Otakon 2008! - Con Photos
At last, at last, I'm ready to post my con photos! These will probably go in a couple of posts.
First off! Con Report and General Con Pix!
I took off from Boston an hour late, thanks to the usual storms, but that meant I got to see some nice sunset colors.
Lina (chibi_plum) and Chris met me at BWI airport and we hurried back to the convention center so I could get my badge. Chris graciously took care of my bags while Lina and I met up with Bob (bobbarker) and Gi (rpgi). I got my badge just before registration closed, as well as my 18+ ID bracelet, and headed to Amber's midnight panel, "What? Why? Hentai!"
My friend Amber:
She's a former professional exotic dancer and dominatrix, and currently runs hentai/yaoi/yuri doujinshi booths at most north/east cons. This time, she was helping her BF Brian's vinyl decal booth (whenever I needed a break, I'd stop at their booth for a little while and assemble wares for them, heh). Her panel was excellent, and very very well attended. The line was stupidly long, so I hung out at the entrance waiting for her and Brian to show up, and she let me in ahead of the crowd. I worked off the debt by passing out a HELL of a lot of fliers - vocabulary sheets covering hentai terms from "ashikoki" ("footjob - using ones feet to manipulate a sex partner's penis, often part of foot fetish hentai;" not to be confused with "tamakeri," which is "a festish that involves men being kicked in the testicles") to "zenera" ("completely nude - a genre of porn depicting women performing every day tasks they would usually perform clothed"). Suffice to say, her panel was highly educational, and she's a great public speaker, obviously very comfortable in front of a crowd. At AnimeNext, she started her panel at 10 and finally invoked a mercy rule and ended the panel at 4 AM. She has no problem keeping a panel going once she gets into the question and answer period, but unfortunately, the Baltimore Convention Center closes at 2, and thus they forced her to end her panel at 1:30, after only an hour and a half.
I went back to where I was staying in the Marriott with Lina, Chris, Tiffany, Heather, and Mel, to crash and rest for Saturday!
Saturday I spent a long time in the morning wandering around the convention center, which is enormous. A few shots:
The Charles Street Lobby, above the fountains, much smaller than the registration lobby:
Balcony over the Fountain Lobby:
Also near the Fountain Lobby. "You didn't register! You're not on the list!" "I totally registered! See, I have the bag!" "WTF, where's your badge?"
Video Game Room in one of the basement exhibit halls:
Another basement exhibit hall was the dealer's room. Holy crap HUGE. Here's the Bandai booth, where Lina and Chris were working most of Saturday.
It's tough to see, but this dealer is holding a ridiculously long blade. It's like 7 or 8 feet long. It would be impossible to draw. But it's still friggin' sweet.
The convention center is home to a large collection of model ships. There's a great big model Roman warship in one area, which was used in the filming of "Ben-Hur."
A whole bunch of us went out to dinner Saturday night at a neat little sushi place, and I stuffed myself on seaweed salad, edamame (CRACK), and sushi (mmm, fresh salmon!). There were origami cranes hanging from the cieling. Maybe even 1000 of them.
I was dressed as Death then, and I took this quick photo in the mirror at the other side of the room.
After dinner, Bob and I came back and met John (count_de_sang) and a bunch of his friends at the Wharf Rat for some drinks. I then headed back to the hotel and changed to something a little more dance/rave-ish for the evening, and headed back over to the con where I spent a long time hanging around in the Fountain Lobby taking photos of cosplayers, and ducked into a screening to watch a few episodes of "Vampire Knight." I went in to the rave at one point, but it was VERY hot, smelled VERY bad (ugh, con-funk), and I was nervous that when I stood still, I could feel the floor shaking in time with everyone jumping up and down on it, so I headed back to the hotel to crash. I tried to stay up to watch "Higurashi" ("When They Cry"/"When the Cicadas Cry") with Lina, Mel, and Heather, but I couldn't keep my eyes open, and I zonked out.
Impromptu Limbo Contest on Sunday in the Fountain Lobby:
The Convention Center is right beside the bay, where there is an aquarium, a Barnes and Noble inside an old power company, a large 3-masted ship called the Constellation, and paddle dragon-boats! This is a composite of 2 photos.
Not far from the convention center is a huge fountain easily accessible by a sky walk. It's great for photoshoots:
I was there for a bit on Sunday, doing a "Higurashi" photoshoot for Tiffany, Lina, and Heather (some of which came out AWESOME!), and Chris drove me from there to the airport (LOL, I had to change out of my cosplay in the airport bathroom!) for my 6:30 flight home. I hadn't been there long when I learned that my flight back to Boston had been canceled - storms had caused such delays that the flight from Baltimore to Boston would have put the crew over the legal limit of time they are permitted to fly at once, so Air Traffic Control grounded the plane on grounds of crew legality, and there was no spare crew on hand. Some people were very upset - one woman was practically in conniptions, which was ridiculous because she was supposed to be on the 4:30 flight but missed it. HAHAHA, doofus. Bet that's the last time she'll miss the flight she's supposed to be on - but of course, she was trying to throw all the blame and her bad attitude on the poor ticketing agents. I rebooked my flight for the earliest available, 6:30 AM the following morning, and called Chris to seek a ride and some crash space. Lina and Chris, I SO cannot thank you enough for letting me stay! I took a bunch of photos of their 3 cats, which I'll put up for you guys in a separate post :)
My flight back to Boston was again in the rain (is anyone surprised?) But I took a few shots of the city when we landed:
And this tape graffiti, which someone industiously managed to put on the sloped roof, pretty much sums up Otakon:
First off! Con Report and General Con Pix!
I took off from Boston an hour late, thanks to the usual storms, but that meant I got to see some nice sunset colors.
Lina (chibi_plum) and Chris met me at BWI airport and we hurried back to the convention center so I could get my badge. Chris graciously took care of my bags while Lina and I met up with Bob (bobbarker) and Gi (rpgi). I got my badge just before registration closed, as well as my 18+ ID bracelet, and headed to Amber's midnight panel, "What? Why? Hentai!"
My friend Amber:
She's a former professional exotic dancer and dominatrix, and currently runs hentai/yaoi/yuri doujinshi booths at most north/east cons. This time, she was helping her BF Brian's vinyl decal booth (whenever I needed a break, I'd stop at their booth for a little while and assemble wares for them, heh). Her panel was excellent, and very very well attended. The line was stupidly long, so I hung out at the entrance waiting for her and Brian to show up, and she let me in ahead of the crowd. I worked off the debt by passing out a HELL of a lot of fliers - vocabulary sheets covering hentai terms from "ashikoki" ("footjob - using ones feet to manipulate a sex partner's penis, often part of foot fetish hentai;" not to be confused with "tamakeri," which is "a festish that involves men being kicked in the testicles") to "zenera" ("completely nude - a genre of porn depicting women performing every day tasks they would usually perform clothed"). Suffice to say, her panel was highly educational, and she's a great public speaker, obviously very comfortable in front of a crowd. At AnimeNext, she started her panel at 10 and finally invoked a mercy rule and ended the panel at 4 AM. She has no problem keeping a panel going once she gets into the question and answer period, but unfortunately, the Baltimore Convention Center closes at 2, and thus they forced her to end her panel at 1:30, after only an hour and a half.
I went back to where I was staying in the Marriott with Lina, Chris, Tiffany, Heather, and Mel, to crash and rest for Saturday!
Saturday I spent a long time in the morning wandering around the convention center, which is enormous. A few shots:
The Charles Street Lobby, above the fountains, much smaller than the registration lobby:
Balcony over the Fountain Lobby:
Also near the Fountain Lobby. "You didn't register! You're not on the list!" "I totally registered! See, I have the bag!" "WTF, where's your badge?"
Video Game Room in one of the basement exhibit halls:
Another basement exhibit hall was the dealer's room. Holy crap HUGE. Here's the Bandai booth, where Lina and Chris were working most of Saturday.
It's tough to see, but this dealer is holding a ridiculously long blade. It's like 7 or 8 feet long. It would be impossible to draw. But it's still friggin' sweet.
The convention center is home to a large collection of model ships. There's a great big model Roman warship in one area, which was used in the filming of "Ben-Hur."
A whole bunch of us went out to dinner Saturday night at a neat little sushi place, and I stuffed myself on seaweed salad, edamame (CRACK), and sushi (mmm, fresh salmon!). There were origami cranes hanging from the cieling. Maybe even 1000 of them.
I was dressed as Death then, and I took this quick photo in the mirror at the other side of the room.
After dinner, Bob and I came back and met John (count_de_sang) and a bunch of his friends at the Wharf Rat for some drinks. I then headed back to the hotel and changed to something a little more dance/rave-ish for the evening, and headed back over to the con where I spent a long time hanging around in the Fountain Lobby taking photos of cosplayers, and ducked into a screening to watch a few episodes of "Vampire Knight." I went in to the rave at one point, but it was VERY hot, smelled VERY bad (ugh, con-funk), and I was nervous that when I stood still, I could feel the floor shaking in time with everyone jumping up and down on it, so I headed back to the hotel to crash. I tried to stay up to watch "Higurashi" ("When They Cry"/"When the Cicadas Cry") with Lina, Mel, and Heather, but I couldn't keep my eyes open, and I zonked out.
Impromptu Limbo Contest on Sunday in the Fountain Lobby:
The Convention Center is right beside the bay, where there is an aquarium, a Barnes and Noble inside an old power company, a large 3-masted ship called the Constellation, and paddle dragon-boats! This is a composite of 2 photos.
Not far from the convention center is a huge fountain easily accessible by a sky walk. It's great for photoshoots:
I was there for a bit on Sunday, doing a "Higurashi" photoshoot for Tiffany, Lina, and Heather (some of which came out AWESOME!), and Chris drove me from there to the airport (LOL, I had to change out of my cosplay in the airport bathroom!) for my 6:30 flight home. I hadn't been there long when I learned that my flight back to Boston had been canceled - storms had caused such delays that the flight from Baltimore to Boston would have put the crew over the legal limit of time they are permitted to fly at once, so Air Traffic Control grounded the plane on grounds of crew legality, and there was no spare crew on hand. Some people were very upset - one woman was practically in conniptions, which was ridiculous because she was supposed to be on the 4:30 flight but missed it. HAHAHA, doofus. Bet that's the last time she'll miss the flight she's supposed to be on - but of course, she was trying to throw all the blame and her bad attitude on the poor ticketing agents. I rebooked my flight for the earliest available, 6:30 AM the following morning, and called Chris to seek a ride and some crash space. Lina and Chris, I SO cannot thank you enough for letting me stay! I took a bunch of photos of their 3 cats, which I'll put up for you guys in a separate post :)
My flight back to Boston was again in the rain (is anyone surprised?) But I took a few shots of the city when we landed:
And this tape graffiti, which someone industiously managed to put on the sloped roof, pretty much sums up Otakon: