ACEN 2009
As promised, here's a little ACEN report!
http://www.acen.org/
Okay, ACEN started friday morning, but owing to having a mandatory must-attend-or-the-energy-death-of-the-universe-would-be-hastened-by-a-few-billion-years class on Thursday night, I was unable to leave Boise until Friday morning. This led to me not arriving at the con until Friday afternoon. Things were in full swing when I arrived, let me tell you!
Because the principle purpose of my being there was to provide Kit with technical support, that was my first priority on arrival. She'd informed me her first panel was going to be before I could arrive, but because she wasn't arriving much earlier than I, this meant she was likely to miss her own panel. As such she was requested a switch in the time. This was, fortunately, granted, as I found out when I tracked her down (she was working at the Art Auction). The unfortunate thing was that her panel had been moved to 11:00 at night!
Eh, who needs sleep anyway?
Having established that, I left her to her devices while I got a very rough feel for the layout of things. One of the very first things I discovered was that in Artist Alley the creator of Flipside (NSFW http://www.flipsidecomics.com/ NSFW) was present selling books and trying to attract new readers. I've been reading Flipside for a couple of years, so that was rather nice to see. He was a nice fellow, asked what I thought of recent developments. I responded I was eager to see what was up with the new setting (not going to go into any more depth. Spoilers, donchaknow.) Then, because I firmly believe in supporting webartists that I follow, I bought volume one of the paperbacks he had there. He asked who my favorite character was, then proceeded to draw a smiling Maytag inside the front cover. Kind of him.
ANYWAY, the con was mostly split into sections. Registration, Artist Alley (including the art auction), the Car Show, an all day dance floor, Exhibit Hall, AND the autograph/meet and greet were all in the convention center itself. The panels and concerts were over in the Hyatt Hotel. The first day I didn't really wander over to the Hyatt. Instead I wandered the Artist Alley and dipped briefly into the vendor area.
I tell you what, the artists in artist alley? Yeah, they left me feeling all kinds of inadequate. They were excellent! Most of the art was fanart from famous manga or anime, but there was plenty materials of original creations as well. A great number of artists were present who had their own webcomics and were trying to get new readers or sell merch to fans. One such was the artist ( http://angelicroyalty.deviantart.com/ ) that is working in conjunction with Zach (FishZach type person of MegaTokyo: the Clans, plays Fish and Natsumi) to launch a webcomic in July. Read It! She was very gracious and a marvelous artist, and I'm looking forward to their launch!
Not all of Artist Alley was just drawn/painted works. There were people selling small hand crafted costuming items (Kit bought a cute little hair piece from one the second day of the con), people selling buttons, even a few who sold doll accessories. And, of course, the artists were doing commissions (here's a commission Kit bought of herself in her con outfit: http://z.nuwen.net/images/jasmine/scan0001.jpg Very cute!) But I tell you what, I spent a LOT of time drooling over the portfolios of the fanartists. A Lot of Time. I wish I was even a third as good as the average artists I saw there.
After Kit was released from her duties at the Art Action, she connected up with Zach and some of his friends. They then snuck up on me when I wasn't looking and launched an excellent ambush. I swear, I could have cleared the barricades between Artist Alley and the Exhibit Hall easily, I jumped so high! Still, it was quite funny once I came back down out of orbit. We then proceeded to spend some time wandering Artist Alley and the Exhibit Hall as a group, just generally catching up, looking around, relaxing... I almost ended up buying a Seven Samurai poster, but had no idea how I'd get it home! I told myself if it was still there Sunday I'd go ahead, and figure something out. It was gone by that evening. Heh.
After a bit we were all quite hungry (neither Kit nor I had eaten properly that day because we were traveling) so the group wandered down to a nearby McDonalds. Good lord, the line was HUGE. It was the closest non-mondoexpensive restaurant, so the hordes of cosplayers descended on it like an invasion of Funimation characters gone feral. I have to give the place credit, though. What could have easily been a very long wait was handled so efficiently the time between “order” and “pickup” was less than a minute and a half. My food wasn't cold, either. They apparently are so used to being descended on by crowds from the convention center they have the “fast” part of “fast food” down to a science! We sat outside, enjoying the weather, and talked for a good while. Finally, however, we returned to the con and wandered further.
