Wanna introduce you to the rest of C.N. Blue:

cr: as tagged

Jonghyun was the former leader of the group. Well, Yonghwa’s my favorite, but I honestly didn’t feel the need to change the leader to Yonghwa. I think Jonghyun did a pretty great job with the band back in Japan, even without Yonghwa (he was in Korea shooting “You’re Beautiful”). I can just imagine the pressure of squeezing four roles into three — but Jonghyun was able to help his bandmates wing it. I’m not really sure what F&C (management company handling C.N. Blue, and yes, the already-famous FT Island) had in mind, but I’m sure they had a good talk with Jonghyun and the other members about it. Anyways, back to Jonghyun, he rarely smiles, and when he does, I feel like I’ve struck a gold mine. He needs to smile more often. ^^

Minhyuk — oh, jeong mal keopta! ^^ He looks really babyish, although I’m pretty sure he’s not the youngest (I think Jungshin’s the maknae in the band). And he does know how to play the drums!!!

He’s really adorable during their performances. I love the way he sings along even while drumming; there are times when he just sings “tah-tah-tah” in synchrony to the drumbeat. Sooooo sexy.

Jungshin strikes me as a baaaad boy underneath a quiet guise. I admit that I was definitely intrigued when he said during a radio interview that he never lasts 100 days in a relationship because he gets tired of women easily. Hah! My heart hammers wildly when the camera focuses on him. He acknowledges the camera by raising his eyebrow ever so slightly. Eeek!!!

Haha, Yonghwa also has these cute flirty faces he makes at the camera. My knees turn to jelly everytime he does that, especially when he does that little pointy finger shake at “mam molla” in the chorus for “Oetoriya”.

cr: Lynx391 @ YT

I did mention a few paragraphs earlier that C.N. Blue first debuted in Japan. Well, the reason is this — the band would only be allowed to debut in Korea after having completed a certain number of hours (200? I can’t seem to remember) worth of performance at Japan. Yeah, it’s like OJT or something. C.N. Blue has even gone as far as performing in the streets of Japan. That’s one of the biggest reasons I’m so proud of them. Yonghwa said they even spent a night in jail for that, having been mistaken as illegal immigrants. It would’ve sucked back in the day, but I’m sure that would make their success taste sweeter now that they’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback regarding their Korean debut.

Their music is addictive. Their 2 Japanese albums are in English, save for one Japanese song on their second mini-album. Yonghwa even introduced me to the word “compunction” — if it weren’t for the song “Just Please” which he wrote, I would never have found out that such a word existed. But now that their album release have some of their English songs in Korean, I’m not really sure which version I like. I do love the fact that they’re able to sing in almost-fluent English, but there’s something about them singing in their native tongue that drives me even crazier about them.

Here are three more of their songs, this time from their second mini-album:
One of a Kind – best song I’ve heard from them so far ^^
Y, Why – Yonghwa co-wrote this. Some of the lyrics don’t make much sense but you won’t notice that unless you see the lyric sheet. The vocals are beautifully sung, the music well-played.
Never Too Late – Jonghyun co-wrote this song. It’s kinda soothing to the ears despite the fast beat, imo.

For someone who’s eagerly and anxiously anticipated their debut for months, I’m thrilled to say that C.N. Blue has taken South Korea by storm for bringing something fresh to the Korean music scene. I’m hoping that they’ll maintain (if not increase) their level of success even after releasing several albums.

Ooh, before I go, I found this interesting number of theirs at Shibuya. Only goes to show how great of a leader Jonghyun is to have them sound as good as this even with one member lacking. Oh, Yonghwa-ssi, I’m sorry. You know I love you, guess I’ll just have to wait and see how well you’ll be able to lead your bandmates.

And I loved how they did a cover of this song. I haven’t heard it for over a decade, and I really didn’t think someone would actually have the balls to revive this song. Obviously, I thought wrong. ^^

credits to Asaliko @ 4shared

I started watching this last Sunday, and I’m now on Episode 10. I’m currently at work right now, but my eyes are still hurting somewhat from too much crying. I was surprised at how dramatic the pilot was — last time I cried at the first episode was with “Stairway To Heaven”.

The scenes were just all too familiar. At one point I had to send this to a few of my LMHPH clanmates:

Konting maneobra na lang sa plot, pwedeng ako na ang gumanap kay In-jung.”

The female protagonist, Na In-jung, was a famous cellist who was caught with a whirlwind romance with a married man named Lee Soo-hwan. Of course she doesn’t know this until Soo-hwan breaks up with her one day, which is the only time that he admits this to her. They try to make it work, until they’re caught by Soo-hwan’s wife.

