PopSyndicate.com

You’re broke. You’re sore. The landscape of your body has changed from a piece of your cosplay digging into a sensitive area all weekend long, and all you want to do is frigging sleep. A-Kon is over; the celebs have gone home, the Pocky is all eaten, and the pool is has been reduced to disgusting, filmy, grey stew. And yet, it just may have been the greatest weekend of 2009.

Sunday morning hosted the brunch, where for thirty bucks you can sit among the pretty and the talented, learn a little more of your favorite actor or artist, and eat some sort of substandard breakfast foods that is sure to give you gas while you’re sitting directly next to your idol. But despite all that (and the screeches of glee every time Vic flicked his hair - you‘d think he was made of spare Robert Pattinson parts, or something) it was still good times, and if your experience was anything like mine, you got jabbed in the leg by Marty LeGrow. Just me?

There were a few straggling panels after the brunch, by far the best of which was the voice actor cold read. Now, most of that lot was in the Friday night improv room, so everyone knew it would be good. Toss in Vic, Wendy Powell and Samantha Inoue-Harte (from the improv was Chris Patton, who henceforth shall be known as my new imaginary gay boyfriend, a title he consented to, Tony Brownrigg and the ridiculously funny Mike McFarland) and you’ve got a stellar group - most of whom have been in Fullmetal Alchemist, but that’s another thing all together. Tony Brownrigg, writer\producer\director\star of the horromedy Red Victoria (a must see) wrote the utterly silly script, while the gang (including Brownrigg, at points) did a cold read of the script. Want to see some of the awesomeness? Go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvGiLhjVQaY and enjoy. It’s a two parter. One fun tidbit about the panel? In the second go round (which should be posted shortly), a wonderful gal from the audience was pulled onto the panel, as they were one actor short. Turns out, the girl gutsy enough to get on stage was Kailey Peak, and she held her own - no small feat.

The rest of the day was spent procuring last minute time with favorite new friends and celebs. My time went to (no shock here) Camilla d’Erico and Marty LeGrow (the woman is sheer genius, people). I got in a last few words with Chris Patton, let my husband drool over the copic markers a little more, and sigh over my lack of money. But the Kon was made of win this year, and here are a few things that made it unforgettable.

The Masquerade. Though some of our fan boys and girls direly need to take a dance class (and learn left from right), the masque was, in a word, fun. An Edwardian country dance to Rasputina’s Marilyn Manson remix of “Transylvanian Concubine” was a moment like no other; it brought up ideas of Marie Antoinette (bitch all you want. It’s one of my favorite movies, as I love poofy princess dresses, Converse, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Suck it, haters), and dancing to “Hong Kong Garden”.

Anything involving Chris Patton. A while back, a friend of mine proclaimed Steven Frey to be her imaginary gay husband, and dared me to do better. It was quite the challenge, and though I’m not quite ready for the commitment of husband, months of searching for the perfect fake soul mate has led me to the silly, wonderful and talented Patton. Please work more, my IGBF, because after going home I immediately watched Welcome to the NHK and now I miss you. Incidentally, for those unfamiliar with Welcome to the NHK, it is an extraordinarily messed up and bizarre yet fantastic tale which landed squarely on my top ten DVDs of 2008 list.   

Lee Martindale, you bossy wench. She’s wonderful to have in your corner and utterly frightening when she’s not. Fortunately for me, she was in my corner for the all-too short time I spent with her, and I cannot tell you how better off I feel for that time. Writers, especially SF\F writers, seek her out when you can. Hopefully she’ll bring the workshop around to other venues, because it’s worth it.

Cosplay. There was so much about the cosplay this year that was a riot, from Yaya Han’s appearance at the Kon (strikingly beautiful) to the dog pile of Edward Elrics, Buddy Jesus to Raptor Jesus, more Bleach captains than you could shake a Zanpaktu at to the full cast of Watchmen, it was a brilliant collection yet again this year, and I was sufficiently floored by the quality of the cosplay to be had.

The voice actor cold read and the improv performances. You get a sense that the people involved, specifically Marty, Chris Patton, Mike McFarland, Tony Brownrigg and Kyle Herbert are the cool kids up in the green room, and anything with any combination of the above mentioned is constantly a riot. There were stories of the green room - specifically, food fights and spying on the people in the pool - that just makes you wish you could bust in and hang. The cold read was sheer silliness, but the improv nearly killed me with laughter. I literally cried all my makup off (and on Friday there was a lot of make-up on, let me tell you. I had three, count ‘em, THREE different black eyeliners on, not to mention all that mascara). Though they meant to behave themselves, sort of, the improv was a mess of foul language and comedy brilliance.

And speaking of things hilarious and dirty, Iron Artist. Almost disturbing where the minds of those people can go, Iron Artist was wild fun, absolutely gross and awesome in one fell swoop.

There was the fan made music video of Ouran High School Host Club put to the tune of Wicked’s “Popular” (Tamaki singing to Haruhi), one of my friends won the Mokoto tournament (you rock, Greg), the chalk drawing out front was fantastic, the word buttscratcher was everywhere (as was the game, you jerks. Quit reminding me how often I lose the game), the proposal (in one of the panels) that Van Gogh was the first cosplayer6 and the commissioned Marie Antoinette art I bought from Marty. I thought about putting it online, but then I changed my mind. Chumps.

Steampunk! Is it ironic to say that the steampunk trend at A-Kon seems to be picking up steam? Wherever you went all weekend long, the steampunk boys and girls were everywhere, utterly elegant and creative as all get out.

A few things I didn’t like? The bar being 37 floors above the kon seriously sucked. Pre-breaking the escalators in order to keep us from bitching didn’t work. In fact, I’d say it sped up the bitching process significantly. The fire alarm and following creepy voice early Sunday morning was kind of a buzz kill, if not a surreal one that made for great conversation at the brunch the next morning.

All in all, it was a year worthy of the 20th anniversary pomp and circumstance it was given, and I’m still in a state of bliss - even if I can barely think from all the exhaustion. It may be Monday, but I’m already pining for next year, and all the adventure that will bring.

0