FailCon 2014, Day 2 - First Day at C2E2 and the Importance of Directions
On Thursday, we agreed that would meet noelct, phoenix_anew, jaklocke and jasondemotte at the South Loop Hotel at 10:00 AM and we would head to C2E2 together. At the time, that seemed like a good plan.
Like I said in the previous entry, I went to sleep early. I woke up at 5:00 AM. Figuring I didn't want to get up quite that early, I decided to sleep in two more hours.
Next thing I knew, the alarms were ringing and it was 8:30 AM. Since it takes almost exactly an hour to get from my apartment to the South Loop Hotel, that was a problem. I tried to shower, brush teeth, shave and get breakfast as quickly as possible, but in the end, I wasn't fast enough. By 10:00 AM, I was still eight stops away. So when Noel asked me (via text) if I would mind if everybody just headed out, I sighed and said that, no, of course I wouldn't mind. Especially since it would be faster for me to walk from the 'L' to C2E2 than to walk to the hotel, then to C2e2.
So, in the end, I got off at Cermak-Chinatown station and made it to C2E2 less than five minutes before everybody else did. So it kind of worked out.
On the Convention Floor
C2E2 has been held at McCormick Place convention center since inception. The first C2E2 took place in 2010, and it became a big deal simply because it was the first convention in quite a while to take place within Chicago city limits (the big "Chicago" conventions like Anime Central and Wizard World Chicago actually take place in Rosemont, a suburb between O'Hare Airport and the rest of Chicago).
I've attended the very first C2E2, as well as the 2011 one (where, as you may recall, I first met Noel and queenanthai) and the 2013 one. I figured I knew what to expect. But the con threw me for a loop. For the first time since 2011, it didn't take place in McCormick Place's West Building. It took a bit to adjust to the fact that none of the panels were where I expected them to be and relearn some of the layout.
Also, I've never been to C2E2 on the first day. I've always got a one-day pass, since it was cheaper and the only thing I would be missing out on were some of the panels and events (which I could live with). Since everybody else got 3-day passes, I got one as well. So I had no idea that, as we made our way to the convention floor, a huge line awaited us.
Now, we got there about half an hour before the convention floor opened. Angie theorized that they wanted to keep the crowd under control and let people in gradually, and it makes sense. But still... It was nowhere near as bad as the Anime Central's legendary Line of Doom, but to somebody who was used to just showing my C2E2 con badge and walking right in, it was frustrating.
Especially since I could see people getting in
But, eventually, our turn came and we were allowed inside.
Once we made it onto the floor, we pretty much decided to split up and reconvene for lunch at the convention floor's food court around 1:00 PM.
Having been to C2E2 many times, I knew the drill. Major comic book publishers had entire sections of the floor cornered off. Mid-tier and smaller comic book publishers had tables. Local artists and a few local book publishers had tables of their own. Comic book stores - both from Chicago and elsewhere - were selling their products. In a lot of cases, I visited their tables just to check if there was anything new. I pretty much skipped the Marvel Comics area altogether.
There were a few things that got my attention. Chicago Review Press, a local publisher, was selling a recent translation of Roadside Picnic, a classic Russian science fiction novel by Strugatsky brothers. While their novels are well-known in former Soviet Union and the former Eastern bloc in general, the English translations of their work went out of print long ago and are very hard to find. So when I found the translation for a decent price, I recommended it to Noel (and I extend that recommendation to anyone reading this who isn't familiar with Strugatsky Brothers' work). But finding an English translation of Roadside Picnic was nothing compared to finding out that Hard to be a God, one of their best novels and a work I consider a major influence, will be getting an English translation this June. While we'll have to wait and see how good of a translation it is, the fact that it's getting any translation at all is amazing.
I reiterate my recommendation. If you are reading this, reserve it, getting it, borrow it. It's worth it.
I also discovered McFarland Books, a North Carolina publisher that came to C2E2 with a pretty interesting selection of academic books dealing with various facets of pop culture. I didn't buy anything, but I did grab their catalog.
"Random Penguin" (the tongue-in-cheek nickname for the merger of Random House and Penguin book publishers) had multiple tables for their imprints. I grabbed some previews - only to find out much later that they were actually giving away actual books. I took advantage of it later during C2E2, but on Friday, I had no idea.
One thing I noticed is that C2E2 didn't have as much stuff dealing with gaming. Video game areas were smaller, and I don't think they had a tabletop gaming room this time around. But there was one thing that was pretty cool. League of Legends area had a whiteboard wall people could draw on. I took advantage of it, of course - but for some reason, I forgot to take a picture of what I drew (if you can tell from the image below - my sketch is to the right of the blue-haired girl with a backwards baseball cap)
One of the best part of C2E2 - or any geek stuff convention, really - is the Artists Alley. For one thing, it's a great equalizer. Amatuer artisits and writers, mid-tier creators, popular creators and industry veterans get to sit side by side. It's a great way to discover interesting work you never would have seen otherwise, and a good way to chat with popular creators in a more casual environment (so long as you don't take up too much time, most of the creators I've chatted with have been pretty friendly and perfectly willing to give autographs).
