Otakon X:
Who’s yer daddy?
Otakon has become the big dog of anime conventions on the East Coast.
This is their tenth year running, growing each year by leaps and bounds.
Thursday:
What a great idea!
Amidst a flurry of preparations, I decided to take advantage of the Thursday
night pre-registration pickup. I steered Ai-chan into a parking garage
and set out to find out where the line was.
Same as the other 9000 that showed up for this feature. I got there
right at 7; I don’t expect to get my badge before 9.
So, why am I doing this?
I could be at home, making a sandwich or getting a nap. But I am here,
by my own decision, and by my own decision I shall stay. Yes!
I will ride the human wave! Early estimates/guesses put attendance at
around 20000 this year.
Something I dare not speak of out loud!
There are two things that could happen right now to cause the unpleasantness
level to skyrocket: needing to use the bathroom, and rain. It
is dangerously close to both conditions.
Speaking of dangerous, a lot of people seem to have forgotten that the street
that the line goes near was NOT closed to traffic. They seem completely
oblivious of the fact that being a pedestrian does not grant them some sort
of physical invincibility. I’ll be surprised if someone doesn’t get hurt or
killed this evening. Thankfully vehicular traffic is not moving at
highway speeds.
The moment we’ve all been waiting for!
So the time finally came and I got my badge. I picked the Azumanga
Daioh badge, and strolled out, finding JC and discussing our pre-con experiences
and plans. As I steered Ai-chan down the streets of Baltimore, I could
see that people were still standing in line to pick up their registration.
They too, were going to wait about two hours. I wonder if they had to
turn people away? From there, I went up to @ndrew’s to hang out and
pick up some of his stuff so that he could zip down early in the morning.
The drive home was late, I was staying awake by some unseen power.
My trip home was hastened by slipstreaming a truck. At first I thought
it was due to my excessive fatigue that the trailer was about to break apart,
but when I got close enough I saw that it was simply a container on a trailer
chassis. Ok, so I’m not getting delusional. Wait, that means it
IS about to separate! I think I’ll back off a bit, something like that
happening at 90 mph would wake me up more than I could imagine. Staggered
into my home and fell asleep almost instantly.
Friday:
In yer dreams!
Had a dream that I woke up at 10 in the morning. In fact, I woke up
at 11. So I piled stuff into Yamiko-chan, pulled a few select clothes
from the dryer, and bolted down the highway.
Sailed into the parking garage for the Hyatt, and just barely got a space.
My luggage cart is dying, but it’s still serviceable for this weekend.
Checked in, got free breakfast vouchers again, then found @ndrew to give him
a room key.
Good thing I had a plan…
Looked over the video schedule, which I should have done last night.
The whole video schedule seems mighty weak this year. But that’s ok,
I got Scrapped Princess on my laptop.
Thank you, Mr. Elvis look-alike!
Went into the dealers room for the sake of it. In there, it didn’t
take long to buy stuff, including something for Eric. Found the Disintegration
cd, for less than what I paid. But the good news is the dealer selling
it is going to get the next I’ve Girls Compilation set!
Yeah, like I can afford to feed three cars…
ADV/Suncoast has a drawing to give away a Civic Si. I entered anyway,
even though I already have Ai-chan and Yamiko-chan. Hungry. But
this is Inner Harbor, so I won’t starve. Also there is a fellow I’ve
met at a local Suncoast, and he’s working there, pushing the latest Najica
Blitz Tactics box set, and demonstrating the proper use of the white cotton
panties that are included. I almost bought a set. Almost.
But what am I going to do with a pair of women’s underwear beside put them
on my head? Hell, I can’t wear them. And even then, why?
I can (almost) see my house from here!
On my way out, got some Otakon stuff, including some shirts and a folding
chair. Cool, I can see the convention center from my room.
My best friend Eric told me before the con to not criticize Otakon simply
because of its size. Good advice right there. A lot of people
come to this, because it’s the biggest. And I guess there’s a good reason
why I keep going, year after year. More like, several good reasons.
