The Elevator to Nowhere

May 14th, 2007

Day Three of Chicago. We decided to trade in sitting on public transportation for sitting in traffic, which was a pale imitation of the unspeakable horror that is the traffic going into NYC on any given moment. In other words, it was fine.

We found the Art Institute and it was, as my wife had said, wonderful. I’m only sorry I won’t be able to go back and see the rest. I did see Wood’s American Gothic and was suitably impressed. If I have learned anything at all, it’s that reproductions simply do not ever capture the true qualities of a painting.

But that was not what really made the day. What really made the day was that, when we parked, there was an elevator to go up to street level – which was visible through the elevator. The stairs to street level numbered exactly four. I can’t really begin to describe how funny this looked. (Obviously, it was for wheelchairs, and the elevator did go down to the other floors, but from where we were, it just looked hilarious.) On the way back, Bruce and wifey took the elevator down, all two and a half feet, and left us all gasping for breath, because, as I said, it just looked funny.

We saw Nabeshin at the museum. We didn’t bother him. Donna smiled a little like, “Oh, I know you” and that was it. She still felt that she might have creeped him out a bit.

After walking ourselves ragged looking at some really exceptional art, we went to a Tapas restaurant in Lincoln Park (an inutterably yuppie area.) The food was stellar and our waitress totally GOT our humor and did a great job.

It doesn’t sound like we did much, really, but it took all day to do it and we were really tired when we finished!

Today we do Chinatown and then, when I come back, maybe you’ll get a review – after I finish the book I’m reading. :-)

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Anime Central, Day 2

May 13th, 2007

Today was a good day, Hamtaro.

Yes, I was marginally grumpier than yesterday, but I sincerely doubted anyone would notice. And Bruce said that, considering how miserable a bastard I felt, I was remarkably nice all morning.

I had some terrific conversations with folks in the AM, and by the time the Yuri Panel rolled around in the PM, we were down to the last few books. So, that put me in a goodish mood.

So the high point of the day was when I devloped a new game for the vendors – cosplay bingo. I’m going to create game cards and we mark off when we see old standards and wildcards. It’ll help pass the time. :-) We saw all the usual standards we look for (I got bingo at about 2 PM) and our wildcard was awesome – Hamburglar.

The Yuri Panel was pleasant. The room was mostly full, but people dribbled in and out, as they do when we end up talking about good yuri and not the stuff they like. lol

I spoke to Media Blasters during the day, and they gave me permission to formally announce their licensing of Simoun. :-) So, really, it’s official. No joke. I am going to do my damndest to see that Yuri fandumb is served well when it is released. Some of the MB ladies suggested a Simoun cosplay contest at Yuricon’s 2007 “Yurisai” event…I think that would be spectacular, don’t you? THIS is how awesome MB is – when people came up to them today to ask about Simoun, they said – “Go to the Yuri Panel.” Is that not utterly awesome?

(As an aside, I also had a chat with Geneon about Marimite. I know that they have nothing to confirm or deny about it, but that wasn’t the point of my chat. Let me just say that, *should* they ever license it, I feel slightly more comfortable that Yuri fandom will not be ignored. And incidentally, Sean, I met your friend Drew. I’m not sure he was as happy about that as I was. LOL)

After the panel we stuck around long enough to get rid of the last few books and say good bye to all our pals in the Hall, because tomorrow, we become tourists. We’re off to the art museum and other site-seeing things.

We ended the day with an overpriced, mediocre meal, but surrounded by good company, and after I watched a kung-fu vampire flick (starring Peter Cushing!), I’ve retired to my room to write this post. Now I am going to talk to my wife, because I’ve barely seen her for two days. :-)

Thanks once again to the folks at ACen for their hospitality! They will be getting a thank you note, for sure. :-) Thanks also to the folks who came to the table and to the Yuri Panel – it was great talking with you, seriously. Thanks to Donna, Serge and Bruce for everything and special thanks to Pern, Nic and Pat for drinks, snacks and bad movies. And, of course, super special hugs to my wife, who protected our table from Hamburglars while we were out talking about Yuri.

