Tuesday, September 25, 2012
120922 - A-JAX @ Gyeongju K-Pop Dance Festival (Part 1/2)
Posted at 9:32 AM
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Judges for 2012 Gyeongju K-pop Dance Festival: A-JAX + Rainbow!
I won a free trip to Gyeongju for the K-pop Hallyu Dream Concert, scheduled to take place on the 23rd, Sunday, and the bus would pick us up in Seoul and bring us to Gyeongju on the day itself, but upon hearing that A-JAX would be there on the 22nd to judge the dance competition, I knew I had to get down earlier for that. ^^ Tried for the 7:15am regular bus, it was sold out, so I had to take the more expensive 8.10am upgraded bus. After alighting at Gyeongju Bus Terminal, I transferred to the local bus and proceeded to get lost as I took the bus in the wrong direction. (pabo...) Luckily my shaky Korean was enough to communicate and figure out how to eventually get to the venue.
I got there at 1.50am, 10 minute before ticket distribution starts - but I need not have worried as there wasn't even a queue, and technically since I'm "staff" on the Arirang Simply K-pop team that was doing the recording for the day, I can just stroll in anytime and occupy the best possible general-audience seat. And coincidentally enough, there was only other obvious "fan" who arrived so early (she was carting a huge bag of tripods/monopods etc), so I figured that she's an A-JAX website fansite noona - and sure enough, it was dspboyzB. So I finally meet the fansite owner of my favourite, longest established A-JAX fansite! I had 2 tickets, so I offered her 1 (my tickets were won from the foreigners' invitation event, her tickets were from the general sales to korean audience so it was on the 3rd floor! T_T) and in return, she helped me get a guesthouse accomodation for the night! (I went there with none - was sorta prepared to have to camp overnight out in the open!). And she helpfully informed me that A-JAX was supposed to be coming in at 4pm (she asked the press staff) so we both went to wait at the carpark - she was very nice and encouraged me to go ahead and talk to the boys when they arrive, I don't have to stay a 100 yards away to just take photos. (By the way, she's a Seungyeop fan)
Sure enough, about 4.15pm, the boys got here, a while after Rainbow. The boys all looked kinda sleepy (they must have just came in from Seoul - it's a 4 hour drive, and hell I slept like the dead on my own way here), and the manager gestured to us not to take pictures, so my few hasty attempts with an unfamiliar camera and lens were mostly unfocused and beyond salvation - sorry, Sungmin, Seung Yeop and Hyeong Kon. T_T Jaehyung gave a little wave when he saw me but I didn't manage to capture it in time.
This picture is so cute - that's the manager telling us to not take picture, what looks like Jaehyung pacifying him and telling him it's alright (I hope), Seungjin staring up at nowhere, in his own world. and Hyo Jun laughing away.
When the boys approached close enough, I greeted them, then hesistated, thinking if it should be alright if I walk just a metre away from them, when Jaehyung looked straight at me and spoke, "뭐 타려고 왔어요? How did you get here?". I was so flustered, I just went "huh?" and he repeated himself. ^^;; I was like "Bus! So my back/waist hurts now~" Oops. (If only he'd offer me a ride back, I'll take any sort of ride from him! *winks*) Haha. Anyway, I actually meant to ask him how was his journey here and if he slept well on the way, but I got so flustered I forgot all the questions I have for him (heck, I have at least 5!) - I just walked quietly with him till we nearly reached the entrance, and suddenly blurted out "What's your favourite color??" and he was like... "color?... hmm, black." *amused smile*. Ok, gleaned another little fact about him! ^^
As it was near starting time, I went in to be seated, then decided to go toilet 5 minutes before the event starts and came back to find out, to my shock, that A-JAX had already entered and seated themselves RIGHT BESIDE ME. Well, technically there was an aisle between me and the nearest member, Seung Yeop, but it was still freaking near. They sat in two rows so that they can easily pass the judging scoresheet around and discuss among themselves. Up front was Seungjin-Hyeongkon-Jaehyung-Yunyoung and behind them was Seung Yeop-HyoJun-Sungmin. The row in front of me had no one (it was reserved for the rotating crane camera), and behind them was their managers, so technically I was the closest seated audience to them. ^^; I think dspboyzB noona beside me was nearly having a meltdown too. Just that we're both older so while we're mentally cheering/whooping inside, we were really quiet and just kept looking/aiming our cameras at them - unlike the teenaged fangirls who were seated on our other side and REALLY loud, oppa-ing non-stop... until the manager had to scold them and told them to shut-up repeatedly. (It didn't really work, by the way.)
I saw some of the press going in front of the boys to take pictures before the event started, and some audience even followed suit, so I just put my 'staff' pass to good use and did the same. I think the manager saw I had it, was a little confused, but hence didn't request me to stop and go back anyway. I just automatically backed off when I see the press also returning to their seats and the show about to start. (Unfortunately my 70-185 lenses did not have wide angle so I could not get a group shot!)
I forgot who came to speak to them, but the 2 hyung's similar wide-eyed expression was so funny.
Jaehyung signing for a member of the audience.
After I returned to my seat, Jaehyung still turned around and did this for my camera. *_* Fanservice king indeed.
A-JAX standing up and greeting the audience as they were introduced.
A-JAX carefully watching and evaluating the performances. For the most part, the entire 3hr-long event was like this - serious - but the boys did get pretty excited when the 2NE1, SHINee, Big Bang and PSY covers were being performed too! I only recorded for 2NE1 and SHINee's though, the manager came over and told me to not fancam them halfway so.. no choice. But it was nice to see them enjoying themselves and just hand-dancing/bouncing in their seats to 'Gangnam Style" and lip-synching for "Fantastic Baby" - Seungyeop was doing the wrist-flicking hand movements too - the only sign of his young age (he's just a high-schooler actually). He seemed to have the scoring board most of the time too - hyungs fobbing off their duty to the maknae? Lol.
Sungmin knows Lucifer! The dreaded opening that was only 10 seconds but took me 1 entire hour to learn. T_T And I was waiting for Jaehyung to do something when Ring Ding Dong was coming on, since he learnt the dance for the recent '180-degrees' recording, but in the end he only did a small portion (the rotating-clock-clapping' step, as I call it.) then went back to seriously evaluating the performance.
learn!
Candid shot of Jaehyung and Yunyoung. Happy bright smile makes me happy too~
Yunyoung turning back to discuss with Sungmin/Hyo Jun.
Yunyoung turned around and spotted my camera (who won't!? It's a DSLR with a 30cm long huge-ass heavy lens!) just as Jaehyung is looking my way again. Just that Hyeong Kon is blocking him...
Jealous!Jaehyung - the girls beside me, as mentioned earlier, had A-JAX fanboards, and I think some were Seungyeop/Jaehyung's fans, but they were screaming really excitedly over all the dance performances and enthusiastically fanchanting, so this was the face he made as he looked over... he's either amused, or... ^^;; Oh dear. If he knew I am straddling multiple fandoms too.... T_T Will you believe me if I said that you're my No. 1 priority and true love now? *_*
Labels: events
