2000 is pretty much ruining my life, musically so I lock myself in my room for about an hour each day for a month and I listen to random songs of each decade of different countries. I'm weird, yes, but hey, it's the best way to just chillax for me. That and I mean, come on, it's the easiest way for me to expand my knowledge on music.

So, for me, the 90s was basically the golden age for music. I'm not really sure why, as my taste in music has changed drastically since then, but the overall catchy-ness and the lasting impression the decade has left on me has proven to be more powerful than Timbaland. He's not even worth his own blog post =D. Anyway, I guess it's simply because I grew up in that decade and well duh. 80s was cute, but doesn't quite have that "flava." Yes, I just said "flava." FLAVA FLAVVVVV!!!

*ahem* Ok, now there's no need to remind anyone on this planet of the whole 90s bubblegum pop scene with its squeaky clean boys and gals dancing and singing around, reeling in a huge mass of crazy, rabid fans. YAY! From what I've read and seen, those fans are getting crazier every decade. Anyway, who can forget the rivalry between N*SYNC and the Backstreet Boys? And does anyone recall 98 Degrees? No? It's ok. I'm pretty sure if Nick Lachey didn't get hitched to one of America's many useless human beings and make a television show out of it, 98 Degrees would stay unknown. I mean, I only remember three singles - "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)", "My Everything", and "It's the Hardest Thing" compared to the list I have for the other two.

Then there were those lovely set of 4 hot blondes that fought for the Bubblegum title. Main rivalry? Christina Aguilera and the oh so blah-ish, Britney Spears (she's so lucky, she's a starrr). So hey, I hear that Xtina's doin' pretty well with her hubby and her baby. And Britney? LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!!! Seriously, people, did you really want to see that again? But I'm not all that negative. I was one of her cute lil teeny boopin' fans from the good ol' days when she was still that cute ex-member of the Mickey Mouse Club (M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E lol). Britney, good luck with the rest of your life =D.

Oh yeah, there were 4. Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore. I remember one hit from Jessica and it wasn't even much of a hit. Something like "I wanna love you forever" or whatever. It's wasn't until Nick that she actually got some publicity. But, OH NOEZ, they broke up and hmm, I haven't heard from her since she broke up with John Mayer (how fucking stupid are you, Jessica?). Mandy, on the other hand, had (arguably) some hits up her sleeve. Ok, maybe not "hits", but at least she had more than one single that I heard on the radio on the way to school: The overly sugar-fied "Candy" (btw, Scarlette Johanson makes a cameo in the MV), the random "In My Pocket" (which has this Bollywood sound reminiscent one of Shinhwa's songs), and my *sad to admit this* favorite from her, "Crush" (I was actually surprised to read that this single failed to make the charts). Hey, at least she had more than one single that I knew all the lyrics to. She was better in A Walk to Remember =P.

Blah, I'm feeling all over the place right now, but who can't remember the Spice Girls (Need I remind you, Wannabe?), Hanson (when they were cute and not married), BBMak (ok, seriously, these guys were underrated, but they were cool enough to make a cameo on Disney's Even Stevens), Sugar Ray (when they still sucked), Whitney Houston (Pre-Bobby Brown days), George Michael (when he finally admitted he wasn't the straightest man alive. And you're telling me it wasn't obvious from "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"? Seriously?), and Celine Dion (simply no comment, but you know you start thinking "Titanic"). There was the whole "VH1 90s Greatest Hits Top 100" chart thing, but that was just shit in my opinion. I admit there were some nice singles on there, but this is just me going "Blah, let me play my Pokemon."

You want American hits from the 90s? Here ya go:

How Am I Supposed To Live Without You - Michael Bolton (you know you loved his hair)
Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor
Vogue - Madonna (Duh)
Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice (Another duh)
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) - C&C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams (oh the controversy)
(Everything I Do) I Do It for You - Bryan Adams
Good Vibrations - Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch featuring Loleatta Holloway (from the good ol' days when Marky thought he was black and flaunted his third nipple)
I'm Too Sexy - Right Said Fred (YES!!)
Save the Best For Last - Vanessa Williams (Before "Ugly Betty")
The Sign - Ace of Base (ROFL, the reason why I love this song was because I saw it on Full House)
Kiss From A Rose - Seal (get passed his face, folks, and you're ok. I LOVE YOU, SEAL =D)
Truly Madly Deeply - Savage Garden I Don't Want To Miss A Thing - Aerosmith (these two tracks were definitely played in everyone's Junior prom, and don't you be shy to admit it!)
Smooth - Santana featuring Rob Thomas (I LOVE SANTANA, lol)

Please don't make me remind you guys of all these bands.