If I’m not wiped flat tomorrow, I’ll try to review something. :-) Oh, and total at-con purchases for me? Two sandwiches. How sad is that? lol

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Anime Central 2007 Day 1

May 12th, 2007

Lots of good at ACen, lots of wtf. :-)

The people were a real surprise. In general, the level of social function is realy high. I say, “Hi how are you?” and in return, I get, “Fine, thanks, how are you?” from a large portion of the congoing population. Haven’t once had to explain how that works to anyone. lol And the staff, while exhaustingly intense and often useless, have been, to a person, very polite and glad to help. :-)

Friday morning, the Exhibitor’s Hall opened at an ungodly hour. I did not arrive until a more godly one. In the first few hours, we were visted by many fans of this blog and of Yuricon and folks on the Yuricon Mailing List, and I want to say that meeting you all really made me happy. So hi to everyone who dropped by! (I’d list names, but if I forget anyone I’d feel bad, so you’ll just have to imagine me naming you, specifically.)

The day passed pretty quickly for being in a cave. We sat around chatting, ID’ing costumes, the usual. Met Shinz from #otenba, and have to say, he’s a fine young man – if you’re on the chan and looking for a cute guy, talk to him!

For dinner, my group joined Nic, Pat and Pern for pizza and bad movies. Then we all went to the shoujoai.com fan panel, where itanshi did a nice job of enacting a real-life version of the forums there. He asked what series people liked, people chatted about them and generally had some fun.

We went back to bad movies pretty much the rest of the night, since the line for Anime Hell was aptly named. I recommend Switchblade Sisters if you like pulp novels. Because it was definitely a live-action pulp novel.

The goal today is to sell out of books after (or before) the Yuri Panel (4PM in LAX room in the Hyatt) and take tomorrow off completely and all go to the Art Institute, which the wife said was absolutely fabulous.

So all that was good.

After they all started watching Jem and the Holograms I went back to my room and waited for 3 hours or so for everyone to shut the hell up, and stop running around, so I could get some sleep. Today the Exhibitor’s Hall opens even *earlier*. I’ll be late again. And grumpier than yesterday.

The Bad. Never, ever, in all my many years of bad travel karma have I stayed in a hotel where the people were that that persistently loud for that long. Every door in the hotel slams, and no one thinks to not slam them – even at 4AM. The walls and even the ceilings are paper thin and every sound is like you’re in the the other room. We both got little sleep, and what there was of it was not good.

BTW, this hotel bites. The Hyatt Regency O’Hare. DON’T stay here. They charge for internet access – you can’t use the refrigerator. It’s wired, so if you even pick something up from it, you get charged. Isn’t that absurd? Go across the street to the Doubletree, or down the road further – the Holiday Inn Select sounds *amazing*. Large screen HDTV. Free intertubes. Microwave, fridge. That sounds much more inviting.

So anyway, today Yuri Panel and hopefully tomorrow, touristy stuff. See you at 4PM. :-)

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Chicagoland

May 11th, 2007

In the last two days, I have been on plane, train, automobile and foot, all for too long. :-)

Honestly, I never thought that any place could surpass my own beloved NJ for having miserable, unreliable public transportation, or New York, for having uncomfortable, filthy trains. Chicago now wins.

But we did manage to get to the Oriental Insititute (and were only accosted by three annoying people on the way. One crazy, one panhandler and one proselytizer.) The train lurched along at the slowest rate I’ve ever seen a form of transportation move in my life. Took us three hours to make what should have been a one hour trip…

And when Donna and Serge arrived, we dropped by the local Mitsuwa which was nice enough. Bought some manga (I know, how retarded is that?) and some food and then came back to get badges.

Anime Centeral is 6 for 1 on asistance. The first *4* people we asked where to go (staffers with walkie-talkies) said something that sounded like this. “I don’t know, but I think you should go halfway across the world and try there.” 3 staffers started to “take” me, by walking off – even though they had no clue where to go. One said he’d find out and come get us. We watched him him get sidetracked by people saying hi to him, and then as he wandered off, completely forgetting about us. It was a stunning display of short term memory issues. :-)

Now, for my part, from the first time I asked for directions, when a person started to walk to “take” us somewhere I stopped them, and commented that the appropriate thing to do is to use the walkie-talkie and find out *where* were were going – a simple point in the right direction would have been fine.

Does it strike you as odd that NONE of these people knew where exhibitors had to go to check in? And only one, after checking with the voice on the other side of the walkie-talkie had a place for Panelists to check in. (He got the name of the room wrong, but that really wasn’t his fault, it was hard to hear with all the noise.)

So we eventually get checked in as Exhibitors and I really want to thank the folks a ACen for making that possible. (The Exhibitor’s Hall is opening even as I type, but I’m barely awake. I’ll get there in a bit…must have coffee…..)

Then we trek back to my hotel to find Panelist check in. So we followed the signs. Oh wait, no we didn’t because there are NO Signs! Anywhere. Not a single to indicate panel rooms, panel programming ops. nothing. But we found the right room and met Justin and Lynn (I think) and they were very very gracious.

So, as I suspected, the level of organization here is next to nil, but the folks are really lovely. (And the wife says, “and very helpful, even if they don’t know what they are doing.”) Now it’s time for coffee and brekkie and I’ll waddle over to set the booth up. If I have a chance to, I’ll post and tell you all about ACen. :-)

Let’s con! Yay! @_@

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Yuri Manga: Aria, Volume 10

May 9th, 2007

The days pass pleasantly in Neo-Venezia. There’s always a lot to learn for Akari and the other gondoliers-in-training. In Aria, Volume 10, we get a little taste of past and present with, perhaps, a glimpse into the future; the whole volume feels as if we’re being led by the hand around the city along with Akari, Alice and Aika.

Alice gets a lot of screen time this volume. It allows us to see the more vulnerable, childish side of her – the chapter where Athena makes her Epiphany wish come true was very lovely. We learn a little more about Alicia, when Alice asks her why she never scolds or punishes Akari. And we get to see Akari develop her skills by working as a ferry gondolier, which makes me think that this series is moving a little further towards Akari’s eventual graduation to Prima status.

But as nice as all those chapters are, the one that wins is the first chapter of the volume, in which Athena and Akira stop by Aria Company to give Alicia a birthday present. Alicia, who was expected back shortly, calls to say that the is unavoidably delayed by an important job. Athena says she must return to her company, but Akira, who was really looking forward to the three of them getting together, stays. She tells Akari about the days when they three of them spent all their time together as trainees. Now that they are the “three fairies” they have so little free time and she had really hoped to get together today. Akari, in a characteristic move, asks Akira to accompany her for some practice – and they can, you know, look for Alicia as they tool around.

The day is ending and they decide to return to Aria Company, when they run into Athena. As she greets them, Akari cries out and points – there, miraculously, is Alicia looking very much like something out of a fairytale. And the next panels make the whole volume worth reading. No one, no one, no one, can tell me that the look on Akira’s face doesn’t say it all. She has that “stricken by a sudden vision of the person I love” look. Ah-HAH! we all cry happily. Knew it all along, we chortle. Three friends, sure, but Akira’s feelings for Alicia are more than friendship.

The next panel, drawn from below the water line, would make a brilliant poster. Akira wings the present across the rio and into Alicia’s surprised hands. And, so, all three friends are together for the present giving, after all. Metadashi, metadashi. Great chapter.

The only downside? The already repulsive Aria-shachou has now begun wearing “cute” hats with other animals on them. If you think this kind of thing is cute, you absolutely NEED to visit this site. Me, I side with the cats there, who are looking hate at their owners and plotting to suffocate them in their sleep. Poor little bastards.

Aside from this volume’s subtle fragrance of lilies, it’s mostly more of the same pleasant time spent with pleasant people pleasantly. It’d kill me in real life, but for the time it takes to read a volume of manga, it’s perfect. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9 (I seriously think it’s getting more and more lovely)
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Now I know that the author sees the same thing between Akira and Alicia I do – and it makes me happy. ^_^

Posted in Aria, Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »