CharaExpo USA 2019 trip report

Here come my expanded thoughts and experiences of CharaExpo USA 2019, going into more detail (both general and personal) than my twitter thread of events.

Once CharaExpo was confirmed for 2019, I mentally committed to going, even though at the time I didn't have a job. Once I was employed again, I bought my tickets and hotel, and successfully bargained for the flights to be a birthday/Christmas present from my mom. In the months leading up to the event, the con had a good social media hype presence, tweeting out the list of guests, events, and merch booths. Actual schedule came decently early enough, but then had a sudden shuffle of autograph events a few days before the convention. And then also news dropped that the D4DJ and Popipa stages would be ticketed events, making people have to pick between those two and Roselia/RAS on their respective days. They also notified that entry line wouldn't start until 5am and lining up before would run risk of being confronted or ticketed by security or police.

But we all know people don't listen.


Day 1
Thanks to weather and traffic it took an hour to get from SNA to my hotel a block-ish away from the convention center, so I settled in sometime around 4pm. This was about when some brave soul started the line camp at the convention center.

By a bit after 7pm when I walked by after dinner at IHOP, there were 25 people in line, threats of people calling the cops on twitter, and burner accounts biting back at the threats. Between 9 and 10pm, when The Line had grown to around 50-75 people, I was considering heading back down and accepting fate to have to camp for anything good, but the first security scatter happened around 10pm. Taking this as a sign, I set an alarm for two hours and went to sleep.

Midnight, The Line was over 100 people and broken up again. People took to camping at the Marriott and Hilton hotel lobbies until things looked clear and they'd head back outside. Set my alarm for another two hours. 2am, same as midnight but more people. Figured this would be it, set an alarm for an hour to catch a bit more sleep before getting ready. By the time I got up at 3am, The Line had evolved into The Blob, so I rushed to get ready and was out of my hotel around 4am.

The Blob, probably around 300-400 people, got scattered again right when I arrived. I ran into a discord friend and his group and stuck with them as we decided to camp the Hilton lobby to warm up and regroup. However, even though the original Blob had scattered, enough new bodies were arriving to the area that a new Blob was forming, and by 4:30 security had more or less given up on clearing the area. We headed back out at this point.

This is when security made a big mistake - when dealing with a crowd you never tell them to just "go" do something. Because "go" means "run". And when they told us to "go" form a line, a near stampede started. Our group was broken up despite trying to hold onto each other due to being run into. Multiple people lost shoes, umbrellas, even a phone and car keys. There were at least five people who tripped, got scraped up, and/or nearly got trampled. The Line that devolved from The Blob stretched from the back entrance all the way around the front plaza, and then gods know how long through there. I was under the sign for entrance C with two from the original group I was with. It started raining so umbrellas came out (sorry to the two I splashed when I went to take my umbrella down but changed my mind and reopened it too low!), but about 10 minutes after that started they started filing us into the convention center.

We were herded into the far side of hall D where the con was behind held, and got our first glimpse of the setup. I think a lot of us were surprised that the con didn't take up the entire hall, instead being maybe slightly bigger than the space it took up in hall B last year. Some generic linecon style waiting took place (a thing that happened here was a few of us ladies noticed the women's bathrooms weren't open and someone had to tell staff to open them. Staff apparently responded "well we'll try but you can just use the men's room if you really need to." Not everyone feels safe doing that!), until about 8am when they started moving the line through registration and bag check.

This was the second point of how not to control a crowd, this time hitting the "if there is no control, a line will form into a blob". The line had to pivot to the registration tables to get tickets scanned, wristbands attached, and swagbags given, and because there were no lanes at the tables, people shoved and pushed forward trying to get their stuff done. Staff was also not really trained well, as some people didn't get a Sunday physical ticket after their two-day online ticket was scanned, some got the wrong wristband (separate colors for general admission and TCG tourney players), and others didn't get swagbags (some staff handed them over, some reminded you to grab one, others did nothing). Bag check was the usual where some checkers were more thorough than others, same with the wand scanners. Then it was back to waiting in line, a few lanes over from the entry line. I’d been separated entirely from my original group at this point, but found some other people from discord to chat with.

