Anime Boston Con
Onward with the fangirl rambling.
Matt, the owner of my local comic book store Comicopia here in Boston, asked if I would work a day at the con and he'd give me a pass for the weekend. It seemed a sweet deal - especially since he was putting together a Yaoi only bookcase I could help people with. Friday saw me working and marveling at the costumes people wear and the bad pickup lines Anime boys use. One guy said to myself and another girl working the booth 'I like tentacles' and then stared at us in silence for like 10 seconds. I still feel like I need a shower just typing that.
I admit I was looking for Link Worshiper since she said she was going to be there, and I got lucky on Friday and met her. She and KD from the Ventilation Shaft stopped by the booth and I probably seemed like a total fangirl, but luckily Link Worshiper handled my geekiness well. I also met two of the ladies from the Boys Next Door website and was able to sell them some of the Yaoi manga they were looking for. They were both dressed up very Gothic Lolita like (I think that's how you say it) with beautiful lacy dresses. I'm looking forward to the upcoming manga reviews they post.
Saturday saw me hitting the fanfiction panel that KD and Link Worshiper were running. They are both probably too shy to say it, but it went really well. They did a Q&A type discussion and there were no pauses. I think by having KD there as an archivist first and LW a writer first gave a varied perspective on every question. (KD was also great at telling LW to calm down when she started getting too enthusiastic on topics like Shakespeare. It was very amusing to watch from the audience.) People were very engaged by the discussion and I heard the moderator from the con wrote some very good things down on his review sheet. See pic (hopefully) below.
Umpteen people stayed after the panel was over to ask questions. I stayed to say hello but after waiting 30 minutes for half the people to clear out felt very stalker like. Link Worshiper gave me a Heero/Duo pic and then apologized for the quality of it. I will never understand artists - Here is this amazing piece of art she is giving me and she's apologizing for it. Silly girl.
Bought a beautiful Fruits Basket art book and volume 20 in Japanese because Kyo is featured prominently in the art. Also some Drama Queen yaoi mangas - 3 of which were excellent. Bemoaned the fact that the Japanese manga dealer didn't have Yellow 4 so I can see what happens now damnit. Almost picked up some Nana art but decided to see if I could download it instead. Kept bumping into KD and Link Worshiper in the dealers room and joked I was stalking them.
I later went to a bunch of video screenings including Loveless Eps 1-8 because merith is into it and I wanted to see what she saw in it, and Advent Children because the pics Ponderosa draws made me want to see it. Loveless is stunningly beautiful in a way that doesn't come through at all in the manga volume I read. My only problem is the age difference kinda squicks me a bit. Advent Children was a beautiful CG movie - not sorry at all that I saw it. I'm now a Rude/Reno girl for life, minor characters or no. Cloud ain't half bad either. Just what I needed - a new fandom to dive into. (Whacks self in forehead.)
Sunday I wandered a bit and decided to go to a Prince of Tennis panel since Achasia is now doing all her writing in it and I loved her GW stuff. I was waiting outside the room when I saw Link Worshiper again. We sat and chatted while she waited for KD and then these PoT fans came marching down the hall waving flags and tennis rackets, followed quickly by another group I was later told portrayed a rival team. Suddenly the hallway was awash in high pitched chants, screams and flag waving. Very, very scary. Decided to skip panel because who was going to be able to hear anything the moderators said anyway?
KD came out and we moved slowly away from the PoT people who were so loud they interrupted the panel on fansites KD was in. We chatted and were joined for a while by a Duo who had a Preventer jacket I was salivating over. I never found out her name, but I think Link Worshiper has a pic. Went to the FF and Philosophy panel with KD and Link Worshiper. The good looking blond guy who headed it was a interesting, but spent more time explaining the ending of each game than philosophy. Touched briefly on the role of religion in the games and that was interesting but then he cut himself off and went down another path. Link Worshiper was in heaven though so I think all was well.
Found out that the day before KD and Link Worshiper had bad bananas for lunch or some such nonsense so I dragged them to Cheescake Factory for real food. We talked about all things GW to the point where I was on the subway going home thinking 'wait we never finished discussing what Wufei's being Chinese in a Japanese anime means to his character'. Really enjoyed dinner with the two of them - might even have been my favorite part of the weekend. Didn't really want to leave but I knew they had to get back to KD's house.
This weekend did teach me one important thing - being a lurker is not going to cut it. There are fic writers and artists out there that don't know people are enjoying their work because all of us lurkers never bother to say so. My goal for myself is now an email a week to an author/artist I enjoy until I let them all know that I appreciate what they do. I also need to start commenting, starting now.
