Epic post of Epicness - Part Two: SGMS Day 3, Megan's Last Day and more misadventures
Okay, so we left off at Saturday night right?
So, Sunday we got ready for our other class. This was mostly a history of Lolita recap/what's happening with Lolita outside of Japan class. We gathered a plethora of mooks and Heather, Megan and I were on our way. We got to the school and saw Christopher Bolton meandering around the halls outside. I asked what he was doing and he said he was there for my class. Funny! He ended up being the only man in the class which added some humor.
This class was TINY! There were three people, Heather, Christopher and a security guard. I was a little mad, but at least the people there seemed honestly interested in learning:
We ended up discussing feminism a LOT. This actually came in handy for a little talk the girls and I had later. We talked about the different reason for getting into Lolita and why they tend to differ greatly from the East to the West. It was great since people talked back and gave us things to think about. About halfway through Christopher popped out to watch the junior scholars. We ended up having an open forum kinda discussion after that until lunch.
At lunch we rocked the Otaku Bazaar again. I love that the OB always seems to pay for all the things I spend money on through the weekend. Heather made really good money that weekend!
After a little while, Christopher came to our table and told us he learned a lot about Lolita and that he really enjoyed our class. We also chatted a little bit about other things. Now, this is one of those guests that I am utterly fascinated by. He's there every year and looks like an imposing/nerdy college professor, but is very down to earth, honest and kind. A few years ago he did a great paper on Blood: the Last Vampire. He talked about how Saya is torn between being a vampire/vampire hunter and between being an American/Japanese citizen. As he talked I was very touched and the things he said reminded me of myself being black/white and raised in an all white town and how very often I felt betrayed and or unaccepted by both blacks and whites and how that was a main reason that I delved so deeply into subculture fashion. I talked to him about this after his presentation. Well, last year he actually came to me in the auditorium before leaving and apologized for not being able to talk to me more. I was surprised and flattered. He said what I'd said about his paper was one of the most touching compliments he'd ever gotten on a presentation. So, this year in his paper he actually referenced what I'd said in his paper about Momoru Oshii. So we talked about that at lunch and he reiterated that he loved what I'd had to say. That was very touching. Then he said Frenchy had been talking about my success as of late and that he was impressed. I then showed him my copy of the GLB, Megan and I chatted with him about our class, he asked to interview us for Mechademia and he headed off.
Kel got all the fangirls ever that weekend, btw. It didn't hurt that he was wearing the Madigan vest under his suit. I'm really proud of Kel. He did his Geek Girls paper that morning as a Junior Scholar and everyone seemed to love it. Frenchy is now a fangirl of my brother. It's pretty hilarious.
After lunch was Crispin's paper, "Mythological Anime: Mystics, Priestesses and Warrior Women." I love his papers because he is a giant research nerd and also a great presenter. His voice is very...hard to ignore basically. Love him or hate him (Ryan hates him, I think he's just fine), everyone loves his papers. My only gripe was the fact that he was another person to do a paper on strong women and not talk about 12 Kingdoms. It was very cute, though, he referenced my brother's paper at the very beginning of his paper.
Well, after his paper, Megan, Heather and I went out into the hall to chat. We discussed our paper, feminism, 12 Kingdoms, Lolita and media made for and starring girls. I told Megan about a paper I'd wanted to do for a few years that Frenchy had offered to help me with. We decided it'd be very easy to combine it with a feminist Lolita paper. You'll see, it'll be great. Well, Christopher came out and we chatted with him about it and he said it sounded good. We later also talked with Frenchy about it and she said we should do it and she'd help. My brother is also going to chat with his professor for help. It sounds like this could be both easy and hard (Megan lives in Atlanta). We're very excited about it.
After that was ABe! That's right, Yoshitoshi ABe was there, just hanging out at MCAD. How ridiculous is that!? He talked through his translator about his art for about half an hour, then took questions. That was a funny experience :)
Lastly was the Manga Panel. I honestly don't know why they call it that since it's all the guests. Frenchy said it was the manga people, but that makes no sense since at least three of the guests don't deal with manga. It ended up being a cluster fuck of accusations about fansubbing, pirating and stealing. Crispin, usually at the forfront of these talks ended up sitting back and pouting. Kaylene and Vanessa ripped Megan a new one for no reason. I love them but their responses had nothign to do with what Megan was saying. Theresa ended up leaning over to me and asking if she should hold up a piece of paper that said "Ask a fashion question." We giggled. Crispin kinda lost his cool and tore a few people a new one. I was proud of him for saying what he said. There were a few people in the audience who thought they were cute and funny and were holding up signs asking for a change of subject. They were just mad because they weren't getting called on. It was immature and one of the ringleaders should know better. She gets away with a lot of this stuff very often. I don't understand why people baby her. She's in her 30s and should know how to act at a FUCKING ACADEMIC CONFERENCE! Jesus. Also, someone asked ABe if he read yaoi. *eyeroll*
Bah, so that was over, we all said our goodbyes to the guests. I chatted with Crispin about his paper, said I thought it was cute that he talked about Kel's paper and told, "I told you years ago that you'd like my brother! You don't listen!" He said, "Wait, Achilles is your brother!? You tell him he's the reason I was late to my own panel. His paper was great!" I said, "Duh, you two need to sit down and talk. For reals. Next year." He said, "Definately! He has a lot of good points of view!" I gave him a hug and walked off. I hugged and promised to talk more with Christopher and Theresa, hugged Marc and met up with the girls to leave.
So, Heather, Megan and I all went home to get Ryan for teh foodings. We decided to take her to Pizza Luce in Uptown (the best one). As with the whole weekend, an old lady asked "what we were dressed as" and if "we were in a play". I said we were dressed as ourselves and that if we were in a play, we'd be at a play right now instead of eating dinner leisurely in a restaraunt in our "costumes". She said we looked cute and went back to her business. Old ladies are weird and ballsy.
Megan, Heather, Ryan and Samm at Pizza Luce - More videos on my Myspace channel
After dinner we walked around Uptown. Ryan wanted to go to Maggers and Quinn to get me a birfday gift, but it had been sold two months earlier. He had apparently found a first edition of Alice in Wonderland 5 months ago and wanted to get it for me :( We had fun anyway and I ended up getting Brisingr and Oedipus Rex. Megan got a book on housekeeping or something:
We walked around a bit and showed her some funny stuff, then headed back to the house.
Heather headed home, Megan and I chatted for a long time, we ate cake and went to sleep.
The next day Heather came back so we could take Megan to SR Harris! We went to Lake Calhoun, got bagels and coffee, talked with tropigalia on speakerphone so she could fill us in on NYAF (eek), then we had a fabric filled adventure! I bought probably the least amount of stuff I've ever gotten at SRH. We packed up our purchases, went home, got Megan's stuff and Ryan and left. Heather took us all to the airport were she dropped us off and had to head out due to a fitting and getting her kid :)
Megan, Ryan and I ended up spending the next few hours in the airport Caribou talking about race, Dragoncon, Lolita, and other various ridiculous stories.
Then it was time to take her to the gate. So sad! We promised we'd try to get to her wedding this spring, hugged and left her :( Ryan and I went on an adventure to try and find the lightrail gate. We took the lightrail to the Mall of America to meet up with Jon when he got off work. We surprised him, bought some tea at Teavana (where he works), then ate foods at Chipotle. On our way to his car we walked through Nickelodeon Universe. I hadn't actually been in it since they changed it.
So yeah, Jon, Ryan and I went home, Jon dropped us off and Ryan and I relaxed for the first time in days.
For more pics, check out Myspace
Next Chapter: Epic post of Epicness - Final Chapter: All the orders ever starring purple lolita bridesmaid dresses, Dani's Wedding, my family birfday party and rocking out with Voltaire.
