New "favorites" series: What's Making Me Happy #1 (myspiffyrosegirl)

Okay, my belly is full now, meaning I can happily finish this post. This will hopefully be the first of a series called "What's Making Me Happy," which was inspired by a segment of the same name on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. It's basically a space for us to talk about favorites and recommendations. So, I'll just go right into some recent and some longstanding things that's been making me happy--

READS

What can be more perfect than to start off a "What's Making Me Happy" series with this book called Feeling Good by David D. Burns, MD? It's essentially cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in book-form for depression and anxiety. To put it simply, this book has been revolutionary for me. It's made me realize how much my depression/anxiety has affected me and how pervasive they are in my everyday life. But more importantly, the book and CBT itself depart from the Freudian philosophy and all the psychotherapy that was founded on it. What does that mean? In a nutshell, it means 3 basic things - (1) depression is not a mirror to human nature's true form, so it's not something that people have to suffer with, (2) a lot of your feelings including your strongest ones are based your thoughts - hence cognitive based therapy, and (3) so the way to fight your way out of your depression/anxiety is to first change your thoughts in order to change how you feel. Simple, but amazing.

Misaeng Episodes 3-4: Striving towards a complete life

I knew it. I couldn't stay away. Misaeng returns with more uplifting episodes in its second week while staying true to its realistic portrayal of everyday struggles in the workplace, this time with more tangible lovely parallels from baduk. I love that the story doesn't stagnate or linger on Geu-rae's sad, unlucky lot in life, but moves on to unfold more of his story...

K-variety of our lives

Hello everyone! myspiffyrosegirl and mongolkhana are coming together for our first joint posting. And what better topic than Korean variety?!

This will be more of a brief recap of the shows we are currently watching, and our thoughts of the current seasons. One of us will briefly summarize the show, and the other will chime in with additional thoughts or comments. In this first round, we'll tackle Running Man, Roommate, and Superman is Back.


1. Running Man (SBS)

myspiffyrosegirl: Running Man (2010) is one of the "older" K-variety shows that is still going strong in its 4th year running (harhar) that has a competition-game set up. Each episode features a series of short games that are related to a central theme/mission where players compete to win points, hints, or some kind of favor that will help them in the final game at the closing of the episode. There is only one winner - either individually or as a team for the final game and they are essentially the ultimate winner for the episode, which can be bitter for some and redeeming for others. Sometimes, there a specials that last for multiple episodes, like the Asia Race Special that took them across Macau, China and Vietnam - this remains as one of my all-time favorites. This show is one that has kept its regular cast pretty consistent especially in the later years - Yoo Jae-suk (MC), Ji Suk-jin, Kim Jong-kook, Haha, Lee Kwang-soo, Gary, and Song Ji-hyo. More often than not, guests are invited ranging from actors to idols to athletes, from the well known to the up and coming, sometimes as a single guest, sometimes as a huge group like in their Idol Olympic specials. The show isn't split up by seasons because they don't change their regular cast; they've been airing every weekend since its inception with 219+ episodes now.

Before Midnight: A finale in real love

I wrote this right after I watched the movie a year ago. I'm reposting it here, since it seems an appropriate post with all our other reviews for shows...As I skim it while re-formatting it, I notice it's more of a personal reaction, but that's okay. Just a more personal, less objective "review." I hope it sways someone out there to join the "Before" series cult. :)

Just a little introduction to those who have never heard of this series: Before Midnight came out in May 2013 and is the third in a series of movies featuring the relationship between an American named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a Frenchwoman named Celine (Julie Delpy). The actors themselves are of the same nationalities as their characters, not coincidentally I believe. (Although Delpy became a U.S. citizen in 2001, so technically she is now a French-American actress.) The first movie, Before Sunrise, came out in 1995, and is the story of how they first met on a train through Europe's countryside and their impromptu adventures through Vienna over 24 hours before Jesse boards a plane to leave for America at sunrise - hence the movie's name. Before Sunset came out in 2004 and picks up their story in real-time, so also 9 years later. Nine years after that is this movie, Before Midnight, with the actual story again in real-time. As far as public knowledge goes, the two sequels were never planned, and each time, the question of whether or not to do another sequel was left up in the air. Luckily for us fans, they have kept up with the sequels and at the regularly spaced 9 years. It's a very unique set-up since the movies are spaced out so far apart, and unlike other series, it's completely not known (or rather disclosed to the public) if the 3 (director Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy) are planning another sequel.

