BTS Part 2: About the Music video

Just from the beginning:

So BTS is in a museum, even though they are the art and artists. My two biases, Jimin and Suga, come out like it’s nothing. Suga smacks Jimin upside the head while on a bike. That already was like damn, we in it.

They’re all playing with their new pairs. Suga and Jimin is with each other now, J-Hope is standing with V, and Namjoon is with Kookie. J-hope looks at Jin with binoculars, who is all by himself, staring deeply at a painting.

BTS Part 1: BTS's Comeback is going to save my entire semester

BTS's comeback has saved my entire semester.

I'm telling you right now this album WILL BE ON REPEAT forever.

Okay, so BTS's second album WINGS came out and ever since then I've been a complete total mess. During the first week, I barely ate. I stared blankly at the ceiling. I've cried before and after their release. I also hate feeling like my feelings are being judged, so here I'd like to exclusively tell you the tale of "The Day of the Comeback".

First of all, before I start rambling, I wanted to say "Happy Birthday" again to the ever-confusing but always beautiful, heart and soul Jimin on my blog. It already passed in Korea, but I am pretending like it's the 13th in America. Here goes: To my UB (ultimate bias), my absolute killer of feels and f’s. If a Somali man was anywhere close to as hot, sweet, angelic, manly, cute, sexy, talented, ambitious, hardworking, modest, squishy, just everything sweet and lovely and hopeful about the world, then marriage is for me.

"The Day of the Comeback"

The album came out on Sunday Oct 9th in the east at 11 am. I woke up at 9 am and waited, trying not to think about my imminent doom. My sister, now a hardcore Army because of me, kept bothering me.

"Asma, we’re trending!"

"Asma, we broke the V-app!"

"Asma, we are going to die."

At the time the MV came out, I was happily (distractedly) conversing with my mother and arguing with my brother. When I realized the seconds that passed, I hurriedly removed myself because I knew they wouldn’t understand my fangirling. And while I waited for the video to load into Super HD Full-Screen, my sister came through the hanging curtains, wide-eyed and shook. She watched it already! (I should have never made her an Army.) I yelled at her to go away. Usually I have enough patience to wait when a video is fully loaded for a proper viewing experience, but since my sister watched greatness before me and I was already anxious, I clicked it at about 1/8 of the way.

The whole thing was a blur. I couldn’t dance erratically. I couldn’t scream. I only flapped my sweater paws and tried not to faint and groan loudly. My brother was already judging me. Because of him, my mother wanted to know what was going on. In the end, I was sprawled out on the floor holding my head as if a dementor kissed me. I was almost in tears. My mind was so full of provocative thoughts. My heart was overflowing with emotions I couldn’t place. It was like the wind was literally punch out of me. All happening while my brother stared at me from the kitchen like I was stupid.

I quickly ran upstairs to our room and caught my sister watching the MV for the third time, squealing over Jungkook (her bias) to go away. We watched it together again on my MAC, dying again at our respective biases and the other members.

Since that fateful day, I’ve been living within a vacuum. I’ve stared blankly into the distance as I listened to the album without moving. That Monday was Columbus Day. I went to work, even though I wasn’t supposed to, maybe subconsciously just listen to the album alone loudly in my car. I’ve cried to all of the solos, especially "Begin", "First Love", "Reflection" and "2! 3!", BTS's official fan song for Army. I’ve sung fervently to "Lie", "Stigma", "Awake", and "Lost". I danced aggressively to the bangers ("Mama", "Am I Wrong", and "21st Century Girls", "Interlude: Wings") my effing heart out. I swayed sensually to "Intro: Boy Meets Evil" and "Blood, Sweat and Tears". I try to rap to "BTS Cypher 4", but who am I kidding?

This album is everything we wanted and more. I'm so proud of BTS and all that they have accomplished and for all the good things that will come.

HI, EVERYONE

How is everybody??? I missed you all. Writing entertainment nonsense people don't care to listen to me talk about is my forte and I missing writing to you!!!

I just wanted say thank you to you guys, the people who read, for checking up on me. I see two or three people from all over the world come back every day and visit to see if I've written anything new that day. Does that mean you like what I write? Could that be true? Or are you secretly mad that I don't post as often that you are passive-aggressively visiting my blog? First of all, I'm sorry. Honestly. However, if my family, college, work, and in general LIFE, doesn't leave me the freak alone for 5 hours a weekend to write and edit one blog post, then I hope you guys can understand why I can't write like I used to.