This time, I chatted with the writer-artist team behind Surreality webcomic and bought a few comics I've been meaning to buy for a while. Last year, I stopped at webcomic creator S.P. Burke's table and saw a comic that was practically tailor-made for tweelore. I didn't find anything that caught my attention this time, and I had to leave the table empty-handed.
Another great part about C2E2 is cosplayers - and, of course, I took plenty of pictures.
Space Ghost (the Adult Swim, Talk show host version):
Alistair from Dragon Age
Harley Quinn
I wasn't sure if this cosplayer was John Constantine or Carlisle Castiel from Supernatural. So I asked him. Turned out he was the former.
"But John Constantine is blonde," I pointed out.
"Yeah... I didn't want to dye my hair," he said. "I figured the hair style would give it away."
"Fair enough"
Hey, I never dyed my hair blonde when I cosplayed as Grifter, so who was I to judge.
I've seen cosplayers who actually tried to pull of the He-Man physique. This... wasn't one of those guys.
He-Man cosplayer with one of the actors from Medieval Times - a local tourist attraction.
For a bit of childhood nostalgia for us 90s kids - Blue Power Ranger (with Green Ranger's shield) and Goku
This one confused me a bit. The one on the left was Marvel Comics' version of Loki (who was reincarnated as a woman during J Michael Straczynski's Thor run). But who was the one on the right?
"Iron Thor," said the cosplayer
Now, originally, I planned to duck out of McCormick Place at 11:30, take the bus downtown, meet with my mom, give her one of Angie's pralines, pick up a few things, stop by an ATM to get some cash and head back long before I was supposed to meet up with everyone for lunch. But I got distracted, and only managed to leave at around 11:50. By the time I got to my mom's work, I only had time to exchange stuff and run back for the bus to C2E2, making it back at 1:00 PM almost exactly. And it took me another ten minutes to find Angie, Jak, JD and Noel.
I didn't have time to stop by the ATM, and I was quickly reminded why I don't usually buy my lunch from the food court. Your typical Chicago hot dog was almost $5. And that was the cheapest item.
I didn't have that much cash on me. Thankfully, JD was willing to give me $5 and got a a hotdog. Just a hotdog. Getting a drink would have cost me another $3.
After we had lunch, we split up again, agreeing to meet on the panel floor after the panels everybody wanted to see wrapped up.
I had some panels I was thinking of checking out, but ultimately, I found myself too busy exploring the con floor and taking the pictures.
An R2-D2 model
The cosplayer who went as Bandette, the title character from the eponymous graphic novel by colleencoover and Paul Tobin. Which, incidentally, is a pretty fun comic.
Note entirely sure, actually - but those are some cool costumes
Captain Jack Harkness cosplayer
Bumblebee, from the Transformers movies
Again, no idea - but it looks cool
This Ursula earned a lot of cheers from the crowd
Pyro, from X-Men
Spider-men cosplayers posing with kids - because come on, that's adorable
I also saw a pretty cool creature make-up demonstration
And some artists in a RedEye booth
But there was one thing that marred the experience. Friday turned out to be a warmer day then I expected, so I took off my jacket. And when I went outside, to the "balcony" near the walkway connecting North/South and East buildings...
...I realized that my jacket was gone.
I looked for it in the food court. Wasn't there. I walked to the library staff. They directed me to the convention center security, who didn't find anything - but they were happy to take down the description. That wasn't encouraging.
On a whim, I decided to retrace my steps exactly... and discovered it lying by the wall where I sat down two hours earlier. In a crowded convention of thousands people, that was nothing short of the miracle.
The whole thing ended well. But I'm still a bit disappointed that all this searching caused me to miss a performance by a comedian who, by all accounts, was pretty funny.
By about 5:00 PM, I saw everything I wanted to see on the convention floor and missed the few panels I was considering going to. But it would still be another hour before everybody else wrapped up their panels. So I decided to go up the panel floor
I walked all the way to the Main Stage, the biggest panel space, just to see what was there. While I couldn't get into the room itself (they were preparing for the Game of Thrones panel), I got a pretty cool view of Lake Michigan
And a nifty view of the ramps that connect Lake Shore Drive and Stevenson Expressway
I decided to take a seat at one of the tables by the window and read some of the stuff I got. That kept me pretty busy. So busy that I barely noticed the crowd waiting for the Game of Thrones panel grew larger... and larger...
