Ohayocon 2008 report
Ohayocon Report
This con only managed to confirm my belief that it is the must gutter minded, dirtiest con in the country. The rally cry happened to be "Buttsecks!" this year. (Compared to the "You're not Johnny!" rallycry of last Ohayocon, and the "No Asian Grandchildren!" at Matsuri.)
Friday:
We wanted to leave early. In reality, we left semi late, due to Tim's eye bugging him again. Plus, we had the great idea to FORGET THE FUCKING DIRECTIONS TO THE CON! So we picked up James, and drove cluelessly through Ohio. Through coincidence, we managed to find Shauna's Ohio map in her glovebox, with the route to Ohayocon highlighted from 2006. At the very end, we found the hotel phone number on my phone memories, and called the hotel to figure out what exit they were. In the end, we made it. Late, but we made it.
Let me say this now: Hyatt elevators suck. They suck hard. They have four elevators for the entire hotel. And as much as the Drury sucks with their 'you need a room key to get in the bathroom' type of elevators, we had to wait almost a half hour for an elevator sometimes. So we did the stupid route: we walked up the stairs. Eight flights, plus level four is like three flights long in itself. That killed my asthma fast, and, of course, no inhaler. BUT, the rooms are nice and pretty big. Five people fit nicely. We had a great view of the city.
Registration wasn't bad, but was damned confuzzling. And they ran out of those handy books that have maps and rules and panel descriptions. In general, the con was badly set up this year. A lot of panels got canceled, including the "Lessons on being a VA" with Chris Sabat. In fact, apparently, Chris Sabat never came, and we didn't know about it. (That was one of the few reasons James actually came this year. Instead, he had to buttsecks with Tim.) The roast was at 6pm (WAAAAY to early for a dirty roast, and there was no ID checking, so I doubt it was all gritty and dirty. We missed it for various reasons.) The Eyeshine concert was at 3pm on Saturday (still too early for me) and a lot of the good stuff conflicted. There was also very little to do on Sunday unless you wanted to stand in autograph lines all day long.
But anyway, right after we registered, we got to the Johnny panel and saw the last half hour. (Like I said, we were late!) Good times, good times. We attempted to have Nikki pretend that she didn't know us and ask for a Bunnyshine drawing signed at the Eyeshine autograph session, and then be all surprised when we were right behind her, but Nikki sucks at lying. Instead of a jello catfight, like I wanted, we had to make nice conversation. Silly us!
We caught dinner at Max and Erma's across the street. I had my alcoholy coconut/rum drink as a happy drink. Then back to the con to relax a little in the room before the Mike McFarland unplugged session and then the improv session.
In the whole elevator craptasic wait and ride thingy, we saw more Eyeshine. And they were on our floor, waiting for the elevator down. So I casually asked them if if they were actually on the floor. (I'll explain everything in a moment.) Johnny responded that Maurice was. Shauna, Nikki, Tim and I thought this was kind of neat. So we headed back to our room, when we saw Maurice run out of a room. It looked like the room next to us. I turned and asked the others, "Did he just come out of the room next door?" We all thought he did, until we heard the door next to us click open, and Dan ran out. Yes, at least one Eyeshine member was in the room next to us.
You see, at dinner, I had a weird dream deja vu moment. I had dreamed, about a week prior to the con, that I had been sitting at Max and Erma's with Shauna, Nikki, and Tim, and that the preview channel was playing on the television. This, in fact, did happen at dinner. Tim laughed about it, and said that next time I have a prophetic dream, to dream of something better, like lottery numbers. But, you see, when I have a simple prophetic dream like that, it never ends at the dream. Usually something else, something I didn't dream about but only spoke about, will come true. And a day before Ohayocon, James and I had discussed what we would do if Eyeshine happened to be in the room next to us.
So after we found out about the room, we called James right away. He couldn't believe it.
ANYWAY, Mike sounds a heck of a lot like Dave Matthews to me. He's really good. I love his improv acting though. As I have gone through the Second City, I've learned so much, and I saw a lot of what I learned in that panel. I also saw a lot of what not to do. (The other three- Tiffany, Brittney, and Johnny are just plain vanilla actors:) But everyone was good, and made for some funny moments. None of the vaginal blood fart material, but we did learn where babies came from. And that Johnny was the first to die in the doo wop song, because he sucks. And Tiffany fell in the bathroom and it took three people to find her.