Eventually it was time for us to get ready for the panel. Kit and I sat down and powered up my mac (which I had to take in spite of the screen problems plaguing it owing to the fact it was the only machine I could get a VGA adapter for). We spent a while going over the slide show presentation, attempting to fix the fact that my Mac did NOT like things made with Office '07. We weren't able to get everything fixed, but we got enough for things to work.
The panel, as I stated, had been shifted to quite late at night. This was unfortunate because it meant that many people were either already in bed or off doing the late-night-only sorts of activities (certain panels, like certain TV shows, are only run after the kiddies are safely tucked away in bed. *ahem*) As a result, her first panel, “How NOT to Speak Japanese Like a 13 Year Old Otaku Girl” was poorly attended. I thought that was a pity as it was a well done panel. It was a good deal of fun, and those who did attend it were clearly engaged, enjoying the presentation, particularly in regards to some of the peculiarities of the Japanese language. Kit did quite well with it, so much so that several of the people who attended would return to attend the other panel she did on Saturday.
Once the panel was done (around midnight) it was time for bed. Exhausted Sareth was exhausted.
Saturday!
Saturday began with me more or less loitering by the entrance to the convention hall for a while people watching. One of the big thing about Anime Cons is that a LOT of people show up wearing outfits meant to look like favorite or beloved anime or manga characters. A lot of other people show up wearing some form of Japanese fashion they enjoy. So I'd guess almost half the people attending were either dressed in some outrageous outfit, or were running about in loligoth clothing. This made for a great deal of fun people watching.
Some of these people go to great lengths to get their costume *just* right. While there were plenty of people who were essentially wearing what amounted to cloth bags with sleeves, and calling it a “Naruto” costume, there were some truly talented people who had carefully picked out the right cloth, used mad sewing skillz to tailor the outfits to actually fit their bodies, and some ingenious craft skills to make some amazing costumes. I was quite impressed. Certain animes and games were particularly heavily represented, to the point one could get tired of it (LOTS of Bleach, Lots of Final Fantasy) but it was fun looking around and identifying the various characters represented. I saw some really good Kagome cosplayers (Inuyasha), quite a number of excellent Edward Elric or military types such as Mustang, Havock, and even a marvelous Hawkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist), an incredible Sebastian (Kurositsuji), a very cute Henrietta (Gunslinger Girl)... Okay, I could go on for quite a while, but I won't. I will end this bit by saying how amused I was by a couple I saw several times. They clearly were closely associated in some way (I'm guessing they were BF/GF or married) who were cosplaying Sango and Miroku from Inuyasha. Their costumes were excellent, they really had a good vibe together, and they had dyed “Miroku's” cheek with a red stain in the shape of her hand. Made me laugh every time I saw it. It's really rather cute when a couple works together to pull something like that off.
(A gallery of pics I found online from ACEN 2009: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/cons.php?cyid=2088&t=4#pics )
As for the gothic lolitas that were everywhere... Well, exposure to the style in large doses in person did NOT reduce my enjoyment of the look. Some of them pulled it off better than others, but there were few that didn't manage to pull it off at least reasonably. Whether they were going for drop dead sexy or I'm so sweet I cause cavities, it was quite enjoyable to see. I just regret that there were so few guys running around in Gothic Aristocrat (the male equivalent to Gothic Lolita). It would have been nice to take notes.
Oh, just one little note to the ladies, should you desire to cosplay or go gothloli. Short skirts and glass balconies? Vigorous anime moves to show off to the crowd? Bending over at the waist to get your purse? The effects should be predictable. Just saying...
