Have visited the Anything Goes School of Masquerade Arts Home Page since July 27, 1998.
Anime Expo 2000
-AGSMA Costumes
-Talismans
-Walkabout
-Japanese Cosplay
-Mononoke Mountain
-Spirit Friends
-Chronicles
-Closing Credits
|
The Chronicles of AGSMA City Hall The Chronicles of AGSMA (Not the Chronicles of Narnia), AX 2000 Are compiled by individual members of AGSMA, each with a different point of view and color. Stardate: June 26, 1999 Monday Location: Anaheim Stardate: June 27, 2000 Tuesday Stardate: June 28, 2000 Wednesday Stardate: June 29, 2000 Thursday Stardate: July 30, 2000 Friday Anime Expo, Day 1 Ranma-chan: 12:30 PM: *Ring Ring* "...Ben, you have a phone call." "...Hello?" "Benma, WHERE ARE YOU?" "...At home." "Well GET OVER HERE!!" "Over WHERE?" "Over to AX!!" "...AX isn't until next weekend." "!!...Ben, AX is THIS weekend!!" *Double Faint* "...How much of Big D do you have done?" "...You don't want to know." "Well, get over here. If you're not here and registered and signed in for the masquerade by 8PM, we're dropped from the show!" "...You're not kidding? AX really IS this weekend?!?" "YEAH!! So GET OVER HERE!! "Um...OK." *Click* Shave, shower, and check the car out. My father still isn't back, and therefore I can't get paid for work. And can't purchase my AX ticket. *Ring Ring* "...Hello?" "Mom?" "Hi Ben." "I need $$." "Can you come up to the office to get it?" "Sure. Thanks." *Click* The car starts the first time after sitting for almost 3 weeks. Hmmm... I drive and pick up the check. Got $$. Get food, gas, and drive. A big red behemoth truck impairs vision most of trip.Exit freeway and proceed to ANAHEIM CONVENTION CENTER....And it's a ghost town. *Ring Ring* "Hello?" "Trunks?" "Benma!" "It's at D-land Hotel, right?" "Yeah." "OK, I'll be there in 15-20 minutes. Meet me in the masquerade room." "OK." *Click* This time, I proceed to the CORRECT location. 4:23 PM: But where am I supposed to park??? I see an opening to the adjunct to D-land Hotel parking lot, taken from Pinocchio lot. "Where's Registration?" "Pacific Building." The FAR building. I register, but it doesn't occur to me until AFTER having done so that the desk closes at FIVE. But $50 later and I'm good, before I blow it for the group. I proceed back to the Sierra Building and the Masquerade sign-in room. ...No Trunks. OK, I can still sign in and call him. Trunks! Benma! OK. Let's meet the group and rehearse. I meet Kurumi and Natsume. we rehearse for close to 40 minutes. "Well Benma, the dealer's hall closes at six if you want to check it out." 5:40 PM: "OK! See you tomorrow!" I scope the hall for 15 minutes and head back to rehearsal area. More rehearsal ensues, and everyone leaves. ...Almost. I'm exiting the lot, stopped in line to pay for parking. Hmm...Car is riding really rough. Better get moving. *Shake Shake* Car stalls. I'm used to it, it happens all the time during the two rainy months in Monterey. I put it in park and get ready to restart. ...Is that smoke coming out from under the hood?!? I pop the hood, and a huge fireball erupts from the back of the engine. I resist the urge to Kamehameha it back, and with superhuman speed, unlock the passenger door, and rip out the fire extinguisher. Then the D-land booth person comes running with a second extingusher...Fire's out. Unfortunately so is my car. The D-land crew and I push it to the side, and I go call my father. *Ring Ring* "Hello?" "Mom, can I please speak to my father?" "OK." "...Hello?" "Dad...The engine caught on fire." "The engine caught on fire." I explain what happened and he's on his way. I pay $2.50!!! for a miniscule 20 Oz. Cherry Coke, and sit in my dead vehicle and wait until he shows up. 9:00 PM I see his red van. He checks it outand we cruise all over Anaheim looking for a parts store that's open 24-7, or at least until midnight. We give up, and come back to the car at midnight. He replaces a hose, and we head for home. Natsume: Although I had been excited about going to Anime Expo 2000 at Disneyland for a good month (maybe even a year or so) before its arrival, "freakin' Wayne" nearly made me forget all that excitement in the few days before AX 2000 was supposed to begin. We had rushed all week to make our costumes, a very foreign thing to me considering I had never made a costume before let alone helped at it. Meanwhile, I tried to balance out working, ironing (since I can't sew to save my life), even squeeze in a sneak preview of "The Patriot" in the days before the convention. When Friday had at last arrived, all