BTOB: 뛰뛰빵빵 (Beep Beep) 4th Mini Album Review

In February 2014, BTOB came back with their fourth mini album named after their title song, "뛰뛰빵빵 (Beep Beep)." BTOB's music never disappoints me, and this album is no exception; all the songs are high quality and I love how the members continually participate in writing the lyrics, making each song more meaningful.

This album is the size of many Kpop mini albums, except it's thicker because of the beautifully thick photobook. The overall concept is the black-and-white tough schoolboy theme. The front cover adds a nice touch by making the album title and "BTOB" reflective to give color to the album.

Here you can see just how thick the photobook is, compared to the clear plastic that holds the CD.

The back cover continues the tire pattern from the front cover and includes the tracklist. As a mini album, it's a pretty short tracklist with only five songs.

Here is a closeup of the tracklist provided in the photobook. All the members participated in at least one song, and each song is has several members contributing, whether it be the lyrics, chorus, or rap. I like how this album has covers several genres, from the poppy and fun title track to ballads. Honestly I don't like these songs anywhere nearly as much as as the previous three mini albums (where I found all the songs absolutely stunningly amazing), I don't know how I convinced myself to buy this album when I usually don't buy random Kpop artists' albums.

When you open up the album, the photobook is on the left and the CD is on the right, with a wheel design matching the title song.

And here is the very thick photobook, with a total of 112 photos. The first section is the largest, with the photoshoot from the album cover; there are many group photos, and then many more individual photos, all in black and white. I like how the individual photos show off the members' various expressions.

The next section is full of bright and colorful photos of the members in various everyday scenarios.

Lastly there are the lyrics, along with outdoor group photos in black and white, and then several more pages of group photos in color.

Overall, I didn't feel any of the songs stood out to me, especially compared to all their previous songs, so I am a bit disappointed I bought this album...but I will continue to support BTOB and look forward to what else they have for the future!

How I Store Kpop Goods (Photocards, Clear Files, etc.)

Part of what I love about Kpop is the additional goodies that Kpop album include, such as photocards and postcards. After getting into Kpop, I fell in love with collecting random memorabilia besides photocards and postcards, such as mini posters, A4 clear files, as well as fansite goods. I started collecting stuff like this about two years ago, and it wasn't until last year that I figured out a decent way to store these types of things. Here I'll be writing about how I store my Kpop goods. I mostly collect Infinite memorabilia, so I'll relate this post mostly to Infinite's merchandise (and somehow they managed to be mostly of Myungsoo).

So many Kpop albums now don't just include a standard sized photocard, but they're getting more creative and they're getting to be postcard sized and even A4 sized. I didn't want to just leave my photocards in the albums, so I decided to buy art portfolio books in several dimensions, to best fit my various sized cards. My smallest dimension one is for 4" x 6" postcards, which contains 60 sleeves. I bought this, which is actually just for postcards and not specifically to hold art, for $2 at Daiso, a Japanese $2 store, but sadly I haven't seen this product for a year or so now.

I use this one to store all my small photocards, as well as my 4" x 6" postcards (above); the small photocards can slide around a bit in their sleeves since they're so small, but the postcards fit so well. In this sleeve is one of the bookmarks from my You're Beautiful OST album; many of the paper goods from albums will fit in this size.

You can see that many of photocards fit in this book, including the typical trading card sized photocards like Infinite H's, 4" x 6" postcards like from Infinite's New Challenge and from Myungsoo's endorsement for Shara Shara, and Infinite's Natuur Pop postcard set.

My remaining three are official art portfolio books, that I bought at my university bookstore in the art section. I bought them all from the brand Itoya, and they all have 24 sleeves and are more expensive for much fewer sleeves, at about $10 to $20 each.

The smallest book I have of the art portfolio books is 5" x 7" (above), which is perfect for postcards slightly larger than the 4" x 6" postcards. This size is perfect for Infinite's Destiny postcards and the postcard set from the drama My Lovely Girl.