Artistic absence?
Still hungry, I head over to Harbor Place for some fast food. At least
I don’t have to walk through traffic. With food in my belly, I wander
through the artist’s alley and game room. Art show proper isn’t set
up yet, which is distressing. Then saw someone in a Komugi-chan outfit,
so I took a picture.
The power of SOAP!
MAT3K is coming up, and since I didn’t want to contribute to fanstench,
I took a shower.
I gotta hand it to Otakon, line management is more than a strong point,
it’s an example for other cons to look up to. I was seated in little
over half an hour, and there was still half an hour before the show started.
The anime in question, was “Crusher Joe: Ice Prison”and as usual,
it was non-stop heckling by Otakon’s version of Joel and the Bots.
Ah, how refreshing.
The world still turns, yet the fire still burns.
There’s no shortage of activity here, and it’s easy to get completely immersed
in it all, to the point of getting overwhelmed. But it’s possible to
walk that fine line, even after the eyes glaze over, even after marching past
the borders of what we call reality. A fine line I’ve walked so many
times before, and intend to many more.
Fan parodies coming up. There’s a million AMV’s to be seen here, but
I’ve figured out that as production quality and standards go up, my interest
in them goes down. Funny how that works. I mean, I’ll still watch
some, but I’m not gonna go out of my way for them. I guess the novelty’s
worn off. Some of them, at least, make me go “Wow, that’s cool!” followed
quickly by “Ok, next.”
Picking up a clue
Well, the BCC is now selling Pocky, at $5.50 a box for something that I
can get for less than $2 in bulk. But there’s no doubt in my mind that
they’ll sell it all. Because we con goers are like that, we see what
we want, and the numbers after that dollar sign lose meaning.
There’s a local college radio station broadcasting live, playing J-rock
and anime music over the air. Someone out there right now is tuning
their radio, and is thusly finding Gackt.
Watch out! Someone has a Skank-O-Matic and isn’t afraid to use
it!
Meanwhile, someone is running rampant with a device that I can only describe
as the Skank-O-Matic. You see, someone is using that on random girls
(and some guys for that matter!) resulting in hundreds of people wearing something
that I don’t think can be rightfully described as clothes. It’s not
the revealing aspect that bugs me (I don’t mind that at all!) it’s the tastelessness
of some of it.
So anyway, I check out the fan parodies. “Funky Chicken” was something
I wanted to see again, but the sound hurt my ears. So I went back to
the room for sleep, but not before watching the latest episode of Scrapped
Princess. That show continues to amaze and surprise me.
Saturday:
Food. Anime. Good.
Woke up, and @ndrew and I went down to make use of one of the breakfast
vouchers. While my food is digesting, I’m watching “Su-chi-pai” on
my laptop.
Such as it were, I’m here at the AUSA table after buying a bunch of things.
I could easily go nuts and buy a ton of DVDs. Eh, I think I’ll do that
tomorrow. See, I’ve decided what days are good for buying certain things.
Friday: rare, must-have items.
Saturday: incidentals that catch the eye
Sunday: common, easy-to-find things, stuff that tends to go on sale
easily enough
For example, if I was still looking for Disintegration, I would have found
it, and bought it as soon as I saw it on Friday. Naturally, I wouldn’t
have seen it today, as someone did actually buy it this morning. So
that’s how it works.
Largely, Otakon has always been one of my more purchase-focused cons.
The one exception was when I was unemployed, and even then I spent more there
than at other cons under the same circumstances. So today was a good
incidental buying day.
A half-assed plan…
Decided that I’d tape the cosplay this year. Don’t know where Justin
is, was going to hand off my camera to him. Got my camcorder handy.
My plan to get a seat in the far back works again. Staffers are puzzled
by my request, but grant it. But if the room doesn’t fill up, (it did)
then I’ll move a little closer.
With half-assed results.