that excitement, the crowded halls filled with enthusiastic fans like myself, the hype behind guests and premieres, the memories of past Anime Expo's, the splendor of anime all came rushing back to me once again--a feeling I had not felt for at least a year (much like the way one feels when hearing again a nostalgic song one hasn't heard in a long time). I went with my brother that day although we had gone at around noon on account of staying up late the night before. (What can I say? We're college students.) So once we arrived and my brother had registered, we went off to the dealers' room--my favorite part of conventions. The first day, I had probably gone to every booth and yet I hadn't found anything of particular interest to me. However, since I'm just a hedonistic anime merchandise hoarder like that, I had to get something anyway. I got the Ayashi no Ceres art book (which I highly recommend) and the Dance Dance Revolution: 3rd Mix CD (the sounds and songs of which I had picked up in the game room on our way to registration). Afterwards, we were tired and thirsty so we headed outside to a ludicrously expensive coffee/pastry shop in the open of the Disneyland Hotel. Here, I spent nearly my life savings on a life-saving mocha blend, which I needed because I was already exhausted and I was to stay awake to work on my costume (painting the haori and what not) after the con and also to practice our skit. As I rested with fellow high school alumni at a table on the patio, I suddenly spotted a cute little Misao strutting her way over to me. It was Nicole! Then, like a raging mad bull, she *tried* to drag my limp body from the table to meet Wayne at registration. I laughed at her and said to "chill back" for a while, but Wayne came over with a "too sexy" outfit on and I couldn't resist. J/k. But anyway, I'm sure they had thought I forgot about checking in for the masquerade, but in reality, they were quite insane because I still had plenty of time to check in (though they made it seem like my footing it over there in the next 2-3 minutes would be the saving force in a battle to the end of the world). So I dawdled over, making a slow beeline pattern from the patio to the Sierra and they finally forced me to check in. My brother came along to help out with choreography but apparently Wayne and Nicole had it all planned out while waiting for me to arrive. So in a quiet niche in the back of the Sierra, the Mononoke group began to rehearse. There, I met Ben as well, who I took to be much older than he actually was, but I'm sure it was mutual. Very nice fellow, more importantly, his costume was absolutely splendid! A very original costume with gorgeous fabric and a great design. Anyway, who would think to cosplay Didabarochi? We rehearsed until I was sore all over (meanwhile my brother had left for work in the middle of it) and we finally dispersed. Wayne and Ben headed off in their own direction and Nicole and I went to look at the Takada Akemi art exhibit (which was even more gorgeous than the Didabarochi costume) and the other art exhibit across the hall. After that, we gnawed on pretzels, ran into Jon who told me some crack up stories while Nicole slept, and headed off home in preparation for an insane 2nd day of convention to which terribly monstrous boulders were already beginning to develop deep within the core of my chest while butterflies pranced amidst the linings of my stomach in mad mockery of my nervousness.... (poetic, no?) Kurumi: Stardate: July 1, 2000 Saturday Anime Expo, Day 2 All of a sudden, I went from the usually (or unusually, which ever fits best) collected, take charge, charismatic Isabel to Super Hyperventilating, wide-eyed doe caught in a 16-wheel semi's headlights, "give me a chair because I can't take this news standing up" Isabel. And then, among the row of chairs in front of us and behind us, the other participants tried to calm me down and persuade me to go on stage. However, somewhere in the back of my mind I thought, "Wayne wouldn't let us down; he'll show up for sure." And just as the lights began to dim because the blood was rushing out of my head too quickly (I exaggerate, of course), sure enough, Mr. Sexy Ashitaka himself tossed otaku aside as he dashed down the aisle announcing his arrival. And so, the masquerade could begin... One problem: Crap! We didn't get to practice! However, even with such a dilemma in the air, I was surprisingly less nervous than I had been before (this was because Wayne's arrival had alleviated much of the undue