To all American Beanies, we have a major announcement, this Tuesday (Nov. 5), there will be an Election Day because if you going to vote blue (with Kamala Harris), then you are about to stop former president Trump from returning as the second term American presidency since Trump had a lot of troubles, lawsuits and even a lot of misinformation/fake news regarding himself, his other involved people or his own opponents. So, American Beanies, vote wisely.

Korea JoongAng Daily reported that k-drama fans are spending more of their time expressing themselves on-line. Google and market researcher SmithGeiger jointly surveyed 732 Korean online fans aged 14 to 44 in May and found that 90 percent consumed content related to their interests at least once a week on YouTube.

Among young Korean fans aged 14 to 24, half identified as "casual fans" who solely consume fan content, while the other half strive to create something from their fan activities. Eight percent identified as “professional fans,” creating their own content about their interests and profiting from it. A total of 68 percent of young Korean respondents in the YouTube survey identified themselves as “video content creators.” The influence of professional fans is accordingly growing. YouTuber CharlesEnter, with 343,000 subscribers, is well-known for reviewing Korean shows. Comments under his reaction video for the last episode of season three of “Transit Love (Exchange)” indicated that viewers watched the dating reality show primarily to see his review.
 
The study also found that 53 percent of young Korean fans enjoy discussing and analyzing their passions. Fifty-seven percent stated they sometimes feel more connected to other fans who share their interests than to the things they are fans of.   It confirms the greater interest in community, like the one here at DB.

Jung Il-woo come home to kdramaland in 2025! Preferably in a serious (non-fusion) sageuk.

I am doing an update for those beanies who notice when regulars disappear to avoid anyone thinking I have lost my love of K dramaland generally and Beanie land specifically. I will be travelling and then writing assignments so will be AWOL or contributing minimally for a few weeks to avoid spoilers. Hopefully, I will be back in time to contribute to the acknowledgement of this year’s dramas aka the bean count and bean awards.

I will also apologise in advance for late acknowledgement of those beanies who will graduating from Errand Boys to Rooftop dwellers while I am away.💪🏾Hwaiting you have got this.

Have fun beanies and take care of yourselves. I am looking forward to catching up and sharing thoughts on the next batch of dramas.

I've been following historian Bret Devereaux's blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry. Much of what he says might not be of interest to most Beanies, but this recent post should be required reading:

https://acoup.blog/2024/10/25/new-acquisitions-1933-and-the-definition-of-fascism/

There are some mistakes you can't come back from. If you know any voters who are undecided...

Happy Friday, Halloween and TSOPG premiere, Beanies! Warning right away – this is gonna be a LONG entry. And pls be careful not to slip and fall due to me drooling all over the floor here because... well, you'll know soon. I couldn't help it - LYN was extra RUDE this time.

First of all, we have 23 new OSTs! Starting with mellow ending theme ballad “This road” for Tencent's family drama OUR DAYS. Gentle and sentimental, tho not very memorable music-wise, but his voice elevates anything. High notes! Shortened MV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqp_GiGclP0

Full audio – if someone subs it, I'll share later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDH9_YbXMYA

Another for iQiyi's ongoing FANGS OF FORTUNE with a complicated title – translator chose “Unintentional big dream”, but other, more direct translations are “No heart to bear a big dream” or “Heartlessness births a big dream”. I already raved about it a bit, but that was not enough – what a blazing fire of a song! When Ning-ge first mentioned his “nearly all rap” OST, I was like “fine, it's good to be experimental”, but as usual, he exceeded my expectations. This is drama's main battle theme, which led to... polarizing impressions among viewers because show is a huge tonal mess/sensory overload, and not always in a good way. But that's not the song's fault, right? I'm very into fusion of modern genres with traditional instruments (drums and suona for sure and some kind of strings – pipa? doesn't seem like guzheng/guqin). And the lyrics! That “I was born with talent, but gossip burns me” line, damn! No MV yet, hence subbed audio only:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtDffmT2aVM