A not previously announced change to how things were being handled happened a bit after this - timed entry tickets for the main merch booth were handed out to the line. This is a normal thing for events in Japan, and AX tried it out this year for Aqours merch. It's a good system for crowd control...if done correctly. In this case, people with later merch times, like 11am or later, couldn't leave the con center and come back later. Well maybe they could, but staff was unhelpful and unsure, so everyone just waited to be allowed into the con space proper.

Once the con opened at 9am, the line slowly moved towards the entry point...and then once it reached there, at least for my section, turned around and went back into the holding zone where staff was lining up 10am merch tickets. Except I and others around me had 10:30am tickets, which staff said they wouldn't be lining up for until it was actually that time. This is about when I was getting a little fed up with the mismanagement and just wanted to get into the con space to look around. I asked where to enter considering we'd been directed away from the entry point. Staff didn't know. I asked if we could cut through the TCG area. One staff said no, another said yes, so our group was split. Then the staff said no again, and that's about when two con coordinators (aka actual Bushiroad staff, one being Japanese) came over and asked what was up. I told them about just wanting to enter the con area and i had a wristband and a later merch ticket, and they were fine with me and my buddy walking in! Of course this was all for nothing as I read on discord a minute later that 10:30 merch tickets were starting to be lined up, so back to the holding area we went.

While waiting we could hear Roselia on the main stage doing a very late sound check for the live that night, and got some setlist spoilers. People who'd been able to get in and we're sitting at the main stage waiting for the opening ceremony got to kinda see them walking about and testing stuff out. Also, merch ticket times were running late - at 11am my 10:30am line had barely moved. By this time, Roselia live tickets were very low and Hinata Sato signkai tickets were gone. However, while waiting, I got info on someone selling a Roselia ticket...it ended up being a good price so I took it. I'm sorry for promoting scalping ;3;

And then the great Discord outage happened. Essentially the easiest method of communication for everyone in my various groups was completely gone. The various Bandori discords I'm in, along with the Revue Starlight discord, had been the best methods of communication for event shenanigans. I didn't have contact info for any buddies so I was basically on my own (which is how I usually do cons BUT IT STILL SUCKED). I forget when I got to the merch booth area, but around 11:30 is when I got to the front of the booth. When I entered I picked up the Roselia and RAS pixel tees, along with the special RAS can badges and a D4DJ Rondo light up bangle since stock looked low on both and I wanted them. I checked out, got my two exchange tickets and three lottery tickets, went through the exchange line and was able to get tickets to Natsume's signkai (the one I was aiming for) and the D4DJ live stage. It took another half hour (around 12:30) for all tickets to be sold out.

The "gara gara lottery" was the same table as the event ticket exchange so I popped over there to roll my tickets. My first two were white, the consolation prize of Bandori character sheet stickers, but my third and final ball was dark blue. The final dark blue, in fact. I won an illustration board with Megu Sakuragawa's autograph (not printed, a legit sign) on it! The staffer asked me since hers was the only one left if it was ok and I was like "of course it is!" And then I kinda made some loud excited noises when walking away lol.

I remembered the Vanguard talk panel was in progress so I made my way to the main stage and hung out in the back area even though there were seats left. I arrived just in time for the part I cared about, Aina Aiba singing the lead track of her new single "Lead the Way". And it was good! I hadn't really listened to the song beforehand other than a preview I think. I just like seeing Aiai lol. After that was done I wandered the con floor taking pictures of booths and displays. One of my favorites was the wall of messages for the event from the 25 seiyuu who are in Bandori Girls Band Party.

The first main stage event that I actually went to sit at was the Bandori talk panel featuring Aimi, Sae Otsuka, and three staff who worked on the anime and other bits of the franchise. This was really interesting since Aimi and Saechi were learning things along with the audience from the animation staff about how stuff was done. They played the scene from S2 where Tae writes Returns and then sings it while they commentated on things in the scene, like how each character was animated by a different person and how the key is different in this solo version of the song. Saechi almost cried a little cause it's probably the most important scene for her character in that season and is very touching lol. The two seiyuu even did some fun adlibbing, a scene about them suddenly appearing here so it must be a teleport (I think it's based on other live event skits for when they go places, they teleport)

Following that it was about time to line up for Natsume's signkai, though before heading over I stopped to chat to iviachupichu who offered me his Izumi Kitta signkai ticket since he'd met her last year. I took him up on the offer and headed over to the autograph area. Doing the two sessions since they were back to back meant I’d miss the Bandori cosplay contest, but I did run into feathers on the way over and wished her luck (I think, I forget what I said exactly when we spoke...anyway, her group ended up wining). At Natsume's signkai, she noticed the can badges of her and MASKING I had pinned to my hoodie and excitedly thanked me. [removed sentence]. After taking the shikishi board I waved so that my RAS image colored nails were visible and I hoped she noticed them.

