4/29/2011

NEW HARRY POTTER TRAILER GAVE ME THE TRAILGASM!

That's right. I just invented a new word.

Trail·ga·sm noun \ˈtrāl-ga-zəm\
: the amazing feeling you get after watching a movie trailer. Like goosebumps on your arms, warm blood of excitement slowly circulating your veins... ya know. (Example: Jason, an avid Harry Potter fan, stood frozen after a massive trailgasm from watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.)


The theatrical trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 came out 2 days ago, and I am not exaggerating when I say I have watched the trailer (in 1080p HD, of course) every hour since it was released. As a matter of fact, I just finished watching it again. And I liked it.

The trailer starts perfectly, gradually beginning with a few, very fine clips while the tune we're oh-so familiar with rings in the background. That 10 seconds of the start was quite enough to give me the chills. The mood was just right; director David Yates' approach  for the finale is going to be...epic.

The trailer continues with the clip of Dobby's funeral, reminding those with short-term memory of how Part 1 ended. Then we hear Voldemort's smooth, evil monologue of how Harry sucks and how he's going to kill him. The background music, that sounds really familiar to the music from Star Trek's trailer in 2009 (I clearly love movie trailers), builds up, provoking dark yet somewhat hopeful feelings to the viewer. All of this going on, while pure amazingness goes on with a close up of Harry's eye, a creepy scene of Voldemort walking through dead bodies, roller coaster ride, dragon, explosions, magic, Hermione, @#f^&^! ... phew, got a little excited over there.

While I'm just going wow after wow, I suddenly get all depressed when Harry goes "I never wanted any of you to die for me" featuring two short clips of Ron and Mrs. Weasley crying over a dead body (I won't give away who it is lol) and another clip of Hermione crying.

Just so we don't end feeling down, the producers amp up the trailer again with even more bangin' scenes that just make you drool over the superb special effects. The music gets louder with the choir screaming their lungs out with their highest pitch (you know things be gettin serious when the choir screams), but all of a sudden, the music and the screen dies down to the final moment of what we all have been waiting for: Voldemort vs. Harry Potter. The trailer finally concludes with yet another (just stop it already!) epic clip of whole bunch of wizards shootin' their magical balls at Hogwarts, making this theatrical trailer one of the best trailers I have ever seen. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, I am ready for you.

If you still haven't seen this life-changing trailer, shame on you. Watch it below... in HD, please.

4/20/2011

CHING CHONG LING LONG... ASIANS AND THEIR SMART ASS.


I want to share this article I read in the news.

High-achieving Asian-American students are being shut out of top schools around the country. Is this what diversity looks like now?

I complain to some of my friends how this stereotype of Asians being "smart" has always been negatively impacting me. But every single one of them would reply, "How is that bad? That's a good stereotype." This article shows why it's not always good.

Here are some excerpts from the article:
"High-achieving Asian-Americans may be running into obstacles precisely because they work so hard."
Is it just me or is there something seriously messed up about this statement? What will we have to tell our future generations if working hard is not enough?

"Asian-Americans needed nearly perfect SAT scores of 1550 to have the same chance of being accepted at a top private university as whites who scored 1410 and African-Americans who got 1100."
I'll be honest - I barely scored a little past a 1000 on my SAT. But I am just as, if not more, capable of succeeding in college. The fact that I was filtered out by some colleges just because I of my race is not fair.

"On top of that, [Asian-Americans] are getting pressure from this stereotype, which sets up the expectation that they always have to be the best. The pressure does facilitate success, up to a certain point. But it also gets to a point where it makes them feel that they can’t do anything right."
My parents are far from being the "traditional" Asian parents. They never pressured me to get into Harvard or any other elite schools. They just told me to pursue what I love doing - architecture. Yet I still applied to Harvard. Harvard undergrad doesn't even have an architecture program. The pressure to be the best and go to the best school from the society led me to think that I almost had to apply to an Ivy League school - just to live up to the stereotypes. Like the corporate world expects me to have a diploma from a top notch school just because I am Asian.

