My aunt has been pestering me for a ticket for my cousin, so I went onto Stubhub and luckily, found tickets for the same section in the row behind us. Snatched it up for $250. We researched if cameras were allowed in MSG, and the site said only disposable ones were allowed. That's going to be hard to enforce with all the cameraphones being introduced to the market.
James arrived in the morning, and hung out in the apartment for a little bit while Kristin and I got ready. James got me honey and a teapot/cup set for my birthday, it is adorable and I love it!
The pot nestles onto the cup!
We would have to meet Leah somehow, but she conveniently lost her phone, so I had to setup facebook mobile to forward random things to my phone while we were out.
Then we headed over to Chinatown to meet my aunt, cousins and aunt's friend for lunch. We arrived too early so we ducked into the Starbucks on Canal. It was sweltering and I wanted an iced grande passion tea lemonade, sweetened.. but they were out. Of tea. Or lemonade. Something ridiculous. Kind of like when they run out of frappuccino base and customers go ballistic. But that's okay. Kristin started to crave some Vita Coco but I couldn't think of any corner store in Chinatown.... let alone a corner store that would stock it. I eventually thought of The Coconut Lady, the affectionate term for a lady that sells young coconuts on Canal and opens them up for you, and when you finish, she wields a cleaver to chop it open for you to eat the soft, young coconut flesh. Yum. So we left the shade and cool alcove otherwise known as Starbucks, to begin our trek to The Coconut Lady. Shelled over $7.50 for 3 and we went to the underground shopping center on Elizabeth.
Kristin wanted to go check out the photobooths, because everytime we want to, it's closed. It was open today, and we decided to take some. It ended up taking FOREVER, but it was fun. My aunt & co. was already finished with eating by the time we went over to XO Kitchen after photobooth. I was in charge of ordering; James doesn't eat pork or beef, so it was a little bit challenging. I ordered curry fishballs, scallion pancakes and grilled teriyaki salmon. It wasn't half-bad. The curry sauce was thick but really good. For drinks, James ordered a red bean ice, Kristin got a sesame milk bubble tea, I got a milk bubble tea and my cousin got some weird kiwi ice cream desert thing. Kristin swapped with me because she didn't like the texture of hers. Also had a cup of tea from the establishment, because Chinese places always serve tea haha.
Afterwards we went back to the shopping center and looked around some more. Then we took my cousin along and went back towards my neighborhood. We got out at Union Square because we had banking needs at Bank of America. James went into RiteAid while Kristin, my cousin and I went into some Indian "salon" place. They did threading, and while on the Cape, my aunt was commenting about how my cousin had "Chinese brows". Soooooooo I said that my cousin could get it done there, and Kristin was like "They're Indian. They're good. Do it" hahaha. So she did it. The staff was pretty pushy about their services, trying to get me and Kristin to get our brows done, then suggesting that Kristin get all these treatments they offer, and making (what could be received as, and was) some pretty offensive comments about her face. The prices were right, so Kristin made an appointment for the next day, despite moral conflicts.
After that business was done, we waited outside on the sidewalk for Leah. She showed up and then we went to Red Mango. Leah went over to Popeye's for some food, and we went over because the AC was broken at Red Mango and Leah would be a paying customer anyway. We started on our way back to the apartment but stopped at the pet store to look at all the animals. It always smells like a public restroom in there. Pretty gross, but it's something you get used to if you stay in there long enough. We also headed over to Rite Aid to buy 2 disposable cameras for the event. My parents didn't give me permission to go into the apartment, so we stayed downstairs in the community room. James took a nap and Leah and my cousin played hackey sack. Kristin and I did... nothing. We eventually got going when there was an hour until showtime. We stopped by Rite Aid again to pick up some energy drinks and earplugs. We had a 20-block trek in muggy New York weather and needed everything we could get.
When we got there and passed the security checkpoint, they barely even did ANYTHING. They just waved us in. We could definitely have brought like 92837410984 (non-disposable) cameras. At the venue, everybody started in a mob, moving through escalators and being sifted by the staff to different escalators at random locations. We eventually got to our seats, and they weren't bad at all. We were to the right of the stage with a really good view; not too high, not too low, and not too close. Any closer and we might not have been able to see everything going on on the stage.
Here's what the stage looked like from our seats before the opening act started :)
The opening act was Semi Precious Weapons. They were in Lady Gaga's Telephone video as some of the dead people in the diner. The lead singer, Justin Tranter seemed really bitter about the fact that Lady Gaga used to open for them, and now they're opening for Lady Gaga. He also pronounced it Gawhhh-Gawhhh. Big emphasis on the "hhh". Think French. The bassist (Cole Whittle) was probably the most exciting part of the band. Justin stripped and had an onstage costume outfit change. The venue's screens didn't show him again after that lol.
Then an hour passed by. And Gaga came out. She started out with Dance In The Dark, James' favorite song, so that was cool. All of her outfits were very awesome. Seen most of them before, but some were uh, interesting, to say the least. But it's Gaga, what are you expecting haha. My favorite outfit was her White-Angel-With-A-Black-Harp-Wearing-An-Odd-Fish-Headpiece costume. I think it was for So Happy I Could Die. The Disco Stick got a revamp. It's like Disco Stick 2.0. It's huge and had a built in floodlight in it now. It is soooo sick! Also The Orbit has like, 40 horsepower in it now. It's no longer attached to her, it's a stationary piece that she stands inside now... probably because the g-forces from it spinning now would most likely transform her into HovershipGaga. The show was amazing. I would definitely want to see it again. It felt more personal than other... well, concerts. This didn't even feel like a concert. Other musical acts are just song after song after song, a little antidote about the other day and they were in the supermarket, and then more songs. I don't know how to describe it, it was just a production. It was like a musical of sorts.
After the show, we got a surprise ride from the local relatives. I made an illegal immigration comment, because we were all stuffed into the back of a minivan sitting on various boxes and the floor. After we got dropped off in front of my apartment ("America!), Leah went west to Cubbyhole to brag about being at the Lady Gaga show. James, Kristin and I went to Ray's for a some pizza. I got EATEN by mosquitos there. But the pizza was good. It's always good.
Mosquito bite on my knee and halfway down my shin. :( It was soooo itchy!
Kristin and James left to go to her grandma's cool westside highway apartment so that James could stay the night. I went home, scratching my leg the entire time and went to bed after a loooong hot day.
+3
+3
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