I have a lot of thoughts about Big Bad Con, as an event, etc.
To start, they were strong and consistent in their messaging about masks, and followed up with emails the week before the convention reiterating expectations – including wearing an N95 or equivalent mask in all convention spaces. Right inside the main entry doors was vaccine check in, a separate station that checked your vaccination card, checked that you’d self-tested in the last day or two and were Covid negative, then issued you a wristband that the actual con check in staff looked for before handing over your badge.
On that topic, the hotel staff was all masked – and many local businesses unaffiliated with the convention (including customers and employees at the nearby Lucky’s supermarket, and the staff of both restaurants) were masked – so it was more a local norm than just the con attendees alone standing out as the sole people still wearing masks.
I arrived early – on Thursday this year, which made check in particularly a breeze, walk-up without lines for both stations. I checked in to the hotel and unloaded the car, then popped out for some grocery shopping [bagels and yogurt for breakfast, trail mix for snacks], hit the bank, and filled up the car for the journey home.
I returned in time for most of the Thursday night events, and I can see why my friends went out of their way to show up early in past years. There were 4 events on Thursday night, and I attended the last three – a fun “Hollywood squares” game featuring the various guests of honor and special guests, then a “D&D poetry reading” that was a cover for illicit Bingo (but not really) – well handled humor, with poetry and a live rickroll at the end, then Dinosaur Karaoke. The karaoke night was fun (though I departed about halfway through the two hour event) – a very strong early contender was a singer who’d written their own “as a Dinosaur” lyrics for Hallelujah, which replaced the “Hallelujah” with “chew right through ya” and the remainder of the song was similar feasting on prey substitutions… very well done.
The Thursday night events felt intimate – like the con organizers were entertaining their special guests, each other, and the rare people who showed up early. I can see why locals like Pat have talked up taking the extra day off work so strongly…even though there aren’t “real games” scheduled, what Thursday gives is an “insider” feeling to the con. (That was particularly useful to me this year, since I didn’t have the lunch connection with Fresnans scheduled.)
Friday, I headed across the street to the nearby Taqueria — they were overwhelmed and took 40 minutes to get to my burrito. (A few minutes after placing my order, they stopped taking orders altogether, and had the order taker hop to the back to help with the backlog.)
Saturday, I had a gap afternoon, since I hadn’t gotten into a prepared game, and didn’t want to hustle to try to get lunch and into a game on demand. So I walked to Broadway in downtown Burlingame, which had a great swathe of tempting restaurants. I decided on late lunch at https://www.fuumikitchen.com/. Their grilled eggplant was delicious – straight off the grill, no dipping sauces required. I had a pair of rolls – the Broadway was a good roll, but their Ice & Fire was delicious and subtle.
I didn’t need a scoop of ice cream at Preston’s Candy and Ice Cream, but it was good walk from the hotel… and delicious.