90s in Korea

I'm still working on becoming familiar with all the bands and the ridiculous amount of music. The oldest 90s music I'm most familiar with is "Turbo". You know, when Koreans were first introduced to Kim Jong Kook and his freakishly unmanly singing voice. LOOK HERE!! If you find the original video somewhere on youtube when KJK was still in his Turbo days, you can see him rocking that 90s Nick Carter haircut and wardrobe. But the muscle man's home from the military now, so YEH better get her booty back home to let the press write more and more about those two.

LATE 90s =D

I'm working backwards here, so shoot me. I've gotta admit though, if you were to ask me "90s Korea or 90s America", I would just sit there and stare at you because, in all honesty, I couldn't really choose. Here's a full profile (proving just how much of a life I have) of the heavyweights of 90s Korea.

S.E.S.

90s Korea's best female group PERIOD! I mean, when you've got Shinhwa's Jun Jin doing your "I'm Your Girl" dance, you know you've made it. But seriously, folks, they could actually sing. Mind-blowing, isn't it? Bada's vocals are just "My God". Eugene's cute (duh, she was the "face"). Shoo spoke Japanese. HOT DOG! And, did I mention they're close with Shinhwa? I was tickled pink after hearing that. Anyway, hit after hit, these girls actually had the talent to grace the charts and destroy the competition. It helps that they're pretty sexy, too.

Way back when, these ladies were sporting the whole 90s look. And when I first saw them live, I wanted to shoot their hairstylists and wardrobe people. Seriously. They freaked me out. But now, all of them are off on their own solo projects. Bada's got her solo career goin' for her. I mean, she's already been called Korea's Madonna. Totally agree, btw. She's gone under the knife enough to prove it.

Eugene's an actress. Her solo singing career doesn't impress me much, but that's a "duh". She wasn't the best singer. She was "the face." I'm working on watching her dramas. I'm takin' a stab at "Wonderful Life" right now, but I have seen her first movie "Unstoppable Marriage." If you get passed the shitty English and the hideous mommy monster, it's a reasonably humorous movie. WATCH IT! And note to you guys, don't bother with "3 Dads 1 Mom." Just save yourself.

And Shoo. Where the fuck did you go?

OOOOOOK! Fin.K.L.? Never got into them, but they did have Sung Yu Ri (she's an actress now, but most of her dramas are still on my "To Watch" list) and the sexy Lee Hyori (no need to tell you about her =D). I'm sure these ladies are good, but I haven't actually listened to them enough to judge. I would think they were good. They were the rivals of fellow girl group, S.E.S.

Finally, there was the less popular, but popular enough, Baby V.O.X.

Ok. They were the longest lasting girl group from the 90s (if you want to get technical, S.E.S. has not officially stated their break up), but I'm glad they broke up before they completely sold out (don't make me show you the Ecstasy video). They had a freakishly awesome group of girls. Kan Mi Youn is, hands down, the COOLEST member of the group. She plays bass and drums. Now tell me that isn't hot. And it helps that she can speak Chinese (not sure which) and her pipes are damn good. Vocally, she was the leader of the group. OMFG Check out her Korean single "Kiss."

Yoon Eun Hye is arguably the breakthrough artist of the 5 ladies. I mean, hell, Goong anyone? I personally hated it after I realized how emo the drama was. Then there was Vineyard Man, which was mildly amusing to begin with, but just dragged on forever for me. Finally, she did something right with Coffee Prince. THANK YOU GOD FOR COFFEE PRINCE. *ahem* She's not a shabby model and CF star as well. But that's just because Jeon Ji Hyun was busy filming her other movies =P.

Lee Hee Jin had some pretty good pipes herself and she was really pretty, but GOOD LORD, the woman needs to be force fed. She's a friggin stick, man. And apparently she suffered from depression after the group's break up. Nowadays, she's gaining weight and preparing to star in a TV drama. YAY! lol

Shim Eun Jin had good vocals, but I gotta say, I'm pretty glad she went solo. Her solo stuff is definitely a stretch from what she had done with the band. More jazzy = very sexy. Check it out.

Kim E.Z. is the rapper. She was also the one with boobs (ROFL). The "hot" one. Yessir. She's been on the down low, so I don't know.

They put out awesome singles like "Accident (Oo Yun)", "Sarang Hae Yo", "Missing You (It's chinese), "In Hyung", and "Devotion". I'm too lazy to remember the rest. If you like the ones I posted up, look for the other singles yourself.