ANYWAY... After Artist Alley and the Exhibit Hall opened up, I spent a while wandering them again. This time I spent more time wandering the Exhibit Hall than previous. There was a LOT to see there. I can see how people could blow substantial money at the place. If it was an anime fan's passion, you could get it there. Clothes, toys, anime, manga, doujinshi, cheap cheasy fakey swords, real swords, music games... It was madness! Madness! I managed to avoid actually spending anything at that point.
After a few hours, Kit took a break, so the two of us wandered Exhibit Hall a while. She wanted to poke around some of the loligoth clothing for sale (the style suits her). One of the places we went, she was poking the racks looking at tops, when I noticed they had Haori and Hakama for sale. (For those not familiar with these, the Haori is a short kimono. It's unisex, though it's more commonly seen on men than women. In the old days, however, it was a male only garment.) The Hakama is a VERY bloomy pair of pants or kilt-like garment with a very high, stiff back. Watch a samuari movie. The Samurai will, for the most part, be wearing such an outfit.) I started thumbing through them, curious. A lot of them were... very modern. By that I mean they looked like they were made out of thick polyester sorts of materials of a monotone thickness and color. I was not impressed. However, there were some that were thinner, with ribbed textures and/or color, very capable of breathing, looked good.
Well, Kit finished her eyeballing the loligoth stuff, walked over, and she and I started talking about the merits of haori and hakama. The lady selling them then got involved, and what I found out is the ones that I was liking because of their having a MUCH better look and feel... well, turned out there was a reason I was impressed by them. They were authentic vintage. She'd bought them from an antique shop in Japan. They'd been made for actual use, in authentic fashion, with authentic materials. They were at least 50 years old.
Well, I didn't buy them then. No... I came back a couple hours later and bought them as part of a package deal with a pair of geta (the wooden platform shoes common to the Feudal Era). Yes, this means that on days two and three I dressed up for it. Just so everyone knows, yukata and hakama? Very comfy. Geta? Not so much,. My poor feet! Once I bought a cheesy fake wakazashi (sword) looking thing to fill the outfit, I wandered the con like that most of the time. Many photos were taken. I do hope to get a photo of it up eventually.
(Something like this: http://www.moviecritic.com.au/images/toshiro-mifune-in-sanjuro-akira-kurosawa-samurai1.jpg Only with some dumb white guy plaing the part of Toshiro Mifune.)
ANYWAY, I attended several panels that day. One on the works of Rumiko Takahashi. It was a so so panel. The ladies running it were big time fans... and that's what the panel was. Them fangushing. Meh. Another on Ball Jointed Dolls (Dollfies). Yes, I know that sounds strange, a rough, tough, old incorrigible army combat vet hanging out in a panel talking about dolls. But a number of artists I know have gotten into using these dolls to model poses for their art. (For those not familiar with them, ball jointed dolls articulate everywhere real people do, with the exception of their fingers, toes, and facial features.) I have a number of people encourage me to do the same, and I admit I think it a good idea. (I've also had people suggest that a “Saeko Dollfie” would be simply awesome. Heh.)There were some gorgeous dolls! There was one that look like a miniature Tohya Miho. She was amazing. Cute as a button! Purple hair, black ribbons, golden eyes, and a phenomenal black loligoth dress. I was amazed.
(A ball jointed doll (nude) showing just how posable they are: http://www.souldoll.com/goods/images/20070529043204cont3.jpg )
(And a cute loligoth BJD: http://image.ecplaza.net/offer/p/prettywork/10642_tm.jpg )
After that I spent a while hanging out with Zach. He and I talked webcomics, particularly the creation thereof. We talked about the relative merits of doing your own art vs. having someone do it for you, the creative process, dangers that one faces at the initial launch, plotting issues... it was a good chat.
