Category: Events

You Had to be There: CONvergence 2016 – Day 1

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As a geek, fewer things make my heart sing more than going to a convention. Ever since my very first San Diego Comic Con back in 1996 where we got up at the crack of dawn to drive down from Orange County to San Diego just to be there for one day, I’ve always loved the feeling I get from being around my fellow geeks and nerds, talking about and enjoying a thing we all love together. I’ve covered them for amateur publications, been paid staff for some of the Wizard World conventions, worked my way towards being a senior staff member at a convention, and just plain been an attendee at a convention. I’ve seen them from all sides, and the charged up feeling of preparing for my very first day at this year’s science fiction/fantasy convention known as CONvergence here in Bloomington, Minn. is no different.

6:42 am: The first year I attended, I worked as a volunteer on the Bridge, which is the center of Operations. It didn’t take very long for me to learn the knack of their incident logging report system and my years of customer service experience helped me become pretty adept. This year, I’ve decided to work on the Bridge again, taking a four-hour shift starting at 8 am for the first three days. I’m not staying at any of the area hotels this year, but since my husband now knows how to drive a car, this means that we can attend the con independently of each other and meet up whenever we know we have panel interests that collide. I’m also getting over a cold, so I’ll be packing a lot of cough drops and refusing to shake peoples’ hands all weekend long.

I’m also going to be a panelist for two panels and moderating three more. But more on those when I come to them in my liveblog. It’s now time for me to finish up this part of my post so that I can continue getting read to drive on over and hopefully find parking.

3:45 pm: Wow, this is the first chance I’ve been able to sit down and do some proper blogging since I got here. My Bridge shift was mostly uneventful, except for the part where I took down a report related to an Emergency. I will forever bless the fact that I am a fairly quick typist, even if I’m not used to full-sized keyboards anymore. I only briefly annoyed Dispatch, which is also a good thing and I will now endeavor to remember to close my Events when they’ve been handled appropriately.

The Geeky Destinations panel at 12:30 pm was fairly cool. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but what I did come away with was a huge list of places that are cool to visit and are connected to geeky franchises and properties. There was a lot of time spent on North America and the UK, which meant that almost everywhere else got some very short shrift. One thing that I found odd about the panel is that it felt like it was heavily weighted towards the more extroverted speakers and the panelist in the middle didn’t say a lot. One of the panelists mentioned that he was very interested in going to Japan, so after the panel was over, I told him about the Japan travel blogs that Graham Stark and Kathleen De Vere are posting on the Loading Ready Run channel; not only was he already familiar with LRR through their Magic content, but he was surprised that they were doing the travelogues.

My husband brought me a burger and tater tots from Sonic, but I didn’t even have a chance to eat them because I got to my panel room early. The first panel I’m moderating for this convention was “Kids These Days,” and I think it went very, very well. Of all the panels I’m on this year, this was the one where we had the most to say in our private email thread before the panel, and I was able to use all that information in crafting our topics of discussion and figuring out what questions to ask and how to steer the conversation. We even were able to touch on a huge topic that got contentious regarding how some folks have felt that “fandom has gone too far” and I was able to give that topic the amount of space that I knew the other panelists wanted to have for it. We went a little bit over time, but I don’t think it was too bad.

10:12 pm: So much has happened since I last sat down to blog! The first thing I did was to stop back off at the Bridge to get my Volunteer card signed so that I could get credited for all the time I spent in the morning, then to the Programming room to get my one panel hour credit as well. If all goes well and I continue to be at all of my shifts and all of my panels, I will have accrued at least 17 volunteer hours by the end of the convention. It’s not the most amount of time I’ve volunteered at a convention, but it’s definitely more than I’ve done in recent memory. It feels good to help out a geek-themed event again.

After that, I dipped into a panel on crowdfunding which I found very helpful and useful. My only experiences thus far on the production end of a Kickstarter was when I helped produce backer rewards for the first “new” Smut Peddler graphic novel (in which I also contributed a story). The panelists (whose names I didn’t immediately get because I was late to the panel) had a lot of great words of wisdom and between them had successfully (and unsuccessfully) used platforms like Kickstarter, Patreon, IndieGogo and more to fund their creative endeavors. The most important piece of advice I think I learned is that specific platforms are designed for very specific types of things, but the most important question you’ve got to ask yourself is: Do I have an audience for this at all? After the panel, I went up to speak to panelist and author Chrysoula Tzavelas about my plans to create a book of my own work first and then use the funds I get from that to help launch my publishing imprint, and she sounded very encouraging. I’m going to talk at her so much after this convention is over.

After that panel was over, I found my husband standing near a gentleman who looked familiar and it turned out that it was one of my co-panelists from last year, at the “Surviving Minnesota Nice” panel. The reason why my husband recognized him was that he was one of his mother’s students when she taught instrument at Carleton College. We caught up briefly, and then we started to have a wide-ranging conversation about mashup and pastiche culture and how (to him at least) there didn’t seem to be anything new to be super-excited about. We got a lot of nuggets of conversation out of that, and in the end I think we all agreed that whether or not someone could find something new and interesting depended on a lot of things, the least of them including whether or not the person had the time to go out and seek new things. Also, not having the inclination and not being open to new things is actually two very different things. While my husband went off to attend a panel, I waited in line for the Opening Ceremonies seating and started up a conversation with my co-panelist’s friends about how hard it is as a non-Minnesotan to deal with “Minnesota Nice” in your everyday life. Before we knew it, it was time to find our seats for the show.

