FWA 2010
Went to FWA yesterday. Heres' the obligatory con report. Some of this stuff may not be in chronological order, but you'll get the jist. I apologize if you detect a smidge of rant-quality to it.
Had a look at the con schedule a few nights before and was a bit disappointed... Saturday's schedule was obviously dictated by the fursuiting track. All other panel content seemed to be added as an afterthought. Unless one had the intent of being an iron fursuiter or staff on Saturday, they would find themselves with heaping helpings of downtime.
Arrived around 10:15 and got through con reg pretty quickly. Met up with Kirron and Roko shortly after registering. We wandered around a bit, hitting the artist alley and dealers' den. Roko and I each bought a deck of "Are You a Werewolf?" cards. Had a brief chat with loveypuppy who was checking badges by the escalator.
Just before noon, I wandered back to my excellent $6 parking space (A blink-and-miss-it row of 10 spaces squeezed between two adjacent lots caddy-corder to the Hilton). Hauled Winston down to the headless lounge and started getting prepped. I was pretty early to the lineup and secured a sweet spot. We were supposed to march wide, but I think they greatly overestimated the sights on most fursuits.... Winston is no exception. I just kept the fursuiter in front in my sights, guessed where people were, and waved/danced/goofed accordingly.
The fursuit photo was a royal pain. Since I was near the front, I had to wait a while for the rear to assemble. Wasn't so bad, chesshiress somehow ended up next to me! Also spotted grrrowly just ahead of us. You can find us in the fursuit pic. (Hint: Look for Winston's red fedora)
After the picture, I posed for a couple aftershots... chased a chicken... then returned to the lounge to de-wolf. Met back with Roko and Kirron, who introduced me to Rotekatze. 2-3pm panel lineup wasn't that strong... We had already seen the CCI animals earlier and it was too late to be lunch period. We ended up going on a quest to find Kirron some proper caffeine.
Went to the Charity Auction alone, hoping to score some cool swag. An enormous batch of cookies was up for bid, and there were tons of bids for them... The price went up so fast that by the time I counted my cash, I couldn't afford to bid! Aside from the cookies, most of the stuff went for far below retail value, or had pity bids. The few shirts I liked were in Fatty McFattington sizes. Tiger Paw worked hard to entice an extra dollar or two out of the bidders... That extra time delayed the start of the fursuit games by a half-hour. A duet singing Phantom of the Opera filled a small part of that void.
Rotekatze found an orange balloon and drew a fox on it. After we batted it around a bit in the atrium, it fell down the escalator corridor. To our amazement, we spotted someone carrying it just a few minutes after.
A quick run through the alley, and I spotted fauxpawroo. She was already engaged in conversation, so I waved, she waved back, and I carried on. Little did I know that was the one time I'd see her. ;_; I had also bumped into grrrowly at the art show. We chatted briefly about stuff, like life and cows. After an awkward no-more-material-to-talk-about pause, we parted ways. I also struck up conversation with a number of bored badge checkers.... sadly I don't recall their names.
The fursuit games clearly attracted a much narrower fursuiting group than the parade. Most of these suits were "name brand". Of course, these suits were better equipped for the gig with good vision and light construction. Having Winston in the fray would have been an exercise in frustration. I didn't pay much attention to the teams, I just rooted for the blue panther whose Nerf gun never seemed to work.
The fox-balloon showed up again, now possessed by a grey critter with antlers. A few rounds of games go by, and the challenge is now to pop balloons. After a few dozen balloons were massacred, the victor was declared. We thought surely the fox-balloon was dead. Another round later... The balloon lives! Tracking the migrations of that silly thing was a game within itself!
6-9pm was another stretch of uninspiring panel content. We spent the time discussing, and at 8PM, finally ordering, dinner. Aloha Chinese! (This oxymoron was the actual name) We ate in the lobby, which led to lots o passerby questions about where we got the food. (We probably generated a considerable amount of referral business for them)
Also during this time, Rotekatze and Kirron both drew a doodle in my sketchbook. My sketchbook isn't home to serious sketches, its more like a log of the handful of artists that I've hung out with over the years. I think they have more meaning that way rather than just commissioning something.
Over the day I went through the artist's alley and dealer's den numerous times looking for crap. I had a truly frustrating problem... I was about $20 under-budget (in addition to $30 junk budget) and I could hardly find anything that I wanted to buy! At the end of the day, all I bought was the $4 "Are You a Werewolf?" cards and a $3 cute lion keychain from grrrowly. Like going to a buffet hungry, and leaving with dinner rolls.
I did miss santa_fox, tilt_longtail, brokkentwolf, and panda_guy all of whom I had seen at FWA '07. The latter two I met for the first time at the "fireside chat".
To sum it up, I didn't get much out of the con itself. It was too big to meet everyone, but too small to keep you busy. What I did get was the opportunity to meet with friends, most of whom I only seldom see. And that was worth the price of admission.
Had a look at the con schedule a few nights before and was a bit disappointed... Saturday's schedule was obviously dictated by the fursuiting track. All other panel content seemed to be added as an afterthought. Unless one had the intent of being an iron fursuiter or staff on Saturday, they would find themselves with heaping helpings of downtime.
Arrived around 10:15 and got through con reg pretty quickly. Met up with Kirron and Roko shortly after registering. We wandered around a bit, hitting the artist alley and dealers' den. Roko and I each bought a deck of "Are You a Werewolf?" cards. Had a brief chat with loveypuppy who was checking badges by the escalator.
Just before noon, I wandered back to my excellent $6 parking space (A blink-and-miss-it row of 10 spaces squeezed between two adjacent lots caddy-corder to the Hilton). Hauled Winston down to the headless lounge and started getting prepped. I was pretty early to the lineup and secured a sweet spot. We were supposed to march wide, but I think they greatly overestimated the sights on most fursuits.... Winston is no exception. I just kept the fursuiter in front in my sights, guessed where people were, and waved/danced/goofed accordingly.
The fursuit photo was a royal pain. Since I was near the front, I had to wait a while for the rear to assemble. Wasn't so bad, chesshiress somehow ended up next to me! Also spotted grrrowly just ahead of us. You can find us in the fursuit pic. (Hint: Look for Winston's red fedora)
After the picture, I posed for a couple aftershots... chased a chicken... then returned to the lounge to de-wolf. Met back with Roko and Kirron, who introduced me to Rotekatze. 2-3pm panel lineup wasn't that strong... We had already seen the CCI animals earlier and it was too late to be lunch period. We ended up going on a quest to find Kirron some proper caffeine.
Went to the Charity Auction alone, hoping to score some cool swag. An enormous batch of cookies was up for bid, and there were tons of bids for them... The price went up so fast that by the time I counted my cash, I couldn't afford to bid! Aside from the cookies, most of the stuff went for far below retail value, or had pity bids. The few shirts I liked were in Fatty McFattington sizes. Tiger Paw worked hard to entice an extra dollar or two out of the bidders... That extra time delayed the start of the fursuit games by a half-hour. A duet singing Phantom of the Opera filled a small part of that void.
Rotekatze found an orange balloon and drew a fox on it. After we batted it around a bit in the atrium, it fell down the escalator corridor. To our amazement, we spotted someone carrying it just a few minutes after.
A quick run through the alley, and I spotted fauxpawroo. She was already engaged in conversation, so I waved, she waved back, and I carried on. Little did I know that was the one time I'd see her. ;_; I had also bumped into grrrowly at the art show. We chatted briefly about stuff, like life and cows. After an awkward no-more-material-to-talk-about pause, we parted ways. I also struck up conversation with a number of bored badge checkers.... sadly I don't recall their names.
The fursuit games clearly attracted a much narrower fursuiting group than the parade. Most of these suits were "name brand". Of course, these suits were better equipped for the gig with good vision and light construction. Having Winston in the fray would have been an exercise in frustration. I didn't pay much attention to the teams, I just rooted for the blue panther whose Nerf gun never seemed to work.
The fox-balloon showed up again, now possessed by a grey critter with antlers. A few rounds of games go by, and the challenge is now to pop balloons. After a few dozen balloons were massacred, the victor was declared. We thought surely the fox-balloon was dead. Another round later... The balloon lives! Tracking the migrations of that silly thing was a game within itself!
6-9pm was another stretch of uninspiring panel content. We spent the time discussing, and at 8PM, finally ordering, dinner. Aloha Chinese! (This oxymoron was the actual name) We ate in the lobby, which led to lots o passerby questions about where we got the food. (We probably generated a considerable amount of referral business for them)
Also during this time, Rotekatze and Kirron both drew a doodle in my sketchbook. My sketchbook isn't home to serious sketches, its more like a log of the handful of artists that I've hung out with over the years. I think they have more meaning that way rather than just commissioning something.
Over the day I went through the artist's alley and dealer's den numerous times looking for crap. I had a truly frustrating problem... I was about $20 under-budget (in addition to $30 junk budget) and I could hardly find anything that I wanted to buy! At the end of the day, all I bought was the $4 "Are You a Werewolf?" cards and a $3 cute lion keychain from grrrowly. Like going to a buffet hungry, and leaving with dinner rolls.
I did miss santa_fox, tilt_longtail, brokkentwolf, and panda_guy all of whom I had seen at FWA '07. The latter two I met for the first time at the "fireside chat".
To sum it up, I didn't get much out of the con itself. It was too big to meet everyone, but too small to keep you busy. What I did get was the opportunity to meet with friends, most of whom I only seldom see. And that was worth the price of admission.