Kim Jang Hoon performed on June 28th at the West Coast Festival, a concert to help volunteers, workers and victims of an oil spill last year. While performing; however, the young artist collapsed right on stage. People rushed to his aid and he was immediately taken to the hospital for treatment where he woke up on the way.

His fall was due to the exhaustion from being overworked in preparation for this concert. He only had an hour of sleep the day before. The concert continued on with other performances by No Brain and Super Junior who later visited Kim Jang Hoon in the hospital.

If only people love to sleep just as much as I do. Every other week it’s another Kpop star being rushed to the hospital for being overworked. If they work so hard, why aren’t they better? 

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The Hong Kong Pop Duo Twins will disband after seven years of annoying the crap out of our everyone (well, not everyone… the tweenyboppers and teenyboppers who love Hello Kitty love them too). The two members, perky Charlene Choi and not so innocent Gillian Chung have not made a public appearance together ever since the latter got involved in the infamous Edison Chen photo scandal. 

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If you haven’t heard or seen this teal haired pop diva, then you’re missing out. Hatsune Miku is a product of a speech synthesizer software called Vocaloid. The software allows a user to synthesize music by typing the lyrics and melody. My geeky senses are tingling.

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Here’s another link to the 72 Hour Shootout microsite, where I posted some photos from Team Pork Bun:

Stills from “The Savage Lotus”

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As promised I ran around the internet searching for some of the most heartbreaking music videos and guess what? All of them are Korean! Haha I tried to expand my search to Japanese and Chinese but I had no luck because none of the ones I did find came close to these. However, I found that a lot of Japanese songs have really sad lyrics.

So here it is, 8 of the saddest music videos I’ve ever seen. It was really hard watching all of them.

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Tonight was the second episode of the season and the challenge for this week was Video Star Challenge. The videos were picked for each crew and it seemed like each video went with each crew’s style. Some challenge. But the performances were strong overall. Honestly, I like it this way better. It’s more entertaining.

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And so it begins. The search for the most sophisticated, athletic, talented and stylish man in Hong Kong is well under way. 12 semi finalists have been selected to compete for the title of ”2008 Mr. Hong Kong” and these homosexuals metrosexuals will undergo two months of intensive grooming lessons before they are put in front of a live audience of screaming cougars and gay men to strut their stuff and show Hong Kong what real men are all about.

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Hey, everyone, I’ve been really busy talking to some of the great people involved in the 72 Hour Shootout. Below are links to my before-and-after blogs, with pics. Coming soon…interviews with the judges.

A Special Situation at the Shootout ConstipAsian’s aftershoot thoughts and photos

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In the Live Audition, Supreme Soul said that they’ve battled and beaten Jabbawockeez. Not only that, but they’ve been expressing how great they are throughout the live audition and season premiere. Honestly, I haven’t seen anything great to come from them.

I’ll admit they have skill but better than Jabba? With the latest episode to premiere last Thursday, they have yet to live up to their reputation or whatever it is. Especially with all the hype, the dance crew not only disappointed many but the people that actually matter, the judges. All three judges agreed that they were not impressed and expect a lot more. Shane Sparks sees potential but also sloppiness, Lil’ Mama was just straight up disappointed while JC thinks they’re caught up in the tricks and not their environment. Not exactly the commentary you would expect from a crew who could be better than the beloved Jabbawockeez. However their little ripple effect trick was nothing I’ve ever seen before, but was that all? I hope not because if it is, they need take their serious competition and come back with some serious game.

I haven’t been impressed much by any of the crews as I did last season except for when So Real and Super Crew performed. Hopefully they’ll keep it up unlike some of the other crews. 

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I have gone quite soft on people lately and taking my bitchiness out on Hello Kitty is not really a fair thing to do. A couple of days ago, I received an email containing a link to an Asianweek article from my fellow Ningin blogger, Lan. Upon reading the article, I knew this was my chance to redeem myself for the softness I have displayed in the last few weeks. 

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Well at least she got the name right. Hyori Lee is going to release her 3rd album after a 2 year hiatus; however, like always the promo video for the album leaked a day before its official release on June 24th. Mnet says their disappointed but do they really care? Honestly if someone is going to leak a video, leak the whole freaking thing.

The promo video looks like crap. After 2 years of silence, we get some comic book video with slutty picture of her that reminds me of a Myspace profile picture. You would think she would have better taste by now. At least she still has a nice body.

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She has got to be the most famous feline coming out of Japan. No I am not talking about this chick, I am talking about the cat that has a loyal following around the world. Her fans range from elementary school girls to celebrities like crazy ass Mimi and Brit Brit. Who’s she? Well, she’s none other than the beloved Hello Kitty. 