The Opening Ceremony at CONvergence is definitely a hit-and-miss type of show. The “miss” part comes from me being a newer attendee to this convention and even after three years, I still haven’t cottoned on to all the convention’s memes and in-jokes. There were also the regular bits of technical difficulties that can screw up a show, like accidentally showing the same pre-recorded bit twice with “friend of the show” Robert Cargill as a “Wacky Races”-style announcer. The parts which were a hit with me and the audience was the Cabin in the Woods parody for the opening skit, the pre-show announcements, and most of Paul Cornell’s emcee bit, which included a lot of Brexit jokes. I really have no idea how a British sci-fi and comics author became so beloved at a Minneapolis convention, but I’m sure there’s a pretty good story in that. As an additional bit of excellence, there was closed captioning showing on the video screens, which I think is a new thing for them this year.

Shortly after was the Fancy Bastard Pie Competition, which was Fan Guest of Honor Greg Weisman’s idea and basically an excuse for him to sample all sorts of wonderful, homemade pies and share the rest with the audience. The winner of the competition was a woman who had baked a berry-something pie and her prize was for her to get to ask him about a spoiler for any series in which he’s had a hand in creating, but if she ever told anyone else what the spoiler was, he’d not do the competition anymore. After he finished telling her the spoiler far away from where the pie was being dished out, I got a chance to speak to him about the panel I’ll be moderating tomorrow (“Why Diversity Needs to be Deeper Than Marketing,” 8:30 pm in Doubletree Edina, be there!). But what I really wanted to talk to him about was how he agreed to be the “test pilot” for the new program this year where the funds to pay for his attendance at the convention were crowdfunded by the convention attendees. Weisman stated several times that if almost any other convention had asked him to be a part of this test program, he probably would have turned them down. For him, a lot of it had to do with the fact that he has attended CONvergence before and he knows what to expect of both the fans and the con staff and how they will treat him. To further emphasize this point, he stated that because he knows he will be well-cared for at CONvergence, it is also one of the few conventions where he will not ask for a per diem. He also doesn’t know if a program like this would work at any other convention, largely due to the this very specific convention space and the crowd it tends to attract. Based on the enthusiastic crowd response during his bit at Opening Ceremony, I think I’m definitely more excited to see whom they’ll attempt this with next.

Anyhow, unless something truly amazing happens at the live music circle that’s going to start in about a half an hour, I think I’m going to close this live-blog for today. See y’all on Day 2!

Geekly Speaking About… Planning an Intervention

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Words of wisdom from con runner Onezumi Hartstein. © Onezumi Events, Reimagined by Geeking Out About
Words of wisdom from con runner Onezumi Hartstein. © Onezumi Events, Reimagined by Geeking Out About

As a newbie geek, a major event you learn about is the genre convention. When I started out, I thought it pretty amazing there was a gathering where you could leave your home and go to geek out with your friends or make new ones while enjoying the thing you loved.

The more I went to conventions as a journalist—first for Sequential Tart and then Anime Insider—the more I became interested in how they were run. It wasn’t long before I was volunteering first in the publications department, then later becoming a senior staffer in the guest relations departments of some East Coast anime conventions.

I’ve since returned to my roots as an attendee, but after being a panelist for six panels(!) at the recent CONvergence in Minneapolis, MN, I started to wonder: What’s it really like to be on the planning committee of a genre convention? What changes have taken place while I was “away?”

I asked Intervention Convention’s founder Onezumi Hartstein and its social media manager (and former Geeking Out About contributor) Kara Dennison to chat with me over Skype about what it takes to run a pan-fandom convention in the 21st century.

Secret Origins of a Convention Runner

As the three of us knew each other from the East Coast anime convention scene, I had an idea that going to genre conventions was a huge part of their lives, but I didn’t realize how much of an influence it was.

Dennison first started attending local sci-fi conventions and then later branched out to anime cons with the William and Mary Anime Society club in 2000. She said, “I sort of fell into staffing, as you do,” and starting with stints with the karaoke and cosplay masquerade departments, Dennison thinks she’s been involved in every major department of an anime or sci-fi con which doesn’t involve A/V or other tech.

Hartstein’s first conventions were sci-fi cons, comic book conventions (for which she cosplayed and won first prize), and a Xena: Warrior Princess ‘zine fest. That was her first experience as a staff member at a convention. Her later staffing experiences came in 2006 when she became the head of the webcomic guests branch of Guest Relations for Katsucon. “I entered staffing as a department head. I didn’t do any of the lower-level [jobs like] security, gophering, badge-checking,” she said.

And what have they learned as a result of being both convention attendees and staffers?

