I Salute You.

Sorry.
It has been over two months... and I/me and Bunny are sorry. Relocation to Japan (for the both of us) has taken its toll. And no internet connection to call our own for the first three weeks of living in our new Tokyo house damn near killed us. We missed a lot, and still have much to catch up on, but please bear with us.

We are not the only ones who seem to have lost their grip on life.

Just look at Kwangsoo of Supernova (orange sweater) - what happened?! I think he has been comfort eating... I think we, though it pains me to say it, may have something in common...

This past couple of months have been very emotional indeed. I have, amongst massive life changes, temporarily lost three of my most treasured hallyu stars - and Kwangsoo has lost his favourite hyung - to the South Korean army. I am no expert on the matter, but compulsory military service is South Korea in usually 21 months I believe, and there isn't really a conscientious objector option (bar going to jail). Avoiding it just brings shame and a whole lot of trouble, and you will probably never work again. I won't even bring up the disputed case of MC Mong again. So the fact of the matter is that I lost three of my nearest and dearest for the time, and that is that.

Yunhak (Supernova) went from this:


To this:


I really hope he is ok, and is not too cold in the bitter winter without his glossy fringe :(
He was the life and soul of Supernova. He got them to the top (in Japan) with songs like Shining Star, and he really was an excellent leader. I know he will be back, but will there really be anything left to return to??? No offense Sungje, but I don't trust you being left in charge of the band in his absence. All you do is take selcas of yourself and tweet them all day long!!!

There have been tears, lots of tears, so many, especially from Supernova. I may have cried with them.
"Anoooo, anooooo..."


Let's not even get me started on the departure of Heechul oppa too. Woe is me!


I hope he is not being bullied in the barracks for his effeminate streak and homoerotic tendencies.
We all miss him a lot, just like we knew we would. But luckily I discovered last night that he made provisions...of course he did!


As I watched a video of Super Junior and f(x) performing the amazing song Oops on the Super Show 4 highlights, look who appeared like a vision!!! There is his, number one oppa! And how else to greet him than to stand in a line facing the screen and salute him, for the entirety of his rap verse. Now that is respect. Heechul oppa, we all bow down to you, even in your absence. This is not to mention how truly brialliant this song is by the way, complete with intro growl. Thank you for bringing it to my attention Bunny!

Enjoy!!

Last, but certainly not least, we also had to bid farewell to Kim Jae Wook, of Antique and Walrus fame, not so long ago. Who went from Hedwig...


To army buff...

In basically a matter of hours.



Aigo.


But, all is not doom and gloom. There is light at the end of the tunnel. They come back. And here is some proof:

*WELCOME BACK JOO JI HOON OPPA*

We have missed you SO much!!! And I can't wait to see pictures and clips of you in the new Doctor Zhivago stage performance that you will be doing as your comeback?!


I guess it will be a 2012 hwaiting! we have to look forward to.

BUNNY-CHAN, お誕生日おめでとう！！

So, Bunny unnie, wakey wakey!!


Rise and shine! Time to jump in the shower...


Get washed up!


And put your face on (and paint your nails).

Because today it's your birthday!!! YAY!

As Kim Jae would say in his perfect Japanese, お誕生日おめでとう。I wish I could be with you on this special day, but I just can't get down in time. Which means that I can't even bring you a cake! So I've drafted in the experts...

No Min and Kim Jae have been up slaving all night, perfecting their cakes, all for you.

No Min even cut himself he was concentrating so much!

But which will you choose? Cake, I mean.


How about, as it is your birthday, you don't choose, and you have both cakes, and that double date we were discussing... but I'm in Glasgow as you know, so how about you keep them both busy, ne?

They both bought you some flowers along too, surely anticipating this possibility...

Apologies that Kim Jae isn't looking his best, he has been up all night after all... And No Min has gone for the more conceptual approach - he heard about the window you're designing for the London jewelry shop and wanted to inspire you.

And they also each wrote a song especially for you on your birthday.

No Min told me that he was going for genki vibes for his favourite nuna, whereas I think Kim Jae wanted to come across a bit more cool and smoldering, acting the perfect oppa.

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So now you have had your cake, flowers and songs sung, it is time for the "private date/charm appeal" a la SHINee YunHaNam! Boy oh boy do I wish I was there.

No Min has requested that you get to know each other a little better whilst going for a private dog walk. He's waiting for you over on the steps.

And his special charm skill is the cello... He felt he needed to charm you even more so with his musical wonderment, and he also heard how much Siwan has been impressing you with his violin lately.

We all know how great things must come to an end though, and how short these charm dates are. So you had better pull yourself together, and get ready for round two!

Next up, contender two: it's Kim Jae's turn. He's asked you to meet him in his favourite park - Tudor Grange maybe - he's waiting there, book in hand, and would just love to take you for a spin on his moped.

