At long last, my KCON NY trip write up
Jun. 27th, 2018 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
Finally, I’m getting around to writing about KCON NY. I had to save it for last because it was the longest ago, and I feel like there are a lot of memories I’m going to have to dredge out of the cobwebby recesses of my mind, lol.
I can’t remember if I’ve already gone through the story of why I even went, but oh well, might as well have it all in one place. On May 12,adelagia and I went to S.’s wedding... oh wait, she wrote about it, here! While at this wedding, I met J., who was a friend of S.’s, and who coincidentally Adelagia had met in another context at a different time. Anyway, S. had recently gotten into Kpop, and was into the stuff that Kpop fans are usually into (except for me and Adelagia). She liked BTS and Red Velvet, groups like that. I was excited to learn that she was a BTS fan, because I thought there might be a chance in hell that she would buy my overpriced tickets. She and her ex also used to own a chain of ramen restaurants in the Seattle area (she sold her share to him when they broke up), so I knew she should have that kind of money. That hope died when I told her what I had paid and she was horrified. LOL. Sigh, an appropriate reaction. We exchanged info in case I was desperate to sell them at a lower price later, and also because sometime in the fall she would be opening her new store, one that specialized in green tea beverages (yum!), and it would be cool to stay in touch about that.
It was completely unexpected several weeks later when she text me out of the blue to ask if I would be interested in going to KCON NY. Honestly, I didn’t have that much interest, not just because I’ve never particularly wanted to go to a KCON (and as far as I knew, none of the groups I was remotely interested in would be there), but because it was only a couple of weeks before my big LA trip. So I said that stuff, ready to turn it down, but then she said that she had gotten Platinum-level tickets and had paid a bunch of money for them and didn’t want them to go to waste. She said that I wouldn’t even have to pay her for the ticket; she just wanted someone to go with. She had also arranged to stay with a friend of hers, and they could also accommodate me, so there would be no expensive NYC hotels to consider, either. All that made it very tempting, because it would be An Experience, for only the cost of a plane ticket and meals/incidentals. The story is that J. was originally to take her niece, but her brother refused to let his daughter go as she was already going to go to a GOT7 concert in their home country, and she would have to travel thousands of miles to go to KCON NY. What was irritating was that after I made the big leap and agreed to go, she asked if she could have a few more days because her niece might be able to go. Obviously, it would be better if that were the case, but I also hated to be kept dangling – if you weren’t sure, you shouldn’t have asked me! Or you should have mentioned when we were talking about it that you were still hoping your niece could go! GRRRR.
Anyway, whatever, it was one of my first experiences with J. where I felt like she was a little off. And obviously, I DID end up going, so it sort of all worked out in that sense.
Day One
I guess I’m going to consider this day one, even though it’s technically two days. We both took the Delta red eye from Seattle to JFK. We took off at 11pm PT and landed in NYC at 7:20am ET. It isn’t my favorite way to travel, because I don’t sleep that well on planes, but it was what it was. We went to her friend’s apartment first to drop off our stuff. It was a pretty roomy (for NYC) 2-bedroom apartment in the Financial District, shared by two sisters. One was J.’s age (mid-30s), while the other was S., J.’s friend’s younger sister, who was probably in her late-20s, I would guess. S. was the only one around, as J.’s friend was out of the country. S. was the epitome of a millennial who Came From Money. She lived in a nice NYC apartment that no millennial should be able to afford, even with a roommate, but didn’t have a job. She had just come from traveling somewhere in Asia, and a few days into our trip, she was leaving for the south of France for a destination wedding for a friend. After that she was going to go to Iceland for fun. Then once she returned, she was considering going back to school, in London. Like... it must be nice to be able to do whatever the fuck you want, when you want, without any responsibility or worry about money, sheesh. Anyway, all that said, I liked S. and found her funny and generally easy to be around.
S. was with a friend, so J. and I went to a little French café (Paris something) for breakfast. I had a croque madame (forgettable) and a canelé (yummy). A canelé is very hard to describe if you haven’t had it before. It’s like, almost burnt on the outside? But sort of bready and creamy on the inside? Also, as you can tell from the photos, I took Jinyoung oppa with me to KCON. :D
We went back to the apartment and eventually S. showed up and we said our hellos. S.’s friend C. eventually showed up, and we all sat around talking. It turned out that C. was Korean and well versed in most of the stuff we were talking about. Then everyone started making noises about how they were hungry! Including J.! I couldn’t understand it, as I was still really full from breakfast. But of course I wasn’t going to be the party pooper, so out to lunch we went.
We went to Gunbae, a Korean restaurant not too far from the apartment. I really liked it. That says a lot considering I wasn’t hungry at all, and because according to C. if you wanted really good Korean food you’d have to go to Flushing (Queens). I ordered galbitang, which was incredibly good. I also ate a slice of pajeon, but only because I wanted to try it and not because I was actually hungry for it. :/ I remember it being the best pajeon I’d had at the time (until Kobawoo House in LA). Seriously, I can’t believe all that tasted as good as it did when I wasn’t hungry; that must mean it was REALLY good, lol. I was also tickled because C. is fairly traditionally Korean in some ways, and she asked who was the oldest at the table. I said it was me, so she served me makgeolli first! And they even gave us those little metal bowls that Koreans are always drinking it out of, in dramas, lol. I haven’t liked makgeolli much in the past, but I actually liked this one quite a bit; I took a picture of the bottle in case I could find it again later. Seriously, it’s so unfair that in New York, even some random Korean restaurant in an area that shouldn’t have had good Korean cuisine, was as good as it was. After lunch J. and I went to get our badges, while S. and C. bid us farewell. And C. called us "eonni"! So cute! Haha. I told Adelagia about this and referred to C. as "my favorite dongsaeng" LOL.
My favorite dongsaeng pouring makgeolli.
Why was this galbitang so delicious? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s that the meat pieces were many and in large, but not unmanageable, pieces.
Delicious pajeon and I don’t even remember this japchae, so apparently it was forgettable.
So! We went and got our wristbands and our random Hi-Touch tickets, and I finally understood how Hi-Touch works. Or at least, how it worked at KCON. I always thought it was something you did like during the concert, or right before the concert, or something, and I wasn’t really sure how the "random" part came in. Well what it is, is, you get tickets to a Hi-Touch specific event – basically, for an artist. Those events happen at specific times during the day(s). There are also "audience" tickets for the same event. The artist does a little talk, or a Q&A, or whatever, and everyone watches this. Then everyone with Hi-Touch tickets gets in one giant line, and we go through and "touch" the artist, usually with high-fives, though some people sneak hugs. But the idea is that you get to touch the artist. And if it’s a group, then you get to touch every member of the group. As a fan, sure, there’s part of that that’s cool. But from the artist’s perspective, EWWWWW. I can’t believe they make them do that! They must super hate it. It’s so boring and repetitive, and you’re having to touch a bunch of strangers. Gross. I wonder how many times they wash their hands after a Hi-Touch event. Anyway, apparently SM (a label) doesn’t require their artists to do this, so acts like Super Junior and Red Velvet didn’t have Hi-Touch events.
J. and I didn’t get any cool Hi-Touch events. And by "cool," I mean any of the boy groups, which were the ones in high demand. People were already holding up signs for Hi-Touch events they wanted, mainly Stray Kids, Pentagon, and Wanna One. I originally got fromis_9 (never heard of them, but they are a girl group) and EXID, but J. and I after a trade or two ended up with the same ones: Heize and EXID. We also managed to get the same backstage tour times after a trade. Even if not as highly desirable as the boy bands (though at the time, I didn’t even care about those since I didn’t really know them at all – though now of course I’m like, OHMYGOD! I COULD HAVE TOUCHED HYUNJIN! OR HONGSEOK! OR KANG DANIEL!), I was reasonably happy with this. I at least new Heize (from doing the pretty theme song of Goblin) and EXID (because of Hani).