“[A] big thing I learned is that one should staff for a lot of conventions in the same region,” Dennison said. “A lot of cons will have the same staff in different positions. I’ve worked with the same people at Anime Mid Atlantic as I’ve worked with at Katsucon and Nekocon. I’ve worked with the same people at Marscon as I’ve worked with at Raven Con. The cons don’t have to be literally connected to share the same staff and the big thing I’ve learned is that [how] to ‘swap out the captain’s chair’,” she added, laughing.

Hartstein takes a different approach to convention staffing. “For me, I think staffing cons was the key to getting my career [to] where it is today because I actually learned how to approach my business relationships as a collaboration after I started staffing,” she said. “I tell every artist—and a lot of them don’t listen to me—to staff a con at least once [so they can] understand what the staff is going through. Some exhibitors and artists can be unrealistically demanding to the point where it’s ridiculous and they don’t realize they’re being that way. [Things like] blaming the con for their failings [when] they haven’t even done the first step in it, where they have to at least participate in the collaboration. That really gets on my nerves.”

When asked to elaborate on what “participating in the collaboration” means to her, Hartstein explained by email:

When an artist doesn’t promote their appearance in advance and isn’t interested in actually participating with the convention’s programming their weekend at any con will suffer. The best way to increase sales and increase visibility for your brand is to leverage your current fans and followers in concert with the convention opportunity. It’s a clear win/win. You help the con and the con is helping you in return. The reason I’ve been able to land some high-paying and high-visibility opportunities is because when I exhibit at an event I make sure to tell my readers that I will be there and ask that they join me. Then I have multiple people at the con talking about me from the beginning and that in turn gets me more new people.

It’s even better if I can participate in any panels. Those immediately showcase the panelists as experts. The way I approach this also makes me more desirable as a paid guest speaker because every event knows that I am looking out for them just as much as I am looking out for myself. I bring as many people as I can in the door and they do their best to run an event that will allow me to show my work.

This may all seem like basic stuff, but I often hear artists get nasty and demanding toward conventions while simultaneously bringing nothing to the table and not wanting to participate in anything. I’ve worked both sides. I’ve been an exhibiting artist for over 10 years and a con runner for almost that many years. I am well aware of how it feels to be an artist trying to be seen. I am also aware of how it feels to be a con staffer who has suffered greatly to make an event run well [only] to get crapped on by an artist who didn’t promote their [own] appearance — yet somehow in their mind it’s not their fault but the event’s fault.

I freely admit I was one of these people back in the day before I realized how horrendous I was being. I am glad I realized it and stopped before it ruined my career. Artists should be treated with respect, but on the flip side, con runners are not that different from artists. They are making something difficult on a small budget for free. They shouldn’t be disrespected either.

A lot goes into running an event, so usually what you are seeing on the surface has a larger story. It’s really uneducated to blame someone without knowing everything that happened. For example, perhaps they were late setting the tables up. That doesn’t mean they are awful people or bad at their jobs. It could mean that someone’s mom was rushed to the hospital right when setup was to start, and now you are yelling at that same person who rushed back from the hospital in order to make sure the artists were taken care of.

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You Had to Be There: “An Evening with Patrick Rothfuss and Paul & Storm” in St. Paul, Minneapolis

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Rothfuss-PaulandStorm

An Evening with Patrick Rothfuss and Paul & Storm

November 14, 2013
Amsterdam Bar and Hall
Saint Paul, MN
Performed by Patrick Rothfuss, Paul and Storm

When we moved to Minnesota this year, my husband and I made a deal with each other: If there was a live event that sounded interesting and the ticket price was reasonable, we’d try to go. After all, what better way is there to learn how to navigate your new metro area than attending great shows in great venues?

Both individually and together, we’ve seen musical comedy duo Paul and Storm perform many times, and they always put on a good show. Money’s been a little problematic for us recently, though, so I made a decree that if we were going to see them perform again, there would have to be a real good and compelling reason. So when we learned that the next leg of their shows would not only swing through the Midwest but also bring fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss along for the ride, we snapped up the tickets quicker than you could say, “When’s Book Three coming out?”

This is not because we’re particularly strong Rothfuss fans. In fact, until that night, we’d never bought any of his books before. However, judging from the set that he did at w00tstock 5.0 this year, I knew that I’d love to hear what Rothfuss could do with a smaller audience and whether or not he’d be reading snippets from the new book. (A person can always dream!)

Suffice to say, neither my husband nor I were disappointed.

The show was at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall in St. Paul and if you’re driving, I have to strongly urge you to take the B stairs or elevator down from the ramp to street level. When you exit the elevator vestibule, the “red doors” of the Bar and Hall will be directly in front of you and you can go right inside. Getting our Will Call tickets at the box office was painless, and once we had our wristbands showing that we were old enough to drink, we sauntered inside.