I hopped right over to Izusama's line  and watched some wrestling while waiting. It was entertaining, but a bit annoying that the loud ring area was right next to the autograph area. I got lucky that no music was playing when it was my turn at any signkai I went to, but others weren't so lucky. For my turn with Izusama, I went full English since she's been overseas (first in the UK and now in the US) studying. I said I really enjoyed her photos of her time overseas and she smiled and asked if I followed her Instagram, which I said yes to. Then I decided to take the chance, and also thanked her for supporting yuri manga. She paused and smiled again and asked if I was LGBT, which I also replied yes to. She looked happy and thanked me again, and that made this interaction became my favorite of the entire event.

AND THEN because Saturday was a super full schedule of stuff, I went back to the main stage for the D4DJ talk and mini live. Aimi and Reo Kurachi from Peaky P-Key, and Haruki Iwata and Hinata Sato from Photon Maiden were the guests for this event and they were dressed in their character outfits. Haruchan's skirt was a bit on the short side and they used like, barstool style chairs for this event, so when she sat down she slowly lowered the chair as far as it'd go XD Knowing about the series already as a whole, the talk portion didn't have any interesting new information. Best part was when they were going over the different groups in the series, they paused at Rondo to mention how Saechi is in it and went through the other personalities and I and the guy next to me both gave a big cheer for Tsunko lol. They played the videos that are on YouTube of Peaky P-Key and Photon Maiden performances - kinda wish they'd played bits of the others since Peaky P-key would perform the song in the video later anyway. The talk portion ended with a round up of upcoming events and final words from the guests (Hiichan did her "do you know my name? Say Hiichan!" chant that I love), and after a short break the mini live with Aimi and Reo began.

I didn't expect to have that much fun with the two songs! Denran Countdown has a super cool countdown dance followed by an arm movement that...kinda ends with your hand on top of your head like a chicken comb and it's AWESOME.  Let’s do the ‘Big-Bang!’ also has a fun dance where you do a wave downwards and then spin your arms above your head. I finally understood what people who have been to the lives meant when they said penlights aren't necessary. Actually felt a bit FOMO that I can't make the third live in January now that I've seen how fun these songs can be.

SOMETIME during the day, I forget when, but the CharaExpo USA twitter announced a new method of entry would be used for Day 2, where anyone arriving at 5:30 would be put into a "random queue" to prevent overnight lining, and anyone coming after the queue was set would be put behind the early comers. There was much discussion as to what this method even meant as it was very vague, so we could really only wait until the second day to see how it would work.

I had debated going outside for some food between the end of D4DJ and the start of Roselia but ended up glad I just ate the rations I brought while chatting to people since con center staff closed the doors at 5:30pm trapping people outside! They said it was because bag check security had left. Word got through Bushiroad staff who opened the doors back up, but some people who didn't have tickets for Roselia weren't let back in by staff for some reason.

Roselia Live
This was really the first "huge event" of the convention. I was glad I got a seat because the standing area was PACKED, and I later heard security did the whole "told the crowd to go" thing which caused pushing again. My seat (seat numbers were printed on tickets) was four rows back on the left side, or the perfect position for optimal Yukki viewing. Background music started, everyone stood, and Roselia took their place on stage and immediately began the live.

Legendary - Not one of my favorites, but felt appropriate since it's a theme for the Vanguard anime. Kept hearing parts in English in my head since that version is meta on GBP EN. Only the third time it's been performed live!
ONENESS - A classic and always good for the second verse when Aiai is hanging all over Kudoharu.
LOUDER - Another classic. I think it was around here that I noticed Aiai was possibly having a bit of trouble with her in-ear monitors. I swear Roselia lives are cursed to have tech problems.
Ringing Bloom - The piano intro stunned me. I got FULL BODY CHILLS and teared up at Nonchan's first solo line. She's too amazing. Popped UOs at her second solo line near the end instead of the usual point of "when the last chorus starts"
R - Yukki's bass solo at the start is too strong. Was great to hear this "properly" after last year's four man version.
BRAVE JEWEL - Another all around solid Roselia song. Idk why I don't remember anything specific from it...
Determination Symphony - I've started to like this song more since I read the lyrics. Kudoharu's guitar solo after the second chorus is great.
PASSIONATE ANTHEM - Like Legendary, this was the third time they performed this. A powerful song, though a bit is lost in the rap portion with only Yukki and Kudoharu doing vocals.
Passionate Starmine - Love this one for Meguchi's solo lines.
FIRE BIRD - Aiai's two spoken lines in this song are great and no one screamed TOO loud over them. Also love the solo portion near the end.