Upd.: say hi to his most viral OST of 2024 - this track is all over c-web now, used in countless fanvids within just a few days since release (ADWAD ones fit so well!) and “Wu! Xin! Sheng! Da! Meng!” hook becoming a meme. Btw, it's his 5th OST with “dream” in title^^

Aaand long awaited ending theme (“departure” song as per official sources, which is not very hopeful HE-wise, ouch) of Youku's THE STORY OF PEARL GIRL, titled “Only wish”. I had a hunch it's going to be a sad love ballad, not unlike his TLB one. This is sadder though – them lyrics... Wtf, dude, we're just 1 day in and you're already talking about afterlife?! Btw, screw you, Youku, for messing up with ending credits, that was not cool!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWI2nwbRFng

Tiny live – acapella! - from cast's Douying livestream:
https://x.com/fandoestrans/status/1851753877726728246

NOTES FROM 9TAILEDVIXEN'S FINAL WEEK OF OCTOBER 2024:

1. This Week in Life

Happy and blessed Diwali to all Beanies who celebrate this festival!

Diwali was yesterday and my teachers have taken a long weekend. So I only had 1 Aerial Yoga class this week... which sucks since I've found that if I go regularly, it means my body will just keep progressing in terms of flexibility and core strength but any extended time off means backsliding. Ah well...

2. This Week in Korean Women's News

(a)South Korean man jailed for 10 years in landmark deepfake porn case targeting university women

A South Korean court handed a 10-year jail term to a man who spread deepfake porn images of women who attended the nation’s top university.

One of the two offenders, surnamed Park, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while the other assailant, surnamed Kang, received a four-year sentence, a spokesperson for the Seoul Central District Court told AFP.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2024/10/30/south-korean-man-jailed-for-10-years-in-landmark-deepfake-porn-case-targeting-university-women/155366

(b) 6B Trend Phenomenon In South Korea, Women Reluctant To Interact With Men

Recently, the 6B movement in South Korea has managed to steal the world's attention. Reported by VOI from The Independent page on Friday, November 1, 2024, initially appeared a 4B movement on women in 2019. The 4Bs are Bihon (unregistered), Bichulsan (not giving birth), Biyeonae (not dating), and Bisekseu (not having sex).

This movement is a symbol of resistance to violence and injustice that women often experience. In addition, this movement is also part of the form of affirmation of identity and the choice of modern life.

https://voi.id/en/lifestyle/430164

@db-staff - Hello! My comment got caught by the spam filter again. Probably because I'm sharing this week's Korean women's news links.

Er... help?

Thanks!

Hi guys, my mind is completely blank but I am rejoicing because Taemin announced new dates for Ephemeral Gaze world tour and one of them is Helsinki which is as close as it gets to Tallinn, I suppose, I can take a ship and stay the night at a friends´ place. I am on cloud nine, assuming I secure a ticket.

on the other hand doing the movie club is hard here when most korean movies contain alcohol, smoking, swearing and violence but I have minors in the club.
I picked a sort of suitable movie for halloween where Lee Kwang Soo turns into a fish. from 2015. hopefully not too depressing though

of here is my switch!
bye!

omg omg im freaking out there is a chance to see Taemin. March come faster...,

Happy Halloween! This is my favorite time of year: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Christmas I always sing at church, so there's a lot of work leading up that keeps me nice and busy. And then, after Christmas, we'll have auditions for our spring musical!

Speaking of, I've been practicing a Scottish accent for Brigadoon auditions and I think I'm slowly getting it. I'm sure mixing up regions and real Scottish people would be horrified, but I think it'll be passable.

Unfortunately I have a cold or allergies right now and my voice has been somewhat out of commission for the past few songs. This probably sounds incredibly dramatic, but when I'm not able to sing I feel like a part of myself is missing. It is SLOWLY getting better, at least.