I still have things I want to talk about and opinions I want to express, so thank you again for bearing with me and being there for me as I struggle to find my voice in this overwhelming world.

Now, as I preview the next blog posts coming soon, I'm "Still Wishing There Will Be Better Days" together.

Love, Asma.

Been thinking about variety shows and their meanings

I think it's really funny that I watch both American and Korean variety shows regularly now. But then I started to ask myself what makes a variety show, in an entertainment context? What are the necessary ingredients?

First, I wanted to show you the types of variety shows I watch in America and by Korean television, via YouTube.

I'll start with the American TV variety shows I seen and explain why they were and are so good:

In The Last Millennia

The Carol Burnett Show

In Living Color

The Muppet Show

"Old" Saturday Night Live

Now it's not like I was born to watch all of these shows, but since then I have caught a few episode and laughed my cheeks off. These were the shows I thought made American Comedy so great and what I wish people would go back to.

The Ghost of The Past

American Idol –  season 4 to 7 (2004 - 2008)

So You Think You Can Dance - the cool seasons

The Arsenio Hall Show

American Idol used to be my shit. I learned a lot about old American classics hits, like "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel, "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd and "Heaven" by Los Lonely Boys. I learned about some of my favorite artists from this show and they created some new favorite artists. It had its moments and its low moments, like the White Guys with Guitars.

Stuff I Watched Last Year

Little Big Shots

Maya & Marty

These are the shows I used to watch just a couple of months ago before they were either canceled, done for the season, or just got boring. Check out some of the performances on YouTube. Some of them were really incredible.

Shows I Still Watch

The Wendy Williams Show

Conan

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Late Night with Seth Meyers

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

@midnight

There are the shows I continue to watch. Most of them are late night talk shows that I watch on their respective channels apps. They're all awesome and funny. And don't care what you think about me watching Wendy. We both know she is trash but we still love it.

Coming Soon

Saturday Night Live (SNL)

Honestly, I watched the first episode this season it wasn't that good but I'm sure they can bring it back. They haven't given me a big laugh yet, so I'm waiting. Good luck!

For Korean Variety Shows, I watch:

Happy Together

Gag Concert

Hello Counselor

Weekly Idol

I love all of these shows weekly when I find time and I'm so happy that Doni is back and healthy on Weekly Idol. I can't wait for hilarity to ensue. SHINee's going to be there. Yay!


After what I've put together here... I learned that a variety in America needs to be hosted by a celebrity who can celebrities. Often times that host is a comedian and they along with the establish pace of the show add expected humor along the way. Some varieties are competition shows or talent showcases where the celebrities are the judges and the audience are the voters. Others are simply chat shows (political or gossip-based) with an acknowledged comedian helming the ship where celebrities and others in the creative industry promote their works, hence the musical act closing out the show. The most feared varieties are sketch comedies because the ones from the past were so good that people are also comparing new attempts to old punchlines. Sketch comedians have tried to live to the standards of yesteryear in an age where people were forced to be comedically immature and it breaks my heart when jokes land for me and not for others.

In Korea, I've noticed that hosts take into consideration the personality of celebrities and performers because that is what the audience is attracted to. In America, the personality is kind of glossed over almost to the point that is was nonexistent or over-exaggerated. A personality that is digestible (not oversimplified) for the people at home is good because it engages them in the speaker's life without being invasive. If you want to get invasive, then (sigh) your name with be all over the internet. (Poor Zico smh). Many of their celebrities are young people, so they take care of them while also trying to be funny for the show. It helps them open up more. As for variety competitions shows, I didn't list any because thank god they aren't yearly. I like that competition shows are company-based because companies know what they are looking for in an artist. If the artist fulfills that criteria and charms the audience, they will be a new signee, they will have established a fanbase that want to see them grow and develop under the guidance of that company. I still don't know the labels names by heart in America (I'll do my own research for those later and come back to you guys). And the competitions are shorter!!! Therefore it becomes a more fulfilling time for both the performers and the audience because we go through hell together.

Honestly, the reason why I thinking about variety shows like this is because I hope to make some entertainment for Somali audiences. So I'm learning as much as I can about the creative industries so I can use it in the future to introduce and promote Somali talent in a better way than both countries combined.

I hope you enjoy this post that took me three weeks to write. College sucks when you don't like what you're majoring in.

I'll try to write more soon. :)

image credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8