Anthrocon 2012: June 14 - 18th
Once again I was able to attend Anthrocon out in Pittsburgh. Traveled out there early thursday with catmandux on MegaBus - tickets were bought early so they were only six bucks each way :)
Though gotta be honest, it was not an easy six bucks and I may have to rethink how I travel out there next time.
Travel
Going out to Pittsburgh wasn't so bad, although it's an almost eight hour trip via bus there was enough entertainment in my bag to keep me busy. Then a few hours from our destination we stopped at a Walmart for our pitstop and grabbed some food. The line waiting for the bus looked long but there weren't any issues with getting on board and we did have space where we sat so no one else was sitting next to us at our little four seat table near the front.
The return trip home was another story. Thankfully happypup was available to take the art purchases I'd gotten from the auction, no way that would have made it on board with me so I'd have probably been scrambling that monday to find a FedEx or something. The line was a lot longer this time around as well, the bus was close to capacity - and the luggage area was probably even more so. There was some drama near the end of the line, one guy had way too many large bags on him and was told they wouldn't be able to carry all that. He started off wondering why that was because he'd taken megabus to the con and hadn't had any problems with that much stuff, then when it became clear this wasn't changing any minds he switched from trying to convince them to pleading to downright on his hands and knees begging to let him on board. They told him to leave his stuff behind if he wanted to get on board - I think they could have come up with some better advice than that but... Finally after about five minutes of him in complete hysterics and on the verge of tears running back and forth from the baggage people who told him they wouldn't do it but to talk to the driver - so he ran to the driver who told him he wasn't going to decide shit and he needed to talk to the baggage people if they'd let him take the stuff on board. After about five minutes of that they closed the doors and the guy stormed off screaming and cursing at the three megabus employees present.
On top of that there was this... I want to say three year old on the bus who was extremely annoying. Constantly chattering, getting pretty loud at some points, throwing little tantrums; the parents were wrapped around her little finger - they'd just smile at her, maybe ask her politely to be quiet (which worked for... maybe a couple seconds). Compare that to another child about the same age sitting near us who was just with her mom and who was kept under the reins by said parent. She didn't get much of a peep out before the mom did the count to three - which quickly got the kid under control.
On top of those two dramas we had a bus that didn't have a single working outlet. I know I should have charged up my stuff more before the trip home (though to be honest, the plugs in the hotel were limited and/or didn't work well) but a couple hours after departing I was thankful I had at least a book which didn't need batteries.
Hotel
Stayed with catmandux and happypup again this year. Last year we decided next time to get a little closer to the convention so this year we stayed at the Westin... I'd forgotten how many issues there are with staying at the Westin. The elevator of course being the worst offender, it was a long wait getting downstairs and then of course the lines for going back up often looped around into this side hallway. One thing that had irked me a little in the last couple years at conventions was using fursuiters to go around with donation buckets to get more cash... but then at the Westin to be told for ten or twenty bucks you can get to the front of the line? Ugh, that rubbed me the wrong way a bit. And then apparently (because I was told multiple times) there was a "golden ticket" available at the charity auction which would allow the ownder front-line access all of next year's convention weekend. Uh no. I think next year I'll stick to one of the nearby hotels and just deal with the short walk instead of a long elevator wait.
Dealer's Room / Art Auction
It was a nice set-up this year, a lot more space. They'd opened up the next hall (if I'm remembering correctly from last year's set-up this was the fursuit parade room last year) and this allowed a lot more space to have the artist's alley and plenty left over for the art auction. The dealer's room was nicely spread out so there was no crowding in any of the lanes, some separate island booths were also set up for some of the publishers and such.
Although it was a nice set up I just couldn't really get into it for spending money. I mean I did spend some money but I don't think I bought near as much as I did last year. Some clothing items, some comics, and... that's about it from the dealer's room. Maybe I needed to set aside more time for wandering around the dealers. One nice surprise was finding the creater of Endtown was present and selling the first two collections of his comic. I spoke with him for a little bit and found that he'd only realized recently there was this whole furry thing and that his comic was popular with quite a number of furs.
