Wonderfully Simple

Just read that BoA's trying to break into the US market now, and is releasing an album early next year. Well, I've heard her first single, and while it's not exactly my type of genre, it still manages to be catchy after a bit. But it's not that spectacular a song, I must say.

I'm quite skeptical of Japanese artistes trying to enter the big US of A's domain, for a few reasons. First, there are always lines of broken English weaved into these Japanese songs. Lines like "I know loneliness is best friend" and "mama says a man is dreamer", both from 抱きしめる from her OUTGROW album, make me cringe everytime I hear them. Well, not that much anymore, since I'm a little desensitized to this by now. Point is, I've heard BoA speaking English before, and she can do so perfectly well. She doesn't even have the weird accent(another point which makes me skeptical). I find it quite hard to believe that she has no power over minor edits to the lyrics to make them grammatically correct. But that's an aside. Thankfully, these grammatical errors don't carry over to their US releases.

If you've actually been following this blog since... a very long time ago, you'd know that I was totally distraught and disappointed with Utada Hikaru's foray that was Exodus. Some Exodus it was, because the tracks left my playlist pretty quickly. Anyway, if you know that, you also know that I hated it for it's mostly trashy lyrics, which is the next point. It feels as though it's a necessity in order to get your music heard over there. Or maybe, it's just the catchy hip-hop tunes and less of the lyrics that they look out for. Whatever the case,the lyrics in BoA's single (which is entitled Eat You Up) is quite ridiculous. Lines like "I'll eat you up... So yum yum..." leave me speechless.

And finally, the sleeeeeaze. Let's see what I mean!

The US Version:


The Asia version:


Why oh why? The Asian version is quite whacked, but those dance moves are pretty slick. The US version just has BoA and some random dude in suggestive poses, along with some less fantastic dancing.

After the bad experience with Utada's Exodus, I hope I'm wrong this time round, and BoA releases tracks that I wanna listen to.

First, read this article: ACJC girl tied up, roughed up, and humiliated on elite JC premises.

Next, view the videos.

Then, decide whether you agree with what the writer said.

Personally, I think the writer was making a mountain out of a molehill. I think whether or not the whole incident should be considered a case of bullying is primarily subject to the "victim's" perception. It was quite evident from her tone of voice and the things she said that she wasn't shaken by the whole thing, yet it wasn't so, to the writer. I mean, of course no one has some (sick) burning desire to be put in a situation like that, but in this particular case, since the person appreciated his/her friends' thoughts, then who are you to complain?



I suppose the writer was referring to the moment just before she got smashed. Really, if she indeed did break down and cry, I'm confident the rest of them would have had the moral capacity to stop there and then. But nah, she (much to her misfortune) was okay with it.

Now, to drive home the point that the writer was wrong: Not bullying, but birthday celebration amongst good friends, says ACJC

Some "gems" from the comments:



Ding!



The irony. Not to mention, he's making personal insults, which I feel are totally pointless and unnecessary. I actually hate people who resort to this, which automatically includes 90.23423% of the population on the Internet, or at least, in online gaming.

And well... Posting the video online isn't the smartest thing to do. Even if it's to share with friends, you'll never know when someone might see it, misinterpret it and take it out of context, then post it on some public media.

Without the videos themselves, I personally still wouldn't have made a judgment just by reading the article, because I don't have background knowledge. However, I suspect that quite a few others would have immediately lambasted the supposed ridiculity of the situation. Regardless, even with the videos around, the same shit happens. Doesn't help that it's usually these same people that are vocal, and thus create the false impression that nearly everyone is on the same wavelength as them.

Point is, don't post shit up unless you're fully informed, and don't say shit unless you know what shit you're spouting (I know I might be shooting myself in the foot here, so go ahead and point it out).

There's entirely another debate on the gray area between "in good humour" and "bullying", and I don't think I wanna say much about it, but you can probably infer my stand from what I said earlier on.

Caught this song on the radio last night, when me and my sis were picking my mum up.

Everytime I see you being this sarcastic, I die a little inside.
Yet, some things won't ever change.

I haven't felt this...

...Tired
...Stressed
...Busy
...Exasperated
...Frustrated
...Guilty
...Wronged
...Unwell

...in such a short span of time, and in a long while now. Right now, it seems like everything's coming in a veritable avalanche.

Trudging through this week with many questions in my head, I need to get through this week at least, as do my peers. All the best, everyone.

It's terrifying to speak to someone who's pissed off.

If you don't like to argue, don't. Don't do it while you're angry, especially.

When you speak, don't ever speak like you're the superior. Everyone is equal. People don't like to be talked down to. Everyone deserves an opinion.

If you start to get agitated, clench your teeth, and say friendly things. Think positively. Walk away if you have to.

And never give up on keeping your cool and keeping things amicable.

Specifically, when someone says "just my opinion. not here to argue =) your way's fine," It could be that he/she's just offering his take on things, but accepts the other party's methods. He/she's could be trying to assuage any hostility, and keeping channels open for further discussion. Heated arguments = Very Bad™.

That depends on context of course. But give the person the benefit of the doubt, when you can. Especially when you don't know the person well enough.

A statement like "if people are getting confused over this... i think something's wrong" can very easily be misread. It would be prudent to rephrase it as "I think we should look at this again and see if we can make things clearer."

Just some thoughts and recent lessons.