Looks like those Kpop girls from South Korea are getting a little lonely in the states.  They hang out a lot along Korea town in NY and that’s because the JYP Entertainment headquarters are a few blocks away.  You’ll see glimpses of them together eating soondubu but never with a male companion.  It sure must get lonely for these pop tarts and they share a little bit from their de facto website WonderfulsWorld.com.

Hollywood hunks like Johnny Depp, Hugh Jackman, and Robert Pattison have found fans in Korean girl group The Wonder Girls. But men not blessed in the genetics department needn’t fret. These girls are equally open to just about anybody and everybody as Park Ye-eun (better known as Yenny) says, “We don’t really care about races or colours.”

But so far, their love lives have been anything but colourful, “We haven’t really met boys in the states. We are quite busy touring all the states (in America),” she continued to explain.

Currently busy with the promotional activities for their latest English single, Nobody, the girls (Park Ye-eun, Min Sun Ye, Ahn Sohee, Kim Yubin, Yu Hae Lim) have their hands full preparing for the May/June worldwide release of their upcoming music album. It doesn’t help that it will be recorded with songs in three different languages (Korean, English, and Chinese) to “satisfy fans from all over the world.”

They’re the most successful Korean girl group in the US market, but the start before the breakthrough was all but bumpy. They were sent to attend English classes in America and confessed that “the language” was the biggest obstacle” for them.

The girls have had intensive English lessons for less than a year, and while their grasp of the language is far from perfect, there’s already an American accent when they speak. “Except Yubin, we’ve never lived in the US before, so we really needed to learn English very hard. And we’re still learning English very hard [now],” quipped Yenny in crisp American accent.

Despite being far from home, the girls aren’t worried about the increasing competition or losing base with their Korean fans.

“This is just a miracle to be able to do what we are doing now,” Min Sun Ye gushed in response while Yenny the most eloquent speaker of the group, reiterated, “We don’t really try to keep our place on top [of the game]. We just try to deliver our music and try to interact with fans.”

And their game plan for keeping in touch with international fans? Social media networking platform, Twitter.

“To be honest, that’s why we try to tweet a lot. We can still talk to our fans through twitter,” the giggly girls agreed in unison.

The quintet changed the landscape of K-pop in the world with their catchy rifts and signature dance moves in their hit song ‘Nobody’. And despite all that fame and success under their belts, they remained unbelievably humble and grounded when asked to differentiate themselves from other girl groups in Korea.

The group’s leader, Sun Ye, replied with a slight drawl, “Yeah, I wonder too.

“We are really not that pretty, and not that smart. We are not that good at singing and dancing, I think. We are just really grateful that people are enjoying our music, dance, and everything. Yeah, so thankful for that.”

Looks like fans will be in for a surprise this coming May/June. The girls played coy and refused to divulge details of their upcoming new concept. They hemmed and hawed for a few moments before Yenny flashed a cheeky grin and chirped, “No comments!”

The Wonder Girl’s latest music single, Nobody, is available at all leading record stores.

Dr. Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth college surprised his student body when he showed up at “Dartmouth Idol,” and rocked with some of the students during their performance of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.   If you go to the 2 minute mark, you’ll see Dr. Kim approach the stage in MJ costume and speak the interlude made famous by the dark Vincent Price.   Now that’s a president who is engaged with his student body.   Who would’ve thunk it?  A Korean-American heads up an Ivy league institution and this same gentleman dances to Michael Jackson.  Very cool!

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Coming off of last weekend’s Korean-American Film Festival New York, it’s the west coast’s turn as KOFFLA (Korean Film Festival in LA) kicks off this weekend. There’s a lot going on but if you like film, is there any place better than Hollywood? Check out KOFFLA this weekend.

The Korean Film Festival in Los Angeles (KOFFLA), which will begin from March 4 to 7 at venues across Los Angeles, held its first official press conference on Monday, February 22 at the Korean Cultural Center. Introducing the festival was executive director Chang-Wha Chung (director of martial arts classic Five Fingers of Death), festival spokesperson actor John Cho (Star Trek, ABC’s Flash Forward, Harold & Kumar Go to the White Castle) and festival partner Jeff Black, VP and General Manager of Back Stage. Each expressed their excitement and support for the upcoming festival, which will be first major Korean film festival in Los Angeles.

