Steve at Animazement
(long but some awesome things happened.)
Well, this con was a surprise. I seriously considered not going at all. I was sick all week this week leading up to the convention, and on Friday my main goal was to get there, register, and put Fans for Christ flyers on the free stuff table.
That is pretty much what I did on Friday. I had been working on a cosplay idea: I learned to play (most of) the Trigun theme on my guitar, and I was going to dress as Wolfwood, go on stage, and rock out the theme. The cosplay sign up was at 9am on Saturday. That’s right: NINE in the freakin’ morning. So I went home at about 11 so I could actually get enough sleep. I felt awful anyway.
So, I managed to actually do it. I got up, drove in, brought my guitar and amp in with me and signed up. I was so weak carrying that stuff in made me out of breath. Eric said the reason they had the sign up so early is to weed out those who weren’t really serious. Well I had been practicing that theme for at least four months so I was gonna play it.
I went back home and went to sleep until about 2pm. Bill “Da Mann” from FFC was calling me to see where I was. I finally showed up at about 3 I think and saw Bill. It was the first time I have met him besides online in the forums. It was nice to have another FFC person there. I knew a few other Christians there, like my friends Cat and Corey, but they aren’t really forum people so they don’t go to FFC. I was still feeling sick on Saturday, my goals were to keep the flyers replenished on the table, and do the cosplay. The flyers were moving well, I think about 100 got out at least.
I saw my local friend Mike who was in a ninja costume. He actually has a real No-Dachi, which is a six-foot long samurai type sword. He was wearing it but the staff asked him to take it off because of some incidents. So, myself, my piratey friend Wes that I met last year, and Bill went to the parking lot to play with the huge sword. Man that thing was cool and deadly. We went back inside and went off on our own and I got some dinner before going to the cosplay waiting area.
The fun thing always happens where we have to wait for about 2 hours in the cosplay “Green room” with the other contestants while they set up. Cosplay Angel was the emcee again. I hadn’t talked to her in months and I wasn’t sure if she would be happy to see me, but we talked just like we had never stopped. She even joked around with me, it was nice, like old times. (We used to go out but it ended very strangely.)
My friend Jessica was in the cosplay too, she had a group of Moogles that went to Camelot and they sang the Camelot song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They all looked cute and Jessi even got her male friend to be a moogle. I said he was brave. I got one of their group, Tony, to help carry my guitar and amp on stage for me. I called him my roadie. He was very nice and helpful.
Well, we were all in the green room auditorium goofing around. I was practicing my guitar a while until people got annoyed. I was sick and nervous and my hands were shaking and I wondered if I could even play it right. Well, the sound guys set up my amp to be miked on stage. It ended up that they were going to have me go FIRST. That’s right, first. So the guy organizing us in the green room said I was his new best friend and announced me to the other cosplayers as going first. They cheered for me, it was nice.
Later we were all waiting around, everyone sang ’99 bottles of sake on the wall’ cause that’s what they do every year. When they got near the end I pretended to do a guitar solo and everyone cheered, it gets crazy in there. Then I talked with the organizer about what should be the theme song for the cosplayers, the Slinky song or the Darth Vader march. So he put it up to them to vote, and I suggested they combine the two. So we did, I asked for the mic, and I made up off the top of my head a new song:
“What walks down stairs
and he’s never scared
and makes a strange breathing sound?
Its Vader, its Vader he’s not really good, he’s bad!
Its Vader, its Vader, he’s not really fun, he’s your Dad!”
I was talking to some cosplayers and they mentioned that Caitlin Glass was there, the nice Christian voice actress I met at MTAC in Tennessee. But they got her name wrong, they said like Carolyn Glass, and I was like, um, no its Caitlin, and the guy was like I’m pretty sure they said Carolyn, and I said well, um, I know her, really, its Caitlin. Anyway I found out the special guests of the con were the judges for the cosplay, up in the front row.
