First Snow
Not today. We had our first snow on this winter last Thursday, Nov 5th, 2009. It was a brief snowfall in the early evening. The snow lumps were pretty (and pretty densed as well) and fortunately it didn’t last – otherwise it might have a bad impact on the road condition and I might be late for choir practise that night.
This winter’s first snow led me into thinking of a Korean-Japanese collabourated film, 첫눈 Virgin Snow 初雪の恋 (2007) by Lee Jun Ki and Aoi Miyazaki (whom in my opinion looks a lot like Angelica Lee Sum-Kit (Mandarin: Li Sin Jie), esp with Aoi’s photo in the Virgin Snow), a movie about puppy love. I am wondering why the name was translated as Virgin Snow… was it just to differentiate it from another Korean movie, 초설 First Snow (1958)?
Add comment November 10, 2009
jeansdream
Tags: Aoi Miyazaki, Lee Jun Ki, Lee Sum Kit, Virgin Snow
Park Shin Yang Has Won – AGAIN
Happy Birthday, Park Shin Yang!
Nov 1, 2009 – Park will be celebrating his birthday with fans from Japan and Korea, and on this day, a great news came – Lee Kim Productions, a CODA member, which refused to pay Park after the k-drama, War of Money, had lost its appeal to the Seoul Central District Court’s ruling on May 8, 09 that Park was legally entitled to be paid in full for the contracted wages. The Seoul High Court (11th Division) has ruled on Nov 1st that Lee Kim Productions has to pay Park in full the remaining balance AGAIN.
A contract is a contract. Lee Kim Productions, no matter how many times you appeal, you are wrong for not paying Park.
CODA – why do you insist your ban on Park Shin Yang? Can’t you see that Lee Kim is wrong again? Why do you still take the wrong side? Please reverse this unfair and unjust ban immediately! Please, don’t ever release any more statement that Lee Kim Productions is the victim (XYZ!!!). Park is the double victim here – no pay and no work!!
Someone, please, make sure Lee Kim Productions doesn’t just “fold” like that – please make sure it pays Park in full and please don’t let it pull some other tricks and let it go away with it – please!
I invite you to join the Counter Ban for Park Shin Yang – on Nov 5th, send your email to CODA and its members and ask them nicely to reverse the ban on Park; thanks!
News in English: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/11/113_54747.html
News in Korean:
http://m.media.daum.net/view.html?cateid=100000&newsid=20091101090145369&p=fnnewsi
http://www.cbs.co.kr/nocut/show.asp?idx=1303017
Fighting, Park Shin Yang! Hope to see you in a new k-drama soon.
(Updates: photos from “Autumn, 111″ @ Grand Hyatt Hotel / Seoul (text in Korean) – http://news.msn.co.kr/article/read.html?cate_code=5000&article_id=200911012226125007 )
3 comments November 1, 2009
jeansdream
Tags: Autumn 111, Park Shin Yang
H1N1 Vaccine Shot Rush
Who would imagine that moms would drag kids, wait for 5 hours, and still feel satisfied when their kids finally get the H1N1 vaccine shot?
I witnessed that today – through the radio. A mom was interviewed. A health clinic at York Region (Ontario, Canada) started to offer H1N1 Vaccine shot to prioritized citizens. It opened at noon today. This Mom went there at 8:30 am; got her (and her kid) shot after an approx. 6 hours wait. She was not overly upset about this long wait and she said she felt the wait was worth.
For those who didn’t know… a 13-year-old Toronto (Etibocoke) boy was lost to H1N1 earlier this week. The H1N1 virus claimed this healthy hockey sport in just one day. He felt ill (symptons included fever / vomiting) during a hockey tournament over this weekend. He was taken to a walk-in clinic and was sent home on Sunday. He collapsed Monday before noon, was taken to a hospital and passed away later the day.
An unimaginable shock to the family for sure. My deepest condolence to this family.
Now you can understand why the rush, why the wait and why the satisfication. Nothing’s more precious than life.
Hubby and I were talking about this last week. We thought we could do away without. We never did. We are changing our minds now.
The York region website was down today. I guess too many people wanted to check out the clinic locations (York region) and it went belly up.
Stay healthy for yourself, your loved ones and those around you. Health!
2 comments October 29, 2009
jeansdream
Tags: H1N1
Park Shin Yang @ NYIT
Park Shin Yang’s doing great at NYIT. There are two postings at his Japan official fan site on Oct 5, 2009.
The first article was about logistics arragement due to a large crowd of attendence and it included comments taken from one of the five Korean students who received a scholarship to attend this course. The student said Park Shin Yang’s passion of life and acting made him feel his own passion once again. Professors of other acting classes also brought their students to join Professor Baek and Park’s class. Many people were packed in a classroom. The attenders were asked to open their hearts and minds for a frank discussion.