The next size up that I bought was 8.5" x 11" (above), which is also A4 sized or regular printer paper sized. I have a set of IU and Infinite bromide mini posters that are just slightly shorter than A4, and fit perfectly in this book. This is also perfect for A4 photocards, like Infinite's She's Back photocard on the bottom right, or cards just a bit larger than the standard postcard size, like Infinite's Be Back on the left.

And lastly, I have an 11" x 14" book (above). I have several A4 clear files, which are meant to store A4 sized paper, meaning that the clear file itself has to be larger than A4. The top is from Infinite's Rally 1 in 2013; the one of the left is the folder containing all the files. The bottom ones are clear files from Infinite's That Summer Concert 2.The clear files (and the folders they came in) are a bit smaller than the full dimensions of this book, so they slide around a bit if I'm flipping through them quickly, but this is the best I could do.

Also the mini poster included in Infinite's IDEA Photobook are just slightly taller than A4, so I had to put it in this book as well. On the left is the backside of one of Infinite's Natuur Pop endorsement clear files.

And of course the next size up would probably be my posters, but for those I just frame them up and display them on my walls or sadly roll them up into a poster tube.

Some people would rather store photocards in binders like collecting trading cards, but that seems too complicated for me and I'd be too inclined to collect every photocard from each album to complete the sets. Also because photocards come in so many dimensions, it'd seem too difficult to find sleeves tailored for each one. I've settled on my method with these art portfolio books, but I just recently ran out of room in my 4" x 6" book and have photocards waiting to be put in sleeves...maybe I will try the binder method some day, just for the smaller photocards, and have the larger cards in these books. The only downfall about the way I organize my cards, however, is if I get a new photocard and have to change the order of my cards, since the sleeves can't be moved like binder sleeves.

KDrama: My Lovely Girl OST Review

My Lovely Girl is a lighthearted drama starring Rain, f(x)'s Krystal, and Infinite's L that aired with 16 episodes from September to November 2014. It is about a CEO who takes interest in his late girlfriend's younger sister and soon falls for her...or so I believe. I honestly stopped watching this drama at episode 10 because it was just so boring. The reason I bought this OST and originally wanted to watch the drama was because Myungsoo (L) is the second lead, and Hoya had a small part as well. What's most intriguing about this drama and what I thought would keep me interested was that it is set around an entertainment company and the behind-the-scenes lives of idols. Myungsoo said he was drawn to his character as an idol because he could portray feelings that he as an actual idol feels; this made me sad to think that Myungsoo's having a difficult time as an idol, has feelings for someone, and has horrible relationships with his band members. It was so difficult watching the angst between Myungsoo's and Hoya's characters. Anyways, I hope to someday finish this drama, for the sake of watching and supporting Myungsoo's acting.

I originally bought this album on YesAsia.com for $20.99, but sadly my album arrived damaged. The post about my damaged album is here, and if you want to know more about returning damaged items to YesAsia, I discuss it here. Finally I have time to do an unboxing on this album~

The album is very high quality and thick, and the matte finish gives a nice, elegant touch to the overall design.

The back cover is very gorgeous, but honestly very random...usually the second lead wouldn't really have a cover all to himself. Myungsoo had his hair dyed blond for the first half of the drama (due to Infinite's Back promotions), but I'm glad they settled on him with natural hair for the back cover. I personally was not a fan of his blond hair, and was sad to see it in the drama as well, but dying hair for comebacks is definitely a thing for idols, so the timing of Infinite's promotions along with this drama fit well with him dying his hair blond.

Here is a closeup of the tracklist; sorry it's still hard to see. This album comes with two CDs, for a total of 27 songs. In the drama, Myungsoo and Hoya's group (and honestly I completely forgot, the other members of the group are Woollim trainees, Sungyeol's younger brother Daeyeol and Choi Sungyoon) performed Infinite's "1/3" and Myungsoo performed two songs for his solo debut, but sadly none of these versions are actually included in the OST. It's understandable that "1/3" isn't on the OST, but for Myungsoo's songs it is other artists performing it. Despite this, there are some great songs on here  that were played consistently throughout the first 10 episodes, including "너 하나만" by Kim Tae Woo (I'm so glad they included this version over Krystal's version) and "사랑해줄래" by Alex.

