Your Two Cents: Kpop Celebrity Look Alikes???

Hey all!
Hope you had a great weekend!

I will keep this short and sweet... So here's your Y2C question!

What Kpop celebrities do you always get mixed up?? Perhaps they look alike...perhaps they act alike...perhaps they have similar songs....perhaps they act in similar roles... Whatever the reason is, let me know!

Click here for some examples!

Get your FREE KBS OST Compilation CD!!!!

Hey all!

So if you tuned into KPC this week, you probably heard me and DJ Young annouce the Y2C (Your Two Cents) question last week ("What is your favorite OST song from a k-drama or Korean movie?"). Our producer Sophia has so generously offered to give out FREE KBS Drama OST Compilation CDs to EVERYONE who answered the question! I didn't really post it up on my blog and go out of my way to tell everyone about it, because I wanted the loyal few that answer every week or the loyal bunch that tune into KPI everyday to be rewarded! ^^

So, I remember everyone who answered (it's up to the 29th commentor on the blog) before the deadline (today). So if that's you, email me your name and mailing address to angela@kbs.co.kr. That way we can get those CDs shipped out to you!

Thanks for participating! ^^ SEE! It PAYS to listen to KBS World Radio~ :P

Your Two Cents: Ideal Guy/Gal in Kpop???

There's a phrase in Korean: "Ee-sang-hyeong" or "이상형". When celebrities come in for interviews variety programs, you'll often hear the interviewer/host ask the question of "Who's your ee-sang-hyung?" or basically, "Who's you ideal girl or guy?".

To be honest, the answers are always the same. For men, some common answers are Kim Taehee, Han Yeseul, and Lee Hyori.





For the women, they often answer with people like Jang Donggun, Jung Woosung, or Rain.

Well, here's the Your Two Cents question of the week:
Who's YOUR ee-sang-hyung or ideal girl/guy from the world of Kpop???

It can be a singer, actor, comedian, MC, whoever! Don't forget to include WHY! You can be honest so if it's only because they're hot, say "because they're hot!". =) More specific your reasoning the better (for example, "because they're hot" can be narrowed down by saying "because i love how they eyes crinkle up when they smile" ...or called "noon ooh-seum" in Korean for "eye smile").

Answer away and tune in for next week's KPI on KBS World Radio to see if your answers are read!!

Your Two Cents: Best OST song???

Hope you all had a great week last week! I'm so sad the weekend's already wrapping up... ㅠㅠㅠ

However, to be a positive thinker, new week means new start! New start means new projects, challenges, etc. RIGHT?! (Some of you are probably rolling your eyes at me right now... Haha).

Well, one new thing that this week is definitely going to bring is of course another Your Two Cents (aka Y2C) question. As we all know, kpop culture would not be anything without k-dramas. And k-dramas often have the BEST kpop songs. Behind every hit drama is a hit song. The drama wouldn't have had the same power behind it with out that song. So here's your question:

What is your favorite song from a k-drama or Korean movie OST (Official Soundtrack)???

Answer away and be sure to tune in for our next KPI on KBS World Radio to see if your answers are read! ^^

Star Chat With Seo In-gook! Post-Interview Comments...

Take 1



Take 2

Hope you all enjoyed our latest Star Chat on KBS World Radio's KPI show! It was with the winner of the 2009 Super Star K Contest, Seo In-gook!

He was an absolute pleasure to interview. He was there on time (I must point out that though this may seem like a given thing, it's very rare in Korea...and more importantly in Korean stars!) with his manager. He was very polite and very humble. Gave the 90 degree bow and everything (If you're wondering what a 90 degree bow is, refer to my BEAST post-interview entry!). He shared that he was very nervous because the interview was in English, but he was very friendly and just had that positive, youthful aura about him. Haha...if that even makes any sense.

Before we started, we had about five minutes of time while my producer and the sound/visual engineer was prepping the studio. I asked Seo In-gook what his schedule has been like lately. He said because he's actively promoting his new song ("사랑해U" or "I Love U"), he's very busy. He had a radio interview before ours and he had to go immediately to prep for another live performance that evening. I asked him if he had time to eat dinner and he said that he'd probably have like a gimbap or something while waiting in between performances. Gimbap is like a Korean version of Sushi. It's considered fast food for Koreans. I asked him if he could see his friends often, and he said no which was what he missed most about his pre-celebrity days. He was very mature...very TALL! Very bright and just well-mannered. Overall, I was very impressed by him. He really couldn't speak a lick of English, but the interview was still interesting (or I felt!). We were a bit short on time (not so much because he was busy, but because we didn't have much time left on the show!), so I didn't get to ask him everything I wanted to ask him...but such is life. ^^

He took pictures and signed an autograph for my mother who's currently visiting Korea and tagged along with me for the interview. Then him and his manager, left...and that was that!

