Hey hi whatever. I’ve been feeling down again. Super neurotic and panicked, sad, depressed, antsy, bored, low self-esteem, uncomfortable, paranoid (mostly I just feel like I’m dying).

I had therapy today and I guess I will try to stay positive by listing some things that are making me stay above water. Like this song that G-Dragon produced, where he personally selected a number of singers, actors, TV personalities, comedians, even a chef, who were relevant over the last year and then had them collab on a mashup of two Dosi Brothers songs from the 80s. And it was all for charity. GD’s reasoning was that he wanted to bring back the big collabs that used to happen when he was a kid, a la We Are the World, but it sounds like Korea was doing their own versions of that back then too.

I just love this so much. For any Squid Game fans out there, Player 333 is the guy in the beret in the beginning. <3

I started painting my nails again recently after being too despondent to care for several mths. Little things, right?

Hoping to get in at least one good road trip with Chooch this summer. I have a few days off around my birthday and have proposed that we drive to Iowa for two parks there (Lost Island and Adventureland) and then head down to Missouri for Worlds of Fun and a redemption tour of Silver Dollar City. Henry was buying a one-way ticket to Frown Town when I excitedly called him over to show him the map I made. We’ll see how much of this actually comes to fruition haha.

(I added Bowling Green because there is also an amusement park there, too, haha.)

(If you are familiar with anything cool / weird / tourist trappy on this route, let a bitch know.)

I saw HNC outside on Sunday and he jokingly asked me if I want his cats and I return-jokingly said, “Haha sure” and then he texted me later to see if I was serious and gave me this big spiel about “having peeps” who are allergic and I was like “OMG no I am not seriously offering to take your cats, mine would have a conniption” and he was like “OK because we prob wouldn’t actually give them up anyway” (???) and then the next morning he texted me AGAIN and apologized for being wishy-washy. Henry thinks my texting adventures with HNC is amazing.

Recently, I had been watching Coachella content on Youtube for two reasons: Enhypen performed both weekends, and my favorite YouTube siblings – the Alexanders – all went to weekend 2 and I love their vlogs. But that screwed up my algorithm so then I just started getting oversaturated with Coachella content. HOWEVER, this is what brought YouTuber Jake Webber into my life!? At first I was like UGH THIS GUY IS SO ANNOYING UGH HIS FRIENDS ARE SO ANNOYING but then I was finding myself genuinely laughing and being entertained?! And then I was like HOLD UP IS HIS FRIEND JOHNNIE GUILBERT THE SAME SCENE KID FROM THE WARPED TOUR YOUTUBERS DAYS?

Um, that would be a yes. And he is still emo and almost looks exactly the same?! So now these highly obnoxious videos are playing constantly and even Henry is getting sucked in. Chooch is SCANDALIZED by this. He hates it so much. I keep texting him pictures and videos of Henry watching and laughing and Chooch is like, “No, I reject this from my life.”

Then this sent him:

Oh! Oh! Oh! Speaking of Chooch, he texted me this the other night and my ego was POPPIN’ off.

I love that Chooch has been deep-diving into my blog archives! Until he finds the weird shit. But still! Practically his entire life is on here, at least my version of events, and I imagine that’s gotta be interesting to him someday.

Well, I think I’ve hit the bottom of my positive reserves and also, I had taken a break writing this to exercise and I jacked my left knee kind of (???) bad and I think I need to go and ask Dr. Google if I need surgery now so that’s kind of all that’s on my mind right now hahaha ugh.

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Oh you guys, when Onew announced his US solo tour, I was gagged. And this was legit right after seeing Taemin too!! Onew is lowkey my favorite member of SHINee – yes I love Taemin so much but there is something so magical about Onew’s vocals. I was so anxious about getting decent tickets for this that I opened a CITI credit card so that I could do the CITI Ticketmaster presale like a freaking unhinged kpopper. If I was going alone, I would have had better luck but I still managed to snag Henry and myself two seats in the second row of the balcony so I was content with that. After being on the floor for Taemin’s theater show, I was set on getting balcony seats for this one!

Doors had opened by the time we found our way to back of the line, but there was only one entrance I guess so only small groups were being let in at a time. The people around us in line were so nice though so it was a pleasant wait. The girl in front of us was handing out banners and pouches that held a little flashing LED ball with instructions to remove the little plastic tag during Onew’s performance of “Winner.” She was farther up in line passing them out and her mom, who was standing two people ahead of us, could sense my manic “OH PLZ, ME ME ME” anxiety so she nodded toward me and her daughter came over and banner’d me up :)

Henry declined as usual. Ugh. Not much of a Jjinggu.