The album is designed as one of those tri-folds, so opening the first flap reveals the photobook attached to the left side (the back of the front cover) and a quaint image of the two leads on the right.

Opening up the album flaps fully reveals each disc in s its own side, and a set of postcards in the center. I like how the left side of the album matches the front cover (they're both light green) while the right side matches the back cover (they're both black) and how that matches the trifold center.

The two discs are really pretty, with the first CD of blond Myungsoo and the second of Rain and Krystal, both with the same setting.

After flipping the front cover of the album, the photobook starts from left to right (I honestly thought it starts from right to left, because the last page looks like it'd make a great front cover of a photobook).

The photobook has 26 pages and has song lyrics and credits nicely spread out throughout the pages.

As an Inspirit, I only selected the pages with Myungsoo; there are actually 11 pages with him, but one was just a minuscule photo so I didn't include it. I love how these photos not only show cuts from the episodes, but also from the photoshoots, and photos of the imaginary group Infinite Power, and just a few behind-the-scenes photos.

The album also comes with a set of three postcards (5" x 7") of the three main actors with blank backsides. I cannot get over the perfection of Myungsoo's postcard; I've never seen him do this type of photo before and the fact that it looks like a glamorous magazine pictorial makes this one postcard completely worth buying the whole album!

Overall, I love this album because of Myungsoo's significant presence throughout, though I don't think I'd actually listen to these songs very much. This album is just a nice collection to have for Inspirits and the packaging is nicer than many OST albums.

Shara Shara Very Berry Sugar Body Scrub Review

I originally bought this scrub at one of the three Shara Shara boutiques in Myungdong, at 28,000₩ but with a sale of buy one, get one free (I talk about my purchase here). Shara Shara is a Korean cosmetic brand that isn't really known overseas, so its website is all in Korean so I couldn't get much out of its product page. Conveniently the description on the product itself is in well-written English.

The website advertises this product as a multi-use scrub that is also "all-in-one care" and uses real sugar. It uses five berries, which are blueberry, blackberry, cranberry, acai, and raspberry. It is a multi-use scrub that is all-in-one because it can be used to exfoliate your face, lips, and body. I have been using this scrub for a couple of months now and honestly I always thought it was solely for the body, as the name implies, so I'll have to test it out on my face and lips next time! Other included ingredients are sweet almond oil, olive oil, coconut oil, safflower seed oil, some sort or orange oil, and honey.

Here is the container. The only English on the label states that it's a scrub "containing 5 kinds of berry extracts" and "removes dead skin cells and keep skin moist" (they were very close with having perfect English). Then there's lot of Korean information on the side, as well as the QR code to state that it's an official Shara Shara product.

The lid screws off, and then there is a white plastic cover underneath. The scrub is very pink but turns white as you rub it against your skin. It's full of sugar particles so it really feels like a deep cleansing scrub that removes dead skin cells.

Though I'm usually really frugal, when it comes to this scrub I think it's better to use more; if you use too little, the little amount spreads out over too big of a surface and gets washed away too easily, making it useless. So I usually use about this much (refer to the above picture) for each arm which is also equivalent to the amount I use for half of each leg. My skin feels soft and smooth afterwards (though my legs are a lost cause; nothing I do can make them smooth). Also it's best when there's no water in the scrub, because then it's more concentrated with the sugar; but throughout time water just naturally gets into the container since you're in the shower, and then it gets more saturated and you have to use more of the scrub for it to be more effective.

I finally tested the scrub on my face, and it works so well! Because the sugar is so fine, it exfoliates the face really well, but be mindful that it is a bit rough so it might be too powerful for your face. As for lips, it always seems hard using a scrub for your lips in general, so I'd just stick to a toothbrush to exfoliate your lips instead.

The Pros

• 200 grams of this scrub lasts awhile
• The scent is pleasant and smells like strawberry jam (but reminds me of those toy lip balms that little kids use)
• The scrub is rough and really exfoliates well
• It really is a multipurpose scrub, for the body and face
• The container is really durable; I dropped it in my shower from shoulder level and it survived the fall without a crack or scratch.