The second article covered the agenda (lecture notes) of that class – a list of very down-to-earth, practical questions (see for yourself!). At the end of this class, everyone applauded. Touching, isn’t it? Apparently there is no “language” problem – when it comes to acting, the body language is universal, isn’t it?
Speaking of the Japan official fan site, there is a call for photos of 1 MB or less to be sent to the “Autumn 111″ birthday party event organizer – theme is of course the birthday celebration for Park Shin Yang. Selected photo will be shown at the party. Deadline to send is Oct 27. For details, please click here (in Japanese).
CODA, you may ban Park from future k-dramas, but you can’t ban his spirit and passion in dramas. The sooner you reverse the ban decision, the better. People are not stupid. They can tell what is legit and what’s not.
Reader, if you haven’t participated in the counter ban campaign before, consider joining at least once – the next one is launched Nov 5th, 2009 – please check “Counter Ban for Park Shin Yang” out!
Add comment October 9, 2009
jeansdream
Tags: Autumn 111, NYIT, Park Shin Yang
My Cello Level: I Get It, Or I Don’t
Today I practiced cello to my heart’s content. After the last class, I got some new songs: 1) Take My Life and Let It be 2) For Unto Us a Child is Born (from Handel’s Messiah) 3) Pathetique Sonata Op. 13 2nd Movement Solos (one would have heard of it; here’s a piano version) 4) Hatikvah
The first two songs are hymns which I am very familar with. The third one is a Beethoven’s song; the last one – I had no clue what it sounded like. So I searched on the internet for Hatikvah (or Ha Tikvah, which means The Hope in Hebrew). Then I realized it’s the national anthem of Israel. I listened to it once (a man performed this with his mouth making a trumpet sound). Then I tried to play the hymns and Hatikvah.
I used to think if I play better if I know the melody line well. Today I discovered that’s not always the case…. to my surprise.
Tone-wise, Hatikvah came out best. It came out fine even the first attempt.
My conclusion of the day: For my cello, either I get it, or I don’t. I am not a true musician.
I was quite pleased with myself, until I saw this…
Fingers hurt…. argh!!!
p.s. my lovely hubby applied some WD40 to the cello’s fine tuners – they’re not so tight anymore – sweeeeet. 
Add comment September 20, 2009
jeansdream
SDA2009 – All Awards Announced
The Seoul International Drama Awards SDA2009 awards ceremony was held at Seoul’s Olympic Hall in the Olympic Park on Sept 11, 2009.
Many Korean newspaper covered the news. Feel free to search for “SDA 서울드라마어워즈” and you will see a ton of articles about the results.
I am only going to highlight winners related to K-industry (and Canada!!) - note these are my best guesses (if I made any mistake, please inform me!)
First, no surprise to anyone -
Most Popular Actor (voted by netizens): Kim Hyun Joong (Boys Before Flowers) Most Popular Actress (voted by netizens): Moon Geun Young (Painter of the Wind) Most Popular Drama (voted by netizens): Boys Before FlowersThese were announced on the evening:
Grand Prize: Memoirs in China (China, Zhejiang Huace)
Best & Excellence Drama
Single Drama (Best): The Englishman’s Boy (Canada, Minds Eye Entertainment) Mini-Series (Best): Beethoven Virus (Korea, MBC) Series Drama (Excellence): The Slingshot (Korea, KBS)SS501 (where Kim Hyun Joong is a member but did not perform due to high fever and serious flu symptons), Park Hyo Shin (박효신), Tae Yong (태연) (SNSD/Girl’s Generation) and Tmax were some of the performers of the evening. Songs presented included Lee Jun Ki’s Il-Ji-Mae – HwaShin, Kim Myung Min’s Beethoven Virus – Can You Hear Me. Park and Tae Yong performed MISA’s Snow Flower as a duet. Tae Yong’s voice is really nice – it’s a pity that this key wasn’t Tae Yong’s range… (see the clip with the link behind Tae Yong).
Source:
http://www.mydaily.co.kr/news/read.html?newsid=200909112046521117&ext=na (complete winner list at the end of the article; with photos!)
http://www.newsen.com/news_view.php?uid=200909112036111001 (with photos!)
http://www.allkpop.com/index.php/full_story/seoul_international_drama_awards_2009_wrap-up/ (more photos and video clips!)
Add comment September 12, 2009
jeansdream
Tags: Beethoven Virus, 박효신, 태연, Park Hyo Shin, SDA 서울드라마어워즈, SDA2009, Seoul International Drama Awards 2009, Tae Yong, The Englishman Boy, The Slingshot
Cello Lesson #23 – Solfège Busted
It’s been a while since I wrote about my cello lessons. I have been “progressing” SSSSSLOWLY. Sometimes I felt like I was getting somewhere, yet in the class I played really badly. Last week – my single takeaway exercise was to “make the strings resonate”. What a blow… but I really need to do that.