stress). Thus, we began a long journey--the obstacles of which consisted of grueling judging, emphasized emotion, meticulous costuming, trying acting, and worst of all, the tortuous wait prior to performance (the likes of which was tentatively nicked "the Anime Expo 2000 Masquerade"). Oh, the agony, the horror, the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Judging for craftsmanship for me was mostly told from Wayne's view point considering the weapons and most of my costume was his handy work (tape is such a wonderful thing sometimes, might I add) and I was absolutely ecstatic when he won a cute little medallion for his highly detailed outfit. Great work, really. We waited in our seats patiently, and with every row that left for their turn, the number of butterflies in my stomach doubled and tripled in number so as to crowd each other with rude remarks like, "get your antennae out of my eyes" and "argh, the bile from her liver is melting the powder-like material from my wings." Oh yes, it was a a fearsome moment for me and my moth-like friends. The wonderful Disneyland staff, however, did as much to comfort us as possible, offering more seating if need be for our group and cups of water so that we should not faint from heat exhaustion or, in my case, anxiousness. When at last it was our turn, like Catholics to the Eucharist, we stood up and made our way backstage. Damn those coordinators. I'm sure we waited a good 15-20 minutes before we even got to go up ON stage, but all the same, we waited in dire nervousness and watched on backstage TV's and huge screens our falling comrades before us. Whereas I contained a knot of butterflies in my stomach, Nicole carried a horde of raging killer army ants inside her entire body. She was so nervous that she spilled out insect manifestations of nervousness to our entire group. Wayne said, "I've done this many times and even I'm nervous" or something to that accord, and to me, that was the best thing he could have said in that situation. For me, I thought I was completely and utterly stupid for deciding to go on stage in the state that I was in. "Look at these people," I thought to myself. "They're completely assured of themselves. Going on stage with all the experience they've managed to horde for themselves. Look at those eyes. They're boring into me. They want to feast on my carcass once I've passed out after the performance but not if I get to them first..." and so forth until Wayne's words of wisdom and Nicole's hysterical state managed to snap me out of it. To me, one hysterical person per group was enough, so in the last 5 minutes before we were to go on stage, I literally shook off my "stage dementia," slapping myself around in my head, shaking my body off, and clenching my fists when I was sure nobody else was watching. We made small talk with the group before us (the Pro-Craftsmanship award-winning group with the fancy, prancy metal arms) and they soon left the backstage to go on stage. As we listened to the finale of their performance and the dying down of applause from the crowd, it was then our turn to entertain. We quickly ran out on stage as "Micky" the MC introduced our group with some of Wayne's silly but witty writing (see http://www.oocities.org/agsma/ax2k-5.htm), and we placed all our props into place. Once we were out on the stage ... actually, for me, it was about a minute before we even went on stage that I forgot about my stage fright and just performed. Even without practice beforehand that day, we got through the entire skit in a 2 minute whirl (to which I felt like we were one of a few groups that actually stayed within said time limit). I did, however, manage to run through the fight sequence and footwork in my head before we actually got out on stage. At one point in the fight sequence I did mess up, missing Ashitaka's sword completely and nearly slicing his entire head clean off, but I managed to pull out and strike again, placing us back on track into the struggle sequence. The rest of the skit was a synch, I shot Ashitaka, made off with Didabarochi's head in a Disneyland bag (the crowd laughed surprisingly), and got "knocked out" by San without actually getting knocked out by her heavy ceramic spear. We left the stage to the sounds of a crowd applauding wildly and sporadic jumbles of "good job," "way to go," etc. Afterwards, we were ushered around to a press gathering (with various poses and blinding flashes from random photographers), to get some water, and then to our seats once again. The