A Reminder

Every once in a while I feel the need to point out how beautiful Lee Jong Suk is. Mission accomplished. 

Odds And Ends

Just some things that have been on my mind lately:

There aren't many TV shows that I like well enough to watch on commercial TV,  but one of them is The Fosters on ABC Family.  There are lots of reasons to like this show, not the least of which is that Jake T. Austin takes his shirt off a lot.  Like, a lot. 

Jake: Don't worry he's legal.

The other show I never want to miss is So You Think You Can Dance, because a) I love dancing, and b) I love dancers. Live shows start this week, and I haven't yet settled on a favorite, but if Ricky Ubeda doesn't make the finals I will be very surprised.  If you ask me, So You Think You Can Dance would be even better if they eliminated the competition aspect of the show and just let these amazing dancers dance for two hours, but no one asked me.

Ricky Ubeda, age 18

Because I am twelve years old at heart,  I have been reading a series of  books by Jennifer A. Nielsen called The Ascendance Trilogy (The False Prince, The Runaway King, and The Shadow Throne). This is a "boy's own adventure" with everything you could hope for: love, death, court intrigue, hidden identities, lots of fighting, and a very likable and relatable lead character. And yes, it is intended for children.  So sue me, I loved it. Incidentally, a film version of The False Prince is currently in the works, and I can hardly wait to see how Hollywood screws it up.

If you liked The Ascendance Trilogy,  there's an similar, but even better series by Megan Whalen Turner, known as The Queens Thief.  Four books so far, starting with The Thief.  Mrs. Turner takes her sweet time between books, so even though it has been four years since the last in the series, A Conspiracy of Kings, was published, we shouldn't expect book number four for a few more years. Totally worth the wait, though. 

Two of my very favorite Korean actors currently have dramas airing. They are Lee Seun Gi in You Are All Surrounded, and Lee Jong Suk in Doctor Stranger. Thank you Drama Fever. 

 

Lee Jong Suk: Here's where I make a joke about "beside manner."

Lee Seun Gi: Need I say more?

Summertime, and all I want to eat is corn-on-the-cob, watermelon, and just about any kind of meat, grilled. 

This will do, but that's not nearly enough watermelon.

What's your all time favorite summer jam?  I'd like to make a case for Rock The Boat by The Hues Corporation, which topped the Billboard chart 40 years ago this week.

Speaking of Disco, I've noticed that You Can't Stop The Music, the classic bad movie starring The Village People, is on Netflix.  It really is craptastic.  


I have to make a plea for my personal favorite super-bad disco move, and that's Roller Boogie starring Linda Blair and Jim Bray in (strangely) his one and only film role.

What's next for Jim Bray?  I don't know, but it isn't more movies.

Jim Bray may have been the male lead of Roller Boogie, but it was a shirtless scene involving Stoney Jackson that really seared itself into my brain. In the parlance of the time, he was foxy. 

Roller Boogie, the entire movie, is on YouTube (for now) if you are interested,  but don't say I didn't warn you. 


I saw the trailer for The Maze Runner,  and was surprised by how much I really want to see it, and not just because it's full of hot guys, including Dylan O'Brien, whose bath water I would gladly drink.

Postponed from February, but don't let that bother you.

On the other hand, the trailer for The Giver kind of pissed me off, Even though Brenton Thwaites is quite a honey. 

Brenton Thwaites, a 24-year-old teenager, but foxy!

Finally, I haven't been to a movie since The Fault In Our Stars came out a few weeks ago.  What's out there right now that won't make me want to pluck my eyeballs out?  Anything? And don't say The Transformers, because I've been burned before.

Supertwink Superstar 이종석

 

The best thing I saw today was this knockout video of a photoshoot starring my beloved Lee Jong Suk,  the twinkiest Korean TV/Movie star in all of twinkdom.  He will soon be appearing on TV screens everywhere in the new drama, Doctor Stranger.

Lee Jong Suk Still Sends Me

I still think that Lee Jong Suk ( 이종석 ) is one of the loveliest creatures on the planet, and these new pictures from Korean W Magazine don't do a thing to change my mind. And here's a "making of" video, which is only kept from perfection by an  unnecessary cigarette.

Passed Out

Lee Jong Suk's magnum opus, No Breathing opened today, and this is why I will see it, even if I have to go to Korea to do it.

Still Not Breathing

I don't have even the smallest bit of evidence that anyone who reads this blog is as interested in beautiful Korean star Lee Jong Suk (이종석) as I am,  but even if I'm the only one in the world who finds him irresistible, I still have to share this new trailer for his upcoming film,  No Breathing, because not only is he beautiful,  but at 1:16 he has a moment of such unbridled adorableness that I nearly fell off my chair. 

I'm Not Breathing

 
This behind- the-scenes clip of a publicity photo shoot for the film No Breathing, starring Lee Jong Suk and Seo In Guk (hey, that rhymes!) has left me breathless. 

Can We All Just Agree...?

Can we all just agree that Lee Jong Suk is one of the loveliest creatures on the planet?

