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[seylyn]

Sooo, went down to AnimeNEXT over the weekend. Went to FAKE? concert. Fukken epic.


It ain't gonna be pretty but it is a post worthy of the tag.

Thursday:

• Woke up at a bloody early hour, made way to the airport, got on the first flight and knocked out until we hit Minneapolis.
• Walked to the opposite end of the airport for my connection. There was a giant Aviator Snoopy statue in the middle; pondered taking a picture but didn't want to looked too touristy so I didn't.
• Connecting flight delayed due to crud weather in Newark. Worried that corrie might have to wait on me, but logic set in and it turns out both our flights were delayed anyways. Finally got off ground after ~1.5 hours. Talked a bit to pro-musician lady next to me, who was worried about her+group missing their connection to Italy. They had a concert on Saturday.
• Reached Newark, texted Corrie while making my way to baggage claim. Corrie shows up 5 minutes later, And There Was Much Rejoicing (+10 points if you know that quote). My bag pops up literally 30 seconds after that. We both make our way over to the trains.
• Reach destination train station and ask about the convention shuttle that's supposed to be around. Attendant doesn't know anything about it but sends us to ask the taxi company downstairs. Happen to run into a large group of animu geeks, characteristically dressed. Hoorah, for we just eavesdrop and figure out where the shuttle is.
• Hop on shuttle and get dropped off at official con hotel. Wander over to pre-reg to grab passes right before they closed. Headed back to conhotel to ask if they can call a cab so we can get to our own hotel. The fellow at the desk was like "Oh, whut? You guys are just going over there? They're gonna charge you crazy for that, so I can just give you a lift with the hotel shuttle." So super nice T^Tbbb!
• Got a ride from the nice man, checked into our sweet suite, and ordered pizza.
• Pizza finally arrives, pizza delivery man is surpised that it's just us two confronting two large pizzas, so we are determined to eat it all (by the end of the weekend) and prove him wrong >:I.

Friday:

• Woke up, got ready, Corrie navigated direction and we walked over to the convention area (~5-10mins).
• Muddled around a bit at the conhotel but nothing really caught our interest. Lined up a bunch of panels/events we wanted to check out before, but decided not to at the last minute lol. Oh, there was a Westley coser/artist running around. Spot-on likeness, but I had to think a moment before I realized who he was. Yelled "As you wish!" after him, bugged him for a picture later. Oh, saw Cooking Mama too, but we never got to take a photo.
• Eventually, we made it over to the dealer room to pick up VIP passes for FAKE?. Picked up a few goods as well. Err, was this the day we had food here too? All I remember is the Saltiest Pretzel in The World, along with the Most Vulgar Hotdog Ever Conceived.
• Wandered over to the artist alley, where I picked up a ton of pretty prints (and then lamented on how to get them back home without damaging them).
• Sort of passed on viewing anything after that lol. Went back to hotel to drop stuff off and chill, got changed for the concert. Let Corrie put makeup on me. (If you know me, you will know this is epic also).
• Armed with Corrie's rockin' rocker makeup job, went back to the main event area and got in line for the concert. VIPs got ordered by number so had to split up with Corrie by a few people.
• Briefly chatted with some of the fans in front and behind me while we were waiting. The lady from NY behind me was really nice, Turns out one of the ladies in front of me used to be from my city but moved down to Florida lol. Crazy.
• Around 9, everyone started getting antsy for the concert. We could hear the band doing warm-ups but couldn't see anything yet. The people who won backstage passes got to go in, and then the VIPs poured in a little later.


• Walk-ran up to the front of the stage; ended up being second row from the rail and wedged in behind two tallish gals with Corrie behind me. The VIP section was corded off though so there was quite a bit of room, though I was still expecting the elbows of strangers to meet my face.
• Regular attendees filled up the back. Could see some of the FAKE? members just offstage, taking pics of the crowd with their cameras/phones lol.
• Announcements, concert start! Crowd starts cheering!
• Err, the concert itself? Indescribable. I remember shouting a lot, and just going absolutely crazy in general. It was an fucking awesome concert, and I actually knew the songs this time! Jumped around quite a bit, bumped into the guy next to me a few times, oops. New support group, so I got them all mixed up lol. The bassist, Fire, was right in front of us most of the night although he switched places with guitarist Mine a few times. Mine really knew how to work the fans haha, he'd point out to people in the crowd and 'play for them'. Corrie and I got a pointed to as well haha. Ken was doing a lot of crazy moves the whole concert; the most memorable for me was when they were playing Redemption and he did some Morrissey-esque writhing while leaning back. Lots of that rebellious eye-rolling and sneaky smile, oh, and his tight leather pants while he was crouched onto the cage at the front... He has really nice... eyebrows.
• After the concert, people hung around for a bit. Stage guys started throwing things out to the crowd. Corrie insisted that we stick around too, and managed to snag a towel when it got tossed in our direction. Corrie is fierce winged ligeress. Don't get in the way of her sharp nails or her epic jump, kids. Epic cannot be overused in this post, do not worry.
• Half-deaf and with hardly any voice left, we finally get cleared out by security and head back home for some much needed water.

