The Long Weekend Report
Jul. 7th, 2003 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Well, went to AX. It was fun. Guess I should begin at the beginning? 'K.
Apologies to everyone who has to page down through this--I don't know how to LJ-cut. Anyone want to let me know how?
N-chan and Kise-chan showed up on Wednesday (yay slumber party!) and they and Shi-chan and I headed out to the convention on Thursday morning. After a *minor* mishap involving a bicyclist ramming into the side of my car while I was getting onto the freeway onramp (this involving two dents, one of them rather sizeable, and lots of scratches on the passenger side of my car, three police cars, a paramedic team, an ambulance, and three highway patrol cars and even if she hit me I just know they'll decide it's my fault and friggit there goes any hope of decent insurance rates for the next ten years) we were on our way. We had booked a room at the Marriott hotel and got checked in to the hotel without incident, got checked in to Masquerade smoothly, then headed across the way to the Hilton to pick up our con registration. Bumped into Ha-chan (Shi-chan's BF) and the CalTech crew there and also made the dismaying discovery that the Studio Pierrot panel was directly opposite the one event we would not miss--Masquerade. Many tears were shed.
The rennovated convention center, incidentally, is very nice. We took an initial run through the dealer's hall (nice, wide aisles, good aircon, one highly approves) and the art auction, where I placed bids on a couple of items. The day ended early and we went to Baker's Square for dinner. That evening was spent sewing on costumes, by hand because we met our goal and did not have to take either of our sewing machines to the con. Miaka's hair loops got wound and bound. Eventually, sleep was had.
Friday Shi-chan was Garnet and I was Ovelia, our Final Fantasy Princesses duo. I nearly doubled my recognition rate! I've gone from four people recognizing the costume to seven! (I kid you not. That is the actual count.) I went to the .hack panel, where among other cosplayers I saw a couple of BTs. One had a rather good headband, and even though I know how I want to do mine, I really should have asked her how she did hers. Shi and I made the second half of the FF cosplay gathering, where I was the only Ovelia (heck, I think I'm the only one on the continent). She outshone the other Garnet. We also tried to stalk The Stitchin' Babes at their craftsmanship judging slot both to say hi and goggle at the wings they'd made, but to no avail. Then back to rooms and I changed clothes and went to work. Which was dead boring. 140 people is a slow day in general, let alone on a holiday. And I didn't get let go early, either. Headed home after that, had food, picked up supplies we had forgotten, and headed back to the hotel. Where Shi-chan had styled Yui's wig but was being stymied by mine. Lack of sleep was getting to her, so Cyn-chan (who had arrived) and I sent her off to bed and I tackled the problem. It took until 3am, but finally the loops were securely fastened to the wig and the costume was done.
Saturday = Masquerade! And judging! We were about fifteen minutes late to the latter (having forgotten to allot time to put on my makeup) but it was okay since there were still a couple of groups ahead of us at that point. Like the Spirited Away group that ended up taking Best Group Construction! We were awestruck by the foam crafting job their Chihiro had done to make Yubaba. Just... wow. We already knew we had no shot at first place, but it was great just to see something like that. We turned in our documentation booklet (why do the judges always seem just a touch surprised that they can keep it?) and talked about our costums to them, Shi-chan, as always, more loquacious than I. The Masquerade pre-meeting began something like 3/4 of an hour late, but we finally got to see The Stitchin' Babes and Aimee and AJ! And the WINGS! *rabid fangirl drooling* Nice nice nice. We'd talked at Fanime about how they'd be constructed, but actually seeing them was incredible. In any case, things finally got started and though it seemed interminable as always, we did get a rehearsal in on stage and out of there with an hour and a half until we had to be back. Went back to room and N-chan volunteered to run across the way and get us lunch. For which I think I still owe her money. In any case, we went back to the green room (ahh, I miss the theater at Long Beach but in all other respects this is truly a superior setup... large comfy simulcast room, people organized by seat but free to roam and talk before they're needed onstage). We were number 41 and so many good skits and costumes went before us. We actually ended up sitting right behind Darryl's group so we talked with him for a while, and with Laura and Steven and with TSB&co. Then our turn was up, we were whisked out to the small press photographs stage, then backstage, and almost before I had time to get butterflies it was our turn. It was so efficient it was scary. And wonderful! We did our dance and though we were a hair off on our stepping out and side lunge moves, overall we did great. As we knew we would, we went too fast in the first part, so it was a good thing we'd added the extra circle in before the butterfly move to compensate. Then we went offstage and out to the fan photography area (stopping to adjust my costume because my left floaty strap had finally come loose) and back into the green room. The AMVs seemed interminable while the judges deliberated, then Marisa came back and called prize-winning groups to go backstage. I honestly could not believe it when our number was called. Neither, I think, could Shi. I mean, there were so many other costumes that were better than ours! So we went backstage again, and it turned out we'd won Honorable Mention for Group Craftsmanship. WAAAAAIIIII!!! Then picture-taking, retrieving stuff, running into old friends, and finally getting back to the hotel room and crashing.