grueling hours spent working on our costumes, the terrible anxiousness of going on stage, the practicing behind choreography and the skit--the hype and wonder of it all was a mystery to me until Wayne asked me simply, "Did you get a rush?" I replied, "Is that what you do this for?" "Yes," he said. And I finally understood... cosplaying was a cheap errr, no quite expensivesubstitute for uppers! J/k. After watching some random "dramatic music videos," I began to get anxious again, writhing in my seat for something to do like an impatient 1st grader (actually, I was never like that as a child so it must be a Pavlovian learned instinct to get my way as a high schooler). Finally, they began to announce the winners. They first went with Craftsmanship and I absolutely adored the Card Captor Sakura that won. When they got to the Performance Awards, I listened intently for our group's number. 23. You may think to yourself, "How egotistical to think you won in your first masquerade." Well, that was what I was thinking at least, but somewhere deep inside of me past the dispersing butterflies, I thought, I know other people probably worked harder at putting their costume, make-up, skit, choreography, performance, etc. together than I did, but our group did a damn good job. Wayne, Nicole, Ben. They all worked really hard with their costumes. In fact, we looked completely authentic to our characters, not like cheesy knock offs that "shouldn't be cosplaying" (won't name the character that I'm thinking of *whistle*). We had a great script and a great act. The odd thing about it all is that I think when I do something, I always get lucky in the end. Going to college, winning contests, getting chosen for positions. What else was there to look forward to at that point in time at that particular masquerade but to win? So I held on to the idea deep inside me that we would win. Sure enough, after some random groups (to which I can't remember the numbers of anymore were called) and I almost lost that pinhole of hope in my heart, I suddenly heard very distantly in my mind.. "Group 23." "Did I imagine it?" I asked myself. Luckily, such a long and outlandish name like "Anything Goes School of Masquerade Arts" was not exactly something I could imagine in my head. I knew we had won once the judges had said that, and so we immediately hopped up and dashed forward to get our Judge's Award #2 along with the rest of the group. I think Ben, Nicole, and Wayne were all in as much a shock as I was at the time that none of us even heard what the judge had said about us! Though I wish I had a copy of the masquerade tape (available in 2 years, I'm sure) it was enough to know that we had won. We hugged each other; I even got some of Nicole's make-up on my cheek; most importantly, we smiled with triumph. Then they ushered us off the stage like smurfs. In the end, it was very much worth it, award or not. My favorite skits included the Lupin skit, the Chibi Moon and Chibi Chibi Moon skit, the DDR and Bust-A-Move skits, and the FF8 skit. Though I enjoyed all of them greatly (since it was my first participation and viewing of any AX Masquerade). By the way, I got these cute little rattling kodamas, a vibrating Totoro and some pretty pencil boards from the dealers' room. I *told* you that was my favorite part of cons. Ranma-chan: 1:34 AM We arrive at home without further incident. All that my mother has left to sew are the arms and the collar for the D suit. Things are looking up, finally. I proceed to sew gloves, paint the arms, construct the headdress frame, paint the body, and prepare the spikes/antlers fro attachment. Kids WB comes on. Around 9:30, I decide to nap for 3 hours. I brush my teeth and finally get to sleep at ten. I wake up at one, shower, eat, attach the antlers and was CO2 off of my car, but don't have time to fix it fully, so after half an hour my parents are ready to cruise at 3. 4:30 PM Arrive at convention. Things ARE looking up. ...But I spoke too soon. "Trunks called and said he will be late and might not even make it to the masquerade at all." *Faint* We discuss our options and come up with the following: 1. Walk onstage to show costumes and exeunt. Not bad. 2. Extend fight scene between Eboshi and San. Doable, but not likely. 3. Walk onstage, yell "Trunks sucks!!", and leave. Fun, and appropriate uder the circumstances Mr. Leader-who-is-not-there," but not good for team unity. ~6:30 PM Mr. Triumvirate finally walks in. His Ashitaka looks sweet (and wins a medal for construction from Cosplay Closet.) Then he opens a bag to reveal the UGLIEST prop in AGSMA history, the Shishigami's head. This thing is UGLY!! And guess who has to start with it? At least Eboshi puts the hideous thing in a bag. But I must say that it was constructed well and Trunks did a good job, ugly as it is.and so the masquerade begins. 8:07 PM The most on-time masquerade I've ever seen. But that's beside the point.We are skit # 23. In line backstage, I fool around with the Shishigami's head to lighten the mood, and for the most part, it worked. I did have one concern that we didn't do "Circle" as we had the past two years at SDCC. But we did the "A-A-O!!," so it evened out. he skit is going wonderfully and...I can't lean forward lest my D head fall off. Bad enough that the antlers look like dreadlocks, but what do you expect when you start--and finish--a costume within 20 hours because you budgeted costume time on the convention being the following weekend?!? Thankfully, it managed to stay on until the second we were offstage. Now I can focus on other skits and who I want to take pictures of. Morrigan. Not as cute as KinKi, but she didn't have to worry about as much make up to make herself pale.Team Rocket. Any fan of TR is cool in my book. Sailor Mars of Sailor Jamboree. She's kinda cute, but I wonder if she'd rather defect to M**n Sync. The awards ceremony finally rolls around, after music videos, including a Ranma 1/2 video with A-Ha's TAKE ON ME, which switched to a different re-mix every time someone changed forms.The second judges choice goes to...#23. ...Wait a second; that's US!!Ah, the thrill of victory. Unfortunately, we don't hear any of the rationale because we're too excited, but that doesn't matter--we'll see it on tape.We embrace on-stage. I tell Trunks that South Wars did the trick and got us over the hump, and our record since seems to uphold that theory. I also up my record to 3-0 in team play (or the team is 3-0 when I'm in a skit, depending upon how you look at it.) Or, an influx of new blood once again did us good and helped the win. Anyways, forget the analysis and get to the heart of the matter--we won.So we exeunt to take pictures. I ask my parents to hang loose (man I hate being a scrub, and if my car hadn't caught fire I would have been by myself and partied).We do some group poses, more for other photographers than for ourselves, as well as take pictures of other cosplayers. Includig one with me and that Morrigan. :) Then I leave for home and arrive at 1:40 AM Sunday morning.I eat and write this, and then I'm off to bed, hopefully to double the amount of sleep had over the past two nights (4 1/2 + 3 hours) and combine the two for at least 7 hours of sleep before heading back for day three. Trunks: Wake up and dash off to the airport to get a standby position for a wedding up in Stanford. No not mine! Geez. Luckily I pack Ashitaka and all the props and my badge and leave them in John Wayne airport for about 11 hours. The wedding was beautiful! Stanford Memorial Church. I got some chicken nuggets up at the Stanford mall and actually brought them back down to AX for our dinner. :P Everything was going smoothly, I had my flight boarding pass back down and .... DELAYED! Gah! Noooooooooooooo! It was supposed to leave at 2:45, but delayed to 3:30. Ok, nix that craftsmanship judging then. If it wasn't late I'd probably show up at 5 on the money. But the delays screwed everything up so I wasn't going to be physically back in Anaheim until 5:30 Saturday Evening: Zoom down from John Wayne airport and change into full rider gear Ashitaka in the parking lot. (I had some of it on already silly people). Grab bags and bags of props and mosey on down to the Grand Ballroom and pretty much slip in without incident until I get to the door. "Hey, are you Wayne? Yer teams ready to kill you. Come on in!" ^^; But they can't cos now their Ashitaka is here. Now we have a complete skit. I sure hope that Nicole got the tape from Tenchi to rehearse. And of course she did. Ben managed to find Nicole and Isabel without any difficulty. I found out that I had put on my Ashitaka sleeves wrong, cos I had the back attached to the front so I had to change out of that. Dammit Isabel you're not helping things by yelling "Gawd Wayne, that's too sexy! Put your shirt back on!" -_- She's been doing that all week and now she's also getting Nicole into it too. We were group 23, and were still up for craftsmanship judging. Infact we had to wait another 30 minutes after my arrival for craftsmanship judging