I’m back From vacation!

I have returned, safe and sound, from my much-needed vacation to the UK.

First off, let me praise the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival for being so wonderful! Not only are the staffers lovely and generous, but they were pleasant and friendly too. How often does *that* happen? So my sincere thanks to Sarah, Becky, Selene, Dani and Peter for everything. (Especially Peter for arranging a car for us to the airport! Peter, marry me, I love you.) I absolutely, definitely want to come back some time, so I’ll send you all lots of good yuri and yaoi anime. :-) Today is the last day for the LLGFF, so if you’re a London local and you haven’t made it over the to National Film Theatre – run and support the LLGFF! And while you’re there, pick up one of their really nifty T-shirts. The design is kick-ass.

The festival showed the Utena movie twice – once on Tuesday night (which I always think is the Kiss of Death to a movie showing) and we had somewhere between 150-200 people, which wasn’t that bad. Most of the generic gays and lesbians in the audience blew out of the Theatre at a run afterwards, but a few stalwarts and the scattered anime fans stuck around for a Q&A session, which I always find amusing. (The questions are always impossible to answer, ranging from “Please explain the entirety of Japanese culture and it’s relationship to what we in the West perceive as “queer” art,” to “What does the salad mean?” Okay…no one has *ever* asked me about the salad, but I’m waiting for the day when someone other than me notices it. (I’ll even give you hint – it appears during the latter part of the movie, when the car chase is just starting.)

The second showing was Wednesday evening, and to be honest, I was shocked *anyone* came at all at that hour. But it looked like 60 or so anime fans managed to drag themselves across the Thames to see it. I did the pre-movie presentation, then blew out of there, because I had a dinner date with two lovely women and was not going to be late. (Dinner was at the Bloomsbury location of wagamama and it was VERY good. I can heartily recommend it.)

Secondly, I want to look into the future for a brief moment and let you all know that this weekend I will be at Anime Boston, in the Hallway of Doom (TM) with the other con tables. I’ll be running a Yuri Panel (Saturday competing with the Cosplay) , and moderating the Academic Lecture Series (which I think are on Sunday.) I hope to see you all there! Do please visit me in the Hallway of Doom (TM), because pleasant conversation always makes a long day go faster. Neck rubs make it go even *faster* so do please feel free to give me one! ;-)

And lastly, this brings me to the “Gift” part of today’s blog. At Anime Boston, Yuricon and ALC is *officially* announcing the publication of our newest translated yuri manga, WORKS by Yuricon 2003 Guest of Honor, Eriko Tadeno. WORKS is a compilation of four short stories and a few one- and two-page gag comics, all 100% yuri, all the time. This particular book is one of my absolute favorite doujinshi I’ve ever read and I’m thrilled to be able to introduce you all to it in English.

And just think, as an added bonus, when you join the Yuricon Mailing List, you’ll get to meet other yuri fans, all of whom are very pleasant and friendly, because we insist that they be so to be on our mailing list. So, it’s a great group to chat about Yuri with!

So, it’s nice to be back and to be mostly caught up with everything, and I’ll look forward to talking at you all!