The art auction I managed to outbid on a few purchases. Got a couple nice prints, a large Chad Krueger piece (if anyone has been over my place, he's the artist who created the snowboarding fox picture I own), a picture or two, and a fursuit related sketch. Unfortunately got outbid on a number of other items, a lot of which were those sorts of last minute bids that are usually a dollar or two higher than yours. But honestly, I have a lot of art at home (a lot of stuff I either don't have the space for or had bought mostly on a whim in previous years) and nothing screamed 'buy me!' this year so it wasn't a terrible loss.
Also managed to commission a very nice badge for one of my alt characters from the artist Artful Dodger... it has been a long time since I've commissioned a badge at a convention ^.^;;;
Fursuiting
Not a lot of fursuiting this year, or I should say not many fursuit excursions - I only went out in suit three times I think but during those romps managed to stay in suit about a few hours at a time... so, I was pretty drenched each time I got back to the hotel :P
The parade was a lot of fun but I really miss that first year's parade at the convention center - everyone jokes about it being a death march but I loved doing a long parade. What tends to kill you is the wait beforehand or trying to get back to your room when the fursuit line at the elevators is longer than the regular line ^.^;;;
Managed to go out and about the city those few times I was in suit - you don't often feel like you can walk around the surrounding area at a convention so I wanted to take advantage of that. Would be nicer to be able to find those pics later on but it's awesome just to see so many non-convention folks happy or weirded out to see you.
Folks
I'm sad to say the biggest reason for going to a con got the least attention from me this year. I didn't see too many people :(
I would like to give a shout-out to thegreenarcher for giving me a shirt to his awesome new convention that starts this year Furry End of the World - wore that a bit in suit the last day.
Ah, and I would like to also mention that over the past few years I've spotted this guy Royce at some conventions (all I really remembered was he wears a straw hat). I only remember briefly meeting him back in... 2004, 2005? I was introduced to him by martin_wuff (aka Walter - a fellow graduate of my college who 'long story short' I hadn't seen since I graduated then bumped into at a furry con, realized he was a furry, and then off and on hung out with a few times over a year period and then never heard from again after his change in job, change in location, change to married status). So I've been curious so when I spotted Royce again while I was picking up my art from the auction sunday I started chatting up with him and at first I thought I might've mixed him up with someone else because he couldn't remember me and I guess I mixed up stating who Martin was so he didn't realize who I was talking about... but then did find out he was who I thought he was and he was a friend of Walt's but just like me he hadn't heard from him in a long time. I mentioned how he kinda disappeared after getting married and that apparently was more information than he knew - as he said "girls ruin everything" :P Well, I guess I can still get info from Walt's facebook page which he still updates... once in awhile but it would have been nice to hear he's still in the fandom at least nominally from another person I thought knew him but ah well.
Etc
It was awesome to see the guest of honor Sardyuon's act (old video in that link, I'll post my own vid when I get a chance). I was heading back to the hotel friday and noticed his performance was that day, grabbed a seat and watched an awesome show! Many know the confinement of wearing a suit - the heat, the movement restrictions, especially the vision restrictions - so it's awesome to see just how far someone can go with acrobatics while in one of those things.
Saturday I attended the annual wine-tasting party with Cat & Happy. As per the price of admission we each brought a bottle of wine, I had been holding onto one I received as a gift from my boss from a couple years back. I think we managed to taste almost everything they had available, a few even fit my narrow wine tastes :)
Y'know, I think it's great that so many folks went out and donated to keep Fernando's open at least one more year... shows a lot about the furry community that it will go so out of its way for those who have shown something to the community. On the other paw, I gotta admit that I'm not really much of a customer of Fernando's. I think I ate there once the first year I was at the con (2006) and since then I've found other restaurants I've enjoyed more. And to top it off, one restaurant I really enjoyed last year (which for whatever reason I missed in previous years) has closed before the con started. I really was looking forward towards getting another shirt and some sandwiches from Cory's - I loved how at least for the two previous years they had an artist design a shirt with their bull mascot and the theme of the con. Sad to see them go.