The article ends with lawyer Chi Chi Wu's statement, which I couldn't agree more upon:
"If we Asian-Americans don’t organize, there’s no amount of piano practicing that will help us."
Asians have the tendency to just let things slip and the attitude of "just deal with it". We need to talk about this before the problem gets worse. I personally have the same issue, but I'm trying my best to make sure that my voice will not be muted in this society. So the next big question is: How the hell do we fix this? Should Asians stop studying? What can I do as an individual to solve this problem?


4/17/2011

HOKIE PRIDE?

Today (well I guess it's technically 'yesterday') being April 16th, it made me quite depressed in a few ways. I did not step out of my room or eat the entire day. Just laid in my bed, gazing at the ceiling. Now, before I go any further, I would like to make it clear that I do not intend to offend anyone with what I have to say next.

For those that do not know, I was born in South Korea, but I was raised in Czech Republic since four. I first came to the U.S. during middle school, did some more moving back and forth between continents, and then finally ended up here at Virginia Tech. So whenever I get that "Where are you from?" question, I get very frustrated. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't really know what I am. I never had a sense of belonging, so I was really excited to call Virginia Tech my new home - a place I would tell when people asked where I was from.

But in all honesty, even after being at Virginia Tech for 2 years, I still don't like this place. Freshman year was quite miserable, where I was constantly struggling to find the right group of friends and more importantly finding who I was as an individual. Because of my skin color, I felt like I had to choose between who I wanted to be: the Korean American, the international student, or the Asian kid who thinks he's white. Then I got into the architecture program later and met some great people through Summer Studio.

This is extreme generalization, but I feel like people in the arts/design field tend to be a little more open minded. In design school, I was able to find identity in design rather than my ethnicity or culture. I think that's a big reason why my Sophomore year at Tech is going significantly better. Yet for some reason, I still have this big gap inside that I don't know how to fill it with. And especially today, after seeing everyone's Facebook status and tweets about how proud they were to be a Hokie, or how much they love Virginia Tech, I felt really bad about myself that I didn't have the same feelings for my school.

Does anyone else feel this way?

4/15/2011

LADY GAGA'S 'JUDAS': MORE THAN JUST A POP SONG


Lady Gaga's new single "JUDAS" was released today - 4 days before actual date due to a "leak".

But it seems more likely that it was part of Gaga's scheme to refer to Judas, who betrayed Jesus 4 days before Easter. The song being "leaked" is also much like a betrayal in the artist’s point of view. Clever move Gaga.


The song was a controversy even before the release just because Judas was a Biblical character. Even I, being a Christian, was a bit nervous that Lady Gaga would give Christianity a bad rep because she an individual with much influence. I must say though, Lady Gaga did tell Larry King in an interview this: "I believe in Jesus, I believe in God, I'm very spiritual, I pray. At the same time there isn't one religion that doesn't hate or speak against or be prejudiced against another racial group or religious group or sexual group. I guess you could say I'm a very religious woman who is confused about religion."

I actually do agree with her. There are many things about religion and Christianity I still question. But it's completely normal. After listening to "Judas" I understood the lyrics as an expression of this spiritual confusion: being in love with sin, when you know it's clearly wrong ("I'm just a holy fool, oh baby he's so cruel/ But I'm still in love with Judas, baby"). The importance of knowing and admitting that something you are doing is wrong is an honest message from Lady Gaga ("I wanna love you/ But something's pulling me away from you/ Jesus is my virtue/ Judas is the demon I cling to").

The song "Judas" itself is great. It's like her 2009 single "Bad Romance" on steroids. Starting immediately with "Oh oh ohh I'm in love with Judas" ("Bad Romance" – Oh oh ohh caught in a bad romance") and "Juda-Juda-as" ("Bad Romance" – “Rah, rah, rah, ah-ah"), the song has a very similar structure to her past hit. With heavier bass and old school disco synthesizers during the chorus, Lady Gaga mixes the old with new to deliver a hit for the dance floor. I’m pretty sure all her fans will be singing “Juda-Juda-as!” by tomorrow.

From lyrics like "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" ("LoveGame") to "Rejoice and love yourself today/cuz baby you were born this way" ("Born This Way"), Lady Gaga has certainly grown up big time. Using fame for spreading love and acceptance, it's great to see artists like Lady Gaga who actually talk about deep, real life issues in the shallow society we indulge in today.

Listen to "Judas" below!