I’ve been casually shopping for a new dining set all summer. Our old Ikea table was pitted and scratched from little kid abuse, and everyone tries to steal my chair because it’s the only one with padding. It was time to upgrade!

I looked in stores and on the used marketplace and finally landed on a green chair set with cat-proof vinyl fabric.

Table shopping was trickier - we just wanted the features and size of our current table! I asked Jack if he would refinish the table for me as a paid job and he readily agreed!

He spent most of Labor Day weekend sanding off the damage, then working it down to a fine grit. I decided on a dark stain to match the chairs and stand out against the similarly colored wood floor. Jack applied two coats of stain and two coats of polycrylic topcoat. After a few more days of drying the table came back inside! He did a great job!!

Scratch-free for now, but I declared that we don’t need to baby it. My philosophy is the house is meant to be used comfortably. It’s a soft pine, so it would be a losing battle anyway. In another 10 years Jack can refinish it for me again!

Sam Storm is 13 years old today, on the 13th of September! He’s grown to tall and mature. He’s kind and thoughtful, clever and considerate. He has gathered a posse of great friends and he’s excelling at school. We’re so proud of him in so many ways!

To celebrate he had friends come over to play DnD, play video games, and watch a movie. These teenagers don’t need a lot of planning or entertainment to have a good time, which is great for us parents! I couldn’t pass up decorating and getting his guests silly party favors.

Today on his real birthday Sam just relaxed and played on his new SteamOS computer with friends. He slept in and ate some favorite foods and opened a few more presents. It was a great day!

I always insisted to Ben I was not interested in KCON. It seemed like too much to handle. But then they announced the line-up for 2026 LA KCON and it was, like a TON of groups that I like.

Unusually boy group heavy. Most enticing of all - &TEAM were coming. They’re a Japanese group I love that hasn’t come to the US yet. (See me with their standees at a mall in Kyoto here).

So I gave into temptation and bought THREE concert tickets - 진짜 おかしい!

Thus I found myself at the end of summer break, still muddling through some life event stressors, flying to sunny California for a long weekend of sunshine, music, pretty dancers, and good food.

After checking in the hotel I walked to dinner. My driver recommended Pine & Crane and it was delish!

The Last Bookstore promised to have great book displays and it delivered! I had a fun time walking around and perusing the vinyl.

The sun was lovely going down, but the streets were getting sketchier by the minute. I had one more stop in mind so I braved a twlight wait for the uber (on high alert - DTLA is seriously sus!) to get my favorite ice cream. This felt super indulgent, but it’s sort of a tradition for me to visit this place if I’m in the same town. A sweet end to my day of traveling.

KCON has two parts:

1. The daytime convention
2. the evening concert

The evening concert is a 2.5-3 hr concert with many performers, each doing a short set of 2-4 songs, longer for headliners.

The convention has booths for Korean food, beauty products, and associated companies. There’s also a few small stages with performances/appearances by lesser known idols. The Artist Stage, the biggest of these stages, had performances from middle-tier groups (not the most popular, but pretty well established).

I bought a ticket for each evening concert. A good seat for Friday, a cheap seat for Saturday, and a “good” seat on Sunday (put a pin in that). The good seats included convention access on those days, and I decided not to bother getting Saturday access based on the Artist Stage schedule and my lack of interest in the booths.

The only Artist Stage I REALLY wanted to see was &TEAM. They were scheduled on the first day at 3pm, the last group.

I heard online that the lines to get in the convention can be gnarly. I bought an “Express Pass” the night before so I could use the shorter lane and get inside faster. I was really nervous I wouldn’t get in and get a spot in time and miss them. The con also hyped up the use of virtual queueing through the app, with earlier access for Express Pass holders. That seemed worthwhile to make sure I got to see &TEAM. Later I found out the early access was only for booths (don’t care) and they never enacted the queue system for the stages, so it didn’t give me any advantage.

