1st Look Magazine Vol. 158 Review

It's been quite awhile since I last bought a magazine featuring Infinite, but while at Ktown in LA last weekend, I picked up 1st Look Vol. 158 featuring L! I blog more about purchasing this magazine at Music Plaza here.

As I mentioned in the Vol. 157 issue of 1st Look here, 1st Look is a biweekly entertainment and lifestyle magazine. This magazine is made of slightly nicer quality than a nice newspaper, and is quite large, with dimensions 10.25" by 15.25".

Here is our cover boy on the July 5, 2018 edition of 1st Look!

Here are the table of contents.

L is also featured on the "Moment" page (which is probably dedicated to the cover model?).

And now onto L's featured article, "Real, L"!

I love just how big this magazine is, and how they maximize the quality and image size.

L's article covers 10 pages, with 8 of the pages for beautiful photos.

I like how each photo conveys such different feelings.

The last 2 pages show closeup shots of L, as well as his interview.

Indirectly related to Woollim, there are also 4 pages of Produce 48 clothing being modeled. I thought this was pretty interesting.

Here are the last 2 pages of the Produce 48 article.

Overall, I'm happy to have this issue in my collection! The photos are so high quality, large, and beautiful.

[LA April 2019] Day 1: Arrival and Koreatown

This past weekend, I took a quick trip to LA to see Lovelyz at the Korea Times Music Festival on Saturday, April 27th! I'll quickly blog about day one of my trip.

I looked up when celebrities usually arrived at LAX for past KTMF, and found that generally idols would arrive 2 days before the event. Staff from KTMF would also be at LAX to greet the invited artists and hold an impromptu interview. However Woollim likes to send artists at the last minute, so I gambled that Lovelyz would arrive on Friday instead of Thursday, and decided to arrive on Friday morning. Lovelyz (sans Kei due to her MC schedule for Music Bank) did arrive on Thursday morning. Kei ended up arriving on Saturday morning, but my scared self couldn't get the courage to see her at LAX by myself. I'm beating myself up after seeing others' fancams of greeting Kei at LAX; she seemed so friendly and accepting of fans' gifts! So here is another fan letter I've written (this time 100% in hangul!) that I didn't get to deliver.

I took the LAX Flyaway shuttle to Union Station, then took the Metro Purple Line into Koreatown to spend the rest of the day. Walking around, I saw flyers for KTMF as well as flyers for Ailee in California.

I ate lunch at 본죽 Bonjuk, a Korean rice porridge chain restaurant. This restaurant holds a special place for me because I ate at one in the Edae/Sinchon area near my dorm when I had studied in Korea. I ordered the kimchi octopus porridge (낙지김치죽). I remember one of the free sides I had in the Edae/Sinchon branch was a really delicious drink, but sadly that didn't come with my meal here in LA. To my surprise, the octopus was cut very large but still very tender! The bowl is also very large, but with time I was able to finish everything (even though though the kind woman kept refilling my white radish kimchi (동치미))!

After lunch, it was time to visit the kpop stores! Along the way, I passed by BCD on Western, the same area that Infinite walked in front of in their Destiny in America DVD.

Next I visited Music Plaza, located in Koreatown Plaza. They have a lot of albums from many Kpop groups, as well as DVDs, season's greetings, official concert/fanmeeting merchandise, magazines, and a lot of BT21 goods. On another side are unofficial merchandise. There is also a TV playing Kpop music videos. They played a lot of TXT while I was there, and "Cat and Dog" was stuck in my head all day afterwards.

My goal coming into this trip was to buy all the Korean magazines that featured Golden Child within the past year, but unfortunately I couldn't find any from all three stores I visited. To my surprise, Music Plaza did have Indeed Vol. 0, which is a fairly new magazine.

Being sleep-deprived for the past few days and entering a Kpop store was probably a mistake...! I ended up buying the following:

• 1st Look Vol. 158 - $7.99
• Lovelyz 2018 Season's Greetings - 40% off of $52.99
• Lovelyz 2017 Alwayz Summer Concert DVD - ~$55 (I forgot the exact price)
• Lovelyz 2018 Lovelyz in Winterland 2 Bluray - $69.99
• Astro 5th Mini Album Dream Part. 02 Wind Version - $21.99
• Astro First Album All Light Green version - $21.99
• Top Class No. 164 - $11.99

Now time to justify my selection...before Golden Child, I would only buy season's greetings at $35 or less, because that's the price in Korea. Shipping is at least $15 (though it can cost as much as the season's greetings itself), so I could never justify buying a calendar for $50+. But if I find a previous year's for under $35, I think it's reasonable. As for Lovelyz in Winterland 2, I was so surprised to see they have the bluray version, because it's literally sold out everywhere! (They also had the DVD version...maybe next time)! Unfortunately they only had the DVD version for Alwayz. The BTS magazine is for a friend. As for Astro...2019 may be the year I'm becoming (dare I say it) multifandom?! Somehow my friend and I are getting into the group, but it makes me feel better that Bomin and Sanha are great friends.

