Quote of the weekend : : "We've secretly replaced your brain with New Folger's Crystals!  Lets see if anyone notices the difference!"

I sit here in front of my computer wondering what happened this weekend.  It seems as if only a few hours ago I was busy at my friend’s kitchen counter, cutting fabric and foam core to assemble cosplay accessories.   Now, I’m feeling the draining euphoria of a very enjoyable weekend.

Nonetheless, my therapist (the one I talk to in my own head when no one is looking) tells me that I have to write this, if only to bring a sense of closure to the events..  :)   Be forewarned, this is a LONG commentary..

So,  I shall, I think, take a brief high speed blast through the weekend, with a few freeze-frames on highlights.   Ready?  Set?  GO!

We start Wednesday night, no sleep, awake all night working on MiB Lain Headsets, packing 4 minutes before leaving for my flight, falling asleep waiting for plane and grinding my teeth until they ache.  Fast forward through plane ride, its good, its smooth, it no shakes, Raleigh/Durham is SO FLAT when seen from the sky...

Picked up by my good buddy Kat, I get driven to the “house of Folger’s Cosplay”(tm)  where I promptly dump my bags and hug and chat with people I haven’t seen for months.  Fast forward through socialization, driving around looking for sewing pins and digital cameras, dinner and most last minute sewing, and freeze-frame around midnight!

Jupe arrives, yet another good friend, this time from Canada..   Much rowdy insanity ensues, as half of us have returned from a non-existent Hotel scene, and the other half have become a little unhinged working on last minute cosplay items.  We cope in various ways, some of us get busy dancing on the DDR mat, others watch Barbie dolls having rough sex on someone’s laptop, while a few of us actually.. nap??!  Cheaters!

If one quickly bores and hits the fast forward button on the tape, they’ll find that most of us eventually run away to the hotel, while a few loyal stalwart cosplayers struggle to stay awake, following the age old tradition of staying awake at the last minute, finishing costumes. 

<fast forward through various swing insanity>

3am : We’ve replaced your cosplayers with new Folger’s Crystals!  Lets see if anyone notices the difference!

<fast forward through more insanity>

5am : Oh GOD the @#)%@&@$ birds are AWAKE!

<fast forward through ironing and more sewing>

6:30am : Its fricken LIGHT out!!

<fast forward>  <snooooore>

I wake up.  Everyone’s gone except for Aaron, a fellow MiB Knight.  I pack frantically, throw stuff in the truck, we drive, we of COURSE miss our exit and go around in multiple loops till we find the right one to go down.  We find the hotel, I dump my stuff. 

<fast forward through 3 hours of getting lost looking for a Kinko’s>

I get back to the hotel, zip around and get hugs from all sorts of friends, register..  Freeze-frame!

...  50 dollars for the weekend?  That’s more expensive than OTAKON!  ..  5 dollars for replacement books if you lose yours?  For a BLACK AND WHITE book, with a black and white cover, that’s barely 30 pages??!  Wait... 50 cents for a CHAIN?  Chains that are barely 10 cents when bought in bulk?

This.. is not a good sign.  This prompts me to look around at the con a little more closely for at least a few minutes..  Hum...  Their publications look pretty weak..  The badge is black and white and pre-laminated, with not much care for any design..  Con staffers are scattered and not in much sight.. and the con “rules” are, while amusing, not necessarily written too well..  ..  ..  I guess I should be concerned and start looking more carefully, but I’m too busy..  Doing what?  You know it..  Getting READY FOR COSPLAY.

I drag Kat to the room, and we start crazy gluing eyepieces to headsets.  We put the original prototype to the “desk slamming test”  the crazy glue holds, the headset starts to crack, we stop. 

<fast forward through some more hanging out with good friends, until BAM, Scott, my original MiB partner arrives!> 

I promptly drag Scott into my room to finish the electronics on the headsets.  Yay!  Somewhere along the line about 10 people pile into my room.  We play DDR, I finish headsets, we dance and sing and .. oh wait..  that’s something else.  There’s a sudden mass exodus.  I’m left alone. 

<fast forward through me getting my camera and going to take photos>

At some point I stop taking photos, and Scott decides to get into his Pimpin Kero-chan outfit.  Kat gets into her evil Sakura outfit.  While they’re doing this, I sneak away to get into the Pimpin Suppi-chan outfit that Kat made for me as a surprise to Scott.  Pinning wings and a tail are a pain if you’ve never done them before. ^_^;

<fast forward through me hitting the lobby in my Pimpin Suppi-chan outfit and annoying the Pimpin Kero-Chan.>

After wandering around as big fluffy characters, we stop, we hijack the other knights and we go to practice in the room.  We start singing..  We’re so off sync!!  But we practice and practice and drive my poor roommate into conniptions, singing the same lyrics over and over again.

<fast forward through us practicing our choreography outside in the rain>

After practice, we wander to the lobby to fill out the Cosplay form and determine our lighting effects and whatnot.  We arrive at the part of the form that lists what category we’re supposed to be in.. To summarize, I shall call upon my fellow knights to do a compressed reenactment of the scene.

<Knight One>  Hey, what category are we supposed to be in?
<Knight Two>  I’m a novice, never won a thing.
<Knight One>  Same here.
<Knight Three> Well, I think I put us in intermediate class, cus I’ve won an award in the past.
<Knight Two> That’s good, I think its probably better for us to be in the Intermediate class anyway..
<Knight Four>  Um guys..
<Knight One>  What?
<Knight Four>  .. I think I’m the spoiler here.  I’ve won five prizes before, so I shove all of us into the Advanced category.
<Knight One>  <Eyes widen>
<Knight Two>  God Dammit Dan, why couldn’t you suck?!!

Anyway, we figure its for fun, and we’ll just go out and do our best.  We spend some more time knocking around bad puns and such, then finish the form and faint.  ..

<hits rewind button>

Oh.. lemme note this for all you big party throwers..  Do yourself a favor..  If you’re going to throw a party at a con.. and you’re going to have parties of a questionable nature..  SHOW SOME INTELLIGENCE IN WHO YOU TALK TO.   I wont even get into the intelligence of throwing a party where questionable activity is going to be happening, nor the boorishness of looking like a fool and falling over into the planters in the lobby area.

<fast forward through four hours of sleep>

Wake up just in time to hit the Cosplay signup panel.  Okay, now I know that AZ has been a little haphazard this year, but finding out that they aren’t even truly doing signup till 6pm, basically, the first fifty cosplay groups to get in line, is a big disappointment.  It would NOT have been much of a chore to write up everything that was said at the morning signup panel.  The hour lost there could have been spent doing other things..

<fast forward through my complaints>

I find Kat in her super kawaii, sickeningly sugary and cute Neko-Ruri costume.  TOOOOOO sweet!  Too Kawaii!!! Teeth rotted on sight!  ..  just kidding.. But it IS super-kawaii.  Scooter arrives in his Errol costume, with the staff twice as tall as he is.. (ohhh boy.)  Somewhere along the way I take photos of COSP, ACP and its male counterpart, Cosmen. 

After wandering around a bit and taking the occasional photo, we hunt down a few of our fellow MiB agents, and basically, decide to do one of the weirder crossovers..  I don my MiB outfit, and then... We get Kat, Scott and Max to, in order, turn into MiB Agent Neko-Ruri, MiB Agent Errol, and MiB Agent Max Jenius. 

We invade the halls, and cause mixed reactions of laughter, or in some cases, outright confusion as people who are too slow to catch humor in the crossover just scratch their heads and continue walking.  We also chase down Ollie and some other people and cause some heart palpitations from those people who feel guilty about various transgressions.. (amazing what the MiB Headsets do for your appearance.. :)

<fast forward through zipping around hotel  to preparation for actual cosplay>

So at 5, our knights get together and do our dress rehearsal outside..  And I shall quote...

<Knight Two> From the top!

<Knights> Bum da bum bum bum!!
<All Knights Sing>
<One Knight or Another make a mistake>
<All Knights>  FUCK!

<Knight One> From the top!

...  Well, they do say that a bad dress rehearsal means a great performance..  But ultimately, after many repeats, and looping through individual sections of the song...   We managed one clean, perfect set.  Time to go in!

<Fast forward through hijinks in the preparation line.  Cosplayers hang out, practice in line, sing Bohemian Rhapsody again, etc etc.>

<Click on Full Detail Playback>

We’re on line and waiting to take our turn on the stage..  Previously we had seen Kat, Dommi and Ollie’s skit do a rocking good run on the stage..  None of us are nervous per say, and the excitement has built up and we’re ready to go... 

...  they turn the lights OFF.  Its time for us to walk on stage..  Walking (carefully) we get on stage..  ..  we do our little opening bit.. They turn on the lights and the crowd is silent...   ..  we start with the opening line.. and....  here we go!!

---------------------------

Cosplay Troupe : Lain’s KNIGHTS ON BROADWAY

Knights of the Wired Table
Written and Performed by Terry Chu, Scott Argenziano, Daniel Tarashke, and Aaron Hammer
Performed at Animazement 2001

Bum da bum bum bum!!!

We’re Knights of the Wired Table,
we scan when e’er we’re able!
We dress in black and hide in back,
With faces unread-able!
We track you in the can alot,
and we scan and dance and prance alot!

La la la la la la la, la la la, la la la,
LA la la la la la la, la la la la LA!

We’re Knights of the Wired Table,
our lights are for-midable!
But in our heads we all see read,
they don’t give us free cable,
we stand around n scanalot,
then we see the wired gods-alot!

La la la la la la la, la la la la LA!

Oh we’re grim and stable!
We don’t need internet cable!
Between our scans we get our man,
and gamble under the table!
Its a busy life we scan alot...

I have to dance with Lain ALOTTTTTTTTT!!

La la la la la la la, la la la la LA! 

HEY!

---------------------------

After 90 seconds of singing and dancing like HUGE hams, we end with a classic show tune finish... ...  to a HUGE uproar of crowd reaction! ..  We find out later that we had a standing ovation!   <major sweat drop>

We leave the stage, and sit.. Now.. Remember, I’d mentioned that we were in Advanced class?  Well, I must say that we were pretty damned impressed with all the Advanced class entries.  Yaya’s group was simply amazingly impressive.. Christy’s dancing group of J-Rocker’s to “Dude looks like a lady” was drop dead funny.  All in all, we were set after the crowd reaction, and didn’t expect any prizes. 

When they announced that we took a Judge’s Award from Tony Schnurr, we were quite happy!  We came on stage, took our award, and in sync we state clearly...

“PRESENT DAY....  PRESENT...  RHYME!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

With that we walk over to the side of the area by the screens, and stand and watch as our friends start taking awards. (It was easier, you try sitting down in the dark in these headsets..)  Dommi, Ollie and Kat take Third Place Intermediate class!  Huzzah!!!  Christy and the J-Rock Group (I forget the others, sorry!) take Third Place Advanced!!  Double Huzzah!

Then.. the shock of the evening for us, especially the novices in the group...  They announce...  For second place Advanced.. “Lets get those crazy singing guys up here again.....”  ...   We took SECOND PLACE!!!  Amazing!!!  We walk up in amazement, and...  since we DID plan on doing something in case we actually went up a second time.. kick into a nice big old chicken dance as we sing, “This old wired just ain’t what it used to be, ain’t what it used to be...”

...  Suffice it to say.. wow.  I’m so happy that we were able to hold our own against all the other Advanced categories..  Yaya’s cosplay group takes First place and Best of Show, no surprise there, their costumes were absolutely amazing!  I think in the end, we can only say that we managed to win the crowd over with our song and dance, and extraordinary.. hamming skills. :)

<fast forward through rapid photography in the hallways  damnit, I wish I had my camera!!  this cosplay stuff eats up all my coverage time..>

We run back to Kat’s room.. Now, lemme state that Kat is an absolute GODDESS to me at the moment, cus she bought me food.  I hadn’t eaten all day!  (come to think of it, I was lucky to get one meal a day since Thursday..)  I scarf food, we all go over our prizes and go insane, and live on the high of the moment.  :)  Eventually, we switch over to casual costumes and wander over to Dommi’s birthday party.

<fast forward through moments of Humpy picture taking and gift giving>  Dommi goes insane at the sight of our gift.  Success!  <Fast forward>  ...  <freeze-frame!>

Now, there’s some displeasure (there always is)  and this lies in the main person in charge of Hotel Security.  An older gentleman in a white suit, this person, who was referred to as Col. Sanders by many, proceeded to be rude to the people in the room, and eventually, in a very rough manner, shut down the party and threw everyone out of the room.  Now...  I won’t dispute his right to do so, room party shutdowns are fairly common at conventions.. However, there was no need to be rude to people who were genuinely NOT drinking  and there certainly was no need to FOLLOW people around the hotel after they left the room. 

This “gentleman” not only followed people around, but he generally caused problems all night.  Despite this, most of us gravitated towards the lobby and stayed awake all night, talking, relaxing, having fun and in general enjoying ourselves.  (Col. Sanders and their other hotel security people would walk around and get grumpy every once in a while but for the most part ignored us after they’d survey us.)  Of particular note, he stopped where I and two other people were sitting on couches...  “Hey, you guys can’t be sleeping around here.”  After we clearly stated that we were NOT sleeping but wide awake and talking, and that we had rooms at the hotel, we were told, ‘Well you can’t sit like that, I won’t have people napping, sit up.”