Well, it was my turn to go, and my roadie helped me get set up. I walked out on stage with my guitar, and I heard Caitlin say to the other judges, “Hey! That’s my friend Steve!” She is so cute. Then someone said, “Freebird!” and I gave them my best withering look. I had to plug in and wait for the amp to get hot for a few seconds so I did some posing and things. Then I started playing a few little licks to work the crowd a bit, I even messed up on one and make a funny look. After long enough I just went right into jamming the Trigun theme, as soon as the crowd recognized it they started cheering really loud. I couldn’t hear myself playing anymore! I didn’t even know if I was screwing up or not. You don’t realize unless you are a musician how hard it is to play if you can’t hear yourself. I know I did mess it up a couple times but maybe they cheered over it, I don’t know. :) I walked off stage wishing I could have done it over, played it better but that is how it goes. Oh, while I was getting my guitar off stage Caitlin waved me over and gave me a hug. She is sweet.
Since I was first, everyone was after me. I went and sat in the cosplayers area and just waited and watched. I was pretty exhausted but still had adrenaline. I was really impressed with the other cosplayers. They had great costumes and skits too. Very funny stuff. They even had one with, well, the Mario brothers and Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Snake attacked the brothers, then reported mission accomplished. Mario got up, and knocked Snake over the head. Then Luigi got up and they went over to Snake and tried to wake him up, and he just lay there. So they went into the dialogue from the game when you die as Snake: “Snake? SNAKE? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!” It was great. I actually got a cosplay joke for once.
They showed the AMV winners during the break while the judges decided on the winners. I walked around and talked to some of the other cosplayers. There was a Darkstalkers group that looked amazing. I also talked to the Slayers group, they had a Naga with HUGE fake boobs. Also they had a Gourry with a sword of light with a light filament inside it. It connects to a battery, and he said it is called a ‘livewire.’ It could be great for a lot of costumes. Anyway, I met some short term goals: I got to grope the fake breasts (I asked first, “May I grope you?”) and then I got to play with the Sword of Light. Woo.
They announced the judge’s choice winners first, which there were about eight of. Then they announced the winners of each category, starting with Novice. I was in Novice, it was the biggest one with about twenty or so contestants. They announced 3rd and 2nd and I figured, well, I might have had a shot for 3rd but it was a nice try and I had fun anyway. Then Angel announced the winner of Novice: Wolfwood. I was like, “What? That’s me!” I guess I did better than I thought. I was really shocked but hey, I went up with my guitar and took my bow and got my award from Angel. They actually give you some money, this is the only con I know of that does that, but they do. Anyway its just as well cause I need it.
This was actually gratifying in more than one way. You may know that I went out with Angel for a while, but then her parents (whom she lives with) just up and said she couldn’t see me anymore. It seemed to be because I was in my 30’s and divorced. We really liked each other a lot but her parents were really insistent that we not go out. I was heartbroken. Anyway, at the con I saw her mom and brother (who also had commented something like, “Oh, well nice guys don’t drive cars like that.” ) I talked to her Mom and re-introduced myself and was very pleasant, she was very pleasant also. I think they might have expected me to be mad, and I was for a long time but I’m over it now. However, I got to show them that I’m a good guy and I didn’t hold a grudge, and also, right in front of them, got to be really great on stage and win the cosplay contest. I hope they enjoyed seeing me win and maybe even thought I wasn’t such a bad guy after all. I hope. But either way, they got to see me have a great moment, even though they did me wrong. It felt, in a way, like a bit of poetic justice. After all, their daughter, Angel, is the one who gave me my award.
Afterwards I got together with Caitlin because she and two other voice actors, Kyle Hebert and Chris Cason were going out. Chris was Gluttony in Fullmetal Alchemist (among other things) and Kyle was teen Gohan from DBZ and is Kiba in Naruto. I called him Crazy Kyle, he is a big ol’ funny bald guy. Well, a staff person was going to drive them all to X-men 3, but he was nice enough to let me take them instead, in my Mustang. Somehow I jammed my amp in my trunk, and my guitar sat between the seats as everyone packed in! My car was kind of messy and a Mustang isn’t so big; you should have seen Kyle trying to cram into the car. Then Chris was being goofy in the back and Caitlin wouldn’t stop laughing. Of course, those guys are really funny and were making jokes all the way there. I tried to keep up but they are nuts.
We got to the theatre, eventually. Caitlin had to close her eyes when I took an on-ramp really fast. The guys were saying, “Yep, a Mustang is fast. Don’t have to prove that anymore. Yep.” We got some expensive, yet cheap, theatre food and went in to watch probably the longest string of previews I’ve ever seen. We saw Superman and Pirates previews though, which were cool. Oh, and we saw the new Fast and Furious Tokyo preview, have to watch that, its got cars.
Finally the movie started. Some purists may not like it because it deviated from the original storyline, but it was a pretty darn good movie. Caitlin felt sorry for Magneto when something bad happened to him. I kept making fun of her saying, “Hey, that’s the bad guy don’t feel sorry for him,” but she told me to shut up. :)
We all crammed back into the Mustang after Kyle and I got to use the super jet powered hand dryer in the men’s bathroom. If you’ve ever been to Briar Creek cinemas you know what I’m talking about. So we drove back over and were more loopy than ever, it was after 2am. They kindly invited me up to the green room for all the guests and we sat and, well, were goofy for almost two more hours. Caitlin wanted to play Naruto on Kyle’s Gamecube, and I got to play some too. It had one of those portable mounted flat screens you can buy for it which was cool. Though I thought Caitlin was going to bite me when I did manage to win a few times. :)
Finally I went off to get what sleep I could, I wanted to be back at the con by 3pm again because they were going to premiere a new dubbed anime from FUNimation (the company the voice actors have worked with a lot.) It is called Nagima, I think. Its kind of, well, a lot like Harry Potter, except this kid is teaching English to a bunch of little girls. One of the little girls was a VAMPIRE named Evangeline, with a British accent. I felt a little bit of the goth in me feel satisfied over that. It also reminded me of the Matthew Sweet song, “Evangeline, Evangeline… I think I love you…” Then it was time for closing ceremonies.
I was starving, I realized, having only had a granola bar. So I raided the snacks at the hotel convenience store and even paid nine bucks for a box of Benadryl cause I had forgotten to take anything before I left. I felt mildly rude while everyone else was clapping for the guests while I chowed down on Cheez-its but I couldn’t stop shoveling them in I was so hungry.
Kyle and Chris were talking about going out again Sunday night, so I told them I’d look into things to do and come back to the hotel around 9:30. I went straight to church after closing ceremonies and it was nice to be back after being gone for so long. They actually were having a dinner instead of a regular service, and I even watched some of the Hurricanes game on the screen. Yes, our Carolina hockey team is in the finals to go to the Stanley cup. And I got real food instead of snacks. Well, a burger, potato salad and two brownies. Good thing I take vitamins.
I went back and met Kyle and Chris and Caitlin in the green room. They were having a conversation with the Japanese voice actors through translators that they wanted to finish. Well, it ended up going on all night while they sat around over beer and Asian snacks. I got to see one of the Japanese actors try Tostitos salsa. He opened the jar and just looked at it. He had chopsticks in his hand. I think he was considering putting it on his sushi. Then another actor turned to him and got out the bag of Tostitos and made a dipping motion. So he dipped it in the salsa, but only got a tiny bit of it on the chip. He ate it consideringly, then closed the jar and went back to his sushi.
I mostly sat the rest of the night and watched the actors talk back and forth through the translators. They talked about quirks of voice acting, the Japanese theatre, and told fun stories. It was very interesting and I felt privileged to be there to observe. I got to make a joke or two and it even made it through the translation. A really cool guy, Toshi, (Toshifumi Yoshida) was there who is a writer and producer. He speaks both Japanese and English, and did some translation. He also loves tequila and ginger ale. He gave me a full bottle of rum he hadn’t used while he was there before I left. (I don’t really drink but it will be nice for guests.) Eventually the group broke up and went to bed, I thanked the people that talked to me and said goodnight to Kyle and Chris. I gave Caitlin a hug and told her I’d miss her. So, I took the elevator back down to the first floor and walked out into the empty lobby and out the door with my bottle of rum and an asian tea cake.
I had tried to get a panel there, I did “Parents and Anime” last year and they asked me to come back and do it again, and I said yes. They even emailed me twice about it, but later when I asked they said the schedule was full. So that didn’t work out so well. Next year I think I can get a fan table though. Anyway, I was happy to meet Bill and see my other friends there, and promote FFC with my badge and the flyers. I did get to talk to some people about FFC of course, and I prayed that God show the flyers to the people he wanted to have them. What I thought was going to be an uneventful con ended up being a great time, and I thank God once again for making my life amazing. After all, it was Animazement.
