One night, almost two decades ago, a lone figure stood on a bridge somewhere in the vastness of Seoul. She ignored the cameras at her back, the eyes on the other side ever watching (How many pairs? She must have wondered. Ten? Twenty? Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined today). Regardless, she […]

(A song — and an acronym — that describes what Choi Sooyoung is to SONE.) L.O.V.E. Loyal. When a show host suggested to Sooyoung that she shouldn’t promote Girls’ Generation first and should instead introduce herself as just “Sooyoung”, she immediately replied, “I need to add ‘Girls’ Generation’.” A simple declarative — packed with over […]

Lyrics taken from “DIVINE“. It’s been more than a decade since the world was introduced to Girls’ Generation. That’s eighteen years — and counting — since Kwon Yuri first looked straight into the public eye and smiled, fresh-faced at the foot of what promised to be an uphill journey, to say the least. There is […]

In any group of people, individuals fall into roles as naturally as we sort idols into “lead rappers” and “main visuals”. There are always those who lead and those who follow, those who lend a sense of calm and those who make the mood. And in a group under circumstances as high-pressure and emotionally intense […]

Before technology like satellites and GPS navigation, and especially before the compass application that now comes on most smartphones, ancient sailors used astrolabes to navigate the blackest of oceans. These instruments were incredibly complex, made of material heavy enough to resist sliding along a jerking ship deck, and constructed to show location based on angles […]

Movement has always been something to admire; whether it’s the bustle of an early morning in the city or the gentle waves of a grassy field as a breeze blows across, the feeling and the concept of heading somewhere — anywhere — always leaves just the slightest itch in our feet and the tiniest push […]