This cosplay went incredibly fast, due to a lot of people that signed up
decided to skip out. Of the approximately 40 planned skits, there may
have been 15 to 20 that actually showed up. Y’know, I’m running out
of T-180 camcorder tapes. Tried to monopod by trying to steady it on
my seat. Didn’t work as well as I wanted it to. Plus, by the time
they had walk-ons, everyone was standing on their seats, so I was getting
tired arms. Plus I needed to make a run for the can. So I packed
up, took care of business, and went back in to watch the winning AMVs.
The Card Captor Sakura one was one of those videos that I could actually watch
again, it was hilarious. Who knew that it would go with deep growly
death metal? But right now, I’m less concerned about the judging and
awards than I am about getting something to eat. So off I go!
Mmm, buffalo wings.
It was either overpriced convention center food, or overpriced room service
food. Went with the room service, as I also wanted to unload my camcorder.
Skank-O-Matic ATTACK!
Now I’m hanging out with Brian, or rather laying flat on the floor near
the dance. This actually feels pretty good, with the bassline vibrating
the floor. I think someone’s gone wild with the Skank-O-Matic beam again!
Brian and I head off before it hits us by accident.
Y’know, caffeine can fight off fatigue for only so long. To that end,
I part ways with Brian, and head back to the room. Pre-packing as much
as I can, so I can just toss it on the cart and go. Slumberland is imminent.
Sunday:
A hurried preparation of departure
Upon waking up, @ndrew and I gather up our stuff, check out, and pack it
into Yamiko-chan. Then, we get some breakfast at the hotel buffet.
After that, I hang around, waiting to jump in and grab freebie badges.
The sale that almost was
Later, I was sitting at the AUSA table after buying a ton of DVDs when Patti
and Steve show up, which surprised me. Walked around with them for a
bit, then went off in search of someone that supposedly had a ton of LD’s
they wanted to sell. No luck, they were working for the game room, and
that had closed.
You see, we invented the wheel for a reason.
@ndrew still had a few things he needed to get to the car, so I kept my
luggage cart at my side. Con feedback was about more of the usual.
Cosplay, particularly about people standing on their chairs, and the art
show.
Oh, the art show. What a disaster that was. From what I hear,
there was a computer glitch that caused massive lines waiting to check art
in, check art out, and otherwise caused a delay in starting it by a whole
day. Yes, that could certainly have been handled better.
Was there a lesson or something?
We got into the car, and I drove @ndrew back to his home, and then I went
on my own way, my mind still full of the events of the weekend. Was
I ever on that fine line? Did I leave reality? I didn’t think
about it, so I probably did. That’s just it, it creeps up when I least
expect it. And it’s important not to actually look for it, gotta just
let it happen.
Typically, when I get home from a convention, it’s usually late at night
for whatever reason. Not this time, thanks to the close proximity to
home. In fact, Otakon is directly between where I work and where I live.
It’s a rare pleasure for me to get home sometime during the day. Could
I have commuted? It would have been much cheaper, but finding a parking
space through the weekend would have been impossible, if I didn’t want to
walk through half the city each time.
Otakon is that big dog that you always hear about. They still do things
their own way, and will hopefully continue to do so.
Dozey dotes:
Attendance: Estimated to be between 17k and 18k.
Highs: There were some, the kind that can only come from a convention
like Otakon. Beautiful, random events. Finding a dealer that not
only knows about but carries stuff by I’ve Sound.
Lows: Missing the art show which I understand was a catastrophe, crappy
results while taping cosplay,
Food: Consistently low/medium quality food from various sources.
Cost overview: This is quite possibly the most I’ve spent at a con in years.
The fact that I ate the bill for the Hyatt on my own certainly contributed
to it. The cinder block of DVDs kicked it up a notch. Total bill,
I’m guessing close to $1200. If it didn’t break any records, it sure
came close.
Conclusion: Of course! I’m making room reservations as soon
as possible.
Up next: Anime Weekend Atlanta 9!
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