by Cosplay Closet. I turned in the disembodied arm to Marisa within 10 minutes of arrival. After things were under way, we were seated in the far left of the grand ballroom and left our props up against the wall. AMC was too far up front to talk to, but Henry and Mack were 2 rows back and easily accessible. And when we were on stage, they were waiting in line. A little A-A-O AGSMA spirit should get us back into gear. The girls are quite jittery. We saw all the skits up until about #15, and then we were summoned up to wait behind the large viewscreen. It's cool cos you can see the reverse of everything behind it. So I got to watch the AMC Himikoden skit backwards. Blair with his Mirage Knights were right in front of us so we weren't bored at all. Moment of truth. A big team A-A-O! and we're set. Arm with stagehand? Check! Isabel, and Nicole both being newbies were extra jittery while Ben and I were jittery, which was to be expected. The MC reads our lines while I take San's spear to stage left, and everyone else takes their respective props to their locations. The music started right after the MC stopped. And the arm flew on stage while I "fired" arrows into the audience. That'll teach you to stick your arms out when you've been told not to. I need to ditch the straw cape cos Nicole will get scratched alot if I keep it on, and I get rid of the face part of my cowl, as well as the bow and arrows. At the Indiana Jones cue, I intervene and gut Eboshi with the butt of my sword. I think that's where I damaged it because it's not as stable after the masquerade. Great audience response with the beginning warning, but not alot of people got the "Hurry back, Hurry back." Only true Disneyana would know that. Also good response with the moonwalking Didabarochi. It was decided that if there was an award for most props littered on stage after a skit, we'd win because there was the straw cape, 2 swords, icepick, rifle, San's dagger and spear, Eboshi's haori, Shishigami's neck, and Ashitaka's blood. We took some press pictures but without my straw cape cos I was rushed. But later I got the cape on for the Cosplay Closet to take some pictures. They evidently liked the Ashitaka so much, I got a Hall costuming award from them and got to take some good pictures for them. It was a nice engraved medal. Saturday Night: While waiting for the judges we watched last years music videos. The Mononoke Hime one was first and we kept on going "It's you, no, it's me, hey it's you!" 20 minutes later, the awards were announced and we had won a judges award! Too cool! I feel avenged for my leaving the company years ago. Also I avenged the Smoke arm which never got used in it's original lousy skit to be a good prop in year 2000. And I got to do a skit/costume that I had really been wanting to do for a long time. Tiff and Henry knew I was going to do it sometime. Tiff also knew I was going to use the Space Mountain theme at some point for one of my skits. It makes sense to make it all come together, at the Disneyland Hotel. With a script pretty much written by me, and organization of the team. It paid off. Nicole, Isabel and Ben were estatic! With the ending of the ceremonies, Everyone was shuttled out of the room and not permitted to take pictures right outside the masquerade room. So we ended up taking several pictures outside. But after things cooled down a bit, we did some re-enactments that we could use for the page, right outside the arcade at the Disneyland Hotel. We got plenty of pictures, but probably not enough. With the masquerade ending at 11 PM, and time to spare, we hung out until Nicole and Ben had to go home. I had Isabel take home the blades and the Ishibiya, while Ben took home the Shishigami head and the fur jacket. Nicole and I took home our respective weapons, until tomorrow! Now's a good time to get some sleep! But first I need to find my cousins. I change back into my dress clothes from the wedding and find them in their friends room (three crazy girls). So I go out looking for AMC and the other groups but still can't find the right room. So I head back home. Stardate: July 2, 2000 Sunday Anime Expo, Day 3 Afterwards, the rest of the day can be summed up as such, I received a new pajama shirt (an Escaflowne XL T-Shirt, an award from the Masquerade), we waited around for a few hours, we ate hot dogs, we watched DDR, Nicole and Wayne left, and my friend, sister, and I watched the Masquerade at 10:30. This, of which, I will elaborate. I watched the entire thing just to see our skit