Subject: Re: [FFML] AX Con report!
From: "Damon Casale" <damoo@jps.net>
Date: 7/8/1998, 11:47 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com

Well, here's my little bit of the madness. ^^;

Cool!  I'm gonna try to get all of these AX reports together and web them.  I just 
dropped off my film, but it's gonna take two weeks to get back to me (since I ordered 
photo CD's).  *sigh*  I've got some great shots, tho.  :)

AX98 con report

Thursday.
After 8(3.5 of them alone) hours of driving, we arrived at the
Hilton(around 9 PM)and picked up out badges with out any problem. 
Aparently, there was a huge mob earlier(1800 ppl got their badges on
Thursday?!) but when we were there it was walk up, hand over
confirmation card, flash ID, and go.  In and out in less than 5
minutes.  Note for future:Arriving around 9:00 is a good thing.  After
that, we went and got our room and got moved in.  One further note.  I
think I managed to get one of the best parking spots in the place. 
Right in front of the elevators.  ^_^  Our room was on the 12th floor,
which incidentally is a *long* way up.  Since the room was over looking
the convention center entrance, there was much idle discussion of how
many con goers could be taken out by someone swan-diving out of our
window.  ^_^  Then, we had a quick run to Dennys for some (SLOW!) dinner
and then we crashed for the night.  

My Thursday:

I had decided to take Thursday off from work, seeing as how I had done close to nil 
preparation for the convention thus far.  I piled a bunch of junk onto the living room 
floor near the front door, grabbed a bus to the airport, and rented a "luxury liner" for 
the weekend.  *grin*

I finally got on the road at about 2:30, and arrived in town just after 9 too.  Well, after 
getting lost in town.  Twice.  ^^;;

Anand Rao was waiting for me in the lobby of the Quality Inn, where we had reserved 
a room for Thursday night.  We chatted for a bit, I dropped off my stuff in the room, 
we chatted a bit more, hiked down to a coffee shop a couple of blocks up the street, 
then he proceeded to expound on most of his life story (I'm kidding ;) culminating in 
his departure from the net.  He moved out of his parents' house, but he'll be getting a 
computer in about two weeks, he says.

After picking up my badge (only two minutes, here!), we wandered around the hotel 
for a while, then crashed.

Friday.  
We got up a bit early in order to get a jump on things.  My roomies and
I got down to the line for the opening ceremonies around 8:30 or 9 and
we ended up with a pretty good spot in line.  A number of Cosplayers
were allready in evidence most notable was the guy with a Gundam(RX?)
costume.  He only had the head and chest on, but it looked kinda
cool(wide too).

I think I saw him that morning, too...

The opening ceremonies were kinda neat, it was nice to see that the GoHs
had a sense of humor(quote:This is my first step in the conquest of the
universe. ^_^).  Watase Yu got her first shock of the con(massive
applause).  She wasn't expecting the reception she got.  The Taiko
drummers were a nice touch.  I really hope they come back next year. 

I didn't make it to opening ceremonies.  After Anand and I moved to the Hilton, and 
after I had introduced him to my home brew special -- tangerine brandy cordial -- I 
went looking for a restaurant for the FFML dinner.  Too bad the room party I managed 
to find Saturday night/Sunday morning already _had_ enough booze.  Ah, well.  ^^;;

Once the ceremonies got out, people began forming up for the dealers
room.  I ran into Eric Jones(who was working the con) for about 30
seconds while he was attempting to control the aforementioned line.  The
line was rather impressive, and my friends and I didn't feel like
waiting around in the line, so we wondered off to go watch Final Fantasy
for a while.  Final Fantasy, if you haven't seen it, is a bit bizarre. 
^_^

Before I knew it, 4:00 rolled around, and it was time for the FFML
dinner.  Among the group were Damon Castle, Kun-chan and her sister,
Wing Wong(two of them?!), myself, and a bunch of people whos names I
can't remember(gomen!), totalling 12 in all.  The first interesting bit
about that particular experience was during the walk to the
resturant(Tony Romas).  I was talking to Wing a bit and trailing Damon
by about 10 feet.  Suddenly, Damon yells out "YES!  I AM THE DEPUTY
BASTARD TASKMASTER FROM HELL!!!"  And then starts in on a bout of
maniacal laughter.  He admitted to being none other than the infamous
Mouse around that time as well. 