For this show, seating was ample and came in two varieties: many rows of chairs for those who had already eaten and wanted to sit closer to the stage, tables and chairs for those people who hadn’t and were okay sitting further back. Because we liked the look of the bar menu, we chose to sit near the back and eat before the show started at 7:00 pm. The food was Dutch-themed “pub grub” and went down easily with our drinks, all of which were reasonably priced. In fact, my husband liked the look of the cocktail menu so much that he had a second drink after his first stout, something he normally doesn’t do. The service was quick, our waitress was friendly, and the food was pretty delicious. We were able to finish everything, including dessert, before the show started.

Paul and Storm performed first, starting with “Opening Band,” a song which they will probably be performing first at every show they do for the rest of their lives. The rest of the set list consisted of a mix of old songs and new songs, the latter of which will be appearing on their next album Ball Pit, for which their Kickstarter campaign was recently approved and already funded more than twice over after only about a week. Of these, I believe I liked and laughed at “Right Here With You” the most due to the chorus. Between songs, they did a quick poll of the audience to see who among them had seen their act before, and very many people in the audience had not. This meant that their older songs got a lot of wonderful and healthy reactions; this further intensified my enjoyment of hearing them played live again because I could enjoy hearing other people react to things I’ve already heard several times before. And since Paul and Storm had already identified that the crowd was mostly here to see Rothfuss and were more book nerds than musical comedy nerds, “Write Like the Wind” (link is to the official music video) was a great big hit and was perhaps funnier than the last time I’d heard it live.

Since another show was going to be taking place right after theirs and the concert staff needed to re-purpose the space, there was no intermission between Paul and Storm’s set and Patrick Rothfuss’; the performers acknowledged it by stating that if anyone needed to get up to use the bathroom, they wouldn’t point and laugh. I chose to make my break during “Nun Fight,” and I’m totally okay with my choice because Paul and Storm’s introduction to the song wasn’t as luxurious as it has been in other shows I’ve seen of theirs. This was probably the biggest drawback to the show, but probably something they couldn’t have avoided unless they could have started the show earlier. The closing number was “Irish Drinking Song,” not to be confused with “Another Irish Drinking Song,” the Da Vinci’s Notebook track which was featured on in the movie Despicable Me 2. With this number, I suspect that they may be trying to create another “Captain’s Wife’s Lament”-style experience with which they can end their shows. Where I was sitting in the audience, I couldn’t tell if many people were singing along with the chorus; perhaps this song would have played better with a different crowd or maybe I was just sitting too far back.

Paul and Storm then introduced Patrick Rothfuss, who kicked off his set by explaining first the story behind a very non-children’s book-style book he wrote called “The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed” and then reading it aloud while the illustrations were projected onto a screen. Since I’d seen him perform this during his w00tstock 5.0 set, I relished in the fact that I knew what was coming and my husband and some of the audience members didn’t; this made the progress through all three endings and the coda all that much more delicious. Rothfuss followed this reading by reading out loud some old advice columns he had written for his college paper, both of which went over well and had me doubled over in laughter.

He also took some questions from the audience towards the end of his set. It was perhaps this last bit that went over the least successfully with the crowd as the questions from the audience couldn’t be heard by anyone in the back and Rothfuss didn’t repeat the question for the rest of the audience before answering it. This could have been avoided by having a volunteer merch minion take one of the stage microphones and stand in the audience near the front of the stage so that people could line up and ask questions convention-panel time; then again perhaps there weren’t enough monitors on the stage available for Rothfuss to be able to hear questions being asked through a microphone.

Perhaps the most personal Rothfuss became during the Q & A was also my favorite moment. An audience member asked a question, to which his answer was something like, “Yes, thank you, my therapy sessions are going very well.” Rothfuss went on to explain that after achieving success with his first novel The Name of the Wind, the amount of stress and pressure in his life to continue to succeed and support the charity he founded and the people who work for him almost ruined his relationship with his long-time partner and other friends. He explained that being a Midwesterner, the idea of even going to therapy was antithetical to him as he came from generations of farmers who are used to fixing all of their own problems by themselves; the idea of getting professional help for your feelings was something he resisted for a very long time. However, once he understood the need for it, Rothfuss was able to see why learning about how his brain processed his feelings was important and that the year or so he’s had of therapy has really helped him. This was something I could relate to a lot, having gone through several years of therapy myself; I hope more people (ahem, Mike Krahulik) can take his words to heart.

Listening to Rothfus speak, I could tell that he was a great storyteller, but he’s got a long way and many more public appearances to go before his “patter” becomes as polished as someone like John Scalzi’s or John Green’s. There were times where he meandered and dithered while deciding which of the old advice columns he was going to read or how he was going to transition from one section of his set to the other. At the same time, his introduction of the Princess story was flawless and he answered all of the audience questions with ease and humor. The more public appearances like this he does, the more comfortable he’ll become with being a performer as well as an author and thus will be able to win over audiences members like me who may have heard of him but have not yet read his work.

