My absence doesn’t mean I’m social-distancing myself from you all on my blog. I was just busy at work yesterday.
But I’m back now to write on:
✅a) “Hospital Playlist,” and my Catholic perspective (oooooh. Y’all didn’t think I was going to keep quiet about this, right?)
b) my list of Cdramas to put in quarantine and burn (hahaha. I’m looking at “I’ve Fallen for You”)
✅c) update on Lee MinHo’s “The King.” Their weekly promotion should be up soon, and
✅d) review of “When the Weather is Nice.”
See you later.
pm3
This is me when people ask me how I do “social distancing” —
hahaha.
Ah I didn’t think so. I was wondering when you’ll come out with a. 😄
@packmule3 I’m so looking forward to your posts! So sick of this social distancing already 🙁 I stay alone amd my social interaction is now down to almost nil, not counting the few virtual chats and meetings I have these days with office colleagues. I’m just so very, very bored😭😭
Feeling like I’m marooned on an island like Robinson Crusoe (wouldn’t mind if it was Shallow Island though😛).
🙂 I know, right? This social distancing is making me antsy, too.
That’s why it’s good that we’re all here. Go ahead and write something interesting (even controversial?) about kdramas and kdrama boyfriends. We’ll respond. lol.
Just chit chat, like agdr03 and I often do here.
@packmule3 Thank you😊 I always love the chit chats and idea sharing that we have here and am really looking forward to them now.
Ooh..I like that idea of posting about kdrama boyfriends! Let me think and come up with something – if it means I will have to revisit some favorite drama scenes, all the more better to curb my loneliness! It’s my bday in two days (another reason for my growing angst as I can’t celebrate now); so I think that post will be a perfect celebration with my virtual boyfriends 😍😍😍
Last week I checked out Country Music documentary from the local library. Now the library is closed and I am stuck with the DVDs. So when I was watching one of the episodes I heard a song titled He Stopped Loving Her Today. The song made me think about one of my favorite kdramas, The Slave Hunters (yes, its ending got spoiled by Se Ri in CLOY). Just like country songs, kdramas have their own way of touching our emotions. I was wondering if the readers of this blog have thought about what connects dramas to other art forms (literary, visual etc.) I would like to read your opinion while I practice yodeling.
@Snow Flower: I remember that we have discussed interrelation between books and kdramas on this blog quite a number of times. @packmule3 had written a post last year on how our love for reading makes us discerning drama critics. Can’t locate it unfortunately, though I remember commenting on it. Maybe @packmule3 can help locate it.
We also also have deliberated at length on how Pride and Prejudice the novel differs from the dramatization. We have discussed on those lines for for Love O2O as well, as it was a book to screen adaptation too.
We have also compared visual mediums, like Love O2O drama vs. movie adaptations. Some old timers on this blog may remember.
Would love to hear your views on how drama connects to any other art form 🙂
My background is in classical music. A couple of months ago I watched My Country, a historical drama that focuses on the personal relationships between several characters during the transitional period between Goryeo and Joseon. The same historical period is the background for another excellent drama, Six Flying Dragons. I liked that each drama had a different approach. 6FD had a large cast, with mostly historical characters. I could not help but think of it as a monumental symphony, like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica). In contrast, My Country felt more like a piece of chamber music, like Beethoven’s late string quartets. It had a very edgy and unsettling vibe to it. One of the soundtracks also featured electrifying solo violin.
As for Pride and Prejudice, I liked both the 1995 series and the most recent movie. It has been a while since I watched either, but I remember that the TV series opening theme reminded me of Beethoven’s exuberant early chamber music, while the piano solo at the opening of the movie made me think more of the intimacy and retrospection of his last piano sonatas. Beethoven was a contemporary of Jane Austen, so it is not surprising that the composers for the movie and the TV series sought inspiration from his works.
And this is why I love BoD! The interdisciplinary approach to viewing dramas, the conversations pulling from various areas of commentators’ expertise, reminds me of sitting in humanities classes many decades ago when I was a college student. @Snowflower, I love that you opened my consciousness to dramas flowing like music. Thank you!
I am by no measure a good dancer, and am not extensively trained, but have in my lifetime taken enough classes in various dance disciplines to become an empathetic audience member. One thing that separates an exquisite dancer from someone who postures is the ability to flow energy all the way to the tips of the limbs and beyond, finishing the movement. One movement should flow to the next; if there is space choreographed between movements, it isn’t empty, but is equally important (or perhaps more so, by contrast) as being in motion. When I watch actors who connect with me emotionally, I believe they reach me in many of the same ways dancers do. Their energy isn’t constrained, but flows through and out of them. Their silences can be as powerful as when they’re speaking because they maintain intent. The flow of multiple actors in a scene is a dance, and it is gratifying to watch when all tap into the push and pull of energy.
