Tales From Big APink

It’s been awhile since I last talked to my friend Shanomac, the individual largely responsible for getting me wholly into K-pop, and as you may or may not recall, he was (and is) a HUGE Apink fan, and has always been trying to get me “into” them. I decided to drop him a line to let him know about my happy conversion to the new APink religion, but MAN, how can I properly relay the awesome APINK experience I’ve been going through the past few weeks in one email? Why, by utilizing that trusty internet phenomenon, the RAGEMEME!!! In just two simple strips, I think I’ve conveyed how much Chorong, Bomi, Eunji, Naeun, Namjoo, Yookyung and Hayoung mean to me! Check it out, yo!

Hmmmm, Yep, that's just about how it happened, alright!!

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Sunny SeungAh

Probably one of the most underrated of all the Rainbow Members, I think this live fancam (by the fancam master drighk) of the girls performing their classic song "A" shows just how sexy and charismatic SeungAh really is!!!

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A Much Coveted APink Treasure: Autographed Snow Pink!

The APink Girls Autographing Snow Pink CDs

 Back when I was watching Season Two of Apink’s totally awesome reality show Apink News, there was this interesting episode where they showed the girls spending time in the Dance Practice room, exhaustingly signing cases and CASES of their new album “Snow Pink” to be distributed to their fanbase...

Bomi removes the Shrink-Wrap

Bomi was the one assigned to remove the troublesome shrinkwrap on each CD, and it was strangely hypnotic watching her use the scissors to deftly slit the tops of the albums while still in the cardboard shipping boxes and then rip each wrapper off. She really had her work cut out for her because the girls had ONE THOUSAND copies to sign!

Hayoung gets to business while Bomi continues to remove Wrapping

 At that time besides Bomi, the autographing relay team consisted of Hayoung, Yookyung, Naeun and Namjoo, and they all took turns passing around the stacks of albums to endorse! I guess Eunji and Chorong did theirs at some later date (and in fact, later in the episode, I DID see boxes of the CD left in the back corner of the studio). Love when they did close-ups and you could actually SEE the girls signing it...

Namjoo: "We are really doing it!"

:)

In any case, watching that clip of the girls happily chatting away as they all took turns scribbling their names on the inside booklet, I came away wanting a copy of one of those signed albums so BADLY, and then, when later on, SNOW PINK became my FAVORITE ALBUM from Apink, I wanted it even MORE! In fact, I NEEDED it! But while I was able to get ahold of their more recent promotion for SECRET GARDEN, would I be able to find this older disc of theirs?
   Going online I was led to a dealer in Korea who dealt only with Autographed K-pop paraphernalia, and what do you know- they had a copy of the aforementioned HOLY GRAIL of Apink Autographs for me, the same SNOW PINK promotion from the Fanclub! I HAD to have it! A small (but tidy sum) transaction later, and my long-desired Apink CD was on its way! Crossed my fingers and bode my time, and JUST TODAY, my treasured CD arrived!!!

My Autographed Snow Pink CD arrives!

Kyaaaaa!!! 

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL Signatures!!!

So beautiful and SWEET, and such a THRILL to re-watch that episode of Apink News and speculate that the CD you see them signing may very well be the one you received! Also an added bonus is the fact that this album is signed by the original Seven Member group- the recent autographed Secret Garden album I acquired was (naturally) signed by the current six-member Apink, but since watching APink News, I’ve come to love Yookyung so much that I feel especially grateful to have her signature in my collection as well!

Yookyung

PS: Another THRILLING discovery I noticed was that while signing the CDs, someone had smudged their fingerprint on the book, and though I can’t say for sure who it was, I DID notice that dear leader Chorong had in fact smudged her signature and gotten ink on the opposite page, so I like to THINK that the culprit was my beloved Ronggie, anyway!! LOL Awww, that’s one of the GREAT things about collectibles like this- you feel really close to the idols when you know that the girls themselves have handled the CDs!

Wheee! Authentic Apink Fingerprint Smudges! Chorong's?

You can best believe this CD has found its way to become part of my most precious K-pop Collectible Items!!!

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It's PARK to the CHO to the RONG!

