hmm, i was supposed to run the audio for the masquerade, but i couldn't get the time off of work. i've heard tons of shit like this over the years that AX isn't Fanimecon. I know this much, but i will still make a run for it next year. Also, i'm going to get my foot in the door at the dance. My musical choice = Golden like Sunny D cali Style
( ... )
Being DQ'ed from the Masquerade last minute without warning as stated before. Middle finger.
Man, sorry to hear that this happened to you. I kinda know how it feels to get screwed by high up AX staff members, I was in the Mikhail in the Macross Frontier skit. Our audio failed twice and long story short, they were trying to ban us from the masquerade for 2 years.
(Found your con report on cosplay.com and thought I would sympathize with you. I'm state_alchemist there.)
I wasn't able to go to the Masq this year. I'll go check out the vids online. Whoever is main-coordinating cosplay this year deserves the middle finger.
Mikhail from Macross? Hmmm, I might have seen you at the con. *refreshes memory*
Audio failures? I heard a lot of that happened during this year's AX, not just your skit. How there wasn't any technical issues (?) during the MoMuse concert yet issues with Masquerade Audio is really an issue that the techs from AX need explaining, especially when they were given at least an entire day to get all audio ready. Can't really say if it's the performer's fault or if it's theirs, but having a couple of skits with uncoordinated audio kinda says something.
WTF? Why would they try to ban you guys for 2 years? Was there a legit reason?
+Was only in Mikhail on Day 3 and I sadly wasn't able to make it to Macross gathering.
+I heard this year the person that they ALWAYS have doing the audio for the masquerade had a heart attack a couple days before AX. And yeah, besides our skit, there were a couple others, but it was just a starting/stopping problem.
+Their reasoning for the ban was because they were upset with us planning on using the Christian Bale rant at the end of the skit. However, last year, our group did a Black Lagoon skit, which had just as much foul words in it and they never told us they had a problem with our skit. So, because we included the CB rant, that's how they were trying to ban us. Yet, in the end, they only banned our Sheryl Nome (the skit leader/writer) and the name Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay.
A friend of mine told us that we could appeal the decision, so I'm leaving it up to her to decide if she wants to.
The heart attack was unexpected and understandable (get well soon to whoever); why they didn't have at least 1 backup head/director for audio though is beyond understanding (sounds like AX 2007 AMV contest crisis all over again).
I see nothing wrong with Christian Bale rant or any rant against celebs or ideals. There's a lot more skits in general bashing George Bush and Scientology and those skits went fine. Not sure how strict AX's policies are now for Masq skits.
Also, from what I heard in the Masq, the announcer was mentioning "Yaoi" excessively and explicitly, the meaning still has content that is not suitable for 18+ to hear as well as being a more controversial topic in the media. Sounds hypocritical from AX's cosplay department.
Coconut Bubble Sex got yelled at/DQ'd too. In the past, the con staff bleeped out any curse words in masquerade audio, and they were told that it was fine if they put those words in there, 'cause they'd just bleep 'em out again.
Apparently not, though. They proceeded to give Coconut Bubble Sex a lecture about how they "never should have used all those words in the first place" and "that's just completely inappropriate" ...argh. My boyfriend and I roomed with them, and we listened to their awesome skit audio about 500 times while they edited it, and im pretty angry that they weren't allowed to perform because of miscommunications -.-
Hey, random person here, but I attended AX as well to see Morning Musume, and I just gotta say I completely agree with your opinions 100%. I didn't attend all the events you did, but what I did go to felt so disorganized and ... I dunno, it felt really slopped together for the biggest anime con in America. I expected much more organization here than I would a smaller con here in Texas. Also, much of the staff on the floor was lame. We constantly got told wrong information, got led to the wrong lines, and even got in trouble for taking pictures of MM's rehearsal from the main hall because the staff and rent-a-cops guarding the doors didn't know to not tell us to take pictures. >_> Still, the guests were awesome and Morning Musume totally made it all worth it. Still, don't think I'll be making the 1200 mile flight to LA for AX again thanks to stuff like that and the things you mentioned.
Sorry to hear about your experience at AX, especially living very far away.
As mentioned to a reply, the biggest problem with the staff was either these staffers have little to no knowledge of what to do in these situations, even with common sense (if any), or they didn't care at all. If that doesn't seem to be the case, then it would be the fault of whoever is managing these staffers for not giving the proper information.
AX is very good with big guests. I can't say the same thing about their extracurricular stuff.
More is better in a business perspective; more is not better when it's mishandled.
Yeah, they seemed to have awesome guests and a decent and below everything else. Another thing that you mentioned that I experienced was the console gaming room. I'm a big Halo 3 player, so I was psyched to see that it was going to be in the console room on Sunday. I went in and saw nothing but a bunch of fighting games, then hunched in a corner, on two standard def TV's, four players per screen was the big Halo 3 event. Yucko. I didn't expect rows of 60 inch plasmas, but... really. I hung around a bit to see if I could play anything, but most of the games were also being downright hogged by people.