The Cons

• The packaging could be cuter? Though honestly it doesn't matter when the product itself is nice

Overall, I like this product and I'm most pleased about the roughness of the sugar and how it really feels like I'm exfoliating my skin. I'm definitely glad I ended up with two jars of this scrub since I love using it every day!

Infinite H: Fly Again Mini Album Review

After two years, I'm so happy that Infinite H has officially come back! Infinite H was the second Infinite subunit/solo/project group to debut, yet they're the first to have a comeback. Infinite H began promotions in late January and have currently won 1st place on music shows 5 times! This is the first time for an Infinite subunit/solo/project group to win, let alone 5 times (that's more than Be Mine, Paradise, and Destiny's wins!). They even placed 10th on Music Core's highest scores ever.

I pre-ordered my album from Kpoptown.com and my package arrived in 9 days, wrapped several times in bubble wrap and placed inside their orange waterproof envelope with a bubble wrap liner. They also provided me with a pre-order gift, a set of Infinite monthly calendar photocards.

This album is Infinite H's second mini album, titled "Fly Again" as a sequel to their first mini album, "Fly High," from January 2013. This album shows the duo's growth as talented artists as they've collaborated on creating all the tracks. The album itself is very beautiful, with little details to add more charm. The lettering is reflective, as well as some of the tiny triangles in the background. The dimensions are the same as Infinite's other Korean albums.

The backside is just as elegant, with a shiny H and more silvery triangles. The white design on the H is painted on top of the H, showing more elegance to the design. The front and back covers have a thick paper texture.

The album format is very similar to "Fly High"; it is actually most similar to Lovelyz' first album, but for Inspirits' reference, "Fly High" will probably be best. The two contents slip out from the left, which are the photobook on the top and the CD case on the bottom.

The color schemes are simplistic and elegant with metallic gold on the spine of the photobook and silver for the case with metallic lettering.

The CD case has a nice cover, with the font and parts of their outfits having that reflective coat. The backside is matte silver with the beautiful H logo and includes the tracklist.

Here is a closeup of the tracklist. Infinite H worked with the company Brand New Music for this album, and Hoya and Dongwoo co-wrote the lyrics along with others and solely wrote the rap for all the tracks (excluding the intro). As a sequel to Infinite's first album, this album shows so much growth within the two as they participated a lot in creating these tracks and making them sound like their own unique sound. "Fly High" seemed more like a cross-over between pop and hip-hop, but this album sounds more like hip-hop and rap, which seems more like what the two are wanting to go toward. There are many artists featured (many from Brand New Music, one from Infinite's sister group Lovelyz), but I'm happy that their title track, "예뻐 (Pretty)," is only performed by Dongwoo and Hoya to really showcase their growth as rappers and singers. Also (thanks to my friend for this~) Dongwoo originally performed "부딪쳐" as during his solo stage at Infinite's That Summer Concert 2, but featuring Jin of Lovelyz instead of Sujeong.

Inside the case is the folded poster. I like how even the back of the poster has the album logo.

The poster feels like regular loose-leaf paper, so it seems hard to directly tape it on your wall without damaging it. I was hoping it'd be of thick and nice quality like the Paradise poster that was included in that album. This poster is cute though, with nine images of Infinite H goofing off and posing in front of the camera. Some of these photos are the same as in the photobook, but a few are different. The poster is about 1' 8.5" by 1' 2.5".

The inside design of the case is simple, with the matte silver background and enlarged glittery H on the CD.

The photobook covers are similar to the CD case covers, with another fierce image of Infinite H but with matte gold lettering on the front and the matte gold background and white H on the back.

The photobook has 42 pages and dedicates an entire page to each of the song's lyrics; I like this format rather than cramming all the song lyrics into two pages total, because this really showcases the lyrics and the work that Infinite H put into writing these songs. The photobook includes group and solo images with the same outfits as the photocards (read below to know what I'm referring to), as well as the one with Hoya wearing that black hat and top and Dongwoo wearing white from the music video. I also noticed at the bottom corner it says "Infinite H" and directly underneath it says "Hoya & Dong Woo" or "Dong Woo & Hoya" depending on who's on that page.