Last class, my practice piece was Scherzo by C. Webster (melody style ABA). It has a busy (étude-like) first part, a meno mosso expressive second part, and it closes with the busy notes again. The middle part was my main course (hungry…) – it has a bit of shifting and it covers 2nd/4th positions. As usual, my fingering is all over the place (I keep playing notes that marked with the number “2″ with my index finger… sigh!!). But that’s not the main problem. I’ve transcribed the melody to solfège names and my teacher reacted greatly to that. He said I was cheating. I was supposed to play by the letter, not by the solfège syllable. I told him that’s how I sing, and he absolutely hates it. Honestly, sometimes in the class, he’d ask me to play a note (by the letter, like a F#) and I would totally look like an idiot and my response would be so retarded and he might have thought that I was evening-dreaming or I simply turned deaf. When I play, I play the melody. I rarely map the note to the Music Letter in my head (tho I roughly map the note to the note on music, but not the letter of the note). I don’t work the Letter system when I play. I won’t say don’t work with it “at all” but I’m far better with the solfège system. This is going to be a BIG adjustment – perhaps a barrier for me to cross if I want to move further. Argh!!!
Anyways, my solfège system’s busted now. DXXX!
Add comment September 9, 2009
jeansdream
Hwang Jung Min and Shadow Murder 검은집 (2007) – Korean Movie
Hwang Jung Min (황정민) – a name Korean movie goers will not forget.
If you pick your movies or dramas just by the look of the leads, you could have easily skipped his work. But – you really have *NO IDEA* how much you’ve missed out. Seriously.
I have not exhausted his work yet. Actually I bumped into his work purely by accident. After I watched k-drama “Lovers in Prague” (프라하의 연인, 2005, SBS), I was interested in seeing more work of both leads, Jun Do Yeon and Kim Joo Hyuk (whom I have briefly discussed before). Then I came across this movie, “You Are My Sunshine” (너는 내 운명, 2005, Korean Movie) with Jun Do Yeon as the Female Lead and Hwang was the Male Lead. I had no idea who Hwang Jung Min was then. After watching “You Are My Sunshine”, I became more curious of Hwang. His role in that movie was a “below average Joe”, late middle-aged farmer Seok Joong who received coffee delivery from Eun Ha, a staff of a rural coffee shop. She delivered products of the coffee shop in a small town, and sometimes she offered “special services” to the male customers as well. This is a melodrama. Then I watched Hwang’s another movie, “A Man Who Was Superman” (슈퍼맨이었던 사나이, 2008, Korean Movie). Hwang played a superman whose single mission is to save the earth and has been doing that for the longest time, until a producer/reporter met him and looked at the ”superman”’s x-ray report. This is a very meaningful story that makes you think and reflect a lot. I was swept head over heel - Hwang Jung Min’s performance was shockingly and amazingly solid. Since then, I’m convinced – show me his name, and I am sold (almost).
Yesterday I heard of Hwang’s movie, Shadow Murder (검은집, also called Black House) (2007) (original story from a Japanese horror novel by Yusuke Kishi which has also been made into a Japanese movie ”The Black House“(1999)), where he played a new insurance agent investigaing a death of a boy which leads him to a series of murder cases. This is a thriller. I am looking forward to this when I get a hold of it. Actually, I am going to watch his first k-drama “That Fool” (그바보, 2009, KBS2) – I think it will be worth just by enjoying his performance.
Hwang Jung Min – a sweet charm in the heart. A rare gem in the K-entertainment industry. Highly recommended.
1 comment September 5, 2009
jeansdream
Tags: A Man Who Was Superman, 너는 내 운명, 검은집, 그바보, Hwang Jung Min, 슈퍼맨이었던 사나이, 황정민, Jun Do Yeon, Shadow Murder, That Fool, The Black House, You Are My Sunshine
“Autumn, 111″
Autumn, 111
Nov 1 is Park Shin Yang’s official’s unofficial birthday (according to his core fans, his birthday is not this day ) but his core fans still celebrate this day with him (and leave this unofficial official bd to his family) – there will be a fan meeting on Nov 1, 2009 at Grand Hyatt Hotel @ Seoul – his fans are throwing Park Shin Yang a birthday party – this is going to be touching and meaningful – this is the first birthday party since his ban last year on Dec 5, 08.
Check out from his official fan sites (Korean / Japanese) for more details!
CODA, see that?? Many are still with Park Shin Yang. The longer you drag onto this, the longer people will remember your “sxxpxxity”. Reverse this unjust ban now – please?