If you are willing and don't mind holding around his waist *very* tightly, he will take you all the way to the coast, where he plans to go swimming with you.

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*

All too soon, though, time is up. Dates are over. What next...?

Oh gosh, they are so charmed by you, so impassioned by their much too short dates with you, that they want you to pick which one of them you want! O to Ke!!!

The room is literally "dripping with pheromones". Oh golly, what will you do?! How could you possibly choose! Whilst you are slowly presiding over the possibilities - that's it - they cannot keep it together any longer....a brawl has broken out!! Rolling on the floor, legs flying, arms flinging around each others backs...
Oh dear, oh dear. What could you have done, it was bound to happen.

But who would have thought it! Kim Jae is left dripping with blood, biting his lip in shame, whilst Min Woo has come out the champion!


However, you are Bunny unnie, you are his nuna, and you will have no such foul play (well, that's a lie, you will, but for viewing pleasure only!) I tried to tell him this...

...but he insisted on waiting for you anyways.



I don't know!
What a busy birthday (you must be exhausted!)
I will leave it up to you to decide whether you sneak out to meet him, risking breaking Kim Jae's heart. I can honestly tell you I don't know what I would do. I just hope that you have had a fun day... I couldn't hope for more than that.

♥ Happy birthday Bunny unnie ♥

Hey, KIM JAE!

HI!

Please meet Kim Jae Wook (김재욱), actor, model, singer and guitarist extraordinaire.
D.o.B: April 2, 1983. I can proudly say that he is my oppa!
He was born in Seoul but moved to Japan when he was young, and lived there until he was 7 or 8. As the story goes, he began his road to fame in a high school band, but took to modeling at the age of 17, the profession which made his career take off. Not surprising when he's 183cm.

This is a recent one of him modeling glasses, out of a whole bunch of pictures of him modeling all kinds of lovely lovely spectacles on his wonderful wonderful face.

Oh yeah, and he's friends with Lee Soo Hyuk, Y I K E S. Double date, Bunny?

He also likes children, and is supportive of homosexuality, or at least it would seem so if you've ever watched Antique Bakery... A filmic adaptation of the Japanese manga written by Fumi Yoshinaga, really no words can describe this immense viewing pleasure.

It is honestly one of THE BEST films ever, with Kim Jae playing a French trained Western style patisserie chef.

Oh yes, and his most important character trait:

So, not surprisingly...

Please watch it diligently.

As for other acting accolades, he has made an iPhone movie and a Japanese internet movie, Heart of Gold. Plus he's been in lots of dramas, the most recent being Mary Stayed Out All Night, where he co-stars with Jang Geun Suk.


And now, on to the music. I present to you, Walrus:


Well, Kim Jae in Walrus.


And again.

And once more.

The rest of the band are kind of great too though!

Second dibs on the rhythm guitarist or second guitarist...whoever he is.

So this is the first MV, for the song To Be, which basically is all of these images come to life:

You can never have too much rock and roll smashing of the guitar, and I just love the stylistic cigarette smoking at the neck of the guitar, so indie.

This single actually came out a while ago now and just for reference, before this even happened, the first music I heard of theirs was a Beatles cover. Bless. I can't get enough of him and his tambourine, and then the Japanese too, flawless.
But really, what compelled me to write this was the release of the second MV from the newest song Seoul Witch. Here are some of my favourite bits:

To be honest, it is certainly not the most exciting video that I have ever seen, and I realised this upon making the GIF, but it doesn't need to be, it really doesn't. Why? Because if it were, I probably wouldn't even be breathing, not with Kim Jae in there. Just him walking and talking is enough. And lounging around playing guitar, and swimming and getting mad. I do feel a little sorry for the rest of the band - surely they could have given blondie a supporting actor part or something?

In all honestly, I don't love the music as much as my beloved autotune club bangers (I lost all of my musical morals a long while ago), but it's certainly not bad. To hear the whole self titled album for yourself, go here. And this is his official website (of which Walrus seems to be a subset).

Really I just needed the tiniest push to actually get back to blogging, and to talk about him. And if by now you are into Kim Jae even half as much as me, or think you will be, then this is an amazing fuck yeah tumblr, which will literally bring you an endlessly joyful stream of GIFs, videos and photographs, all of him!

♥♥♥PLEASE LOVE KIM JAE A LOT♥♥♥

p.s. According to AsianMediaWiki: outside of music & acting, Kim Jae-Wook's hobbies include reading, baseball and soccer. He also enjoys cleaning in his spare time. It usually takes Kim Jae-Wook about 4-5 hours to finish cleaning. Afterwards, when he looks over his clean home he feels a sense of pride. While cleaning, Kim Jae-Wook finds he can contemplate on matters running through his mind. Stylistically, Kim Jae-Wook prefers an easy style and he keeps a personal rule that he never washes his jeans. That's fine with me.