That evening was the second panel Kit was doing (and that I was assisting with.) We showed up early to that in order to make sure everything was ready on time. We found out it was in a very small room. Given the way the other panel had gone for turnout, that seemed like it wasn't going to be a problem. Well, it turned out it was. (Of all the problems we could have had, that was a good one to have. *grin*) We had people standing, sitting on the floors, practically sticking out the doorways. It was a VERY well attended panel. It was basically a panel on introductions to the three major religions/philosophies of Japan (Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism). The panel was VERY well received. A lot of questions were asked, many people seemed really fascinated, and ultimately we had to end the panel because we were out of time before the next group needed the room. Was awesomesauce.
We had been hoping to spend a little time visiting with zeffu (Yes, zeffu, not Zeffu. zeffus are such important creatures they don't need capital letters in their names to emphasis their import to mere mortals) afterwards. Unfortunately, she was feeling ill that evening, and so we had to give that a miss. We made up for it the next day.
Sunday!
Kit and I attempted to attend another panel on the Japanese language first thing in the morning. Kit had been invited to attend and possibly participate by the woman running the panel. Unfortunately it had to be canceled at the last minute because of a family emergency. As such, she went off to attend her duties on staff, and I attended another panel. This one was also on dollfies, though this time it was about the history and the companies that make them, rather than a “show off your doll” event. Expensive hobby, but again, some lovely dolls. A young man who was into dollfies offered to let me mess around with his. I declined, because I always worry about something happening whenever I handle something expensive that isn't mine. He poo-pooed that idea and practically thrust the doll into my hands. Amazing articulation. It was heavier than I expected, too. He, I, and the panel presenter ended up talking about them for quite a while.
Kit got off duty and we spent more time wandering the halls of rampant commercialism, oohing and awing over this and that. Much neatness. She had to go back on duty for one last little bit, and so I wandered over to a stall in a back corner. I'd noticed it several times, but never wandered in. I finally did. I was dying of curiosity. See, there were three kimonos hanging up on the back wall behind racks of kimonos and the like. They were amazing kimonos. Gorgeous. Wedding kimonos, basically. The man who was running the place wandered over, which was good, as I was curious how much the kimonos would be. However, before I could ask, he looked me up and down in my yukata and hakama, and smiled. “You have good taste. Did I sell those to you?” I told them he hadn't, and he asked if he could take a closer look. With my consent he felt the fabric, looked closer, and pronounced, “1930s vintage. Nice.” That made my day. Nice to know that I hadn't been had the day before. Totally worth it. Anyway, the kimonos I'd been looking at? $500 a piece. He had much cheaper goods, and I got his business card so I could bookmark his site on my computer later...
(His site: http://www.kujakutrading.com/ )
After the con wound down, we engaged in a tradition that I have to heartily approve of. See, in Chicago they have this place named “Mitsuwa.” This is a combination supermarket/bookstore/food court/travel agent/housewares shop. Japanese. I don't mean cheapcheesyfake Japanese. I mean this is the place that Chicago's Japanese immigrants go to. The tradition is that people go to Mitsuwa's after ACEN ends. The place was crowded with people, a decent number of which were still cosplaying. I have to get the regular customers credit, they took things in stride. Anyway, I ordered a soup that had noodles, leeks, fish balls, and beef balls, as well as some pork buns. Let me tell you, it was delicious! There I enjoyed good food, and got to spend a while chatting with Zach, zeffu, Kit, and Code Poetica. (I had never really interacted with Code before. Nice guy. Seemed pretty cool.) Afterwards I ran Code to the airport so he wouldn't have to pay taxi fees, went back to the room, and passed out.
(Mitsuwa Marketplace of Chicago: http://www.mitsuwa.com/tenpo/cica/eindex.html )
Monday I ran Kit to the Amtrak station (so she wouldn't have to pay for a taxi.) Let me tell you, Chicago's down town... Yeah, you can tell it was laid out with horses and wagons in mind. NARROW streets. Still, was kind of neat. I don't like big, crowded cities, but I couldn't help but think a bit of Gunsmith Cats as I was there. Heh. Then it was off to the airport and home.