Pictures
I haven't uploaded anything from my camera but I plan on editing this post later to include some.
Though gotta be honest, it was not an easy six bucks and I may have to rethink how I travel out there next time.
Travel
Going out to Pittsburgh wasn't so bad, although it's an almost eight hour trip via bus there was enough entertainment in my bag to keep me busy. Then a few hours from our destination we stopped at a Walmart for our pitstop and grabbed some food. The line waiting for the bus looked long but there weren't any issues with getting on board and we did have space where we sat so no one else was sitting next to us at our little four seat table near the front.
The return trip home was another story. Thankfully happypup was available to take the art purchases I'd gotten from the auction, no way that would have made it on board with me so I'd have probably been scrambling that monday to find a FedEx or something. The line was a lot longer this time around as well, the bus was close to capacity - and the luggage area was probably even more so. There was some drama near the end of the line, one guy had way too many large bags on him and was told they wouldn't be able to carry all that. He started off wondering why that was because he'd taken megabus to the con and hadn't had any problems with that much stuff, then when it became clear this wasn't changing any minds he switched from trying to convince them to pleading to downright on his hands and knees begging to let him on board. They told him to leave his stuff behind if he wanted to get on board - I think they could have come up with some better advice than that but... Finally after about five minutes of him in complete hysterics and on the verge of tears running back and forth from the baggage people who told him they wouldn't do it but to talk to the driver - so he ran to the driver who told him he wasn't going to decide shit and he needed to talk to the baggage people if they'd let him take the stuff on board. After about five minutes of that they closed the doors and the guy stormed off screaming and cursing at the three megabus employees present.
On top of that there was this... I want to say three year old on the bus who was extremely annoying. Constantly chattering, getting pretty loud at some points, throwing little tantrums; the parents were wrapped around her little finger - they'd just smile at her, maybe ask her politely to be quiet (which worked for... maybe a couple seconds). Compare that to another child about the same age sitting near us who was just with her mom and who was kept under the reins by said parent. She didn't get much of a peep out before the mom did the count to three - which quickly got the kid under control.
On top of those two dramas we had a bus that didn't have a single working outlet. I know I should have charged up my stuff more before the trip home (though to be honest, the plugs in the hotel were limited and/or didn't work well) but a couple hours after departing I was thankful I had at least a book which didn't need batteries.
Hotel
Stayed with catmandux and happypup again this year. Last year we decided next time to get a little closer to the convention so this year we stayed at the Westin... I'd forgotten how many issues there are with staying at the Westin. The elevator of course being the worst offender, it was a long wait getting downstairs and then of course the lines for going back up often looped around into this side hallway. One thing that had irked me a little in the last couple years at conventions was using fursuiters to go around with donation buckets to get more cash... but then at the Westin to be told for ten or twenty bucks you can get to the front of the line? Ugh, that rubbed me the wrong way a bit. And then apparently (because I was told multiple times) there was a "golden ticket" available at the charity auction which would allow the ownder front-line access all of next year's convention weekend. Uh no. I think next year I'll stick to one of the nearby hotels and just deal with the short walk instead of a long elevator wait.
Dealer's Room / Art Auction
It was a nice set-up this year, a lot more space. They'd opened up the next hall (if I'm remembering correctly from last year's set-up this was the fursuit parade room last year) and this allowed a lot more space to have the artist's alley and plenty left over for the art auction. The dealer's room was nicely spread out so there was no crowding in any of the lanes, some separate island booths were also set up for some of the publishers and such.
Although it was a nice set up I just couldn't really get into it for spending money. I mean I did spend some money but I don't think I bought near as much as I did last year. Some clothing items, some comics, and... that's about it from the dealer's room. Maybe I needed to set aside more time for wandering around the dealers. One nice surprise was finding the creater of Endtown was present and selling the first two collections of his comic. I spoke with him for a little bit and found that he'd only realized recently there was this whole furry thing and that his comic was popular with quite a number of furs.
