a brick, a venture, an AX report
(slightly dated; originally written august 2nd)
UGH GOD! I love this beautiful thing called summer. So much free time to just... be. Anyhow, I recently watched this independent movie called "Brick." I don't think the DVD has come out yet, but I watched it with my bro on his computer. It's really cool, I recommend it; it's essentially a noir movie that takes place with urban high school kids. Pretty awesome. Also, does anyone else watch The Venture Brothers (Adult Swim)? I'm seriously in love with this show, the animation, character designs and voice actors are just MMM! and it doesn't hurt that the scripts are just too hilarious for their own good.
The Monarch: (cross-examining Hank) So. Hank. It is Hank, isn't it?
Hank: Yes sir.
Monarch: Well, Hank. What's it like to be a... (turning to face the jury and shouting) liar! Huh? Do you like being a liar, with pants constantly on fire?
Tiny Attorney: Objection, your honor. Leading!
Monarch: I'll rephrase it. Hank, are you a liar?
Hank: No sir, I don't think so.
Monarch: Yes, you are!
Dean: You're the liar!
Monarch: May I remind you that I am rubber and you are glue and whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you?
I wish I went to Comic Con in San Diego!!! I would have KILLED to have attended the Adult Swim booth arljksdlkjfjlksad!! LOOK!! Isn't this cosplay AMAZING?!?!?
http://community.livejournal.com/venturebrothers/137025.html#cutid1
SHIT!! I want to cosplay someone totally badass like that!! Why can't I be Dr. Girlfriend--oh wait, you have long hair and Dr. Girlfriend has short hair. This is my constant dilemma, sigh! Anyways, dude, it is also uncomparably awesome that the creator has a frikkin' livejournal. Reading about the fears, the hopes, the process, the excitement is really inspiring. Plus I like being able to take a backstage look at the brilliance that is Venture. I want to buy the season one boxset, but... OH MY GOD !! Revelation haha, I just figured out what I want to get my brother for his birthday! (edit: It took me so long to finish writing this post that this is kinda out of date. My brother's birthday has already passed by the time I've posted this and I in fact did buy the boxset for my bro, along with a Bittersweet CD.) Woo! Oh, by the way, my father's birthday was a while back. I made him one of my renowned fruit tarts~ it was delicious!
Haha but I guess nobody cars about Venture or birthdays, but on the note of cons, here's my Anime Expo/LA report. My first convention (other than dentist conventions my parents have taken me to uhhgh :shudder:) ever !!!
DAY 0:
Left on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, did some errands aka dropped by Nob Hill and stocked up on car snacks, drove a long 6 hours to Ahaheim/LA. Actually, it only took us 4 hours to get from San Jose to the LA area, but we reached LA around 6pm aka rush hour so we were stuck in an area that should have taken us 20 minutes for 2 hours. Yup. We checked in our hotel, cruised the streets and scoped crazy AXers who already registered, and lol as my brother brought the hookah pipe, smoked banana-pineapple flavored hookah until the dead of night.
DAY 1:
Wow. It was crowded like a bitch. We waited in line for ... maybe 2 hours+ just trying to register and get into the con? There were some really cool (and bad) cosplayers in line. Heh, I was inwardly giggling when I saw these two girls dressed as Ban and Ginji (Getbackers) chained together by the neck. I wanted to take some pictures with some of the cool guy cosplayers I saw, but my brother wouldn't let me! Aww. He was just worried for my safety aw.
We wandered outside after registering and my brother spotted this AWESOME Jin-Roh cosplayer (guy on left). I have no idea what that girl is from but... yeah, the Jin-Roh thing was pretty sweet. It was really hot down in Anaheim that weekend, so props for the full out costume!
So what did we do the first day? Hmm. Ah, opening ceremonies! I don't really remember anything about that so it must not have been impressive. But I /did/ go to the CLAMP panel! My favorite question was this last one : (taken and edited from this random person's post http://hoshisenshi.livejournal.com/5851.html )
3.) In TRC there is a theme of black and white, or yin and yang concerning the characters Kurogane and Fai. What does their relationship mean? Perhaps opposites attract with Kurogane and Fai? Is there a possibility of this pairing becoming official? (fans cheer)
O: [laughs] It must be a fan's desire coming out! [laughs] Well, we made Syaoran the main character and he's still developing and maturing, so we wanted him to have adult companions. We just wanted for him to have two adult guides representing two different forces etc etc....