Saturday:

• Decided to sleep in a bit, still sore from the concert haha.
• Headed over the the main event area for the FAKE? Q+A session. There's a few transcripts floating around on the 'net if you want to know what was asked. Lots of surprising answers lol. Mine got the most awwwwww's out of the crowd haha. There was a funny story about him and Ken sharing the hotel room, and Mine using up all the shampoo as bubble bath. Oh, and met another Canadian girl at the Q+A, from Quebec this time lol.
• The band said they were going to be at the JHouse Rock booth in a little while, so we headed over. Corrie asked Ken about his accent, but he said that's how he always talks haha. He said he went to an American school, but apparantly people tell him he sounds like he has a Canadian accent lol. The rest of the band members started to make their escape, so we headed around to the side. Shook hands and tried to talk to Fire a little bit with my fail-Japanese skills but had to give up and say goodbye awkwardly in the end lol.
• Went back through artist alley again to pick up more things that I wasn't able to carry on Friday. One of the artists happened to be from Toronto so we talked a bit after I bought a Rock Lee print from her haha. Oh yes, she also had a Bird Studio (Chrono Trigger/DBZ/Dr. Slump) doujin for sale (awesome much?) so I couldn't resist grabbing one of those. Still haven't had to chance to read through all of it though.
• Uh, didn't do much con stuff at all on Saturday haha. Headed back to our hotel after to just chill.


• Saw a really freaky insect nest (spider I think), up in a tree while walking lol. For some reason, anything filled with many small holes unnerves me (like lotus roots/seed pods, gah!!!). Forced Corrie to watch some Natsume Yuujinchou (keep forgetting to do fangirl post on that) and then we started on The Imperial Household. We were both asleep before the end of the second episode though lol.

Sunday:

• Decided to sleep in again, though we both woke up before the alarm went off.
• Made it down to two pieces of pizza left, but had to junk them. Curses, pizza boy won this round! Got ready and packed, and proceeded to haul luggage and all back to the consite for FAKE? autographs and photos.
• Tried to find the insect nest again, for a more curious look this time. At first, I thought the nest might have fallen to the ground since there was a little white mound on the ground where I thought it was. Upon closer inspection, I saw a jaw, and some teeth, and realized it was a rather dead possum. Still couldn't find that nest afterwards.
• Got to the green room, lined up for photos. We were then shunted into an autograph line, which started after all the photos were done.



Nicked from Corr. -->Masuo-Fire-Ken-DJ Bass-Mine-Kife(d-kiku)


Swaggg.


• With the deed done, we called a cab and headed off for the train station and airport again.
• Just missed the train as we got to the station, so we sat around upstairs by the tracks for about an hour. Luckily, the weather was still nice.
• I was looking around at people's feet and noticed someone with some very robust looking boots (<3 boots). Looked up, and noticed a guy with half bleached hair next to him, and then realized it was Mine, Masuo and Kife at the platform, wtf lmao. Tried to not to stare at them. Masuo was the owner of the sweet boots.
• Train arrived, made it to airport, said g'bye to Corr and made it back home eventually. And There Was Much Excited Gibberish.

Seriously, I've never before had a weekend that's continually gotten (exponentially) better towards Sunday. Thanks to you guys who wished me a happy trip. It certainly turned out that way :).

Oh yes, and a few linkpimps:

• Bought goods from these artists:
  -Meomeo
  -ProdigyBombay
  -and one more. Forgot to snag a card though and no luck finding their gallery yet.
• Oh, and Westley's artsite
• FAKE? concert pics and report at Ningin. More under lock on taste_maximum if you're keen fer it.

And now I am once again minus a Bee-Eff-Eff and facing the Daily Grind again. If only that was a type of coffee. Still in a very good mood from the weekend though. (But ahhh, I'm behind on catching up to 'net things again D: D:...)