Yesterday I attended UFC Sweden. The first UFC show ever held in Sweden. Mixed martial arts is pretty much the only sport I watch. I just don’t have much interest in watching other sports. Never have. I’ve never been to a live event before, though.

The whole thing felt a bit surreal. I saw a story in a daily newspaper about Swedish MMA fighter Alexander Gustafsson the day before yesterday and it said “[bla bla] at a sold out Globen”. Globen (Ericsson Globe) is Sweden’s largest indoor arena. It was nice to see some positive coverage of MMA in Swedish news, but it came as a bit of a shock to me because I had completely missed that the UFC was coming here! I don’t know how it happened, but it had completely passed under my radar.

[…] there’s more! »

After finishing Secret Garden, I started watching Dream High 2. It takes place in the same art school as the first Dream High, but a lot has changed. The school has lost its status and is going down the drain when an entertainment company buys it out and sends its own artists, who have been banned from performing for violating a new law prohibiting under-age artists from performing late at night, to attend the school for the time being. It’s not entirely clear what the exact reasoning behind this is.

The actors are all different with the exception of JYP and a few cameo appearances by the original cast.

The main character is Hae-seong, played by Kang So-ra. I recognize her from the movie Sunny. She’s really cute and funny. […] there’s more! »

I started watching the Korean drama series Secret Garden this weekend. It was recommended to me by a class mate in my Korean course last year. I bought the DVD box in Korea, but I didn’t watch it until now. So far the drama seems pretty good.

It’s about a rich young man, Joo-won (Hyun Bin), who is kind of a jerk and always gets everything his way. One day he runs into Ra-im (Ha Ji-won), who works as a stunt woman. She doesn’t know who Joo-won is and doesn’t tread lightly around him, like everyone else does. After their encounter Joo-won can’t stop thinking about Ra-im. By his logic she is not his type — mostly because she’s poor and doesn’t come from an upper class family — but he can’t get her out of his mind.

I’ve now passed episode 5, where there’s a twist in the story. Joo-won now has more to worry about than getting Ra-im out of his mind (hope I didn’t spoil too much). I thought the drama seemed interesting even before this turn of events, but I look forward to seeing where this is going.

[…] there’s more! »

I watched the last two episodes of Dream High again today. This clip was very suitable for posting. It’s IU’s character Pil-suk, who sings the song Dreaming. This is the song that IU changed the lyrics for on YHY’s Sketchbook.

IU ~ Dreaming (Dream High)

8MB 1:15 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

The clip doesn’t contain any big spoilers, but since it’s the second last episode it’s a bit of a spoiler to see where the characters are at. Speaking of spoilers, the English subtitles on the DVD give away who “K” is a little too early in the final episode (they use “her/him” when referring to “K”).

I’ve just started watching the Korean drama series Mary Stayed Out All Night (매리는 외박중). It’s also known as Marry Me, Mary, but I prefer the more literal translation. I’ve been meaning to watch this drama for a while. The main reason being that the protagonist is played by Moon Geun-young.

I’m only two episodes in (out of 16), but I like it a lot so far. The tone of the drama is light hearted. There are dramatic and sad parts, but over all it’s a cute story that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy . Basically it’s about Mary, who has quit her studies because she can’t afford her tuition due to her dad’s debts, which are mainly due to his being conned. One night she runs into (literally) a musician named Mu-gyeol, played by singer/actor Jang Geun-suk. In order to make sure Mary has a good life (and finances), her father arranges for her to marry Jeong In, the son of a rich old friend of his. Mary opposes this and asks Mu-gyeol to pretend to be her fiancée to make her father drop the plans of an arranged marriage.

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Today I finally got my Dream High DVDs that I pre-ordered ages ago. Both boxes come with a bunch of photo cards.

As you can see I also got a “K” keychain with the same design as the K pendant in the drama, but smaller. At first I thought that perhaps they sent this to everyone since the release was delayed, but then I remembered that there was going to be a “lucky draw” for those who pre-ordered the first volume, and I guess I won!

The keychain comes in a jewellery box. The gift bag is also for the keychain (it says “the kiss” on the back of the amulet too). I didn’t really get why it came with a gift bag until I saw the price tag: 50,000 won. That’s over US$47! I wouldn’t have paid that much.

I’ll probably add more info about the quality of the subtitles later, but judging by the first episode they seem pretty good.

Today I received three out of the five packages of K-Pop and J-Pop goodness that I’ve ordered. I haven’t ordered much this spring… until now that is.

The items […] there’s more! »

When the K-drama Dream High was over the artists who were a part of the cast held a concert for the fans where they performed songs from the drama. It was aired as a bonus episode on TV and had interviews with the cast and stuff.

IU performed Someday from the Dream High sound track.

IU ~ Someday Live@Dream High Concert 20110301

20MB 3:04 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

I apologize on the camera man’s behalf for the unsteady camera -_-.

During the performance they show some clips from the drama, so some things will get spoiled if you haven’t watched the drama yet.

[…] there’s more! »

I’m currently watching the Korean drama series Dream High. There are so many familiar K-Pop faces in this drama. There’s Suzy from Miss A, Taec-yeon and Woo-young from 2PM, Eun-jeong from T-ara and IU ♥. You can also see JYP as one of the teachers. I also recognize some of the actors from other dramas and movies. […] there’s more! »

It’s not every day they play J-Pop on Swedish television. The other day I watched a Swedish game show called På Spåret (translates into something like “on the right track”), where they show a train running and the contestants are supposed to guess where the train is heading. This time it was heading to Osaka, Japan. When they showed some footage from Osaka for the questions they played Laugh Away by YUI and Real Me by Ayumi Hamasaki

Also, I just watched the Hugh Grant movie Music and Lyrics, and I noticed that Cora’s first song (the one she’s making a video for at the beginning) has the exact same intro and ending as BoA’s song Did Ya. Must be the same composer or sampled from the same place.