Otakon 2001: Ah, a weekend in Baltimore and I have a bigger head already. Anyways, I had a great time overall this weekend and wanted to fill you all in on the greatness that was me at Otakon.
NOTE: I’ll probably have pics or something eventually. If anything I’m going to be scanning some of the crap I did on Sunday (read below for details).
Friday
The trip up was hell. Hell, hell, hell, hell. Traffic is the bane of my existance and getting bumper fu**ed was not the ideal way of starting the trip. No one was seriously hurt, just a little whiplash here and a need for duct tape. The car, while not a gonner, may not get fixed because it’s my girlfriend’s (who was with us, I didn’t steal her g-ride) 93 Geo Prism with over 100000 miles on it and there’s probably more damage than the car’s worth. Oh well, she’s getting a new car at the end of the year anyway, one of those hippie fuel efficient things that have the electric-gas hybrid stuff. Kinda cool.
Once we got there, though, all was good. The highlight of the night was the greatest Anime ever, 8-Man. And not that “retruns” or whatever they called the recent remake, no, we’re talking black and white 1950s cartoon stuff, kitch value all over.
Oh, I need to find the site, but a couple dorks from some online media thing was trying to patronize me and my pals about hentai (anime porn). I can’t stand it when people who I would normally patronize turn the tables on me. It wasn’t the case of “the shoe was on the other foot”, though, they were dorks, I was not.
And, another cool thing was the dance party thingy they had there. Yeah, it was weak as hell and I can’t dance worth shit being a cracker and all, but there was this large group standing in a circle doing nothing but staring at a guy in the middle waving glowsticks around. What kinda crap is that? So, I had a little conversation with my pal Jason Northrup.
Jason: Hey, Jason.
Jason: Yeah?
Jason: I dare you to go in the middle of that group and disco
Jason: I’ll do it if you come too.
Jason: I’ll do it if there’s a crowd doing it.
Jason: Be right back.
Jason got a crowd of about fifteen people who were doing nothing but standing around to go with us to the middle. No body disco’ed and we bailed after maybe ten seconds, but the party got started and we’re to blame.
Saturday
Saturday was a full day at the Con, walking around and seeing movies and stuff. “She Shoots Straight” was a good flick outta Hong Kong (which I may have seen on Friday, but it all ran together, sorry). The best part was the mom of the family playing the role of a mafia Godfather. I think my friends and I loved that movie for all the wrong reasons.
But, the weekend was completely made this evening as I saw what may be the greatest movie EVER! “Attack the Gas Station” is a live action Korean movie that rules! It’s hilarious as hell and a must have, believe me. I’ll be more detailed later, but the premise is these four guys attack and rob a gas station. Then, a few days later, they’re bored and do it again, this time taking the place over and acting like they work there. Great stuff.
Sunday - Wildfire Productions
The only thing we really did at the Con Sunday was the most fun I’d had in a while. Otakon has this area for artists to set up and hype themselves and there are a few table set aside for amateurs or folks who didn’t reserve tables. So, my pals and I set up a table. Heh, heh, heh.
Now, none of us can draw to save our lives. Well, I can’t. Ian can a bit, but we didn’t. The morning of I hit Wal-Mart on my way to the con and bought clear pockets and folders so we could make portofolios of our “Anime Stickmen”. Our table ruled, we took a while to get started but we called people over and hyped ourselves to no end. We gave our art away and signed it and all. We also got donation, though. Two hours later when we left we had ten bucks and a lot of fun. Having been paid to do this, I assume that makes me a professional artist now. Heh, gotta love it.
Oh, and I bought a Transformer.
Then we came home. The End.