As of this writing (tuesday afternoon) my legs STILL hurt from all the walking around in geta. But you know? I had a good time. Not bad for an antisocial guy with PTSD, eh?
http://www.acen.org/
Okay, ACEN started friday morning, but owing to having a mandatory must-attend-or-the-energy-death-of-the-universe-would-be-hastened-by-a-few-billion-years class on Thursday night, I was unable to leave Boise until Friday morning. This led to me not arriving at the con until Friday afternoon. Things were in full swing when I arrived, let me tell you!
Because the principle purpose of my being there was to provide Kit with technical support, that was my first priority on arrival. She'd informed me her first panel was going to be before I could arrive, but because she wasn't arriving much earlier than I, this meant she was likely to miss her own panel. As such she was requested a switch in the time. This was, fortunately, granted, as I found out when I tracked her down (she was working at the Art Auction). The unfortunate thing was that her panel had been moved to 11:00 at night!
Eh, who needs sleep anyway?
Having established that, I left her to her devices while I got a very rough feel for the layout of things. One of the very first things I discovered was that in Artist Alley the creator of Flipside (NSFW http://www.flipsidecomics.com/ NSFW) was present selling books and trying to attract new readers. I've been reading Flipside for a couple of years, so that was rather nice to see. He was a nice fellow, asked what I thought of recent developments. I responded I was eager to see what was up with the new setting (not going to go into any more depth. Spoilers, donchaknow.) Then, because I firmly believe in supporting webartists that I follow, I bought volume one of the paperbacks he had there. He asked who my favorite character was, then proceeded to draw a smiling Maytag inside the front cover. Kind of him.
ANYWAY, the con was mostly split into sections. Registration, Artist Alley (including the art auction), the Car Show, an all day dance floor, Exhibit Hall, AND the autograph/meet and greet were all in the convention center itself. The panels and concerts were over in the Hyatt Hotel. The first day I didn't really wander over to the Hyatt. Instead I wandered the Artist Alley and dipped briefly into the vendor area.
I tell you what, the artists in artist alley? Yeah, they left me feeling all kinds of inadequate. They were excellent! Most of the art was fanart from famous manga or anime, but there was plenty materials of original creations as well. A great number of artists were present who had their own webcomics and were trying to get new readers or sell merch to fans. One such was the artist ( http://angelicroyalty.deviantart.com/ ) that is working in conjunction with Zach (FishZach type person of MegaTokyo: the Clans, plays Fish and Natsumi) to launch a webcomic in July. Read It! She was very gracious and a marvelous artist, and I'm looking forward to their launch!
Not all of Artist Alley was just drawn/painted works. There were people selling small hand crafted costuming items (Kit bought a cute little hair piece from one the second day of the con), people selling buttons, even a few who sold doll accessories. And, of course, the artists were doing commissions (here's a commission Kit bought of herself in her con outfit: http://z.nuwen.net/images/jasmine/scan0001.jpg Very cute!) But I tell you what, I spent a LOT of time drooling over the portfolios of the fanartists. A Lot of Time. I wish I was even a third as good as the average artists I saw there.
After Kit was released from her duties at the Art Action, she connected up with Zach and some of his friends. They then snuck up on me when I wasn't looking and launched an excellent ambush. I swear, I could have cleared the barricades between Artist Alley and the Exhibit Hall easily, I jumped so high! Still, it was quite funny once I came back down out of orbit. We then proceeded to spend some time wandering Artist Alley and the Exhibit Hall as a group, just generally catching up, looking around, relaxing... I almost ended up buying a Seven Samurai poster, but had no idea how I'd get it home! I told myself if it was still there Sunday I'd go ahead, and figure something out. It was gone by that evening. Heh.
After a bit we were all quite hungry (neither Kit nor I had eaten properly that day because we were traveling) so the group wandered down to a nearby McDonalds. Good lord, the line was HUGE. It was the closest non-mondoexpensive restaurant, so the hordes of cosplayers descended on it like an invasion of Funimation characters gone feral. I have to give the place credit, though. What could have easily been a very long wait was handled so efficiently the time between “order” and “pickup” was less than a minute and a half. My food wasn't cold, either. They apparently are so used to being descended on by crowds from the convention center they have the “fast” part of “fast food” down to a science! We sat outside, enjoying the weather, and talked for a good while. Finally, however, we returned to the con and wandered further.