For those of you who missed the interview, check out world.kbs.co.kr. Click on "Entertainment" and then you'll see "Star Chat" along the left. That has all our old Star Chats. Just to do a recap on the interviews that I'VE done: BEAST, Secret, One Way, and now Seo In-gook. There were plenty of other interviews done by previous hosts (i.e. 2PM, 2AM, Super Junior, Girls Generation, Davichi, etc.). Also, DJ Young did one for the trot singer Park Hyun-bin as well. So definitely peruse through them to learn more about some of your favorite kpop stars!

Next Star Chat is....

Guess what kpoppers?!
We have another STAR CHAT session lined up for this week's K-Pop Interactive (KPI) show on KBS World Radio! So that would be this Sunday May 16th KST.

Like always, I'm going to try to keep the suspense on who it is, BUT I will give you guys THREE hints.

1. NOT an idol group (sorry ladies! haha)
2. Debuted through a hit reality show in Korea.
3. HIS first single really called out to his listeners.

Guess away!!!! And don't forget to tune in for KPI this week.
For more info: world.kbs.co.kr (click on "Entertainment")

Your Two Cents: Best Music Video???

Hey all! Thanks for all your GREAT answers to this past Y2C~ Got about 5-10% more responses on it so I'm assuming it was a well-received question~^^

Okay...so this week's question was suggested by a loyal listener...HERMIN!!!

As any k-pop fan would know, k-pop music videos often are like MINI mini-dramas! There's an interesting/funny/sad/tragic/etc. story line to them. Well, this week's Y2C question is:

Which k-pop music video has the BEST storyline or concept?

Lately, a new duo UV has been garnering a lot of interest for their comedic approach to music. In fact, their new music video for their song "No Cool, I'm Sorry" is so cheesy and funny! Haha DJ Young was like, "Angie, you HAVE to watch this!" All the other people in the KBS office were like, "what the hec is that?!" as we were laughing aloud. The lyrics are pretty funny, but some of them make cultural (Korean) references that many international listeners may think, "I don't get it...what's so funny about that?". Just throwing that warning out there! ^^

Check it out:


Alright, answer away and tune into KPI next Sunday to see if your answers were read on air!

Your Two Cents: If you could be a k-pop star, which group would you want to be a member of???

Time for another BRAND SPANKIN' NEW Y2C question!!!

So I thought we'd take a lighter approach this week. Regardless of what your career aspirations are, I'm sure MOST of us have dreamt or imagined what it would be like to be a celebrity/super star at least ONCE in our lives! If you could be a member of ANY k-pop group out there (whether they're older groups that have since disbanded or current groups that are hot right now), which group would you want to be in?? And more importantly, WHY?! Perhaps because they're most popular with the members of the opposite sex? ;) Perhaps, their style of music is the style that you like? Perhaps they're not even THAT talented, but they have GREAT style? Whatever the reason is, tell me tell me!

As always, I will try to read out as many of your answers on next week's KPI! I LOVE LOVE LOVE hearing all of your various responses and reasonings!

Answer away!

Weekend Recap: Full of "B's"! Baseball, Babes at Brunch, Bennigans

As I love to get to know all of the listeners, I figured I'd give you all a taste of what I'm about as well through occasional weekend recaps! ^^ If you're not interested, feel free to stop reading here! Haha

Well, this past weekend was a GREAT one. First off, the weather in Korea was ABSOLUTELY beautiful! This past week was really gray with some rain (and present forecasts are saying that we have more rain in store tomorrowㅠㅠㅠ). So a bunch of friends (most of them other fellow English broadcasters in Korea! You may recognize some of them through Arirang TV and Arirang Radio) and I went to a baseball game in Incheon. First off, even if you're not a baseball fan, going to a baseball game in Korea is a BLAST! Koreans are so spirited that it makes cheering so much fun...and intense! We also reserved this BBQ table area where we grilled some samgyeopsal (basically Korean style grilled bacon), ate some chicken, and had a few beers.





Here's the whole gang! We had a few foreigner visitors as well!



You see those red inflatable thingies? You beat two of them together while cheering! As you can tell, we were supporting LG Twins! *sigh*...I love one of the players: #53 Lee Dae-hyeong!




One more *sigh*...Okay I'm done. ^^;;
Well, that was Saturday. Sunday, me and a bunch of my gal pals meet for a monthly brunch session. Again, a lot of them are in the broadcasting business. As an expat in Korea, because I don't have any childhood or school friends, they're all people I meet at work. In fact, a large part of the brunch time is spent venting ABOUT work! Don't get me wrong, we all love our jobs, but doesn't change the fact that we love to just jibber-jabber about anything and everything! One of the best parts of our "Babes at Brunch" (thought up by DJ Dorothy from Arirang Radio's "Evening Groove" program! Haha) gatherings is that we like to try out new restaurants. We all LOOOOVE food and all have raging sweet tooths. Hence, our May spot was perfect. It's called "Passion5" in a foreigner friendly spot "Itaewon".



I ordered the Eggs Benedict. Was pretty good, but portions were tiny! I guess it was okay though because we stuffed ourselves with dessert!



yummmm...
Although I have to defend myself in saying that those aren't all mine! We just put them all on one plate (there were like 10-12 of us so that's just half of the group's!)

If you're an avid K-pop fan, chances are you know VJ or DJ Isak! She's the host of Arirang Radio's "Midday Break" program and Arirang TV's "Pops in Seoul" show. Not to mention, she used to also be part of the k-pop duo "Isak N Jiyeon". We're both kind of twitter junkies so we caught each other tweeting, laughed, then decided to take a picture and post it up! ^^



After brunch, some of us went to church. It was a HUGE group including some total k-pop VETERANS (such as Kim Jo-han of the 90's group Solid), some not AS seasoned but still very experienced (such as Brian Joo of Fly to the Sky), all the way to the industry newbies (such as Peter and Chance of One Way). We then all went to Bennigans for dinner where a few others met up with us (including Park Ji-bin, the child actor who played Geum Kang-san/Jandi's younger brother on the hit drama "Boys Over Flowers"). I wish I took pictures of our dinner too, but we were all too excited about the food! Haha



I kind of cheated. I stole this picture from Brian! This was post-dinner~ Jibin's such a cutie pie! He lost a lot of baby fat since he was in "Boys Over Flowers".

ANYWAYS, I'm back at home, blogging before I prepare some stuff for this brand new week of work! Overall, must say it was a great weekend! ^^ Hope you all had a GREAT weekend too!!!

ONE WAY and April's CD Drawing Winners!!!

So as you all know, this past Sunday had a GREAT edition of Korean Pop Interactive (KPI)! Mainly for TWO reasons:
1. We had another Star Chat with the guys of ONEWAY!!!
2. I announced the winners of our CD Drawing for the month of April!

Let me first start with the CD Drawing Winners! Drumroll please.....*dumdumdumdum* (how do you imitate a drumroll through words?!?! haha)

Name: Ida Zawani Bt Zainal Abidin
CD: Super Junior "supershow 2"
Address: Perak,Malaysia.

Name: James Philip Torrato
Cd: Girls Generation "Oh"
Address: Cavite City, Philippines

Name: Rehab Elkhayat
CD: TVXQ's "Mirotic" CD
OR
"2pm 1:59"
OR
"Rain's Back to the basics"
Address: Tanta , Egypt

Name: Nikka
Cd: DBSK "Mirotic"
Address: Nevada, USA

Congratulations you guys!!! And like I ALWAYS say...even if you DID or DID NOT win this month, TRY AGAIN! Luck of the draw will only tell who wins NEXT month! ^^

If you're new to the KPI family, let me quickly explain:
1. We have a CD drawing every month where we pick FOUR winners to ship off a KPOP CD of their choice to where ever they are in the world!
2. To enter, all you have to do is email me angela@kbs.co.kr with your name, mailing address, and which kpop CD you want!
3. Please limit entries to only ONE a week, because any additional entries will NOT increase your chances!
4. Good luck and try month after month!!

Now with all that business aside, let's talk about the guys of Oneway!



To be honest, it was really more for me to get the guys of Oneway in for an interview. I was totally on Sophia's case about it until we finally scheduled it for the most recent KPI airing! Haha This was the case for two reasons. One, I think they're incredibly talented with a fresh (not your "typical" kpop) sound, but kind of still under the radar. Two, they speak English! Which makes MY job much easier! ^^;;

They were ON TIME! In fact, WE (KBS) were the ones that were slightly late with another recording that kind of went overtime. -.-;; They were incredibly polite (Sophia LOVED them!) despite the fact that Peter was feeling slightly under the weather, and they were ALL EXHAUSTED from a couple all-nighters (they're trying to meet a recording deadline for tomorrow!) at the studio. They were incredibly down to Earth and a total pleasure to interview. They put all of their physical tiredness aside and did their best to deliver an entertaining interview for their international fans! They even brought me an autographed copy of their CD (which is GREAT might I add! Favorite track USED to be "Magic", but now I like "One Way"). Just incredibly talented yet HUMBLE guys. Show 'em lots of love you guys! They also have twitter accounts, and I know for a fact that they try super hard to get on it often and interact/respond to as many of their fans as possible! So "follow" them!

www.twitter.com/onewaychance
www.twitter.com/onewaypeter
www.twitter.com/onewayyoungsky

NOT TO MENTION DJ Young and my own twitter accounts that I would HOPE you all are ALREADY following!! ;)

www.twitter.com/goDJYoung
www.twitter.com/itsangiepark

(please indulge in my self promoting that I'm doing here... ^^;; )

ANYWAYS...we had a TOTAL blast and I was just disappointed we couldn't make the interview longer. =( Because the show is fairly short, I was very limited and only got to ask them like half of the questions I had prepared. Who knows though? Sophia loved them so much, we may see more of them in the future! ;)

Well, hope you guys enjoyed the interview and if you missed it, no problem! You can check out the video clip at world.kbs.co.kr (click on "Entertainment" up on top, and then "Star Chat" on the left).