My favorite section is the last half of the photobook, which is more like behind-the-scenes and mostly in black and white, giving a nice touch. The top left photo is the one similar to the included poster. The bottom right photo is a beautiful photo of the two and wraps up the album nicely with album credits and the members' "thanks to" section.

The first page of the photobook holds the photocards.

The albums comes with two random photocards, and there are a total of six, all with the holographic background. The backsides of all the photocards have the triangle design but a different font image and color. There are at least four different designs for the backside, so I'm not which photocard each backside design is for. Both my photocards have the same backside design, but one is silver and the other is gold. One photocard is of a black and white photo of each member in their court outfits from the music video. Another photocard is of the each member wearing the outfits from the front cover of their photobook, and the last photocard is of each member wearing the outfits from front cover of the CD case. The photocard images are different from the photobook and posters.

Besides the included poster, this poster also has three exterior posters, one of each member and one group one. Two two individual posters are from the photobook and the group image is the same as the front cover of the CD case.

Overall, I really love this album; the packaging is nice as it includes many elements and the design is very elegant. The songs are also very catchy and though I am not one to listen to hip-hop or rap, Infinite H has opened me to this genre, for which I am grateful. Though it took them two years for the duo to come back, I hope their next album will come much quicker.

"Somewhere Only We Know" Movie Review

Leaving Exo behind, Kris has gone on and done great things, one of them being the main actor of the Chinese movie, "Somewhere Only We Know." This movie was released a week or so early in China, but luckily has also been released in main cities around the US on February 13th, 2015. I'm so happy that this movie is being shown in downtown Seattle as well! Nothing is more amazing than seeing an Asian movie starring an idol in your own, non-Asian country.

"Somewhere Only We Know" is currently playing at Regal Meridian 16 in downtown Seattle from (technically) Thursday night, February 12th to Thursday, February 19th, with four showings a day and is an hour and 49 minutes long, Here is the poster for it! Though Kris is the main image on the poster, his character really wasn't overly dominating and all the main characters had lots of screen time.

This movie is a mix of romance and drama that pulls at your heartstrings (or at least for those easily emotional and sensitive like me, you'll get teary-eyed) and is like every school girl's fantasy while studying abroad. Let me clear things up by giving the summary: There are two to three stories intertwined together, but the main story is about a woman in her late 20s who studies abroad in Prague for the summer. She meets a man, Kris, who lives in Prague and they develop a relationship (this is the fantasy part I was talking about^^) though of course there are complications with them being together (like a typical Korean drama). The parallel story is the woman's only family she's known is her grandmother, who recently passed away and was always single, until the woman (I'm sorry I forgot her name) learns of her grandmother's love in Prague. The woman then decides to search about her grandmother's past in Prague. All that isn't as important as this third story, which includes long flashbacks of the grandmother's time in Prague with the man she fell in love with there.

The first part of the movie is more about the woman's new life abroad and developing the love story between her and Kris. This part really felt like a typical but well-done Korean romantic drama that tugs at your heartstrings. Then it focuses more on her finding more about her grandmother's past and even more on the flashbacks to her grandmother's story. All of this is the deep part that sets this movie apart from typical romantic comedies. It goes back and forth between the two time periods, but it transitions well and all the stories flow well together. Overall, I absolutely love this movie because it really gave me a rush of emotions and it's just one of those movies I can't shut up about because it's the only thing on my mind. The movie was really well done, and I always thought Asian productions have a hard time filming in a western country and then everyone's speaking a certain Asian language like that's everyone's native language, but this movie does it well where they do have Mandarin, English, and Czech where it needs to be. One last note that no one cares about, they also had the "Gwiyomi Song" and Kris sang "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" by Franki Valli, my most favorite American singer; this movie basically brought together everything I love in one. Now, I cannot get over Kris and I can't wait to see his upcoming productions, and I hope they'll be just as big and will be released in the US!