Finally at 9:00 pm, it was time for the show closer, “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament,” which Paul and Storm have elevated from being just a simple innuendo-filled sea shanty to being the kind of long-form improv bit that Frank Sinatra only wishes he’d been able to command during the “Rat Pack in Las Vegas” days. Earlier in the show, Rothfuss joked about how proud he was to have been able to play the “X is my Y cover band” game twice during his own set; during “Lament” and with the aid of a beer he drank rapidly, Rothfuss was able to hold his own against Paul and Storm’s constant barrage of puns and jokes. Again, due to the time limit on the set, the short song only lasted 15 minutes, after which there was a healthy bit of applause and everyone ran to the merch booth to buy stuff.

After taking the last bit of cash out of the ATM—thus depriving other show attendees from being able to purchase any of Rothfuss’ merchandise, the proceeds of which were going to Heifer International via his charity Worldbuilders—my husband and I lined up with our two Princess books to be signed. The line formed very quickly and was very orderly, and judging from how long it took each item to be signed, Rothfuss took his time with each fan and even took a picture or two with some fans. As we waited in line, I noticed Paul and Storm at a nearby table chatting with each other or looking around the room or on their phones with no fans around; that’s when it really hit home how much of a Patrick Rothfuss show this was rather than a Paul and Storm show.

After talking to Rothfuss and asking my question, my husband and I went over to talk to Storm to thank him for coming to Minnesota at this cold time of year and to gush about JoCo Cruise Crazy 4, which will be our honeymoon trip next year. Storm’s face lit up when he learned this and we had a great little conversation about what goes into planning a cruise, how they decide what the entertainment will be this year compared to the previous years, how understanding the cruise line has been about the group’s request for a ball pit. This is probably what I like the most about going to see a geek-adjacent live performance: the performers are generally never standoffish and almost always remember that they used to be “regular” geeks as well and treat their fans accordingly.

According to a recent interview, they stated that their next scheduled appearance will at JCCC4 in 2014; the rest of their energies will be put towards finishing up Ball Pit, managing the Kickstarter rewards and JCCC4, and gearing up to tour the nation and promote the album with an ice cream and guacamole food truck in accordance with their biggest stretch goal. I don’t know with whom they’ll be performing or when they’ll be coming back to Minnesota, but you can betcha that I’ll be there.

With or without chips for the guacamole.

Geekly Speaking About… Cameras, Cosplayers, and Consent

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Even though it’s been a long time since I went to an anime convention, I remember how exciting and how much fun they are to attend. I also remember how much drama can surround an anime convention, especially when it comes to cosplayers and the people who like to take pictures of them. The topic of today’s podcast surrounds the dealer’s room at the recently concluded AnimeNEXT convention in Somerset, New Jersey, and one dealer in particular who decided that the next innovation in images on body pillows should be actual human cosplayers. Read along with us using the links below, and then listen to the podcast to untangle the legal issues involved.

In short, this kind of incident could have been easily avoided by all 93 of the cosplayers if they’d just read the agreement carefully, questioned its provisions, and/or refused to sign. That’s why the “Contractual Obligations” episode of “Strip Search” has been the most important one, and the one that all creative fans need to watch.

Here’s hoping everyone involved has learned a valuable lesson.

Live-blogging the Oscars 2012

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It’s that time, again—time to honor the “best” or perhaps the “most well-marketed to Academy voters” movies from the previous year with the 84th annual Academy Awards ceremony. Once again, Lyssa Spero (@CinemaGoddess on Twitter) and I (@trishalynn) will be your hosts for this live blog, with perhaps a few more of the GeekingOutAbout writers will be chiming in.

And now, let’s get on with the show!

[liveblog]

Trisha’s Take: D20 Burlesque’s A Night of Role Playing (Games) review

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D20 Burlesque’s A Night of Role Playing (Games)

Produced by Anja Keister
Hosted by Neil O’Fortune
Starring Anja Keister, B.B. Heart, Dangrrr Doll, Hazel Honeysuckle, Lily Stitches, and featuring Luna Chase
Raffle prizes sponsored by The Compleat Strategist
Friday, March 25 at 11:30 pm

[Editor’s note: Apologies in advance for the blurry photography, which may not be safe for work. -TL]

My introduction to burlesque began with my viewing of the 1993 Bette Midler TV musical production of Gypsy which featured Cynthia Gibb as the eponymous Gypsy Rose Lee. It was a musical I’d only ever heard about but had never seen, and Bob Mackie’s fanciful costuming of the three featured burlesque performers in the second half of the show along with Gypsy’s own beautiful tear-away gowns made me want to find out more.

However, the very first live burlesque show I ever witnessed was at the 2008 MangaNEXT convention where I first heard about not just the neo-burlesque movement, but also the idea that there was a geek version of it as well. The troupe called itself Cosplay Burlesque, and I’d later learn that some of the dancers there were also a part of another group called the White Elephant Burlesque Society.

The idea stayed with me for quite some time, and so when D20 producer Anja Kiester asked the members of a New York City-themed LiveJournal group I’m in if there would be interest in an RPG-themed show, I bought my tickets as soon as I got my next paycheck.

The show was to be held at the Parkside Lounge on the Lower East Side, a part of town in which I only find myself when Lyssa Spero calls for a midnight screening of a classic (or geeky) movie at the Landmark Sunshine. Since the curtain time was for 11:30 pm on a Friday night, I expected that the place would be packed, and indeed it was. We found the back room well enough, but since we arrived at 10:30 pm, we ended up crashing a street hockey’s season opening party.

