(no subject)
Hummm dee dum... half an hour till work's over, time for an Otakon post.
So last weekend was Otakon, the self-proclaimed "biggest and best celebration of Japanese animation, manga, J-pop, and east Asian culture in the world." Which of course ends up peripherally being a convention for every other aspect of geek culture. Video game, scifi, and comic books, oh my! I went up to Baltimore with Stew, Ian, and Anna, via Marc train, hotel shuttle, and light rail. The light rail was by far the most frustrating aspect of the trip. Apparently Baltimore thinks it's cool to have mass transit that only runs once every forty minutes.
We stayed with Stew's group of friends from Cornell (A12 to those in the know), and they rocked pretty much as hard as I expected them to. Speaking of hard, one of the group cosplayed as Hard Gay (not porn), a hilarious character from a Japanese TV show, and got several hundred pictures taken of him. It was a little like going to an awards show with Angelina Jolie. Joe and Ross stayed with us, too (yay, people I know!)
I was most entertained by the cosplayers. We spent a lot of time just wandering around and checking people out. Soooo much work (or money, or both) clearly goes into those costumes. I've always loved playing dress-up, and it was awesome to be in a building with thousands of my peers behaving like children and getting congratulated for it. There should be more outlets for teenagers and adults to let loose and play.
Stew and I watched an incredibly beautiful anime called Gankutsuoh, that was vaguely related to the Count of Monte Cristo, and now I really want to rent and watch the rest of it. Seriously, I would hang any of the stills from this show on my wall, and, moving, it was spectacular. We also stood in line to watch the Hellsing movie, but didn't get in. We then got out of line, then got back in when they told us we might get in after all, then got back out when the told us, nevermind, no you won't. Turns out gamers and anime fans aren't the best at adminstrative organization. Who knew?
I only went to one workshop, but what a workshop! It was called "Do it yourself bukakke," and we learned... you know what, I'm just going to let you wonder.
So last weekend was Otakon, the self-proclaimed "biggest and best celebration of Japanese animation, manga, J-pop, and east Asian culture in the world." Which of course ends up peripherally being a convention for every other aspect of geek culture. Video game, scifi, and comic books, oh my! I went up to Baltimore with Stew, Ian, and Anna, via Marc train, hotel shuttle, and light rail. The light rail was by far the most frustrating aspect of the trip. Apparently Baltimore thinks it's cool to have mass transit that only runs once every forty minutes.
We stayed with Stew's group of friends from Cornell (A12 to those in the know), and they rocked pretty much as hard as I expected them to. Speaking of hard, one of the group cosplayed as Hard Gay (not porn), a hilarious character from a Japanese TV show, and got several hundred pictures taken of him. It was a little like going to an awards show with Angelina Jolie. Joe and Ross stayed with us, too (yay, people I know!)
I was most entertained by the cosplayers. We spent a lot of time just wandering around and checking people out. Soooo much work (or money, or both) clearly goes into those costumes. I've always loved playing dress-up, and it was awesome to be in a building with thousands of my peers behaving like children and getting congratulated for it. There should be more outlets for teenagers and adults to let loose and play.
Stew and I watched an incredibly beautiful anime called Gankutsuoh, that was vaguely related to the Count of Monte Cristo, and now I really want to rent and watch the rest of it. Seriously, I would hang any of the stills from this show on my wall, and, moving, it was spectacular. We also stood in line to watch the Hellsing movie, but didn't get in. We then got out of line, then got back in when they told us we might get in after all, then got back out when the told us, nevermind, no you won't. Turns out gamers and anime fans aren't the best at adminstrative organization. Who knew?
I only went to one workshop, but what a workshop! It was called "Do it yourself bukakke," and we learned... you know what, I'm just going to let you wonder.