I wish, wish, WISH that we had simply left after we got our wristbands and tickets. It turned out that one of their security measures was that you couldn’t remove the wristband, and I had put it on too tightly, so I had to have this thing on me for TWO AND A HALF DAYS, showering with it and everything. Argh. Anyway, back to my wishing we had simply left. Instead, J. wanted to check out the "Klub Kcon" thing that was happening that night. I couldn’t say no, since I was only here because of her tickets, and I didn’t want to rob her of an experience she wanted to have by being a dud. So we went.
Jinyoung oppa tried to help me remove the wristband, to no avail.
OMG what a giant mistake. I wasn’t expecting to do anything with loud music, so I didn’t have my earplugs. Everyone just crowded into a room with a small stage, and apparently at some point Stray Kids and Pentagon would arrive to perform a song or two. But in between each act there was AN HOUR of a DJ playing songs I didn’t know, and you were standing the whole time, with a bunch of people around you. It was terrible. My feet and back hurt, and it was so loud. I was way too old for that shit. We happened to meet two nice girls, though, who seemed like they were still in high school for one (Marina) and college for the other – though possibly she was a high schooler as well (Liz). The first act was someone I didn’t know at all, and it was super annoying that we had waited through an hour of DJing for her. Then there was another fucking hour or more of DJing, and then the true horror happened. Stray Kids came on, and OHMYGOD. The crowd SURGED. I was completely crushed, lifted off my feet as people just jammed themselves forward. I thought I was going to die in there. It was just screaming girls and horrible B.O. and people treating my body as if it weren’t even there. I will never forget the look of this one desperate girl, whose expression was one of sheer fancraze. She was tall, sweaty, and a lot of the bad B.O. was emanating from her. After Stray Kids performed District 9 I was like, I need to leave, I cannot be in this anymore. So I shoved my way to the back, which wasn’t easy because people were packed in like sardines, but as soon as people realized I was trying to leave, they saw that it was their chance to get closer, so they let me by. Getting out of that crowd was the sweetest feeling in the world. I texted J., and it turned out she had had the same thought as me, so she had also made her way out. We agreed that there was no fucking way we were going to stay for another hour of DJing to wait for Pentagon, so we got out of there.
Stray Kids when I was at the front, being crushed by every single person behind me who wanted to stand in my spot.
Stray Kids after I moved to the back and could breathe again.
By this time, I was actually hungry again, but because our appetites apparently could never agree, J. wasn’t. Sigh. We got home and S. wasn’t there, so we ordered some delivery, from some kind of Malaysian place, maybe (I think it was called Wok Wok)? I don’t know but I ordered nasi lemak, which was fine, and J. got some extra veggies, which were also fine.
Considering I had barely slept on the plane, it was a very, very long and tiring day. We blasted the AC in our room and slept.
Day Two
Day One of an actual concert day! For breakfast we were going to go to this Asian bakery, but I realized halfway there that I had forgotten something – I can’t remember what now. But I returned to the apartment while J. continued on to grab us some stuff from the bakery. I went next door and got some donut holes and coffee for J., and then she took a Lyft and came to get me. Both the donuts and the baked goods from the Asian place were subpar, so it was not the start of a good food day.
We spent all day at KCON, though how we passed the time kind of remains a mystery to me. We had the "backstage tour" in the morning, but it was the lamest fucking backstage tour ever, lol. They basically took you into one room, said that that’s where the artists would wait, and then we were led out. It was so so bad that they should be embarrassed that they offer that as a "perk," honestly.
The artists wait here. Big whoop.
I went and did my Hi-Touch thing with Heize, but J. was more into seeing Super Junior do some kind of talk, so we split up there and met back up again after our respective things were done. There was a "fairgrounds" type area where you could get free makeup samples (though anything you wanted to do, you had to stand in line for), Q&As were going on on the outdoor stage at all times, and there were merchandise booths as well. Food wise, there were tons of food stalls set up, but the lines were like a mile long and the food didn’t even look that appetizing (and I would bet that it was pricey, too). It was supposed to rain but we lucked out and it held off, so we didn’t have to deal with that, at least. Oh, also it was like a fucking movie... the loudspeakers were constantly blaring Kpop, and groups of people would randomly break out into synchronized dance, even at the tables where people were eating. LOL. The other surprising and unexpected thing about KCON was the demographics. Oh, it was mostly all teenage/young girls, for sure. That wasn’t a surprise. The fact that maybe... 30%? of the attendees being Asian, was. It really speaks to how pervasive Kpop has been when 70% of KCON was made up of non-Asian attendees.
Heize during the Q&A.
All the free samples I got.
Anyway, eventually I caved and went to the merchandise area. They had a bunch of GOT7 things so I got some of that, and I even bought the Stray Kids album because despite the freak show of the night before, I had actually started to really like their song District 9. Then I had to buy a backpack in which to store all my purchases, lol.
Finally, we decided to go line up for the Red Carpet. I wasn’t quite sure what this was, either. We met Marina again in line, and inquired about Liz, but Marina hadn’t seen her. J. decided she was going to get some food, so she brought some of it back and we shared it. Then it was the moment I’d been dreading all day... going to the bathroom. The convention center was not actually open to the public, so we had to use the portable toilets they had set up. It was HORRIFIC, man. I can’t even... like, just no. That situation must be fixed. Or at least people who paid for Diamond/Platinum tickets should be afforded real bathrooms. I know I sound like a brat, but seriously – there should be some way of getting to use a decent bathroom!!! What was available for THAT MANY PEOPLE was just inhumane. Not to mention there was no good place to wash your hand afterwards!!! Ughghghghhgghgh. Thankfully I knew a woman in line (she had gotten KCON tickets for her niece) and she had hand sanitizer. Because we had Platinum tickets we were in a special line that was let in before anyone else, so we were able to snag a pretty prime position in front of the red carpet. What it was, basically, was there was a mini stage set up with a backdrop (like you always see in promotional photos), with a red carpet in front of it, that was roped off. The audience was behind the rope, while professional photographers were right in front of us, and then the artists would come out and post on the stage for the photogs. The photographer who was standing in front of me was really nice and occasionally got down on one knee to take some shots that way, affording the people behind him some good views. I’m sure he didn’t really need to do that. (Also we had spoken to him before the event started, and he was cool.) So I got some good shots of the artists from where I stood, and J. did as well (she also has the benefit of being taller than me). I didn’t really know who anyone was, of course, so I just took what photos I could. The only person I really recognized was Hyunjin from Stray Kids, but mainly because he likes Jinyoung so we have something in common.
Heize on the red carpet. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but she had glitter/sparkly stuff all in her hair and it looked awesome.
Stray Kids.
Stray Kids, after being asked to "do a pose you haven’t done before on the red carpet." In the middle are Hyunjin and Felix, flanked by two dudes I don’t know.
Pentagon
Kino, Hui, and... the 10th member. LOL.
Wooseok, Yuto (I think?), Hongseok, and Kino.
Red Velvet
Super Junior. Donghae is second from the left; Choi Siwon is third from the left.
After the red carpet it was time to line up for the actual concert. (Yes, you lined up for everything, but at least if you were Diamond/Platinum your line was shorter and you got premium seating wherever you went.) I needed to use the restroom again – or at least, I wanted to before the actual concert – so Marina and I ran to her hotel, which wasn’t too far away, and used their facilities. Man, if I ever go back, knowing that that hotel is there is going to make all the difference, because no fucking way am I using those port-a-potties again.
The actual concert itself was pretty awesome. And I say that without even having been a fan of any of the artists before that. The thing is, when you are THAT close to them, and to Choi Siwon (from Super Junior, or from She Was Pretty, which was where I knew him from), who was emceeing, it is amazing. Everyone is practically an arm’s width away. And the pit was nowhere near as horrible as I was fearing. I thought it was going to be complete madness like it had been that night at Klub Kcon, but it wasn’t. The pit was actually very roomy, and the cordoned off the undesirables, lol. At first they weren’t doing so – they were allowing the P1 people to mix in with Diamond/Platinum (I even saw the girl who had traumatized me most the night of Klub Kcon, and was so afraid she was going to ruin my experience again, but luckily it turned out she was not D/P), but eventually P1 got put into their own little pen, and the D/P people were left in our super roomy space. We could actually walk around the pit easily. There was stuff on the floor for our things, I could stretch out my back when I needed to; I could have even sat, if I had wanted to. It was a really, really great floor experience. Roomy and able to see/enjoy all of the performances up close. Sure, it wasn’t great when they would do some of their numbers on the front stage, so that their backs were to us... but if you’re a glass half-full sort of person, you could also say that that has its benefits, as well. LOL. WARNING: PERV MOMENT. Oh, I guess I should provide the warning BEFORE it happens, oh well.
One of my best shots from the night, of Choi Siwon.
Watching Pentagon perform "Shine" live really cemented my liking them – same with Stray Kids. I don’t love either of them the way I love GOT7 or BTOB, but I like them a lot more than I did, and am interested in their new music, who the actual members are, etc. lol More Pentagon than Stray Kids, even though they both produce music that’s up my alley, even though they’re very different in sound. You know who else I was willing to give a chance? Red Velvet. I have a personal grudge against Joy because of her pairing with Sungjae in We Got Married, but everyone else seems to love them. In fact, they seem to be the only girl group that gets any cred whatsoever, at least these days. But THEY LIP SYNCED. In fact, ALL THE GIRL GROUPS AT KCON LIP SYNCED. What is that? I mean, it’s hugely disappointing, to say the least, because if people wanted to hear your album they could DO THAT AT HOME. But I also don’t know if it’s the girls’ decision, really. Is it that females are held to higher standards, where they’re not allowed to sound out of breath while they’re singing and dancing, or is it that they actually don’t have the stamina? I hate to believe the latter, though J. thinks that’s what it is, and I tend to think it’s more about keeping up appearances than actual ability. At least, I hope so. But anyway, it certainly didn’t make me like any of the girl groups. (Both Marina and J. noticed the lip syncing, and they both love Red Velvet, so I know it wasn’t just me being biased.) Also, the boy group dances are way harder than the girls’ to begin with, particularly given that the girls are usually dressed in these flimsy outfits, it’s not like they can really go all out with dance moves. So why not just let them sing live? I really refuse to believe it’s because NONE of them sound good live. That I just don’t believe.
Anyway, I noticed it when it was happening, but later viewings of my recording confirmed it – Hongseok totally waved to me!!! I mean, I’m going to believe it was me, anyway, and not someone behind me or something, LOL. You can see him notice me a few seconds before the song ends, when he’s doing the spinny move, and then when the song ends he actually waves. <3 Actually after watching this dozens of times, I finally noticed that Wooseok (the tall dude) actually also does the same thing, for some reason, but it was Hongseok who caught my attention, lol.
I really wish I could have seen Stray Kids do "District 9" from the front, though, because Hyunjin is their lead dancer and the face of the group, so he’s near the front for a lot of it, and especially during the dance breaks. Le sigh.
The headliner for the first night was Super Junior, whose music I didn’t know at all. They’re an older group, popular from before I got into Kpop, and the two members I know best are Heechul (though he had a broken leg or something, so he didn’t go to KCON) and Choi Siwon. J. is craaaaaaaaaaaaaazy for them though, and her bias is Donghae. All I have to say about that is, to each her own. >.> The song of theirs I think I liked best coming out of KCON is "Sorry, Sorry."
Despite only minimal interest in the bands that were there, I ended up having a great time at the concert because of how awesome the experience itself was. I can only imagine how much more I would have enjoyed it had a band I actually liked been there (like GOT7 last year!).
After the concert we decided to all meet up at Marina’s hotel lobby to catch our respective Lyfts; on the way out one of the bands’ tour vans pulled out and all these girls went screaming after it, just like in a drama! LOL. I did not chase after it, but I did hear people excitedly telling one another that it had been Stray Kids, lol. It’s super trippy to see that kind of behavior in real life.
Screaming girls running after the Stray Kids van.
I only have "mango slices" listed as dinner, so apparently I didn’t have a real meal. Huh. I’m a little surprised, because that doesn’t sound like us at all, but if we did have something, it’s now lost in history because I don’t remember what it was.
Day Three
This was a much less hectic day, KCON wise. J. didn’t have any interest in EXID. I was interested purely for the sake of Hani, but our Hi Touch event was in the morning, which meant that if we did go, we’d have to pretty much stay there all day despite having nothing else to do there after that event. We were both MUCH less enthused about the groups performing this day, so we weren’t even interested in going to the red carpet event. That meant either we went to EXID and spent a lot of money to Lyft back and forth from Manhattan to New Jersey, or we skipped EXID entirely and just showed up at the Prudential Center for that evening’s concert. Despite the fact that I felt it was a waste to not use our Hi Touch tickets (we should have sold them on the first day! Someone offered $50!), I also did not feel that the alternative solutions were worth it.
Instead, we made a day of it in New York, which is quite easy to do. For lunch we had tamarind duck and soft shell crab at Wondee Thai – it was very good, if a little pricey. They also had fresh mango and sticky rice that day, but sadly we chose to forego it because we already had dessert plans.
First we went to Bibble & Sip, where we ordered a couple of their special cream puffs: black sesame cream and matcha cream. I didn’t like the black sesame one as much as I expected to, and liked the matcha one a lot more than I expected to! >< I would definitely go back for that matcha cream puff, it was very strong on the matcha flavor. They also had an Earl Grey cream puff that Adelagia would probably enjoy. ;) For my beverage I ordered the "Hong Kong Ducks" drink, which was "drip coffee blended with Hong Kong tea, condensed milk, and cocoa powder." I thought I was going to really love it; it ended up being just OK. After that we went to Round K where I had perilla iced tea... J. got a drink and some kind of dessert, but I was completely stuffed and could barely manage a bite of whatever it was, lol. The reason we went to so many of these tea places is because J. was doing research for her new store – we’d do similar stuff again the next day.
Instead of Lyfting to the venue we decided to try taking the train; it was terrible. It was almost like that first night at Klub Kcon, where everyone jammed together and we were like bovine being led into a pen. J. and I agreed that it would have been worth the extra cost to have just gotten a Lyft; that said, without having done it, we wouldn’t have known, so I’m glad we gave it a try.
Here’s the part I’ve been dreading about writing about. After we met back up after getting off the train, J. handed me my ticket for the evening. It was only a block or so away from the Prudential Center. Somewhere between that and the D/P entrance line, I lost the ticket. I have no fucking idea what happened to it. Did I open my purse and it flew out? Did someone pick it up and just not say anything, or did it fly into a bush, never to be seen again? I’ll never know. Cue an hour or so of guilt and frantic calling around and meeting up with ticket people, all to no avail. I felt super bad for multiple reasons; one of course was that I would have to miss the concert, and hang around for hours doing nothing while everyone else was attending; two was that J. had paid for these expensive tickets so she could go with someone, and now she would have to go without me. AAAARGGGGHHH. I was so frustrated by the whole thing I was near tears several times. I seem to have particularly bad luck holding onto ticket-type things; it’s not the first nor the last time I will lose tickets, I’m sure. Sigh.
Anyway, I had just hung up with Vivid Seats (where J. had purchased resale tickets for over $3K for the pair; she never said exactly how much she’d paid) and given up being able to go to the concert when I started getting pinged by J. and Marina – Liz had an extra ticket somehow, not for D/P, but a regular nosebleed seat, would I be interested? So of course I said yes – I mean, nosebleed or not, it was better than waiting outside the venue. So... either I have the worst luck in the world (losing a ticket with an amazing seat), or the best (if I was going to lose a ticket, to have randomly befriended someone who could give me an extra ticket to attend the concert anyway), lol.
J. said that at the next break she would meet me at security in the D/P entrance area. I don’t know why my wristband didn’t count for something. I had worn that thing for TWO AND A HALF FUCKING DAYS without a break, bearing that discomfort, for NOTHING. They really need to have a better system, wherein if you lose your ticket somehow, they should be able to verify your identity and get you in, especially if you even have the special D/P wristband that they give out!!!! Arrrghhh.
Anyway, while waiting for J. I witnessed not one, but two, girls get pulled aside by security. After they went through the metal detector, it would beep, and the security guard would insist that they "take it out." The girls would then feign innocence, but in the face of the security guard’s unrelenting stubbornness, they gave in and pulled out – FROM I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE, BUT I CAN GUESS – a giant telephoto lens. O.O Holy. Crap. These girls meant business. I don’t even know how they could have hidden it! They weren’t wearing super baggy clothes; in the case of one girl, she was even wearing a dress!!! Wow. I’ve learned that at Kpop concerts, they don’t care if you take pictures and record stuff, as long as it’s on your phone (because no matter how you slice it, it’s pretty shitty quality). But professional-level cameras are strictly prohibited, so they were very diligent about ferreting those people out. Also, fanmade signs that used batteries/lit up were also not allowed.
So... yeah. I ended up watching the concert from my nosebleed seat. You couldn’t make out anyone’s faces, and the crowd was much mellower – everyone sat during the whole thing. Which was relaxing in its own way, I suppose; it was frustrating that I could see where all the excited fans in the pit were, knowing that I was supposed to be there, but also nice that I wasn’t on my feet for hours. It also helped that the acts that night were totally meh... all the girl groups were boring, and I can barely even remember any of the boy acts except Wanna One, who was the headliner for Sunday night. I really, really wish I could have seen Kang Daniel up close and in the flesh; K. from Korean class had asked for a picture of him, and I was sad that I would not be able to deliver a photo that I myself had taken. Instead, after the concert I had one of the other girls send me their pics and I sent that on.
The view from my non-D/P seat.
I only know it’s Wanna One on stage because Kang Daniel is on the big screen.
One of the other girls’ pics of Kang Daniel.
Afterward we all again met up at Marina’s hotel lobby to decompress and talk about the concert. I didn’t really understand Liz’s explanation for why she had a ticket; something about her father’s company and her sister who couldn’t make it, or something. Anyway, I was glad that everyone had a great time and that even I did not have to miss the concert entirely, despite having lost my ticket.
For dinner J. and I went to Five Senses, which was a Korean restaurant. Despite the lateness of the hour, the restaurant was full, and as we sat there, it only got fuller! Oh, New York. In some ways, you’re so awesome. We shared kimchi rice with cheese, chicken wings, and black cod soup. I would say, taste wise, I didn’t like this place as much as I had liked Ganbei, but of course it’s possible we just didn’t order the right things. I took the leftovers back to the apartment, because I figured I would eat them for dinner the next evening.
Day Four
Here’s another example where I am flummoxed by J. sometimes. She said she was going to meet up with a friend of hers, some guy who ran a ramen restaurant in Brooklyn. I said that was totally fine and I would be just great on my own. We planned to have pizza for lunch, because she was going to meet him around 3pm or something. We got to Grimaldi’s, where I have enjoyed pizza several times, and she said that she was going to meet him to eat ramen, so she wasn’t going to have any pizza. WTF? If she was going to meet him for ramen, why did she even agree to do pizza? Why didn’t she just TELL ME that she was going to eat lunch with him? I didn’t care!! So fucking bizarre. So I was like, that’s fine, you can watch me eat pizza then, and meet up with him whenever you’re gonna.
I ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pizza, but when it finally came, they’d gotten the order wrong and used sausage instead. When remaking it, they somehow shrunk the pizza? It’s supposed to go edge to edge, but it didn’t. Um... if you fuck up my order, you’re supposed to MAKE IT UP TO ME AND THEN SOME, rather than give me an inferior product????? It tasted fine, but not as good as I remembered; I don’t know if it was the experience of it or if it really wasn’t as good, but I decided that perhaps in future I would give Juliana’s next door another shot, even though I hadn’t been that impressed with it the one and only time I’ve been (it’s owned by the guy who first opened Grimaldi’s, before he sold it). J. ended up eating a slice anyway.
After that we went to a couple of other matcha tea places in Brooklyn; I didn’t write down their names but they were within walking distance of Grimaldi’s. One of them was apparently a pop-up place, so it might not be there the next time I go anyway; I had a sip of her matcha latte and found it to be okay; I got a matcha peanut butter cup for myself, which was interesting and cool, but nothing to rave about. The other place served a hojicha (roasted green tea) latte that I found really delicious. J. pooh-poohed it, saying that it barely had any hojicha flavor, and that the one she would be serving at her store was far superior. Well, I’m super excited about trying hers now, though, because I even really liked the "inferior" version!
I did not eat this because at the time I was way too full, but now I wish I had.
It might surprise you to learn that behind there is a matcha/coffee bar. In fact, that’s where we got the following drinks.
J. met up with her friend after that, so I made my way back to Manhattan by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge; it was a nice day out, so why not. I have my own "tradition" when walking the bridge; there’s always someone selling mango slices and they’ll season it for you with various condiments as you wish (salt, lime, chili flakes, etc.); they do this at fruit carts in LA, and it’s really yummy. Anyway, once again I was able to buy some mango slices, so I was happy about that.
I then made a huge mistake, lol. I don’t know if it was because I was free and alone in NYC and feeling splurgy, or what, but I decided that I wanted to get a super fancy manicure. I went into a decently rated salon near the apartment to get a sense for cost; then I had to actually go to the bank and get cash because they gave a discount for that. The manicure itself turned out fine, but ultimately wasn’t worth the price (with tip it was like $120), because the next day some of the elements already started to peel off. Sigh. I told both Jade and Adelagia that the next time I decided I wanted to get an expensive manicure, they should STOP ME.
I got back to the apartment and heated up the leftovers from Five Senses for dinner (really great use of my fancy manicure, huh? LOL), then I used my iPad to watch whatever K-drama I’d been watching at the time, lol. I even finished whatever it was, I remember that – but not the K-drama itself. >< D’oh! (I think maybe it was Misaeng...)
This is the sort of orange juice you buy when you are a millennial with too much money. It was, as you might expect, really delicious. It tasted so rich that it was almost carroty! And it was so *orange* in color. I don't know, it was weird, I can't describe it.
Day Five
Not much to say about this day, because my flight out was at 7 freaking a.m., lol. I was really grateful that despite the earliness of the hour, there was a pizza place at the airport that actually had pizza available! Amazing! I got a slice of pepperoni, and it was super cheesy and surprisingly good.
Also, I should mention that a month or so later, S. would text J. and tell her that I had apparently forgotten some of my Kpop goods at the apartment, some GOT7 postcard booklets. I can’t believe I forgot them, and I can’t believe I didn’t even realize I forgot them!! Anyway, so the plan is for me to pick them up from S.’s sister (since S. will be in London by this point) when I’m back in NYC in a couple of weeks. I told J. to pass on the message that I wanted them, so they shouldn’t throw them away, but who knows what they’ve done with them at this point. Fingers crossed that they still have them and I can pick them up without incident from their building’s security desk.
So... would I do it again? The answer is an equivocal yes. IF there is at least one group that I really want to see, and preferably there are at least a few I wouldn't mind seeing. IF I am able to get Diamond/Platinum tickets again (but at face value). And of course, IF it's a good time for me to go, in terms of work and personal timing. The first and third reasons are fairly self-explanatory and obvious. The second, I'm surprised by. Initially I thought that people who were willing to fork over $800 to go to KCON were insane. (Never mind that many people, J. included, actually paid much more than that on the secondary market.) However, after having experienced it, there's no OTHER WAY I would ever want to do it. The convenience and perks you get for your money is WELL WORTH IT. To the point where, if you don't have that stuff, it's not worth it at all. At least, for me it isn't. I have better things to do with my time than line up for hours for things, only to get to barely see whatever is at the end of that line (AHEM COMIC CON). I would much, much rather fork over $$ to stand in a shorter line for better vantage points everywhere. I guess my perspective is: If it's worth going, it's worth paying for the best experience possible.
I can’t remember if I’ve already gone through the story of why I even went, but oh well, might as well have it all in one place. On May 12,
adelagia and I went to S.’s wedding... oh wait, she wrote about it, here! While at this wedding, I met J., who was a friend of S.’s, and who coincidentally Adelagia had met in another context at a different time. Anyway, S. had recently gotten into Kpop, and was into the stuff that Kpop fans are usually into (except for me and Adelagia). She liked BTS and Red Velvet, groups like that. I was excited to learn that she was a BTS fan, because I thought there might be a chance in hell that she would buy my overpriced tickets. She and her ex also used to own a chain of ramen restaurants in the Seattle area (she sold her share to him when they broke up), so I knew she should have that kind of money. That hope died when I told her what I had paid and she was horrified. LOL. Sigh, an appropriate reaction. We exchanged info in case I was desperate to sell them at a lower price later, and also because sometime in the fall she would be opening her new store, one that specialized in green tea beverages (yum!), and it would be cool to stay in touch about that.It was completely unexpected several weeks later when she text me out of the blue to ask if I would be interested in going to KCON NY. Honestly, I didn’t have that much interest, not just because I’ve never particularly wanted to go to a KCON (and as far as I knew, none of the groups I was remotely interested in would be there), but because it was only a couple of weeks before my big LA trip. So I said that stuff, ready to turn it down, but then she said that she had gotten Platinum-level tickets and had paid a bunch of money for them and didn’t want them to go to waste. She said that I wouldn’t even have to pay her for the ticket; she just wanted someone to go with. She had also arranged to stay with a friend of hers, and they could also accommodate me, so there would be no expensive NYC hotels to consider, either. All that made it very tempting, because it would be An Experience, for only the cost of a plane ticket and meals/incidentals. The story is that J. was originally to take her niece, but her brother refused to let his daughter go as she was already going to go to a GOT7 concert in their home country, and she would have to travel thousands of miles to go to KCON NY. What was irritating was that after I made the big leap and agreed to go, she asked if she could have a few more days because her niece might be able to go. Obviously, it would be better if that were the case, but I also hated to be kept dangling – if you weren’t sure, you shouldn’t have asked me! Or you should have mentioned when we were talking about it that you were still hoping your niece could go! GRRRR.
Anyway, whatever, it was one of my first experiences with J. where I felt like she was a little off. And obviously, I DID end up going, so it sort of all worked out in that sense.
Day One
I guess I’m going to consider this day one, even though it’s technically two days. We both took the Delta red eye from Seattle to JFK. We took off at 11pm PT and landed in NYC at 7:20am ET. It isn’t my favorite way to travel, because I don’t sleep that well on planes, but it was what it was. We went to her friend’s apartment first to drop off our stuff. It was a pretty roomy (for NYC) 2-bedroom apartment in the Financial District, shared by two sisters. One was J.’s age (mid-30s), while the other was S., J.’s friend’s younger sister, who was probably in her late-20s, I would guess. S. was the only one around, as J.’s friend was out of the country. S. was the epitome of a millennial who Came From Money. She lived in a nice NYC apartment that no millennial should be able to afford, even with a roommate, but didn’t have a job. She had just come from traveling somewhere in Asia, and a few days into our trip, she was leaving for the south of France for a destination wedding for a friend. After that she was going to go to Iceland for fun. Then once she returned, she was considering going back to school, in London. Like... it must be nice to be able to do whatever the fuck you want, when you want, without any responsibility or worry about money, sheesh. Anyway, all that said, I liked S. and found her funny and generally easy to be around.
S. was with a friend, so J. and I went to a little French café (Paris something) for breakfast. I had a croque madame (forgettable) and a canelé (yummy). A canelé is very hard to describe if you haven’t had it before. It’s like, almost burnt on the outside? But sort of bready and creamy on the inside? Also, as you can tell from the photos, I took Jinyoung oppa with me to KCON. :D
We went back to the apartment and eventually S. showed up and we said our hellos. S.’s friend C. eventually showed up, and we all sat around talking. It turned out that C. was Korean and well versed in most of the stuff we were talking about. Then everyone started making noises about how they were hungry! Including J.! I couldn’t understand it, as I was still really full from breakfast. But of course I wasn’t going to be the party pooper, so out to lunch we went.
We went to Gunbae, a Korean restaurant not too far from the apartment. I really liked it. That says a lot considering I wasn’t hungry at all, and because according to C. if you wanted really good Korean food you’d have to go to Flushing (Queens). I ordered galbitang, which was incredibly good. I also ate a slice of pajeon, but only because I wanted to try it and not because I was actually hungry for it. :/ I remember it being the best pajeon I’d had at the time (until Kobawoo House in LA). Seriously, I can’t believe all that tasted as good as it did when I wasn’t hungry; that must mean it was REALLY good, lol. I was also tickled because C. is fairly traditionally Korean in some ways, and she asked who was the oldest at the table. I said it was me, so she served me makgeolli first! And they even gave us those little metal bowls that Koreans are always drinking it out of, in dramas, lol. I haven’t liked makgeolli much in the past, but I actually liked this one quite a bit; I took a picture of the bottle in case I could find it again later. Seriously, it’s so unfair that in New York, even some random Korean restaurant in an area that shouldn’t have had good Korean cuisine, was as good as it was. After lunch J. and I went to get our badges, while S. and C. bid us farewell. And C. called us "eonni"! So cute! Haha. I told Adelagia about this and referred to C. as "my favorite dongsaeng" LOL.
My favorite dongsaeng pouring makgeolli.
Why was this galbitang so delicious? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s that the meat pieces were many and in large, but not unmanageable, pieces.
Delicious pajeon and I don’t even remember this japchae, so apparently it was forgettable.
So! We went and got our wristbands and our random Hi-Touch tickets, and I finally understood how Hi-Touch works. Or at least, how it worked at KCON. I always thought it was something you did like during the concert, or right before the concert, or something, and I wasn’t really sure how the "random" part came in. Well what it is, is, you get tickets to a Hi-Touch specific event – basically, for an artist. Those events happen at specific times during the day(s). There are also "audience" tickets for the same event. The artist does a little talk, or a Q&A, or whatever, and everyone watches this. Then everyone with Hi-Touch tickets gets in one giant line, and we go through and "touch" the artist, usually with high-fives, though some people sneak hugs. But the idea is that you get to touch the artist. And if it’s a group, then you get to touch every member of the group. As a fan, sure, there’s part of that that’s cool. But from the artist’s perspective, EWWWWW. I can’t believe they make them do that! They must super hate it. It’s so boring and repetitive, and you’re having to touch a bunch of strangers. Gross. I wonder how many times they wash their hands after a Hi-Touch event. Anyway, apparently SM (a label) doesn’t require their artists to do this, so acts like Super Junior and Red Velvet didn’t have Hi-Touch events.
J. and I didn’t get any cool Hi-Touch events. And by "cool," I mean any of the boy groups, which were the ones in high demand. People were already holding up signs for Hi-Touch events they wanted, mainly Stray Kids, Pentagon, and Wanna One. I originally got fromis_9 (never heard of them, but they are a girl group) and EXID, but J. and I after a trade or two ended up with the same ones: Heize and EXID. We also managed to get the same backstage tour times after a trade. Even if not as highly desirable as the boy bands (though at the time, I didn’t even care about those since I didn’t really know them at all – though now of course I’m like, OHMYGOD! I COULD HAVE TOUCHED HYUNJIN! OR HONGSEOK! OR KANG DANIEL!), I was reasonably happy with this. I at least new Heize (from doing the pretty theme song of Goblin) and EXID (because of Hani).
I wish, wish, WISH that we had simply left after we got our wristbands and tickets. It turned out that one of their security measures was that you couldn’t remove the wristband, and I had put it on too tightly, so I had to have this thing on me for TWO AND A HALF DAYS, showering with it and everything. Argh. Anyway, back to my wishing we had simply left. Instead, J. wanted to check out the "Klub Kcon" thing that was happening that night. I couldn’t say no, since I was only here because of her tickets, and I didn’t want to rob her of an experience she wanted to have by being a dud. So we went.
Jinyoung oppa tried to help me remove the wristband, to no avail.
OMG what a giant mistake. I wasn’t expecting to do anything with loud music, so I didn’t have my earplugs. Everyone just crowded into a room with a small stage, and apparently at some point Stray Kids and Pentagon would arrive to perform a song or two. But in between each act there was AN HOUR of a DJ playing songs I didn’t know, and you were standing the whole time, with a bunch of people around you. It was terrible. My feet and back hurt, and it was so loud. I was way too old for that shit. We happened to meet two nice girls, though, who seemed like they were still in high school for one (Marina) and college for the other – though possibly she was a high schooler as well (Liz). The first act was someone I didn’t know at all, and it was super annoying that we had waited through an hour of DJing for her. Then there was another fucking hour or more of DJing, and then the true horror happened. Stray Kids came on, and OHMYGOD. The crowd SURGED. I was completely crushed, lifted off my feet as people just jammed themselves forward. I thought I was going to die in there. It was just screaming girls and horrible B.O. and people treating my body as if it weren’t even there. I will never forget the look of this one desperate girl, whose expression was one of sheer fancraze. She was tall, sweaty, and a lot of the bad B.O. was emanating from her. After Stray Kids performed District 9 I was like, I need to leave, I cannot be in this anymore. So I shoved my way to the back, which wasn’t easy because people were packed in like sardines, but as soon as people realized I was trying to leave, they saw that it was their chance to get closer, so they let me by. Getting out of that crowd was the sweetest feeling in the world. I texted J., and it turned out she had had the same thought as me, so she had also made her way out. We agreed that there was no fucking way we were going to stay for another hour of DJing to wait for Pentagon, so we got out of there.
Stray Kids when I was at the front, being crushed by every single person behind me who wanted to stand in my spot.
Stray Kids after I moved to the back and could breathe again.
By this time, I was actually hungry again, but because our appetites apparently could never agree, J. wasn’t. Sigh. We got home and S. wasn’t there, so we ordered some delivery, from some kind of Malaysian place, maybe (I think it was called Wok Wok)? I don’t know but I ordered nasi lemak, which was fine, and J. got some extra veggies, which were also fine.
Considering I had barely slept on the plane, it was a very, very long and tiring day. We blasted the AC in our room and slept.
Day Two
Day One of an actual concert day! For breakfast we were going to go to this Asian bakery, but I realized halfway there that I had forgotten something – I can’t remember what now. But I returned to the apartment while J. continued on to grab us some stuff from the bakery. I went next door and got some donut holes and coffee for J., and then she took a Lyft and came to get me. Both the donuts and the baked goods from the Asian place were subpar, so it was not the start of a good food day.
We spent all day at KCON, though how we passed the time kind of remains a mystery to me. We had the "backstage tour" in the morning, but it was the lamest fucking backstage tour ever, lol. They basically took you into one room, said that that’s where the artists would wait, and then we were led out. It was so so bad that they should be embarrassed that they offer that as a "perk," honestly.
The artists wait here. Big whoop.
I went and did my Hi-Touch thing with Heize, but J. was more into seeing Super Junior do some kind of talk, so we split up there and met back up again after our respective things were done. There was a "fairgrounds" type area where you could get free makeup samples (though anything you wanted to do, you had to stand in line for), Q&As were going on on the outdoor stage at all times, and there were merchandise booths as well. Food wise, there were tons of food stalls set up, but the lines were like a mile long and the food didn’t even look that appetizing (and I would bet that it was pricey, too). It was supposed to rain but we lucked out and it held off, so we didn’t have to deal with that, at least. Oh, also it was like a fucking movie... the loudspeakers were constantly blaring Kpop, and groups of people would randomly break out into synchronized dance, even at the tables where people were eating. LOL. The other surprising and unexpected thing about KCON was the demographics. Oh, it was mostly all teenage/young girls, for sure. That wasn’t a surprise. The fact that maybe... 30%? of the attendees being Asian, was. It really speaks to how pervasive Kpop has been when 70% of KCON was made up of non-Asian attendees.
Heize during the Q&A.
All the free samples I got.
Anyway, eventually I caved and went to the merchandise area. They had a bunch of GOT7 things so I got some of that, and I even bought the Stray Kids album because despite the freak show of the night before, I had actually started to really like their song District 9. Then I had to buy a backpack in which to store all my purchases, lol.
Finally, we decided to go line up for the Red Carpet. I wasn’t quite sure what this was, either. We met Marina again in line, and inquired about Liz, but Marina hadn’t seen her. J. decided she was going to get some food, so she brought some of it back and we shared it. Then it was the moment I’d been dreading all day... going to the bathroom. The convention center was not actually open to the public, so we had to use the portable toilets they had set up. It was HORRIFIC, man. I can’t even... like, just no. That situation must be fixed. Or at least people who paid for Diamond/Platinum tickets should be afforded real bathrooms. I know I sound like a brat, but seriously – there should be some way of getting to use a decent bathroom!!! What was available for THAT MANY PEOPLE was just inhumane. Not to mention there was no good place to wash your hand afterwards!!! Ughghghghhgghgh. Thankfully I knew a woman in line (she had gotten KCON tickets for her niece) and she had hand sanitizer. Because we had Platinum tickets we were in a special line that was let in before anyone else, so we were able to snag a pretty prime position in front of the red carpet. What it was, basically, was there was a mini stage set up with a backdrop (like you always see in promotional photos), with a red carpet in front of it, that was roped off. The audience was behind the rope, while professional photographers were right in front of us, and then the artists would come out and post on the stage for the photogs. The photographer who was standing in front of me was really nice and occasionally got down on one knee to take some shots that way, affording the people behind him some good views. I’m sure he didn’t really need to do that. (Also we had spoken to him before the event started, and he was cool.) So I got some good shots of the artists from where I stood, and J. did as well (she also has the benefit of being taller than me). I didn’t really know who anyone was, of course, so I just took what photos I could. The only person I really recognized was Hyunjin from Stray Kids, but mainly because he likes Jinyoung so we have something in common.
Heize on the red carpet. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but she had glitter/sparkly stuff all in her hair and it looked awesome.
Stray Kids.
Stray Kids, after being asked to "do a pose you haven’t done before on the red carpet." In the middle are Hyunjin and Felix, flanked by two dudes I don’t know.
Pentagon
Kino, Hui, and... the 10th member. LOL.
Wooseok, Yuto (I think?), Hongseok, and Kino.
Red Velvet
Super Junior. Donghae is second from the left; Choi Siwon is third from the left.
After the red carpet it was time to line up for the actual concert. (Yes, you lined up for everything, but at least if you were Diamond/Platinum your line was shorter and you got premium seating wherever you went.) I needed to use the restroom again – or at least, I wanted to before the actual concert – so Marina and I ran to her hotel, which wasn’t too far away, and used their facilities. Man, if I ever go back, knowing that that hotel is there is going to make all the difference, because no fucking way am I using those port-a-potties again.
The actual concert itself was pretty awesome. And I say that without even having been a fan of any of the artists before that. The thing is, when you are THAT close to them, and to Choi Siwon (from Super Junior, or from She Was Pretty, which was where I knew him from), who was emceeing, it is amazing. Everyone is practically an arm’s width away. And the pit was nowhere near as horrible as I was fearing. I thought it was going to be complete madness like it had been that night at Klub Kcon, but it wasn’t. The pit was actually very roomy, and the cordoned off the undesirables, lol. At first they weren’t doing so – they were allowing the P1 people to mix in with Diamond/Platinum (I even saw the girl who had traumatized me most the night of Klub Kcon, and was so afraid she was going to ruin my experience again, but luckily it turned out she was not D/P), but eventually P1 got put into their own little pen, and the D/P people were left in our super roomy space. We could actually walk around the pit easily. There was stuff on the floor for our things, I could stretch out my back when I needed to; I could have even sat, if I had wanted to. It was a really, really great floor experience. Roomy and able to see/enjoy all of the performances up close. Sure, it wasn’t great when they would do some of their numbers on the front stage, so that their backs were to us... but if you’re a glass half-full sort of person, you could also say that that has its benefits, as well. LOL. WARNING: PERV MOMENT. Oh, I guess I should provide the warning BEFORE it happens, oh well.
One of my best shots from the night, of Choi Siwon.
Watching Pentagon perform "Shine" live really cemented my liking them – same with Stray Kids. I don’t love either of them the way I love GOT7 or BTOB, but I like them a lot more than I did, and am interested in their new music, who the actual members are, etc. lol More Pentagon than Stray Kids, even though they both produce music that’s up my alley, even though they’re very different in sound. You know who else I was willing to give a chance? Red Velvet. I have a personal grudge against Joy because of her pairing with Sungjae in We Got Married, but everyone else seems to love them. In fact, they seem to be the only girl group that gets any cred whatsoever, at least these days. But THEY LIP SYNCED. In fact, ALL THE GIRL GROUPS AT KCON LIP SYNCED. What is that? I mean, it’s hugely disappointing, to say the least, because if people wanted to hear your album they could DO THAT AT HOME. But I also don’t know if it’s the girls’ decision, really. Is it that females are held to higher standards, where they’re not allowed to sound out of breath while they’re singing and dancing, or is it that they actually don’t have the stamina? I hate to believe the latter, though J. thinks that’s what it is, and I tend to think it’s more about keeping up appearances than actual ability. At least, I hope so. But anyway, it certainly didn’t make me like any of the girl groups. (Both Marina and J. noticed the lip syncing, and they both love Red Velvet, so I know it wasn’t just me being biased.) Also, the boy group dances are way harder than the girls’ to begin with, particularly given that the girls are usually dressed in these flimsy outfits, it’s not like they can really go all out with dance moves. So why not just let them sing live? I really refuse to believe it’s because NONE of them sound good live. That I just don’t believe.
Anyway, I noticed it when it was happening, but later viewings of my recording confirmed it – Hongseok totally waved to me!!! I mean, I’m going to believe it was me, anyway, and not someone behind me or something, LOL. You can see him notice me a few seconds before the song ends, when he’s doing the spinny move, and then when the song ends he actually waves. <3 Actually after watching this dozens of times, I finally noticed that Wooseok (the tall dude) actually also does the same thing, for some reason, but it was Hongseok who caught my attention, lol.
I really wish I could have seen Stray Kids do "District 9" from the front, though, because Hyunjin is their lead dancer and the face of the group, so he’s near the front for a lot of it, and especially during the dance breaks. Le sigh.
The headliner for the first night was Super Junior, whose music I didn’t know at all. They’re an older group, popular from before I got into Kpop, and the two members I know best are Heechul (though he had a broken leg or something, so he didn’t go to KCON) and Choi Siwon. J. is craaaaaaaaaaaaaazy for them though, and her bias is Donghae. All I have to say about that is, to each her own. >.> The song of theirs I think I liked best coming out of KCON is "Sorry, Sorry."
Despite only minimal interest in the bands that were there, I ended up having a great time at the concert because of how awesome the experience itself was. I can only imagine how much more I would have enjoyed it had a band I actually liked been there (like GOT7 last year!).
After the concert we decided to all meet up at Marina’s hotel lobby to catch our respective Lyfts; on the way out one of the bands’ tour vans pulled out and all these girls went screaming after it, just like in a drama! LOL. I did not chase after it, but I did hear people excitedly telling one another that it had been Stray Kids, lol. It’s super trippy to see that kind of behavior in real life.
Screaming girls running after the Stray Kids van.
I only have "mango slices" listed as dinner, so apparently I didn’t have a real meal. Huh. I’m a little surprised, because that doesn’t sound like us at all, but if we did have something, it’s now lost in history because I don’t remember what it was.
Day Three
This was a much less hectic day, KCON wise. J. didn’t have any interest in EXID. I was interested purely for the sake of Hani, but our Hi Touch event was in the morning, which meant that if we did go, we’d have to pretty much stay there all day despite having nothing else to do there after that event. We were both MUCH less enthused about the groups performing this day, so we weren’t even interested in going to the red carpet event. That meant either we went to EXID and spent a lot of money to Lyft back and forth from Manhattan to New Jersey, or we skipped EXID entirely and just showed up at the Prudential Center for that evening’s concert. Despite the fact that I felt it was a waste to not use our Hi Touch tickets (we should have sold them on the first day! Someone offered $50!), I also did not feel that the alternative solutions were worth it.
Instead, we made a day of it in New York, which is quite easy to do. For lunch we had tamarind duck and soft shell crab at Wondee Thai – it was very good, if a little pricey. They also had fresh mango and sticky rice that day, but sadly we chose to forego it because we already had dessert plans.
First we went to Bibble & Sip, where we ordered a couple of their special cream puffs: black sesame cream and matcha cream. I didn’t like the black sesame one as much as I expected to, and liked the matcha one a lot more than I expected to! >< I would definitely go back for that matcha cream puff, it was very strong on the matcha flavor. They also had an Earl Grey cream puff that Adelagia would probably enjoy. ;) For my beverage I ordered the "Hong Kong Ducks" drink, which was "drip coffee blended with Hong Kong tea, condensed milk, and cocoa powder." I thought I was going to really love it; it ended up being just OK. After that we went to Round K where I had perilla iced tea... J. got a drink and some kind of dessert, but I was completely stuffed and could barely manage a bite of whatever it was, lol. The reason we went to so many of these tea places is because J. was doing research for her new store – we’d do similar stuff again the next day.
Instead of Lyfting to the venue we decided to try taking the train; it was terrible. It was almost like that first night at Klub Kcon, where everyone jammed together and we were like bovine being led into a pen. J. and I agreed that it would have been worth the extra cost to have just gotten a Lyft; that said, without having done it, we wouldn’t have known, so I’m glad we gave it a try.
Here’s the part I’ve been dreading about writing about. After we met back up after getting off the train, J. handed me my ticket for the evening. It was only a block or so away from the Prudential Center. Somewhere between that and the D/P entrance line, I lost the ticket. I have no fucking idea what happened to it. Did I open my purse and it flew out? Did someone pick it up and just not say anything, or did it fly into a bush, never to be seen again? I’ll never know. Cue an hour or so of guilt and frantic calling around and meeting up with ticket people, all to no avail. I felt super bad for multiple reasons; one of course was that I would have to miss the concert, and hang around for hours doing nothing while everyone else was attending; two was that J. had paid for these expensive tickets so she could go with someone, and now she would have to go without me. AAAARGGGGHHH. I was so frustrated by the whole thing I was near tears several times. I seem to have particularly bad luck holding onto ticket-type things; it’s not the first nor the last time I will lose tickets, I’m sure. Sigh.
Anyway, I had just hung up with Vivid Seats (where J. had purchased resale tickets for over $3K for the pair; she never said exactly how much she’d paid) and given up being able to go to the concert when I started getting pinged by J. and Marina – Liz had an extra ticket somehow, not for D/P, but a regular nosebleed seat, would I be interested? So of course I said yes – I mean, nosebleed or not, it was better than waiting outside the venue. So... either I have the worst luck in the world (losing a ticket with an amazing seat), or the best (if I was going to lose a ticket, to have randomly befriended someone who could give me an extra ticket to attend the concert anyway), lol.
J. said that at the next break she would meet me at security in the D/P entrance area. I don’t know why my wristband didn’t count for something. I had worn that thing for TWO AND A HALF FUCKING DAYS without a break, bearing that discomfort, for NOTHING. They really need to have a better system, wherein if you lose your ticket somehow, they should be able to verify your identity and get you in, especially if you even have the special D/P wristband that they give out!!!! Arrrghhh.