Welmaris,
I don’t know anything about dancing, but for some reason I thought that the interactions of the 5 main characters of My Country resembled a deadly dance. One wrong move could (and did) cost one’s life. It was both terrifying and compelling to watch.
@Phoenix, happy birthday in two days! Can we join you in a virtual party on Shallow Island? Maybe @Packmule3 can share some of the chocolate chip cookies she’s been given. I’ll bring a few bottles of sparkling isolation. (It’s only quarantine if it comes from a specific region in France.) And here’s a different take on a Korean birthday-themed song.
https://youtu.be/oDJ4ct59NC4
‘I don’t know anything about dancing, but for some reason I thought that the interactions of the 5 main characters of My Country resembled a deadly dance. One wrong move could (and did) cost one’s life. It was both terrifying and compelling to watch.’
@Snow Flower , I couldn’t agree more with your comment above. It was definitely a deadly dance. That’s how I felt it too. I really enjoyed My Country and to think I wasn’t familiar to any of the main leads there to begin with. 🙂
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Advance HAPPY BIRTHDAY @Phoenix !!! 😘
It’s your birthday on March 21? We have to celebrate it here. At least here we can have unlimited champagne and we will not get drunk. 😂
Go and write something about kdrama boyfriends like @pm3 said. I’m sure you’ll ace that. 😉 Try and rewatch some LOVE O2O, there’s plenty of inspiration there. I’m going to watch the last episode because I did a rewatch of the whole thing. It never fails to make me sigh and be 🥰.
agdr03,
I am a huge fan of Jang Hyuk, so I started watching My Country because of him. Both Yang Se Jong and Woo Do Hwan were a revelation to me.
Oh yeah Jang Hyuk was great in My Country too. 🙂 He fitted the role to a T. 👍🏽 It was my first time watching him.
agdr03, Jang Hyuk elevates every role he plays. You should definitely try Chuno (The Slave Hunters). He delivers one of the most memorable acting performances I have ever seen. The drama is a tearjerker, so be warned.
Thanks for the recommendation @Snow Flower 🙂 I’ll see if I can include that in the drama list to watch whilst in isolation. I don’t mind tearjerker dramas as I am a crybaby at heart. hehehe
Wow! Thanks for the insightful posts, @ Snow Flower and @ Welmaris. I leatn a lot here at this blog. And Happy Birthday @Phoenix!
Since this post is titled about Social Distancing, I will share some interesting videos I learned about today that deal with the COVID-19 and share information. One is the Corona Hamster and the other is PSA from Vietnam Hand Washing Song. The song is very catchy. The Vietnam one is translated into 25 languages. You click on CC button and choose your language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOJ8Lc-TfNg
@packmule3 – Waiting on d). Look forward to your article. Long time no hear!!
Thanks for that @Table122000 I will show it to my family later. My social distancing will start today. I’m not sure how I’m feeling about it too. Hopefully I can catch up on Someday Or One Day while at home. 🙂
Hi angelwingssf! 👋🏻
How have you been? Everything’s fine in your part of the world, I hope.
I finished skimming through Ep 6, and Ep 5 and 6 can be a twofer. My problem with “When the Weather is Nice” is that I forget the story as soon as it’s over. Kinda like the snow in the story. It’s ephemeral. 😂
Table122000! Thanks for the vids. The Corona pop music was catchy! To me, it sounded like something a kpop band would sing. hahaha.
That was beautifully described Welmaris. I am not a dancer but I watch dance regularly. I’ve also been a film and literature critic and I’ve taken many courses in art and music history/theory. I know exactly what you’re talking about and have seen it in “action” across all artistic disciplines.
One I think deserves special mention:improv. I have rarely been more delighted than when an improv team, working together on something they haven’t practiced, just click and the flow becomes this testament to human creativity, imagination and intellect. When Wayne Brady (the most talented man in the world?) is involved, it even incorporates song.
I think Pkm3 mentioned Catholocism above. I’m the resident agnostic, then, but I find myself closest to epiphany through the arts (and sometimes sciences) and my wonder at human achievement.
“6FD had a large cast, with mostly historical characters. I could not help but think of it as a monumental symphony, like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica). In contrast, My Country felt more like a piece of chamber music, like Beethoven’s late string quartets.”
@Snow Flower: What a unique way of drawing a parallel between classical music and dramas! I loved how you differentiated between symphony and chamber music and compared and contrasted two dramas, Six Flying Dragons and My Country , both period dramas but with different undertones. While I have heard Beethoven’s symphonies, I confess I did a Google search to understand the difference between a symphony and chamber music.