Well, this con was a surprise. I seriously considered not going at all. I was sick all week this week leading up to the convention, and on Friday my main goal was to get there, register, and put Fans for Christ flyers on the free stuff table.
That is pretty much what I did on Friday. I had been working on a cosplay idea: I learned to play (most of) the Trigun theme on my guitar, and I was going to dress as Wolfwood, go on stage, and rock out the theme. The cosplay sign up was at 9am on Saturday. That’s right: NINE in the freakin’ morning. So I went home at about 11 so I could actually get enough sleep. I felt awful anyway.
So, I managed to actually do it. I got up, drove in, brought my guitar and amp in with me and signed up. I was so weak carrying that stuff in made me out of breath. Eric said the reason they had the sign up so early is to weed out those who weren’t really serious. Well I had been practicing that theme for at least four months so I was gonna play it.
I went back home and went to sleep until about 2pm. Bill “Da Mann” from FFC was calling me to see where I was. I finally showed up at about 3 I think and saw Bill. It was the first time I have met him besides online in the forums. It was nice to have another FFC person there. I knew a few other Christians there, like my friends Cat and Corey, but they aren’t really forum people so they don’t go to FFC. I was still feeling sick on Saturday, my goals were to keep the flyers replenished on the table, and do the cosplay. The flyers were moving well, I think about 100 got out at least.
I saw my local friend Mike who was in a ninja costume. He actually has a real No-Dachi, which is a six-foot long samurai type sword. He was wearing it but the staff asked him to take it off because of some incidents. So, myself, my piratey friend Wes that I met last year, and Bill went to the parking lot to play with the huge sword. Man that thing was cool and deadly. We went back inside and went off on our own and I got some dinner before going to the cosplay waiting area.
The fun thing always happens where we have to wait for about 2 hours in the cosplay “Green room” with the other contestants while they set up. Cosplay Angel was the emcee again. I hadn’t talked to her in months and I wasn’t sure if she would be happy to see me, but we talked just like we had never stopped. She even joked around with me, it was nice, like old times. (We used to go out but it ended very strangely.)
My friend Jessica was in the cosplay too, she had a group of Moogles that went to Camelot and they sang the Camelot song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They all looked cute and Jessi even got her male friend to be a moogle. I said he was brave. I got one of their group, Tony, to help carry my guitar and amp on stage for me. I called him my roadie. He was very nice and helpful.
Well, we were all in the green room auditorium goofing around. I was practicing my guitar a while until people got annoyed. I was sick and nervous and my hands were shaking and I wondered if I could even play it right. Well, the sound guys set up my amp to be miked on stage. It ended up that they were going to have me go FIRST. That’s right, first. So the guy organizing us in the green room said I was his new best friend and announced me to the other cosplayers as going first. They cheered for me, it was nice.
Later we were all waiting around, everyone sang ’99 bottles of sake on the wall’ cause that’s what they do every year. When they got near the end I pretended to do a guitar solo and everyone cheered, it gets crazy in there. Then I talked with the organizer about what should be the theme song for the cosplayers, the Slinky song or the Darth Vader march. So he put it up to them to vote, and I suggested they combine the two. So we did, I asked for the mic, and I made up off the top of my head a new song:
“What walks down stairs
and he’s never scared
and makes a strange breathing sound?
Its Vader, its Vader he’s not really good, he’s bad!
Its Vader, its Vader, he’s not really fun, he’s your Dad!”
I was talking to some cosplayers and they mentioned that Caitlin Glass was there, the nice Christian voice actress I met at MTAC in Tennessee. But they got her name wrong, they said like Carolyn Glass, and I was like, um, no its Caitlin, and the guy was like I’m pretty sure they said Carolyn, and I said well, um, I know her, really, its Caitlin. Anyway I found out the special guests of the con were the judges for the cosplay, up in the front row.