LOL. GJ FANGIRLS. GJ.
So what else about the first day? Umm... we went around the merchant booths and I dropped by the Artist Alley for a little bit and met Pallid, Mikaii,Barlee, and Korilin!! All so very cool and sweet. I have a picture of me and Pallid but she won't let me post it, haha! Really though, my heart was uncontrollable *__*; I was so nervous, I've never met anyone I've known online before *___*;;;;;;; I didn't get to talk to them much, I hung out more in the Artist Alley on day 3.
DAY 2
On Sunday, we went to Knott's Berry Farm instead, which despite its domestic sounding name, is actually an exciting amusement park. We rode on every single main attraction hehehe, the Silver Bullet TWICE!!! And I googled the ride but apparently the wooden ride @ Knott's Berry is one of the best there are??? It was so amazing ahhh!!!!!!!!!!! So much better than Great America!
THE MOST FRIGHTENING BUT EXHILARATING 3 SECONDS OF MY LIFE
I couldn't get a really good shot of this, but there were basically 3 or 4 rollercoasters all weaving in, out, and around each other.
This ride is complete madness. It's like the Revolution at Great America x a yoyo x super soakers on speed, crack, helium, and caffeine. It's hard for me to describe in words, but your seat is basically on an axel which is connected to a larger structure that brings you in a circle a la Revolution. But, since your seat is also on an axel, as opposed to stationary on the structure, YOUR SEAT SPINS LIKE A WILD MOTHER FUCKER WITH WHIPLASH AND HOOHASFJAFSDkfjklklas and then water splurts threateningl everywhere and ahhh it's madness I LOVE KNOTT'S BERRY FARM!!!
I think this was a more recent addition to Knott's Berry over the years, but the park's mascot is Snoopy. There is a Snoopy town with millions of Snoopy structures everywhere. This is one of them. Isn't it cute? The boat with Snoopy and the woodstock birds rocked back and forth on the water :)
DAY 3.
My brother was still really tired so I walked to the convention by myself. Wow. It was gross (but I guess fun too) how many times I got hit on. I just pretended not to be able to speak English 8D Anyways, I went to the con early so that I could go watch the US premiere of the FMA movie but holy shit!! The line was like... 120830127410237109283891283919283013289031298924198094791025902140921382130812038281309812309809 people hahahhahahaha! Like, 1000000x longer than the line for CLAMP! That was kinda surprising to me. So I ended up not going to the movie at all, but instead hanging around Pallid's table for like 2 hours 8D They're so nice!!! I got to talk to Pallid, Barlee, Mikaii, and Pallid's friend a lot more ~ I think I sounded retarded but uh... oh well, whatever it was fun. :) Thank you for the free bookmark, Pallid T__T ♥!! Your and Barlee's doujinshi are simply AMAZING!!! Even though I'm not familiar with Naruto, I could really tell you guys put a lot of love and effort into the book :) ♥ I'm so lucky to have a copy!!!
What else did I do? Oh, I hit up the copics booth for a second time and did a lot of free drawings for people. It was kinda crazy, like as soon as I left, some girls were like fighting over who could rip out the drawings first o__o I also got interviewed by some lady from Associated Press and was printed in various newspapers. Fun fun fun. Apparently, I'm also on the Tokyopop website! Wow! http://www.tokyopop.com/253.html
Saw this Sanosuke cosplayer just randomly chilling out by the wall with his ENORMOUS weapon. I took a picture when a random Zangetsu challenger him to a duel. How on earth did that thing clear the weapons security check??? It's like 5x his size!
A Bloo cosplayer! Word of advice to any of you men who want to get down with the ladies at AX: dress up like a cute or animal character, and I promise the women will flock to you like hungry vultures to a rotting carcass on a hot day in Death Valley.