(Onew’s fan name! I actually wasn’t sure if he had one but when Megan decided she wanted to stan him, she asked me and I was like, “………you know, I’m not sure!” Then I saw it mentioned on Reddit and almost died because it’s such a cute name. Onew’s real name is Jinki, and the word for “friends” in Korean is CHINGU which you would KNOW of you pay attention to my free teachings here on OH HONESTLY, ERIN DOT COM. A double j is the equivalent of the “ch” sound so…Jjinggus is a mash-up of his name and chingu – Jinki’s friends!)

Henry was commenting on the fact that it was a “strange crowd” meaning notsomuch that it was a collection of strange people, but moreso that there were a LOT of people in line who wouldn’t necessarily be pegged as a Kpop stan. Lots of older (and I mean like even older than Henry) people but it makes sense because SHINee is second gen, so they do have lots of senior fans at this point.

I just had a really good feeling about this, is all I mean to say.

!!!!!!!

OK, Fillmore! I want to say right off the bat that the staff was exceptional and the theater itself was a dream. I was so excited for Onew – while he definitely performs in much larger venues throughout Asia, I really knew he would shine here at the Fillmore.

We were in our seats by 6:30ish, I’d say, which was great until I noticed that the show didn’t start until 7:30. People-watching time! There were mostly older women in the row in front of us – one of them looked to be in her early 70s and she was fucking SHAKING IT throughout nearly the whole show so props to her, living her best golden age! There is just something so inspiring about seeing people of an older generation lose their minds at a concert. I hate to admit this, but younger Erin would have FOR SURE mocked this display and then ran home to post all catty-like about it in her offensive and problematic LiveJournal, but adult Erin understands the true rarity of this type of joy and hopes that she too still experiences this kind of music-related happiness in her elder years.

I guess that is GROWING UP.

Henry tries so hard to be like me so he had to run and grab an IPA before the show started. I had had ENOUGH beer (like, the equivalent of two throughout the entire day!) but I was happy to steal some sips from his can. I am definitely not the type of person who needs to drink at a concert.

MANSPREADING. I took this and sent it to Chooch, who was sick in Philly that weekend but not sick enough to care to live vicariously through us.

And then at 7:30PM, it was Onew Time! He apologized for not having a band or dancers, but yo – if anyone can and SHOULD own a stage on his own, it’s Onew. His stage presence and vocals were beyond, next level, on point, divo coded. Pick one! The vibes were immaculate, as they say.

I knew immediately that this was going to be a night I’ll never forget. When I first REALLY started paying attention to Kpop, I remember looking to see if any of the groups ever toured here because please remember that prior to this, I was an emo girlie, a Sad Boy Music groupie, going to cheap shows at tiny venues so I had NO idea if this stuff was popular here in the States. It was apparently still pretty niche back then but JUST popular enough that some of the bigger groups in Korea were selling out arenas here in the States. I remember getting excited when I saw that SHINee was coming here soon (I feel like this was winter of 2017) so I looked it up and saw that none of the shows were near Pgh and they were all sold-out anyway, lol. That was the last time SHINee was in the States. At the end of that year, Jonghyun took his life, leaving them as a 4-member group and they never came back to the US again.

I am still so scarred by this, still cry over Jonghyun, still think of him heavily on the anniversary of his passing, still keep a framed picture of him on my bedroom wall in reverie.

Kpop may seem like “tone deaf bubblegum bullshit” to some, but it is so special to me and some of these singers have my whole heart. Onew is one of them. So, being a Shawol and missing the chance to see SHINee in their prime, I feel very grateful that I was able to see Taemin AND Onew in the same year!

Sorry, these pictures are basically screenshots from my videos so they are shitty quality, but I need to always remember how precious he looked on this night!

OK, I try not to record too much, but I recorded this full song because it’s one of my favorites and it’s also the exact song that got Megan to stan him so I wanted to send it to her. His vocals are so angelic!! He was so perfect all night. Even Henry said he wasn’t bored during the ballads and that’s usually where singers lose his attention. I kept sneaking peeks at him and he seemed to be focused the whole time!  I mean, he wasn’t moving or emoting, but his eyes were opened and directed at the stage. That’s a big deal.

And “Beat Drum”!!

And “Yay”!

For his encore, he came out with a basket of balls and was sad that he his aim wasn’t powerful enough to get them up to the balcony from the stage (I understood this without having to rely on the translator he had with him! My contextual Korean is semi-decent as long as no one asks me to repeat it back word for word) so he came down off the stage and walked closer to the balcony – I was so nervous that someone was going to fall over because people were clotheslining themselves along the edge, trying to get closer so they could catch one of his balls. I’m not sure what was inside but NCT127 does this too at their concerts – the last one I went to, someone at the end of my row, like 3 people down from me, caught one.

So, that was entertaining.

I think the ONLY annoying thing of the whole night was the girl in front of me who appeared to be anywhere from 15 to 20, I truly couldn’t tell, who was with some broad that looked much older but not her mother? I didn’t get mother-daughter vibes from these two, but the older one had opera glasses with her and the younger one kept leaning back into my sightline so that she could record the older one dancing or singing or fake-crying, I have no idea what was going on but I was like, “CAN YOU HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS PLEASE, STAY IN YOUR BOUNDARIES.” It only happened a view times but it was so annoying because every time, she blocked my whole view with her idiot head.

The two girls next to me were both singles. The one right next to me recorded the whole entire show, no stopping. Henry’s big oaf body ruined her video though because he got up once in between songs when Onew was talking because he wanted to grab a shirt for me rather than waiting in line after the show. I admit that I do break my “only short clips” rule depending on the concert and will sometimes record the entire song if it’s a BIG FAVE of mine, like something that goes on the perpetual playlist, but I can’t fathom having the endurance or lack of self-consciousness to blatantly hold up my phone through an entire concert. She didn’t seem to be blocking anyone’s view so…cool I guess.

SETLIST:

1. Focus
2. Shape of My Heart
3. O (Circle)
4. Boy
5. Dice
6. Beat Drum
7. Graduation
8. Love Phobia
9. All Day
10. Always
11. Illusion
12. MAD
13. Starry Night (acapella snippet where he said that in Korea, this is the song on the setlist where the fans sing with him but he took it off the US set list. He was like, “Do you want to try to sing some of it together?” and then it all fell apart because only some of the crowd could sing the Korean parts so Onew laughed and said, “Yeah, I think it was a good idea that I took  this off the list” and it was so genuinely funny I love him so fucking much)
14. In the Whale – !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVES AND I DID NOT THINK WE WOULD BE HEARING THIS THAT NIGHT!!!!!!
15. Maestro
16. Yay
17. Winner

ENCORE

1. Hola!
2. Conversation
3. Promise You

Oh, what a beautiful night. Even Henry taking this terrible picture of me couldn’t ruin the vibe.

Then we stopped at a gas station for snacks and bev – Henry the Beer Monster got ANOTHER beer to take back to the hotel and then later saw a WARNING NOTICE that Michigan Law prohibits alcohol from being brought into a hotel, for some reason? “Oh well,” he shrugged, and continued drinking it as the ubiquitous “Friends” reruns played on the TV in the background. Wow, what a fucking rebel.

Anyway, this is a mirror selfie from the lobby of the hotel.

The show was over pretty early (by 9:30!) I guess because since it was just Onew and he didn’t have wardrobe changes, there was no need for the typical VCRs that happen at other Kpop concerts, where the artists leave the stage and you watch some recorded content until they return in new outfits and the stage set is swapped out. This was just Onew churning out song after song on his own and it was EXCEPTIONAL.

On the drive home the next day, I blurted out, “I have to admit something to you and it’s something that I have been thinking about heavily.” Henry looked v. concerned.

“I think I liked Onew’s concert better than Taemin’s,” I said all in one quick mashed-up sentence.

Henry considered this and then said, “Yeah, I can see that.”

Look. Brenda, listen to me before you start running your mouth, OK? It’s just that Taemin is A PERFORMER. He’s a DANCER. He brings dancers with him and has costume changes and elaborate stages. But in America, he performed at small theaters where he was contained to tiny stages and it just really stifled him. Yes, of course he was still fabulous and of course I was ecstatic to have gotten tickets to see him. But it’s just that I know he does HUGE concerts in Asia and this just felt like it did him no justice.

But Onew is a SINGER. He is known for his distinct vocals and incredible singing ability. He performs in musicals, he acts, he singer opera. This man does not need bell and whistles – just a stage, a mic, and his voice. He was incredible and kept me captivated to the end. I felt absolutely OBSESSED by the time we walked out of the theater, and we listened to him the whole way home the next day in the car. I mean, I obviously already loved him so much that I named our car after him (“You did?” Henry recently said, and I was like THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN, I EVEN BLOGGED ABOUT IT THE DAY WE BROUGHT THE CAR HOME?!??“) but it’s on another level now.

Oh, I also want to add that a few years ago, Onew went on a suspicious “hiatus” right after SHINee had a comeback, so they did all of their music show performances and concerts as a three-piece. He looked REALLY gaunt and unhealthy, and then just kind of went off the grid for about a year to the point where I was like, “HENRY CALL SM ENTERTAINMENT AND TELL THEM THAT YOU’RE A CONCERNED KPOP DAD AND DEMAND TO KNOW IF HE’S OK?!” and Henry was like, “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” But in all seriousness, it was so concerning and handled very poorly by SM (not shocking). Eventually, he made a vague post on IG and we were all so relieved that he was still alive. Shortly after, it was announced that he (and soon after, Taemin) had decided to not renew his contract with SM and signed with Griffin, who has been taking such great care of him. He has been releasing SO MUCH music and then got to come to the US for a tour! Same with Taemin. SM would never send them here. Onew looks so happy and healthy, and as a true fan, that is what you love to see.

Stan Onew!!

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I’m a big advocate of post-meal walk-abouts, constitutionals, digestive jaunts – whatever you want to call it. I like to walk after eating. Especially after having been in the car for 4 hours. So, after our so-so Batch Brewing lunch, Henry suggested the Detroit River Walk, as if I would ever say no to that. Right away, we saw a carousel, but it was closed. :(

I begged him to please wear the BooSeokSoon hat that I got him for Christmas, which he has worn NOT ONCE, and he was a big baby about it because he’s ashamed of his Kpop heritage, I guess. Finally, he agreed but said the moment I started being mean to him, it was going in the river. LOL ok, sure, Captain M.T.Threat.  I love this hat so much! I specifically got in a color other than black because ALL OF HIS HATS ARE BLACK, so now he uses the “it doesn’t match anything” excuse. Looks pretty complementary against his burnt orange shirt, if you ask me.

In case you care, BooSeokSoon (a/k/a BSS, a/k/a the gag trio) is a sub-unit of the Kpop group Seventeen. They actually started out as a joke but the fans loved the combo so much that they’re a legit sub-unit now with albums and music videos, and we love them in this house.

Boo = Boo Seungkwan

Seok = Lee Seokmin (his Seventeen stage name is Dokyeom / DK)

Soon = Kwon Soonyoung (his Seventeen stage name is Hoshi)

Here’s a compilation of clips from when they got to hang out with THE LEGENDARY G-DRAGON recently, and it made my Carat/VIP heart swell to abnormal, undocumented sizes.

OK now that I got that out of my system, here are more pictures of the RIVER WALK which is right across from Canada! (Windsor, I believe? I think that is what Jessi told us the next at breakfast.)

Some buildings.

Some mural.

For as many times as we have been to Michigan in general, visiting Bill & Jessi, going to concerts, etc., this was the most amount of time we have spent *in* Detroit. I really want to spend more time there sometime and maybe GO ON THIS BOAT??? It looked so cool. I love river stuff.

Henry is so annoying. BUT ALSO DOESN’T THAT HAT MATCH WELL WITH HIS SHIRT??? I am a big color theory expert.

Then we joined that pro-Canada, Fuck Trump rally that I previously posted about from our hotel room last Saturday night. 

I don’t know what this pose is and I look like trash, but I’m leaving it here though because of Canada <3 looming behind me like the big, beautiful sovereign country it is.

After this, we drove about 20 minutes out of the city to check into our hotel, a Hampton Inn near the Detroit airport, specifically in Romulus. The first time we stayed in this area, I made a joke about how maybe the next time, we could stay in Remus, but it bombed, as Biblical jokes usually do.

This particular Hampton was actually a pretty decent hotel, good job, Henry. It was nearly 4PM by this point, and doors opened at 6PM for the Onew concert so I was in a big hurry to get back downtown and find real food before that, since our lunch was more of a snack than anything else. I didn’t want to be Big Hungry after the concert and needed to eat something sustainable. When you’re an old person, you start pre-planning the types of meals you need to have based on the events you’ll be attending later. Love this for me.

I started screaming when we came up on the Fillmore!!