HAHAhaHAhahaHAha!!!!  ^_^

BTW, I'm not the "Deputy" BTFH.  I'm the _head_ of this band of psychotic fanboys.  
^_-

And yes, there are two Wing Wong's.  Wing Tang Wong, also known as Nagisa (for 
those of you who were on the FFML way back when he had that nick), and his 
brother.  I forget his brother's middle name.  ^^;;

Also in the group were Anand and his roommates.  One of them...Justin?...I think 
that was his name...was the one who was bragging about his new ADSL line.  Jeff 
Bogue(?) was the FFML lurker with the really psychotic sense of humor.  'cept not as 
psychotic as mine.  ^_-

There were a few other bits of oddness during dinner itself and I am
currently under the impression that certain otaku might have given
Kun-chan a bad impression of us Americans.  We're not all that bad,
really.  ^_^ Anyway, I didn't catch much else of interest during the
FFML dinner, seeing that I was attempting to meet my weekly allowance of
red meat in one sitting... Mmmm.... ribs... ^_^

*giggle*

Once everyone had eaten, we walked back to the hotel, and went straight
on to the Fanfic panel.  The panel consisted of Ryan Mathews,
Kun-chan(who got a few cheers for just being there. <g>), Brian Edmonds,
Megazone, Anand Rao, Damon Castle, and Larry "R-Type" Mann. 
Incidentally that was the seating arangement for the panel as well. 
^_^  Larry was quickly apointed court jester and the panel got under
way.  It was probably fortunate that Zoner was taking pains to avoid
turning the panel into an Eyrie panel(which it almost did anyway).  The
panel was fairly interesting, there was a bit everything covered.  Damon
became something of a target for someone in the audience(if she's on the
list, care to identify yourself?) after she discovered he easily turned
a nice shade of red.  Quote:Aww, but you look so *good* in crimson! Good
panel, I'll leave it to someone with a slightly better memory to cover
it better.  

Anand met her later on that evening, and I found out that it was none other than 
Jennifer Mondazzi.  I _finally_ tracked her down early Sunday afternoon, after 
spending approximately five hours looking for her.  Not that I'm complaining, mind 
you.  I was in and out of the dealer's room, and I found some great stuff while I was 
there, including a set of EVA miniatures for only $5.  ^_^

I had brought my mug and a two liter bottle of Mountain Dew to the panel, intending 
to do the overcaffeinated-and-psychotic-author routine.  Too bad I didn't get the 
chance.  ^^;;

Oh, for those of you who didn't get the reference, when I mentioned that I had partly 
gotten the idea for Springtime for Brain in Megatokyo from another fic, written by 
someone who was "incidentally sitting right here in the first row [of the fanfic panel]", 
that was Joyce Lim, aka Sapphire, our friendly neighborhood FAQ co-maintainer.  
(She was sitting right next to Jennifer Mondazzi!)  She's procrastinating on the next 
chapter of Bubblegum Warners.  Or rather, her sister is, for the moment.  She has a 
copy of it up on her page:  http://www.mbmasters.com/sapphire/.  Don't forget to 
prod her about it.  ^_-

Soon after that, I discovered the game room and got whomped in the
second round of the Armored Core tourney.  That blew.  Oh well, I
haven't played AC in months anyway.  <g> After that, more videos and
then I crashed for the night.  Unlike some con-goers, I don't see the
attraction of running yourself into the ground during the con.  <shrug> 

Yep, I crashed a little after 8 PM Friday night.  I think I was really tired or 
something...  @_@

Saturday, again an early start, this time to get in line for the Watase
Yu panel.  One of my roomies was in line at 7:45.  One person had been
there since 2:30 for some bizarre reason.  Now THAT is dedication.  The
wait to get into the panel room was a bit interesting by itself.  First
off, the line kept on growing.  It'd snake itself down to one end of the
hall, and then work its way back up.  It did this about 4 times by the
time the doors were opened.  

