Throwback Thursday

So, I've decided to start a weekly marathon of Dramas, with a catch - the dramas must be old. And by old, I mean anything airing before 2010. I came up with this after going through the back-log of posts that I haven't read from some of my favorite drama-bloggers out there. Stephanie-noona (at Crazy for Kdrama) posted back in May about being excited to watch T.O.P's new film Commitment. One of the comment-ers asked if Stephanie-noona could recommend any T.O.P dramas and she mentioned I Am Sam.

I think I've finally found the Post format I like...

What my desk has been looking like recently...

So, looks like I've finally found a review layout I like. If you've been over to Amanda's blog Outside Seoul lately and read her post on marathoning White Christmas - that's the layout. A post dissecting episodes without being recaps because I'm horrible at those. Kind of odd for a supposed-to-be review blog, yes, but I have 4 movie reviews and 2 drama reviews sitting in my drafts folder never to be written.

Sexualization In K-Pop: Is It Too Much?

I think the entire K-pop-osphere exploded when this picture was released.

I grew up in America, which is probably the most over-sexualized country in the world. Needless to say, I pretty much saw this picture, blinked, and moved on with my day. I'm pretty sure my only thought when I saw this picture (besides wondering if they were going to get banned from music shows) was, "Wow, Hyuna has a nice body. I wonder if any part of this picture was photo-shopped, though... Honestly, probably not. She dances for a living. Sigh. I really should exercise more..." As a fan of both 4minute and BEAST, I loved Trouble Maker when they first debuted. I love the sound of male and female voices together in a song, so it's a shame it doesn't happen more often. 

Gender and Asian Dramas (Oh Boy.)

I MADE THIS MYSELF! I FEEL SO ACCOMPLISHED! (my sister helped as she is a master at this stuff)

During my time of 5+ years watching dramas, I've found out a lot about myself. The one discovery that impacts my life the most is my gender identity. I've struggled with accepting myself for years and, as of now, am struggling with how to tell the world I"m not part of their majority, when the world isn't particularly accepting of those that don't fit into the norm. It's been pretty hard finding a place I belong to in the international drama fandom. 

As dramas are mostly catered to a female audience, I can't help but feel a little at odds. Expressing myself as something other than female is very difficult -- especially since I was raised to be nothing but female. I fit into the female demographic viewership because my tastes in television and film are distinctly so -- female. In other words, romance and comradeship are right up my street. Things like fighting and getting the girl are cool and I definitely enjoy watching them and always root for the character to win the fight and get the girl but, shows focused on relationships and those kinds of struggles are the themes I connect to the most. 

A Blocktober Halloween!

Aren't these costumes amazing?

I hope everyone's had a joyous Halloween filled with laughter and plenty of sweet treats ;) I thought I'd review Block B's promotional outfits and costumes since Halloween and the last day of Blocktober just happened! I'll be grading the outfits from debut to their current comeback (with one or two stages) from each promotional period. The grading system is ridiculously simple with HIT if I thought the outfits were good, and a MISS if I thought the outfits were bad. Let's get started, then!

Five Years Later and Still Starry-eyed?

I don't think she's watching this drama for the plot.

[So, I'd like to get this out of the way as soon as possible. Cheesus, is finding pictures for posts hard! I was quite naive when starting this whole blogging thing a few months ago (only to completely forget about in a weeks time) and holy chestnut, is this stuff complicated. I spent an hour trying to find that last picture. Sigh] 

Anyway~ moving on. (Focus, Hope, focus!) I've been reading my favorite blogs for a while now (even though I haven't been commenting, everyone I'm sorry!) and have started noticing that all of them -- after quite a few dramas are under their belts -- all start to lose a bit of that starry-eyed wonder that they had in the very beginning of their drama escapades. Pretty much, over time, they become a lot more critical of the dramas they watch and the things that used to be acceptable in dramas (even amusing!) no longer get to fly under the radar without notice (and usually end with a knock in that said drama's overall review score, too). 

I want to start a blog!

You wanna what? Uh.. okay.. 

So, I read a lot of blogs. A lot of blogs. All kinds of blogs, in fact. Maybe too many sometimes. There are only a few blogs I read kind of religiously, though. Those are the blogs that make me want to have a blog. Not necessarily to vent or save people from my opinion but because I want to make someone think a little differently. Make them stop and go "Huh. I've never thought about it that way." or the more common (in my case at least) "I disagree with everything you'v- oh. *cocks head to the side* That's... pretty amazing." It's always written so nicely, too. So eloquently and thought provoking that even if I disagree, I can understand and almost change my opinion because of how it's written.