Odorcon Day 1: How Otakon should adopt "Smells Like Funk" as its official anthem.
Time for another one of my long-winded posts.
Friday
I asked Kevyn (fireye) if I could a ride to the con late Thursday night. He didn't give me a timetable of when he was planning on leaving, but he said "early." Well, since Karyn (belladonnastrap) was staying at his place, I used my powers of deduction and assume we wouldn't leave before noon, but I woke up at 7 am, anyway. But I should have followed my Spidey sense, because we didn't arrive at the con until around 11-ish.
But anyway, it was the best at-the-door registration, because Ryan (br0k3n) was standing in line for the past two hours, so basically I cut in line and only had to wait for thirty minutes to get my badge. (Thank you, Ryan!) This year, I am so out of the anime scene, I didn't recognize any of the badges. But there was one badge that kind of looked like a pig, and since I like cutely-drawn pigs, I picked it. It turned out to be a webcomic character, and that's not a pig snout, a la Tonde Buurin, but a pair of beady eyes out of a camoflauge parka. Whoops.
By the time Ryan and I got out of registration, the stickering session for the L'Arc~en~Ciel concert was over, so we planned on getting stickered later that night. For those out of the loop, basically the only way you could attend the concert on Saturday was if you purchased a three-day or Saturday pass. Then you had to get a sticker. Even then, it didn't guarantee you a seat, because about 12,000 seats were available. But if you didn't have any of those prerequisites, you wouldn't be admitted for the concert.
I have to confess, although I'm a fairly easygoing person, cons tend to bring out a mean streak in me. I make a ton of snarky comments. We passed a couple of kids wearing kerchiefs on their heads, and I said something like, "Just because you wear a doo-rag on your head doesn't make you a pirate of the Caribbean." But only Ryan heard me, luckily.
Everyone was famished at that point, so me, Ryan, Kevyn, and Karyn decided to go eat lunch. We met up with Andy (AvatarADV), Jeff (aulddragon), and a Mystery Guy, and headed towards the Inner Harbor. Mystery Guy disappeared soon after, and Avatar showed off his loot: a backpack full of manga. He had discovered the $5 manga (English language) table at the dealer's room and basically raped it of its goods. We were all impressed and made mental notes to find this Holy Grail later.
We decided to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. While we were waiting for our name to be called, Karyn and I sneaked over to The Body Shop, and I tried my best to convince Karyn not to buy anything, which just means I tried to prevent her from buying the entire store. But she was good and only got two things.
So, lunch was fun, and I discovered what it's like to sit with men who really like Cherry Coke. I think between all four of them, they drank like sixteen glasses. It was like sitting among wine critics comparing which drink is better. All I remember of the conversation was that Ryan looks eerily like an adult Harry Potter, and we all said he should cosplay as him for the con. And the story of how Karyn and her sister once took a paddle boat to the middle of the lake and it got stuck and they had to be rescued.
After lunch, we walked back to the BCC in the stifling heat. Once back in air conditioned bliss, we parted ways. I was late to the second annual Furuba Forums meet and greet, but I figure it was okay, since I'm an administrator and could ban anyone's ass if I wanted to.
I got to see Better (ninjabetter), Callie (calliecat, Mary (riven), HoodzieKyo, and a few others. The ironic thing is that even though we're the Furuba Forums, almost everyone in the group was cosplaying as a character from Naruto. Well, except for Callie, I think she was someone from One Piece. We all sat on the floor, chatting and eating the food I brought.
Then suddenly, the elevator doors opened and a group of people came out. There was a huge crowd, and Better and Callie's eyes were wide as saucers and mouthed, "It's L'Arc~en~Ciel!" I turned around to look. Not that it mattered, because I wouldn't know a member of the band if Hyde (D'oh! I mean "hyde". Every time a person miscapitalizes a Japanese artist's name, a kitten gets killed.) spanked me on the street, but it's important to say that I was sitting five feet away from one of the most popular music artists in Japan.
So anyway, they were surrounded by translators, security, and staff, and they shuffled ever so slowly across the BCC, because naturally, more hardcore fans recognized the band. They stopped by where we were sitting, because one of the band members wanted to take a picture of two really good Utena cosplayers. Mary, who was sitting with her back turned to the group, was asking what was going on, and was very confused until the band went away. But ZOMG! Mary, we saw L'Arc~en~Ciel!
After all that excitement, Mary and I headed towards the Hyatt to drop off her dealer's room loot, and then she, Ryan, and I met up with Avatar and headed towards Artist's Alley. We browsed the tables and admired the sexy men drawings. Then we abandoned Mary for the dealer's room. Basically, it was like me walking down Rodeo Lane with two men trailing behind me to carry my invisible bags. Look but no buy. We found the $5 manga table, but they didn't have anything interesting. Then we hit the video gaming room, careful to make a wide berth around the DDR corner, because that's where the worst of the otaku stench will be.
We left a happy Avatar to play some spy game, and decided to go see the angela concert. Sadly, the BCC sucks ass for concerts. Everyone was excited for angela, which is comprised of two members, Atsuko (girl) and KATSU (guy). I found myself clapping politely, and I really only like the song they did after the "Cruel Angel no Thesis" cover. If the set-up was a little better and my ears were clogged from bleeding so much, it might have been an enjoyable concert. Note that I said the convention center sucks for concerts, not the artists themselves that suck. For that I was glad the L'Arc concert was playing at the Marina instead of the BCC.
We left before the encore started to go stand in the stickering line. Conveniently, Kevyn saved us a couple of spaces in line. Stickering went fairly quickly. Then me, Ryan, Kevyn, and Karyn were all sitting around, just talking, until we all got tired of that, and decided to go home.
On the way back, we stopped by Dave's (bludstone) apartment to play with his pussy. Pazu is an incredibly cute kitten. He kept trying to grab at my necklace, so I hid it before he could claw out my tits. Then he was amused by my hair, probably because it was another long and shiny thing. And possibly he liked the smell of BPAL's "Vice" (chocolate, black cherry, and orange blossom). Every once in a while he would dart from one end of the room to another, and sneak behind Karyn to scare the crap out of her. He's a ninja kitten!
Konoha (konoha), Avatar, Jeff, and Josh (crescens) were there, watching an unreleased DVD of Azumanga Daioh on Dave's third penis (his high definition flatscreen TV, which automatically ranks it as a superpenis). What can I say, it's a really nice TV! Then they played a couple of ROMs, including one called Bad Dudes VS. Dragonninja which had an amusing intro:
"President Ronnie has been kidnapped by the Ninjas,
And you a Bad enough dude to save Ronnie?"
It was getting late, so we bid our good byes, gave Pazu a last pat, and went home to catch a couple of winks. Karyn said we had to be at the con "early" tomorrow, so I'm inclined to believe her...
Friday
I asked Kevyn (fireye) if I could a ride to the con late Thursday night. He didn't give me a timetable of when he was planning on leaving, but he said "early." Well, since Karyn (belladonnastrap) was staying at his place, I used my powers of deduction and assume we wouldn't leave before noon, but I woke up at 7 am, anyway. But I should have followed my Spidey sense, because we didn't arrive at the con until around 11-ish.
But anyway, it was the best at-the-door registration, because Ryan (br0k3n) was standing in line for the past two hours, so basically I cut in line and only had to wait for thirty minutes to get my badge. (Thank you, Ryan!) This year, I am so out of the anime scene, I didn't recognize any of the badges. But there was one badge that kind of looked like a pig, and since I like cutely-drawn pigs, I picked it. It turned out to be a webcomic character, and that's not a pig snout, a la Tonde Buurin, but a pair of beady eyes out of a camoflauge parka. Whoops.
By the time Ryan and I got out of registration, the stickering session for the L'Arc~en~Ciel concert was over, so we planned on getting stickered later that night. For those out of the loop, basically the only way you could attend the concert on Saturday was if you purchased a three-day or Saturday pass. Then you had to get a sticker. Even then, it didn't guarantee you a seat, because about 12,000 seats were available. But if you didn't have any of those prerequisites, you wouldn't be admitted for the concert.
I have to confess, although I'm a fairly easygoing person, cons tend to bring out a mean streak in me. I make a ton of snarky comments. We passed a couple of kids wearing kerchiefs on their heads, and I said something like, "Just because you wear a doo-rag on your head doesn't make you a pirate of the Caribbean." But only Ryan heard me, luckily.
Everyone was famished at that point, so me, Ryan, Kevyn, and Karyn decided to go eat lunch. We met up with Andy (AvatarADV), Jeff (aulddragon), and a Mystery Guy, and headed towards the Inner Harbor. Mystery Guy disappeared soon after, and Avatar showed off his loot: a backpack full of manga. He had discovered the $5 manga (English language) table at the dealer's room and basically raped it of its goods. We were all impressed and made mental notes to find this Holy Grail later.
We decided to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. While we were waiting for our name to be called, Karyn and I sneaked over to The Body Shop, and I tried my best to convince Karyn not to buy anything, which just means I tried to prevent her from buying the entire store. But she was good and only got two things.
So, lunch was fun, and I discovered what it's like to sit with men who really like Cherry Coke. I think between all four of them, they drank like sixteen glasses. It was like sitting among wine critics comparing which drink is better. All I remember of the conversation was that Ryan looks eerily like an adult Harry Potter, and we all said he should cosplay as him for the con. And the story of how Karyn and her sister once took a paddle boat to the middle of the lake and it got stuck and they had to be rescued.
After lunch, we walked back to the BCC in the stifling heat. Once back in air conditioned bliss, we parted ways. I was late to the second annual Furuba Forums meet and greet, but I figure it was okay, since I'm an administrator and could ban anyone's ass if I wanted to.
I got to see Better (ninjabetter), Callie (calliecat, Mary (riven), HoodzieKyo, and a few others. The ironic thing is that even though we're the Furuba Forums, almost everyone in the group was cosplaying as a character from Naruto. Well, except for Callie, I think she was someone from One Piece. We all sat on the floor, chatting and eating the food I brought.
Then suddenly, the elevator doors opened and a group of people came out. There was a huge crowd, and Better and Callie's eyes were wide as saucers and mouthed, "It's L'Arc~en~Ciel!" I turned around to look. Not that it mattered, because I wouldn't know a member of the band if Hyde (D'oh! I mean "hyde". Every time a person miscapitalizes a Japanese artist's name, a kitten gets killed.) spanked me on the street, but it's important to say that I was sitting five feet away from one of the most popular music artists in Japan.
So anyway, they were surrounded by translators, security, and staff, and they shuffled ever so slowly across the BCC, because naturally, more hardcore fans recognized the band. They stopped by where we were sitting, because one of the band members wanted to take a picture of two really good Utena cosplayers. Mary, who was sitting with her back turned to the group, was asking what was going on, and was very confused until the band went away. But ZOMG! Mary, we saw L'Arc~en~Ciel!
After all that excitement, Mary and I headed towards the Hyatt to drop off her dealer's room loot, and then she, Ryan, and I met up with Avatar and headed towards Artist's Alley. We browsed the tables and admired the sexy men drawings. Then we abandoned Mary for the dealer's room. Basically, it was like me walking down Rodeo Lane with two men trailing behind me to carry my invisible bags. Look but no buy. We found the $5 manga table, but they didn't have anything interesting. Then we hit the video gaming room, careful to make a wide berth around the DDR corner, because that's where the worst of the otaku stench will be.
We left a happy Avatar to play some spy game, and decided to go see the angela concert. Sadly, the BCC sucks ass for concerts. Everyone was excited for angela, which is comprised of two members, Atsuko (girl) and KATSU (guy). I found myself clapping politely, and I really only like the song they did after the "Cruel Angel no Thesis" cover. If the set-up was a little better and my ears were clogged from bleeding so much, it might have been an enjoyable concert. Note that I said the convention center sucks for concerts, not the artists themselves that suck. For that I was glad the L'Arc concert was playing at the Marina instead of the BCC.
We left before the encore started to go stand in the stickering line. Conveniently, Kevyn saved us a couple of spaces in line. Stickering went fairly quickly. Then me, Ryan, Kevyn, and Karyn were all sitting around, just talking, until we all got tired of that, and decided to go home.
On the way back, we stopped by Dave's (bludstone) apartment to play with his pussy. Pazu is an incredibly cute kitten. He kept trying to grab at my necklace, so I hid it before he could claw out my tits. Then he was amused by my hair, probably because it was another long and shiny thing. And possibly he liked the smell of BPAL's "Vice" (chocolate, black cherry, and orange blossom). Every once in a while he would dart from one end of the room to another, and sneak behind Karyn to scare the crap out of her. He's a ninja kitten!
Konoha (konoha), Avatar, Jeff, and Josh (crescens) were there, watching an unreleased DVD of Azumanga Daioh on Dave's third penis (his high definition flatscreen TV, which automatically ranks it as a superpenis). What can I say, it's a really nice TV! Then they played a couple of ROMs, including one called Bad Dudes VS. Dragonninja which had an amusing intro:
"President Ronnie has been kidnapped by the Ninjas,
And you a Bad enough dude to save Ronnie?"
It was getting late, so we bid our good byes, gave Pazu a last pat, and went home to catch a couple of winks. Karyn said we had to be at the con "early" tomorrow, so I'm inclined to believe her...