Big Bang
Showing posts with label Big Bang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Bang. Show all posts

WINNER EXIT: E MOVEMENT

Dear YG Entertainment Art Department,

You are doing such an amazing job. These CDs/DVDs are so breathtakingly beautiful. The effort put into these things matches (and honestly, at times surpasses) the actual content of the product. Really, you pay for the packaging. The music and videos, you can get digitally. But you can only fully experience the beauty of the photo books, Polaroids, and everything else when you actually have them in your hands. I've stopped buying CDs of Western artists a long time ago. There was nothing special about them. K-pop albums costs twice as much but you get ten times as much. It's so worth the investment.



On 20160208, all these goodies came in the mail. At the same time. I have an overflowing shelf full of K-pop stuff. Scratch that... full of YG Entertainment stuff. Mostly BIGBANG DVDs, light sticks, and everything WINNER. I have krunk bears (GD & TOP), a Psy Funko, Epik High's Shoebox, Mix & Match DVD in an actual shoebox, and oh, a bootleg LeeSsang cap. (Do they sell that legit? I mean, I'm saving up for a Halyang one.) All three went on pre-order around the same time. I only "collect" BIGBANG video stuff. There was no question which WINNER Exit:E I'll get. I got all three 2014 S/S editions, didn't I? I also got the free posters from Music Plaza.

In this post, we're celebrating the beauty that is the EXIT: E MOVEMENT mini album.
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2015 Iconography & Listography

Just when you thought that 2015-related posts are so last year... ;-)

I'm so pumped for 2016 but I'm forever grateful for all the things that happened in the past year. The good and the bad. I hope the good things will continue and all the bad things will get better. For you and for me.

I'll try something different. Iconography. I'm not exactly good at it but I'm testing out a website/service that makes it easy for Photoshop dummies like me. If you've noticed, I've been tweaking the appearance of this blog. A little change for 2016, yeah?

가자!

CONVENTIONS: 6.
I can't get enough of them. They're exhausting and I tend to spend much more than my budget - not to mention, adding to the clutter in my room - but I love them. I'm looking forward to going to more in 2016. Preferably, EVO 2016.

  • 3 times at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I can tell you where the nearest restrooms are. WonderCon is moving to LACC in 2016, by the way.
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BIGBANG MADE Tour in Anaheim, 20151004

I did have this ready and waiting shortly after I posted the Los Angeles recap. But I decided to wait and post it on TOP's birthday (in Korea lol)... a month after the event.

This time three years ago, at the same venue, we "celebrated" TOP's birthday on stage. Seungri has a video of it shot on a Samsung Galaxy S3. We also sang to him the previous day but our November 3 is November 4 on the other side of the world which is his actual birthday. He flew to NYC to be with his family immediately after the concert, I heard.

It was so special to us that we could do that. The whole ALIVE Tour was special to me. (I didn't post a wrap up for the 2nd night because that was the only concert where I didn't take a lot of photos. Just the encore but I only had my phone and I was kind of far away.) They did Monster and that was enough for me. At least, I saw it performed live twice.

Yes, I posted a similar picture for the LA recap.
The MADE Tour has its own kind of special. Mainly that bridge thing stage extension and the best pit experience ever. I didn't opt for the Ultimate VIP but I got my money's worth for Bae Bae and more.

I don't know about you but my mother understands the importance of being to a concert 8-10 hours early. Especially if you have a general admission ticket. And in general, I want to be crazy early for these things. Get it out of the way, you know, then have the whole day sitting there and waiting. Fans took it upon themselves to have some sort of organization and together with staff, they tried to have a number system for both the general line and per ticket tier. I got there at around 10-ish and without the people cutting in line to be with their friends who got there earlier, I was the 357th person in line and 124th with the Bae Bae ticket. Already. My actual ticket/wristband read somewhere in the 140's but that's fine. The pit had more than enough breathing room for both Ultimate and Bae Bae as well as guests and special VIPs. You know, the actual very important people... not the fandom name lol.

I love soundchecks. My November 2, 2012 soundcheck was all kinds of special. It involved G-Dragon. That was the first time when I truly experienced "fangirling". This time, I knew what to expect and was pleasantly surprised at the layout of the pit. We had our own little den in between the main stage and the extended stage. And unlike the Floor, we didn't have to push and shove and fight for a good spot. I situated myself at house left right under the left bridge thing. And oh boy, was it the best decision ever.
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BIGBANG MADE Tour in Los Angeles, 20151003

Who takes more than a week to recover from a concert? This girl.

But cut me some slack. I went to two BIGBANG concerts in two days. Not to mention the live tweets, videos, updates on social media for the following concerts in Mexico and New Jersey. I had more than 1000 photos to comb through, a couple of surprisingly good videos, and screencapping said videos for more pictures. And oh, uploading them to FB and Youtube.


This was the farthest I've ever sat for a YG artist concert. I've always been pit or the seated area right next to GA Floor. I could've done better seats for the same price but dang, we were right across from the stage. Center!

Really, I could've gone VIP here also. But I had my rockstars with me. I mean, who goes to a K-pop concert with their mother but not as chaperon? My brother, who is a non-K-pop fan, went with me too. I was happy that they were game to experience this insanity with me - and see my total K-pop fangirl side as well. My wallet wept for a minute but it was all worth it, seeing how they enjoyed it and hearing their feedback on the whole show.

tl;dr My mom is a fan of Taeyang and her favorite BIGBANG songs are Fantastic Baby and Haru Haru. And she thinks, as everyone in this good earth does, that TOP is excessively good-looking. My brother loved the staging and lights. He liked Sober and Daesung's voice. It warmed my heart to see that he made an effort to remember their names and match it to their faces. I have the best family ever!


Honestly though... my VIP ticket for the Anaheim concert could've paid for all three of our seated tickets. No regrets, though. Absolutely none.

If you go back to the ALIVE TOUR concerts, I was in absolute overwhelmed fangirl mode. I would kiss the ground that they walked on. And my preparation started about a week before that concert weekend. This time around, I was calmer... older... wiser. Yes, I was still excited to see them in concert but having seen them twice before (3 times for G-Dragon), I was able to keep my head on straight. With the exception of some crazy screaming and jumping, of course. ;-)

I'm especially excited to see this tour because of their new songs. I love all of them. Bang, Bang, Bang is the song of 2015. Then there's Eyes, Nose, Lips. I've seen this twice live from Tablo and now, I'm going to see this live from the original artist himself, Taeyang. Twice! And of course, I would not miss another live performance of YG's national anthem... Fantastic Baby. I have so many feelings for this tour/set list. Also, this could be the last one for a while with them starting to go into military service. Sigh.

Like last time, I bought two separate light sticks to commemorate this event. (One was free the last time but I bought another one that looks exactly the same for night 2.) It's the new version so one was white and the other was black. The light reacts to the beat of the music but I still had it one solid. The "anytone" mode looked so dim.


I love that they play MVs to pass the time. Perfect for people watchers like me... the crowd screams even at music videos. There was this teenager in the row behind ours who screamed bloody murder every time GD comes on. She was a silent, crying mess for the rest of the actual concert.
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ANIME EXPO 2015



Guys, I think I have a favorite convention. Yes, out of all the events I've been to that is nerdy and geeky, Anime Expo has absolutely won my heart. I enjoyed every single day, every second of it. °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

At first, I was kind of hesitant because my scope of anime is more of the older ones, classics to the early 2010s. I know nothing of the on-going and newer ones. My preferences are slice-of-life and music anime. I've watched my share of long-runners such as Yuyu Hakusho, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Rurouni Kenshin. I was a kid when Sailormoon R was released. And having a Japanese aunt meant that I had a Sailormoon related gift every Christmas until I was old enough to braid my own hair. I played and enjoyed video games and JRPGs. I felt I could keep up with it but at the same time, what about the newer crowd?
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찹쌀떡 찹쌀떡...

Well guys, I did it.



So everything that I said in my previous post was utter BS. I didn't buy the cheapest ticket for the Anaheim show. Instead, I got the 2nd tier VIP, Bae Bae. Forget the newbies to BIGBANG and K-pop, I'll be right there one the floor with them. That VIP ticket is for the Anaheim show, the one that I was discouraged to attend. I did not get my mother and brother cheaper tickets to LA. We are all seated together. Yes, seated. Forget standing room... LA is not offering VIP packages after all.

But the biggest surprise of them all... this was the easiest concert ticket sale. EVER. Easier than when I bought my Epik High ticket. Okay, my brother scored me those but we refreshed our pages for a good 30 minutes before he got it. For the Anaheim presale, June 9, I searched for the Bae Bae VIP package and got it just like that. For the LA presale, June 10, my brother and I both scored P4 level tickets but his seats were better than mine so he scored us that as well. But I would not call it a blood bath at all. Maybe because it's a presale and not all of VIPeople came out full force. Ticket sale will be open to public tomorrow at 12nn PDT. Glad to have avoided that.


The prices were RIDICULOUS. Insane! Let me put it this way... I bought THREE tickets to the LA show for the price of ONE ticket to the Anaheim one. What gives, YG? Last time, I paid $303 for VIP. This time, $200 separated MADE VIP and Bae Bae. Already, I thought $399 was too damn much. I love BIGBANG to bits but I don't think a "send-off" and merch justify the $700 price tag. Sorry. Ridiculous.

Like I previously said, I was thinking of not going to Anaheim. I had that dilemma even after clicking on that VIP ticket, watching the counter count down from 3 minutes. Should I go or not? I made the decision to just fuck it and go with literally 10 seconds to spare. It turned out to be the best decision because LA does not have a VIP package.

Apparently that's the word going around. I had a feeling that that was the case. I mean, Ticketmaster handled Las Vegas, New Jersey, Canada, and Anaheim. But AXS handled Los Angeles. Ticketmaster had all the information. AXS, even amongst themselves, had conflicting and inconsistent information. I mean, if you're having a presale, the least you can do is provide information about the tickets you're selling. AXS had GA PIT and GA Floor but the only thing that they had on them was "these tickets are first come, first serve" or something to that effect. I had a bad feeling about that so I opted to sit with my family and enjoy the LA concert with them.

So it's the same story as the last concert. I'm VIP for one and non-VIP for the other. This was honestly, the most stress-free ticket sale. Oh my, I'm laughing at how stressed out I was when I was composing the last post. OMG. So looks like I'll be seeing my boys again. I'm so happy!

(I'm still not going to KCON. Unless you're bringing WINNER, I ain't goin'.)
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