Other interesting cosplays I saw that I was unable to take pictures of include MAN FAYE UGH THE UGLIEST THING IN THE WORLD; Ouran Host Club twins with dyed blue and pink hair a la episode ???; a lanky black dude dressed up in the black and pink catgirl Cardcaptor Sakura outfit!?; a Phoenix Wright cosplay TEAM !! complete with a beautiful large sign they carried around that said "OBJECTION!"; a horrifying Silent Hill triangle head group with scary but well crafted limb props; a Paradise Kiss group; a Miwako (Gokinjo) cosplayer; a super hot Onizuka (GTO) complete with large hammer; a beautiful Nana cosplay (Pallid's friend ahh!! she was perfect!!!); a Disney princess group?!; a Domo-kun box-man; generic soldiers from Metal Gear Solid complete with cardboard cut outs of "!" and "?" somehow miraculously stuck to the top of their heads; and.. um... I'm sure there are a lot more that I'm forgetting, but those are the ones that stuck out in my mind the most. I, uh, want to (small voice) cosplay maybe. It looks like a lot of fun, you just get so caught up in it all once you're there. The energy is amazing. Unfortunately, there are very few female characters with long hair that I actually like. Most female characters I am fond of have short hair (Nana - NANA; Sae - Peach Girl; Nodame - Nodame Cantabile; Mizuki - Hanazakari no Kimitachi E; Rukia - Bleach; I could go on forever haha). I guess I could go with something classic, like Rei Hino or Gogo Yubari?? Haha, maybe. I'm still a little shy around the idea. My brother wants to dress up as The Unicorn and wants me to dress up as the lolita girl or gangster girl (but she has short hair!!!!) from Kamikaze Girls so we can match lol!
afterwards~
My loot :) The breakdown of what's in the picture:
Rillakuma's little bear friend in sheep costume: $15 (When I was in Japan, there was a large Rillakuma plush wearing the same sheep costume, something like 3300 yen aka about $30USD; I was indecisive and didn't buy it when I was there but thought I would eventually see it again in another store. I never saw it again and I've pined for it ever since I left!)
Domo-kun: $24 (hahaha.. my darling)
Deleter brand pen nibs + pen holder: $7
BAAU DOWN (Bay Area Artists Unite) anthology volume 4: $10
BAAU DOWN (Bay Area Artists Unite) anthology volume 5: $10
a cute copybook done by some artist's girlfriend: $2
a really hot Harry Potter sketch by some artist whose name I never caught! Aahhh!! : $2
an Ouran Host Club bookmark by Korilin: $1.50
Harry Potter doujinshi: $14
NARUTO ENGLISH LANGUAGE DOUJInSHI BY PALLID AND BARLEE OMFG!!! : $8 (I should have bought more from them ughh)
Aww!! Free Nana bookmark from Pallid! ♥ Thanks, doll!
Nodame Cantabile vol 6: $10
FREE!! Posters, mini calendars, necklace, pins, sampler manga 8D
There was a lot of artwork in the artist alley that was gorgeous, but unfortunately, I am poor and I can't afford to buy everything I like. There was an especially wonderful artist with a painty style that did a Miwako (or Mikako) poster?! So pretty :( And this other guy had an awesome portfolio with beautiful Bleach images but again!! Sob ;_; And I'm still hitting myself for this, but I /really/ should have gotten that Phoenix Wright english doujinshi I saw. I haven't played the game yet, but... still!!! I love supporting artists (especially aspiring doujinshika) and... english doujinshi are so rare, I should have just bought it anyway aljsdfjlkfsa :(
It seemed and felt and looks like a lot of money spent on anime/manga/japanese related paraphenelia (something like $100?! I never do that), but I was told by Pallid that it was nothing compared to most other people who spend like hundreds. I suppose if you live somewhere really out there, you wouldn't have access to a convenient Suncoast with anime dvds or a Borders that would carry manga, so AnimeExpo is where you would satisfy all of your geeky needs. But for me, I guess the merchant area wasn't all that exciting because I had just been to Japan and I had already seen the latest toys trends etc. Still, it was really fun! My brother went to the Tofu Records booth to buy a Polysics shirt and got a coupon to go play their games, in which you can win a prize. You could choose between playing "basketball" with one of their tofu plushes, having to get 3 tofus out of 3 into the basket, or flipping a tofu and getting it face up 2 times out of 3. My brother chose the basketball one and won another t-shirt :) Neat!
And I think that's it for AX. I didn't really take advantage of any of their panels or anything, but hey! It was my first con. Maybe next year I can do something more productive.. :)
whoooooo. that post was long. Cookies for whoever actually read the entire boring thing.
