This here is my first con report. Don't expect it to be professional or coherent. It was written in first-draft form after three days of nonstop action (mostly work) and little sleep. Then it sat around on my comp for a good month until I dug it up, looked it over, and decided to fling it up on the site.
(This con report is brought to you by Budweiser! The king of beers.)
(...no. Don't ask.)
Anime Midatlantic was, as I said, my first convention, though I'm hesitant to say first convention proper. Out of three days, I was present for two evenings, leaving Friday at 10:30 and Saturday at midnight. I did get to see a few events, but feel I missed out on the true 'experience'. Once I'm able to stay at a full one, then I'll consider myself a TRUE con-goer. But anyhow. Technicalities aside...
AMA was small, as cons go. There's no denying that. Still, there were long lines for the big events (opening ceremonies, karaoke, cosplay). I wish I could have taken more time to look at the art show and partake of the dealer's room. None of my stuff sold at the show, but it's understandable, being that it's my first time and all. I'll be able to invest more in future submissions (time, media, matting, etc).
Mad props to all the cosplayers out there. Tidus (double yayy for Tidus!), Auron, Link, a few Yunas, a handful of Wolfwoods (but only one Vash), a Smurf (and a breakdancing one at that), Goku and his three wigs, Aeris, Largo (with 3vil/l33t shirt and Boo), Tetsuo, and more I can't even begin to remember.
The cosplay itself was great. All the performances were awesome, and it inspired me with many ideas for my own future cosplaying experiences. Kudos to all.
And I'm doing this out of order, but I don't care. Opening ceremonies incited its share of in-jokes (brought to you by Nyquil! The king of beers. (Please drink responsibly.)) and all-around wackiness, mostly involving the sound crew. It proved that the con wasn't anything formal or stuffy at all. It's just a bunch of fans getting together and having a good time. And I like that.
Karaoke (what I saw of it) was all well and good. I could only stick around for roughly the first ten performances (including mine). The guy before me did Duvet (theme from Serial Experiments Lain), a girl after me wanted to do the Boat Song (from Lunar), but they had the Japanese soundtrack for FFIX. We couldn't read most of the track names due to language issues (duh) but the last track was called "Melodies of Life (Silent Mix)." I knew MoL, so we decided to go with this, thinking that Silent Mix would have no words and I could just use it as accompaniment with no problems.
"Silent Mix" apparently means that the between-verse music is different and confusing, and yes, there were still words (that they couldn't voice-cancel). Still, I did my best to sing along with (and over) the (thankfully English) words, until finally after the first chorus I got frustrated and told them to cut it off so I could just finish it a capella. And I did, and now that the congoers could hear me sing, they were impressed. I must say, for being out of practice, I did a pretty damn good job. 8')
And as I was waiting for them to cue up the music, I plugged the comic. ^_^ And the audience remembered. I also passed out fliers (design will be displayed as soon as I fix the scan and shrink it and whatnot) to people in line for opening ceremonies and the cosplay. It seemed to be a big hit.
The dealers room was interesting. Lots of t-shirts, CDs, manga, wallscrolls, and TOYS! 8') I love toys. I got a Link plushie (my pride and joy ::sigh::) and a keychain-figure of White Mage from Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2. I wish I wish I WISH I had more money! Especially when I saw the display of Final Fantasy toys... they had plushies of: Chocobos, Moogles, Tonberries, weird little blue guys that I vaguely remember, Lulu's version of Cait Sith, and CACTUAR!!! PLUSHIE CACTUAR!!!
Ah well. There's always next con.
I also got an old issue of the "Robotech: Sentinels" comic autographed by John and Jason Waltrip (the latter being the artist of Fans!). Talked with the former for a couple minutes--small talk about comic-art and so forth--and never could track down the latter. Ah well.
Congrats to my friend Foret for rocking the DDR tourney Saturday night. Your dance... is like sunshine on a cloudy day!
I think the one big quirk of this con was the fact that, Saturday night, someone else was having their wedding reception in the same hotel. In fact, the room they were using was right next to one of the video rooms. I first figured this out when the bride and groom and wedding party were sitting in front of the fountain in the lobby being videotaped for posterity by family members... and all around them are these costumed freaks and weirdoes. Meanwhile, they were very conservative and very confused. Those poor folks...they really didn't know what they were getting into...::stifles a laugh::
Special thanks to my friends Mel, Serena, Jen, Dawn, and others for helping me do this con thing. Couldn't have done it without y'all. Wee!