AC 2023: Panels and Moments
Typing up that last post made me realize how much of a con like AC can revolve around food and drink. But there’s lots more to such a weekend-long event … isn’t there?
I’ve already covered my preparations and outward trip rather comprehensively, and also our first night when we discovered Bridges and Bourbon, so let’s fast forward beyond that to Thursday, my first full day in Pittsburgh and the first semi-full day of AC.
One of the first - and best - of the weekend’s Memorable Moments came early on, while Cedric and I were on our way to Registration Thursday shortly before noon. At one point along William Penn Place there’s a sidewalk grate that seems to perpetually blast strong currents of air up from subterranean regions unseen, to the point where it almost resembled the hippo-drying station from “Zootopia.” Well, it must have struck at least one other attendee the same way, because when Cedric suddenly burst out laughing as we were walking and I turned to see what he found so amusing, I beheld a fursuiter positioned over that grate a la Marilyn Monroe in “The 7 Year Itch,” striking various poses with their long fur whipping upward in that man-made gale while a cohort snapped numerous photos. We’ll never know if it was the suiter’s idea or the photographer’s - or, for that matter, whether it was a spur-of-the-moment thing or something they’d organized - but whatever the case, it was hysterical to see, and provided a wonderful moment of levity to help get the day started.
(There was also one sign along this same stretch of William Penn Place around whose base was piled a huge amount of cigarette butts. I made it a running gag to point at it every time we passed and remark, “Someone sure likes their cigarettes.” I suspect Cedric found this example of Dad Humor wearing very thin very quickly, and before the weekend was halfway over even I had grown tired of its lameness. But it was fun while it lasted. At least to me.)
After Registration and our fine lunch at Talia, we had lots of time to kill before Opening Ceremonies at 5:00, and I thought a wider walk around downtown Pittsburgh might be a fun thing to do, even masked up to protect against the still-lingering Canadian smoke haze. I originally hoped to walk all the way down to “the Point,” the tip of the main city where all three rivers come together; the lavish park there had been closed due to construction and renovation during my first couple of visits in 2006 and 2007, and then I’d never found the opportunity to make it down there in any subsequent years. (Soggy and I did get a very nice view of it from the river when we took the fursuit-friendly cruise the first year that those started.) So, I led Cedric back under the DLCC, where the waterfall path was now fully gushing with loud, cooling effect, and down to the riverwalk, along which we set out. As luck would have it, two of the three famous Yellow Bridge were closed and under refurbishment, the last of the three so much so that the path was closed and we couldn’t even walk beneath it. Sadly, we were forced to ascend to the main streets of Pittsburgh, by which time we both agreed it would be too tiring to walk all the way down to the Point and that we’d best turn back toward the hotel. By this time we were far enough away from the DLCC that our looping return trip still showed us some new and interesting parts of the city, including a theater district with numerous venues of varying sizes (one looked big enough to hold quasi-arena-sized concerts) and a small corner park where we stopped to rest our weary legs for a few minutes whilst various bird life cavorted around us, not the least intimidated by the presence of humans. Had it not been for the smoke, perhaps we might have made it to the Point after all, but that shall now have to wait at least one more year.
Resting up in Room 1458 for the short remainder of that afternoon - time spent studying our Pocket Program and other con printed material (sadly, there seemed to be no Dining Guide this year, which would have helped us out greatly in determining what eateries we might best suit our needs and tastes) - we headed back out around 4:30 to reach the DLCC in time for Opening Ceremonies. The Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom was pretty full by the time we got there - apparently they’d learned a thing or two from that morning’s advanced opening of Registration about letting folks in early to popular events - and only got more full after we’d scored some decent seats of our own, to the point where an authoritative voice through the PA system told us to raise our hands if we had an empty chair next to us so that latecomers could still find a seat. While waiting for the ceremonies to commence, we chuckled at the life-sized cardboard standee of Kage in profile shouting through a bullhorn, and also marveled at the illuminated backdrop depicting the skyline of downtown Pittsburgh - the first time I can ever recall Opening Ceremonies having such elaborate trappings. A last Kage himself came out on stage, joined by Ronnie Noodles, the red dragon who in recent years seems to have become another of AC’s semi-official spokesmen (spokes-dragon?). After half an hour or so of giving the rundown of all this con would have to offer (along with the usual dose of cautionary advisements, including defacement of city, DLCC and hotel property with stickers, a recurring issue) AC 2023 was officially declared open. Hooray!