They used a Twice tote bag as my shopping bag. At the counter, the worker asked what groups I like to give me freebies. I had asked for Infinite, Lovelyz, Golden Child, and even Astro (it felt so weird asking for Astro!) and they had none...in the end I chose IZ*One (for Chaewon and Eunbi!) and TXT (maybe the long Golden Child drought naturally made me explore other groups...?!). So here are my freebies from Music Plaza.

I'll make separate unboxing posts for the Woollim items but I'll just share my Astro pulls here. For Dream, I pulled Moonbin and Sanha photocards (out of 12), Sanha Polaroid card (out of 7), and Rocky for the box. I was unnecessarily super happy pulling Sanha twice!

For All Light, I pulled Eunwoo lyrics book (out or 6), Jinjin and Moonbin for the photocards (out of 12), and Jinjin and Eunwoo for the selfie cards (out of 12). Even though Jinjin is my original bias, I wasn't excited pulling him twice...I need to figure out if he's still a bias or not...

My next stop was Choice Music, located in Koreatown Galleria. My Woollim heart instinctually grabbed the season's greetings I was still missing. I got the following:

• Infinite 2019 Season's Greetings - 30% off of $49.99
• Lovelyz 2019 Season's Greetings - 30% off of $49.99
• Lovelyz 2017 Season's Greetings - 50% off of $45.99

The worker at the counter was really nice; her first group was Infinite so we connected through that. Based on the amount I spent, she let me choose 2 members from any group she listed. None of the groups I was interested in were on the list, so I asked if I could choose Eunbi and Chaewon instead. She said they're on the list for spending a cheaper amount, but she still gave them to me. I also sheepishly asked for TXT's Beomgyu, which she happily gave. So those postcards and photocards above are the freebies.

I also went to Sejong Bookstore two stores down from Choice Music to see if they had any magazines featuring Golden Child. They did have the February issue of Woman Donga that features Lovelyz for about $16, but I had to put my shopping spree to an end.

I ended the night by dining at Hwal Uh Kwang Jang (활어광장) with my aunt. This place felt really authentic - only Koreans were here, and the waitresses spoke to me in Korean and handed me a Korean-only menu. Later on my aunt asked for an English menu.

I wanted to come here for the live baby octopus (산낙지), which is a dish I hadn't had since going to Seoul in 2014. My aunt wasn't as adventurous, so I had this dish all to myself. The pieces of octopus kept squirming around. Once in my mouth, it would suction onto the inside of my cheek and my tongue, so I kept quickly biting the suction cups off first.

We also ordered the combo sashimi course for 2 people. Pictured above are various banchan (quail eggs? and spicy octopus were highlights), along with the sashimi platter. But this was only the beginning - many more dishes came out after this! Another highlight was octopus sashimi that was tender and easy to chew - a first because often it's too chewy. It was definitely a worthy seafood banquet and quite the experience.

This was it for my first day; the next day would be touring around LA and the Korea Times Music Festival!

Hanryu Pia Magazine October 2018 Review

I bought Japanese magazine Hanryu Pia's October 2018 issue from Seattle's Kinokuniya Bookstore on December 17th for about $20 USD. Earlier that day I had received my Ktown package which was supposed to contain my Golden Child's 2019 Season's Greetings, but instead received Exo albums due to Ktown's incompetency of properly fulfilling orders. Anyways, the only reason I'm bringing this up again is because I'm really grateful to have found this magazine for Golden Child in absence of my season's greetings.

I initially bought this magazine for Golden Child's feature, though Infinite's L as the cover and other members' photos throughout the magazine were quite the bonus! It was really fun going through the magazine and spotting all the familiar faces.

Right away on the backside of the front cover is an advertisement for Hoya's drama "Radiant Office"!

The opposite page is an attached folded poster of L. This is a double-sided poster, with the other side housing an image of CNBlue's Kang Minhyuk.

Following the poster is L's feature story.

L's feature is 10 pages long.

L always looks especially handsome in blazers!

And here's L looking soft in another outfit.

It's interesting to see how L's autograph has evolved over time, or perhaps depending on if he's Infinite's L or Kim Myungsoo.

And here's the last page of L's feature, along with his image on the table of contents.

The following section shows idols and actors at various events. L makes his appearance again, here at the MCM event!

Woohyun is also featured in this section, for this Second Write.. mini album showcase.

And to my pleasant surprise, Dongwoo's here as well!

Actor Hoya makes another cameo (bottom right) with a page for his drama "Two Cops"!

And now Golden Child's feature, "Golden Time"! This magazine is really smart to have Golden Child's feature be spread out over several issues, so that only about four pages featuring Golden Child are in each issue. Here are the first two pages.

These two pages show a lot of Y and Bomin, along with a selca of the two (and Tag in the bottom left corner!).

There are only five pages of "Golden Time", but there is so much going on. They are all so adorable in their overalls!

The second two pages show Jangjun, Tag, and Joochan (with crouching Y hanging out on top!). Drawings of the members are also shown on the left.