In-jung loses her career and goes into hiding with her family. During this time, she is pregnant with Soo-hwan’s child, but she doesn’t tell him. Soo-hwan’s wife stalks her and after a major confrontation, In-jung miscarries. A day or two after, her parents get into a car accident. Her mother dies, and her father slips into a coma.

Five years later, In-jung meets Kang Yong-ki. Just when she starts to open up her heart to him, she discovers that Yong-ki is Soo-hwan’s brother-in-law. Soo-hwan is still in love with her after all these years, but for the love of God, I don’t understand why it was such a big deal to him. I can’t understand for the life of me why he had to ask In-jung to leave Yong-ki. What’s getting me more exasperated is that In-jung thinks that this is the best thing for her to do, to run away from Yong-ki.

Poor Yong-ki. I really feel for him. The last episode I watched last night, In-jung meets with Yong-ki’s dad and tells him her past with Soo-hwan. The teasers for the next episode show Yong-ki daring her to leave him. Ugh. I really hate In-jung, as much as I should be empathizing with her. Double ugh.

Since Lady Castle only airs twice a week, I’ll have a lot of time to focus on Cruel Love. Of course I know it’s going to be a happy ending. I’ve found a site which has an episode recap of the finale, and I’m really really itching to read it, but I’m keeping myself in check.

The storyline begins with a break-up scene. Jini (Kim Seon Ah) is dumped by her boyfriend Chan, saying no guy would ever want to be suffocated, even by the woman he loves. Along with his parting words, he leaves Jini a challenge — to go back to all of her previous boyfriends and ask them if they really loved her.

It then gives us a background of her past three relationships: Gu-hyeon, the choirmaster (this is the cutest of Lee Hyun-woo that I’ve seen so far); Jeong-seok, the college rebel (but of course, that Kim Su-ro is nowhere near Luke Perry, or even James Dean — pardon me, I just really had to squeeze that in ^^), and Yoo-in, the young artist (Gong Yoo reminds me more of like a vandal-slash-Mama’s-boy — albeit a yummy one ). There is no particular pattern on how love blossomed with each of the three guys. Jini first became intimate with Gu-hyeon over high school English tutoring. She meets Jeong-seok at college. Yoo-in becomes her turn-of-the-century boyfriend during her careerwoman days. One thing in common with all three relationships? Sex. Or for the more romantic, making love.

Gu-hyeon breaks up with her informally [and indirectly, as he hung up even before Jini could talk to him] over the phone, using his studies abroad as an excuse, and ends up being a priest. Jeong-seok is rumored to get married immediately after being matchmade with a daughter of an affluent and influential family, and confirms it by moving out without telling Jini in advance. As for Yoo-in, Jini was the one to walk away as she could not tolerate his sleazy and fast-paced lifestyle. She says and I quote: “You’re always honest and free but I can’t deal with it.”

Determined to prove that Chan was wrong with his theory, she drops a visit to each ex-boyfriend to pop the million-dollar question. And the results are dismal. If I was in Jini’s shoes, I would surely sink into major depression.

Gu-hyeon: What had transpired between them was a sin, as they were both lured into carnal desires, but with the love of God, they were already forgiven long before.
Jeong-seok: Retortingly tells her to stop bothering her as he already has his own family. Why the hell is she sticking like a piece of used gum that’s been thrown away already?
Yoo-in: Scathingly tells her he loved her, he loved his old lady. Jini takes this as an insult and slaps him for this. To which he counters: “Why don’t you just admit that you miss my body?” (And with this I believed with all my heart that he did love Jini in his own little way. The bitterness was just too much! ^^)

With the viciousness of “The First Wives Club”, Jini plots her revenge by making them pay for everything, literally. Her antics are just too funny for words, it would be best to watch them. In a way she had to resort to blackmail, both mental and emotional. Just to name a few, she gives Gu-hyeon a perpetual erection, vandalizes Jeong-seok’s car, and trashes Yoo-in’s apartment.

Of course the harrassment becomes too much for the three exes. Inevitably, Jini is financially repaid. But of course, the emotional trauma she’s gone through all three relationships can never be soothed by money [alone]. In the end she mails each ex-boyfriend a copy of her best-seller with a little note:

“Thank you for the inspiration!”

And I could’ve died out of sheer kilig and wistfulness when I saw the ending… a flashback of each ex-boyfriend which showed the answer to Chan’s question: They all did love Jini — at the time of the relationship, that is. But still, right? ^^ The gestures are just way too sweet for reading, you should see it with your own two eyes.

It makes me wish I could go back to each dysfunctional relationship (including the pseudo-ones) and blackmail them into admitting what I meant to them before. What a farfetched, absurd idea! Ahahaha… Oh well.