Eventually it was time for us to get ready for the panel. Kit and I sat down and powered up my mac (which I had to take in spite of the screen problems plaguing it owing to the fact it was the only machine I could get a VGA adapter for). We spent a while going over the slide show presentation, attempting to fix the fact that my Mac did NOT like things made with Office '07. We weren't able to get everything fixed, but we got enough for things to work.
The panel, as I stated, had been shifted to quite late at night. This was unfortunate because it meant that many people were either already in bed or off doing the late-night-only sorts of activities (certain panels, like certain TV shows, are only run after the kiddies are safely tucked away in bed. *ahem*) As a result, her first panel, “How NOT to Speak Japanese Like a 13 Year Old Otaku Girl” was poorly attended. I thought that was a pity as it was a well done panel. It was a good deal of fun, and those who did attend it were clearly engaged, enjoying the presentation, particularly in regards to some of the peculiarities of the Japanese language. Kit did quite well with it, so much so that several of the people who attended would return to attend the other panel she did on Saturday.
Once the panel was done (around midnight) it was time for bed. Exhausted Sareth was exhausted.
Saturday!
Saturday began with me more or less loitering by the entrance to the convention hall for a while people watching. One of the big thing about Anime Cons is that a LOT of people show up wearing outfits meant to look like favorite or beloved anime or manga characters. A lot of other people show up wearing some form of Japanese fashion they enjoy. So I'd guess almost half the people attending were either dressed in some outrageous outfit, or were running about in loligoth clothing. This made for a great deal of fun people watching.
Some of these people go to great lengths to get their costume *just* right. While there were plenty of people who were essentially wearing what amounted to cloth bags with sleeves, and calling it a “Naruto” costume, there were some truly talented people who had carefully picked out the right cloth, used mad sewing skillz to tailor the outfits to actually fit their bodies, and some ingenious craft skills to make some amazing costumes. I was quite impressed. Certain animes and games were particularly heavily represented, to the point one could get tired of it (LOTS of Bleach, Lots of Final Fantasy) but it was fun looking around and identifying the various characters represented. I saw some really good Kagome cosplayers (Inuyasha), quite a number of excellent Edward Elric or military types such as Mustang, Havock, and even a marvelous Hawkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist), an incredible Sebastian (Kurositsuji), a very cute Henrietta (Gunslinger Girl)... Okay, I could go on for quite a while, but I won't. I will end this bit by saying how amused I was by a couple I saw several times. They clearly were closely associated in some way (I'm guessing they were BF/GF or married) who were cosplaying Sango and Miroku from Inuyasha. Their costumes were excellent, they really had a good vibe together, and they had dyed “Miroku's” cheek with a red stain in the shape of her hand. Made me laugh every time I saw it. It's really rather cute when a couple works together to pull something like that off.
(A gallery of pics I found online from ACEN 2009: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/cons.php?cyid=2088&t=4#pics )
As for the gothic lolitas that were everywhere... Well, exposure to the style in large doses in person did NOT reduce my enjoyment of the look. Some of them pulled it off better than others, but there were few that didn't manage to pull it off at least reasonably. Whether they were going for drop dead sexy or I'm so sweet I cause cavities, it was quite enjoyable to see. I just regret that there were so few guys running around in Gothic Aristocrat (the male equivalent to Gothic Lolita). It would have been nice to take notes.
Oh, just one little note to the ladies, should you desire to cosplay or go gothloli. Short skirts and glass balconies? Vigorous anime moves to show off to the crowd? Bending over at the waist to get your purse? The effects should be predictable. Just saying...