@Welmaris: I love dancing though I have never learned it, except taken a few Zumba classes. I would love to learn one day – maybe Waltz or Salsa. Ballet would be too difficult. I appreciate all forms of dancing, from contemporary to hip hop. I know Yoga though, and the movements of Yoga are also similarly flowing, like energy flowing from the limbs to the fingertips, exactly as you have described.
Now that you and Snow Flower have drawn my attention to this, I remember watching ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ long back and being mesmerized by how lyrical and fluid the fight scenes were – almost like a well-coordinated dance accompanied by some sort of flute music. I felt the same after watching Ang Lee’s ‘House of Flying Daggers’. What you said below is exactly how I felt, like the actors were in a synchronized dance of action and reaction, one flowing into the other.
“One thing that separates an exquisite dancer from someone who postures is the ability to flow energy all the way to the tips of the limbs and beyond, finishing the movement. One movement should flow to the next; if there is space choreographed between movements, it isn’t empty, but is equally important (or perhaps more so, by contrast) as being in motion.”
I remember watching and re-watching the fight scenes from those movies, simply because there was something strangely melodious and otherworldly about them. Before that, fights in all the movies I had watched, were rough and jarring, with nothing beautiful about them. Those two movies changed my perception. Both your and @Snow Flower’s posts on My Country reminded me of that realization. I think comparing that fluidity in drama acting to music and dance is what both you and @Snow Flower are trying to convey.
And thank you for the advance birthday wishes 🙂 That birthday song was a new take! I’ve only heard the traditional “Saeng il chu ka hamnida” (pardon my Korean). Now I’m looking forward to the party!
@agdr03: Thank you for the advance bday wishes 😀 I’m still thinking of which eye candy to bring along (can’t forget my Xiao Nai though). Think I will rewatch that last episode of Love O2O too 🙂
@Table122000: Thank you for the wishes! Do come over to the virtual party on 20th. That Corona song is funny, but it’s nice people around the world are treating this in the right spirit. These are unprecedented and difficult times, but this social distancing will be over one day, and then we will resume our normal lives again. Till then, we socialize virtually (like this, thanks to @packmule3) and watch dramas!!! 🙂
You, me and @packmule3 will always have the unforgettable Xiao Nai. 😍
Curried mango qinoa- so you can do a lot of different substitutions with this and I do! Whatever’s in the house.
1 c Qinoa/2 c water – don’t overcook. Just like rice with twice water to qinoa BUT don’t cover it. Boil/simmer about 10 or 15 mins till all the water is gone. Remove from heat but put the lid on for five more minutes. Makes nice firm qinoa. Hate it when it’s porridgy. Cool
1 or 2 ripe mango, chopped
Green pepper, chopped
Mandarin orange segments or pineapple chunks
Handful of fresh mint if available
Peanuts or sunflower seeds or almonds – something salty and crunchy
Dressing
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yoghurt
1 or 2 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tsp of mild curry paste or use powder to taste
1tbsp mango chutney if you’ve got some
Mix qinoa, fruits/nuts and dressing together.
As I’m currently on a diet I use lower calorie sour cream, sunflower seeds in moderation
This is by far my bestseller at potlucks! And healthy. Enjoy!
Thanks for the recipe, barbrey.
Stupid questions though.
How do you chop up the mango? How small should they be? Do you want them in cubes?
Bite sized cubes 😀
lol. Thanks. I thought I had to mince the mangoes! I’m not good with these exotic fruits.
A few days ago, I bought a box of mangoes and I didn’t realize how short their shelf life was. I had to make mango shakes.
@agdr03 @pm3- Glad you liked the video. I think we can all use a little more information and also some humor in these times.
@Phoenix- I’ll do my best to be at the party! Yes, I think it’s great that people are coming together to share information and solidarity in these times. We really do need to come together globally to fight this virus.
On a sad note, Kenny Rogers passed away today. I’m devastated. 😭 I know a few of his songs by heart but Through The Years is extra special because Dad, sisters and I sang it to Mom on her surprised 50th birthday. Whenever I hear the song it makes me cry. 😭
Rest In Peace Kenny. 🙏
@agdr03 Yes some songs get associated with our memories. Kenny Rogers was a legend. I remember really liking his duet ‘We’ve got tonight’ way back. RIP Kenny.
Yeah the one with Sheena Easton. I like that song too @Phoenix , he certainly was a legend. 😔
Indeed, RIP Kenny Rogers. I always liked the song “The Gambler”, and also “Lucille”. That wonderful husky voice will be missed. I saw an obituary for him on CNN. I had no idea he was a rock singer for years before changing to country music.