BOY BANDS

H.O.T.

Gotta love a boy band that has matching signature 90s hairstyles. I found them really weird beyond their hit single "Candy." I honestly couldn't find another one of their songs easy on my ears, but ya know, whatever floats your boat. They've disbanded, duh. Kangta's in the army. He looks really creepy bald. Moon Hee Jin's been exiled in Korea after his sorry attempt at K-Rock. The end.

Sechs kies

Not really familiar. Just started to consider listening to them, so gimme a break here. They're all off on their own solo projects, so good luck with that. But basically, they're like Shinhwa. They've got 3 main singers and 3 rappers.

But obviously, nothing can compare to the real deal:

Shinhwa

I could honestly eat them all. Eusha Eusha anyone? Yummy. Still together after 10 years. Crazy, neh? But still oh so sexy. They're all doing their own solo projects before entering the military, but they're still together. They've got a huge list of singles out there, so just look em up and take your pick. You won't be disappointed. They're not the type of band that reminds you of a cockroach that won't die, trust me.

Blah, if I really cared enough, I'd give you the low down on each solo's career, but I figured, this is a 90s post, I'll save it for later =D.

Anyway, main point being: 90s music rocks. For Korea, a lot of the bands today (as shitty as mostly all of them are) are still trying to leave the kind of impressions that the 90s bands left on Kpop. Seriously.

Back then, lip-syncing was weird, sexy was unconventional, and talent was real, not processed bullshit. Ok, so maybe Baby V.O.X. didn't quite get the news about the lip-syncing part, but otherwise...Yes, Kpop artists of the 90s don't seem quite as fake, could actually sing, and produce real hit after hit tracks on the daily. I'll rant about today's Kpop another time.

EDIT: Actually, I did some research and well XD I'm sad to say that last bit about lip-syncing isn't true. A lot of bands back then didn't exactly perform live like they do today >< Shame shame shame.

As well as American music. Hopefully you learned nothing after wasting your time reading this.

First she was dropped from Bright's 'Manson Girls' because they couldn't find any actress that actually has a semblance of a name in Hollywood to star alongside her, now she's gone kaput from Jack Black's film 'Ye Old Times' for some unknown reason. I'd like to think Jack Black has some sense in him and had her drop before the film comes to total ruins because of her lack of courtesy towards other people.

What keeps this woman in fame, I ask you? She's done mediocre films (please, Bobby would've done so much better without her in it) and is mostly known because of her massive expenses towards mass produced commercialised items and scandalous fights with other celebrities. It's time for the Lohan Fever to die down. Especially now that her sister and mother are doing a disgrace to the name she built with their cheesy overdone reality show.

And to top it all of, she came up with the lousiest fashion line ever: leggings. I mean, come on! Sure, it might do fine today even with the grotesque Michael Jackson feel of some of the designs (no one wants shimmering gold lines or knee bloody pads on their leggings, dearie!) but what about five years down the line? Leggings have made a comeback from the worst of the eighties and late nineties, but I doubt it will last.

So what'll happen when the fad dies down? She'll be left with a stockroom filled with tight spandex and the remains of a once famous life.

What a fab line darling, though a word of advice: Michael Jackson as inspiration for a line of clothing doesn't really do well for anyone. No matter the fame. ;)

Why does it not shock me that he may be getting out for even less than a mere eight days just because of his celebrity status? Jeez. You'd think celebs are b****y gods or something. How long was Nicole Richie in for? 2 days? Okay, granted, she was with child then. Whatever. I forgot how long her on-again off-again BFF Paris Hilton stayed in isolation, but it wasn't really prison-like, if you ask me, so her time is pretty much rendered a facade to keep up the reps of California prison cells.

Scotty ain't that big though, so he may stay the whole duration, who knows? As TMZ says: keep tuned.

Well, he's no Brad Pitt, but he's still John Meyer (aka Sex God), rockstar extraordinaire. And if you really think about it, he's muy better than Brad Pitt. For one, he actually has his own identity whereas the Pittmeister merely shadows the identity of his current lady love. (Think way back into the day when he was out with Gwynnie, and then Jen, and now Ang... get the picture?)

More scandalous (??) photos of the two all sweet and touchy-feely over at Bauer-Griffin.

  Peter Jackson (director of the LotR trilogy) and Fran Walsh are excecutive producers of the two films which will also be set in New Zealand.

   I've seen Pan's Labyrinth and it was pretty damn wicked, although the 'monster' was slightly laughable when he used his hands as eyes. I believe this will be a thoroughly marvellous film as well, because del Toro is a brilliant master when it comes to films.

