[66/91 weeks done][song of the wk][calendar] 비 Yourself Open Thread for 1/15 – 1/21.
(Our fresh-faced Baby 비 during one of his first photo shoots—for Junior Magazine—during his debut year.)
» Cloud USA Yellow Ribbon for Rain Calendar: DOWNLOAD it (for free).
» You can visit the previous Open Thread HERE. And of course, don’t forget that our Cloud USA Forum is a most excellent place for Rain love, fan communication, and self-expression. By the way — have you left a message for JiHoon on The Cloud today? Our Project page for newbies on how to register for and USE the Official Cloud Rain Fan Club site in S.Korea is HERE.)
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Getting to the bottom of RAINmaggedon 2013
» [article] Rain: “I would just serve on the front right now if I could.”
Because we wouldn’t give Korean netizens a glass of water right now if they were on fire. » [LOL] Our U.S. Netizens on Rain & Kim Tae Hee.
» [English Translation] Consolatory Train Performances Provide a Special Strength.
The Center for Military Human Rights is concerned about Rain’s treatment and that of his fellow soldiers. » Tweets abound: Dignity for Soldiers.
The Korean Media is now purposely ignoring official updated statements from the military and Rain’s management, and continuing to only print misinformation and the early untruths to feed the witch-hunt on Rain, and thus, their ratings. The Korean Media in general gives new meaning to the term “bottom-feeding.” » [articles] Rain’s lodging issues explained.
The verdict is in, and the earth is saved from destruction. » [article] Rain who violated the decree on military service, is placed under a period of probation of one week.
» [article] The shattering of men’s fantasy: The betrayal of Kim Tae Hee.
» [article] Defense Ministry: Rain’s total vacation days are 27. Official Army duties overnight = 44.
» [interview summary] Rep. Shin In Gyun: Singer Rain’s “71 days of leave time” is a distortion.
» [opinion] From Stephe’s desk: Rain has been the object of a “witch-hunt” worthy of Salem.
» [editorial] Business as usual: Rain under fire by the Media and his countrymen for going on a date.
RAIN SUPPORT
By Snail Mail: » [info][Cloud USA] Operation: Tie A Yellow Ribbon.
Through the ROK military (at DEMA): [info] Overseas fans: Please leave a message of support for Corporal Rain on DEMA’s website.
By Twitter and/or Facebook: As of this moment, 6524 yellow ribbons for Rain have been added to Twitter and Facebook icons since the Brigade was started. Amazing! Thanks for supporting our favorite corporal during his military service and for letting him know you’ll be waiting when he gets home! » For a brief read about the meaning of the Yellow Ribbon, go to our previous post HERE.
For information on where to send handwritten cards and letters to
상병 (sangbyeong) Corporal Jung JiHoon/Rain, please see our previous post HERE (military). For cards, letters, and gifts, do see our post HERE (office admin).
» Rain’s official website. » RAINY Entertainment’s official Twitter.
» R2B: Return To Base official social media sites. » Rain’s official YouTube channel AND » Facebook page.
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SONG OF THE WEEK: “Oh Yeah” featuring A.I., from Rain’s Japanese album Eternal Rain (September 2006) and his Vol. 4 album Rain’s World (October 2006). An amazing singer in her own right, A.I. returned the favor, also in 2006, by featuring Rain on her What’s Goin’ On A.I. album with a HOT number by the name of “Too Much.” Rain completely in Japanese (Oh Yeah) and Rain completely in English (Too Much)… I mean, what more could you doggone want? A.I., girl, we owe you. (By the way, “Too Much” was our Song of the Week back when Rain had only been in the military for 11 weeks.)
(video courtesy of bluesky8002sbcglobal @YT.)
Rain is Eternal. Where clouds stay gathered, rain will always come. It is inevitable.
— Stephe ^@@^
Cloud USA 
I am so very proud at how, as troubled as all of our thoughts have been, Clouds have protectively “circled the wagons” around 비 and are continuing to keep support going to him in many ways, no matter what happens.
This is to all of you. I’m really proud to be your Cloud sister. I mean that.
Fighting!
