Tag: Korea

Here We Go! UMF Korea Round 2 – and bonus BTS video

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ULTRA made its first Invasion of Asia in August of last year… and it was INSANE. Since I’ve been with ULTRA as their live stream host, I have been to some really cool places and even better parties, but Korea was definitely a highlight. A lot of the dj’s agreed, saying the Korean crowd rivaled the one in Miami. They were super enthusiastic, as EDM is just breaking over there. It was incredible to feel the energy fill the Seoul Olympic Stadium- which is kind of massive by the way- when the superstars, specifically Tiesto, made it on stage and they were able to experience the party in person, some for the first time. Add to it the theatrics of the ULTRA mainstage, and it was quite a show.

I have captured this insanity, as well as a behind the scenes of what goes on, in the video below.

Now here we are in 2013, ready for the second UMF Korea. I don’t know how it will get bigger and better, but it definitely will. Those Faibisch brothers are always pushing the envelope. Make sure to catch it as we will be live streaming from http://www.youtube.com/umftv.

Here’s a look at my favorite pics from UMF Korea 2012, as well as my behind the scenes video.

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Steve Aoki on the main stage at UMF Korea 2012. In Miami it’s hard to get on stage, but at the smaller festivals we get more access to the artists.

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Fans at the festival. The audience was primarily composed Koreans and ex-pat Americans, specifically those serving in our armed forces. These pictures show the two main components of our audience, but all coming together as one to party!

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Behind the scenes during the UMF TV broadcast: Director Charly Friedrichs, aka Final Kid, and I putting together a package on the festival on the spot. People are surprised when I tell them the broadcast is completely unscripted, as it comes together so well. I think that’s a testament of our relationship; we are both on the same page of what we want and trust each other to do our jobs. Plus, Charly is one of the best directors I’ve ever worked with and the entire UMF TV team is beyond talented.

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DJ Jon Rundell wearing my ULTRA ears on stage with Carl Cox.

 

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My favorite fan at UMF Korea. He had on a tail, a fox head scarf and glow sticks galore. In the video below, there is a hilarious exchange where I try to flirt with him, and then he SHUTS me down. I need to step up my game.

Fotor0611111826Enjoying the city skyline in Seoul, Korea.

 

Here’s the video with all the backstage antics of UMF Korea for my YouTube channel.

The K-Pop Stars You Need To Know

PSY will most likely be headed to One-Hit WonderVille here in the US, even though in Korea dude is ancient, having a serious career for over a decade; but no worries as there is a lot more from where that can from. Literally, there’s 25 million people in Seoul and they churn out pop stars like we churn out reality stars.

Here’s a breakdown of the K-Pop Stars you need to know.

F(X)

I love how every Korean Pop song contains English lyrics. It sounds something like this:

“go zha nee na ga da All Right

go zha de ga doo da blah blah All Night”

… which strangely is also how I sound singing along to FloRida.

But you can tell that the artists don’t really understand what they are saying. I mean, Electric Shock sung seductively using cardiac defibrillators?! You had me at hello.

 

JANG WOO YOUNG

Despite my best attempts, I can’t seem to get Electric Shock out of my head, but there is someone’s head I would actually like to have. And by head, I mean head of hair. I want to look like Jang Woo Young. I don’t care that he’s a boy; he might just have the greatest colorist that ever lived.

 

GIRLS’ GENERATION

K-Pop puts a whole new meaning into boy and girl groups. They don’t do 5 boys or girls per group. No, they double that to 10 9. Close enough. This is Girls’ Generation and get ready, because they are trying to break into the US market. I legitimately heard a radio advertisement for them here in Los Angeles, and I may have been the only person that knew who they were. In all honesty, they are not my favorite, BUT these pop-ettes know how to dance.

SUPER JUNIOR

And then there is the yin to the Girls’ Generation’s yang, or is it the reverse? Anyways, Super Junior has 14- yes FOURTEEN- freaking members!!! (10 of which are currently active).

This video for Mr. Simple looks like it was shot on the same sound stage as Girls’ Generation’s The Boys. Hey, with that many mouths to feed, you’ve gotta cut corners somewhere, and thankfully it wasn’t with the hairstylist. Stop it at 1:07 and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Oh, and his ring is fierce, too.