ANYWAY... After Artist Alley and the Exhibit Hall opened up, I spent a while wandering them again. This time I spent more time wandering the Exhibit Hall than previous. There was a LOT to see there. I can see how people could blow substantial money at the place. If it was an anime fan's passion, you could get it there. Clothes, toys, anime, manga, doujinshi, cheap cheasy fakey swords, real swords, music games... It was madness! Madness! I managed to avoid actually spending anything at that point.
After a few hours, Kit took a break, so the two of us wandered Exhibit Hall a while. She wanted to poke around some of the loligoth clothing for sale (the style suits her). One of the places we went, she was poking the racks looking at tops, when I noticed they had Haori and Hakama for sale. (For those not familiar with these, the Haori is a short kimono. It's unisex, though it's more commonly seen on men than women. In the old days, however, it was a male only garment.) The Hakama is a VERY bloomy pair of pants or kilt-like garment with a very high, stiff back. Watch a samuari movie. The Samurai will, for the most part, be wearing such an outfit.) I started thumbing through them, curious. A lot of them were... very modern. By that I mean they looked like they were made out of thick polyester sorts of materials of a monotone thickness and color. I was not impressed. However, there were some that were thinner, with ribbed textures and/or color, very capable of breathing, looked good.
Well, Kit finished her eyeballing the loligoth stuff, walked over, and she and I started talking about the merits of haori and hakama. The lady selling them then got involved, and what I found out is the ones that I was liking because of their having a MUCH better look and feel... well, turned out there was a reason I was impressed by them. They were authentic vintage. She'd bought them from an antique shop in Japan. They'd been made for actual use, in authentic fashion, with authentic materials. They were at least 50 years old.
Well, I didn't buy them then. No... I came back a couple hours later and bought them as part of a package deal with a pair of geta (the wooden platform shoes common to the Feudal Era). Yes, this means that on days two and three I dressed up for it. Just so everyone knows, yukata and hakama? Very comfy. Geta? Not so much,. My poor feet! Once I bought a cheesy fake wakazashi (sword) looking thing to fill the outfit, I wandered the con like that most of the time. Many photos were taken. I do hope to get a photo of it up eventually.
(Something like this: http://www.moviecritic.com.au/images/toshiro-mifune-in-sanjuro-akira-kurosawa-samurai1.jpg Only with some dumb white guy plaing the part of Toshiro Mifune.)
ANYWAY, I attended several panels that day. One on the works of Rumiko Takahashi. It was a so so panel. The ladies running it were big time fans... and that's what the panel was. Them fangushing. Meh. Another on Ball Jointed Dolls (Dollfies). Yes, I know that sounds strange, a rough, tough, old incorrigible army combat vet hanging out in a panel talking about dolls. But a number of artists I know have gotten into using these dolls to model poses for their art. (For those not familiar with them, ball jointed dolls articulate everywhere real people do, with the exception of their fingers, toes, and facial features.) I have a number of people encourage me to do the same, and I admit I think it a good idea. (I've also had people suggest that a “Saeko Dollfie” would be simply awesome. Heh.)There were some gorgeous dolls! There was one that look like a miniature Tohya Miho. She was amazing. Cute as a button! Purple hair, black ribbons, golden eyes, and a phenomenal black loligoth dress. I was amazed.
(A ball jointed doll (nude) showing just how posable they are: http://www.souldoll.com/goods/images/20070529043204cont3.jpg )
(And a cute loligoth BJD: http://image.ecplaza.net/offer/p/prettywork/10642_tm.jpg )
After that I spent a while hanging out with Zach. He and I talked webcomics, particularly the creation thereof. We talked about the relative merits of doing your own art vs. having someone do it for you, the creative process, dangers that one faces at the initial launch, plotting issues... it was a good chat.