Stephe ^@@^
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Right back at you sister Cloud! I truly admire the way you and Terri REFUSE to let all the bullsh_t stand without well thought out/reasoned counter arguments. It’s hard for other reasonable people to argue against what just makes sense and what doesn’t. You and Terri do an AWESOME work here at Cloud USA and I can’t think of a better organization/fan club/blog/sorority I’d want to be apart of than this one.
All for you Baby Bi…….all for you!………*Clouds United*
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BiAlamode,
Thank you. We appreciate your kind words about Cloud USA. They mean a great deal to us. They really do.
Honestly, we DO have lives outside of Cloud USA that must be attended to every once in awhile. It is, after all, just a hobby for us. People do forget that sometimes, I think. LOL. 🙂 Still, we really enjoy our work here at Cloud USA, and we will continue to do as much as we can for Rain in our spare time, because we think he is special and worth all of the attention we give him.
We believe he totally deserves to have a North American fanbase that is loyal and active–and HUGE. So, we do hope that you all will help us grow our small community into a real force to be reckoned with someday. That’s the plan, anyway. 🙂
I tell ya, the day Rain comes to Atlanta and sells out the Georgia Dome (75,000 seats), is the day I will believe we have succeeded. Hey, if you’re gonna dream, dream big, I always say. Don’t you?
Terri :-}
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Yeah, and while we’re dreaming I can see him in Texas playing to a crowd of 70,000 at Reliant stadium. He could come during rodeo time. Don’t laugh (ye who don’t know about the Rodeo in the big city). Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has record crowds every year with HUGE acts from all over the country western sphere, but also acts like Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, The Black Eyed Peas (their show sold out when they were here) and hometown girl Beyonce among the top acts that play/have played the rodeo. Bruno Mars is on tap to perform this year. Our rodeo is Big business here, also if you are a small vendor and you have wares to sell they have places where vendors set up shop all over Reliant park.
It’s always fun to see people’s reactions who’ve never been to a rodeo before. When Will I AM was here he said his friends laughed when he said the group was going to play the rodeo. Then he when they decided to he was pleasantly surprised the long list of top entertainers who have performed. I remember at the end of their show he asked to Reliant stadium crew to turn the house lights up so he could see what the crowd of 70,000 looked like. He was blown away.
Also, when Janet played here, we sat on the side where the stage came out (a large circular stage that is driven out to the middle of the arena and slowly rotates as the artists perform….you NEVER get close to the artist) and you could see her dancers all gathered on the stage and they were just in awe to be looking at all this livestock and fine cowboys in tight jeans all in this huge arena. Did I mention cowboys in tight jeans? For my chocolate Clouds, there’s a couple really popular chocolate cowboys on the rodeo circuit too FYI. Now, to see Bi (an Asian hip-hop/R&B artist) play at the Rodeo would be “Tina Turner Wildest Dreams” type fantasy for me.
http://rodeohouston.com/
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OMGoodness, Bi’s long legs in Wranglers, cowboy boots and a Resistol hat! Ooh wee, my Texas (country) genes just kicked in….kekeke. Dallas (actually Mesquite, a suburb of Dallas) holds a Cowboys of Color rodeo yearly where black, Latino and Native Americans rope, ride and profile! Fort Worth has one Monday, January 21st. My friends in Houston have already told me Mary J Blige was going to be performing this year….so excited!
http://www.cowboysofcolor.org/
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Wow. Love it!!
Stephe ^@@^
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Yeah, we have some close family friends who are a self-proclaimed cowboy family. They participate in the trail rides leading up to the beginning of the Livestock Show and Rodeo every year. They are an African-American family as well. There is a long, long history of Black cowboys in this country for those who may not know. Pretty darned cool if you ask me.
Boy, Bi in a Stetson and some Wranglers doing “Hip Song”…..Good Gravy!!!!! That would be a “giddy-up” moment indeed!
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I found an adorable picture of Rain too, just don’t know how to post to you all
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Robin,
You can either e-mail it to us or go to the forum and post it over there in an appropriate thread. I hope you all know we have a forum, by the way. There are a lot of new people here now, so maybe you don’t. The forum is a great place for everyone to post their own stuff. Just try to keep it as PG-13 as you can, of course.
Terri :-}
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Now look at this here. What a misleading crock of ****. There was no additional punishment. As they say in their own stupid article, the reading was “part” of the original punishment.