So...it was the Rausch und/and Craziness Day 2 setlist, minus BLACK SHOUT since that had been a 10-man version at encore. I also noticed at points that Meguchi looked a bit exhausted and had a cold pack on her head between nearly every song. She still put 110% energy into every song though! I forget at what points they did the MCs at, but one was the group asking the audience if they liked certain Japanese foods (I think kinda riffing upon last year where they talked about ramen and everyone went nuts) except for Nonchan who asked if everyone liked Roselia. The second MC was something about wishing for things they could have, and they all had silly answers. Best was Aiai who wanted Spider-Man web slingers, and she spent a full 30 seconds going "pshoo pshoo" hands and all while the others yelled for Yukina lol.

That was the last event of the day, so I shuffled out and met up with a couple discord buddies and we grabbed an Uber and had Unami Burger for dinner. Got back to my hotel around 9:45pm, nearly fell asleep in the bath, and went to bed, setting my alarm for 3:00am to check on line status.


Day 2
I woke up to my alarm expecting to hear about line madness, but got overall sadness instead. It was announced that due to "unforeseen issues in event organization" that Risa Tsumugi wouldn't be present at the event, confirming suspicions that some on discord had. Her signkai had been moved from day 1 to day 2 in the schedule shuffle and now her appearance was outright canceled due to whatever fuckery happened. I probably sound bitter saying it that way, but really I was (and still am) just really sad as I'd been planning to go to her signkai, and it set an overcast tone for the entire day. Plus I was sad FOR her. I laid back down for about 20 minutes after reading through the news and then finally heard that a line was forming that security wasn't scattering, so I rushed to get ready and head out.

I reached the line around 4:45, and not even 5 minutes later it had already stretched around the bend. A bit after 5am they started moving people inside. As you walked in staff handed you a ticket with a letter and a number on it, and you lined up in groups according to letter. At first people didn't line up numerically but staff made people order themselves after 20 minutes or so. At 6am, they announced they'd be drawing the letters at random to order up for the registration line. B group was powerful and got to go first, and then C, the group I was in, got to go. People who assumed A would go first were super disappointed because A ended up last. They reformed everyone into three lines in order to filter into registration...and once that started moving around 7:30 the system fell apart. The leftmost line filtered nicely to one table, but the other two (or three, I heard from someone that there were maybe four lines total at the very front) all filtered to another table and were therefore much slower. A couple people asked a JP staffer if they'd reorganize us by entry number once we got back into the hall but got a "no, sorry, can't be helped, good luck" as an answer. By the time I got through, people who were in D group were sitting around me. At least I got a 9:30 merch ticket, and was able to filter right back into the holding area when my part of the line got to the entrance (even though at first staff told us we could enter and then come back at 9:20 for the line, but also didn't know where we were supposed to exit to get to the area...)

I took a bit of time in the merch booth looking for stuff to buy since a lot was sold out, including the special RAS can badges and D4DJ bangles that I’d picked up the previous day. Spent another $90-ish for my two event tickets and three lottery tickets, went though the exchange line that still had everything available and picked up a RAS live ticket and a Yukki signkai ticket. For my lotto tickets, I donated them to a pool for a friend who was trying to get as many chances to win the light blue prize of a signed RAS illustration board. We were able to get 19...and won 19 consolation prizes, womp womp. However, he got a few more tickets later and miraculously won, picking a board signed by Tsumutsumu. It was great watching him nearly pass out on the floor, stumble over to us, and collapse into a pile of hugs.