This being Thursday, and panels being somewhat sparse that first evening, Cedric and I hit up Pizza Parm/Fernando’s/Furnando’s for our quick dinner then headed back to the DLCC, wandered around it a bit and then made our way to what would be our one and only panel that evening: “Legal Funhouse” with Boozy Badger and Alkali, both of whom showed up while the previous meet-and-greet in their room was still winding down and thus were able to give us early arrivers an impromptu bonus preview of their shenanigans to come. (The phrase “You cannot 3D print a baby!” will now live in AC infamy.) I had never attended one of these particular panels before, which turned out to be a live performance of a regular podcast conducted by these two zany luminaries, but I had seen enough of Boozy and Alkali in enough other previous outings to have a good idea what to expect, in terms of tone if not content. For this program, the theme centers around picking a specific legal case and then dissecting it for maximum comedic and outrageous effect - in this instance, a young woman whose cause of death was fraudulently documented by a lazy and prejudiced coroner, causing undue pain and suffering to the surviving family. Both Alkali and the audience groaned and gasped at all the insane legal convolutions of the case as Boozy took us through them, and by the end one could only conclude that the legal system truly is bonkers.
Later that night, Alkali was due to host another panel, his own manic version of MST3K where he’d be lampooning a film in real (reel?) time. However, that didn’t start until 10:00, and neither of us felt like staying up that late after our somewhat tiring day, so we skipped it. Maybe next year!
The following morning - the first full day of the con - presented us with something of a dilemma, panel-wise, since there were two scheduled opposite each other at 11:00 that were both of interest. In the end, we blew off “So This Is Your First Con” - a panel I’ve never attended, not even when it WAS my first con - in favor of “Overcoming Shyness and Anxiety.” In the end, it was … not the best panel I’ve attended, to put it charitably. I think most of the people in the audience could have stepped onstage and done as good a job, if not better, than our rambling presenter. Guess we should have gone with “First Con.” In fact, I ducked out before the panel was over, as did several others, because the Dealer’s Room opened at 12:00, and I wanted to spend a bit of time there before my next panel of interest.
My luck with panels was decidedly mixed that day. If the “Overcoming Shyness” presenter did a less than stellar job, at least his panel HAD a moderator - which is more than can be said for the “Whovians” gathering I hit up at 2:00. This meet-and-greet for all things “Doctor Who” turned out to be literally just that, as the room filled with interested and eager attendees who all found themselves staring at each other while waiting for a moderator who never showed up. (Not entirely accurate; someone who appeared to possibly be the moderator DID show up partway into the event, having run off at the start because something she had planned on doing wasn’t working right and she was trying to get it fixed, but by then her panel had taken on a life of its own, and she was late to her own party.) So, we simply all started talking amongst ourselves, and soon we were having a great time, each table engaged in its own little mini-discussion of our favorite British TV show. I ended up seated next to a fursuiter (a nice bat costume, even if he had the head off for this panel) with a pronounced British accent, and the two of us joined with our tablemates for lively ruminations on the programme. (At one point, Mr. BritBat recalled one particularly memorable Tennant episode featuring the Master by tapping out the quadruple-heartbeat pattern on the tabletop, getting us all to join in until our entire table was pounding out a primitive rhythm with our fingertips. Great moment!)
After that I adjourned back to the Dealer’s Room for a while before returning to the Omni and joining Cedric for our dinner at the Tap Room. By a little after 6:00 we were headed back to the DLCC for … Uncle Kage’s Story Hour! Which, this year for the first time, was held not in the Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom (which was apparently reserved exclusively for music and dance events this time around) but rather in Hall C. During his performance, Kage pointed out the interesting historical fact that in 2006, AC’s first year in Pittsburgh, the *entire con* - Dealer’s Room, Artist’s Alley, Art Show and Con Store - all fit in this space, the smallest of the three halls on that level. (By comparison, this year we sprawled out through Halls A and B combined, either of which by itself is bigger than Hall C.) Sadly, that was one of the few things I could clearly hear Kage say during his time on stage; sadly, the acoustics in Hall C aren’t nearly as clear as in the SoP Ballroom, leading to echoey and garbled sound through the PA. I thought it might have just been me (these old drummer’s ear, y’know) but after it was over Cedric admitted that he too had a lot of trouble making out what Kage was saying, so I guess it was the room and the setup that was the problem. Hopefully next year they’ll put him back in the SoP Ballroom, where we can all more properly enjoy him.