Image taken from www.mysoju.com

Don’t get me wrong… the characters, especially the corpse bride herself is lovable, but hey. It’s a wedding. Not everyone is blessed to experience that, you know.

I know, I know. I’m bitter. What the heck…

Having grown-up reading US teen and romance novels, it’s hard for me to find a local novel that speaks of the typical Pinoy culture/setting minus the jologs stuff that can be found in those thin Harlequin-ripoffs that are well-loved by the maids and household helps. So when Summit Media released its new line of fresh reading material in the form of Summit Books, I immediately pounced on every book I could get my hands on — The Breakup Diaries being one of them.

Here’s the gist as taken from summitmedia.com.ph:

When her perfect boyfriend – college hoop star, certified hottie and young hotshot legal eagle Itos Ongpauco – decided call it quits, 23-year-old Monica, barista by day and dreamer by night, found herself stepping out from behind the coffee counter and out of her comfort zone-into the mad world of magazine publishing. While starting out at the bottom of the food chain as the overworked, unpaid intern at M magazine can obliterate any trace of a self-esteem, anything – including bitchy bosses, temperamental photographers, rather dull but oh-so hot male models – is a welcome balm to Monica’s pains.

Never mind that her freebie-obsessed boss treats her like an on-call, 24-hour proxy service. Never mind that, sometimes, when she’s had too much alcohol, male models become irresistible. Never mind that, despite having just had her heart broken, the possibility of love presents itself again.

I loved the book! I loved how the typical girl can relate to Monica’s dilemmas and insecurities. I even see a bit of me in the way she blogs about her rants and raves for the day. And even if it did have a happy ending, which not every girl fresh from a breakup can relate to, it wasn’t the farfetched fantasy type, so it still kind of stayed in the realistic side.

Now, Channel 5 had a show called “Love Books” which airs every Tuesday night, four episodes in a month to complete one Summit Media book. So far, I think TBD is the third that they’ve done. I was really excited about seeing the characters, especially Monica, come to life.

The second episode aired yesterday and I was sorely disappointed — not too much at the casting, although I do think Nikki Gil was too much a glammed-up doll version of Monica. Then again, I didn’t get the chance to watch the pilot, so I could’ve missed out on a lot. I adore Jake Cuenca, I really do, but weeks ago, my sister and I were both anxious if they were going to air TBD at all and in the process, we were trying to guess which star would play which character. Beach, Monica’s love interest and happy ending, was portrayed as a cool hunk with a shaved head, so we were thinking more like they would be casting Derek Ramsey (or Jon Hall — yeah right, dream on! ) In all fairness, the womanizing Ilonggo model Jordache was given life by Andrew Wolff, and I have to admit, he nailed it.

What’s got me frustrated is that they changed a whole friggin’ lot. In the book, Monica is somewhat the geek and her best friend Giselle is the flirty boy magnet, but in the TV series, it seems that the characters and the names have been switched. And what got me really dismayed is this: Beach’s name has been changed to Trek and he is the friggin’ ex-boyfriend of Monica’s boss. What a twist. How typically Filipino.

They also literally gathered the scenes/events and twisted them up altogether. The sequencing is kind of bad. If you’ve read the book, you will really get confused at what’s happening, especially if you didn’t catch the premiere episode. I read the book, didn’t get to watch the pilot, so last night, I was really at a loss and it was a big effort to try to follow how it was working.

Oh well, based from past experiences, novels still really come out better as compared to the already-phenominal movie adaptations (Princess Diaries, A Walk To Remember, The Notebook) — so maybe I’ll still sit through the remaining episodes. Anyways, as I said, I do love Jake Cuenca, and his portrayal of Beach-slash-trek is kind of passable so there’s still something to look forward to.

Also, to those who haven’t read the book yet, go pick up your copy. It’s very heartwarming especially if you just broke up with someone recently. Simply put, it rocks!!!

Their kimchi is the best I’ve ever tasted. The last one I bought from the local grocery was delicious; theirs, which is 100% guaranteed to be homemade (behind me is the gigantic kimchi refrigerator ), is a thousand times better. It was my first time to taste kimchi with radish strips. According to the proprietor, the cabbage has some poisons that are effectively countered by the radish. Kind of like a yin-yang effect.

My first spoonful of their kimchi chigae was heaven. Who would have thought fermented kimchi would taste so good it was almost sinful?

The chopsticks were authentic, the thin metal ones you see on Korean TV shows and movies. Not the disposable ones that I’ve used on the 2 other Korean restos that I’ve been to — I’m sick of those!

I can’t wait to go back to that little soju bang.

**kimchi and kimchi chigae pics taken from www.trifood.com; chopsticks image taken from www.koamart.com**