The art auction I managed to outbid on a few purchases. Got a couple nice prints, a large Chad Krueger piece (if anyone has been over my place, he's the artist who created the snowboarding fox picture I own), a picture or two, and a fursuit related sketch. Unfortunately got outbid on a number of other items, a lot of which were those sorts of last minute bids that are usually a dollar or two higher than yours. But honestly, I have a lot of art at home (a lot of stuff I either don't have the space for or had bought mostly on a whim in previous years) and nothing screamed 'buy me!' this year so it wasn't a terrible loss.
Also managed to commission a very nice badge for one of my alt characters from the artist Artful Dodger... it has been a long time since I've commissioned a badge at a convention ^.^;;;
Fursuiting
Not a lot of fursuiting this year, or I should say not many fursuit excursions - I only went out in suit three times I think but during those romps managed to stay in suit about a few hours at a time... so, I was pretty drenched each time I got back to the hotel :P
The parade was a lot of fun but I really miss that first year's parade at the convention center - everyone jokes about it being a death march but I loved doing a long parade. What tends to kill you is the wait beforehand or trying to get back to your room when the fursuit line at the elevators is longer than the regular line ^.^;;;
Managed to go out and about the city those few times I was in suit - you don't often feel like you can walk around the surrounding area at a convention so I wanted to take advantage of that. Would be nicer to be able to find those pics later on but it's awesome just to see so many non-convention folks happy or weirded out to see you.
Folks
I'm sad to say the biggest reason for going to a con got the least attention from me this year. I didn't see too many people :(
I would like to give a shout-out to thegreenarcher for giving me a shirt to his awesome new convention that starts this year Furry End of the World - wore that a bit in suit the last day.
Ah, and I would like to also mention that over the past few years I've spotted this guy Royce at some conventions (all I really remembered was he wears a straw hat). I only remember briefly meeting him back in... 2004, 2005? I was introduced to him by martin_wuff (aka Walter - a fellow graduate of my college who 'long story short' I hadn't seen since I graduated then bumped into at a furry con, realized he was a furry, and then off and on hung out with a few times over a year period and then never heard from again after his change in job, change in location, change to married status). So I've been curious so when I spotted Royce again while I was picking up my art from the auction sunday I started chatting up with him and at first I thought I might've mixed him up with someone else because he couldn't remember me and I guess I mixed up stating who Martin was so he didn't realize who I was talking about... but then did find out he was who I thought he was and he was a friend of Walt's but just like me he hadn't heard from him in a long time. I mentioned how he kinda disappeared after getting married and that apparently was more information than he knew - as he said "girls ruin everything" :P Well, I guess I can still get info from Walt's facebook page which he still updates... once in awhile but it would have been nice to hear he's still in the fandom at least nominally from another person I thought knew him but ah well.
Etc
It was awesome to see the guest of honor Sardyuon's act (old video in that link, I'll post my own vid when I get a chance). I was heading back to the hotel friday and noticed his performance was that day, grabbed a seat and watched an awesome show! Many know the confinement of wearing a suit - the heat, the movement restrictions, especially the vision restrictions - so it's awesome to see just how far someone can go with acrobatics while in one of those things.
Saturday I attended the annual wine-tasting party with Cat & Happy. As per the price of admission we each brought a bottle of wine, I had been holding onto one I received as a gift from my boss from a couple years back. I think we managed to taste almost everything they had available, a few even fit my narrow wine tastes :)
Y'know, I think it's great that so many folks went out and donated to keep Fernando's open at least one more year... shows a lot about the furry community that it will go so out of its way for those who have shown something to the community. On the other paw, I gotta admit that I'm not really much of a customer of Fernando's. I think I ate there once the first year I was at the con (2006) and since then I've found other restaurants I've enjoyed more. And to top it off, one restaurant I really enjoyed last year (which for whatever reason I missed in previous years) has closed before the con started. I really was looking forward towards getting another shirt and some sandwiches from Cory's - I loved how at least for the two previous years they had an artist design a shirt with their bull mascot and the theme of the con. Sad to see them go.
Pictures
I haven't uploaded anything from my camera but I plan on editing this post later to include some.