With a vision for bringing the best in Korean cinema to the American filmgoers, KOFFLA will feature over 60 features and shorts from established and emerging Korean filmmakers from around the world, including special sections for Korean horror, outstanding directorial debuts, Korean-American cinema, and a retrospective of action director Ryoo Seung-Wan (The Crying Fist, City of Violence). Notable special events include a Master Class with cinematographer Kim Hyung-ku (Memories of Murder, The Host) and Actorfest KOFFLA, a one-day event for actors and aspiring actors to participate in panels, workshops, and meet & greet sessions with Hollywood and Korean talent agents, actors, and casting directors.

The red carpet Opening Ceremony will take place at 6 PM on March 4 at the Egyptian Theatre with a screening of Le Grand Chef II (starring Kim Jung-Eun and Jin-Gu). The closing award ceremony will be held at the Laemmle Music Hall followed by the closing film, Hur Jin Ho’s A Good Rain Knows, starring Jung Woo-Sung and Gao Yuan Yuan.

The latest information on KOFFLA is available on their website, www.koffla.org.

Kollaboration 10 is finally here and it takes the big stage and I mean really big stage with the event being held at the Shrine auditorium in Los Angeles, and that includes a red carpet entrance.  PK and Roy have taken this little love child of an event to something bigger than they could’ve dreamt.   If you’re in LA, check out Kollaboration and meet the next new big Asian-American stars.

When Kollaboration first started in 2000, some people said it was just a little show that would never last. Fast Fwd: 11 years later… soon to be 10 cities, 31 shows, tens of thousands of attendees, and MILLIONS of online viewers later… Kollaboration 10 has ARRIVED! Join us Saturday, March 6, 2010 @ the SHRINE Auditorium as Kollaboration Los Angeles presents the BIGGEST Asian talent show in American history to date!

Date: Saturday, March 6, 2010
Time: 7PM (Doors open at 6PM)
Venue: Shrine Auditorium
665 W Jefferson Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90007-3626

~6,300 SEATS ~ PERFORMERS COMPETING FOR CASH PRIZES~
CASH PRIZES for Freestyle Dance & Freestyle Vocal Competition!!

LIMITED DISCOUNTED TICKETS AVAILABLE AT: http://www.kollaboration.org/Tickets/Los-Angeles/Kollaboration-10-Tickets.html

Special Guest Performers:
Rex Navarrete – Comedian
Tony Rock – Comedian
We are Heroes
Prepix – Dance group from Korea
Pigeon John – Rapper
Vudoo Soul – Singer
Just Kidding Films – Guest Appearance
Korean Union Dancerz – Hip Hop Dance Group
Anbu Black Ops – Dance Group

Competitors:
Jason Yang
Clara
Paul Jisung Kim
Sam Hart
Mike Isberto & Alfa
Will Volume
Bhangra Empire

Guest Judges:
Kev Jumba – Youtube Comedian
Joseph Kahn – Director
Rex Lee – Actor, HBO’s Entourage
Lisa Ling – Journalist
Michelle Phan – Youtube Beauty Guru
Nita Song – President IW Group
Patty Yoon – CEO Garco Enterprise

NOTE:
“One of the biggest knocks on Asian Americans is that we don’t support each other in the entertainment industry. We harshly judge our own entertainers for either being too white, too black, and if you can believe it, too Asian. Kollaboration is a platform where young Asian Americans can perform in front of a live crowd. This show will open the minds of those who don’t give Asian Americans a chance when it comes to expressing themselves creatively. And hopefully, through it, we can witness a new type of Asian American artform we can claim as our own.”

Check out our interview with PK as he speaks about Kollaboration.

Heather Park released her latest single “Trust You” this past week.  She’s one of the up and coming artists we had interviewed last year and it’s great to finally hear her latest song.  She’s a soulful singer and Trust You will make you feel that way. You can download her latest song at her website hearthepark.com.  Take a look back at our interview with Heather last year.

Big bummer on Thursday night as John Park was eliminated on American Idol.  He was the first to go in the elimination round after having been stung by the judges on Tuesday night.  John had sang Gravity by John Mayer but that wasn’t enough to get him to next week.