So early morning I got dressed and walked across the street to join the queue at 7:30. One hour later I was wrist-banded, security screened, and waiting in another queue indoors. The convention didn’t start until 10a. And again, my group was on until 3p. Uhhh, what am I doing here?

It was fun to see everyone dressed up, receive “freebies,” and cheer on the people going to audition for a dance stage with the idols. I started chatting with the people around, trying to get tips for the weekend. A very nice 38 year old from Minnesota was next to me, attending solo for her 6th time. She gave me some good info about the con layout and we had a fun time chatting about the groups. Her “ult bias” is Junhee from A.C.E and I’m also a big fan of his, so that was fun to talk about.

At 10 they released us while scolding “no running!” as fans speed-walked to the artist stage. I joined the throng, and quickly realized there was no reason to be there that early. There was plenty of room. No way was I going to sit here for hours and hours. I had no need to “barricade” the GA section (there was a closer VIP barricade for those who paid top dollar). Even the back of the room had fine views.

I did a lap about the con floor. Lots of fans want to get the beauty product samples from all the booths. They gave us “Stamp Relay” badge to get stamped and hyped up the free tote we would receive to hold all out winnings. I had zero interest in playing the sample-collecting game. Apparently that’s how Express pass used the virtual queue - to hold a place, to access a marketing booth, to post on your social media, to receive free samples in return. No thanks!

So I left! It seemed like a power-move, walking out past literally thousands of fans still lined up to get in. With my wristband I can quickly return later in the day (thanks Junhee-fan for confirming!).

I walked to Fika Fika and had a delightful brunch away from the crowd.

Fortified and caffeinated, I came back to the con just before noon and settled in to knit and watch some other groups on the Artist Stage.

Finally they were here! &TEAM!! K dancing right before my eyes!!

They were so good. Unfortunately this confirmed how much I hate GA standing room - everyone jockeying and squeezing about, holding phones above their heads. Pretty awful even for someone my height! I loved their show, but was looking forward to seeing them on stage at night from my assigned seat.

This is already a long post, so I’ll share concert pics in a follow-up.

Just after 4p I left the convention hall to find some dinner. There was a mall a just two train stops north of me where I had Korean chicken and rice bowl. The shop, Ranch & Maple, was playing k-pop music videos and were were kind to hold my food hot while I figured out the mall restroom access - city bathroom situations are always hostile!

(I think it’s funny how many ampersands were in the last 24 hours on my cc statement: Salt & Straw, Pine & Crane, Ranch & Maple, all for &TEAM)

I freshened up and fetched my lightstick from my hotel room, then walked 5 minutes to the concert at the Crypto Arena around the corner. I breezed through security and still had some time to knit before the show started.

This was so fun! My seats were great considering KCON LA is always in the round. I hate shows in the round. I researched which side is typically “front” when I bought tickets and luckily that hadn’t changed. When they faced me, which was about 60% of the time, I had a great view!

By the way, I’ve been watching KCON performances for years and years. I’ve seen some stages in this very arena dozens of times. It was cool to be in this famous spot. Because they film these for the channel, I can link the stages for you to see! Look close and maybe you’ll see me in the audience ;-) Sometimes I linked the short 1 min set summary, sometimes the full song.

Let’s goooo, it’s &TEAM TIME!! These guys dominated. There were a lot of Lune in the audience for sure. K is such a unique dancer. For a tall gangly guy his lines are impeccable. I like a of them but he’s a strong bias for sure.

TWO songs. Gah! Too short! I’m so glad I saw them earlier in the day too. They did a BTS collab stage with Santos Bravos and it’s the only time I’ve enjoyed Permission to Dance.

The next exciting stage was the reunion of WannaOne! This TV contest group from 2017 includes Minhyun - former member of Nu’est and actor in one of my favorite Kdramas Study Group. They did their big hit Energetic and the crowd was hyped! I’ve repeatedly watched their original 2017 KCON LA performance so this was very cool to witness.

Finally the headliner NCT 127 took the stage. Listen, I used to be a huge NCT fan. Sadly their group has fractured as a result of bad management, military service leave, and a few scandals. Plus they had a spell of truly terrible music. But I’m still very fond of the old stuff and Taeyong was my first bias ever.

