Let's Give this a Serious Go {Monday Morning Therapy with Dongsaeng}

Hello and good day to you all!  How have you been since we were last together?  My apologies for once again falling off the blogwagon.  I spent a good deal of my week doctor hopping trying to get to the bottom of whatever this is that is keeping me from my daily life, including time here with my favorite addicKts talking about my favorite things.  Time not spent whiling away a day or two in transit and waiting rooms was spent sick in bed and/or playing catch up for the time spent sick in bed.  Life is fun sometimes, isn't it?  I don't mean to complain, really I don't.  This is neither the time nor place, nor is it really in my nature to be all gloomy.  So my apologies if that's how it comes across.  No, I just want you to know that the reason I've been kind of missing in action a lot lately is all because of me, not you.

Before I get started officially, I wanted to send a quick cryptic message to one of our most favorite and special readers.  Not even sure if she'll see this or not, but on the off chance that she does, we just want our dear friend to know that we are thinking of her and sending out all the love we can as she faces a heart-breaking loss in her life.  See, being a friend of TCA has its benefits.  You can get cryptic messages written just for you.  Membership has its benefits, no?  ;)

Now for the main show.  Since I slacked off last week, I didn't get to share these with you personally.  I'm sure they're not new by any means to you anymore and I'm incredibly late to this party.  Like embarrassingly late.  Well, like a week late I suppose.  I lost my invite and got the day wrong and now I'm standing on your doorstep with a bag of chips in hand ready to party.

What did you all think of GD's newest video, Michi Go?  Personally, while I liked it and watched it repeatedly, it's not my favorite ever of his.  It is fun and catchy though, even if a wee bit repetitive and kind of jarring if you're not in the right frame of mind (or maybe age bracket).  Still, it's GD.  I am hopelessly under his Dragony powers.  Sigh.  Even if there were many close-up shots of giant feet getting picked at.  Gag. (I have a foot thing, don't mind me).  And what a special surprise to see YG hyung Se7en make a cameo appearance.  It was like seeing a ghost from beyond the grave - you know, the military service grave.  Since Se7en is now serving his MS time and all.  Ah, Se7en...you and I have some major catch up to play in the next two years before you come back.  I look forward to getting to know you better so that I am all ready to welcome you back properly.



Another video that came out was SHINee's Why So Serious.  Okay.  So I have a choice to make here.  Do I tow the Shawol line and gush about how awesome this song and video are, or do I tell you what I really think, thus possibly alienating some?  After all, I think we all know how "passionate" netizens can be.  And yes, by "passionate" I do indeed mean "batcrap crazy".  Since this isn't a normal "fan" site though, I think we can all be mature enough to discuss this like rational human beings, right?  Well, let's give it a shot.



I love and adore SHINee.  I love their music.  Musically they are probably my number 2, right behind Big Bang.  Their music always makes me smile.  It makes me happy.  But this song from the onset bothered me.  A lot.  Just the concept of it.  Okay, more specifically, the title.  "Why So Serious".  Really?  We all know that GD ripped that one off of the Joker first for Crayon.  You hear that phrase and can't help but think of Crayon.  I'm sorry.  It's just true.  You can't deny it.  This bothers me because it then makes it seem like SHINee (read "SM" as I don't point fingers at the artists in this case) is just hoping to ride the GD wave of success.  It makes them seem like cheap copycats when in fact, they definitely do not deserve that.  They are in their own right absolutely amazing and deserve to be recognized for their originality and talent.  This just leaves a bad taste in the mouth that I don't like to see attached to a group I adore so much.  And let's talk numbers.  Now, I don't know all the ins and outs.  I'm absolutely 100% positive that this decision was not made lightly or happily.  I know that if they had seen a way around it, they certainly would have gone for it.  But the fact still stands that it just feels so wrong that Jonghyun was not in the video.  If you will recall, he was recently injured in an automobile accident.  Due to his ongoing recovery, he was unable to appear in the video.  Now, I am not a callused monster.  I am very glad that he is resting and recovering.  I certainly don't want to see him come back before he is all better.  We've seen how that goes in the past with people (actors, singers, what-have-you) being sick or hurt and returning back to work far too soon and just making their health worse.  I am glad he is taking the time he needs to get better.  And if that meant missing shows and appearances and the like, I wouldn't have any bit of problem with that.  But a video?  Again, I'm sure there is a very good and valid reason behind it, but it just doesn't sit well that an entire music video was shot without one of the members.  Was there really no way of delaying it just a bit?  A show/performance/appearance is one thing, but a video?  A video lasts a long, long time.  It's not like he's gone for 2 years doing his MS.  He hurt his nose.  Unless, of course, his injuries are more serious than they are letting on.  I suppose that's always a possibility.  I won't even give voice to the other thoughts swirling around in my head about what could be going on behind the scenes.  I will just assume that what we are hearing is the truth, the full truth, and nothing but the truth.  If that's the case, well, then, it seems odd that they couldn't wait a bit longer for him to recover before shooting and promoting.

Now, despite all of that, let me just make clear that I still like the song, these two things excepted.  It's cute.  It's catchy.  The four boys did a great job.  I liked that they were dressed better and that their clothes and appearances were less distracting.  So the video isn't entirely memorable (except for the glaring missing member), but it's not bad.  Lots of close ups of cute boys singing.  For most Shawols, we don't ask for much more than that, do we?  In the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that I am not like most Shawols.  While I love the music, I'm not all fangirly for SHINee.  I don't know why and I don't know if this is a permanent affliction (I have decided that Onew is my bias, at least for now, but I'm still not gaga for any of them in that way), but I'm okay with it for now.  In fact, I'm actually quite pleased to like a group solely for their musical product and not all the rest of it.  I'm good with it.  I'm great with it.  Sorry if that makes me the odd-one out.  I don't know if I can legitimately call myself Shawol.  I don't even have a SHINee Pinterest board.  I know, right???  Crazy that.  So for me, I was kind of just meh on the whole video.  I can tell you however, that my full Shawolic friends were CRAZY for it.  Taemin especially was getting a lot of love from them, the true Shawols.  And Minho.  And Key and Onew too.  They appreciated all the screen and sing time that Taemin had.  Cool.  I'm happy they were happy and I am therefore going to assume that this was pretty much the case and consensus across Shawoldom.  So congrats boys on another great release!  I look forward to hearing the rest of the album.

SHINee's been busy promoting their new album on the airways.  Here are three performances on the major music shows from the past few days.  As an extra bonus, the Music Core and Inkigayo both also feature the song SHINe in addition to Why So Serious.

Music Bank 26 April

Music Core 27 April

 Inkigayo 28 April


And finally, before I sign out, just a quick note about GD's on-stage injury during his first Osaka concert over the weekend. It's supposed to be a minor injury and he's supposed to be just fine. I hope that is truly the case and he makes a full and speedy recovery. Lots of love to both he and Jonghyun! Be careful out there guys - your fans hate to see you hurt!

Have a great week addicKts!  Thanks for stopping by!