That evening was the second panel Kit was doing (and that I was assisting with.) We showed up early to that in order to make sure everything was ready on time. We found out it was in a very small room. Given the way the other panel had gone for turnout, that seemed like it wasn't going to be a problem. Well, it turned out it was. (Of all the problems we could have had, that was a good one to have. *grin*) We had people standing, sitting on the floors, practically sticking out the doorways. It was a VERY well attended panel. It was basically a panel on introductions to the three major religions/philosophies of Japan (Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism). The panel was VERY well received. A lot of questions were asked, many people seemed really fascinated, and ultimately we had to end the panel because we were out of time before the next group needed the room. Was awesomesauce.
We had been hoping to spend a little time visiting with zeffu (Yes, zeffu, not Zeffu. zeffus are such important creatures they don't need capital letters in their names to emphasis their import to mere mortals) afterwards. Unfortunately, she was feeling ill that evening, and so we had to give that a miss. We made up for it the next day.
Sunday!
Kit and I attempted to attend another panel on the Japanese language first thing in the morning. Kit had been invited to attend and possibly participate by the woman running the panel. Unfortunately it had to be canceled at the last minute because of a family emergency. As such, she went off to attend her duties on staff, and I attended another panel. This one was also on dollfies, though this time it was about the history and the companies that make them, rather than a “show off your doll” event. Expensive hobby, but again, some lovely dolls. A young man who was into dollfies offered to let me mess around with his. I declined, because I always worry about something happening whenever I handle something expensive that isn't mine. He poo-pooed that idea and practically thrust the doll into my hands. Amazing articulation. It was heavier than I expected, too. He, I, and the panel presenter ended up talking about them for quite a while.
Kit got off duty and we spent more time wandering the halls of rampant commercialism, oohing and awing over this and that. Much neatness. She had to go back on duty for one last little bit, and so I wandered over to a stall in a back corner. I'd noticed it several times, but never wandered in. I finally did. I was dying of curiosity. See, there were three kimonos hanging up on the back wall behind racks of kimonos and the like. They were amazing kimonos. Gorgeous. Wedding kimonos, basically. The man who was running the place wandered over, which was good, as I was curious how much the kimonos would be. However, before I could ask, he looked me up and down in my yukata and hakama, and smiled. “You have good taste. Did I sell those to you?” I told them he hadn't, and he asked if he could take a closer look. With my consent he felt the fabric, looked closer, and pronounced, “1930s vintage. Nice.” That made my day. Nice to know that I hadn't been had the day before. Totally worth it. Anyway, the kimonos I'd been looking at? $500 a piece. He had much cheaper goods, and I got his business card so I could bookmark his site on my computer later...
(His site: http://www.kujakutrading.com/ )
After the con wound down, we engaged in a tradition that I have to heartily approve of. See, in Chicago they have this place named “Mitsuwa.” This is a combination supermarket/bookstore/food court/travel agent/housewares shop. Japanese. I don't mean cheapcheesyfake Japanese. I mean this is the place that Chicago's Japanese immigrants go to. The tradition is that people go to Mitsuwa's after ACEN ends. The place was crowded with people, a decent number of which were still cosplaying. I have to get the regular customers credit, they took things in stride. Anyway, I ordered a soup that had noodles, leeks, fish balls, and beef balls, as well as some pork buns. Let me tell you, it was delicious! There I enjoyed good food, and got to spend a while chatting with Zach, zeffu, Kit, and Code Poetica. (I had never really interacted with Code before. Nice guy. Seemed pretty cool.) Afterwards I ran Code to the airport so he wouldn't have to pay taxi fees, went back to the room, and passed out.
(Mitsuwa Marketplace of Chicago: http://www.mitsuwa.com/tenpo/cica/eindex.html )
Monday I ran Kit to the Amtrak station (so she wouldn't have to pay for a taxi.) Let me tell you, Chicago's down town... Yeah, you can tell it was laid out with horses and wagons in mind. NARROW streets. Still, was kind of neat. I don't like big, crowded cities, but I couldn't help but think a bit of Gunsmith Cats as I was there. Heh. Then it was off to the airport and home.
As of this writing (tuesday afternoon) my legs STILL hurt from all the walking around in geta. But you know? I had a good time. Not bad for an antisocial guy with PTSD, eh?