After School’s Bekah leaves group, UEE gets solo album

It’s been announced that Bekah, of the girl group After School, is “graduating” from the group to “return to Hawaii to pursue her original dream of becoming a designer.” “Graduating” is just a nicely-dressed-up way of saying that she’s leaving the group. If her true dream was designing, then why did she ever go through the trouble of becoming a singer? Maybe for the same reasons that Sun-mi left the Wonder Girls, just before the Girls sank without a ripple in America. I say this because I found After School’s latest song, Shampoo, to be very forgettable.

Meanwhile, another member of the same group, UEE (who was named by vocal professionals as the third-worst singer in all of K-pop) is going to release a solo album. Why UEE and not, say, Jung-ah, who can really sing? It’s too late for Bekah, who can also actually sing.

Because UEE is the money-maker of the group, famous for being an actress in dramas and her “honey thighs.” Speaking of such, her new drama, Birdie Buddy, will begin airing in mid-August. As you might expect, we get plenty of footage of her in mini-skirts which show off her pretty legs (not to mention the back end of her panties –starts at 0:15 of the video).

If you want to see real golfers doing something interesting (and for charity) then check out the Golf Boys.

Hong-dae club encourages one-night stands by paying for drinks and motel fees?

A dance club in Hong-dae has been encouraging customers to hook up in one-night stands. The flyer below was for its second “sex party,” the first one having been held in March.

I figured that it was to drum up business, but then I read this:

This club even offers to pay for the drinks and motel fees if clubbers find their partners for the night, encouraging people to actively engage in sexual activity.

How does a club manage to turn any profits if it gives its drinks away for free? Exorbitant entrance fees? They’d have to be at least as much as a motel room just to break even.

I also found this to be funny.

People who came across the poster online expressed shock and disbelief. “I naturally assumed that nightlife in Hongdae has changed, but this is going too far. This club is bringing down the already bad image of clubbing culture. It should cancel the event,” said one netizen.

I have news for the pimply-faced, teenage netizens who are suffering from “shock and disbelief”: People have been hooking up for one-night stands at Hong-dae clubs for years and years. This is simply the first time that a club has been openly encouraging it.

Latest girl group: the Lotte Girls. Seriously?!

The avalanche of girl groups continues, and the latest one is called the Lotte Girls. Yes, seriously, “Lotte” as in the chaebol (Korean multinational conglomerate). What’s next? The Samsung 5? ‘N LG?

Teens kill “friend,” drain blood from body to carry it more easily

When I first read this news (via the Korea Times and Joongang Daily), I was so dumbfounded that I wasn’t sure how or if to blog about it.

Some teenagers (all 15 years old except for one 19-year-old,* Lee, the boyfriend of one of the group’s members) killed their “friend,” then drained the blood from her body so as to carry it more easily. They dumped her body in the Han river, but fortunately (or unfortunately for the murderers), the body floated up. When the police found them, the killers were sleeping soundly, remorselessly.

Even experienced police officers called the case “horrendous and astonishing.”

[ snip ]

He [an investigator] said they seemed to have no sense of guilt or fear. “They acted very natural in their crime and to be honest, we don’t know what to say about them,” he added.

Why would they do such a thing?

The motive, police said: teenage gossip.

Police said Kim talked to other friends about Jung’s “very bad behavior.” In retaliation, he and four other teens took Kim to the home of Choi’s parents, who were away on a business trip, and began beating her.
(Joongang Daily)

However, when Choi heard that Kim had been talking behind their backs calling them “slutty,” she beat Kim up for four days. The other four joined in and beat her to death.
(Times)

How did they drain her body?

Choi got Chung to ask Lee for help in disposing of the body. The murderers and their accomplice, copying crime animation films, hung Kim’s dead body upside down, cut her throat and drained all the blood out of it.

And where, exactly, did they get this idea?

He [Lee] allegedly suggested they drain Kim’s blood, telling them that he’d gotten the idea from “Case Closed,” a popular manga detective series. The gang consulted the Internet for tips on corpse disposal.

Raising children is very tough, especially these days, but this case appears to have clear evidence of parental negligence:

Police said all of them live either with a single parent or grandparents. The parents of neither the victim nor the suspects had reported their children missing during the span from June 9 to 13.

* Keep in mind East Asian age reckoning, so they could all be up to two years younger than their reported ages.)

“Watch Out for Your Buttocks When Using Public Toilets”

When I saw the words above as part of a headline, I thought two things:

1. Could a public toilet make my buttocks detach themselves from my body and attack me?

2. The Korea Times has another winning article.

It turns out that you should be mindful of the fact that some toilet paper has whitening agents that are banned from use in napkins, hand wipes, and diapers because of potential allergic reactions. So watch out your buttocks.

Five singers have received fan letters written in blood

(Warning: Disturbing descriptions follow)

It began with Taecyeon, of the boy band 2PM, receiving a fan letter written with menstrual blood and sprinkled with pubic hair. Then a fan of Lee Jun, of MBLAQ, upped the ante by writing a letter also written in blood, but not from her period but from her slit wrist. Then Lee Hong-ki, of FT Island, received another letter written in blood, but at least this girl just pricked her finger. Finally, G-Dragon and Tae-yang, of Big Bang, have received the most disturbing letters of all. Their two fans obtained their unholy ink by cutting their necks. Interestingly (sorry, couldn’t think of another word), their letters were written not in Korean but in English. I guess the madness is spreading.

Newborn Baby Sold … Twice

A couple in their 20s sold their three-day-old baby for 2 million won (approximately $1,600). The buyer then later sold the baby again, this time for 4.6 million won.

Is anyone else creeped out by “tofu dolls”?

Apparently, “tofu dolls” (also called “‘Prince Shin’ dolls“) are one of the latest trends. It’s a large pillow in a humanoid shape (head, arms, legs, and body). The head has a large, clear plastic envelope where its face would be. You put a picture of somebody that you like in the plastic sleeve. That way, you can “hug” the person you like, especially if you’re suffering from unrequited love.
When I was in early elementary school, I had a crush on one of my female classmates, and I would hug my pillow, pretending that it was her, but I was eight years old at the time. I find it creepy that grown-up adults would be doing this.

Sexual performance problems? Our medicine will have you using your thingy to smash through walls

Mad props to flakfizer for making and putting up this video.
Do you have problems with sexual performance or urinating? Don’t worry, our medicine will give you pee so powerful you’ll be smashing down walls!
By the way, there’s a kind of Korean wine made from wild berries, bok-bun-ja, which is supposed to have similar enhancement properties.

Filipinas are good enough for sex, but not good enough to have children with?

Thanks to this translation from Korea Beat, we have the Quote of the Week:

23-year old Rose, a Filipina who married [a Korean man] one year ago, was thrown out of her husband’s home after becoming pregnant at the beginning of this year because he does not like people from The Phillippines.

She revealed her pregnancy and asked for help, but her husband assaulted her and she received a cold reception from her in-laws.

[Rose (pseudonym)/marriage immigrant: I cried a lot. I want to go to The Pillippines. My baby with no father….]

(emphasis mine)

Did I read that right? He married a Filipina, but doesn’t like people from the Philippines? Why did he marry her? To just have sex? That seems to be the explanation, since he threw her out after she got pregnant.

It’s too barbaric to describe in words.