Plunge!

Those of you who recall the semi-clad goodness of the Japanese film Dive!!,  from 2008, can expect similar thrills from the upcoming Korean film, No Breathing.  Except this time the movie stars my beloved Lee Jong Suk.  His costar, Seo In Guk, is no slouch either.  I expect it will be quite some time before I'll be able to get my hands on it, but it opens in Korea in October.

Fever!

What does a person do with his or herself when they are on a two week vacation with no money, and crippling pain?  If that person is me,  that person watches hours and hours of Korean Drama.  I promise you that no one is paying me to say this,  but I think the best place on the internet for K-Pop, K-Drama,  and international TV in general (they have a large Latino section, currently featuring the huge hit from Spain, Red Eagle)  is Drama Fever.  It's not just a great place to watch your Dramas, they have blogs, polls, contests, recaps, and they make it easy to keep track of your favorite shows and your favorite stars. They also have a Roku app so you can stream directly to your TV, and an iOS app which I use with Apple TV to stream to my big screen TV.  Basically, Drama Fever is awesome. You can choose between a free and a premium version, both great, but the premium version, which eliminates ads and gives you earlier access to new episodes is well worth the price.  And I repeat, I am getting nothing in return for this endorsement, so don't even.

So, this is my Holy Trinity of K Drama, at the moment:

Lee Jong Suk, who I featured a few weeks ago, is the beautiful beanpole star of I Hear Your Voice,  or I Can Hear Your Voice, depending on the translator.  I Hear Your Voice came to a very satisfying conclusion last week,  and one of the highlights of my awful vacation was lying on my bed of pain and sobbing through the last two episodes.  I admit it,  I'm a crier.   Next I'll be watching him in last year's School 2013.  He's got several upcoming projects,  including a film called No Breathing, which is about competitive swimming.  Which means swim suits.  Just saying.

In case I didn't mention it, the entire cast of I Hear Your Voice is excellent, and I mean right down to the smallest role, but especially Lee Bo Young as the heroine, and Yoon Sang Hyun as the second lead, who was completely deserving but not fated to get the girl.

Lee Min Ho is easily the least boyish of my fave trio,  but what a gorgeous, gorgeous man.  I first encountered him in Boys Over Flowers,  which was the first  K-Drama that made me lose my mind.  The  thing about his role in Boys Over Flowers is that in the beginning he was such a jerk that even though my brain told me that he was the one who would eventually get the girl, I couldn't quite piece together how he would ever convince me that it wasn't an outrage.   I wasn't quite prepared for his skills, his ability to be haughty and confused and manly and child-like and love-struck and a d-bag and a sweetheart all at the same time.  I suggest you follow up Boys Over Flowers with the action drama City Hunter. 

Yoo Ah In is my latest crush, and you know he's got to have something special going for him because he's the only reason that I have been sitting through episode after episode of the abysmal Fashion King.  Fashion King seems to be a perfect example of how to get everything wrong, and it all starts with the characters,  not one of whom is likable.   I take that back.  Yoo Ah In is likeable simply by the force of his own will.  He's supposed to be a lovable rogue type, but even though you can't miss that he is imposing considerable charm on the character, you realize that the character is just awful.  It doesn't help that the heroine is  a complete dish rag, never standing up for herself in a meaningful way, and crying in almost every scene.  I don't care what happens to her, I just want her to go away. I refuse to even type the actress's name.

It turns out that pretty much everybody hates Fashion King.  It was a ratings failure in Korea and the finale elicited howls of outrage from the few fans the show had left by the time it aired. Why am I watching it, then? Well, in the first episode, Yoo Ah In took off his clothes three times.  In each of the following three episodes he got nekkid at least once and often several times.   It was a bait and switch though. Ever since the fourth episode he has remained stubbornly clothed.  Grrrrr. I keep thinking the clothes have to come off again sometime, right? 

Flower Boy

True confession:  I'm hooked on a Korean drama again. Last time is was Boys Over Flowers, with its line-up of hot boys,  this time its a little trifle called I Can Hear Your Voice, (너의 목소리가 들려) a show that is currently a big, big hit on Wednesday and Thursday nights on Korean network KBS,  with the new episodes, subtitled and legally available the next day on Hulu Plus, or if you prefer a commercial-free viewing experience,  on specialized streaming services such as Drama Fever.   When I started watching last week I quickly found that I had watched ten hour-long episodes  of I Can Hear Your Voice in a very short period of time.   Those of you who know me probably think that this must be about some boy, and of course you are right. The person who has stolen my (admittedly easily procured) heart, is Lee Jong Suk (이종석)  a gorgeous 23-year-old of such twinky perfection that it is almost hard to process.  Although he denies it, Lee Jong Suk is the epitome of the "flower boy," which, in Korean parlance, basically describes a twink, but without the gay connotations.  I've gone gaga for him, as  apparently has a large chunk of the female population of Korea, where his every move is reported and analyzed,  and major media outlets run stories about the preternatural perfection of his skin.