UGH GOD! I love this beautiful thing called summer. So much free time to just... be. Anyhow, I recently watched this independent movie called "Brick." I don't think the DVD has come out yet, but I watched it with my bro on his computer. It's really cool, I recommend it; it's essentially a noir movie that takes place with urban high school kids. Pretty awesome. Also, does anyone else watch The Venture Brothers (Adult Swim)? I'm seriously in love with this show, the animation, character designs and voice actors are just MMM! and it doesn't hurt that the scripts are just too hilarious for their own good.
The Monarch: (cross-examining Hank) So. Hank. It is Hank, isn't it?
Hank: Yes sir.
Monarch: Well, Hank. What's it like to be a... (turning to face the jury and shouting) liar! Huh? Do you like being a liar, with pants constantly on fire?
Tiny Attorney: Objection, your honor. Leading!
Monarch: I'll rephrase it. Hank, are you a liar?
Hank: No sir, I don't think so.
Monarch: Yes, you are!
Dean: You're the liar!
Monarch: May I remind you that I am rubber and you are glue and whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you?
I wish I went to Comic Con in San Diego!!! I would have KILLED to have attended the Adult Swim booth arljksdlkjfjlksad!! LOOK!! Isn't this cosplay AMAZING?!?!?
http://community.livejournal.com/venturebrothers/137025.html#cutid1
SHIT!! I want to cosplay someone totally badass like that!! Why can't I be Dr. Girlfriend--oh wait, you have long hair and Dr. Girlfriend has short hair. This is my constant dilemma, sigh! Anyways, dude, it is also uncomparably awesome that the creator has a frikkin' livejournal. Reading about the fears, the hopes, the process, the excitement is really inspiring. Plus I like being able to take a backstage look at the brilliance that is Venture. I want to buy the season one boxset, but... OH MY GOD !! Revelation haha, I just figured out what I want to get my brother for his birthday! (edit: It took me so long to finish writing this post that this is kinda out of date. My brother's birthday has already passed by the time I've posted this and I in fact did buy the boxset for my bro, along with a Bittersweet CD.) Woo! Oh, by the way, my father's birthday was a while back. I made him one of my renowned fruit tarts~ it was delicious!
Haha but I guess nobody cars about Venture or birthdays, but on the note of cons, here's my Anime Expo/LA report. My first convention (other than dentist conventions my parents have taken me to uhhgh :shudder:) ever !!!
DAY 0:
Left on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, did some errands aka dropped by Nob Hill and stocked up on car snacks, drove a long 6 hours to Ahaheim/LA. Actually, it only took us 4 hours to get from San Jose to the LA area, but we reached LA around 6pm aka rush hour so we were stuck in an area that should have taken us 20 minutes for 2 hours. Yup. We checked in our hotel, cruised the streets and scoped crazy AXers who already registered, and lol as my brother brought the hookah pipe, smoked banana-pineapple flavored hookah until the dead of night.
DAY 1:
Wow. It was crowded like a bitch. We waited in line for ... maybe 2 hours+ just trying to register and get into the con? There were some really cool (and bad) cosplayers in line. Heh, I was inwardly giggling when I saw these two girls dressed as Ban and Ginji (Getbackers) chained together by the neck. I wanted to take some pictures with some of the cool guy cosplayers I saw, but my brother wouldn't let me! Aww. He was just worried for my safety aw.
We wandered outside after registering and my brother spotted this AWESOME Jin-Roh cosplayer (guy on left). I have no idea what that girl is from but... yeah, the Jin-Roh thing was pretty sweet. It was really hot down in Anaheim that weekend, so props for the full out costume!
So what did we do the first day? Hmm. Ah, opening ceremonies! I don't really remember anything about that so it must not have been impressive. But I /did/ go to the CLAMP panel! My favorite question was this last one : (taken and edited from this random person's post http://hoshisenshi.livejournal.com/5851.html )
3.) In TRC there is a theme of black and white, or yin and yang concerning the characters Kurogane and Fai. What does their relationship mean? Perhaps opposites attract with Kurogane and Fai? Is there a possibility of this pairing becoming official? (fans cheer)
O: [laughs] It must be a fan's desire coming out! [laughs] Well, we made Syaoran the main character and he's still developing and maturing, so we wanted him to have adult companions. We just wanted for him to have two adult guides representing two different forces etc etc....