2 comments September 4, 2009
jeansdream
Tags: Autumn 111, Park Shin Yang
SDA2009 – “Most Popular” Categories Set
Seoul International Drama Awards 2009 – the voting event for the Most Populars is officially closed. The following is a glance of the results.
| SDA 2009 Voting Results | Overall (KR+JP+Other) |
| Drama – Boys Before Flowers | 22,269,957 |
| Drama – Painter Of The Wind | 15,363,439 |
| Drama – Iljimae | 15,360,064 |
| Male – Kim Hyun Joong (BBF) | 25,527,982 |
| Male – Lee Jun Ki (Iljimae) | 15,366,247 |
| Male – Lee Min Ho (BBF) | 5,416,123 |
| Female – Moon Geun Young (POTW) | 25,229,966 |
| Female – Han Hyo Joo (Iljimae) | 13,080,673 |
| Female – Gu Hye Son (BBF) | 5,110,458 |
I started recording the stats at 11:05 am (Aug 30 Canada EST) when the event is closed for voting. I knew it was closed because I tried to click the Vote button at approximately 11:02 am and I got a pop-up window saying the event is closed. But I found that the vote count was still changing… and I really don’t understand why. For the past days, when I voted, the vote count would change at real time – i.e. I see my vote immediately after I voted, and hence I thought the count was real-time. So with that assumption, as soon as the voting event was closed, the votes shouldn’t change. But I found that not the case. For example, Moon Guen Young’s votes increased from 6,370,464 (at 11:06 am Aug 30 Canada EST) to the final 6,381,709 by 11,245 votes.
Another abnormality – for at least a day, I saw Kim Hyun Joong appeared three times on the top-10 summary in the “vote result in Japan” page. That means something’s seriously wrong on the back-end.
I also had a couple days that I couldn’t vote at all – to be more accurate, I could vote for all 3 categories, but when it came to the final confirmation page where it gathered your information, it gave me an error and I couldn’t complete the vote no matter what I provided. Not to mention that the site was slow in loading and for 50% of the time, I had to refresh my session for my browser would time-out and give me an error.
Last but not least, tho there’s a rule forbidding an IP for voting more than once a day, did you ever wonder how could some candidates collect votes so fast… Let’s do some math here. This event was opened from July 13 - Aug 30 – a total of 49 days. Take the Most Popular drama Boys Before Flowers as an example, the total vote was 22,269,957. Assuming everyone started voting on the first day – that would still take 454,489 votes a day to make up the total. Now think – are there t-h-a-t many fans of BBF out there?… P-e-r-h-a-p-s… but highly unlikely! In fact, there are several ways to beat this “Per IP once a day” rule. Using a different browser is one way. Another way is if you’re using dynamic internet connections (where your connection is assigned a new IP when you reconnent to your ISP every time). Not to encourage people doing this, I am not going to describe in details, but it can be done. Good intention of the rule, but if there’s a known method on how to beat it, then I think the rule shouldn’t be imposed at all. Afterall, if fans want to show how durable and loyal they can be by repeating this loop action package *connect->vote->disconnect->reconnect* for their idols, it should be allowed for people with dynamic or static connection… just my rant. I’ve got to give these fans some credits – for those who mobilized other fans to ceaselessly vote and for those who ceaselessly voted, you’re persistantly remarkable and amazing – you guys swept KBS (BBF) / Kim Hyun Joong (BBF) / Moon Guen Young (POTW) the SDA 2009 Most Popular Drama / Actor / Actress award title – great fight.
Park Shin Yang (Painter Of The Wind) – he’s on the 10th rank (out of 37) in Japan, 12th in Korea and 15th in Overseas and has pulled in a total of 5009 votes.
These 2 gents are on the jury-selected Best Actor category, to be announced on Sept 11, 09 on the SDA 2009 Ceremony:
- Kim Myung Min (Beethoven’s Virus) is on the 4th rank on all charts, and has attracted 4,882,852 votes.
- Park Yong Ha (A Man’s Story / Slingshot) ranked 8th in Korea, 6th in Japan and 30th in overseas, has gathered 11, 871 votes.
Regardless of the results, congratulations to all – may your drama career advance to be next level and may more recognize and appreciate your (and your production team’s) effort and talent.
Please continue to support the K-entertainment industry – help make it a brighter and better place. If you can spare 20 minutes now to join the Sept 2009 Email Campaign to help Park Shin Yang fight his unfair ban, please visit this – you can send your email to CODA today (no need to wait for Sept 5 as all material needed is ready for use!). Thank you!
1 comment August 30, 2009
jeansdream
Tags: Beethoven Virus, Boys Before Flowers, Gu Hye Son, Han Hyo Joo, Iljimae, Kim Hyun Joong, Kim Myung Min, Lee Jun Ki, Lee Min Ho, Moon Geun Young, Painter of the Wind, Park Shin Yang, Park Yong Ha, SDA2009, Seoul International Drama Awards 2009, The Slingshot
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