After that I was off to the Artists and Dealer’s reception, while Cedric went off on his own. And then I retreated to the hotel, not finding anything else on the schedule for the remainder of that night to keep me out and about that late.
That would actually be the theme for much of the rest of the weekend, in fact. The following day, Saturday, found the Main Event bookended by two other happenings about which I’ve already written: the Supersponsor Brunch and the Furry Block Party. But in between those came … the Fursuit Parade! As previously mentioned, Cedric and I were able to rendezvous beneath the DLCC and secure adjoining seats for this spectacle, which this year went on … and on … and on … just like in other recent years, only moreso. And with an astounding 2,562 suiters in this year’s Parade, that shouldn’t strike anyone as surprising. Someone recording the event later told us that it lasted an hour and twenty minutes, exceeding last year’s by a good ten minutes or so. Cedric mentioned that his ears were actually ringing by the time it was all over - at which point I informed him that in some previous years I’d sat in some of the REALLY loud parts of the audience, and that what he experienced was only around half as loud and raucous as it could get. For his first Fursuit Parade, I think it made quite an impression on my young cohort.
Back in the hotel room after the block party and dinner (and that brief storm) we both pored over our Pocket Programs and determined that there really wasn’t anything else we wanted to attend - and even if we had been on the fence about a semi-tempting performance or panel, one look out the hotel window at the rain that had kicked up again was enough to convince us to hunker down for the evening.
An early bedtime allowed for a full night’s sleep and an early rising for a shower and breakfast before heading out for the final day’s events. First up was another quick run through the Dealer’s Room, followed by the closing of the Art Show Auction - all done while I was festooned with over a dozen “Zootopia” character badges in preparation for my 1:00 panel. In fact, once the Art Show started closing at noon, it soon became apparent that the staff were taking SO long to cordon off each section that they’d never reach my own pieces before I’d have to leave for my panel, and thus, yet again, I was forced to withdraw with my bids undefended, in the hopes that they’d stand in my absence. I would have to wait until after the dust had settled elsewhere before I could return to see what, if anything, I’d won.
This year, for the second consecutive year, my original “Zootopia” panel cohost Skarlath was unable to make AC and his place was taken by AnthroCoon. (Never sure whether to capitalize that “C” or not.) As someone who not only attended and recorded every panel of mine going back to the first one in 2016 but who has also attended EVERY Anthrocon (think they started in 1998?), and is also an experienced radio host as well, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. And our table, this time around, just happened to be in Room 407 of the DLCC - which is to say, the spacious lecture hall with tiered stadium seating sufficient to accommodate several hundred. Definitely not the venue I’d expected!
I arrived quite a few minutes early (unlike last year) and found the doors to the room closed. Pressing my ear to the door, I could hear loud sounds coming from within. Not wanting to disturb whatever event was going on in there before mine, I pulled out my Pocket Program and discovered there WAS no event scheduled in there before mine. This time I cracked the door open and peered through it to reveal an empty hall, with not a single seat occupied. Curious, I stepped further in, and only then discovered Mr. AnthroCoon himself seated at our presentation table fiddling with his multimedia setup; turned out the loud noises I’d heard were the result of him testing some audio through the PA system. Nothing like punctuality! And speaking of the sound system, we quickly discovered that we’d only been given one microphone for our presentation, in spite of the fact there would be two presenters. Shades of my very first panel in 2016! In this case, even though it was a much bigger room, we ended up getting by mostly without the mike at all, after Mr. Coon had run down to Con Ops before the start of the panel to request a second without any positive results.
If I had to guess, I’d say attendance was in the 40-50 range, although I never took any kind of proper count. Soggy was always the one to monitor such things in the course of handing out the raffle tickets, but without him there this year, there was neither an accurate headcount nor a raffle, our poor attendees having to go prizeless. And in spite of the sound hiccups, the panel went well, as it always seems to, with plenty of audience participation to pad things out and move them along. Add in AnthroCoon’s occasional showing of clips and trailers on the main screen behind us, and that ninety minutes went by as fast as any of my previous panels. We talked a fair amount about the “Zootopia+” TV show (can it really be called a “TV show” if it’s streaming?) and what we hoped to see in the recently-announced sequel (which hopefully, as of this writing, will not be cancelled due to tumult at Disney from earnings shortfalls and the current writers/actors strike). We covered a fair number of points from previous years, but a show of hands at the beginning revealed that roughly two-thirds of this audience was brand new to my panel, so to them it would all be new anyway. Basically we all just talked about what we wanted to talk about, and with AnthroCoon chiming in more frequently than Skarlath usually did, the entire event was more unscripted and freewheeling than ever. But everyone seemed to have a good time, and that’s what counts.
As luck (or logistics) would have it, AnthroCoon managed to schedule his own Classic Cartoons panel immediately after our “Zootopia” one in the same room, so at some point I simply left the stage and let him take over the proceedings. Cedric stayed behind in the audience, and as much as I would have loved to remain as well to hear and contribute to my cohost’s solo presentation, circumstances simply would not allow it. At that point the Dealer’s Room would be open for less than an hour and a half for the remainder of the con, and there were still some transactions I wished to pursue. So pursue them I did, right up until the final minutes, after checking my bids in the Art Show to see how they’d held up. This final round also included a nice, extended chat with Tempe O’kun, one of my favorite authors in the fandom, at the FurPlanet tables, during which he signed my copy of “Manifest Destiny” that I had brought with me for that purpose. Moving on from Tempe, my discovery that two of my favored artists were able to take debit card payments at their tables led me to lavish them with some generous last-minute purchases I’d not have otherwise been able to make, my cash supply running quite low at that point. Fortified with some nice Extra Arts, I ambled over to the Art Show to check out and pay for the quartet of pieces I’d won there, hoping that the line wouldn’t be too long.
It was. Too long. Perhaps the most egregious I’d ever seen it. So much so that I stood on that line from a few minutes before 4:00 until twenty minutes past 5:00 - which meant that, for one of the very few times in my AC attendance history, I was forced to miss Closing Ceremonies. And with all the historical facts and figures due to be announced there, this was one year I really did not want to miss it. Oh well. (Cedric, who did attend, texted me the news that 2023’s total registered attendance was a record-shattering 13,644 - not only the first time AC has broken the 10,000 mark, but also beating Midwest Furfest by literally just a few people to reclaim the title as the LARGEST FURRY CONVENTION IN THE WORLD!!!! Erhrm. Pardon my excitement there, but that was exciting! (Cedric also later asked whether Kage was always that drunk at Closing Ceremonies. Not having been there myself, I couldn’t honestly say how this year’s inebriation compared to past years’, but I did inform my roomie that Closing Ceremonies are always preceded by the Charity Comedy Show, which meant that Kage had been sipping nonstop for at least ninety minutes prior to Closing Ceremonies even getting underway.)
I’ve related how we got together with Dave F. for dinner at Bill’s Burgers Sunday night - a gathering that would not have been possible without our cell phones to coordinate the whole thing, since this would be the first I was seeing Cedric since the “Zootopia” panel - but after dinner, Dave invited us for a drive to see Pittsburgh from a completely different perspective. Ambling over to the DLCC parking garage and piling into Dave’s car (I discovered on this occasion he does NOT like parking garages) he treated us to a trip across the Monongahela and up the seriously winding roads to the ridge overlooking the city. (On the way there we passed the famous Buca di Beppo restaurant where for many years AnthroCoon has organized his traditional Thursday night gathering to unofficially open AC for those inclined to join him. Never got around to asking him what he did this year with Opening Ceremonies moved to Thursday evening.) Now Dave had given me this same tour back in 2018, the first year we were able to get together, but on that occasion night had already fallen, and as beautiful as it was to see the city skyline lit up at night, that could hardly compare to the breathtaking vistas that met our eyes this time. It was really something to see, and I offer the good Mr. Dave my heartfelt thanks for giving us both this opportunity to do so. A fine movable host he was!
And, that’s pretty much it as far as panels, presentations and events worthy of mention this year. I’m sure there were many other passing moments that all conspired and congealed to make up the Total Anthrocon Experience, just as in all years, but those are destined to rattle around in imperfect memory for occasional revisitation when my neural pathways allow. For now, I think I have documented the weekend sufficiently, and so now it is time to turn to … the Arts!