LOL. GJ FANGIRLS. GJ.
So what else about the first day? Umm... we went around the merchant booths and I dropped by the Artist Alley for a little bit and met Pallid, Mikaii,Barlee, and Korilin!! All so very cool and sweet. I have a picture of me and Pallid but she won't let me post it, haha! Really though, my heart was uncontrollable *__*; I was so nervous, I've never met anyone I've known online before *___*;;;;;;; I didn't get to talk to them much, I hung out more in the Artist Alley on day 3.
DAY 2
On Sunday, we went to Knott's Berry Farm instead, which despite its domestic sounding name, is actually an exciting amusement park. We rode on every single main attraction hehehe, the Silver Bullet TWICE!!! And I googled the ride but apparently the wooden ride @ Knott's Berry is one of the best there are??? It was so amazing ahhh!!!!!!!!!!! So much better than Great America!
THE MOST FRIGHTENING BUT EXHILARATING 3 SECONDS OF MY LIFE
I couldn't get a really good shot of this, but there were basically 3 or 4 rollercoasters all weaving in, out, and around each other.
This ride is complete madness. It's like the Revolution at Great America x a yoyo x super soakers on speed, crack, helium, and caffeine. It's hard for me to describe in words, but your seat is basically on an axel which is connected to a larger structure that brings you in a circle a la Revolution. But, since your seat is also on an axel, as opposed to stationary on the structure, YOUR SEAT SPINS LIKE A WILD MOTHER FUCKER WITH WHIPLASH AND HOOHASFJAFSDkfjklklas and then water splurts threateningl everywhere and ahhh it's madness I LOVE KNOTT'S BERRY FARM!!!
I think this was a more recent addition to Knott's Berry over the years, but the park's mascot is Snoopy. There is a Snoopy town with millions of Snoopy structures everywhere. This is one of them. Isn't it cute? The boat with Snoopy and the woodstock birds rocked back and forth on the water :)
DAY 3.
My brother was still really tired so I walked to the convention by myself. Wow. It was gross (but I guess fun too) how many times I got hit on. I just pretended not to be able to speak English 8D Anyways, I went to the con early so that I could go watch the US premiere of the FMA movie but holy shit!! The line was like... 120830127410237109283891283919283013289031298924198094791025902140921382130812038281309812309809 people hahahhahahaha! Like, 1000000x longer than the line for CLAMP! That was kinda surprising to me. So I ended up not going to the movie at all, but instead hanging around Pallid's table for like 2 hours 8D They're so nice!!! I got to talk to Pallid, Barlee, Mikaii, and Pallid's friend a lot more ~ I think I sounded retarded but uh... oh well, whatever it was fun. :) Thank you for the free bookmark, Pallid T__T ♥!! Your and Barlee's doujinshi are simply AMAZING!!! Even though I'm not familiar with Naruto, I could really tell you guys put a lot of love and effort into the book :) ♥ I'm so lucky to have a copy!!!
What else did I do? Oh, I hit up the copics booth for a second time and did a lot of free drawings for people. It was kinda crazy, like as soon as I left, some girls were like fighting over who could rip out the drawings first o__o I also got interviewed by some lady from Associated Press and was printed in various newspapers. Fun fun fun. Apparently, I'm also on the Tokyopop website! Wow! http://www.tokyopop.com/253.html
Saw this Sanosuke cosplayer just randomly chilling out by the wall with his ENORMOUS weapon. I took a picture when a random Zangetsu challenger him to a duel. How on earth did that thing clear the weapons security check??? It's like 5x his size!
A Bloo cosplayer! Word of advice to any of you men who want to get down with the ladies at AX: dress up like a cute or animal character, and I promise the women will flock to you like hungry vultures to a rotting carcass on a hot day in Death Valley.