But that was okay, because just before the league commissioner started in on his opening remarks, they brought on comedian Rob Gorden. His act was short and sweet, opening with an “on the fly” bit about being dropped from one team and scrambling to find another, but seamlessly segueing into his more polished bits on what it means to be a New Yorker and how fun (or not fun) it can be to ride the subway. (At this time, I would like to thank Chris Hardwick, Matt Mira, Jonah Ray and their Nerdist podcasts for making it easier for me to sound like I know what I’m talking about when I speak to a comedian after his or her set ends.)

Once their party was over, the room had to be cleared and the tables and chairs re-set, so my companion and I moved out into the small foyer where a line for the burlesque show had already formed. It was really very interesting to note that compared to the previous group of people who were mostly somewhat fit and wore trendy clothes, the group of people waiting for this show had more eye glasses and had significantly less women in it.

I can’t remember whether or not the show started on time, but I can tell you that the warm up act was a go-go/kitten dancer named Luna Chase who was dressed in a black and white bra, black panties, white thigh highs, tall black shoes, a pair of white feathery wings… and elf ears. I have no idea what kind of RPG character she was supposed to be, but I can tell you that on her character sheet, she forgot to buy a level in the Interpreting Music skill. She danced before the show started and also during the intermission for tips that you could pop into her thigh highs, and I gotta tell you that even though I did have one dollar in my wallet, I didn’t leave my chair once to tip.

Neil O’Fortune was the host and emcee for the evening, and he did a fantastic job. He was funny, his prepared speeches about the characters and performers were entertaining, and he was wonderfully engaging with the crowd. There were some times in which he said that he wasn’t familiar with the source material, and for him to admit that he wasn’t as geeky as the girls who had chosen to costume as those characters was pretty bold in a crowd of part-gaming geeks and part-burlesque geeks.

One interesting bit he did in the second half of the show was to read from what he called a “Pick a Plot” book (I’m assuming he didn’t say Choose Your Own Adventure because I hear those folks are awfully litigious) and have the three volunteers he chose from the audience decide what how the party was going to explore the dungeon. As he narrated the party’s eventual doom, he expounded on the great rules of role play gaming, pounding it in twice that as per Gary Gygax, if you choose the safe option, the GM has a right to punish you for that. It’s a bit that could only work for this specific audience and it killed. The last person standing got a copy of the re-released Dungeons and Dragons red box set, and I really wanted to be that person at that time.

As for the dancers, my favorite performances were by B.B. Heart and Anja Keister. The former only danced once, but what a dance! She came out dressed as the classic Max Schreck/Nosferatu from the 1922 German movie and moved to bite an audience member’s neck, but as the strains of “One” from A Chorus Line began, she was moved to dance and strip, first opening her coat to reveal a men’s dress shirt, suspenders, and slacks, and then underneath that, a glittering red bra, and no underwear, to…. Well, when she finally turned around for the final reveal, the design on the pastie she had covering her pelvis had to be seen to be believed.

Anja Keister danced twice, the first time as a gigantic d20 (really, a d18 because as she wrote in her recap of the evening, she had to remove two panels in order to be able to put it on) and the second as a 1920s adventurer caught in a Call of C’thulu campaign. In the latter, as the dance neared its climax, she appeared more and more crazed and unstable until she finally removed her waist cincher and bra to reveal that she was being guided by a mini-version of the Great Noodley One all along. What I loved about both Heart’s and Keister’s performances was that the dancers really emoted well throughout each piece, really understood their characters in each dance, and made every musical flourish count when it came to revealing more of themselves.

Kudos also go to Hazel Honeysuckle, who performed as Sheila the Thief from the old “Dungeons and Dragons” cartoon. Dancing to Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” as part of her act Luna Chase held up an oversized character sheet which detailed her stats, right down and including her reveal of a +5 mithril bikini. However, my favorite part of the dance was when she revealed her tasseled pasties and twirled them, because that’s a definite skill that not all dancers have.

My least favorite act was the last one because there was a lot of floor work between dancer Dangrrr Doll and Luna Chase, and because of my seated angle, I could barely see what was going on. Lord knows what the folks standing in the back of the room thought. Neil O’Fortune’s intro didn’t reveal who the character was, and it was entirely lost on me why this character would disembowel Chase and use her heart and entrails to make mini-cup cakes. There seemed to be too much prop work, not enough dancing and/or stripping, and while the cupcake reveal was cute, again, the motivation just wasn’t there. Later, as I was getting clarification for this article, Keister revealed that the character was supposed to be a barbarian, whereas I initially thought “vampire baker.” Oh well, I guess you can’t win them all.

As Anja Keister wrote in her blog on March 7, this show was the very first that she produced on her own, and I’d say that she struck gold with it. Nerdy burlesque (or “nerdlesque,” as she calls it) is a rare sight in the burlesque world and knowing that not only do they have a board gaming themed show going on next month on April 22, but they were able to book a gig in May as well is a testament to her dedication to seeing the art form thrive.

