Anime Weekend Atlanta 2001 Con Report

I'd been meaning to put this up here since I went, and I only just now remembered about doing it. ^_^;; So, wihtout further ado, the report I typed up shortly after the con...

Thursday night after work, I headed over to the convention center to help Jingoro set up some stuff. I thought I'd end up helping other areas of the con, but I actually helped set up some of the anime music video room. This was all done to the tunes of other people kibitzing, Rammstein, and The Minibosses, as well as a few other bands. A friend managed to get out of the hospital--doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong--so I left earlier than I expected to meet them all for dinner at a sushi bar.

I got up Friday morning a little after 6:30, 30 minutes after when I usually try to crawl out of bed when I'm going to work. (Naturally, I took Friday off.) I got showered and procrastinated packing my bags. Korendir sent me an ICQ message saying that he'd found some good items for my character in Diablo II, so we jumped on open Battle.net and he gave me the items. From there we decided to just go ahead and get my character to finish off Act V in Nightmare difficulty, and we did. Consequently, we didn't get to leave for the con until a couple of hours after we had originally intended. (I would later learn that I really didn't miss all that much.)

After packing my bags, (which reminds me: I really need to get myself a Yakpak; they seem so much more uncumbersome than the backpack I usually keep my sketchbooks in), I headed over to Korendir's. We went down to one of the gas stations near our houses, me filling up my tank, and he stopping off at the Eckerd's arcoss the street for some valuable con-candy. After that, I took point on the back roads to the GICC, and Korendir followed. We were going to meet a guy I worked with when I worked at Be(a)st Buy, (he rented a room), but since he wasn't there--and we didn't know precisely where the hotel was--we parked in the garage of the GICC.

Inside, Kor got his badge, and we loitered in the lobby watching the costumes walk by, (particularly the good-looking female ones), and talking to a guy who helps out with Titan at some conventions. I got tired of standing around, so I decided to go up to the AMV room and say hi to Jingoro. Plus I was a little warm, and the AMV people kept that room at a crisp 3 Kelvin. (Okay, I'm exaggerating; it was probably closer to 60º Farenheit in there.) Entering the room, I discovered that it would be easier to just sit down and watch videos than to bother Jingoro, as videos were in the process of being played. Shortly after that, the hour turned and EK, an AMV editor, started talking about her videos. After that Brad DeMoss started talking about some of his. Once he was done, Kor and I went down to the dealers' room to throw away some money.

I don't remember what I initially bought, but my final booty (as in treasure, not ass) contained a metallic-type piece of Ramna 1/2 artwork, two more How To Draw Manga books, (Occult and Horror and Illustrating Battles), the latest Izumi Matsumoto artbook Graphic Anthology, a pair of cabbitts for the classroom of the girlfriend of the aforementioned hospital-friend, and something else which I shall detail later. (It wasn't a garage kit, however; I successfully made it through an anime con without buying one. I feel victolious(sic).) I also encountered some friends and some aquaintences at this jaunt through the DR.

After spending some money there, Kor and I decided to get some food. The previous night, Jingoro told me that there was a Ruby Tuesday across the street from the hotel, so we sauntered across the street to get lunch. In the process, we saw that our hotel was right behind the Ruby Tuesday. When we got in there, we had to wait a few minutes, but we eventually got a seat. Kor ordered chicken something-or-other, and I got a cajun-style salmon steak and a Jack & Coke. (It was very heavy on the Jack. ^_^ ) We took our time eating, as I had called J-san's (the guy who rented the room) house, and his mom said that he and his brother had left "over an hour ago, but they were going to stop for some food, too." I kept checking my phone to see if he had finally called to let us know that he had got the room, but there were no messages.

After eating, we sauntered over to the hotel to look around. After walking through the parking lot, I saw his brother chatting with someone who I assumed was his girlfriend. (I was right.) We chatted, and eventually J-san came out and we brought his stuff (and the alcohol) up to the room. After setting things down, I immediately headed to the air conditioner and set it at an appropriate level. We bullshitted in there for a little bit, and J-san mixed some drinks into this vile, green concoction, something that I'd expect to see in a bad Frankenstein movie. After that, he unpacked his Playstaion2 and hooked it up to the TV. We then all went back to the con, and J-san, his brother, and the girlfriend got their badges. We went back into the dealers' room and wandered for a bit. Very shortly into J-san's first circle of the dealers' room, Kor and I managed to convince him to spend upwards of $200 at one booth. (After all was said and done, I think he managed to spend $500, but I don't know if that counts the hotel room.) I thought of a great piece of artwork to do after that: a manga style of J-san, with a manga style of me and Kor on each of his shoulders, both of us wearing devil suits. "C'mon, you can spend more." "Yeah, dude. You can afford it." I got bored with that and went back up to the video room for a while. Eventually I got bored with that and tried to hook back up with the raiding party. I couldn't get a hold of Kor on his cellphone, so I stood in the hallway by the opening looking down over the registration desk. The aforementioned group of friend-and-acquaintences was standing almost directly below me, but since I wasn't looking for them, I didn't bother them. After a couple of minutes, Brother of J-san and Girl walked past below me, in the direction of the hotel. Not wanting to bother them in whatever they were going to do, I went back downstairs and into the dealers' room. (Actually, now that I think about it, this was the time that we got him to spend so much of his money.) Somewhere during this time I actually bought a haori, which, I guess, is like a Japanese suit jacket. (or, at least, the equivalent, thereof.) It is made of silk, in a fine weave, and the saleswoman said it predated WWII. I paid $75 for it, marked down from $170. (Shameless plug: here's the people I bought it from.) Once we left the dealers' room, the lounge was finally open, so we stopped in there for a quick bite. Neither Kor not I were that hungry, but J-san was. J-san got a shrimp cocktail and a white russian, Kor got a white russian, and maybe something else, and I got a piece of chocolate cake. We all got poor service.