Other interesting cosplays I saw that I was unable to take pictures of include MAN FAYE UGH THE UGLIEST THING IN THE WORLD; Ouran Host Club twins with dyed blue and pink hair a la episode ???; a lanky black dude dressed up in the black and pink catgirl Cardcaptor Sakura outfit!?; a Phoenix Wright cosplay TEAM !! complete with a beautiful large sign they carried around that said "OBJECTION!"; a horrifying Silent Hill triangle head group with scary but well crafted limb props; a Paradise Kiss group; a Miwako (Gokinjo) cosplayer; a super hot Onizuka (GTO) complete with large hammer; a beautiful Nana cosplay (Pallid's friend ahh!! she was perfect!!!); a Disney princess group?!; a Domo-kun box-man; generic soldiers from Metal Gear Solid complete with cardboard cut outs of "!" and "?" somehow miraculously stuck to the top of their heads; and.. um... I'm sure there are a lot more that I'm forgetting, but those are the ones that stuck out in my mind the most. I, uh, want to (small voice) cosplay maybe. It looks like a lot of fun, you just get so caught up in it all once you're there. The energy is amazing. Unfortunately, there are very few female characters with long hair that I actually like. Most female characters I am fond of have short hair (Nana - NANA; Sae - Peach Girl; Nodame - Nodame Cantabile; Mizuki - Hanazakari no Kimitachi E; Rukia - Bleach; I could go on forever haha). I guess I could go with something classic, like Rei Hino or Gogo Yubari?? Haha, maybe. I'm still a little shy around the idea. My brother wants to dress up as The Unicorn and wants me to dress up as the lolita girl or gangster girl (but she has short hair!!!!) from Kamikaze Girls so we can match lol!
afterwards~
My loot :) The breakdown of what's in the picture:
Rillakuma's little bear friend in sheep costume: $15 (When I was in Japan, there was a large Rillakuma plush wearing the same sheep costume, something like 3300 yen aka about $30USD; I was indecisive and didn't buy it when I was there but thought I would eventually see it again in another store. I never saw it again and I've pined for it ever since I left!)
Domo-kun: $24 (hahaha.. my darling)
Deleter brand pen nibs + pen holder: $7
BAAU DOWN (Bay Area Artists Unite) anthology volume 4: $10
BAAU DOWN (Bay Area Artists Unite) anthology volume 5: $10
a cute copybook done by some artist's girlfriend: $2
a really hot Harry Potter sketch by some artist whose name I never caught! Aahhh!! : $2
an Ouran Host Club bookmark by Korilin: $1.50
Harry Potter doujinshi: $14
NARUTO ENGLISH LANGUAGE DOUJInSHI BY PALLID AND BARLEE OMFG!!! : $8 (I should have bought more from them ughh)
Aww!! Free Nana bookmark from Pallid! ♥ Thanks, doll!
Nodame Cantabile vol 6: $10
FREE!! Posters, mini calendars, necklace, pins, sampler manga 8D
There was a lot of artwork in the artist alley that was gorgeous, but unfortunately, I am poor and I can't afford to buy everything I like. There was an especially wonderful artist with a painty style that did a Miwako (or Mikako) poster?! So pretty :( And this other guy had an awesome portfolio with beautiful Bleach images but again!! Sob ;_; And I'm still hitting myself for this, but I /really/ should have gotten that Phoenix Wright english doujinshi I saw. I haven't played the game yet, but... still!!! I love supporting artists (especially aspiring doujinshika) and... english doujinshi are so rare, I should have just bought it anyway aljsdfjlkfsa :(
It seemed and felt and looks like a lot of money spent on anime/manga/japanese related paraphenelia (something like $100?! I never do that), but I was told by Pallid that it was nothing compared to most other people who spend like hundreds. I suppose if you live somewhere really out there, you wouldn't have access to a convenient Suncoast with anime dvds or a Borders that would carry manga, so AnimeExpo is where you would satisfy all of your geeky needs. But for me, I guess the merchant area wasn't all that exciting because I had just been to Japan and I had already seen the latest toys trends etc. Still, it was really fun! My brother went to the Tofu Records booth to buy a Polysics shirt and got a coupon to go play their games, in which you can win a prize. You could choose between playing "basketball" with one of their tofu plushes, having to get 3 tofus out of 3 into the basket, or flipping a tofu and getting it face up 2 times out of 3. My brother chose the basketball one and won another t-shirt :) Neat!
And I think that's it for AX. I didn't really take advantage of any of their panels or anything, but hey! It was my first con. Maybe next year I can do something more productive.. :)
whoooooo. that post was long. Cookies for whoever actually read the entire boring thing.