Thankfully, by the time I had to go meet everyone, the panel already started and all those people were safety inside.
To Lore and Gameworks - aka the Blind Leading the Directionless
After we met up and made our way back to the hotel, the plan was simple. Noel wanted to go to GameWorks - a video arcade located in Chicago's northwestern suburbs, not far from where alliancesjr and tweelore live. Kevin took Noel, westonian and Weston's girlfriend, Kayt, to Gameworks last time they were in town, and Noel liked it enough to suggest it to Angie, Jak and JD. I suggested that we could meet up with Kevin, Lore and skybreak_seeker at the arcade and... Long story short, it was decided that we would drive to Casa O'Shea first, Angie, Jak and JD would get to meet Lore and see the apartment, and then we, along with Kevin and Adam, would drive to the Arcade and hang out there.
It was a solid plan. Noel even went through the trouble of printing out directions before he left home. But when we all climbled into Angie's car (with Noel, JD and I squeezing into the back seat), we found out that we forgot the directions in the hotel.
Now, I've only been to Casa O'Shea once - and Lore drove me there. I think Noel was only there once as well. I had the address saved - but because I didn't have a smartphone, I couldn't just pull it up. Noel tried calling Kevin for directions - only to drop his phone. And since we were, as I said before, squeezed pretty tightly in the back seat, it wasn't so easy to find.
We were supposed to be there by 8:00 PM, and none of us wanted to risk running too late. Since I knew how to get to the municipality where Kevin lived, we decided to at least head in that general direction and figure out the rest along the way.
As we started to head toward the highway, I was able to reach Lore. She passed the phone to Kevin, who gave me detailed direction to the apartment - and the address. Since we had Jak's GPS, the address was enough to get us to the apartment complex where Kevin lived.
But problems started once we got to the actual complex. There were several buildings at the address - and it wasn't obvious which one was the right one. Noel and I have only been there once, so we couldn't tell. Kevin did give us directions... It's been a few days, so I don't remember the exact wording, but it was something along the lines of "as the road turns left, keep going until it turns right." Which... wasn't that helpful.
After a few false turns, we were able to find the building the same way Noel did when he was there - Kevin walked outside and pointed us in the right direction.
"I gave the directions to the guy with the thickest accent," he remarked.
But once that was sorted out, we made our way to Casa O'Shea.
We were only there for a few minutes, and it was fine... Except while Noel and I came up to Lore and talked to her, Angie, Jak and JD sort of hung back. As it turned out later, Lore didn't reallize that Angie was Angelle the Phoenix Anew. If Angie lived closer to Chicago, it would've been a silly misunderstanding, but who knows when Angie and Lore will be in the same room again.
At least Angie got to see Lore's cats (I know she was looking forward to it).
Well, she got to see one cat. The (I forgot which one - maybe Jennydots?) saw ALL THE NEW PEOPLE OMG and run and hid somewhere.
Anyway, after hanging out for a few minutes of hanging out, we headed to Gameworks, with Adam and Noel riding in Kevin's car and everybody else riding in Angie's as Kevin led the way. And he was doing fine until he got to the parking garade, where he entered through the exit and everybody in Angie's car decided that Kevin couldn't complain about people relaying his directions badly anymore :)
When we got to GameWorks, we met up with Julie Sydor (song_of_straygo) a comic book artist best known for the Snowflame fan comic. She and Noel apperantly knew each other, and she recently started following me on Twitter because of my Ukrainian Crisis posts, out of all things. She turned out to be a nice, if a bit shy, person who was actually fairly interesting to talk to.
Since, unlike Kevin and Adam, we didn't have any dinner, we ate at Gameworks. It was a bit overpriced, in my opinion, but the food was fairly good. Not quite what I was expecting, but good. Still not sure if it was good enough to pay $10, but you know me and my thriftiness.
Once we paid, Angie and Jak went off to play. Then JD left. Then I left, and Noel and Julie hung out for a while.
(There may have been some gossip about those two... and that's all I'm going to say)
So how did I like GameWorks?
Honestly, not that much. When I was there with Kevin, Noel and Weston, I learned that I wasn't good at shooting games. Turned out that I wasn't good the driving games I remember being at least decent at when I was a kid, either. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't drive. Maybe it was, as Lore suggested, that you lose your gaming skills if you don't practice.
At least everybody else seemed to enjoy themselves, and I got to chat with Adam, so it wasn't all bad.
By 11:00 PM, we were all fairly tired and we headed out. We already made plans to hang out on Saturday evening, and Julie was invited to hang out with us.
We got back to the hotel without any problems. And we all agreed that we wouldn't get up as early for C2E2, since we would all probably sleep in.
Which was fine by me. I didn't make it back to my apartment until after 1:00 AM.
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Tune in next time for panels, more cosplay and fun and games. Board games.