Kpop Idol Culture + Lots of Queuing

Writing from the land of kimchi, still! And since I'm here, why not immerse myself into probably the biggest Korean export out into the world - KPOP! Idol culture here in Korea is a big thing, and girls, women and quite a number of boys and men queue up for hours outside broadcasting stations to either go in to watch music shows of their favourite idols or wait outside to catch glimpse of their idols walking in for recordings.

I've done both - and can I say that it takes a hell lot of effort and it's super tiring! Ok so basically to get into a music show, you will have to join the queue of a specific group's fan club. There will be rules on what you have to bring in order to get into the recording, usually the CD the group is promoting, fan chant and a slogan towel. And then you basically go to the broadcasting station to queue. Some of the bigger fan clubs have a bidding system for tickets so you will have to sign up on their fan café and this is usually war. You basically spend 3 hours queuing to watch your idols perform for 5 minutes.

And just to be adventurous, I decided to go out of Seoul to watch a music show. It was in Ulsan, about 4 hours out of Seoul by bus. Since it's summer, MBC held a summer music festival at their Ulsan Centre Stadium. Admission to watch is free, but the queuing thing happens again. Crazily enough, we hit the queue at about 6am in the morning and it was already snaking. People were coming out from tents like refugees. The recording only started at 4:30pm... so... the queuing starts.

At about 2:30pm when they started letting people into the venue, people who were behind the cut off point started to play dirty and wanted to cut the queue - lots of pushing and swearing happened. I'm just glad that I didn't get cut off if not my entire day of queuing would be wasted! This is it with queuing for music shows here in Korea, there's always that slight chance you would be denied entry. At the end of the day, we spent about $20 on iced water because the temperature was like 34 degrees and the sun was working extra hard! I got tanned, didn't care about my image and slept on the ground under a tree - just to see these 7 boys.

INFINITE!!!

But it was so worth it HAHA. Fangirl, through and through.

Here's the video of the performance, it was such good fun being in that crowd and screaming my head off!

单独旅行

上个月，我的人生有点转变。

我离开了原来的工作岗，开始人生下一段的历程。

不过，当这新的旅程开始之前，我独自到了台湾充充电。。

我到了垦丁，寻找一种很特别自由。一个对心灵上的自由。而这 所谓的“自由” 就像一个在疯狂世界的避风港。

让我以接下来的照片跟大家描述当下的“自由”吧。

人生旅程

海阔天空

思维

勇往直前

august action

so another month has ended and the start of a new month awaits. on the surface, it seems that we have been lying low with not much action but the truth is far from that. take for instance the three contributing writers, our 八六九一 is away on holiday, The Kimchi Fairy is currently in korea. how about Mr Couchsurf Critic and myself? it's just been work, work and more work. just to reveal a little about the identity of Mr Couchsurf Critic, he's a new daddy (*salutes and applause*) and recently made some changes to his career path hence the silence because the sound (and fury!) is fully managed by his newborn.

busy schedules and travels aside, july was definitely a fruitful month for the kaki bukit community arts & culture club. let's talk about what you would have witnessed around the neighbourhood.

community art gallery

community art gallery (blk 550)

the panels are up!!! more importantly, you will see artworks by our very own kaki bukit residents. since the art panels have been in place for the past month, we are very thankful for everyone who helped us keep a lookout of the pieces. for instance, we have had multiple calls with regards to the works slipping through the cracks. we have rectify the problems to the best of our ability. for a couple of the panels, we need the contractors to come in and do some repairs but nonetheless, thank you for being our eyes!

community art gallery (blk 526)

another exciting piece of news about the art gallery, the pcf centre at blk 526 have decided to adopt the panels right outside their school. this means that the artwork of the children will soon have a place in our gallery. expect to see the big masterpieces of our little ones from 1st october!

if you are truly inspired to adopt a panel, do drop me an email at kakibukitcac@gmail.com and write community art gallery as the subject.

hotspot: singapore memory project

for this month, we are in partnership with our friends from the national library board and brought in one of their roving exhibitions. while the panels are about geylang serai, you can participate in the project by telling us what your favourite memory of kaki bukit is. hopefully we collect enough contributions to, one day, have our own exhibition as well. do remember to pick up your gift after you have written down your memory for us.

singing kakis' night

wow, time flies. we went back to ville rc for another night of song. it's our second cycle already. that means that four months have gone by since we launch this initiative. it's great to see residents join us regularly for an evening of music and singing.

anyway, beyond what we accomplished in the month past, there is more lined up ahead before we bid 2013 farewell. here are a list of dates that you want to keep free: 25th august, 30th august, 27th september, 29th september, 25th october, 26th october, 16th november. the programmes will be getting more exciting. i'm sworn to secrecy about the exact details about some of the events BUT there is one that i can share with you about!

we are celebrating children's day in a unique fashion. we want to invite all children who are malay, speak malay or interested in the malay language to join us for an afternoon of pure fun! tickets are on sale as you read this post. grab them early because there is a seating capacity! call 64454223 to purchase your tickets!

i'm having a blast putting together the second half of 2013 for you but let's not overload this post so ta-ta for now. here's wishing you an early happy national day! oh, do join us on 3rd aug at the kaki bukit neighbourhood park at 6pm for celebrations. you will get to meet the KBdARTs too!

catch the hARTbeat @ kaki bukit!

edwin