Afterwards, I went to the main stage for the Revue Starlight talk panel featuring Aiai, Hiichan, and Haruchan. I fully expected this to be the same as last year where they went over what the franchise was and other basic info. Instead they totally skipped that kind of stuff. First was a set of preselected questions for the group, the best one being "what kind of card set would you like in game for your character?" with Aiai saying she wanted a super hero set. A lot of he audience did the Spider-Man web shoot pose at her, and after she made Iron Man and Captain America poses, she also did the Spider-Man one. Then there was a section where one guest had to guess a character the other two were acting out within five questions asked, and they got every one right. Hiichan had to guess "Santa Claus" to Haruchan pretending to sleep and Aiai sneaking up and leaving a present. She original thought it was a thief stealing something lol. Haruchan had to guess herself, and Hiichan and Aiai did a skit about her and Momoyo Koyama eating ramen. For Aiai, she had to guess Andrew the mole(?) from the Revue Starlight Re:Live game. Haruchan and Hiichan did some of his poses, and a couple of his annoying lines. One of Aiai's questions to the audience instead of the others, and she asked "do you like this person?" and everyone said NO and held up penlights in an X shape. But we were laughing so Aiai somehow figured it out based on that. Next was a short portion where they played VS Revue with two audience members. I think all three were supposed to play but ran out of time. It was fun to see their reactions to the two people's teams, and they also did some karaoke singing to Star Divine and Love's Wicked Pitch. The last portion was an audience quiz where if you answered right you got a prize (which was actually something I’d bought earlier). One question was "what is the color of Junna's socks?" and not a lot of people knew it though the person who was picked guessed correctly. The slide after had a pic of Junna and all three girls ran back to point at her socks saying it was suh an easy question . Then Aiai said "well actually I didn't know the answer either until now" and Haruchan chased her around the table! This was definitely the most fun of the talk events, I had a grin on my face the entire time.

I took a break here from the con and went back to the hotel to drop things off and also switch my itabag insert from CHU2 to Lisa, along with changing my shirt from the RAS pixel one to the Roselia one. I mentally chilled a bit before heading back over for Yukki's signkai.

In line I got to see the end of Aiai's signkai along with watching some of Kudoharu's. Ofc wrestling started up while I was waiting but like I said before, luckily no music was playing when it was my turn. When I walked up to the table, I wore my itabag on my front so Yukki could see it, and she loved it and thanked me. I told Yukki otsukare for the live and she thanked me again and otsukare'd me back. Met up afterwards with a friend who had been through Kudoharu's line and was nearly crying since she remembered him from the live (he'd been in the front row) and commented on him going ham. I went back to my hotel again at this point to drop off the shikishi, getting caught in a light shower on the way (never ran under an awning so fast in my life so I could wrap the shikishi in my spare shirt and fit it into my backpack lol). Switched back to my RAS shirt and CHU2 bag insert before heading back to the con center, stopping briefly to get a sammich from a food truck outside.

It was about time for the Popipa talk stage and acoustic live, so I found some discord buddies and squeezed into the standing area with them. The talk portion was pretty good, though a bit hard to hear parts over the Lumica booth playing music and the announcements for TCG stuff. Aimi and Saechi are called "Sexy 2" from some Popiraji joke a loooong time ago, and one part was them wondering if they should still use that name and asking the audience for name suggestions. They also mentioned that though others write the normal versions of the songs, they write the acoustic versions, with Saechj doing most of it since she's an "acoustic god". A few words of thanks, and then they set up for the live portion.

Time Lapse - This had been done at 5th Live and it was nice hearing it happen in front of me.
Our Christmas Song - TBH I forgot it was December and was a little confused when this one started. Thanks California weather! This was the first time this had been performed acoustically.
There was a MC here where they talked about how Christmas is coming up, and that something else is on Christmas too. Saechi broke into a rendition of Happy Birthday and the crowd joined in, since the something else is Aimi's birthday! Aimi thanked everyone for singing to her.
Kizuna Music - Another first time performance, this song is already full of feels but turning it comfy acoustic made it even more so. The first portion was slow before the second verse and chorus were a little livelier.
Star Beat - Also done at 5th Live, they played a backing track along to this one. Aimi asked the audience to sing along to the "la la la" part but some people took that to sing along to the whole song lol.

Overall a great experience. They don't really perform acoustic sections at major lives any more so this was a special treat. One of them mentioned they'd like to do a full length acoustic live someday too! I split away from the crowd to chat with some friends and wake up  a bit before the final event of the convention.