Having always been kind of enthusiastic about fancy dress, it has been strange that my youngest did not want help for her halloween costume this year. She is right; she is old enough to do that stuff herself, and she did *very* well, but ... Well, okay, then. She was Sally from Nightmare before Christmas.
At least I made the cake that you can see on my wall,
https://dramabeans.com/activity/p/1646293/
though the original plan was lasagna, inspired by a post earlier this year by ... who it was has gone lost in the haze of my mind, so please tag yourself if it was you 🫡

The BBC is not letting this story go, and posted again this week:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20241025-should-there-be-a-ban-on-teenage-popstars

While the whole idea of banning under 18 popstars is unrealistic, it does make one wonder about the intersection of addiction on still-forming teenage brains and bodies, and the music business as a machine for promoting young talent.

It also made me reflect how extraordinarily lucky it was for a performer like Liu Yu Ning to come into the music business on his own terms. Being unusual was actually to his advantage: hard to package unusual teen talent.

It makes you marvel at how lucky were teen talents like Lee Jun-ho and Rain to make it through the meat grinder.

Thank you to @oldawyer for recommending the Wim Wenders movie Perfect Days. I am still thinking about it since we watched it a few days ago. I didn't think I was going to enjoy a film about a person who has a job cleaning public toilets! I related so much to the main character's emotional response to his music. I also realized I frequently visit specific trees in my neighborhood and photograph them.

I've waited a week to talk about this! Haha
I went to see my first kpop group last week. It was Seventeen.

The thing is I'm not an actual fan of their music but I liked them as performers and entertainers so I decided I wanted the experience in concert. It was worth it. They are just fun to watch. They had this skit with a boardgame and I was thinking "is that.. jumanji?" and it was haha.

When I got my ticket, I looked up their setlist and then listened to their songs. I like the songs more after seeing them perform.

I've also watched their youtube variety show and their appearance on Na PD's show on youtube (I think it's his show haha). I found that quite enjoyable haha. They can be so chaotic. (It almost remind me of watching Got 7 videos haha). I am just tickled when idols show their goofy side haha. That's also why it was a bit jarring for me to see how serious they can look when they're performing. It's most surprising when the introverted ones exude that aura. Like solely on appearance, I would not have thought the one who wears glasses was apart of the rap/hip hop team.

Since I like them, I want to be able to talk about them but *sigh* it's hard to find casual fans to talk about them with especially since I'm more of new casual fan who doesn't know songs or history.

But wouldn't you know it, as soon as I get into them, freaking "issues" over stupid stuff (one of them tagged a female idol after taking a picture with her billboard => receives backlash/criticism. The next guy posts that he went for a run and enjoyed the nice weather => backlash/criticism over the *timing* of his post. Third guy apparently wrote or said something about Girls Generation at some point in that past. I have no idea what that one is actually about but 🙄😮‍💨.

This is why I only wanna enjoy them in their shows and appearances and not get to emotionally invested cause ugh, it's mentally taxing thinking about what what idols have to put up with and/or defending them. (Then again, folks defend them to support them & give them strength so that don't feel alone). Still! It's alot to be emotionally attached haha

What is the ideal concert seat?
This year I went to concerts where I had floor seats and nose bleed seats for the first time. Both times I still ended up watching monitors/the big screens.

With the floor seats, I couldn't see past the tall people in front and with the upper floor, obviously you can't see the performers in details.

So, I wondered how other people approach their seats for music concerts

Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!

…I have been absent a whole month, it is November already!😱

October has been unnecessarily hectic because of my chaotic planning. There I was, warning everyone that I was occupied from half November onwards with another work formation and to please not disturb me then. Everyone, which is 99% my perfectionism, interpreted this to mean that I was free to disturb until then.😅

Lots of adulting this past month, especially during my time off work. Pro stood for productivity this month, but con stood for contagious. It started with stress that affected my sleep schedule, but before I knew it other ailments and a nasty cold joined in on the fun. I am currently on longer leave from work and on the mend, but the next few days are packed and that will undo some of my recovery.😴

Ironically, but fortunately the schedule is empty as soon as the work formation starts. I won’t have much else to focus on then, and I will have my weekends to myself. There is a nice November batch coming up!🥳