Seems the hotel security was also the posture police.

<fast forward through unpleasant element to 5:30am>

So around 5:30, most of us have crashed, but myself and an intrepid crew of 6 were still awake..  We realize that the Starbucks in the lobby would be open in less than 30 minutes...

So we promptly decide to stay awake till the foods ready.  we stay outside..  We start doing photos of us crawling towards the Starbucks..  Coffeeeeee....... 

<fast forward through finally getting our drink and food, then fainting and sleeping>

Now its 10:30...  I’m awake again.  I call around, and decide that hell, since this is the last con that the MiB will be in action as a regular occurrence, I’ll wear my MiB outfit again.  I get dressed, and go wander.  I do my ONE little bit of shopping for the weekend..

Note.. Other than dealers room and cosplay, I’ve pretty much missed the ENTIRE con itself.. This.. is kinda scary..  From what I can see, there wasn’t much to CATCH of the con either, which is truly scary. 

<fast forward through some socialization>

We decide to catch Tony Schnurr for a group shot..  Unfortunately, I realize that there is NO serious shot of the four MiB Knights..  Ahh well..  We make up for it with a group shot..

<Fast forward>

Its 3pm.  A whole bunch of people are hungry.  In fact, basically, we’re organizing the dead dog trip to Jack Astors..  We want.. FOOD!

A huge car caravan is compiled.  Speeds are set at over 90 miles an hour.  (a little.. um.. scary.)  We’re playing heavy DDR music.  We lose three cars in the trip but they eventually link up. 

<fast forward through food eating, partying, etc>

We gather for a group shot.. Piling up as many people as we had into the little atrium was an adventure, which eventually ended on us singing the Star Spangled Banner to maintain the strength of having 10 photos taken of us in our crammed, piled on top of each other position.. Oh, and I will state that well, we had some GOOD harmony singing! :)

People start saying goodbyes.. Its almost sad to see people take their final farewells.. Eventually, the smaller caravans get started on their trips. 

Some of us end up at Kat’s house.  We basically hang out for longer amounts of time, and eventually, my carload of people make our teary, long farewells.  Wahhhhh, its so depressing to end a con!  ...

Course, five minutes afterwards we all decide to go get food.  Whee, new excuse to spend just that LITTLE bit more time!! <chuckle>  We hit a place called Waffle House.

....  Never. Never.. Never.. go to Waffle House.  The place is EVIL!

EVIL I TELL YOU!  <shudder>

Anyway  tearful goodbyes and whatnot again.. People leave.  Our car is the straggling crew, so we sit and wait as Dar finishes his food.  I go to pay the bill, and suddenly, Jupe’s next to me.  She grabs a bag, and runs out with a short hi and bye..

I stand in shock, but eventually shake it off, and we get going back to the hotel.

<Fast forward through packing in the middle of the night, and falling asleep on the chair again.  Fast forward through me waking up late, us getting turned around incorrectly rushing to the airport, and the fact that I only got on the plane cus I was lucky enough that the plane was delayed 20 minutes..>

...

I get home..  I dump my bags.  I faint in my REAL bed.. 

<fast forward till we see static bars>

And realize that effectively, we’ve fast forwarded through to the end of the con..

So all in all, how was Animazement 2001?

Amazing loads of fun.

Why?

Well, I couldn’t tell you that the con itself did it...  I missed the convention itself, with the exception of Cosplay.  I noticed alot of grumbling about this and that, and how disorganized the panels were, or lame.. The slightly weird organization of cosplay (or rather, lack of organization) was rather disappointing, but then again, it was nonetheless fairly successful.  Con gripe session at 10 AM?  Bad idea...  Animazement had approximately 1800 attendees, which is in its own way a very small number for a convention that’s in its fourth year.  I’m surprised that they didn’t do better, and I really expected better organization, especially seeing how they did an amazing job in ’99.

However, as I said in past times..  You make your own convention.  It doesn't matter what the con does, it matters what you make of it.

The people, the crew of friends that was together made the con absolutely worth attending.  I have no regrets about this weekend.  It was an absolute blast.  With the socialization with friends I see maybe twice a year, to the amazing experience cosplaying... I have to say so far, Animazement 2001 was the best convention of the year to date.

With that, I leave you to the photos.  Enjoy. :)