I'm not sure where Kor went after that, but J-san and I got to the room before he did. It was impossible to see the other side of the room, as Broham and Girl must've smoked a carton of cigarettes. Fortunately, the window opened, and we were able to breathe again. Kor came back and flopped on the floor; he had a bad headache. (That's where he stopped: a vending machine. He had to get some aspirin.) Well, after that, we popped some music CDs into the PS2 and everyone but me fell asleep; J-san and Brother hadn't been to sleep since two nights previous, Girl was being a normal human, and Kor seemed sick. I wasn't tired, so I just sat there in my haori. Eventually, Girl woke up and just lay there awake, and Kor got up, went to the bathroom, and puked. (We later decided that he got some bad chicken at Ruby Tuesday.) I went downstairs with Girl as she waited for her mom to arrive and take her home; I guess she just wanted someone to chat to while she waited. Kor eventually made it downstairs and said he was feeling a lot better. Once Girl left, Kor and I headed back to the con. We hung out mostly in the AMV room, which turned out to be a Good Thing, as we eventually were entertained with the genius that was the DDR music video. A little over halfway through it, I finally realized what it reminded me of: a showing of The Rocky Horrow Picture Show. (If you weren't there, just think about what DDR is, and what the audience usually does at a RHPS showing.) With that over, and my mind made up to buy the DVD once it's made, we went back to the room to find J-san and Broham conscious. They went out to get even more food, and Kor and I watched the first DVD of DUAL. How shall I describe it? Well, it's basically the Evangelion story, just five Shadows over. After that was done and they had eaten, it was about 1 AM and we all decided to go to sleep. The brothers got the two beds, and Kor and I got a couple of un-soft sections of the floor.

Some advice, folks: always check your pockets before going to sleep. See, one of the candies we bought were Hershey's Nuggets. I had taken a bunch and kept them in my pocket to eat during the day. Unfortunately, I forgot they were in my pocket and fell asleep. Even more unfortunately, the place where I chose to sleep had me sleeping on my left side a lot, and that was the pocket in which the chocolate lay hidden. Until morning, that is, when I reached into my pocket to take all of my stuff out and found what very much resembled fecal matter all around my drawing utensils. (Fortunately, it didn't get in my checkbook.)

Saturday was mostly a blur. We mostly bummed around the dealers' room, ate, and watched shows in the video rooms. We watched the end of Harlock in one of the rooms, and stuck around for an episode of the original Gundam. I slept through that, mostly, fatigue from the night's lack of decent REM sleep catching up to me. Eventually we found our way to the preview showing of Macross. Even though I only watched a little over half of the first episode before we went to get in line for the AMV showing in the Main hall, I saw scores of differences, all of which made me want to see it more and more.

We went to wait in the line that I knew was already forming. At one point, close to when we were allowed in, some people squeezed through our line to get to the doors on the other side of it and exit the building. One of this group was an attractive chick dressed as Sailor Jupiter. To be honest, even though she was too short to be dressed as that particular senshi, her hair was right, and I couldn't help but admire the length--or lack thereof--of her skirt. ^_^;;

Eventually we got in and watched the show. I'll spare the details, mostly because I can't remember most of them, and this is getting long enough as it is. J-san and Brother had to leave for some reason before it was over, so I don't remember if I saw them any more that evening. After the AMV awards, Kor and I left, heading to our respective homes for the night.

I didn't go back on Sunday, so I don't know what J-san or Broham did, nor do I know if anyone pulled the fire alarm this year.

But it was great. This year was more fun than I'd had in a while. With any luck, next year will be just as fun.

This page last updated on Saturday, 08-Mar-2003 09:03:32 CST | webmaster @ infiniteshadow . net