I've got 99 problems and the weather is definitely one. Summer has hit New York City with a vengeance bringing with it some seriously nasty weather (humidity is my Kryptonite). My plan to combat this grossness is to basically stay inside with the air conditioning on and look at pictures of icebergs and glaciers but first, let's see what happened in the world of K-pop girl groups.

Cool Things of the Week

K-pop + Sex = The New Normal

There used to be a time when K-pop was so censored that it was a joke. Idol members couldn't dye their hair, couldn't show bare stomachs, and couldn't even sing lyrics promoting free speech... boy have times changed. K-pop is now in the sexual innuendo business. Just look at the outfits, the dances, and the music videos. For Girl's Day's new single "Female President", there's a scene during the music video where two of the members are about to kiss (I know, Brown Eyed Girls already did this) and I'm thinking to myself, "these girls went from cute-girls-next-door to butt-shaking-girl-on-girl-action in a matter of months!". K-pop is now a multi-billion dollar industry and with that kind of money on the line, companies are feeling the pressure to put out products that fans want and as everyone knows, sex sells. More and more groups are going this route, which I'm not necessarily opposed to but at some point this level of innuendo is going to get old so, what's next? K-pop has always walked a fine line between wholesomeness and a little sexy but sooner or later, someone's going to walk right across that line.

4minute is Back... Again

I guess this is just how K-pop is going to be from now on with groups releasing singles, promoting it for a few weeks, then when things are kind of dying down a bit, they release a whole new single. Hot off their huge hit "What's Your Name", the quintet released images for their next offering, "The Water is Good". I'm assuming that's the translation of the Korean phrase which means that the pool of girls (or guys) at a location is up to your standards, i.e. lots of hot chicks in the house. Anyway, the pictures are actually very subdued for 4minute so I'm actually pretty intrigued by what the song could be like. Man, these teaser images sucked me in again!

YG and Their New/Old Girl Group

YG announced (again) that they do have a plan in place to debut their new girl group sometime in October (I wouldn't hold my breath). The "we're-YG-so-we-have-to-be-different" part of their debut is that instead of starting off as a group, potential members will debut individually then the company will group members that fans like. What they're doing is basically creating their own audition show, just like 'Kpop Star', but with their own talent. It's an interesting idea except, what happens if fans don't like a girl? Is she fired? Sent back down as a trainee? I guess we'll find out in October.

Girl Group Round-Up

A recap of all the girl group appearances on variety shows this past week (that I was able to watch). Feel free to add any that I missed.

'Radio Star' - Nana and Lizzy (more pole dancing)

'Weekly Idol' - 4Minute, Rainbow, and SECRET

'Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketchbook' - SISTAR

'1N2D' - SISTAR (they are all over the place right now)

'Running Man' - Han Hyo Joo (not a girl grouper but a girl nonetheless)

'Hello' - SISTAR (literally everywhere)

'Beatles Code 2' - Baek Ah Yeon

The Taeyeon Experiment

Each week I will post a picture from Taeyeon's Instagram feed in the hopes that one day she will post a picture of her reading this column.

Anyone who has read this column will know that I am a fan of two things: Taeyeon and Harry Potter. So you can imagine my unbridled euphoria when I saw that Taeyeon uploaded a series of pictures from a visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I mean, the only thing that might have been better is if the Sorting Hat placed me into Gryffindor along with Taeyeon... but that's about it.

Pic/.Gif/Video of the Week

I had to put this picture up from miss A Jia's Instagram to represent my hometown, Washington, D.C. #Natitude #HTTR #RocktheRed #Wizards

*Send your pics/.gifs/videos to KpopUncleFan@gmail.com or tweet me @KpopUncleFan.

Uncle Fan Mailbag

Jeez. Sorry to have offended you. "This article about ajussi's (old men) needs to stop. It's really getting on m[y] nerves."

-nangli24

To be clear, this column isn't about "ajussi's", it's about girl groups. Sorry if you don't like it but it's just one of many great things to read on this site so feel free to pass the next time. Maybe it might help both of us to tell me why you don't like the column and what you do like to read. Let's find a solution for me to stop annoying you.

Mos def. "Have you seen HYYRYA's photo, Uncle?"

-sianonim

First of all, HYYRYA (Hyoyeon, Yuri, YoonA) is a pretty cool acronym from someone who doesn't really like acronyms and yes, I definitely saw the pic and for those of you haven't, check it out here.

Why? "I hope you were prepared for the EXOtic flood/backlash when you were writing this." 

-lilytaco

First off, your name is pretty cool. Second, why would I get backlash? I didn't make fun of these guys, didn't judge them. I just don't know a single thing about them. Wouldn't a fan want to educate me on the merits of the group?

A Few Non-K-pop Related Things

1. Forget what the critics say, 'Man of Steel' rocked my socks (OK, there were a few things that annoyed me but not enough to dislike the movie). 
2. Did you know that Henry Cavill auditioned for the roles of Robert Cullen and Cedric Diggory? Being a glittery vampire doesn't really do anything for me but competing for the Triwizard Cup? That would be cool (minus the getting killed by Voldemort part). But overall, how can you beat being Superman? 
3. Boys II Men, 98 Degrees, and New Kids on the Block are on tour together? My first reaction is to mock it but... oh man, I would actually go to that.
4. Did you know there was a thing called the "Supermoon"? In all my years of being a weather nerd, I've never heard that term before. 

Top 5 Current Girl Groupers

1. Taeyeon - The Girls' Generation leader is back on top with those Harry Potter pics. I love nerd stuff.
2. Bora - The more Bora the better. 
3. Lizzy - On her appearance on 'Radio Star', she gave a very honest assessment of herself and understands the life of an idol star is fleeting. Self-awareness is a good thing.
4. Nana - I know the whole pole dancing thing is getting old but, I just can't get enough. #Ihaveissues
5. Bada - The former girl group member is kind of having a bit of a renaissance from her run on the show 'Immortal Classics 2'. It's good to see the old heads still doing well.

Song of the Week

Speaking of old heads, this week we're going to violate the prime directive of this column and feature a boy band. But it's not just any boy band, it's the group known as H.J.g.R.G, or the project group comprising Moon Hee Jun, Tony An, Eun Ji Won, Danny Ahn, and Chun Myung Hoon. The original idols (and '78 line friends) competed in last Saturday's 'Immortal Classic 2' performing Park Nam Jung's "Rainy Days". The combined power of H.O.T, Sechkies, g.o.d, and NRG combines into a force like the Captain Planet of K-pop.

Everyone have a great week, stay cool, and while movies and K-pop are great, go read a book every now and then!