Arirang TV

On Wednesday, I went to another filming of Arirang TV's Simply Kpop. If I haven't explained it to you before, Simply Kpop is a Kpop program made by Arirang where usually the rookie groups have a chance to shine and perform. Also the best thing about this program is that it is all in English for the most part. At least the MC parts and if you are a foreigner they definitely want you part of the show! All you got to do is just sign up on their website to get tickets. So usually the taping for Simply k-pop is taken every two weeks. So they shoot two episodes in one day. Now that I think about it, I've been to every Simply K-pop taping except one. Up until wednesday's taping, usually they have the fans meet up at around 6 and they film both shows. It usually ends pretty late, around 10 or 11 pm at night.
This time, they decided to change things up and I'm glad they did because the taping ended earlier than usual. The Arirang TV studio is located in the Seocho area and I live in Sinchon area. It takes about an hour to get there and back, so when taping goes late, we get home late. So I'm glad they changed it up this time. They divided things up to two taping sessions. One at 2:00 and one at 6:00. It was also really good that they divided up the big groups and the rookie groups in both sections. They had U-Kiss as the big group in the first half and they had Ulala Session in the second half.
However, the negative part of having it divided into two sections is that there is barely any time to get food to eat. So most people just came for the first taping or just for the second taping, not like my friends and I, who came for both tapings. Although for the first taping, I didn't think I could make it, since I had a class that finished at 12:50. My friend and I basically booked it to the station and used the taxi from the other station to the studio instead of walking there (which is normally around 20 minutes from the station. HOWEVER, be comforted that taking a taxi in Seoul is really cheap. 20 minutes, we only payed 2400KRW! so divide that by 3 people in the car only around 800KRW each? it's actually cheaper than a normal bus ride, which has been upped to 1050KRW this year).

can you see me? 

In the first taping it was 7942 (a male quartet ballad group), Girl's Day (a five member girl-group), U-KISS (a seven member boy-group), Noel (a male quartet ballad group), Mighty Mouth (a coed three member group), December (two member ballad group), Electroboys (three member group). The group that I enjoyed the most was Mighty Mouth. They are so interactive. Their English abilities were basic but it was also gangster like. It was actually pretty funny. They kept repeating if the audience liked "potato pizza" or "cheeseburger." They performed three songs and each time it was really funny. U-Kiss was pretty entertaining as well. They had the most fans there so it was pretty funny how they interacted with them. 4 out of the 7 members can speak English but ironically the English speaking members were busy doing their part of the show whereas the other three were left with the fans. Nevertheless, it was a very entertaining first part.

The second part of the show was Bohemian (a male trio ballad group), F.Cuz ( a five member boy group), 5tion (a five member boy group), Ulala Session (a four member boy group) and many more. This time I enjoyed Ulala Session the best. They had the most fans present as well though. Ulala Session was the winner of a popular tv show in Korea and after seeing their performance that day I realized why they won. What made the second part sort of interesting for at least my friend and I was that we were told to do an opening for the show. Basically to say "Welcome to Simply Kpop" and both of us introduced the group 5tion. So please look on a look out for that episode and see a glimpse of our 5 second fame on Korean tv. hahaha. I think it's episode 12. If you don't have international cable, you can watch Simply Kpop on their website as well on Video on Demand. HOWEVER, you need internet explorer a.k.a you can't use a mac to open the video.  We finished filming around 9 or 10. It was still late but not as late as usual.

I was called by Arirang on wednesday if I wanted to be part of an audience for a traditional korean music show on Thursday and so I said yes because I really had nothing better to do. Anyways, on thursday I went to the filming of what is called "The Sensation." This tv show focuses on the rhythm of traditional Korean music. The show is interactive with the audience and the people watching at home by practicing and learning the basic rhythms. It's really interesting. First they play the rhythm on the traditional korean drum and then they play the same rhythm on the piano. The pianist sort of uses jazz chords to play it and it's actually pretty cool. I admit that it was strange at first but sometimes it's easier to hear the accents of the rhythm on the piano rather than the drum. They have the piano because we are used to listening to the piano sound rather than the traditional korean drum. The pianist, I think his name was Mr. Hong. He was amazing. He kind of reminded me of a Korean version of Beethoven. So I called him the Korean Beethoven. Like Simply Kpop, they filmed two shows that day. At the end of the show I was asked to do an interview about my feelings of the show and answered as best as I could. So... maybe I'll be on Arirang again but this time for a show called "The Sensation." I have no idea when it will air so... if I find it I'll let you know. At the end as well I took a picture with the MC. I think her name was J? or something. She sounded like a korean person who lived in the US for a long time and came back to Korea since her korean pronunciation at times were similar to mine. Anyways she was really entertaining throughout the show. She is so down to earth and very cute. Also unlike most Korean people, she was average size! It was very comforting to see. Sometimes I think Korean people are too skinny.
So the past two days was busy with going to Arirang and it was interesting that it was for both music shows. One modern and one traditional. I learned a lot about traditional music from the Sensation. I wish I could go every two weeks and watch it because I really enjoyed it but unlike Simply Kpop you kind of have to get invited? I don't know. If only I could access Arirang videos on my mac, I would watch more but it's only PC friendly. Boo. hahaha. Everything in Korea tends to be PC friendly. Keep that in mind please people! Although a lot of people have macs here, they probably have a PC back at home so they can open their bank accounts and etc.
Anyways I won't go on a PC vs Mac debate now and will leave you. The weekend has nothing special going on except I'm going to a concert on Sunday that I am looking forward to soo much. I got my CD for the concert on Wednesday. Here it is:

Yes it is Xia Junsu's Concert. So excited! The last time I saw him was at the soccer game. However, the last time I heard him sing was when I saw him in Vancouver last year. So I'm excited. I didn't get great tickets but I'm there to mostly hear him sing. Yay!