Old Cat Lady

Look how cute BB Joon and his dad are Now we know what Taeil did. There's barely any coverage of this compared to the thousands of articles about Yoongi falling off a scooter

Apparently Spotify is deleting a lot of Jimin's views. Hopefully we can hang on another week. I'm honestly happy if Jimin breaks BTS's record because I want BTS to surpass their previous record anyway And Hobi's on the chart at #83 this week. Good to see the hyung line getting on there again

Just wanted to share this because it illustrates the gap between Jimin and most of the rest of the Kpop industry. All of these idols are official "main dancers" yet Jimin's skill is so far above the rest. When Jimin wins the "best dancer in Kpop" titles, antis like to drag him by saying that he isn't even the best dancer in his group - which, to be fair, might be true, but is really just a statement as to how incredible the BTS dance line is. Jungkook could easily be the main dancer in almost every group but he's a clear 3rd in BTS. And this is just funny... Jay Park considers himself one of the Korean cultural leaders along with BTS, Faker, and I forget the 3rd one - in S. Korea, there are 4 people that are widely considered as representing S. Korea - I forget the person Jay Park pushed out to insert himself and, of course, Faker is arguably the biggest legend in gaming history. He's also done a couple things that ARMY thought was shady toward BTS Hobi isn't even really trying and he's managed to embarrass Jay Park in the dance battle.

About Lisa

I read on Twitter that Raye was in something that was nominated but I haven't seen anything to confirm that and I don't care enough about any of them to follow. I just assume that Lisa was performing with Raye and Doja Cat because they did that collab, but why any of them belong there is beyond me. Would have made way more sense to invite the original artists of the Bond medley. But let's be real... the likely reason they're there is because Lisa's boyfriend, Doja, and (probably?) Raye all have connections and Lisa's pushing hard to try to be a Hollywood star.

I'm trying for LA. The vacation this weekend didn't go well so I wouldn't mind turning it into another vacation. At worst, it'll be a practice run - my Chicago effort went terribly. The Chicago site said you could try for up to 4 tickets but I know in the past, you could get 2 but not necessarily more (due to availability) btw, this was the pricing for VIP. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I'm going for it if they're these prices

I read 7 minutes. Apparently Blinks are trying to report an ARMY for mass buying tickets and re-selling them, which I guess is against the rules. But the Blinks are doing it too and the specific ARMY they cited is only selling them at face value + fees and only to other ARMY. Most, if not all of the time, resale restrictions are more to prevent fraudulent sales and predatory sales practices. I can't imagine that the organization would do anything about this, especially since it's clearly just a petty fan war to prevent cheers for one performer being noticeably more than for another. But I guess rules are rules, even if that's not the spirit of the rule - however, considering this is a charity event, I'm guessing organizers are just happy to sell so many tickets. That being said, maybe someone can find a ticket on the secondary market if she can make the date or even buy a cancelled ticket if this fan war is actually successful. Saw this on X. Asian Entertainment mentioned TVXQ not that long ago. If anyone from 2nd gen can claim the "paved the way" title, it looks like it's them judging by these numbers. But obviously TVXQ would be "paving the way" to Japan while BTS "paved the way" for the Western and much of the global market. I'm really surprised to not see BlackPink on here at all. I thought Japan was considered a pretty critical market for Kpop. And New Jeans is behind Le Serrafim! With all the buzz they had around them, you'd think NJ would have lapped LS. Makes me more curious about the Chinese numbers.

Winter Ahead was released only 2 weeks after Jin's debut album, which I didn't agree with but most of the community didn't seem to care. Hobi hasn't announced a date for his album yet but it's not supposed to be until at least March. If it's ok for V to release a song 2 weeks after a debut album release for 1 member then it should be ok for him to release 1 over a month before another member's album release. I think it would be horrible planning on both occasions but I've been the minority. That being said, I'm pretty sure it's a photo book as well. February 3rd is a Monday. Would be weird to release a song then, though V has done quirky things like that before. ETA: This is cultural impact

@Whoopiewoop @Faithyu Unfortunately pretty last minute and no idea how to get tickets but Hobi will be performing in Paris! ETA: a little more info

I know it's not any consolation, but If you ever make it across the pond, you have people to help you with costs. Most of the activities are on the coast and the US is a huge country so 90% of it is just New Yorkers and Californians getting lucky with the rest of us missing out. Lucky for me, Hobi seems to like Chicago, not that it helped me last time. Although, O-hare is known for being a legendarily bad airport so I recommend a different stop if you can make it over here I've been working crazy hours and have been sick. I feel so stressed because I'm so far behind and, of course, my ARMY membership lapsed and I completely forgot the process for ticketing. btw, I've been in and out of sleep for the past 13 hours and had my first BTS dream - and it's super F'd up. TW: Tannie deaths

This is crazy! Who is all the way back up to #24!

hmmm...