Well, it was my turn to go, and my roadie helped me get set up. I walked out on stage with my guitar, and I heard Caitlin say to the other judges, “Hey! That’s my friend Steve!” She is so cute. Then someone said, “Freebird!” and I gave them my best withering look. I had to plug in and wait for the amp to get hot for a few seconds so I did some posing and things. Then I started playing a few little licks to work the crowd a bit, I even messed up on one and make a funny look. After long enough I just went right into jamming the Trigun theme, as soon as the crowd recognized it they started cheering really loud. I couldn’t hear myself playing anymore! I didn’t even know if I was screwing up or not. You don’t realize unless you are a musician how hard it is to play if you can’t hear yourself. I know I did mess it up a couple times but maybe they cheered over it, I don’t know. :) I walked off stage wishing I could have done it over, played it better but that is how it goes. Oh, while I was getting my guitar off stage Caitlin waved me over and gave me a hug. She is sweet.
Since I was first, everyone was after me. I went and sat in the cosplayers area and just waited and watched. I was pretty exhausted but still had adrenaline. I was really impressed with the other cosplayers. They had great costumes and skits too. Very funny stuff. They even had one with, well, the Mario brothers and Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Snake attacked the brothers, then reported mission accomplished. Mario got up, and knocked Snake over the head. Then Luigi got up and they went over to Snake and tried to wake him up, and he just lay there. So they went into the dialogue from the game when you die as Snake: “Snake? SNAKE? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!” It was great. I actually got a cosplay joke for once.
They showed the AMV winners during the break while the judges decided on the winners. I walked around and talked to some of the other cosplayers. There was a Darkstalkers group that looked amazing. I also talked to the Slayers group, they had a Naga with HUGE fake boobs. Also they had a Gourry with a sword of light with a light filament inside it. It connects to a battery, and he said it is called a ‘livewire.’ It could be great for a lot of costumes. Anyway, I met some short term goals: I got to grope the fake breasts (I asked first, “May I grope you?”) and then I got to play with the Sword of Light. Woo.
They announced the judge’s choice winners first, which there were about eight of. Then they announced the winners of each category, starting with Novice. I was in Novice, it was the biggest one with about twenty or so contestants. They announced 3rd and 2nd and I figured, well, I might have had a shot for 3rd but it was a nice try and I had fun anyway. Then Angel announced the winner of Novice: Wolfwood. I was like, “What? That’s me!” I guess I did better than I thought. I was really shocked but hey, I went up with my guitar and took my bow and got my award from Angel. They actually give you some money, this is the only con I know of that does that, but they do. Anyway its just as well cause I need it.
This was actually gratifying in more than one way. You may know that I went out with Angel for a while, but then her parents (whom she lives with) just up and said she couldn’t see me anymore. It seemed to be because I was in my 30’s and divorced. We really liked each other a lot but her parents were really insistent that we not go out. I was heartbroken. Anyway, at the con I saw her mom and brother (who also had commented something like, “Oh, well nice guys don’t drive cars like that.” ) I talked to her Mom and re-introduced myself and was very pleasant, she was very pleasant also. I think they might have expected me to be mad, and I was for a long time but I’m over it now. However, I got to show them that I’m a good guy and I didn’t hold a grudge, and also, right in front of them, got to be really great on stage and win the cosplay contest. I hope they enjoyed seeing me win and maybe even thought I wasn’t such a bad guy after all. I hope. But either way, they got to see me have a great moment, even though they did me wrong. It felt, in a way, like a bit of poetic justice. After all, their daughter, Angel, is the one who gave me my award.
Afterwards I got together with Caitlin because she and two other voice actors, Kyle Hebert and Chris Cason were going out. Chris was Gluttony in Fullmetal Alchemist (among other things) and Kyle was teen Gohan from DBZ and is Kiba in Naruto. I called him Crazy Kyle, he is a big ol’ funny bald guy. Well, a staff person was going to drive them all to X-men 3, but he was nice enough to let me take them instead, in my Mustang. Somehow I jammed my amp in my trunk, and my guitar sat between the seats as everyone packed in! My car was kind of messy and a Mustang isn’t so big; you should have seen Kyle trying to cram into the car. Then Chris was being goofy in the back and Caitlin wouldn’t stop laughing. Of course, those guys are really funny and were making jokes all the way there. I tried to keep up but they are nuts.
We got to the theatre, eventually. Caitlin had to close her eyes when I took an on-ramp really fast. The guys were saying, “Yep, a Mustang is fast. Don’t have to prove that anymore. Yep.” We got some expensive, yet cheap, theatre food and went in to watch probably the longest string of previews I’ve ever seen. We saw Superman and Pirates previews though, which were cool. Oh, and we saw the new Fast and Furious Tokyo preview, have to watch that, its got cars.