Hmmm, I didn't remember seeing the 60" plasmas available there. Last time I checked, they were less than 26" or maybe I came in at the wrong times.
For such a small room, very few stations, and this many attendees, I already knew there's gonna be major crowd issues; people want to enter the tournaments for free (or enter the $5-only SFIV tournament) or simply go for free play. Sometimes, it may take an hour or two just to get one round. While playing the games for free is a delight, waiting for this much time waiting is just as bad as spending too much money at the arcade.
I expected much more from AX in terms of game room. Smaller/local cons at least are cheaper and have less crowing issues, and often have just about as many stations as AX does. Bigger cons that have a game room like FanimeCon, PAX, Otakon, and SakuraCon have HUGE amounts of stations (25+ stations), giving lots of selections for a wider audience to enjoy as well as backup stations to give less wait time for the more highly demanded games.
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being in the right place at the right time.
we have the hook up on such info.
and proofs in the pudding.
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Man, sorry to hear that this happened to you. I kinda know how it feels to get screwed by high up AX staff members, I was in the Mikhail in the Macross Frontier skit. Our audio failed twice and long story short, they were trying to ban us from the masquerade for 2 years.
(Found your con report on cosplay.com and thought I would sympathize with you. I'm state_alchemist there.)
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Mikhail from Macross? Hmmm, I might have seen you at the con. *refreshes memory*
Audio failures? I heard a lot of that happened during this year's AX, not just your skit. How there wasn't any technical issues (?) during the MoMuse concert yet issues with Masquerade Audio is really an issue that the techs from AX need explaining, especially when they were given at least an entire day to get all audio ready. Can't really say if it's the performer's fault or if it's theirs, but having a couple of skits with uncoordinated audio kinda says something.
WTF? Why would they try to ban you guys for 2 years? Was there a legit reason?
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+Was only in Mikhail on Day 3 and I sadly wasn't able to make it to Macross gathering.
+I heard this year the person that they ALWAYS have doing the audio for the masquerade had a heart attack a couple days before AX. And yeah, besides our skit, there were a couple others, but it was just a starting/stopping problem.
+Their reasoning for the ban was because they were upset with us planning on using the Christian Bale rant at the end of the skit. However, last year, our group did a Black Lagoon skit, which had just as much foul words in it and they never told us they had a problem with our skit. So, because we included the CB rant, that's how they were trying to ban us. Yet, in the end, they only banned our Sheryl Nome (the skit leader/writer) and the name Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay.
A friend of mine told us that we could appeal the decision, so I'm leaving it up to her to decide if she wants to.
Reply
I see nothing wrong with Christian Bale rant or any rant against celebs or ideals. There's a lot more skits in general bashing George Bush and Scientology and those skits went fine. Not sure how strict AX's policies are now for Masq skits.
Also, from what I heard in the Masq, the announcer was mentioning "Yaoi" excessively and explicitly, the meaning still has content that is not suitable for 18+ to hear as well as being a more controversial topic in the media. Sounds hypocritical from AX's cosplay department.
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Apparently not, though. They proceeded to give Coconut Bubble Sex a lecture about how they "never should have used all those words in the first place" and "that's just completely inappropriate" ...argh. My boyfriend and I roomed with them, and we listened to their awesome skit audio about 500 times while they edited it, and im pretty angry that they weren't allowed to perform because of miscommunications -.-
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Since Coconut Bubble Sex has been in discussion, is there a vid online we can watch?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axaZKMoq0KE
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As mentioned to a reply, the biggest problem with the staff was either these staffers have little to no knowledge of what to do in these situations, even with common sense (if any), or they didn't care at all. If that doesn't seem to be the case, then it would be the fault of whoever is managing these staffers for not giving the proper information.
AX is very good with big guests. I can't say the same thing about their extracurricular stuff.
More is better in a business perspective; more is not better when it's mishandled.
Reply
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For such a small room, very few stations, and this many attendees, I already knew there's gonna be major crowd issues; people want to enter the tournaments for free (or enter the $5-only SFIV tournament) or simply go for free play. Sometimes, it may take an hour or two just to get one round. While playing the games for free is a delight, waiting for this much time waiting is just as bad as spending too much money at the arcade.
I expected much more from AX in terms of game room. Smaller/local cons at least are cheaper and have less crowing issues, and often have just about as many stations as AX does. Bigger cons that have a game room like FanimeCon, PAX, Otakon, and SakuraCon have HUGE amounts of stations (25+ stations), giving lots of selections for a wider audience to enjoy as well as backup stations to give less wait time for the more highly demanded games.
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