I had my lightstick from the NCT DREAM concert, letting me wave neon green with all the other nctizens.

Everyone came out to wave good-bye and the show ended. I walked across the street and tumbled into bed. What a great day!

I slept in a little and laughed at the ridiculous convention queue below my hotel window (I heard it was so poorly organized this morning that many people missed the Artist Stages that they were planning to see because it took too long to get inside - yikes!)

I returned to Fika Fika to try the cute mochi pancakes kitty paws. Then I hopped on the Metro to visit The Broad Museum. This was a great experience! I don’t spend much time viewing post 1900 art, so I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy it, but the collection was very interesting. Here’s some of my favorite pieces.

When I reserved my free ticket I opted for the Infinity Room add-on. I thought it was one of those rooms designed for instagram photos. Those aren’t really my thing, but why not? I decided to wait in the 20 minute line that I thought was pacing out people so it’s not too crowded. To my surprise when I got to the front they ushered me into a closet-sized space all alone and shut the door behind me. I was startled to find myself alone with the “infinity” as the lights dimmed in and out to a sparse musical accompaniment. I hurriedly grabbed my phone to try to capture some semblance of the experience. It really was quite moving.

I took the metro a bit further down the line to Little Tokyo. As before with Ben, the shopping district was packed. I ducked into a bakery with no line and snagged a curry bun and Diet Coke for lunch. I did some window shopping, but a lot of the merchandise here is cheap Chinese knock-offs instead of licensed IP or true Japanese imports. I browsed the card shops and found a few Pokemon cards for the boys back at home. I looked all over for a Barley tea. It’s so hard to find Barley tea in Japanese shops in the US, but they were everywhere in Japan. I finally found one in a Korean cafe!

I took the train back to the mall area for a little more shopping at Uniqlo and Kinokuniya, but didn’t see anything exciting. I grabbed some take-out for dinner and headed back to my hotel for some R&R.

Second concert! The line-up wasn’t as dear to me, so I got nosebleed seats on the side. Even with the crappy seats, the performances were great. I was most excited for the headliners Zerobaseone and they had a really fun set.

Illit are a very popular girl group from Belift/Hybe. They had some monster hits this year and were one of the most anticipated girl groups at KCON.

P1Harmony are a boy group I saw in Denver at my first K-pop concert. They’ve gotten really popular since then and had a huge crowd presence.

Zerobaseone are a boy group from a TV contest. The original group contract ended this year and five of the 9 original members renewed - lucky me they were all my favorites from the group! They did some new songs, some old songs, some solos, and a cover of SexyBack that made the crowd go wild. Link to summary.

They sang Doctor Doctor!! Yes!!! I played this song nonstop when it came out and I was afraid it was gone forever with the new group contract. Whenever I page a provider at work it runs through my head: “Doctor, doctor, hey, where you at? Left a message, yeah, call me back.”

I had a ticket for the convention today but found no reason to attend. There were other, more exciting places to visit in LA with fewer lines. I took my time getting dressed and then walked a few blocks to Muffin Can Stop Us for breakfast

Unlike a regular concert, they don’t sell artist merch at KCON except a few con-themed items. I went to Koreatown for some proper fan merch and perhaps lunch. I popped into Kpop Toss on my way to the mall and it turned out to be the best store! They had an incredible array of photocards and albums - old and new! I was impressed by their stock in less popular groups. they had albums I’ve never seen in person! I got Ben some photocards of his hard-to-find members and my favorite TXT album, Blue Hour.

Across the street in the mall there were a few more stores, including Music Plaza, from where I have bought lightsticks online. I found a restroom (remarkably unlocked and not a disaster scene!) and then walked up to Wilshire for more stores. I was hunting for &TEAM merch and sadly found none.