A first look at Misaeng (Incomplete Life): A story that everyone can relate to

Misaeng (Incomplete Life) premiered this past weekend on tvN in their Friday-Saturday slot. And I'm obsessed. I'm excited. I'm in love. I wasn't even going to blog about this until the end, but here I am. This contemplative but compelling look at office life and just the realities of modern day struggles is hitting all the right notes with me, from the writing and directing to the music, cinematography, and of course acting.

Tang Wei, Sunmi, and Yoona: Three favorite magazine photo shoots, Sep-Oct 2014

There were some stunning magazine photo spreads from September and October, and I wanted to share three of my favorites featuring Tang Wei in Elle Korea's September 2014 issue, Sunmi for bnt in October, and Yoona in W Korea also for their September 2014 issue. It was a tough decision just picking out my top three.

Plus Nine Boys: Series review

This is my first time doing this. So bear with me.

Plus Nine Boys is a 2014 Korean drama series that just finished airing on the cable network TvN finishing at 14 episodes after getting its length axed possibly due to a mixture of low ratings and plagiarism accusations. I wanted to review it because not only did I like it a lot but because I feel it could have been so much better if it had more episodes to grow into.

Spoilers ahead! I warned you!

Autumn horror: Stuart Vever's Apollo sweater from COACH's RTW F/W 2014 Collection

I love autumn. I love the bright reds, oranges, and yellows that repaint the world. I love the crisp refreshing feeling you get when the cold air hits your face in the morning...making it feel luxurious to snuggle up in warm sweaters, sip on hot cider, and...watch horror movies??

Well, it seems like - unwittingly or not - our Asian celebrities are snuggling up in what is turning out to be a favorite this season - the Apollo crewneck sweater from Coach RTW F/W 2014 collection, which also happens to be the heritage brand's first ever ready-to-wear campaign as well as the debut collection for new executive creative director Stuart Vevers at Coach. Interestingly, his collection was inspired by the horror classic The Shining. Most of the pieces are styled after Shelley Duvall's character, Wendy Torrance, in the film; what Vever imagined would fill up the rest of her wardrobe on her stay in that hotel. However, the Apollo rocket sweater departs from that as it's inspired by the blue sweater worn by Danny in the film.

Many celebrities have donned this sweater including A Pink's Naeun, actress Kim Hyo-jin (Mary Stayed Out All Night), and Angelababy at various Coach events all in early September 2014; SNSD's Seohyun also wore the piece for Instyle Korea's September 2014 issue.

Miss A's Suzy in Grazia September 2014 & Idols who can model

Just as not every Korean idol can act, not every idol can model well. While that's okay, because that's not their career, it just makes it all the more impressive when an idol does model well. Of course, judgment is not passed with a single magazine or ad campaign photoshoot, because many factors go into it including the clothes themselves, the styling, the setting, the skill of the photographer, and the rapport between the photographer and the model. Yet, over time, one gets a sense for an idol's panache in front of a photo lens. Some idols that have thrived in their modeling work who readily come to my mind are Suzy Bae of Miss A, Sohee formerly of Wonder Girls, and possibly Yoona of SNSD. I'm sure there are many more, and I'll be sure to add more to my list as time goes on.

Suzy appears in GRAZIA's September 2014 issue with another great photo spread mostly styled in Rebecca Minkoff items.