Mike and the others got kicked out though for another improv group.
And these guys sucked. They sucked hard. They called themselves amatuers. I call them people who watched too much "Whose Line" on the television. Perhaps I'm being a snobbist, but I just didn't find them funny or terribly exciting. It just seemed like a large (like, 15 people) group of loud anime fans who were drunk on stage. There was no order, no means to the madness, and far too many inside jokes. I have no problem with groups getting together and playing improv games (in fact, the group at Anime North were very good, and I liked them a lot) but these guys were just being idiots on stage. I was dissapointed, and we only stayed for like two games. Part of the reason I didn't like them was, well, because they didn't actually improv. Like, they played the dating game, and needed three girls to be potential dates. But their massive group only contained two of the female gender. So instead of just doing what any other improv actor would do, and just make a man pretend to be female, they picked out a member of the audience to be the third girl. WTF? Half the fun of improv is pretending to be the opposite sex.
Shauna and Nikki seemed to go to bed kind of early, so Tim and I wandered the con. We met some random people in the downstairs hall, and found lost boy #2. We hung out in the couches by the bar area for a bit, and eventually made it to bed.
Saturday:
Shauna and Nikki got up early and went out for something or another. I woke up next, showered, and headed downstairs to the con for some coffee and relaxation. It was at the bar tables when I saw Randy walk past. I said hello, told him that I knew Shay and she wanted a hug by proxy, and he was happy to oblige. We chatted for a bit, about webcomics and life, and I gave him directions to his next panel. (The one I happened to be waiting for). Tim came down shortly after that, and life went on at the Randy Milholland Something Positive how to make your own webcomic panel. He said fuck a lot. And made reference to smurf sex. And his drinking habits. I want to be just like him when I grow up. With less facial hair though. Best line of the weekend:
Randy: blah blah blah, making webcomic, blah blagh
*random anime elevator music from overhead speakers*
Randy: blah blah, fuck people who suck, blah blah
*shrill anime voice overhead from elevator music screams "Kawaii!*
Randy: Damn that shrill voice! It sounds like a smurf orgasming in the ceiling!!!
Saturday was spent mostly wandering around until the concert. But it was good wandering for the most part. Meandering from place to place, watching people make fools of themselves, or just watching James make a fool of himself.(Which was often)
The Eyeshine concert was over too fast, yet seemed like slow motion the entire time. I used my handy dandy concert knowledge to get front row, once again: If there are seats in a room, people will sit down, no matter what. Take self, and sit down with them, but stay ready. As soon as someone announces that this is a concert, and people should stand during a concert, run. The concept will take a moment with people and they will be slow to react, while you will already be up front. Ohayocon was no different. I was directly in front of an amp and Johnny. I did not get spittled on. I demand a refund :P
They played some old songs, some off the new album, and some even newer then that. Maurice took his shirt off. Fully this time too. (Damn it! I had no camera!) Alex wore a cool hat. Dan looked like a rockstar, over in his little corner of the stage, playing guitar. It was hot, sweaty, and someone next to me really smelled. But it was nice. Very nice. I could feel the vibrations of the bass from the floor. Shauna was next to me. Eyeshine in front of me. I kinda wish it could have lasted forever. Except it was really hot. And my voice would probably be more farked up if it had lasted forever.
I had a long island iced tea that evening, after the concert. (For those under 21, it's a very alcoholic drink). Whoa, I got buzzed. ("I'm not drunk, I'm just big boned!") Back at the room, we came up with the fantabulous idea of dressing up randomly and pretending we're from some famous anime that no one has ever heard of and see how many pictures people take of us. So I got in my vampire dress, Tim in his poet shirt and cape from the wedding, and James brought out his camera. I now have a million pictures of my bosom because of this. But we failed. Nobody took pictures except James. But I got to wear Shauna's new cat collar and Tim tied a rope to it. Why? I dunno. I blame the long island. (I can also go back and blame my mother in law for introducing me to those!!!)
Saw the end of the Masquerade, watched some AMV videos, wandered around some more. The usual con stuff.
