Arisia - Saturday
Hello again! So as mentioned before, I had three panels back to back today, one of which I was very worried about as I felt that I was woefully unprepared for it.
At times like these I should always remind myself that I a) am a perfectionist and b) am generally a great deal more entertaining and informational than I give myself credit for. As it was, I ended up having lots of stuff to recommend to people during said panel and deftly held my own along with my illustrious and knowledgable company. Huzzah! That was the "What Anime is New Now?" panel. :) After that was the "Movie Year in Review" panel which is always a blast. I had to watch a lot of really bad movies for this panel! Guh! But I always enjoy being on it. I do find it interesting that in most media panels that I'm a speaker on (my credentials are working for Scarecrow Video for the past 15 years, probably the largest video store in the country, and working for the Seattle International Film Festival for 9 years, along with being a published movie reviewer) I am the ONLY woman on the panel. I always wonder if it's because the conventions have more male panelists invited than female panelists, or if it's just that the film business is mostly dominated by men. It certainly is on the creation/production side of things, and certainly seems that way on the movie reviewer side of it as well. Curious. Anywho, moving on!
The Monster Mash (which is a panel of my invention) went VERY well, with at least 40 people in attendance who made monsters. I took many pictures of monsters made, but alas do not have the proper cable with me to upload them. Poop! I shall have to make photo postings later. :)
In the land of good news, I've had much more time today to wander around, socializing and checking out other stuff going on. There was an awesome concert by Sassafrass (incredible and funny acappella group) and Stranger Ways that I thoroughly enjoyed. I briefly checked out the Napoleonic Fantasy Ball. They do these dances every year, with different themes, where people come decked out in costume and are taught various traditional court and line dances. Most amazing of all is they have LIVE musicians that play the music! :D Always a treat! This year I was sadly late in arriving (had to rest and then clean up after the 6 hours of paneling) so by the time I got there things were relatively quiet and empty.
I have work in the art show, but it wasn't until tonight that I was finally able to take a walk through the show to see what else is on display! There isn't a whole lot that I want to buy, but I'm getting really picky in my old age. ;) There are some really incredible artists in there though and an utterly adorable fox scarf that I'm definitely going to have to bid on. ;)
Mostly I wandered the halls, chatting with people and catching up with folks I haven't seen in a year or more and taking lots and lots of photographs. On the sad side, my rather elderly camera seems to have given up the ghost, or at least the flash on it has. Whaaaa-aaaaaa! As a result all of my pictures are miserably dark. I'm still going to take pictures, do my best to get people to stand in bright lights when I do so and hope that I can fix them in photoshop later. Sometimes, though, if a picture is too dark there's nothing you can do to make it look right again. *sniffles* It's really killing me, because I almost bought myself a new camera before the con but then thought, "Nyaaaaaaah, it'll be fine. I'll get one later." Argh!! Well, at least I got a few good pictures! Like I said, I'll post them when I can. :)
That's all for now. Taking a little break and then going back out again to see what there is to see. :)
At times like these I should always remind myself that I a) am a perfectionist and b) am generally a great deal more entertaining and informational than I give myself credit for. As it was, I ended up having lots of stuff to recommend to people during said panel and deftly held my own along with my illustrious and knowledgable company. Huzzah! That was the "What Anime is New Now?" panel. :) After that was the "Movie Year in Review" panel which is always a blast. I had to watch a lot of really bad movies for this panel! Guh! But I always enjoy being on it. I do find it interesting that in most media panels that I'm a speaker on (my credentials are working for Scarecrow Video for the past 15 years, probably the largest video store in the country, and working for the Seattle International Film Festival for 9 years, along with being a published movie reviewer) I am the ONLY woman on the panel. I always wonder if it's because the conventions have more male panelists invited than female panelists, or if it's just that the film business is mostly dominated by men. It certainly is on the creation/production side of things, and certainly seems that way on the movie reviewer side of it as well. Curious. Anywho, moving on!
The Monster Mash (which is a panel of my invention) went VERY well, with at least 40 people in attendance who made monsters. I took many pictures of monsters made, but alas do not have the proper cable with me to upload them. Poop! I shall have to make photo postings later. :)
In the land of good news, I've had much more time today to wander around, socializing and checking out other stuff going on. There was an awesome concert by Sassafrass (incredible and funny acappella group) and Stranger Ways that I thoroughly enjoyed. I briefly checked out the Napoleonic Fantasy Ball. They do these dances every year, with different themes, where people come decked out in costume and are taught various traditional court and line dances. Most amazing of all is they have LIVE musicians that play the music! :D Always a treat! This year I was sadly late in arriving (had to rest and then clean up after the 6 hours of paneling) so by the time I got there things were relatively quiet and empty.
I have work in the art show, but it wasn't until tonight that I was finally able to take a walk through the show to see what else is on display! There isn't a whole lot that I want to buy, but I'm getting really picky in my old age. ;) There are some really incredible artists in there though and an utterly adorable fox scarf that I'm definitely going to have to bid on. ;)
Mostly I wandered the halls, chatting with people and catching up with folks I haven't seen in a year or more and taking lots and lots of photographs. On the sad side, my rather elderly camera seems to have given up the ghost, or at least the flash on it has. Whaaaa-aaaaaa! As a result all of my pictures are miserably dark. I'm still going to take pictures, do my best to get people to stand in bright lights when I do so and hope that I can fix them in photoshop later. Sometimes, though, if a picture is too dark there's nothing you can do to make it look right again. *sniffles* It's really killing me, because I almost bought myself a new camera before the con but then thought, "Nyaaaaaaah, it'll be fine. I'll get one later." Argh!! Well, at least I got a few good pictures! Like I said, I'll post them when I can. :)
That's all for now. Taking a little break and then going back out again to see what there is to see. :)