Isn't it all too familiar...

That blood-curdling moment when you've been hiding all these years under so many aliases...only for that stalker ex girlfriend of yours to finally find you.

On the speculation of one's love life...

Once I came across a tweet which went:

Wang Leehom is married. JGL is married. Jay Chou is married. Takeshi Kaneshiro, you're my only hope.

To which I replied:

Don't worry, out of all F4 members, only Vanness Wu is married.

Jerry Yan, the oldest member of F4 who was often considered the most handsome, turned 38 last January and is still single. It goes without saying that ever since he started his showbiz career as a model long before "Meteor Garden", his love life has been put under public scrutiny. There may be a lot of possibilities that explain his current state of love life, but I never forget one day in mid-2002 when I watched the special feature of an official "Meteor Garden" DVD. There, the then 24-year-old Jerry Yan talked about his love life. One particular quote, translated into English, caught my attention:

Of course I like girls. When I was a child, my mother taught me to like girls.

Before you have a go at me, please bear in mind that I'm a translator myself. No one in my trade fully trusts any translated script because when we translate, we turn the original text into one that makes sense in the target language. That means we often have to reduce some meanings. Now I wish I still had that DVD so I could show it to any of my Mandarin-speaking friends that special part to know what Yan was actually saying...

On Nine Muses' comeback...

After much anticipation, Nine Muses is finally back, having hibernated for one year due to the painful loss of three members: Lee 'Leesem' Hyunjoo, Park Eunji and Ryu Sera. That's rapper, main dancer and main singer respectively. And they're back with two new members: Jo Sojin, who previously appeared in the sub-unit Nasty Nasty with another Nine Muses member Park Kyungri and ZE:A member Kevin Kim, and Lee Keumjo.

It took me a long time to decide what to focus on regarding Nine Muses and their comeback, but I finally decided to focus on their new single "Drama" and Sera's decision to continue her showbiz career apparently as indie musician.

In light of their comeback in mid-2003 with the single "Wild", Sera released a cover of Joss Stone's "Karma." It was professionally shot though it was very low-budget, filmed on the set of "Wild" music video. It kept Mines on the edges of their seats, as promises of her solo career seemed to be looming.



Sera released a couple more cover videos courtesy of Star Empire, but no actual solo career materialised, until news broke that she 'graduated' from Nine Muses.

Now fast forward to January 23 2015 when Nine Muses released a new single titled "Drama." Take a look.



Eldest member Moon Hyuna just celebrated her 28th birthday on January 19. Yes that's her international age, which means in Korean age she's 29 years old. Anyone with any real musical talent and self respect would want to stop prancing around pulling aegyo and looking every bit manufactured past the age of 25. Since her departure, Sera has been very active on her own YouTube channel that she calls RyuTube, releasing cover songs and songs that she writes herself. I guess it was the same reason for Jessica Jung, who left Girls' Generation in October 2014 to focus on her fashion line, Blanc & Eclare.

A flashback...

Jakarta, mid January 2005
My best friend, let's call her Rose, went to the 18th birthday party of a guy. Her boyfriend's best friend's brother.
I had a crush on her boyfriend's best friend, let's call him Chris, but he obviously didn't like me back.
She went to the party without telling me.
And why should she?
But somehow I felt she'd betrayed me.
I remember feeling anxious, stupid and angry at the same time.
I texted my other best friend, let's call her Jane, one who went to elementary school with the boyfriend.
We agreed to meet at an Italian restaurant somewhere in South Jakarta the next day so I could pour my heart out.
I remember wanting to call her, but it was very late at night.

Nearly ten years later, I'm feeling the exact same way.
Rose is married to someone else.
Jane is still single, and an avid traveler.
I haven't been in touch with Chris since I moved to NZ.
But this feeling is all too familiar...

Someone's got what he wanted...

Woollim Entertainment has finally debuted their much anticipated girlband Lovelyz today. The group consists of eight girls aged 16 to 22 (international), three of whom (Jiae, Baby Soul (real name Lee Soojung) and Jin (real name Park Myungeun)) have previously debuted as soloists. In 2012, Yoo Jiae and Baby Soul released "She's A Flirt" featuring Infinite's Jang Dongwoo.



And this is Lovelyz's first single, "Goodbye Like Yesterday."


They're good but in all honesty I don't really like it that Jiae, Jin and Baby Soul, who have already shined as soloists, have to share spotlight with five other girls. Also you should have a look at their teaser images, in which the girls are dressed in what looks like school uniforms. I mean, Jiae and Baby Soul are 21 and 22 respectively! I wonder how those girls feel...

EDIT: It was awesome that they debuted with a ballad instead of a dance number. At least in the past two years most girlbands (if not all of them) debuted with a dance song. "Good Night Like Yesterday" draws people's attention to the girls' voices and it gives a good first impression that they really are singers...instead of dancers who sing to accompany their dance moves.

And the model that graces the video is, of course, none other than Infinite's leader Kim Sunggyu! If you're a long-time Sunggyu fan like me, you sure remember what happened on M-Net's "Jjang" when he was interviewed in light of his solo album "Another Me"...


Sunggyu complains that Kim Myungsoo, Infinite's visual member, got to star in his first solo single "60 Seconds." He's hoping that one day he'll star in his music video, and if you fast forward to 6:50 you'll see him hoping he'll get to showcase his acting ability one day. Sunggyu has since branched out to acting, playing the title role in a musical play called "Vampire", which was based by a play written by Czech composer Karel Svoboda. The play was performed in Tokyo on August 21-27 2014.

Last but not least, what's up with his red hair? Is it to celebrate the second anniversary of "Another Me", which was released on November 19 2012?