I don't usually see Jangtaekchan (?) together, but they really are so cute together! And if anyone's a fan of the show "Fuller House", this is like the she wolf pack^^

Also there is just so much cuteness here, from Jangjun clutching Jootaek's legs to the three peeking over the white wall to their portraits to Tag looking really handsome with his blue hair.

I think my most favorite part is that the members are holding up placards for the page numbers!

The fifth page has a group image as well as advertisements for receiving additional Golden Child content. This concludes Golden Child's segment for this issue, with a continuation in next month's.

Actor Hoya makes his last cameo for this issue, this time for his drama "Devilish Joy".

Towards the end of the issue are the Polaroid events. There are four autographed Polaroids of L.

For Golden Child, there are two autographed Polaroids of Jangtaekchan and two of Boyoon (?).

And lastly there is one more section for L.

As I mentioned, "Golden Time" is spread out over several issues of Hanryu Pia, at least from September 2018 to February 2019. This past weekend I went back to Kinokuniya and found issues December, January, and February. I don't know if I'm more frustrated at myself for falling into this trap and buying this magazine, or for not paying attention to which issues Golden Child was featured in and ending up only buying October, December, January, and February. I'll be blogging about these issues in a future post!

Golden Child Magazine Haul! Feat. Infinite L and Lovelyz Kei

Golden Child has been featured in quite a few Korean and Japanese magazines throughout 2018, and I've collected a few that I'll share in this post.

1st Look - Vol. 157 | June 21, 2018

1st Look is a biweekly entertainment and lifestyle magazine. This magazine is made of slightly nicer quality than a nice newspaper, and is quite large, with dimensions 10.25" by 15.25". I had ordered the Vol. 157 edition of 1st Look from Ktown4u.com back in mid-August for $2.03 USD (and joint shipping with a CD). Ktown4u had packaged the magazine very well; this magazine is quite large, however they kept it unfolded and wrapped several layers of bubblewrap around it. However, they had sent me the Vol. 84 (pictured left) by mistake. I used Ktown4u's 1:1 service and at first they had offered a refund, but I replied that I still wanted the correct magazine, so they sent me the correct copy. The magazine was packaged the same, but because it was only the magazine in a cardboard box that can fit CDs, the box was dented when it arrived. Luckily the magazine still arrived in great condition.

The concept of this photoshoot is "Golden Days", or fresh flower boys in summer. Golden Child had several magazine shoots that came out right before their "Let Me" comeback from July 4, and these photoshoots revealed their new hair colors!

Magazine photoshoots always have weird concepts, and this one is no different.

Here is one of the first released photos of blond Jaehyun!

Golden Child's entire segment is 8 pages long, with the last spread being 2 group photos. I absolutely love these larger, newspaper-like magazines because the photos are so big but still in such high quality.

CeCi - July 2018

The July 2018 issue of Korean fashion magazine CeCi was released in late June. My brother bought me a copy at Sejong Bookstore kn LA's Koreatown for $17 in the first week of July.

To my pleasant surprise, one of the first few pages revealed L's  LabNo ad!

As for Golden Child, Bomin and Jaehyun are featured on one page. This is another sneak peek of Jaehyun's blond hair! And Bomin said since it's a magazine photoshoot, he wanted to try something different so he revealed his shoulder for the first time...!

This issue is perfect for Woollim stans, with L, Bomin and Jaehyun, and now Kei! Kei is featured in a 10-page segment entitled "Ready for Summer".

Four of the pages are about the beauty products used, but the remaining pages are enlarged photos of Kei.

I really like how much effort and variety they put into this photoshoot, with various outdoor locations, outfits, and hairstyles, which does make sense to give a sense of when to use the various beauty products.

Kei is such a natural beauty, I'm so glad she was given this casual summer concept.

Here are the last two pages of Kei's segment.

NYLON - August 2018

While my brother's girlfriend was in LA's Koreatown in early September, she found the August 2018 issue of NYLON. The issue cost $19 and came with a free moisture cushion.

L is also featured in this issue, in his section titled "Mr. Wonder Boy".

This segment has L modelling MCM's Autumn/Winter 2018 line.

L looks so comfy in his usual all-black attire!

Here are the last two pages of L's segment.

All 10 members of Golden Child are in a section titled "Sparkling Moment".

Jibeom's back at it with another striped crop top >.<

Here are the last two pages of Golden Child's six-page segment.

K-Boy - Vol. 21

The Vol. 21 edition of Japanese magazine K-Boy was released on August 31. I bought a copy from Kinokuniya Bookstore in Seattle's Chinatown in the first week of September for $20. I've always liked this magazine because it includes a double-sided folded A2 poster of the cover models.

Golden Child's wore their Miracle promotion outfits for this photoshoot.

The members are split up into subgroups spread over 3 pages.

Here is the last page of Golden Child's 5-page segment.

The very back of the magazine shows autographed individual Polaroids of the featured artists, and a cutout form for a chance to win one.

Here is a closeup of Golden Child's signed Polaroids.

Overall, I'm so happy that Golden Child is gaining more exposure through these magazine shoots and that L and Kei had their appearances in some of these magazines as well. I'm looking forward to seeing Golden Child's growth as they gain future magazine shoots!