Finally the movie started. Some purists may not like it because it deviated from the original storyline, but it was a pretty darn good movie. Caitlin felt sorry for Magneto when something bad happened to him. I kept making fun of her saying, “Hey, that’s the bad guy don’t feel sorry for him,” but she told me to shut up. :)
We all crammed back into the Mustang after Kyle and I got to use the super jet powered hand dryer in the men’s bathroom. If you’ve ever been to Briar Creek cinemas you know what I’m talking about. So we drove back over and were more loopy than ever, it was after 2am. They kindly invited me up to the green room for all the guests and we sat and, well, were goofy for almost two more hours. Caitlin wanted to play Naruto on Kyle’s Gamecube, and I got to play some too. It had one of those portable mounted flat screens you can buy for it which was cool. Though I thought Caitlin was going to bite me when I did manage to win a few times. :)
Finally I went off to get what sleep I could, I wanted to be back at the con by 3pm again because they were going to premiere a new dubbed anime from FUNimation (the company the voice actors have worked with a lot.) It is called Nagima, I think. Its kind of, well, a lot like Harry Potter, except this kid is teaching English to a bunch of little girls. One of the little girls was a VAMPIRE named Evangeline, with a British accent. I felt a little bit of the goth in me feel satisfied over that. It also reminded me of the Matthew Sweet song, “Evangeline, Evangeline… I think I love you…” Then it was time for closing ceremonies.
I was starving, I realized, having only had a granola bar. So I raided the snacks at the hotel convenience store and even paid nine bucks for a box of Benadryl cause I had forgotten to take anything before I left. I felt mildly rude while everyone else was clapping for the guests while I chowed down on Cheez-its but I couldn’t stop shoveling them in I was so hungry.
Kyle and Chris were talking about going out again Sunday night, so I told them I’d look into things to do and come back to the hotel around 9:30. I went straight to church after closing ceremonies and it was nice to be back after being gone for so long. They actually were having a dinner instead of a regular service, and I even watched some of the Hurricanes game on the screen. Yes, our Carolina hockey team is in the finals to go to the Stanley cup. And I got real food instead of snacks. Well, a burger, potato salad and two brownies. Good thing I take vitamins.
I went back and met Kyle and Chris and Caitlin in the green room. They were having a conversation with the Japanese voice actors through translators that they wanted to finish. Well, it ended up going on all night while they sat around over beer and Asian snacks. I got to see one of the Japanese actors try Tostitos salsa. He opened the jar and just looked at it. He had chopsticks in his hand. I think he was considering putting it on his sushi. Then another actor turned to him and got out the bag of Tostitos and made a dipping motion. So he dipped it in the salsa, but only got a tiny bit of it on the chip. He ate it consideringly, then closed the jar and went back to his sushi.
I mostly sat the rest of the night and watched the actors talk back and forth through the translators. They talked about quirks of voice acting, the Japanese theatre, and told fun stories. It was very interesting and I felt privileged to be there to observe. I got to make a joke or two and it even made it through the translation. A really cool guy, Toshi, (Toshifumi Yoshida) was there who is a writer and producer. He speaks both Japanese and English, and did some translation. He also loves tequila and ginger ale. He gave me a full bottle of rum he hadn’t used while he was there before I left. (I don’t really drink but it will be nice for guests.) Eventually the group broke up and went to bed, I thanked the people that talked to me and said goodnight to Kyle and Chris. I gave Caitlin a hug and told her I’d miss her. So, I took the elevator back down to the first floor and walked out into the empty lobby and out the door with my bottle of rum and an asian tea cake.
I had tried to get a panel there, I did “Parents and Anime” last year and they asked me to come back and do it again, and I said yes. They even emailed me twice about it, but later when I asked they said the schedule was full. So that didn’t work out so well. Next year I think I can get a fan table though. Anyway, I was happy to meet Bill and see my other friends there, and promote FFC with my badge and the flyers. I did get to talk to some people about FFC of course, and I prayed that God show the flyers to the people he wanted to have them. What I thought was going to be an uneventful con ended up being a great time, and I thank God once again for making my life amazing. After all, it was Animazement.