Unfortunately I lost the tweet with the full list and, admittedly, I didn't examine it closely myself. But according to the tweet, it was mostly just Hybe groups. SM numbers either didn't change at all or very little ETA: according to this thread, none of the "Big 3" numbers changed much and there was one group that actually had LOWER sales when the numbers were corrected. I don't know who "127" is supposed to be (People use code for groups when they don't want to increase engagement for that group or attract their stans)

Hanteo pulled a lot of shady counting in 2023 and of course it primarily affected the Tannies. Extra sh!tty since the Asian awards always factor in sales. ETA: just took another look at the numbers. Geez! RM gets no love in his home country. So sad

Jeebus! Don't take Jeju air any time soon. Apparently another plane had trouble with its landing gear the next day! I was thinking, what rotten and crazy coincidence that this giant disaster and the martial law happened on BTS members' birthdays (Okay, technically this happened the day before, but just barely). I've given up posting every RM achievement because there's just been so many but there's a couple people making updates on their collection and reposting every week or so ETA: 23 minutes late but Happy New Year from Minnesota, USA! May the terribleness of December in Korea be doubled in joy for each month of the upcoming year.

So far, all the categories I've seen have been "Best Selling" something or other. Weird awards. @Faithyu and congrats to Seventeen as well @Faithyu GG talk

I'm betting that Hobi is going to release an album then do a tour. Maybe he's collab'ing with someone from Japan? Could just be a vacation, but the fact that he's globe trotting is suspicious. It seems like he spent a significant time in LA. I also saw rumors about some major venue in Thailand (? - can't remember) being in talks about a major even with BTS in 2025. But that would likely be too soon for the group so the person thought it was a member. I've always been curious about the vocal ranges. There's debate amongst the fandom. I've seen some rumors that Jin has as much as 5 octaves but most says ~3.5 (Suga says "more than 2"). We have to remember that Jin did the low notes in Dionysus, not Tae - I'm guessing because Jin has more projection in his voice and that song required power rather than lyric tones. A lot of the fandom says it's Tae but the members themselves say it's Jin, but then Jin himself says they're all about the same (although I do think Jin and Tae have more range than JK and Jimin). My guess is that fans are basing it on highest and lowest recorded notes, but Tae himself has said that it damaged his voice to do falsetto as high as in one of his songs (I forget which one) so he no longer goes that high. I'm guessing that Tae might have the widest including the falsetto that he no longer does but Jin likely has the widest supported range (i.e. notes he's able to use his chest and project with) Did you see the Peppa the Pig Dynamite yet? I hope parents don't think that BTS is a kids show though - they're clearly wanting to go toward a more adult sound. I imagine that Jin songs will always be G rated but RL and JK are already PG-13 to R.

Don't know much about these Asian award shows. Usually there's a portion of the score that's based on sales and streams and a portion that's fan voted. I'm sure Jimin will win the Artist of the Year. I'm guessing RM for the Hip Hop award based on all the acclaim he's been getting. But if fans have more sway, then Hobi might win because ARMY was sad that he was the only one that didn't get a Bonsang

Park Hyo Shin - the guy V did "Winter Ahead" with. According to Jino, he's considered the greatest singer in South Korea by Koreans. JK's always been a perfectionist. I remember he was upset for hours when he made a small mistake in a concert ~2018. Since then, he's learned to be more relaxed and can even laugh it off sometimes but I think the insecurity of not performing is ratcheting up his anxiety again. Being the "Center" and "Main vocalist" is a double edged sword - he gets a lot of praise but it's also a ton of pressure.

I think, before this, people just didn't know that idols could. According to DJ Jino, its a gray area. technically, the live streams do make money but the military isn't as strict about it as people thought it was. I know I read several times that idols are allowed to make money, but it would then go to the military. So maybe JK needed permission from the company or it's not enough money for the military to enforce it or maybe it's just too hard to figure out how much revenue this particular live stream makes. I suspect that the restriction is more about ensuring that military duties are taken seriously. Yoongi is the least likely to do anything public. Civil service is considered a privilege and the social backlash would be really big, especially after the scandal. Our guys might be bad asses, but Yoongi has shown that he is Korean to his soul and he wouldn't dare intentionally do anything that he would perceive as hurting the other members. As far as the low self esteem stuff, I think JK just feels rusty from not performing in a while. I don't think it's a true depression beyond just the normal missing his life stuff. Pretty sure RM is the most miserable these days

DJ Jino is translating

Who has been on the chart longer than JK's songs and One of the Girls (which, let's be real, is The Weekend's song, not Jennie's. She only has a couple lines in it apparently). At this point, only Dynamite, Psy's song, and "Cupid" by 50/50 has charted on the Hot 100 longer than "Who". The success of "Who" is extraordinary and I'm still confused about it. It's mostly his solos but he's also getting radio play. Hopefully it stays above top 50 because there's some BS rule in Billboard about a time limit on the charts if it descends Pretty sure all the logos, etc. are Jin's idea. I love Jin's merch - we both like cute things. I was actually concerned that it might cause controversy - in the US, anything perceived as "marketing to kids" might get backlash. But this is just reflection of Jin's personality and I love the juxtaposition of his childlike nature with a mature gentleman.

I tromp around in my steel toed work shoes half the time and my slippers most of the rest. Although I have developed a plush animal slipper collection. I keep waiting for BT21 to get the kind I like but it seems the guys only like the slide on slippers. Look at the merch at the pop up store. Key chain for only 7k Won ($4.88 USD / 6.95 CAD).