Korean blind dating. Awful. Painful. Haven't quite figured it out yet. I'm going out on a limb here to present my lack of confidence personal experience on the subject. I hope you'll forgive me for being frank. 소개팅 is just about as comfortable as a root canal. It's a standard game - single guy and single girl meet up in a safe, well-populated environment in hopes of finding a relationship. But it wouldn't be Korea without a twist. Let's talk about the third wheel. This person is a mutual friend that hooks the two people up. Perhaps this person might meet both people together at a cafe - and all three might sit down for a cup of coffee. The friend will try to stimulate conversation and sort of acts as a temporary match-maker. If... Show more

Before I say anything else: over on KoME we had the chance to interview the very successful, and my personal favourite, hiphop trio Epik High. We asked them about their upcoming album Map The Soul, their musical influences, and they even gave us their opinions on issues such as censorship in the Korean music industry (something I wrote about last year right here), and music in the digital era. You can check out the interview here. They had plenty to say! So. 서태지 is on a mission to foil my plans every Wednesday. The MV for Juliet still isn't out yet (okay, so I have no idea when it's even supposed to be released, but considering how long the single has been out now I just assumed the MV would be out already too). But there is a 15... Show more

김치. Delicious. Bold. Distinct. (see also: Smelly. Spicy. Scary) It's true, not everyone likes kimchi. Then again, not everyone likes soju. Or chocolate for that matter. If you detest kimchi, I weep for you. Moving on. Yes, I'm being biased. Of course I am. I frakin love kimchi. It's comfort food. It goes with any dish. It smells good. It's dynamic. It's essential. What was my life before kimchi? We don't speak of that time... My history with kimchi is a sad one. We got off on the wrong foot - kimchi and I. See, when I got in trouble as a small boy, my father used to say to me, "You're in deep kimchi now, mister". Well, it didn't take much for me to put two and two together to assume that kimchi was something bad (in this case, a... Show more

8eight are an R&B group with both male and female vocals. Their lineup consists of 이현, 백찬 and 주희. They debuted in 2007, and have just released their third album Golden Age. The first single from the album is 심장이없어, and Sohee from the Wonder Girls plays a role in the music video: Not the most amazing music video, but at least I liked it more than Se7en's Girls MV featuring Lil Kim. I'm not a Se7en fan but I was expecting more from the guy, considering how long his American debut has been in the works. The lyrics are pretty trashy and self-absorbed too, though I suppose it fits in just fine with the American R&B scene. Rockstar 서태지 has just released a new single, 8th Atomos Part Secret. It's the follow up to 8th Atomos Part... Show more

화이트데이. I'm not entirely comfortable with the name of this holiday. I mean, I'm probably absolutely looking too far into the name of White Day as something bad, but I digress. Actually, in a different ranting vein, seems that all the holidays on the 14th of each month are kind of like Love Day. White day is another one of these holidays seemingly made by the chocolate companies in order to entice people to buy sweets and candies. On this particular demi-holiday, men give chocolate sweets to their girlfriends to let them know nothing has changed and you're still just as cute as you were the day we met although now that i think about it you don't try as much anymore, you make me feel bad for hanging out with my drinking buddies, and... Show more