We went to the con horror stories panel. OMG there are some weirdos out there, and Jan Scott Frasier seems to know them all. (That does not surprise me in the least...) That was seriously the best panel ever. I so want to go to a con with a coconut and ask a guest to sign my nut now. That panel spawned so much inside jokery.
Once again bored, we did the next logical thing of going to the Greg Ayres rave. We apparently missed all of the drama llama stuff about it, because it was like 2am and pretty empty. I haven't raved since high school. James got into it (I'm not surprised in the least). Tim got into it (Completely and utterly surprised me). It was dirty. Very dirty. Mind down in the gutter dirty. I haven't seen that much grinding since prom. Although it was a con. I don't know what I expected.
Con goer #1: *drinking tea* Pip pip, this is a fine dance!
Con goer #2: Oh yes! Shall we waltz?
Con goer #1: Oh you racy thing, you! You were always the rebel!
It is Ohayocon, after all. Buttsecks!!
Our hotel room seemed to be a haven of oddness. Probably because of James.
We were out until just before 4am, dancing the night away. Makes me want to go out dancing with Tim at a club somewhere. I honestly didn't think he'd like that sort of thing.
We came back to the room and crashed shortly after.
Sunday:
In my opinion, Sundays at cons are recovery days. Checkout of rooms, gather stuff together, do last minute dealer shopping, and nurse wild hangovers. For us, and the elevators of doomedness, this was easier said then done. But we managed to actually be out on time. James, Tim, and I browsed some more of the dealers room (last encounter with Johnny & co.) and then sat down to some lunch. Like I said previously, the programming was poor, so we left a little early. This time, no lost Shaunamobile. The drive was sleepy and uneventful. Like, really sleepy. Ohio is not interesting country. Kinda flat.
Of course there was more. Much more. More that I probably don't want on the internet. Or stuff that I've intentionally remembered to forget. If I forgot anything good, someone remind me please.
Oh yeah, and who the heck draws a smiley face into wet plaster on the stairwell when the hotel put on the wet plaster to FIX the wall to begin with?
(Tim is whacking me with a potholder right now....? Why?)
Some random cute videos for you rabbit lovers out there...
and this one:
This con only managed to confirm my belief that it is the must gutter minded, dirtiest con in the country. The rally cry happened to be "Buttsecks!" this year. (Compared to the "You're not Johnny!" rallycry of last Ohayocon, and the "No Asian Grandchildren!" at Matsuri.)
Friday:
We wanted to leave early. In reality, we left semi late, due to Tim's eye bugging him again. Plus, we had the great idea to FORGET THE FUCKING DIRECTIONS TO THE CON! So we picked up James, and drove cluelessly through Ohio. Through coincidence, we managed to find Shauna's Ohio map in her glovebox, with the route to Ohayocon highlighted from 2006. At the very end, we found the hotel phone number on my phone memories, and called the hotel to figure out what exit they were. In the end, we made it. Late, but we made it.
Let me say this now: Hyatt elevators suck. They suck hard. They have four elevators for the entire hotel. And as much as the Drury sucks with their 'you need a room key to get in the bathroom' type of elevators, we had to wait almost a half hour for an elevator sometimes. So we did the stupid route: we walked up the stairs. Eight flights, plus level four is like three flights long in itself. That killed my asthma fast, and, of course, no inhaler. BUT, the rooms are nice and pretty big. Five people fit nicely. We had a great view of the city.
Registration wasn't bad, but was damned confuzzling. And they ran out of those handy books that have maps and rules and panel descriptions. In general, the con was badly set up this year. A lot of panels got canceled, including the "Lessons on being a VA" with Chris Sabat. In fact, apparently, Chris Sabat never came, and we didn't know about it. (That was one of the few reasons James actually came this year. Instead, he had to buttsecks with Tim.) The roast was at 6pm (WAAAAY to early for a dirty roast, and there was no ID checking, so I doubt it was all gritty and dirty. We missed it for various reasons.) The Eyeshine concert was at 3pm on Saturday (still too early for me) and a lot of the good stuff conflicted. There was also very little to do on Sunday unless you wanted to stand in autograph lines all day long.