So, Sunday we got ready for our other class. This was mostly a history of Lolita recap/what's happening with Lolita outside of Japan class. We gathered a plethora of mooks and Heather, Megan and I were on our way. We got to the school and saw Christopher Bolton meandering around the halls outside. I asked what he was doing and he said he was there for my class. Funny! He ended up being the only man in the class which added some humor.
This class was TINY! There were three people, Heather, Christopher and a security guard. I was a little mad, but at least the people there seemed honestly interested in learning:
We ended up discussing feminism a LOT. This actually came in handy for a little talk the girls and I had later. We talked about the different reason for getting into Lolita and why they tend to differ greatly from the East to the West. It was great since people talked back and gave us things to think about. About halfway through Christopher popped out to watch the junior scholars. We ended up having an open forum kinda discussion after that until lunch.
At lunch we rocked the Otaku Bazaar again. I love that the OB always seems to pay for all the things I spend money on through the weekend. Heather made really good money that weekend!
After a little while, Christopher came to our table and told us he learned a lot about Lolita and that he really enjoyed our class. We also chatted a little bit about other things. Now, this is one of those guests that I am utterly fascinated by. He's there every year and looks like an imposing/nerdy college professor, but is very down to earth, honest and kind. A few years ago he did a great paper on Blood: the Last Vampire. He talked about how Saya is torn between being a vampire/vampire hunter and between being an American/Japanese citizen. As he talked I was very touched and the things he said reminded me of myself being black/white and raised in an all white town and how very often I felt betrayed and or unaccepted by both blacks and whites and how that was a main reason that I delved so deeply into subculture fashion. I talked to him about this after his presentation. Well, last year he actually came to me in the auditorium before leaving and apologized for not being able to talk to me more. I was surprised and flattered. He said what I'd said about his paper was one of the most touching compliments he'd ever gotten on a presentation. So, this year in his paper he actually referenced what I'd said in his paper about Momoru Oshii. So we talked about that at lunch and he reiterated that he loved what I'd had to say. That was very touching. Then he said Frenchy had been talking about my success as of late and that he was impressed. I then showed him my copy of the GLB, Megan and I chatted with him about our class, he asked to interview us for Mechademia and he headed off.
Kel got all the fangirls ever that weekend, btw. It didn't hurt that he was wearing the Madigan vest under his suit. I'm really proud of Kel. He did his Geek Girls paper that morning as a Junior Scholar and everyone seemed to love it. Frenchy is now a fangirl of my brother. It's pretty hilarious.
After lunch was Crispin's paper, "Mythological Anime: Mystics, Priestesses and Warrior Women." I love his papers because he is a giant research nerd and also a great presenter. His voice is very...hard to ignore basically. Love him or hate him (Ryan hates him, I think he's just fine), everyone loves his papers. My only gripe was the fact that he was another person to do a paper on strong women and not talk about 12 Kingdoms. It was very cute, though, he referenced my brother's paper at the very beginning of his paper.
Well, after his paper, Megan, Heather and I went out into the hall to chat. We discussed our paper, feminism, 12 Kingdoms, Lolita and media made for and starring girls. I told Megan about a paper I'd wanted to do for a few years that Frenchy had offered to help me with. We decided it'd be very easy to combine it with a feminist Lolita paper. You'll see, it'll be great. Well, Christopher came out and we chatted with him about it and he said it sounded good. We later also talked with Frenchy about it and she said we should do it and she'd help. My brother is also going to chat with his professor for help. It sounds like this could be both easy and hard (Megan lives in Atlanta). We're very excited about it.