Anyway, while waiting for J. I witnessed not one, but two, girls get pulled aside by security. After they went through the metal detector, it would beep, and the security guard would insist that they "take it out." The girls would then feign innocence, but in the face of the security guard’s unrelenting stubbornness, they gave in and pulled out – FROM I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE, BUT I CAN GUESS – a giant telephoto lens. O.O Holy. Crap. These girls meant business. I don’t even know how they could have hidden it! They weren’t wearing super baggy clothes; in the case of one girl, she was even wearing a dress!!! Wow. I’ve learned that at Kpop concerts, they don’t care if you take pictures and record stuff, as long as it’s on your phone (because no matter how you slice it, it’s pretty shitty quality). But professional-level cameras are strictly prohibited, so they were very diligent about ferreting those people out. Also, fanmade signs that used batteries/lit up were also not allowed.
So... yeah. I ended up watching the concert from my nosebleed seat. You couldn’t make out anyone’s faces, and the crowd was much mellower – everyone sat during the whole thing. Which was relaxing in its own way, I suppose; it was frustrating that I could see where all the excited fans in the pit were, knowing that I was supposed to be there, but also nice that I wasn’t on my feet for hours. It also helped that the acts that night were totally meh... all the girl groups were boring, and I can barely even remember any of the boy acts except Wanna One, who was the headliner for Sunday night. I really, really wish I could have seen Kang Daniel up close and in the flesh; K. from Korean class had asked for a picture of him, and I was sad that I would not be able to deliver a photo that I myself had taken. Instead, after the concert I had one of the other girls send me their pics and I sent that on.
The view from my non-D/P seat.
I only know it’s Wanna One on stage because Kang Daniel is on the big screen.
One of the other girls’ pics of Kang Daniel.
Afterward we all again met up at Marina’s hotel lobby to decompress and talk about the concert. I didn’t really understand Liz’s explanation for why she had a ticket; something about her father’s company and her sister who couldn’t make it, or something. Anyway, I was glad that everyone had a great time and that even I did not have to miss the concert entirely, despite having lost my ticket.
For dinner J. and I went to Five Senses, which was a Korean restaurant. Despite the lateness of the hour, the restaurant was full, and as we sat there, it only got fuller! Oh, New York. In some ways, you’re so awesome. We shared kimchi rice with cheese, chicken wings, and black cod soup. I would say, taste wise, I didn’t like this place as much as I had liked Ganbei, but of course it’s possible we just didn’t order the right things. I took the leftovers back to the apartment, because I figured I would eat them for dinner the next evening.
Day Four
Here’s another example where I am flummoxed by J. sometimes. She said she was going to meet up with a friend of hers, some guy who ran a ramen restaurant in Brooklyn. I said that was totally fine and I would be just great on my own. We planned to have pizza for lunch, because she was going to meet him around 3pm or something. We got to Grimaldi’s, where I have enjoyed pizza several times, and she said that she was going to meet him to eat ramen, so she wasn’t going to have any pizza. WTF? If she was going to meet him for ramen, why did she even agree to do pizza? Why didn’t she just TELL ME that she was going to eat lunch with him? I didn’t care!! So fucking bizarre. So I was like, that’s fine, you can watch me eat pizza then, and meet up with him whenever you’re gonna.
I ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pizza, but when it finally came, they’d gotten the order wrong and used sausage instead. When remaking it, they somehow shrunk the pizza? It’s supposed to go edge to edge, but it didn’t. Um... if you fuck up my order, you’re supposed to MAKE IT UP TO ME AND THEN SOME, rather than give me an inferior product????? It tasted fine, but not as good as I remembered; I don’t know if it was the experience of it or if it really wasn’t as good, but I decided that perhaps in future I would give Juliana’s next door another shot, even though I hadn’t been that impressed with it the one and only time I’ve been (it’s owned by the guy who first opened Grimaldi’s, before he sold it). J. ended up eating a slice anyway.
After that we went to a couple of other matcha tea places in Brooklyn; I didn’t write down their names but they were within walking distance of Grimaldi’s. One of them was apparently a pop-up place, so it might not be there the next time I go anyway; I had a sip of her matcha latte and found it to be okay; I got a matcha peanut butter cup for myself, which was interesting and cool, but nothing to rave about. The other place served a hojicha (roasted green tea) latte that I found really delicious. J. pooh-poohed it, saying that it barely had any hojicha flavor, and that the one she would be serving at her store was far superior. Well, I’m super excited about trying hers now, though, because I even really liked the "inferior" version!
I did not eat this because at the time I was way too full, but now I wish I had.
It might surprise you to learn that behind there is a matcha/coffee bar. In fact, that’s where we got the following drinks.
J. met up with her friend after that, so I made my way back to Manhattan by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge; it was a nice day out, so why not. I have my own "tradition" when walking the bridge; there’s always someone selling mango slices and they’ll season it for you with various condiments as you wish (salt, lime, chili flakes, etc.); they do this at fruit carts in LA, and it’s really yummy. Anyway, once again I was able to buy some mango slices, so I was happy about that.
I then made a huge mistake, lol. I don’t know if it was because I was free and alone in NYC and feeling splurgy, or what, but I decided that I wanted to get a super fancy manicure. I went into a decently rated salon near the apartment to get a sense for cost; then I had to actually go to the bank and get cash because they gave a discount for that. The manicure itself turned out fine, but ultimately wasn’t worth the price (with tip it was like $120), because the next day some of the elements already started to peel off. Sigh. I told both Jade and Adelagia that the next time I decided I wanted to get an expensive manicure, they should STOP ME.
I got back to the apartment and heated up the leftovers from Five Senses for dinner (really great use of my fancy manicure, huh? LOL), then I used my iPad to watch whatever K-drama I’d been watching at the time, lol. I even finished whatever it was, I remember that – but not the K-drama itself. >< D’oh! (I think maybe it was Misaeng...)
This is the sort of orange juice you buy when you are a millennial with too much money. It was, as you might expect, really delicious. It tasted so rich that it was almost carroty! And it was so *orange* in color. I don't know, it was weird, I can't describe it.
Day Five
Not much to say about this day, because my flight out was at 7 freaking a.m., lol. I was really grateful that despite the earliness of the hour, there was a pizza place at the airport that actually had pizza available! Amazing! I got a slice of pepperoni, and it was super cheesy and surprisingly good.
Also, I should mention that a month or so later, S. would text J. and tell her that I had apparently forgotten some of my Kpop goods at the apartment, some GOT7 postcard booklets. I can’t believe I forgot them, and I can’t believe I didn’t even realize I forgot them!! Anyway, so the plan is for me to pick them up from S.’s sister (since S. will be in London by this point) when I’m back in NYC in a couple of weeks. I told J. to pass on the message that I wanted them, so they shouldn’t throw them away, but who knows what they’ve done with them at this point. Fingers crossed that they still have them and I can pick them up without incident from their building’s security desk.
So... would I do it again? The answer is an equivocal yes. IF there is at least one group that I really want to see, and preferably there are at least a few I wouldn't mind seeing. IF I am able to get Diamond/Platinum tickets again (but at face value). And of course, IF it's a good time for me to go, in terms of work and personal timing. The first and third reasons are fairly self-explanatory and obvious. The second, I'm surprised by. Initially I thought that people who were willing to fork over $800 to go to KCON were insane. (Never mind that many people, J. included, actually paid much more than that on the secondary market.) However, after having experienced it, there's no OTHER WAY I would ever want to do it. The convenience and perks you get for your money is WELL WORTH IT. To the point where, if you don't have that stuff, it's not worth it at all. At least, for me it isn't. I have better things to do with my time than line up for hours for things, only to get to barely see whatever is at the end of that line (AHEM COMIC CON). I would much, much rather fork over $$ to stand in a shorter line for better vantage points everywhere. I guess my perspective is: If it's worth going, it's worth paying for the best experience possible.