But anyway, right after we registered, we got to the Johnny panel and saw the last half hour. (Like I said, we were late!) Good times, good times. We attempted to have Nikki pretend that she didn't know us and ask for a Bunnyshine drawing signed at the Eyeshine autograph session, and then be all surprised when we were right behind her, but Nikki sucks at lying. Instead of a jello catfight, like I wanted, we had to make nice conversation. Silly us!
We caught dinner at Max and Erma's across the street. I had my alcoholy coconut/rum drink as a happy drink. Then back to the con to relax a little in the room before the Mike McFarland unplugged session and then the improv session.
In the whole elevator craptasic wait and ride thingy, we saw more Eyeshine. And they were on our floor, waiting for the elevator down. So I casually asked them if if they were actually on the floor. (I'll explain everything in a moment.) Johnny responded that Maurice was. Shauna, Nikki, Tim and I thought this was kind of neat. So we headed back to our room, when we saw Maurice run out of a room. It looked like the room next to us. I turned and asked the others, "Did he just come out of the room next door?" We all thought he did, until we heard the door next to us click open, and Dan ran out. Yes, at least one Eyeshine member was in the room next to us.
You see, at dinner, I had a weird dream deja vu moment. I had dreamed, about a week prior to the con, that I had been sitting at Max and Erma's with Shauna, Nikki, and Tim, and that the preview channel was playing on the television. This, in fact, did happen at dinner. Tim laughed about it, and said that next time I have a prophetic dream, to dream of something better, like lottery numbers. But, you see, when I have a simple prophetic dream like that, it never ends at the dream. Usually something else, something I didn't dream about but only spoke about, will come true. And a day before Ohayocon, James and I had discussed what we would do if Eyeshine happened to be in the room next to us.
So after we found out about the room, we called James right away. He couldn't believe it.
ANYWAY, Mike sounds a heck of a lot like Dave Matthews to me. He's really good. I love his improv acting though. As I have gone through the Second City, I've learned so much, and I saw a lot of what I learned in that panel. I also saw a lot of what not to do. (The other three- Tiffany, Brittney, and Johnny are just plain vanilla actors:) But everyone was good, and made for some funny moments. None of the vaginal blood fart material, but we did learn where babies came from. And that Johnny was the first to die in the doo wop song, because he sucks. And Tiffany fell in the bathroom and it took three people to find her.
Mike and the others got kicked out though for another improv group.
And these guys sucked. They sucked hard. They called themselves amatuers. I call them people who watched too much "Whose Line" on the television. Perhaps I'm being a snobbist, but I just didn't find them funny or terribly exciting. It just seemed like a large (like, 15 people) group of loud anime fans who were drunk on stage. There was no order, no means to the madness, and far too many inside jokes. I have no problem with groups getting together and playing improv games (in fact, the group at Anime North were very good, and I liked them a lot) but these guys were just being idiots on stage. I was dissapointed, and we only stayed for like two games. Part of the reason I didn't like them was, well, because they didn't actually improv. Like, they played the dating game, and needed three girls to be potential dates. But their massive group only contained two of the female gender. So instead of just doing what any other improv actor would do, and just make a man pretend to be female, they picked out a member of the audience to be the third girl. WTF? Half the fun of improv is pretending to be the opposite sex.
Shauna and Nikki seemed to go to bed kind of early, so Tim and I wandered the con. We met some random people in the downstairs hall, and found lost boy #2. We hung out in the couches by the bar area for a bit, and eventually made it to bed.
Saturday:
Shauna and Nikki got up early and went out for something or another. I woke up next, showered, and headed downstairs to the con for some coffee and relaxation. It was at the bar tables when I saw Randy walk past. I said hello, told him that I knew Shay and she wanted a hug by proxy, and he was happy to oblige. We chatted for a bit, about webcomics and life, and I gave him directions to his next panel. (The one I happened to be waiting for). Tim came down shortly after that, and life went on at the Randy Milholland Something Positive how to make your own webcomic panel. He said fuck a lot. And made reference to smurf sex. And his drinking habits. I want to be just like him when I grow up. With less facial hair though. Best line of the weekend:
Randy: blah blah blah, making webcomic, blah blagh
*random anime elevator music from overhead speakers*
Randy: blah blah, fuck people who suck, blah blah
*shrill anime voice overhead from elevator music screams "Kawaii!*
Randy: Damn that shrill voice! It sounds like a smurf orgasming in the ceiling!!!