We were all proud of John getting into the final 24 and hopefully he’ll inspire other Korean-Americans to push forward with their musical dreams.  He made a big splash at the local auditions with big praise from Shania Twain, but in the end, he couldn’t translate that into the next level.  Hopefully he walks away with fond memories and even bigger ambitions.

American Idol and Hollywood needs a good slap in the face.  Tuesday night demonstrated the realities of Hollywood and that it really is about looks.  After John Park had performed, the judges were trying to say without really saying it was that they can’t market an Asian male and they tried softening the language by saying he was challenged with “believability” and that his performance would soon be forgotten.  Sadly, Simon was the cruelest in his comments by telling him that he’ll most likely be going home this week.  That’s even before seeing the other contestants perform – John had only been the second performance of the night and it wasn’t even an awful performance.  It was what Simon really wants and it’s because he can’t market John and he’s already dismissed him.  It became even more obvious as the judges noted how some of the singers were presentable and “commercial,” and they would make references to a performers looks.  That further validates the underlying issue here with American Idol and John Park’s chances with the judges.  Can he sing?  He sure can.

However, not was all lost on Tuesday night as they had a pre-roll video of John Park’s life before his performance.  John was born in Chicago and he grew up speaking Korean because he moved to Korea as a youngster.  He returned to Chicago during the 4th grade and the rest is history.  He shared during the interview by Ryan Seacrest that it was difficult standing up in front of the judges the previous week and hearing their critiques of his performance.

This week, he decided to stick to his guns and sing John Mayer’s “Gravity.”  The song appeared to allow him to show more of his vocal range.  He seemed a bit more relaxed and maybe it was because it was the pace of the song or a song that was within his range.  Unfortunately, the judges were not to kind to his performance.

Randy said there was “Nothing new or spicy to it.”

Ellen said it was “so much better of a song choice,” but he needed “a little more soul into it.”

Kara noted how it was “way better than last week”.  She was concerned with “the connection.”  She encouraged him “to let loose” and “to take risks.”

Simon was naturally the harshest and said there was “nothing to get excited about” and he “struggle with the believability.”  BOO SIMON!

So I plead with all of you, please VOTE for John Park so we can give the guy a shot to prove himself to America.

John Park was relieved on Thursday night to find himself still alive and passing through to the first round of American Idol live. He didn’t connect with the judges the night before and it appeared that he was in danger of leaving American Idol, but America called in and voted and John Park got enough votes to live another day on American Idol.

John sat in the back row and when it was his turn. He stood up with the entire row to hear the judge’s comments from the night before. Ray Seacrest said that “all the judges agreed that it didn’t show off his artistry” and “Kara felt it was sleepy and pointless.”  Then Ryan Seacrest took him to the edge of elimination and said “You’re going to have to face them again, so congratulations and take a seat.”

Keep it going John Park, but this time pick a better song that would make Shania sing your praises again.

Big bummer last night on American Idol as the men didn’t impress, including John Park who’s the Korean-American singer in the final 24.  It started out pretty humorously for John as he spoke about his love and affection for Shania Twain and how he thought she was most beautiful woman he had ever met in person.  All the fun ended after John sang “God Bless the Child,” a song he said meant a lot to him and to his family.  The judges were obviously not impressed by the song selection nor the overall performance.  In these competitions, it’s not always about singing your favorite song but about finding the right song that fits your persona and tone that America can embrace.  Adam Lambert won with his “rock on” look and sound.  John just needs to find the right genre that he’s most comfortable with, not necessarily the songs he wants to sing to his family.  As Kara noted last night, she couldn’t quite determine what lane John could go down that America could embrace.

Simon: “You have got to have an incredible voice to take on that song, and haven’t got that. And zero emotion. It was a pointless performance.”

Kara: “I agree with Simon — there was no connection.”

Randy: You’ve definitely got a voice there.”

Ellen: “I think that if it was a different song, we’d see who you really are. I actually thought it was a great performance.”

Let’s keep hope alive and hope that John gets one more shot by America to breakout and show his true talents.

The Korean American Film Festival New York, aka KAFFNY, is taking place this weekend, February 27 and 28, at the SVA Theatre in New York City.  Watch films by Korean American students, filmmakers, and be prepared to laugh, cry, and enjoy all types of films.  Check out the program at www.kaffny.com and our video we made on “What is KAFFNY?”