 

Welcome to K-Pop. Korean Fluency not necessary.

 

Hot Hot Hot in Seoul, Korea

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It’s the beginning of a new era! My YouTube channel is now a travel hub for fun vlogs of my adventures abroad, as well as quick, super useful travel tips (coming soon). Travel has been a passion of mine since I was young, just check out the Bio section of this website for more info, and it feels like a no-brainer that I have finally combined my personal and professional passions under one roof called YouTube.

I’m kicking it off with the so hot right now South Korea, which is literal in this case as it was FREAKING HOT when I was there. I’m talking 95 degrees and 100% humidity. The glisten in the above photo is of the salty variety.

The video is the first part of my “+5/-5” series, where I gain five pounds in one day and then lose it the next day/video. Think it can’t be done? Here is how you do it:

 

And here is how I lost it all:

 

How to Become a MTV VJ

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Ever since middle school, I dreamed of becoming a MTV VJ. I wanted to have two nails painted black like Carson Daly and talk to my favorite music artists in the middle of Times Square. Well, dreams do come true, and sometimes in better ways than you can dream. Here I am in Buenos Aires, Argentina as the brand new VJ for MTV Essentials!!

 
How does one become a MTV VJ? The short answer is you send in an incredible audition tape, know your sh*t when it comes to music (yes, they still care), and are able to talk to the black hole that is a camera as if it’s your friend. Sounds easy. If only it were.

Fotor0529140159My MTV dreams began as a painfully normal teenager in Michigan. Every day after school I would race home to catch TRL at 3:30pm and enjoy the 30 seconds of the music video I had voted for earlier in the day. It was awesome, and I am still nostalgic toward that time and that show.

I went to NYC for the BIG New Year’s celebration of 1999 to 2000. Hey, if Y2K was going to happen I might as well be in a sea of thousands of people partying. Sober. I was 14… and with my parents. Ok, it sounds better on paper. While there, I was a “guest” on MTV, cast perfectly as a fan professing their love of 98 Degrees (and their boxing shorts, if I recall correctly) for “The Hardest Thing” music video. The bragging rights of being on MTV back in Michigan were pretty awesome. Especially for someone as awkward as me.

Then, I went to NYU where I studied journalism. There I kept my “shameful” dream in the dark as I was surrounded by serious journalists who wanted to change the world, go into wars, and have bullets fly by their heads. I’m not joking. A girl literally said her dream was to have bullets whizzing by her brain on the front lines of a war. I knew I was in trouble.

Fotor052914105Fast forward after graduation, and I got my dream audition for MTV! I had to write and memorize three openings and do an album review in under a minute. And guess what- they loved me! I nailed it! I was so excited. At 21 I was about to book my dream job! And yes, while the PA that worked the camera loved me, her boss, the casting director who discovered Damien Fahey, did not. Ah, the bitter taste of rejection. Kind of like raw cranberry juice.

I meandered my way onto the MTV airwaves a few more times. Providing fan commentary. Or as an audience member. Or as a lip-synching girl in the MTV2 Promo commercials. Anything to get into that 1515 Broadway address.

But after too many years of the NYC hard knock life and going nowhere as a host-but-really-full-time-cocktail-waitress, I decided to move to LA. Fotor0529141913Then, this funny thing happened in March 2012. Charly Friedrichs, aka Final Kid, came across my demo reel online… from Amsterdam. Two weeks later, I was flying out to ULTRA in Miami for my first music festival, first live stream and first ULTRA. I fell in love. I had always loved dance music after living in Florence and London. And I love traveling the world. It was/is the perfect job.

So, I had just come back from UMF Korea and put together an audition video for MTV. They wanted someone who was “cool”, knew her music, and would be able to come to Buenos Aires to shoot for a month. While it felt like any other submission tape, I guess all the elements came together: my year in the EDM scene gave me the music credibility I needed and my confidence was on a high from just coming off a hugely successful livestream.

And now, here I am, in Buenos Aires at MTV Argentina. Hard Work. Confidence. And above all, Persistence. Dreams comes true.