Sunday we both went around in civvies again. The horn/ear linkup on Shi's wig had left her with a painful dent in her head, and to be honest, Sunday was an *extremely* quiet day of the con. I'd lost out on both of the pieces I'd bid on (one a picture of double Chiis and the other a picture titled "Geisha" by Tavisha) but N-chan had counter-bid and gave me the latter. WAI! Pretty picture! As Kise needed to be at the art auction to bid on a piece she wanted, she begged off of brunch, as did TSB&co, so it was only Cyn-chan, N-chan, Shi-chan and myself who went out after packing up the car. Then we got back and went through the dealer's room where I bought shitajiki and Feder and caved on a print of Nene Thomas' "Snapdragon." Went up to the art auction briefly (Kise had won her piece), said goodbye to friends I saw there, and headed out to work once again, returning afterwards to pick up Kise, N, and Shi and return home, where we watched a bit of Rockman.EXE and a bit of Kamen Rider Agito before we all crashed hard.
Woke up this morning, took Kise to train station, N to John Wayne Airport, and Shi to LAX. And fiance will be arriving on Thursday! Also discovered that an old, old story of mine has been delivered the smackdown on The Mary Sue Report (http://www.livejournal.com/community/marysues/516448.html) - I find this amusing as, yes, the piece is a MS and I admit it. Also found that someone has been mailing me asking me not to say Quatre is a girl. As I never *have*, to the best of my knowledge, I e-mailed the person back stating so and telling them to please stop writing me. Need for post-con pre-fiance breakdown seems to have vanished. Anyhow, that was my weekend, so now I'm going back to sewing.
Apologies to everyone who has to page down through this--I don't know how to LJ-cut. Anyone want to let me know how?
N-chan and Kise-chan showed up on Wednesday (yay slumber party!) and they and Shi-chan and I headed out to the convention on Thursday morning. After a *minor* mishap involving a bicyclist ramming into the side of my car while I was getting onto the freeway onramp (this involving two dents, one of them rather sizeable, and lots of scratches on the passenger side of my car, three police cars, a paramedic team, an ambulance, and three highway patrol cars and even if she hit me I just know they'll decide it's my fault and friggit there goes any hope of decent insurance rates for the next ten years) we were on our way. We had booked a room at the Marriott hotel and got checked in to the hotel without incident, got checked in to Masquerade smoothly, then headed across the way to the Hilton to pick up our con registration. Bumped into Ha-chan (Shi-chan's BF) and the CalTech crew there and also made the dismaying discovery that the Studio Pierrot panel was directly opposite the one event we would not miss--Masquerade. Many tears were shed.
The rennovated convention center, incidentally, is very nice. We took an initial run through the dealer's hall (nice, wide aisles, good aircon, one highly approves) and the art auction, where I placed bids on a couple of items. The day ended early and we went to Baker's Square for dinner. That evening was spent sewing on costumes, by hand because we met our goal and did not have to take either of our sewing machines to the con. Miaka's hair loops got wound and bound. Eventually, sleep was had.
Friday Shi-chan was Garnet and I was Ovelia, our Final Fantasy Princesses duo. I nearly doubled my recognition rate! I've gone from four people recognizing the costume to seven! (I kid you not. That is the actual count.) I went to the .hack panel, where among other cosplayers I saw a couple of BTs. One had a rather good headband, and even though I know how I want to do mine, I really should have asked her how she did hers. Shi and I made the second half of the FF cosplay gathering, where I was the only Ovelia (heck, I think I'm the only one on the continent). She outshone the other Garnet. We also tried to stalk The Stitchin' Babes at their craftsmanship judging slot both to say hi and goggle at the wings they'd made, but to no avail. Then back to rooms and I changed clothes and went to work. Which was dead boring. 140 people is a slow day in general, let alone on a holiday. And I didn't get let go early, either. Headed home after that, had food, picked up supplies we had forgotten, and headed back to the hotel. Where Shi-chan had styled Yui's wig but was being stymied by mine. Lack of sleep was getting to her, so Cyn-chan (who had arrived) and I sent her off to bed and I tackled the problem. It took until 3am, but finally the loops were securely fastened to the wig and the costume was done.
