Sunday, February 25, 2007
Heroes, a Concert - 6:26 PM
Sorry for the MIA-ing the past week. You see, its been an incredibly exciting week for me, well.. comparatively since I never do anything. ever.... BUT, this post is DEFINITELY gonna make it all up!Last Tuesday, I had an exam in the afternoon and went to a basketball game at night. It was EXTREMELY exciting cos the Spartans beat the NO. 1 WISCONSIN BADGERS! It was school spirit at its best as the entire crowd swarmed towards the court when the buzzer sounded.
And to those who were in touch with me the last weeks, you know where I was last night!!!!! YES YES YES!!! LIHONG'S CHINESE NEW YEAR - HEROES CONCERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I prayed for a night for me to remember for a long, long time. And did I get it? Ho-ho, anything with LihonG!!
At first, our day went by without any glitches. My flight got into New York on time, and our Bibimbap lunch at Korean Town was great... we had another amazing meal of Vietnamese pho and spring rolls in Chinatown, and found our way -like-that- *snaps fingers* to 89 Bowery Street where the bus was going to take us to the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut... Perhaps I cursed myself when I said everything's smooth sailing, cos........
ONE OF THE BUS TIRES DECIDED TO PROMPTLY EXPLODE HALFWAY THROUGH THE JOURNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!??!?!? All that commendable work and a busted tire? Thankfully, another bus soon came to save us, but to our dismay... the cut off point was ME cos the bus didn't have enuff space. THANKS! So we had to wait an additional 30minutes in the middle of the night, in the middle of NOWHERE (save for a Mobile gas station and McDonalds....which really only added to the creep factor) But luckily we left really early, n the concert was due to start at 2am, so we weren't even near late...
OH YES, did I say 2am?? HARLOW I am a LAO REN JIA ok (compared to the 15 year old teeny boopers), I CANNOT stay up so late!! And I had to constantly poke Gerri to prevent her from sleeping at certain segments too. Haha. OH yes, our seats were quite fantastic, though it still required a fair amount of joustling towards the end during the encore.
But as soon as the drapes fell and Lihong started singing, all that trauma was forgotten. He greeted the crowd with an energetic 'XIN NIAN KUAI LE!!', amd everyone just went bonkers, basically. I mean, I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT HE'S GOODLOOKING, BUT NOT THAT GOODLOOKING! Omg, this is someone who is turning 31!! He doesn't look a day over 25. Refreshed, boyish, personable, and looking MUCH better than in print, I think he just celebrated a very good CNY with his family in New York. (p/s: WE SAW HIS PARENTS TOO! and have faith people, negative-negative CAN COME UP WITH A POSITIVE ONE! Haha, his college friends were present as well)
The best thing about Lihong, however, lies beyond his looks. He played the er-hu, guitar, drums, piano, BUT HE LEFT OUT THE VIOLIN! Dang, I was waiting in anticipation!! But he hit all his high notes darn well, and his music prowess just shone when he sang that 'How wonderful life is' song from Moulin Rogue. I took quite a few pictures, and even some videos which I personally am quite proud of lo!! But I silently curse myself for not discovering the zoom function for the video earlier. DAMMIT.
After the concert ended (BOOOOO, ITS NEVER LONG ENOUGH), we headed back to Manhattan... or what we thought was to Manhattan.. cos the bus TOOK US TO BROOKLYN. OH GAWD. I had a 9am flight to catch and BROOKLYN IS NOWHERE NEAR the airport. I was reminded of Miranda from SATC when she said 'BROOKLYN? Even cabs don't go there!'. YES, really.. CABS DON'T GO THERE. But thankfullly, cabbies live there. I spotted a cabbie wiping down his windows and asked him whether he was ready for business. He gave me a thumbs up, and I caught my flight JUST IN TIME.
It was an incredibly ardous journey to see Lihong. It was the most exciting (also the most tiring) 24hours of my life, and I'm lucky to have Gerri accompany me through it. OH, OH! I made a very heartbreaking observation. You know how when you are so involved with this idol that you start to think that he is exclusively yours? Well, going to a concert TOTALLY SPOILS THAT LA!! There, you hear like hundreds of people screaming his name and giving him gifts. WHOA, and then you realise, you are just another of them... and you even lose to them cos you didn't prepare a stuffed pig or flower toy for him! And then you also realise that its damn sad cos you will never be able to find another person like Lihong in real life. (not as handsome than Lihong, not as talented as Lihong, not as nice as Lihong, NEXT!!!!)
I only slept for about 3 hours combined today, and I'm sad that its all over.. Woosh, I prayed for it to be a night for me to remember forever, good AND bad... and it sure was! Will I do it all over again? HELL, YEAH! SEE YA AGAIN, LIHONG!!
Ok la, cut the crap. HERE ARE THE GOODIES!!
the drapes before the unveiling of...
EVERYONE'S hero - LIHONG!!!
He then switched to his hop-hop gear. Complete with sunglasses. The works.
Now you see it,
Now yoU DON'T! His singlet's gone in case you don't realise. I think he didn't have much time to work out la hor, abit skinny, but better than nothing!
OEI!!
He then put back some clothes for modesty's sakes and strummed the guitar to Da Cheng Xiao Ai and dunno wad other songs.
Next up was his chink-out wear, and he sang the opera-Shangrila-Xinjiang songs during this segment. NOTE THE PIG AND THE FLOWER. :P
At one point, he was like 'Ok this song is from the Xinjiang region (zai na yao yuan de di fang)... near kazakhstan, uzbekistan.. u know borat?' AHH LIHONG, YOU ARE HUMAN! YOU WATCH THE SAME MOVIES AS US!!
His final costume change was this really casual and REALLY shuai qi red hoodie n black blazer combi. Oh, in accordance with Chinese New Year, they threw out red packets. And in case you are wondering, NO LA SINCE WHEN I AM LUCKY ENUFF TO CATCH GOOD THINGS?!?
ONE WORD: SHUAI!
The end of an extremely successful concert. His final words to us were something like 'I wish everyone the best of luck for the new year. And I hope you all can win alot of money at the casino!'SIGH... TILL NEXT TIME, LIHONG!
note: the vidoes are taking like, 10 years to upload on youtube. So enjoy the pics first!!