And notice, they mentioned the “time off” controversy but DIDN’T bother to say that it was cleared up and that Rain has only taken 27 days vacation.
Who the hell are these people anyway? LOL Christ.
http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/19328/20130115/rain-s-military-scandal-continues-singer-gets-additional-punishment.htm
Stephe ^@@^
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That article seemed so “carbon-copied” to me. Using phrases like he had to “swallow his pride” and “he caused a disturbance among the entertainment soldiers.” They are describing him like he’s some bad @ss Mafioso walking around the barracks from day to day.
The sad part about it is there are “simpletons” out there who Will read this poor interpretation of a news report and take it as fact and not question anything.
BTW (out of curiosity), I’m trying figure out how does “The Wolf of Wall Street” (the book) relate to this situation? I’m not familiar with this particular book, although I heard Leonardo DiCaprio is wrapping up the filming of this story. In my mind if you’re gonna punish a soldier, then you make him read military manuals cover to cover for a week, not a book that sets the scene for a Hollywood movie. Heck, if that was the case, then they should’ve let him read some actual Hollywood scripts during that week.
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LOL
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Dear Stephe and Terri. I read in a Facebook post from Peruvian clouds that Rain will keep doing Consolatory Train presentations but won’t participate in the radio program anymore. Is this info true?
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Hi, Yely. About Consolatory Train, I haven’t run into any definitive news about that because the program is on a break right now…
About Speeding Instinct, back in October and November, Rain mentioned several times that when the new recruits came in after the new year, he and KCM would be stepping down from the show and other soldiers taking their place. And now that the Speeding Instinct website is no longer showing any hosts in particular, and it’s 2013, that is probably what’s going on, yeah. It is no longer “Rain and KCM’s” Speeding Instinct, just plain Speeding Instinct. http://www.dema.mil.kr/web/home/speeding
Stephe ^@@^
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LOL!!!!!…………..Pretty much how most guys feel about marriage these days!! *Kekekekekekeke*…………..
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Since we’ve all come to love the song made popular by the original little “daddy macks” because Bi loves their song so much, here is a Where-Are-They-Now moment. Check out what they look like today pictured at the 20th anniversary of So So Def records founded by Jermaine Dupri.
http://www.wohoo.co.uk/where-are-they-now-remember-kriss-kross-the-so-so-def-kids-now-look-like/
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I always loved this song but until I saw Rain dancing to it I have not thought about this song in a looooong time. I do know I will never be able to hear this song and not think of Rain 😀 Those kids were so cute and soooo cool.
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Rain is so adorable. I wonder what he thought about life back then.
So….has anybody else heard Taeyang of Big Bang’s cover of Chris Brown’s song “Don’t Judge”? Personally, I think Taeyang did a better job of the song than Chris Brown. And I rarely think people cover songs better than the original artist. But this man brought so much feeling to the song….just powerful.
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Alisa,
Back then, life for Rain was still really hard but looking up. (I know this ’cause of all of the biography research I did. LOL.) Maybe he could see a glimmer of hope by then, though. I certainly hope so, anyway. Not completely, because remember his first album didn’t do well when it first dropped. But it picked up after “Instead of Saying Goodbye” was released.
And looking back at these photos, I do not see how anyone could ever have told Rain he was “ugly.” I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but seriously? Even now, he’s one of the most striking individuals I’ve ever seen.
Terri :-}
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Yea I saw a documentary….something about his album came out during the World Cup ….or something like that and his album didn’t get the attention it needed. So he did Instead of Saying Goodbye and that worked out well for him.
I never understood why people said Rain was ugly. Maybe because in my American eyes he looks just fine to me. But I guess there is a standard of male beauty in Korea he was being judged against. He couldn’t have been too ugly to the Korean women because in concerts these women just scream to the point of exhaustion or screaming for other ….ummm…reasons. I think I heard a woman once scream at his concert for ….ummm other reasons. Her scream stood out CLEARLY. 😯
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And Rain responded with a smile right after she screamed……..LOL.
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Oh my goodness he looks soo young and adorable in this pictures!! I want to hug him and sit him in my lap! Lol!! That song is really cool, I love the vibe of it and the rythm is awesome! Luv it!! 😀
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