Saturday was spent mostly wandering around until the concert. But it was good wandering for the most part. Meandering from place to place, watching people make fools of themselves, or just watching James make a fool of himself.(Which was often)
The Eyeshine concert was over too fast, yet seemed like slow motion the entire time. I used my handy dandy concert knowledge to get front row, once again: If there are seats in a room, people will sit down, no matter what. Take self, and sit down with them, but stay ready. As soon as someone announces that this is a concert, and people should stand during a concert, run. The concept will take a moment with people and they will be slow to react, while you will already be up front. Ohayocon was no different. I was directly in front of an amp and Johnny. I did not get spittled on. I demand a refund :P
They played some old songs, some off the new album, and some even newer then that. Maurice took his shirt off. Fully this time too. (Damn it! I had no camera!) Alex wore a cool hat. Dan looked like a rockstar, over in his little corner of the stage, playing guitar. It was hot, sweaty, and someone next to me really smelled. But it was nice. Very nice. I could feel the vibrations of the bass from the floor. Shauna was next to me. Eyeshine in front of me. I kinda wish it could have lasted forever. Except it was really hot. And my voice would probably be more farked up if it had lasted forever.
I had a long island iced tea that evening, after the concert. (For those under 21, it's a very alcoholic drink). Whoa, I got buzzed. ("I'm not drunk, I'm just big boned!") Back at the room, we came up with the fantabulous idea of dressing up randomly and pretending we're from some famous anime that no one has ever heard of and see how many pictures people take of us. So I got in my vampire dress, Tim in his poet shirt and cape from the wedding, and James brought out his camera. I now have a million pictures of my bosom because of this. But we failed. Nobody took pictures except James. But I got to wear Shauna's new cat collar and Tim tied a rope to it. Why? I dunno. I blame the long island. (I can also go back and blame my mother in law for introducing me to those!!!)
Saw the end of the Masquerade, watched some AMV videos, wandered around some more. The usual con stuff.
We went to the con horror stories panel. OMG there are some weirdos out there, and Jan Scott Frasier seems to know them all. (That does not surprise me in the least...) That was seriously the best panel ever. I so want to go to a con with a coconut and ask a guest to sign my nut now. That panel spawned so much inside jokery.
Once again bored, we did the next logical thing of going to the Greg Ayres rave. We apparently missed all of the drama llama stuff about it, because it was like 2am and pretty empty. I haven't raved since high school. James got into it (I'm not surprised in the least). Tim got into it (Completely and utterly surprised me). It was dirty. Very dirty. Mind down in the gutter dirty. I haven't seen that much grinding since prom. Although it was a con. I don't know what I expected.
Con goer #1: *drinking tea* Pip pip, this is a fine dance!
Con goer #2: Oh yes! Shall we waltz?
Con goer #1: Oh you racy thing, you! You were always the rebel!
It is Ohayocon, after all. Buttsecks!!
Our hotel room seemed to be a haven of oddness. Probably because of James.
We were out until just before 4am, dancing the night away. Makes me want to go out dancing with Tim at a club somewhere. I honestly didn't think he'd like that sort of thing.
We came back to the room and crashed shortly after.
Sunday:
In my opinion, Sundays at cons are recovery days. Checkout of rooms, gather stuff together, do last minute dealer shopping, and nurse wild hangovers. For us, and the elevators of doomedness, this was easier said then done. But we managed to actually be out on time. James, Tim, and I browsed some more of the dealers room (last encounter with Johnny & co.) and then sat down to some lunch. Like I said previously, the programming was poor, so we left a little early. This time, no lost Shaunamobile. The drive was sleepy and uneventful. Like, really sleepy. Ohio is not interesting country. Kinda flat.
Of course there was more. Much more. More that I probably don't want on the internet. Or stuff that I've intentionally remembered to forget. If I forgot anything good, someone remind me please.
Oh yeah, and who the heck draws a smiley face into wet plaster on the stairwell when the hotel put on the wet plaster to FIX the wall to begin with?
(Tim is whacking me with a potholder right now....? Why?)
Some random cute videos for you rabbit lovers out there...
Click to viewand this one: