u/milkjellyfish

I just wanted to come on here to let everyone know that if you're considering selling your tickets, since the rest of the tour will likely be OT3, I would reconsider. When the news about Winter's health came out the morning of the Dallas concert, I was absolutely devastated and tempted to sell my tickets, but in the end I went anyway because I still wanted to support the remaining 3 girls - I 100% would've rolled in my grave if my floor tickets sold to some Karina/Ningning/Giselle akgae lol.

As someone who's seen them on every tour since debut, they still did a phenomenal job without Winter. It took them a song or two to get into the groove, but once they did, they kept that hype going effortlessly and went into hit after hit without many ments. MYs are really the best fandom too, as we kept singing Winter's parts and cheering for her when she showed up on the VCR! The concert was noticeably shorter without Saddle Up and Serenade, but the girls switched off on covering her parts, which was fun to see in its own way. Now that I've had some time to process it, I really, really do miss Winter, especially since we missed out on the chance to see Saddle Up in Texas of all places. I hope they reconsider switching up the solos and duets so frequently and bring both songs back sooner rather than later.

If you attended, how did you find the Dallas concert?

P.S. I already loved all four of them and still do, but Giselle was the best I've ever seen her. She was very energetic and vibrant the entire show!

Edit to say that, obviously, Winter's health comes first, and I wish her a safe recovery. Honestly, I hope that she does miss out on the rest of the tour because she needs to fly home and rest. That tour schedule is already brutal when you're healthy and able, much less when you have shingles.

It is so insane to me that K-pop still actively chooses to debut so many minors. I know it's mostly so that the sleazy executives obsessed with youth can mold and manipulate these kids into whatever they want them to be, but it has been proven time and time again that this can backfire. I get that, for boys, they want to debut them young enough to give them a chance at a decent run before mandatory conscription. Perhaps that's the only valid reason, but it's still no excuse to debut anyone younger than 19/20 when they could wrap up a 7-year contract before having to enlist.

I know this topic is discussed to death, but I also want to highlight that consumers/fans need to do a better job of putting their money where their mouth is and keep supporting "older" acts as much as they can. I'd die to see a girl group debut with members aged 21-28; it would be such a game-changing move in the current K-pop landscape that's still dominated largely by 4th gen acts (and even 2nd and 3rd gen if you look at IOI, Big Bang, Soyeon, Hwasa, Hyorisoo, IU, etc), which could be a step in the right direction considering most of 4th gen are only now in their early-mid 20s.

I mean this both positively and negatively.

During Sixteen, Momo was my bias, and I damn near cried when she was announced as part of TWICE lol. My pick during Produce 101 was Chungha, and during Produce 48 it was Yena - I feel like most of my survival show picks ended up debuting, such as Hanbin, Boeun, Xiaoting, etc. Also, I knew before their debut that RESCENE would get extremely famous. I felt this way especially about Zena, who I knew as a cover dancer. Sometimes people just have that spark in their eyes, and she had star quality even before her debut.

On the other hand, I always felt like Seungri (formerly of Big Bang) was kind of sleazy and gave me the ick long before the Burning Sun scandal even happened. For NewJeans, I felt quite neutral toward the girls themselves and their music, but I always felt an aversion to the group simply because of the association with Min Heejin. Honorable mention since he's not an idol, but I stopped watching Queen of Tears less than 10 minutes into the first episode because I could NOT stand Kim Soohyun for whatever reason lmao.

Anyone else have stories like this?

I could tell their hearts weren't in it as much at the conclusion of their contracts, but I don't know why they couldn't have switched comebacks to once a year and kept their group contract instead of going on a full hiatus in order to pursue their solo careers, considering most of them aren't really doing much and haven't been for the past 1.5 years. Arguably, Siyeon is the busiest with Chrocktikal (Handong too, with promoting in China), but I feel like even she and UAU could manage having an OT7 comeback given that they're not on tour. They have so much to give as a group and so many ways to move up (working with other producers and creative teams, promoting in a newer generation K-pop landscape where being a senior act would get them more attention, possibly securing an awards show performance?) that it feels like a genuine waste seeing so little activity from them. Especially since the Korean public is right now all about older songs coming back up the charts, I really hope their 10th anniversary pushes them to make a comeback. Truly, K-pop is not the same without them.

I don't know how people can see their unprecedented levels of virality, chart success, and market influence and dismiss them so easily, when groups that have been around for 10+ years can only dream of what RESCENE has achieved in a matter of months. I really hope their next album is an international hit so people can stop dangling the "only Korea knows who they are" over REMINEs' heads.

5/29 (Friday): Submitted application + received email confirming application
6/1 (Monday): Received email that application status was "In Process"; this change was reflected on the status checker website
6/4 (Thursday): Status checker updated to "Shipped", noting that they had shipped it on 6/3, but I did not receive an email. However, my Informed Delivery did show that I had a passport package coming with an estimated delivery date of 6/8
6/5 (Friday): Passport delivered

Honestly, it's insane that it was this quick, especially since I expected at least 10 days given the summer. I wish visas were this speedy lol.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the original estimated date of delivery when I first submitted the application was 7/16.