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Saturday, March 19, 2005
I wouldn't expect this to become a habit, but I managed to finish another card in my tarot series:

The Hierophant

Constructive feedback is, of course, appreciated. That is all.

Half-Assed Attempt at Finishing Rest of Anime Detour Con Report.

It's, as you probably already know, been several days since the ending of the con, so my attempts to create an up-to-the-minute narrative of my adventures obviously failed miserably. I really don't have all that much to report, since I spent most of my time in the Artist's Alley (which later doubled as the Masquerade Green Room.) I didn't do as well as I hoped I would, selling-art-wise, although I'm guessing that had a lot to do with random circumstances of the day beyond my control (and with the fact that people just weren't all that interested in what I had to sell.) Meredith made out pretty well, though, but she's something of a pro at this sort of thing and she knew just what kind of drawings to bring that would appeal to the predominant demographic group at this particular convention. (IE: boys who love fairy pictures.) I will say just one more thing about the Artist Alley. IT WAS COOOLD! (A fact which might not have been an issue had I decided to dress in a multi-layer costume, but since I spent the lion's share of that weekend dressed as characters who favor the wearing of shorts, fukus, and short fukus, it was something of an ordeal for me.)

About 4 pm on Saturday, I left the Artist Alley to put on my big ticket costume in time for the Workmanship Judging which would be taking place later that night. Said big ticket costume consisted of the Utena and Anthy Armored Suits that my friend and fellow cosplayer Grandis and I put together over Christmas vacation. Upon dressing, we found we were to spend approximately the next 1,127 hours sitting in those costumes waiting to be judged and waiting for our turn in the Masquerade Line. We endured, strutted our stuff and did our best and at the end of the night we won... nothing. Which was okay by us. Not everyone who enters a contest can win a prize. However, our defeat would have been a lot easier to swallow had we felt that the people who HAD won the show had been the BEST cosplayers of the evening. (We felt that most of the winning costumes in all of the categories had been competently put together, and that there were even a couple that had been exceptional. But there were some that had been even MORE exceptional, and these received NO recognition whatsoever. There were some nice Last Exile Uniforms, some really good, non-trashy looking J-Pop cosplayers, and a really gorgeous Special Newtype cover version of Utena and Anthy.) I don't know what the judges were thinking, I honestly don't. And unlike the Cosplay.com message board where I have to show a modicum of politeness when arguing the matter, here on my site, I can say whatever I want and be as unconstructive as I damn well please. The judging SUCKED in this contest..... There... I said it. That being said, I expect that, given the feedback and experience generated by this year's Masquerade, that next year's Masquerade will be a lot better. The AD staff has been very keen to learn and listen and I have the feeling that they'll do what it takes to make all aspects of the convention run more smoothly and more enjoyably for everyone in the future. The audience certainly seemed to enjoy the cosplay contest, and the rehearsal the AD staff ran for all the cosplayers pre-show was a big help to everyone, including us. So, instead of being bitter, I look forward to seeing what they can pull off in the future.

So that's it. I'm back to my old routine now, which is making costumes for other people, and stressing out over the fact that my Mom is threatening to toss me, my cats, and everything I own out into the snow come April 1st. (And people wonder why I'm so depressed. Until they meet my family. Then they know.)...

Anime Detour 2005 Report - Day One

Friday
Arrived at the Thunderbird Motel about 1-ish. Mother Nature, having come to the conclusion that my life wasn't NEARLY difficult enough, decides to drop approximately 80 million tons of snow on my head as I rush back and forth from my car in the parking lot to the Artist Alley table where I'll be sitting and hawking my artwork for most of the day. I happen to be sharing a table with Meredith Dillman, a friend and local artist who draws bishounen, fairies, vampires, and bishounen fairy vampires. People browse through my stuff and go "Ah!" They browse through Meredith's stuff and go, "AAAAhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I soon come to realize that having an artist of Mere's calibur as my tablemate might have been a bad idea. Resolve next time to find sight-impaired 7th grader with a wide-ruled notebook filled with badly traced Fushigi Yuugi yaoi fanart as my tablemate instead.

I take a few pictures during the course of the day. Very few.

After the artist alley closes, Mere and I head over to Khan's Mongolian barbecue. I never had Mongolian Barbecue before, and after seeing all the green stuff and raw meat sitting on the buffet table, I was thinking that I had perhaps made some horrible mistake in coming there. Thankfully, I was proven wrong. My food was actually cooked and it turned out delicious. (Which is good, because I dropped an entire day's profits on that meal.)

First order of business tomorrow: Waking up in time for a cosplay masquerade rehearsal at 8. Am. In the Morning. THE F*(&$ING MORNING! AAAAHHH!!!!!