Matt, the owner of my local comic book store Comicopia here in Boston, asked if I would work a day at the con and he'd give me a pass for the weekend. It seemed a sweet deal - especially since he was putting together a Yaoi only bookcase I could help people with. Friday saw me working and marveling at the costumes people wear and the bad pickup lines Anime boys use. One guy said to myself and another girl working the booth 'I like tentacles' and then stared at us in silence for like 10 seconds. I still feel like I need a shower just typing that.
I admit I was looking for Link Worshiper since she said she was going to be there, and I got lucky on Friday and met her. She and KD from the Ventilation Shaft stopped by the booth and I probably seemed like a total fangirl, but luckily Link Worshiper handled my geekiness well. I also met two of the ladies from the Boys Next Door website and was able to sell them some of the Yaoi manga they were looking for. They were both dressed up very Gothic Lolita like (I think that's how you say it) with beautiful lacy dresses. I'm looking forward to the upcoming manga reviews they post.
Saturday saw me hitting the fanfiction panel that KD and Link Worshiper were running. They are both probably too shy to say it, but it went really well. They did a Q&A type discussion and there were no pauses. I think by having KD there as an archivist first and LW a writer first gave a varied perspective on every question. (KD was also great at telling LW to calm down when she started getting too enthusiastic on topics like Shakespeare. It was very amusing to watch from the audience.) People were very engaged by the discussion and I heard the moderator from the con wrote some very good things down on his review sheet. See pic (hopefully) below.
Umpteen people stayed after the panel was over to ask questions. I stayed to say hello but after waiting 30 minutes for half the people to clear out felt very stalker like. Link Worshiper gave me a Heero/Duo pic and then apologized for the quality of it. I will never understand artists - Here is this amazing piece of art she is giving me and she's apologizing for it. Silly girl.
Bought a beautiful Fruits Basket art book and volume 20 in Japanese because Kyo is featured prominently in the art. Also some Drama Queen yaoi mangas - 3 of which were excellent. Bemoaned the fact that the Japanese manga dealer didn't have Yellow 4 so I can see what happens now damnit. Almost picked up some Nana art but decided to see if I could download it instead. Kept bumping into KD and Link Worshiper in the dealers room and joked I was stalking them.
I later went to a bunch of video screenings including Loveless Eps 1-8 because merith is into it and I wanted to see what she saw in it, and Advent Children because the pics Ponderosa draws made me want to see it. Loveless is stunningly beautiful in a way that doesn't come through at all in the manga volume I read. My only problem is the age difference kinda squicks me a bit. Advent Children was a beautiful CG movie - not sorry at all that I saw it. I'm now a Rude/Reno girl for life, minor characters or no. Cloud ain't half bad either. Just what I needed - a new fandom to dive into. (Whacks self in forehead.)
Sunday I wandered a bit and decided to go to a Prince of Tennis panel since Achasia is now doing all her writing in it and I loved her GW stuff. I was waiting outside the room when I saw Link Worshiper again. We sat and chatted while she waited for KD and then these PoT fans came marching down the hall waving flags and tennis rackets, followed quickly by another group I was later told portrayed a rival team. Suddenly the hallway was awash in high pitched chants, screams and flag waving. Very, very scary. Decided to skip panel because who was going to be able to hear anything the moderators said anyway?
KD came out and we moved slowly away from the PoT people who were so loud they interrupted the panel on fansites KD was in. We chatted and were joined for a while by a Duo who had a Preventer jacket I was salivating over. I never found out her name, but I think Link Worshiper has a pic. Went to the FF and Philosophy panel with KD and Link Worshiper. The good looking blond guy who headed it was a interesting, but spent more time explaining the ending of each game than philosophy. Touched briefly on the role of religion in the games and that was interesting but then he cut himself off and went down another path. Link Worshiper was in heaven though so I think all was well.
Found out that the day before KD and Link Worshiper had bad bananas for lunch or some such nonsense so I dragged them to Cheescake Factory for real food. We talked about all things GW to the point where I was on the subway going home thinking 'wait we never finished discussing what Wufei's being Chinese in a Japanese anime means to his character'. Really enjoyed dinner with the two of them - might even have been my favorite part of the weekend. Didn't really want to leave but I knew they had to get back to KD's house.
This weekend did teach me one important thing - being a lurker is not going to cut it. There are fic writers and artists out there that don't know people are enjoying their work because all of us lurkers never bother to say so. My goal for myself is now an email a week to an author/artist I enjoy until I let them all know that I appreciate what they do. I also need to start commenting, starting now.