Saturday = Masquerade! And judging! We were about fifteen minutes late to the latter (having forgotten to allot time to put on my makeup) but it was okay since there were still a couple of groups ahead of us at that point. Like the Spirited Away group that ended up taking Best Group Construction! We were awestruck by the foam crafting job their Chihiro had done to make Yubaba. Just... wow. We already knew we had no shot at first place, but it was great just to see something like that. We turned in our documentation booklet (why do the judges always seem just a touch surprised that they can keep it?) and talked about our costums to them, Shi-chan, as always, more loquacious than I. The Masquerade pre-meeting began something like 3/4 of an hour late, but we finally got to see The Stitchin' Babes and Aimee and AJ! And the WINGS! *rabid fangirl drooling* Nice nice nice. We'd talked at Fanime about how they'd be constructed, but actually seeing them was incredible. In any case, things finally got started and though it seemed interminable as always, we did get a rehearsal in on stage and out of there with an hour and a half until we had to be back. Went back to room and N-chan volunteered to run across the way and get us lunch. For which I think I still owe her money. In any case, we went back to the green room (ahh, I miss the theater at Long Beach but in all other respects this is truly a superior setup... large comfy simulcast room, people organized by seat but free to roam and talk before they're needed onstage). We were number 41 and so many good skits and costumes went before us. We actually ended up sitting right behind Darryl's group so we talked with him for a while, and with Laura and Steven and with TSB&co. Then our turn was up, we were whisked out to the small press photographs stage, then backstage, and almost before I had time to get butterflies it was our turn. It was so efficient it was scary. And wonderful! We did our dance and though we were a hair off on our stepping out and side lunge moves, overall we did great. As we knew we would, we went too fast in the first part, so it was a good thing we'd added the extra circle in before the butterfly move to compensate. Then we went offstage and out to the fan photography area (stopping to adjust my costume because my left floaty strap had finally come loose) and back into the green room. The AMVs seemed interminable while the judges deliberated, then Marisa came back and called prize-winning groups to go backstage. I honestly could not believe it when our number was called. Neither, I think, could Shi. I mean, there were so many other costumes that were better than ours! So we went backstage again, and it turned out we'd won Honorable Mention for Group Craftsmanship. WAAAAAIIIII!!! Then picture-taking, retrieving stuff, running into old friends, and finally getting back to the hotel room and crashing.
Sunday we both went around in civvies again. The horn/ear linkup on Shi's wig had left her with a painful dent in her head, and to be honest, Sunday was an *extremely* quiet day of the con. I'd lost out on both of the pieces I'd bid on (one a picture of double Chiis and the other a picture titled "Geisha" by Tavisha) but N-chan had counter-bid and gave me the latter. WAI! Pretty picture! As Kise needed to be at the art auction to bid on a piece she wanted, she begged off of brunch, as did TSB&co, so it was only Cyn-chan, N-chan, Shi-chan and myself who went out after packing up the car. Then we got back and went through the dealer's room where I bought shitajiki and Feder and caved on a print of Nene Thomas' "Snapdragon." Went up to the art auction briefly (Kise had won her piece), said goodbye to friends I saw there, and headed out to work once again, returning afterwards to pick up Kise, N, and Shi and return home, where we watched a bit of Rockman.EXE and a bit of Kamen Rider Agito before we all crashed hard.
Woke up this morning, took Kise to train station, N to John Wayne Airport, and Shi to LAX. And fiance will be arriving on Thursday! Also discovered that an old, old story of mine has been delivered the smackdown on The Mary Sue Report (http://www.livejournal.com/community/marysues/516448.html) - I find this amusing as, yes, the piece is a MS and I admit it. Also found that someone has been mailing me asking me not to say Quatre is a girl. As I never *have*, to the best of my knowledge, I e-mailed the person back stating so and telling them to please stop writing me. Need for post-con pre-fiance breakdown seems to have vanished. Anyhow, that was my weekend, so now I'm going back to sewing.
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Date: 2003-07-08 12:13 am (UTC)replace the square brackets with the appropriate brackets