UPDATED: Thanks to Ping Stanton for a Flickr set of images, taken from a different angle!

Anime convention to send condolences to surviving members of Satoshi Kon’s family

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One of the things I love about the Otakon anime convention is that the people who run it not only have a great love of the medium, they care about people in the industry as well. After director Satoshi Kon’s passing two months ago, the members of the non-profit responsible for running the Baltimore, Md. convention decided to do something for the family members and colleagues he left behind.

“There was such an outpouring of shock when he died, and so many fans expressed appreciation and gratitude—we wanted some way to let his family see, firsthand, how much of an impact Kon had,” wrote former con chair and current Otakorp. member-at-large Jim Vowles in a post to the Anime Cons ML.

Fans can visit the website (located at http://www.otakon.com/satoshikonfarewell.asp) and they can either send a message to a Gmail account that has been set up for this purpose, send a letter or condolences card to a U.S. physical address, donate money to an accredited charity which helps fight life-threatening cancers—or most importantly, purchase DVDs of works by Satoshi Kon.

From the website:

First, strong sales may increase the likelihood that Kon’s final project [The Dream Machine] will be completed. Second, like most in the animation industry, Satoshi Kon was not a wealthy man, but unlike many, he held some intellectual property that he hoped would continue to provide for his family after his death.

Me, I’m up for purchasing Perfect Blue when payday hits on Saturday, and I urge you to pick something out as well.

Trisha’s Take: How to get the most out of one day at a convention, part 1

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Approximately 10 years ago, I used to go to a lot of conventions, like the San Diego Comic Con (aka “Nerd Prom”) and Anime Expo. In fact, in 2001, I think I went to six different conventions on two different U.S. coasts.

My most traveled year was 2003 when I was working for the now-defunct Anime Insider as an associate editor and went to the Wizard World conventions in Chicago, Arlington (Texas), and Philadelphia; my busiest year was when I was an assistant editor for Sequential Tart and covered Anime Expo all by myself.

Being such an old hat at attending conventions, I knew what my preparations would be when I made the decision to attend only one day out of three for the New York Comic Con/New York Anime Fest mega-con which was held on October 8 through October 10 at the Javitz Center:

Make sure you have your badge and that your new digital voice recorder and your cell phone has a full battery.

Eat at least once in the middle of the day.

Stay hydrated.

Sit down if and when you need to do so.

One of the nifty things that Reed Expositions did for everyone who doesn’t have an iPhone or an Android phone to download their apps was to not only post their schedule online, but for the “cost” of signing in with your email address, you could create your own schedule of panel events and save them to your Microsoft Outlook calendar. Because my work Outlook calendar is synched up with my Windows Moblie phone, I did just that, and was able to cherry-pick the panels I wanted to attend. It was difficult to make choices, but in the end, I ended up choosing a few things that were different enough in scope to be interesting to me but familiar enough to where I’d be able to hang out with old friends.

Because I’m a wuss, after exiting the subway at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue, I hailed a cab and paid $5 plus tip to get to the Javitz on Eleventh Avenue, which was closed to cabs dropping people off. My cabbie had to make an illegal U-turn and dropped me off outside the concrete barricades. All during the trip, he kept asking me about why so many people were going there, so I helpfully explained.

Unlike our esteemed gaming expert Adrienne Ryan, I had been to the Javitz for a previous NYCC and NYAF and so finding the press room wasn’t that difficult for me. I would find out later that they were charging something like $5.95 an hour for wifi access in the press room, where several people were already camped out with laptops and a few more were conducting interviews.

Had I more time, I probably would have investigated the press options more, but I was running late to the first panel on my schedule. As I walked towards the room, I saw voice actor/director Mike Sinterniklaas (Dean Venture of “The Venture Bros.”, Leonard from “TMNT”) chatting with a cosplayer. I gave him a hug and helped him by holding his smoothie and Danish while he got her contact information, for she wanted some more information about voice acting for his studio. Just as we were chatting, Rachel Lillis, another voice actor appeared and I walked with them to the panel room.

The title of the panel was “East Meets West” but as more American voice actors appeared (including Stephanie Sheh and Tom Wayland), they started to wonder if they were supposed to be on the panel or if it was a panel for Japanese voice actor Minori Chihara and maybe only one or two other people, for there were only three microphones on stage. Sinterniklaas volunteered to be the group’s spokesperson and after a quick conversation with the staff, another table and three more microphones came out. I was only able to stay for the first half of the panel, but one of the things I was glad to learn was that when Chihara-san records her audition tapes at home, she uses an Sony IC Digital Voice Recorder, just like the one I just bought in preparation for this weekend.

As I made my way through NYAF’s Artist Alley/panels area/Maid Cafe-and-stage, I remarked that the average age of the attendees seemed to be college-aged. For the most part, they were very rambunctious and giddy, and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to linger to find out how the artists were faring in the basement. I also ran into Japanator editor Brad Rice, who took great pains to explain to everyone who asked that no, he wasn’t cosplaying as Harry Potter, thankyouverymuch.