Well, it was a hard-fought battle between Eunji, Bomi and Chorong as to who'd end up my favorite member of APink , but after watching weeks and hours of videoclips, shows and specials featuring those Apink Girls and all their adorable antics, I have to say that the one who stole my heart and made me SMILE  was the group’s cute mumbling leader, Ms. Park Chorong!

Kind of funny when you consider that Chorong was among the very last members I really noticed and I'd initially thought of her as mostly a “supporting character” type in Apink. Ahhh, but once I started watching the APINK NEWS program, I really got to know her funny and quirky style, and before you knew it, I was watching all the scenes just WAITING to see what she would say or what she would do! Yep, she went from “backup” member to “most cuddly” in mere weeks!

  I was recently on an APink forum explaining the virtues of why Chorong had somehow become my Numero Uno Apink member, and I cited four major reasons that the adorable kid-leader had stolen my heart:

1. Her hilarious SASSINESS, especially when it comes to getting attention and her way, and the way she would balance complete apathy in one second and spazzily stress out in the next! I got my first taste of what I would dub the “flustered Chorong” effect when Rong and Bomi (who’d been forced to come along as a support) went down to the DMV so she could get her Driver Test forms filled out, and I got to hear her famous "Park to the Cho to the rong!”

(Subs by PinkPanda Subs)

2. Her mischievous and hearty laugh- In one episode, Eunji is seen using Han River Park’s exercise equipment to work out, and a little later we see Chorong happily torturing Bomi on one of them. Little does she know that soon Eunji and Bomi would gang up on her and make HER hang upside down, and her maniacally happy peals of laughter just melted my heart!!!

(Subs by APINK.NET)

3. Her adorable “nasally” way of mumbling when she knows she's being naughty or coy, usually when trying to gain favors out of the staff or delegating chores to the other members, like this episode where APink are having a Café Benefit for fans to purchase snacks and drinks for charity, and while assigning the positions to her dongsaengs, she uses her disarming nasal voice to FULL EFFECT, sounding both bossy and hopelessly lost at the same time! I was in love!

(Subs by PinkPanda Subs)

And reason number 4: Her enthusiastic attention to EATING, which is simply no joke!!! From Pasta to Pork Cutlet bento plates to her beloved Chicken Feet, it's always Chorong's mission to eat as much as she can, and usually at the Director's expense! 

So I was watching an episode of APINK NEWS3 where the girls had gone down to a “Wedding Café” for a photoshoot, and there was this simply ADORABLE short scene where Chorong showed ALL FOUR of the charms that make me LOVE her so much, the laugh, the nasal voice, the sassiness and the EATING, LOL! 
In this scene, the girls are seated at a table loaded with pastries and cake, but are told that the goodies are “Photography props” and not to be eaten. Chorong, however, has her own agenda, and while Bomi and Hayoung are videotaping each individual member, she does what comes naturally…

(subs by FeelChokCross Subs)

As I spend my evenings watching the last few precious episodes of APink News Season Three, I'm only finding myself more and more enthralled and dazzled by her energetic (and yet wholly lazy) approach to everything- When Naeun worries that she has no comedic talent or personality on the show, Chorong sagely advises, "I don't EITHER- I just BLURT things out!" LOLOL, that's the truth and that's her charm! Good ol' Rong Unnie- there's no one like her!

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Time For Some APink Goodness!

APink Shipment! Une Annee, Seven Springs of APink and Snow Pink

 My APink order arrived on my doorstep this morning, and all at the height of my APink Mania, to boot!!! After getting their latest album Secret Garden, I fell head-over-heels for APink and just HAD to have ALL their back catalog, including Seven Springs of APink, Une Annee, and what has become probably my favorite album from the girls, the superb Snow Pink!!
 Awww, such beautiful packaging as usual (for a standard K-pop release), Snow Pink and Seven Springs came as beautiful hardcover booklets with beautiful thick photo books within:

Snow Pink and Seven Springs of APink

 ...and the Girls’ first full-length album Une Annee pulled the stops by giving it a deluxe postcard box treatment with innovative flaps that hold the actual CD, removing the CD opens the flaps which reveal the photobooklet and trading card (I got Eunji), such a sweet package!

Apink Une Annee Box wi Booklet, CD and Eunji(!) card

Aw, just about the only thing that bummed me out about the order was the way they mailed the goods to me- I really wish Yesasia would ship their packages in sturdy cardboard boxes like CD Japan than the usual plastic bubble wrap and envelop because my order, though tightly wrapped, was pretty squished, and the oversized Une Annee box was totally thrashed, as if an elephant stepped on it, or at least Bomi doing her “gorilla” imitation!  

Une Anneee Damaged in the Mail

Looking at it, I may well have to order another copy, though probably NOT from Yesasia this time! Aigoo! I may have to sic Eunji and Chorong on them- THEY'LL reprimand anyone daring to damage the Une Annee Album, that's for sure! LOLOL

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APink's Sweet "Birth Of A Family"

As readers of this blog know well, when I get into something, I get into it full throttle, and my latest adoration of ACUBE Idols APINK is no different! After immersing myself in their wonderfully entertaining reality series APINK NEWS, I was REALLY falling in love with them, and had to have MORE! Through an Apink Forum, I was introduced to a mysterious reality series of theirs called "Birth Of A Family"... What WAS this show and why were Apink fans (dubbed "Pink Pandas") so into it?
  Well, come to find out Birth of a Family was a show from this past year where the girls were put in charge of two recently rescued shelter dogs who needed human interaction so they could be put up for adoption and once I learned THAT, I just HAD to get my hands on the series! Girls and Puppies, who could beat it!!!

Well, the series delivered, and THEN SOME! What an INTERESTING show Birth of A Family was! Watching the Apink Girls as they lived day to day caring for two puppies "Quick" and "Dalie" as surrogate "mothers", we get to see a side of them that is so sweet and gentle. Within each and every  you can see the love the girls have for the dogs, whether it be dresing them up to take walks in the park...

or the serious things like giving them medicine and taking them to the veterinarian for checkups 

...or the simple days of lounging around and playing together!

When Apink were first given the dogs, Dalie was so introverted and shy, but as the days went on, you could see him come out of his shell and run around playing, happily interacting with the girls (especially Bomi, who really became like a mother to him!) After three months, the dogs were ready to be adopted, and thus we come to the totally HEARTBREAKING part of the show, when the girls had to finally give the dogs over to their new owners. MAN,was this episode hard to watch!!! For three months the girls have lived with and taken care of these two dogs, and it is SUCH an emotional WRECK watching them saying their final goodbyes to their beloved "children"... Yup, even I was totally destroyed!

Thanks to this emotional series, I can safely say that APink has absolutely become one of my very favorite groups after all this time, and I've even just started watching the "We Got Married" show again to see Shinee's Taemin and Apink's own lovely princess Naeun filming their reality nuptials! The APink craze continues....

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APink Pop Perfection with "Prince"

  Besides all the Reality Shows, Music Appearances and Interviews, I've also of course been devouring all of APink's Musical back catalog (While I wait for my physical copies to arrive, I've been making do with MP3 downloads) and I have to say, if the reason I didn't originally get "into" Apink when I first heard them because I thought they were too "J-Poppy" sounding, it's that SAME J-poppy sound that is making me LOVE THEM so darn much NOW!
   Really, as I listen to their Albums and Mini-Albums, I'm BLOWN away at how doggone CATCHY these tracks are, and one song out of all of them seemed to stick out and shine even brighter for me, and that's their awesome song "Prince", the "album "closer" for their great album SNOW PINK. The song first caught my ear because it reminded me of the classic Pony Canyon style (in fact, it's intro and refrain reminded me of my favorite CoCo song "Yume Dake Miteru") and every time I came on, it gave me such a positive feeling!

   Yes, so positive that I was pretty shocked when I finally read the translation and found that the song was more about a loser of a guy who's about to get dumped because he doesn't appreciate his girl than any chivalrous "prince" demeanor, but it's all in fun as the song ends with the girl giving him another chance (and secretly confessing she'll always love him!)

A perfect album closer for an incredible album that also includes the superb "My My", the sweet "He's My Baby", "Yeah" (which I immediately recognized as the APINK.NET intro to all their subbed videos, LOL) and the bittersweet "Like A Dream" (which was made even sadder when put in context of "Birth of A Family" which used the song in its final episode. And that's just ONE of their CD releases! As Baloo once said to Bagheera in the Jungle Book, "There's more, Baggy, LOTS more!"

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