I got my information here as I've been practising my Spanish (it's in a state of disgrace at the moment) so it would be best to Google it for more information. :)

Oh, the contact networking he must have accomplished! No doubt we should be seeing more of him in Tinseltown.

To make matters even more envious to other aspiring Asian actors, Larry and Andy Wachowski who wrote and directed the film are also the men behind The Matrix. Mmm, sizzling!

Here are photos of Rain/Bi on Speed Racer promotion in HK: 

(photos courtesy of Reuters)

Transformers' hottie nabbed the title sexiest woman in the world by an annual online poll. And to think she's engaged to last generation's 90210's Brian Austin Green whose last appearance was a cameo in Domino (film; Keira Knightley) and several TV programmes that have now been axed.

Tut. She could do so much better.

For a complete list of the Top 100, head on over here.

So excited.

I've read all the books since I was 12 - absolutely loved them all (except for the Last Battle which was a bit depressing).

Anyway. I love Skandar Keynes (he's grown up! But still too young for me. sigh.) and Ben Barnes who plays Prince Caspian is hot as well. Let's see if his acting is up to skill. Coming this May - don't you dare miss it!

**Sidenote: Voyage of the Dawn Treader is on post-production so more Ben Barnes to come.

Most songs that Americans know from the 1800s come from either church or the minstrel show. Songs such as "Dixie", "Camptown Races", "Oh Susannah", "Old Folks Home" and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" started out as songs in minstrel shows.

The minstrel show started in 1843. In a land without television, minstrel acts travelled America, and even England, going from town to town. They also played on Broadway. In the 1860s New York had 20 separate minstrel shows going at the same time! (The more I find out about the past the worse it gets.)

In the 1880s vaudeville grew out of the middle, singing part of the minstrel show. Vaudeville killed off its parent. By the 1920s minstrel shows no longer made money, but amateur ones lasted into the 1950s.

The radio show "Amos 'n' Andy" and Al Jolson's blackface character in "The Jazz Singer" (1927), the first full-length film with sound, grew out of the old minstrel shows.

Al Jolson, a Jew who came to America from Russia, was perhaps one of the greatest American performers of all time. He got his start in minstrel shows. He was better in blackface than in his own face. He said blackface made him freer.

Blackface is older than the minstrel show. By the 1790s there were travelling shows in America that had blackface characters. Jim Crow, who would later become one of the main characters in the minstrel shows, started in 1828. But it was not till 1843 that whole shows were based on blackface. White people could not get enough of it.

Blackface is still with us in 2008, by the way. Look at Shirley Q. Liquor.

In the late 1800s blacks started performing in minstrel shows. They wore blackface too: their own skin was not black enough. In those days it was about the only way for blacks to make a living as a performer. One of them wrote a huge hit song of the 1890s: "All Coons Look Alike To Me".

This came at a huge cost: the laughable images of blacks that minstrel shows spread lived on in the minds of white people for years.

Minstrel shows painted blacks as a people who sang and danced and laughed their troubles away. They did not mind being slaves or being poor.

The minstrel show is dead but something very much like it has arisen since the late 1990s: hip hop songs and music videos that picture blacks as violent and oversexed. Most of the people who watch and listen to them are not black but white. Those images will live on in the minds of white people for years.

See also:

• blackface
• Shirley Q. Liquor
• Race in America
• The Mammy stereotype
• Jim Crow
• hip hop
• gangsta rap
• Flavor of Love

 Anyway, less on Bulgarian Idol and on to American Idol, where the Cowell man is at. He told the Sun last 11th of March that he's not enjoying the current American Idol season. Saying "it actually reminds me of the last X Factor series we did. It's just a bit dull."

 Dull? Yeah, I suppose, with Danny Noriega out of the scene. But whatever, I don't like reading the Sun anyway. It's usually a load of BS. 

So just shove all those insults up your pretty, perky bottoms and appreciate the art of dressing-up weird. Just like these people in Harajuku (Tokyo A-Go-Go):

I never liked her during her Baby One More Time days, and especially not during her Crossroads days (anyone seen the movie? No? Good. Don't bother!), but somehow Schizo Britney intrigues me. And no, I don't want to be like her so don't worry about another teentastrophe to happen.

So the new goss on her? She's hiding from court again (wow, shocker!) but is said to be given $1500 weekly allowance. She has like, $100M in the bank and all she gets a week is fifteen hundred dollars?? Oh well, still more than I could ever dream of.