Upstairs, I wandered through the Autograph area section, waving hello to some friends staffing the Otakon booth as well as Eisner-award winning editor Adam P. Knave (Popgun) and Attila Adorjany, two friends who joined forces to form Voltron purchase some booth space in the small press area. They were located next to Chris Hastings (The Adventures of Dr. McNinja). I would find out later on that the ended up co-opting booth space from Flaming Carrot creator Bob Burden, who himself traded up to a corner booth in the Alley and then later on Sunday would move into the larger Exhibit Hall on the north side, proving that even in the comic book trade it’s all about “location, location, location!”

Just beyond that was the comics Artist Alley section, and I was on a mission to find Finder creator Carla Speed McNeil, because in addition to being one of my favorite artists ever, she’s also a real good friend whom I hadn’t seen in about five years. My plan was to hang out with her at her booth for a while to tease her about “selling out” to Dark Horse… except, I had no idea how to find her.

This was a problem earlier on the NYCC website, where when you clicked on an Artist Alley name and a large graphic of their came up, but no biographical information or location information. However, I thought by the time the show came around, there’s be some information in the program book, but no dice. I would find out later on that there was one sign in the Artist Alley area that had a list of creators and their booth numbers. Not good, Reed. Not good.

Instead, I decided to wander the AA to see who else had shown up that I knew and remembered from my comics-peddling days and ran into Kevin Bolk from Interrobang Studios, who had no idea that Kara Dennison had written about him for this very website. As I wandered about, trying to find Speed McNeil, I found children’s book author and illustrator Nick Bell who was giving out free mini-buttons which read “i am great” to promote his new book Brian the Great and his existing book Mary the Tooth Fairy.

Listen to the interview with Nick Bell

Ever since I became the aunt to two very adorable nieces, I’ve become fascinated with the idea of finding children’s books which are smart and encourage young girls to grow up to become strong women. Since I had it on me at the time, I decided to do a quickie interview with Bell on my new recorder, and the results will go up in a few days.

A person could spend hours wandering the AA, but I couldn’t linger, for I had to get over to the north end of the convention hall to attend the only panel to whose press release I responded favorably.

To be continued…

Save the Date: Male thespians take famous Streep roles to the stage

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Streep_PradaIf you live in L.A. and aren’t doing anything on Saturday, September 5, I’ve found a way for you to indulge your inner Meryl Streep fanatic while going to the theater at the same time.

All you have to do is head over to bang.studio and check out “Streep Tease” an evening of monologues by Meryl Streep as delivered by men.

As noted in Variety, the eight performers—Roy Cruz (also the show’s producer) Taylor Negron, Sam Pancake, Steve Hasley, David Dean Bottrell, Eddie Sanchez, Mike Rose and Trent Walker—are putting on the show because not only do they love the Academy Award-winning actress’s work, they’re also honoring the directors and writers who worked with her.

The best part of all is that even if you don’t live in California, you can still check out the performance that starts at 8:00 pm Pacific via the show’s webcam and chat room.

Desert Bus for Hope 2 drives onto the Internet…for the children!

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desertbus4hopeOne of the best things about having a blog is that you can talk about things that may sometimes only be tangentially-related to the blog’s topic.

Today, I’d like to talk about Desert Bus for Hope, a video gaming marathon for the Child’s Play charity, which was started by the guys at Penny Arcade, who are a webcomic just like Multiplex, which was started by Gordon who is my boss.

Desert Bus is the most boring video game ever (here are the Wikipedia details):

The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45mph, a feat that would take the player 8 hours of continuous play to complete, as the game cannot be paused.

The bus contains no passengers, and there is no scenery or other cars on the road. The bus veers to the right slightly; as a result, it is impossible to tape down a button to go do something else and have the game end properly. If the bus veers off the road it will stall and be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, they will score exactly one point. The player then gets the option to make the return trip to Tucson—for another point (a decision they must make in a few seconds or the game ends). Players may continue to make trips and score points as long as their endurance holds out. Some players who have completed the trip have also noted that, although the scenery never changes, a bug splats on the windscreen about five hours through the first trip, and on the return trip the light does fade, with differences at dusk, and later a pitch black road where the player is guided only with headlights.

Last year, the gang at Loading Ready Run who create short comedic skits on a weekly basis decided that they would play this never-released video game non-stop in exchange donations to be sent to Child’s Play, on an exponential basis. In other words, the more people donated, the longer they would have to keep playing. The gang only expected to get $5,000 or so at the most; the final tally last year was $22,805 after 3 days of 24-hour busing that was also streamed live.

This year, they’ve beaten their old record and as of this typing have earned $24,053 over 2 days and 11 hours, have had actor Wil Wheaton call in, will have Felicia Day and Sandeep Parikh from The Guild call in later today, and one of the core cast members from LRR will shave off his trademark beard. All for the children!

So check out their site, watch the cams, donate some money, and enjoy the schadenfreude. They’ve already got me for $25 so far, and I may just end up donating my entire blogging paycheck this month if they keep going.

For the children!