Censorship 101.

I arrived at the Lady Gaga concert last Friday night...

... along with around 60,000 other Seoul residents at Jamsil Olympic Stadium...

I drew a Gaga logo t-shirt ... so expected...

...but it is nearly impossible to keep up with all of those nutty die-hard Gaga fans...

At the last moment I picked up some hair extensions... from 동대문...

(...I felt like it was 1999...and I was 15 all over again...)

...but I am still not really clear about the best way to insert them... (*help*)

I was slightly surprised that 60,000 people arrived to see a foreign artist in Seoul...

 ...as K-pop is the most popular music in South Korea...

...and there was a lot of controversy and negative publicity leading up to Lady Gaga's performance...

The Korean government was pressured by the various Christian groups in Seoul, and as a result of this...

... the government decided to place an age-limit of 18 years and over for the show...

This meant that everyone attending the show had to line up at an 'Adult certification' booth... *felt like I was lining up for an exam...*

...where you had to prove that we were over 18, and then get an armband for entry...

This was quite ridiculous...

...some people were clearly over 45 and had to show their ID...

...to enter a pop concert ?!? ....

...It suddenly felt like we were North of the Border...

The banning of Lady Gaga's concert for minors was a big issue for a whole month leading up to the event...

... this music censorship issue makes South Korea look more like China...

The KOREA TIMES front page last week;

Even Singapore (usually tight on foreign content) has let Gaga organize her tour without any age limits on attendees...

So after we arrived,

...we had to wait 4 WHOLE HOURS for the show to start...

... it was like we were waiting in the airport for our flight...

...so we ate Bento boxes for dinner...

I noticed across from us that there are female-only parking spaces arround Olympic stadium... *unique*

...I don't think I've ever seen that before...

While waiting for the show to start...

...I sat and stared at all the interesting kinds of people that were entering the stadium for the concert...

The costumes for Lady Gaga's Born this Way tour were designed by Giorgio Armani...

(here are some early sketches of the tour costumes...);

I felt like the costumes were channelling the Alien movie franchise...

...am I being too literal here? 

...The opening head dress (after the horse-entry) looked exactly like *that alien* from the 80s...

I thought that Armani seemed like an odd choice for a Lady Gaga tour...

...I associate Armani with old-man-suits...

...but I thought overall the costumes were pretty varied...

Here are a few instagram photos I took...

(they are blurry!  Apologies!!)

(...we were told by security that we were not supposed to take photos) ...I think I am breaking every intellectual property law by posting these right now...please don't sue, Gaga...

Computer generated Gaga-futuristic-hologram- face;

On a conveyor belt... Alien-inspired?

Ram-head mask... Bad Romance... ;

Statue of Liberty... Love Game;

Return of the Meat dress... a whole meat-themed set... ;

Gun bra... Alejandro;

Moroccan-inspired robe...(?)/gold-beaded underwear;

...Edge of Glory encore... ;

The stage setup was a huge castle with various levels and passages that kept opening and closing and changing shape;

I don't think I attended the Lady Gaga concert because I am necessarily a big fan...

...I have always supported K-pop (that is one of the main reasons I started learning Korean 4 years ago...)...

...but with that in mind... 

...I still strongly believe that foreign literature and foreign music content should not be filtered too much by Korean Christians...