Music Spotlight: Taeyang – Wedding Dress

I normally cover songs you may not have heard of before, or rather ones that fall in the indie spectrum, and general obscurity. But this one is a good candidate for those who have just gotten into K-Pop, especially in the current BTS era (or Generation 3, for a veteran such as myself–more to come in another post). One of my favorite K-Pop groups is BIGBANG, which I’ve followed since their debut, and one of the members is Taeyang who released one of his memorable solo singles of his career in 2009.

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Seoul Searching Chronicles – COEX Aquarium Highlights [Video]

Back in October 2019, I finally got the chance to travel to Seoul, Korea, for my very first out of country trip. While we were there, we checked out the COEX Aquarium, located in the COEX Starfield Mall in Gangnam (also where the SMTOWN store is located at the time). I was told to check this place out, and we weren’t disappointed!

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Interest Treasures: The Unusual Journey of Yang Joon Il

Many of you are probably into, or at least heard of, the latest K-pop acts such as BTS, TWICE, BLACKPINK, and Stray Kids. But there is Yang Joon Il (Hangul: 양준일), a solo artist who made his debut at the very beginning of the 1990s, and who was largely ignored by the Korean media because of his approach to the norms of the era.

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Music Spotlight: Jang Geun Suk’s “Crazy Crazy Crazy”

Note: The following was written in November 2011, and it was originally for Jang Geun Suk’s single, “Let Me Cry”. In the time following the original publication of the post, he released his full album, “Just Crazy”, which includes Let Me Cry. However, for republication, I am going to include “Crazy Crazy Crazy” to highlight his aforementioned first album, released in 2012.

I wanted to talk about a popular Korean Wave actor who trends above all the others in Japan (in before AKB48) and had a sold out concert at the Tokyo Dome. His name is Jang Geun Suk (also written as Jang Keun Suk), who rose to fame after starring in the 2009 Korean drama, You’re Beautiful, and had a cameo appearance in the Japanese adaptation of YAB, Ikemen Desu Ne.

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Channel Surfing: YG Future Strategy Office

YG Future Strategy Office is a Netflix Original Series from 2018 that starred former BIGBANG member, Seungri. It’s not a traditional Korean Drama in terms of standards, but a mock reality show. Showing behind the scenes of the maknae’s attempts to improve YG Entertainment’s global domination.

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[Community Poll] Series Recommendations – Anime Edition

So many shows, so little time! With the inception of the Centaku Media Podcast, I figured this would be a good place to start where I can verbally discuss details of an anime series I’ve waited until–whenever it is decided–to watch. There are many lists out there of good anime recommendations, but I don’t know where to begin! I have a long list of anime that I’ve put “On Hold” or “Plan to Watch” on my personal MyAnimeList account, and some that have come out in recent years that sound interesting–but only makes my backlog worse.

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Centaku Media Podcast – Episode #01: Let’s Survive 5 Days in South Korea (+ Show Notes)

In the first official episode of the Centaku Media podcast, Sanjo-chan talks about her recent trip to South Korea, and why she chose to go to the land of K-Pop over an Otaku’s dream trip to Japan. Also, she explains how she survived the 5 day trip using a few essential apps, and a reflection of moments experienced during the journey.

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