After that was ABe! That's right, Yoshitoshi ABe was there, just hanging out at MCAD. How ridiculous is that!? He talked through his translator about his art for about half an hour, then took questions. That was a funny experience :)
Lastly was the Manga Panel. I honestly don't know why they call it that since it's all the guests. Frenchy said it was the manga people, but that makes no sense since at least three of the guests don't deal with manga. It ended up being a cluster fuck of accusations about fansubbing, pirating and stealing. Crispin, usually at the forfront of these talks ended up sitting back and pouting. Kaylene and Vanessa ripped Megan a new one for no reason. I love them but their responses had nothign to do with what Megan was saying. Theresa ended up leaning over to me and asking if she should hold up a piece of paper that said "Ask a fashion question." We giggled. Crispin kinda lost his cool and tore a few people a new one. I was proud of him for saying what he said. There were a few people in the audience who thought they were cute and funny and were holding up signs asking for a change of subject. They were just mad because they weren't getting called on. It was immature and one of the ringleaders should know better. She gets away with a lot of this stuff very often. I don't understand why people baby her. She's in her 30s and should know how to act at a FUCKING ACADEMIC CONFERENCE! Jesus. Also, someone asked ABe if he read yaoi. *eyeroll*
Bah, so that was over, we all said our goodbyes to the guests. I chatted with Crispin about his paper, said I thought it was cute that he talked about Kel's paper and told, "I told you years ago that you'd like my brother! You don't listen!" He said, "Wait, Achilles is your brother!? You tell him he's the reason I was late to my own panel. His paper was great!" I said, "Duh, you two need to sit down and talk. For reals. Next year." He said, "Definately! He has a lot of good points of view!" I gave him a hug and walked off. I hugged and promised to talk more with Christopher and Theresa, hugged Marc and met up with the girls to leave.
So, Heather, Megan and I all went home to get Ryan for teh foodings. We decided to take her to Pizza Luce in Uptown (the best one). As with the whole weekend, an old lady asked "what we were dressed as" and if "we were in a play". I said we were dressed as ourselves and that if we were in a play, we'd be at a play right now instead of eating dinner leisurely in a restaraunt in our "costumes". She said we looked cute and went back to her business. Old ladies are weird and ballsy.
Megan, Heather, Ryan and Samm at Pizza Luce - More videos on my Myspace channel
After dinner we walked around Uptown. Ryan wanted to go to Maggers and Quinn to get me a birfday gift, but it had been sold two months earlier. He had apparently found a first edition of Alice in Wonderland 5 months ago and wanted to get it for me :( We had fun anyway and I ended up getting Brisingr and Oedipus Rex. Megan got a book on housekeeping or something:
We walked around a bit and showed her some funny stuff, then headed back to the house.
Heather headed home, Megan and I chatted for a long time, we ate cake and went to sleep.
The next day Heather came back so we could take Megan to SR Harris! We went to Lake Calhoun, got bagels and coffee, talked with tropigalia on speakerphone so she could fill us in on NYAF (eek), then we had a fabric filled adventure! I bought probably the least amount of stuff I've ever gotten at SRH. We packed up our purchases, went home, got Megan's stuff and Ryan and left. Heather took us all to the airport were she dropped us off and had to head out due to a fitting and getting her kid :)
Megan, Ryan and I ended up spending the next few hours in the airport Caribou talking about race, Dragoncon, Lolita, and other various ridiculous stories.
Then it was time to take her to the gate. So sad! We promised we'd try to get to her wedding this spring, hugged and left her :( Ryan and I went on an adventure to try and find the lightrail gate. We took the lightrail to the Mall of America to meet up with Jon when he got off work. We surprised him, bought some tea at Teavana (where he works), then ate foods at Chipotle. On our way to his car we walked through Nickelodeon Universe. I hadn't actually been in it since they changed it.
So yeah, Jon, Ryan and I went home, Jon dropped us off and Ryan and I relaxed for the first time in days.
For more pics, check out Myspace
Next Chapter: Epic post of Epicness - Final Chapter: All the orders ever starring purple lolita bridesmaid dresses, Dani's Wedding, my family birfday party and rocking out with Voltaire.