AmazeVR makes short music concerts for movie theaters. They’re very limited engagement, touring from city to city and mostly in Asia. Only one came to Denver and I couldn’t attend (I think it was Ateez?). I ordered an at-home kit for the TXT VR concert and it was sort of meh because it uses a phone for the screen. Kinda blurry and not very effective. I was curious to attend a real VR movie and, what do you know, &TEAM have one that’s screening in DTLA for two weeks while I’m here!

When I mentioned to Ben that I might try the VR show as an alternative to attending the con he enthusiastically encouraged me to try it. At the very least, sitting in air conditioning for an hour would be a relaxing.

I’m so happy I did! It ended up being a really cool experience. The VR was very effective, it felt surreal and real. The sound and camera work were great. The other attendees were fun (maybe TOO fun - there was a lot of shrieking and even sobbing throughout). If I get the chance to do this again I’ll definately attend! (right after my trip Enhypen announced a new VR concert and whomp whomp, it’s not coming anywhere near Denver - boo!

I walked to pick up dinner and dessert to eat in my room.

This last concert was the most disappointing. Remember that pin in “good seats?” When I booked tickets everyone said they do a pretty good job of facing both directions. AXS ticketing doesn’t let you select from a map, they randomly assign you a seat in the price zone. I couldn’t get it to assign a lower bowl seat on the “front.” I finally settled for a lower bowl seat in the rear. It was priced the same as my ticket on the first night and everyone said it would be great. It was NOT. The majority of the show was facing the wrong way. I tried to get over this and just enjoy the experience, but I couldn’t. Maybe three concerts in a row is too much and I was just tired. I was salty that this clearly inferior seat cost the same as the front. Also the groups DID do a better job switching on the first night. I swear it was split 60/40 Friday, and 80/20 Sunday. So here I was, amped to see TXT, the group I wanted to see on tour next, and they only performed ONE song facing me! Gah!! I was so upset. Anyway. Rant over.

NEXZ are a JYP-Japan group formed on TV (same with &TEAM under Hybe). I like a few of there songs, including mmchk. Their live dancing was great!

Alpha Drive One are a newer boy group, same TV show contest that formed Zerobaseone. I don’t care for them but they had a lot of fans, including my seat neighbor, and they have cool steering wheel shaped lightsticks.

The girl group Rescene is a couple years old and Ben keeps a watch on them, he likes most of their music. This year they had a runaway hit over the summer and got promoted to a more prominent spot at KCON.

Evan is formerly Heeseung of Enhypen. He was my favorite performer up until he suddenly (and suspciously) left last spring to pursue a solo career. Makes no sense, we’re obviously missing a bigger story. He only had three songs out by KCON, I thought it was weird he even came. But a lot of the crowd were there just to see him. His songs bore me. I’m still a huge Enhypen fan without him (especially their summer release Bloody Paradise!)

Finally it’s time for Tomorrow X Together aka TXT! I was so hyped!! I love most of their music AND they are great dancers. They have a unique sound. Soobin is my bias and I was really excited to see them all live. Me and the crowd were READY:

Behold this beautiful fancam I shot from my expensive seat:

And finally another favorite song, Loser = Lover. Behold my fancam!

And then they left. That was it?? Nine songs, TWO songs facing me and one is a freakin’ ballad???? I was super disappointed. Time for the wave goodbye.

Bummer that the last show was so disappointing. Perhaps I was overtired. But I ended the day feeling like the VR movie was a better concert experience than this.

The trip confirmed 3 things I suspected were true:

1. I hate standing GA floor

2. I hate shows in the round

3. Music Festivals are not worth it unless you want to see MOST of the artists, not just one or two.

Luckily that last point was true for me. It was crazy how many groups I got to see that I actively follow, let alone passively enjoy! There were even some I didn’t post about - Ko1keyz, from20 and HelloGloom, So!YoON, and a bunch of actor presenters. If I had come soley for TXT or &TEAM I would have been supremely disappointed. Instead I got to see many new stages from groups I like a lot!

I look forward to seeing TXT properly on tour. They’ve already announced US stops for spring 2027, so it might be soon.