바라봐 part two, I was not a fan at all. I think i said to my Korean friends "그의 목소리가 똥처럼 울려" (my direct from English translation of "His voice sounds like shit."). My Korean friends try to convince me that it's just his style.

Daeseong (대성)
Look at him... Just look at him. If your a Korean mum, and your daughter brought this guy home, she'd pinch the hell out of his cheeks (and would probably have a quick feel of the other cheeks as well) until she ripped off his face. He's the cute guy in the group. You know the friend that you had in high school that was cute, and all the girls liked him, but at the end of the day, he was always single, and was still a virgin until his last year of uni. Yep, that's him.

Seungri (승리)
If you watched the John Safran's Music Jamboree clip above, this guy seems like the Joey Fatone of the group. Enough said.

Then there's one member remaining. He goes by the name of T.O.P. His real name is Seunghyeon (승현). Now, for me. This guy is the anomaly (and also the reason for the title of this blog post) of the band. I'm just trying to figure out which personality of the group he's meant to be, but then it hit me.

He's the vulcan.


It's probably the eyebrows that do it, and how well he does the blank look. But every time I see him, I can't but think "Vulcan".

Here's some other pics of Vulcans.

We'll start with the most famous Vulcan of all - Spock (Leonard Nimoy). In this photo, Spock is sporting the hairstyle that I call the "Formal Vulcan". The rounded fringe/bangs, then the pointy bits on the sides in front of the ears. Now, if you compare Spock's hair to T.O.P's hair, there are similarities. T.O.P has what I like to call the "Casual Vulcan". Let's face it. The Formal Vulcan is outdated. T.O.P is just keeping it real. If you walk around Korea, you'll see so many young guys (and even a few girls) sporting the Casual Vulcan. Next time you check out a busy area with young Korean adults (if you're living in Korea, or a K-town somewhere), you are bound to see a lot of Casual Vulcans.

This is Zachary Quinto... You know, Syler from Heroes. He's playing Spock in the upcoming (yet another) Star Trek movie which is due sometime in 2009. He has a bit of T.O.P about him. Maybe it's the eyebrows again. But, you can see the Formal Vulcan hair style on Zach's head. He sports it well.

You see what I'm getting at. Here's a group of photos that I found when I did a search for T.O.P on nate.com:


I rest my case.

Like I said above, next time you're out, see how many Casual Vulcans you can spot. Would be a nice change from the "dodge the 아저씨's spit and phlegm on the sidewalk" game.

The Whitlams / Tim Freeman

After some decent Aussie tunes? Can't go past these:

Charlie #2 (Buy Now Pay Later)


Thankyou


No Aphrodisiac


Blow up the Pokies

More Tim Minchin

He's Awesome *^^*

4 Minutes

The only decent song from her "Hard Candy" Album:


The clip is okay. The Timbaland production is very... Timbaland. I just find this song catchy.

But Madonna needs to start wearing more clothes.

Scooter

Here's the latest single, "I'm Lonely"



and the previous single, "Jumping All Over The World"

Pieces, Part One...

Has found itself on my iPod *^^*


Here's the new video to their song, One:

Surprises

Lately, the weather had been all sunny, except for a few rainy spots. Today was a nice cloudy day, with a bit of sunshine.

Going to Fukuoka is not going to happen on the days off. Getting there on the 11th is no problem, but getting back on the 12th is a bit difficult. When I say a bit difficult, i mean, there are no seats available on the ferry back to Busan, and I'm not a good swimmer. Will go another time.

I got a nice parcel in the mail today. Some late Easter chocolate, a few bags of lollies and two bottles of deodorant. It was a nice surprise. I shared some of the chocolate and lollies with the students. The Racing cars were a big hit. But, the bag of Chicos had a "free songs at the iTunes store", so I sorted that out when I got home. Nothing wrong with a free track from iTunes.

Speaking of Music, one class of mine were up to the "chant" section of the book. And for some reason, with the structure of it, it got me thinking about how cool it would sound if it was done in the style of the B-52's, with the girls chanting "Socks! Socks!" and the guy doing the other part. Maybe its because I have been listening to the latest B-52's album, and their single "Funplex".

Funplex



Also found this in my search, which was kinda cool:

Toxic Love Shack: The B-52's vs Britney



Here is an example of some of the English study that Korean Middle School students do. Notice at how FUN it is!

Tim Minchin

An Australian Comedian/Musician with some awesomely funny and cool songs:

Darkside


If You Really Loved Me


Not Perfect


Inflatable You


Adam Hill Song


Alan Brough Song


Enjoy! I did *^^*

Australia Day (Better Late than Never)

It was Australia day January 26, where Australia celebrates is achievements, history and culture; reflects on it's losses, times of hardship and change; and gets together to look forward and hope for the future. Also a good time to hang out with mates, be proud that you come from the best country in the world, and how lucky we are.

When I was young, I liked the music of Daryl Braithwaite, an Australian Singer and Songwriter. I've put together a few videos of his tracks, that I found on Youtube.

One Summer


The Horses


Higher than Hope

Back to the Usual Crap

Had a great weekend, but back to the usual crap, with work. Don't get me wrong, the good students are good, but lately, there seem to be a lot more bad students, than good. Also, for me, in Korea, there seems to be a lot more bad than good here. All the friends who talk to me, listen to me, and cheer my up - I really appreciate it. I know that I will miss the good things in Korea, but, I really need a break from the bad things, and most of them happen at work.

I don't regret coming to Korea. I have learned a lot from my experiences here. I do regret staying in the same place for 27 months. With that said, I know I can survive the next 10 months here. Got a credit card to pay off (this will be the 2nd time It's paid off during the time I've been in Korea), and then want to save money, so that when I get back to Australia, I can relax for a while. Also, due to the timing, I won't be getting a teaching job for a while.

Lately, I haven't made or remixed any music. But, i got the idea to remix Domino Dancing by pet shop boys, when it came on my MP3 player, when I was walking to the train station last Saturday. I started working on it Saturday night, and now, Wednesday morning at about 3am, I had the full version, and an edit finished.