Little did we know that not only was a baseball game JUST letting out, but it was a double-header so it was a chaotic flux of crowds coming and going. Luckily, we pre-paid for a parking spot in a lot right between the baseball stadium and the Fillmore, so we had that going for us. However, it made it miserable trying to find a place to eat because all of the people leaving the game had teh same idea. I am now super-familiar with three or four blocks of downtown Detroit and it’s much nicer than Pittsburgh, BTW – so lively and lots of cool & fancy shops. Pittsburgh could never. Detroit definitely does not live up to the bad rap it gets.

The original place we were going to eat was Detroit Beer Co. but there was a wait of course, so we kept walking in circles, with no back-up plan, me getting hangrier and hangrier. AND it was kind of chilly and I didn’t have a jacket so I was Mrs. Miz about that too. Then I got very mad because some older man walked by us and he was also complaining about the cold, so his wife goes, “Oh, it’s not that cold. Look, THAT guy is wearing shorts!” and gestured bigly toward Henry. Henry of course gloated about this and that did NOTHING to boost my morale.

We were going to go this fast-food looking place called Mister Dips in a super trendy alley. We were actually standing in line to order when my stomach started to preemptively cramp up on me – the thought of eating an Impossible Burger and then going to a (seated!) concert was making me have hives. In the end, I decided to leave and find something else, but I am keeping this place in mind for the next visit because it looked totally my style!

At the very least, I want one of their shakes!

I thought I did a pretty good job not “throwing a fit,” but I was definitely grumpy. We even went back to the parking lot and sat in the car for a bit before deciding to try Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti which is right next to the Fillmore. There’s a walk-up window so we were going to do that and just eat in the car like a pair of hungry, de-homed rats, until we realized that the line we thought was for the Onew concert was actually for the walk-up window. (Oh don’t worry, the Onew line was also long, but it was on the OTHER side of the Fillmore.)

We ended up roaming around again and this time, the Detroit Beer Co has no one waiting in the entrance! We got a table almost immediately and I silently thanked the good Onew for sprinkling the town with his Jinki magic dust.

I was so happy and content. I ordered vegan pasta which was light and just the right amount of filling. And I had this seriously delicious IPA from actually some other brewery, not Detroit Beer haha. It was M-43 N.E. from Old Nation Brewing Co. and now I would like to go visit their establishment sometime!

I really liked the vibe of this place. We were seated by a busboy who reminded me of a younger, nerdier version of Henry’s son Robbie. He was really nice and I felt so bad for him when these two SPORTS DUDES came in, sat at the table behind me, and asked him to PUT THE BASKETBALL GAME ON. The remote / cable / TV in general was really giving this kid a tough time and I sat there helplessly watching him. The TV was right behind Henry, who was in the bathroom, so it was just me and this kid locked into an awkward scene together while the SPORTS GUYS sat behind me and talked SUPER LOUDLY about their SPORTS KNOWLEDGE even though we were the only two tables in this corner – there was no one even remotely within ear shot for them to be trying to impress. I hate white men so much, truly I do. I glanced over my shoulder a few times and they looked just as I had imagined – a few years out of college but still hanging on to the glory years, bearded, big outdoor voices for no reason. The one – the loudest – kept  talking about when he was in Turkey.

WHEN I WAS IN TURKEY.

MY TURKISH FRIEND IN TURKEY.

I know, everyone reading this is like, “OK Erin but replace TURKEY with KOREA—” but I would just like to note here that at least I use my indoor voice when I am constantly reminding everyone around me that HEY GUYS REMEMBER HOW I WENT TO KOREA.

Been a while since we were treated to a COLESLAW MASTICATION shot. I wish I had more of these so I could make a “60 Photos of Henry Slawin’ Down” commemorative book for his upcoming 60th birthday. :(

Henry also ordered a beer as an afterthought, and it took our server (who was great if not slightly flustered) an extremely long time to bring it, and I was doing the big foot-tapping song & dance because it was almost 6PM and I wanted to leave and get in line for the concert. She finally brought it over around 5:50 and I was trying to make him chug it.

“This is not chuggable!” he borked, so I tried it and it immediately burnt the tip of my tongue which is probably a good indication that Henry had the right call there. I went back for another sip and I actually liked it so I kept stealing more sips to “help him.”

Overall, a decent place for pre-concert food and drinks! The pasta was very light and flavorful (and it had artichokes, which I love in pasta when it’s done right) and did not lay in my belly like a load of bricks so I was able to comfortably enjoy Onew and his heavenly vocals. (That will of course be another post!)

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