Lovelyz: Girls' Invasion First Album Review

Woollim finally debuted their much anticipated first girl group in November 2014: Lovelyz! Though many used to refer Woollim's girl trainees as the Woollim Girls who have made a few appearances before their debut (such as Infinite's dance partners during their "Man in Love" performance at the 2013 KBS Gayo Daejun and Mijoo as the lead in Infinite's "Last Romeo" music video), and a few even debuted as solo artists with singles released from 2011 to 2013. Their album title Girls' Invasion is quite fitting, since this is Woollim's first girl group where Infinite, Nell and Tasty dominate. As an Inspirit and therefore Woollim fan, I think I'm going to subsequently like Lovelyz (though not nearly as much as for Infinite) as well. I also will refer to some things with Infinite in mind.

I bought my album in Burnaby, Canada at KR Multimedia for $22CAD and buying this album included 10% off any poster, but I decided not to buy one. This album does come with two poster types, one being a group photo in a classroom setting while another being a grid format that are similar to school photos. I usually don't like grid posters and prefer group photos in a unique setting, but for some reason it was the opposite with these posters; the grid one is really cool because it does look like the members' school photos.

The album is the same size as most of Infinite's albums, and looks elegant in its simplicity. The front is matte white with a sparkly red fancy Lovelyz logo. This is all very reminiscent of Infinite's debut album...a simple white album with a sparkly red logo and "Invasion" in the title.

The back cover is just as simple, with a simpler logo. Both sides also have the wording in the sparkly red.

The format of this album is very similar to that of Infinite H's Fly High. Inside is the photobook on the bottom and case for the disc and photocards on the top.

The case looks similar to the album cover, with its reflective logo.

The backside includes the tracklist. The first five tracks are new Lovelyz songs while the remaining four are the pre-released singles when some of the members debuted as solo artists before. Though I thought the title was weird at first, I really do love their title track, "Candy Jelly Love," since it's just so catchy and fun; it did its job well as a hook song to grab my attention. I just wish the members would have better line distribution. Also their secondary title song, "Good Night Like Yesterday," is a beautiful ballad that also has Sunggyu in the music video, reminiscent of his vampire days. Also for the 5th track, "Getaway," honestly is a song I don't like (and I thought being Woollim biased would never have me dislike a Woollim song), but it's just kind of creepy with the "my lies" chants. And my last thought, the 7th track (that features Dongwoo!), after my friend told me, originally it was sang by Babysoul and then Woollim trainee Yoo Jia, but she left and now it's Babysoul and Kei.

Inside the case is like a folder to hold the photocards; it's like a school folder, perfect for their innocent schoolgirl concept. Because there's this folder especially for the photocards, I feel like they belong here rather than in my photocard binder...an empty folder flap would feel weird. The disc is attached by a plastic pentagon holder. I really like this CD holder design, because the CD is sturdy here yet it's still easy to take out the CD.

Underneath the disc has a pretty design as well.

The album comes with two gorgeous photocards. The photocards are really of postcard size and quality, which is no surprise with Woollim creating larger and larger photocards. They're matte photocards with the name of the member at the bottom left. I got Sujeong's and Yein's. There's one photocard per member, for a total of eight.

The backside of the photocard is simple. On my Yein one, there were subtle print marks with a thick horizontal line and "Woollim" repeating on the top left...I guess the photocard was placed on top of other freshly printed parts of the album?

The photobook is very thick, with 54 pages. The cover is the same as the poster design. The logo both on the front and back covers have that gorgeous reflective tint.

The photos overall remind me of L's Bravo Viewtiful: some artsy photos or random objects or of different angles, some behind-the-scenes photos from the photoshoot, and then some typical photos of the members. There are only a few pages with the girls' names, but other than that there aren't any profiles of them. Looking at the photobook, I'm pointing out who's who and trying to put a name to a face...this is just like me starting out with Infinite~ Ahh, good times.

The last few pages are for the lyrics, thanks to, and credits. For the song that features Dongwoo, I'm so happy to see that Dongwoo wrote the rap for it!