RAISE A SUILEN Live
Went in and took my seat and had a few people that knew me sitting around me. My seat was near dead center, four rows back, with a clear view of everything. Couldn't get my bag of UOs open before the start so I had someone behind me help and he struggled to get it open too until partway through the first song, oops XD. Now going into this, due to Tsumutsumu not being present, I didn't know what to expect.

Invincible Fighter - BARELY ANYONE SPUN TOWELS OR THEIR BLADES even tho Rikopin paused playing to spin her hand in the air to try to get people to copy. Usually Tsumu does that :(
A DECLARATION of ××× - Had an extended intro with Raychell having us do RAISE YOUR HANDS NOW and hyping up the crowd.
Hitori no Yoru - Their newest cover song, I didn't know it beforehand so dunno the quality of the cover. I remember thinking Raychell's vocals were super powerful here.
Don’t be afraid - A classic cover of the Glitter*Green song. Solid as usual.
Y.O.L.O!!!!! - Crowd loved this one cause yay Afterglow.
Takin’ my heart - This song was extra powerful feels due to how the lyrics are apparently about CHU2 herself, and it's a slower more somber song in sound. Unsure if it's part of the usual act (have only seen it at Heaven and Earth and my view wasn't as close as this was) but Reo looked like she was tearing up at a point.
UNSTOPPABLE - Holy shit Rikopin with that bending back move she does while playing. Also apparently during the point sequence Reo would normally do with Tsumu, she did it with the audience. I didn't notice oops, but I did notice the high kick she does near the end.
R・I・O・T - The background wubs and electronic sounds were very subdued, dunno if the backing track was quiet or just totally nonexistent. Made the song feel a little empty at parts. Raychell's spoken lines were strong, though.

Again, the RnC Day 2 setlist at its core, but removing any songs that used rap (EXPOSE "Burn out!!!", DRIVE US CRAZY, HELL! OR HELL?, and Gekidou) and adding in one from Day 1 and the encore song to fill space (Takin' my Heart and R・I・O・T). The assumedly late notice of the major issue probably meant they weren't able to slot in other RnC songs (like Phantom Thief, Luminous, or 1/3 Junjou na Kanjou) or anything else (other Afterglow stuff) to buff the setlist to a full 10 like Roselia. It went by SUPER fast since there were no MCs and only a couple extended intros to songs. RAS typically plays straight through sets anyway so it wasn't completely unexpected...just felt cut short due to the lesser amount of songs, with some of the most hype ones being part of the dropped set. I was just hitting my "super into it" point during UNSTOPPABLE, and then there was only one song after. So honestly I left the live feeling rather sad (actually tbh on the cusp of crying at points), despite how good it was and how godly RAS performs.

And that was the end of the con. Maybe I was also comparing the end to last year's end with the Roselia live and Nonchan's surprise appearance which was amazingly hype. I tagged along to the Fandori group dinner, thanks again for letting me do that despite me never posting there. Walked back to my hotel, most of the way with Tsukiyo and his friend, and packed my stuff and PTFO'd.

And now after a day of flying I'm home and have work in like 6.5 hours.

Shoutouts
Garden State Party/Boppin' State Party/NJ friends crew - I didn't hang out with the whole group but saw most of y'all in smaller sets over the weekend. Was great seeing all of you experience your first CharaExpo. Let's suffer again next year!
Fandori group - Again, thanks for letting me hang with some of you at the Popipa live and letting me come to dinner.
Lucia Hunter - oatscurryrice. Found it amusing we ran into each other like three times too lol.
Will - Never change. Awesome cosplays, too.
Ryo - Thanks again for being my RnC merch mule!
Iviachupichu - I've said it like three times but thank you again so much for the Izumi Kitta signkai ticket.
Anyone else I ran into from Bandori francord - We mostly chatted in line together, thanks for keeping me sane and making the time pass faster.
Whoever else I'm forgetting - I actually met a lot of random people this weekend and I'm bad with names and worse with faces. The interactions with other Bushiroad fans helped make the worst parts of this con bearable enough to get to the good parts.

For fixing those bad parts of the con...that's an entire other post I could do that can come some other time. If there's a CharaExpo USA 2020, I'm probably going and hoping they have their marbles together management-wise, because once things got past the outer shell of awful, the actual events within the con were pretty darn good.

Forever a bushislave, I suppose ;)