Debuting as a Co-ed Group with 3 Million Won
Park Soomin: MMTG’s special project entitled “The Great Jaessbee” follows JAEJAE, SeungHeon, GABEE on their journey to debuting as a team. As noticed in the title of their trailer: “Debuting as a Co-ed Group with 3 Million Won” the members have to produce the tracks, shoot the music video, and more with a laughable budget of three million won. But the members gleefully march on. GABEE who has quite the career performing as a professional dancer, has never been the main star on stage, and tries to build confidence by standing in the center of the baseball cheer leading team. SeungHeon goes through mental training with his personal guru/ grade-school teacher to showcase all of his talents and vocal chops without shaking like a leaf. And JAEJAE, the team leader and MMTG producer tries to get a variety of experiences for her teammates so that they can improve on anything they can. She invited idol Chungha, and Taeyeon of Girls’ Generation to receive training and advice. She is, in short, the working producer of the team. Following the three big personalities on their growth story, of overcoming their shortcomings, and at the same time, harmonizing as a group, in of itself becomes the narrative of “The Great Jaessbee.” 

Jaessbee’s first mission was to perform at the Goesan Gochu Festival and the Chupungnyeong Song Festival. They were, of course, trying to earn some money for their desperately deficient production costs, but they were “doing this to have fun” according to JAEJAE. They practiced over and over again (“Let’s do it oncec more, just one more time”); their performance might be worth a watch. Of course they will do well, but it’s okay if they aren’t perfect. We all know how passionate and dedicated everyone was in preparing for their performances - they maintained that “Queen’s mind.” A new episode is released every Sunday noon. Let’s follow them and cheer them on their earnest journey to debuting as a team.

This Is How Tomorrow Moves - Beabadoobee album
Randy Suh (Music Writer) : Goddess to the British Gen Zs, and conductor of the train down memory lane to the millennials, young singer-song writer beabadoobee dropped her latest album This Is How Tomorrow Moves in August. She was already a star from her teens on TikTok and other social media platforms, but it looks like she is well on her way to superstardom after traveling the world, opening Taylor Swift’s ERAS tour. She has put out a solid rock album with her long-time colleague Jacob Bugden and legendary producer Rick Rubin. beabadoobee wrote all her tracks herself as per usual.
First impressions of her vocals are that they feel natural and youthful. They meld well with the expressive lyrics and highlight the girly sensibilities. Now she is in her mid-20s, and her lyrics have become much more mature, but there remains a distinct girly feel. The key point here however, is “a girl in the first person.” The pop world always wants to objectify the “girl” but the artist who takes up pop-rock influenced by noughties grunge pop to tell her story remembers the contemporary girl and her girlhood days. She quickly catered to millennial women who grew up in the same era before the cumbersome objectifying gaze reached her.
All her tracks feel smooth and seamless thanks to her incredible ear for melody. This is a great album for giving as a gift.

It Could Be Anyone (Jaime Lynn Hendricks)
Kim Boksung (Writer): Trevor is a scumbag. Luckily, he’s also dead. Don’t worry—these aren’t spoilers for Jaime Lynn Hendrick’s novel It Could Be Anyone since the author lets you know all this within the first chapter (technically Trevor’s murderer tells us that, but more on points of view later). Trevor dies at his own wedding, though much to the relief of bride Fiona’s five best friends. The deceased groom hid his ulterior motive for wanting to marry into Fiona’s family by blackmailing the five friends. He used his spy-like skills from his job as a security guard to get dirt on all of them to make sure they kept their mouths shut around Fiona and never let on that they knew Trevor was actually a terrible guy.
From there, the book gives us pieces of the five friends’ perspectives, twist by turn, flashback by mysterious revelation. And while there’s no doubt that Trevor got what was coming to him, these perspective shifts also reveal that Emma, Allie, Ethan, Dutch, and Vee aren’t that great either. In hindsight, the relative ease with which they were blackmailed should’ve been a clue. On top of that, I have to admit the final reveal at the end left me a little underwhelmed. But this book is about the journey, not the destination. The characters aren’t good people, but they’re fun to read about. The ending isn’t a shocker, but every twist along the way is devilishly delightful.
And, well, maybe I’m just a little miffed I guessed the murderer wrong.