Where the Wild Ones Are

Not to transgress from my heritage's tradition to see 2009 as year of Ox, but here in The Grill I announce 2009 was truly the year of Wild.

Starting off with Where the Wild Things are for my Hopkins dormitory floor theme.


getting my wild hand tattoo which was just a temporary rebellion.


the release of Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, which brought many discussion about the level of children friendliness and re-evaluating the original children book written by Maurice Sendak.


the wild act of nature that graced upon northern east coast. The snow storm suspended everyone's anticipated departure from Hopkins for holiday season by few dates. On the other hand, I secretly enjoyed having people around for few extra days.


and the Wild One concert!


actually.... this Wild One!
Although Rooney is the first band to break through my innocence in popular music I would have not made any effort to purchase ticket and get my cold body wrapped up in jackets to listen to them in live. Again, all the sincere thanks to Wenli.

The group's forte is in strong vocal and overall performance have attract people to their live concerts, but in contrary the song Wild One did not shine enough on the stage to wake up the audience's interest. More or less it left us dubious on how we should react to the flow of the music.

The song's subtle yet catchy verse nicely suited the drummer Ned Brower's light and sorrowful vocal debut. Robert Schwartzman is also an excellent drummer. There was no doubt about the overall performance of the group, nevertheless the songs from newly released EP could not make smoothly transition from the preceding songs that harvest much liveliness, which was the factor that are loved by younger crowd.

The Wild One is much mature (as Wenli and I both agreed) of Rooney's previous selection that we believe in soon time the songs will reach much larger group of audience. Beyond any doubt the tight construction in multiplicity of the melody and expressive vocal parts makes Wild One to be worthy enough for 37 repeats on my iTune per day.

Upcoming Concert Listing for D.C.

Why is it that the ONLY 15 weeks I will be out of the Baltimore/D.C. Area in 3.5 years is the 15 weeks full of AMAZING concerts? I mean, absolutely incredible artists like Wilco and Kings of Convenience who I've been waiting to see live for years. Here's the short list of hot concerts. Please go so I can live vicariously through you while I wallow away in Huntsville.

1/25 CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG @ 930 Club (D.C.)
2/15 KINGS OF CONVENIENCE @ 930 Club
2/20 NOUVELLE VAGUE @ 930 Club
2/24 ST. VINCENT @ 930 Club
3/5 SONDRE LERCHE @ Rock and Roll Hotel (D.C)
3/17 AIR @ 930 Club
3/30 WILCO @ The Music Center (N. Bethesda, MD)
4/3 VAMPIRE WEEKEND @ D.A.R. Constitution Hall (D.C.)

The Link: Juhee and Music

Having a friend with critical sense of music and passion to dissect the history behind the origin of songs and its reflection on our surrounding is unique and yet startling for those who lack them. Even my heavy background of classical music training and mediocre talent in music did not encourage me to explore this medium. When there is a failing relationship between the person and the subject of interest, we often have difficulty finding a language to elaborate on the topic with an objective voice. With this such nature, in combination with my “take it or leave it” personality, music was left aside and only revisited from time to time.

Don’t get me wrong. I love music, or more so I admire music. The problem is that I play favorites with it and it is unavoidable to hide with my frank expression. Also, the ever growing population in popular music industry has created varying strands of music rather than contributing to the evolution of the music (not the music industry). I see this as a limited choice for a person (not the customer), so I often turn back to my Pandora station or old recording of classical tunes until Wenli knocks on my door. Today, I enjoyed my breakfast bowl of piping hot chicken noodle soup listening to the music that Wenli listed on New Year post. I stopped the slurps for intriguing tunes and sometimes shifted my attention to busily fishing out slimy noodles when a song was not meeting my interest. Again and again, I listen to them again.