Yeesh.  O_o  I went to visit a friend in Arcadia for most of Saturday.  He would have 
_killed_ me if I hadn't visited while I was in the area, so...  *shrug*  ^^;;

There were also ALOT of Cosplayers in the line highlights included the
impromptu skit/mock fight/photo shoot between Tamahome, Evil Tomahome,
Miyaka, Nuriko1, Nuriko2, Suzaku No Miko, and Tasuki.  Also present in
the crowd were Cherry and Lime(Saber Marionettes), the Norns(AMG), most
of the Ruroni(sp?) Kenshin cast(I think there were atleast 3 Kenshins
around), a Natsumi and the bike cop(YUA), Ayanami Rei and Ikari
Shinji(in plug suits!), the requisite Sailor Senshi(*NOT* guys, thank
god), and who knows how many others that I've forgotten.  Some of the
costumes were *real* good.  

I liked the lady who was not Deedlit, myself.  *giggle*

[snip]

Soon after that, I went off to the A-Kon party.  The A-Kon party quickly
became known as the Attack of the Hilton Gestapo.  I got there 15
minutes after it was supposed to start.  I didn't get in.  There was a
security guard standing around telling everyone to go away, the party
was shut down.  This did NOT endear the Hilton to anybody, considering
that special arrangements had been made ahead of time for the party with
the hotel.  Security over reacted.  Plain and simple.

I heard about this after the fact.  I was one of the lucky ones -- when I finally found a 
room party that night, it was one of the few that _DIDN'T_ get quashed.  We watched 
a Dragonball movie (movie 7, I think), and then I crashed at around 4 AM, after a LOT 
of Mountain Dew.  %_%

Then I proceeded to wake up at 7:30 Sunday morning, because I was still wired.  &_&

So, instead of
that, I lazed about my room for about a half hour, and then went on down
to the showing room where the music videos were going to be shown.  Once
again, bad fortune turned out to be good, and we got a good spot in
line.  Unlike some other lines, the goal this time was to get in the
*middle* of the line since they were seating rows front->back.  We were
somewere in the middle, which was nice(no neck strains ^_^).  The videos
were broken down into 3 sets of eight(comedy, drama, and action).  They
recieve alot more entries than that, but they showed the top 8 of each
catagory.  I don't envy the staffers for the job they had before hand. 
^_^

The comedy videos were shown first, and were fairly good.  A Golden Boy
video came in first, closely followed by a mixed series video put to
"Stickshifts and Safteybelts" by a group I can't remember for the life
of me.  

The drama catagory had much stiffer competition.  They were _good._ 
There were a plethora of Miazaki clips used(I think EVERY movie, plus a
music video he did got used).  There was also an Escaflowne video and
the winner, an Eva video done to a bit of latin hymn(?). Creepy.  It
captured the spirit of Eva quite well, IMHO.  Short though. 

The final catagory was action.  To be blunt, most of it was rather
mediocore.  Well, except for the last entry.  The last entry was
"Magnetic Rose" from Memories put to a dance remix of "Phantom of the
Opera."  In one word: Damn.  Not only was the music selection about as
appropriate as you can get for a video it was VERY well assembled. 
There was no contest on who was going to win the action catagory, and
who was going to win the best of show.  Ironically, the SAME GUY did all
three.  He also won the staff awards.  The guy got 5 trophies and two
signed directors chairs(signed by all the GoHs) for his work.  I'm going
to get a copy of the Phantom video if it kills me.  ^_^

Once that was over, I tried to get the aforementioned Phantom video out
of my head(I failed, it's still there) and went to sleep.  

I think I know what I'm going to do for a music video at AX next year.  On the other 
hand, I'd probably end up getting throttled if I try it...  ^^;;;;

Sunday was a rather lazy day.  I gave into my urges and bought most of
Eva, and the only thing that stopped me from buying the rest of the
series was that everyone was sold out of the tapes I didn't have. 
D'oh.  I also came very close to buying a stuffed Mokona for the sole
reason of annoying one of the guys I came down to AX with(he can't stant
Mokona for some reason<veg>).  In the end though, I decided not to.  I
wasn't going to get enough enjoyment out of it to be willing to spend
$40 on it.  I think I might be able to find it for less anyway.  

Heh.  I found cheap copies of Moldiver while I was there.  (But it's just RESEARCH 
material, honest!)

I missed the fan auction and most of the charity auction, but I did
catch the final part of the charity auction.  A full color sketch of
Miyaka, Tomahome and Nakago.  $3200.  o.O  The thing just kept on
climbing.  The woman who bought it recieved a standing ovation and a
picture with Watase Yu as well.  If I had that kind of money, I might
have bid as well, if only because it was for a good cause.  Reports
later stated that the auction raised upwards of $16,000 dollars for the
City of Hope.  Damn.  

Anyway, the closing ceremonies were cool.  All the GoHs appear to have
had a great time.  All wanted to come back next year.  I'd bet money
that Kamiya Akira will be here next year, and maybe Watase Yu as well. 
The conquest of the universe joke continued, I believe it was boing
between Kitakubo Hiroyuki and Yoshimatsu Takahiro(yes?  no?  help?). 
Takahiro claimed to have gotten his first subject, in the form of
Hiroyuki.  Hiroyuki later confirmed this.  ^_^  He also commented on the
culture gap between the US and Japan, and how it probably got worse
during the con, and that he'd like to help remedy it by coming back next
year.  <g> The audience loved it.  

I went to Kamiya-san's panel on Friday.  The only anime I had seen that I knew he 
had been in was Maison Ikkoku, as Mitaka Shun.  Even so, I couldn't help laughing 
at his hilarious antics.  (I also found out that he was in City Hunter -- d'oh!  I should 
have known that.  ^^;; )

Who else went to this panel?  I know Marisa Price, Saf, and Kim did, but I didn't see 
anyone else there that I recognized...

Well, that covers most of the con.  I know I'm forgetting a few things,
but if any one wants to fill in the blanks, go for it!  

Filling in a few more blanks, then.  ;)

People I met at the con:

Trisha Sebastian, aka Foxtrot the Furryous.  She nearly died laughing when I told her 
I was the Mouse (right after the fanfic panel).  Sunday afternoon, she asked me if I 
could send her copies of my photos.  I said I'd try, but she'd have to tell me where 
she lived.  She eep!'ed as I started grinning.  "You evil, EVIL man!" she exclaimed, 
as I cackled myself hoarse.  You see, she'd invited me down to visit her last year, 
but had refused to tell me _exactly_ where she lived, giving me scavenger-hunt style 
directions.  Now it was my turn to have my revenge.  ^_-

Marla Miner, aka Nabiki, aka Loeden, aka too many other nicknames.  She walked 
in to the fanfic panel about five minutes before it ended, and sat down in the back.  
>From ALL of the way across the room, I immediately recognized her and waved.  Her 
eyes boggled, and she waved back.  "What's HE doing there!?" she later admitted to 
thinking.  She's been to nearly every con there is, but nearly always flat broke.  Of 
course, that's why she's Nabiki -- she's good at conning money out of people, 
although in a slightly different manner than the Ranma animate.  ;)

Lots of IRC people -- Tama-chan, Odie, Bob-VII, Softie, Cremator, Koishii, 
Evilmousse, etc., etc...

Someone I _thought_ was from Eternity MUCK (whose nickname is Traveller), but 
who turned out to be someone else entirely.  He was from the FFML a long, long 
time ago.  He vaguely remembered seeing Mouse's posts before he left, though.  ^_^

Damon, if you want to put any of this in the scrapbook you mentioned, go
for it. 

Thanks!

One last thing I almost forgot about Cosplayers...

Naga... ADV... Wow... @.@

Huh?  Whatsis?


Damon Casale, damoo@jps.net
Spam, spam!  WONDERFUL Spam!!  ^_^