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Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) has been a popular franchise for Asia. It was first an anime in Japan in the 90’s and then eventually Taiwan picked it up but called it Meteor Garden which produced the band F4. It worked out great for them so Japan decided to give it go and it lasted for 2 seasons which doesn’t happen often because most Japanese TV shows don’t make it past the first season unless they’re really good. Now even though the story is over, there’s a movie coming out later this summer.

If you didn’t know, Hana Yori Dango is about a poor girl named Makino Tsukushi who goes to an elite private school in Japan. At this school, there’s a band of 4 sexy, super rich, powerful guys that rule the school by the name of F4 (Flower Four): Doumyouji Tsukasa (leader), Hanazawa Rui (emo kid/best friend of Domyouji), Nishikado Soujiroh (serious one) and Mimasaka Akira (reasonable one). Well Makino one day gets into a fight with Doumyouji that eventually leads to him falling in love with her. The show focuses on the hardships they have to face in order to be with each other. It’s a very cute love story and one I’ve seen over and over again.

So now, Korea joins the band wagon and casting has started. Guess who couple possibly plays my favorite character, Hanazawa Rui? Kim freaking Hyun Joong. 

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A day late but it’s here! Enjoy!

Next week I’m going to go old school and post the most romantic/cute/whatever music videos so look forward to it! It’s going to feature some of the best imo MVs that have a significantly sad storyline most of which are probably Korean! Haha

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Apparently our friends at PETA have a life beyond dousing celebrity fur wearers in paint. They also conduct online polls to seek “The Sexiest Male and female Vegetarian Celebrity” annually. Ethical treatment of animals is a global effort and so was this search. It was conducted in different regions of the world and the winner of Asia was none other than the Asia diva Faye Wong.

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Co-written by Hoc Poeng

The long awaited premiere has finally arrived and to my surprise, it was actually entertaining. Ever since the Live Audition episode, I was disappointed with a lot of the crews. None of them proved to be any where nearly as talented as last season’s which even the judges have said. However, tonight a lot of the crews stepped up their game while the others were just a big let down.

This week’s challenge was Crew’s Choice which is basically last seasons first challenge “Master Mix”. Each crew was given the chance to choose their music and dance style. The show began with the South and West crews: So Real, Distorted X, Supreme Soul, Super Crew and Fanny Pak. The only two to make it to the top 5 after a week of voting was So Real and Supreme Soul. I was surprised Super Crew was in the bottom 5 because they were actually a favorite.

The first crew to perform is So Real from Houston, Texas. The crew actually had some drama back in the South but like their name “so real”, they stayed true and left a dance company they wanted them to change their name. They’re pretty funny in that whenever they cross a reflective surface they just break out into dance. SoReal used Omarion – Entourage as their music which featured a slow, “swag” R&B beat. Like last week’s performance, they again resembled Kaba Modern with their smooth liquid, pop and lock routine. It received high praises from the judges who mentioned the Kaba Modern parallel. Interestingly, Lil Mama can’t pronounce Ailyn (Aileen). Not everyone has an easy to pronounce stage name whose real name is Niatia Jessica Kirkland.

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It’s been a slow week for Asian entertainment news. None reported thus far this week has really caught my attention but this one has. Perhaps inspired by Tony Leung and Carina Lau, HK Cantopop singer and actress Kelly Chen announced at the final performance of her concert last night at the HK Coliseum that she was engaged to some guy named Alex Lau, and they were planning to get married later this year. Alex was beaming in his front row seat as Kelly made the announcement. The female fans all cheered while the male fans shot envious looks at her fiance. Some were already at the Coliseum parking lot slashing his tires.

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Hi everyone, I’ll be interviewing various teams in this year’s 72 Hour Film Shootout. They’ll appear on the AAFilmLab microsite. One interview is up already, more to come!

Team Pork Bun - Rachel Lu SOHCAHTOA - Calvin Sun

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The launch party at White Rabbit Club, NYC, is this Friday at 6pm. More info on our AAFilmLab microsite. I’ll be there and as well as other Mixr Staff, Ningin bloggers, and AAFilmLab heads of state. The up and coming hip-hop rapper, Koba, will be there performing. Now, I haven’t followed rap for awhile, but I do like what I hear on his Myspace.

We’ll be conducting an interview with Koba for you later. For those not in the NYC area, we’ll be recording the performance and streaming the video sometime after we recover from the anticipated hangover.

We also hope to have pre and post competition interviews of the participating in the coming days. 

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People are so quick to blame “otakus” or everything in the world but themselves. Turns out the popular manga series turned anime, novel, tv-series and movie Death Note, has caused crime and controversy in every where but Japan. I guess Japan has enough problems.

If you don’t know what Death Note is, it’s a popular manga series that turned into a big franchise. For those of you who have seen it would understand why. It is probably the most well written anime I have ever seen. If you really enjoy suspense, mystery, shinigamis (death gods) and a cute blonde Anime girl, Death Note is definitely for you. 

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