and the award presentation. Well, I must say, I am *the* worst cosplay actress that has ever come into existence. Absolutely horrible. Everyone else in our group, spectacular. Filled with enthusiasm, life, and character. Even the moon-walking Didabarochi. *sigh* Well, at least I didn't lose it for the rest of the group. As for the awards presentation, the judge's comment on us eludes us still because they ended up cutting off the awards part from the re-showing of the Masquerade. Ah well, goodnight. Trunks: It's so nice to have a room to change out from! We graciously borrow the room space from Tenchi's friends, Mirae, Stephanie and Philana for storage and costume changing because the car is parked far out now. I brought normal mode Ashitaka and Jin Saotome today for walk around. And over the course of the day, I changed into each of the costumes twice. Early on, I was getting tired of carrying so many props so I changed into Jin. I found Aya as Alexiel and took some pictures for her. Mako found me as Jin and wanted me back in Ashitaka. So I told her later. Our judges awards in addition to the trophy was an XL Escaflowne shirt. And then I ran into Nicole and Isabel at the Escaflowne line who were in their Mononoke Hime costumes so I had to change back into Ashitaka to take pictures with them. Mako chan finally got her picture of Ashitaka, but it was still regular Ashitaka. I didn't bring the riding gear to the room. But later on that evening I changed back into Jin. Angel Lain managed to find me as Jin and we talked about ACP. I also caught up with Jay Jay (cute little Rinoa from Fanime) and we chatted while waiting in line for the Utena movie. Ranma-chan: After a couple of false starts waking up due to the phone, I finally roll out of bed for good at 2:20 PM. I call Trunks to tell him that I won't be coming and that we need for re-enactment schedules to be re-scheduled for tomorrow. --No answer. During the course of the day I called six various times to his various numbers, to no avail. But I tried. Now I have to fix my car and sew Goku pants. The car is a filthy mess, but most of what was burned is easily replaced. The hardest part was getting a cyllanoid-distributor wire replaced. I start her up, after 10 minutes of trying. It rides like #%2*. We check the car with the computer, and it says that the #4 cylinder isn't firing. Great. We look down to notice a sparkplug uncovered. I must have accidentally pulled it off during the damage repair. The car's OK. Goku time. Sewing construction totaled less than two hours for my first ever sewing project. Not bad, if I do say sew myself. Fabric destruction then took 15 minutes. I'm not going to be a pristine, pretty boy Goku--I'm going to have battle damage. Fabric REconstruction took an additional 15 minutes. I want it to be battle-worn, but not frayed and unravelling in the washing machine. "Boot" construction followed for another 20 minutes. Am I ever going to get to bed? I taped yarn to my shoes, because I didn't have too much time to waste. But if it's too sloppy for someone, they can try and block the Kamehameha that will be coming after them. I also updated Ucchan on the weekend's events, not havign heard from Trunks and with her wondering how Expo was going. All in all, it was a good, productive day. That makes two in a row. I can back to my sloth soon enough. ;P Where's that Jigglypuff? It's time for bed. Stardate: July 3, 2000 Monday Anime Expo, Day 4 Monday. Darn it, they have to wait until Monday to show the dubbed Mononoke Hime. If it could have been shown earlier, I would have worn Laguna or something. But Ashitaka again since San and Eboshi were coming along. I was planning on doing rider Ashitaka today but I had a long walk from the car so I decided better not drench the costume in sweat. I made it at 10:30 to the 10 AM showing. Didn't miss too much and besides, I caught what I missed on the next showing then San and Eboshi showed up. Oh you gotta love long range dismembering. Woo woo! It was funny, people would stare at me after the showing and it would take a little bit before it clicked, oh hey, he's dressed up as Ashitaka. And wow! I finally get to go to the dealers room. I pick up a Ghost in the Shell wall scroll (never watched the series but I didn't want some Sailor Moon wall scroll), and a deck of DBZ cards. I also managed to talk someone down on an Ashitaka statue, the one in the pretty blue box. Wai! Just what I always wanted! Now if Nicole would get the San we'd have a matching set! Natsume: Last day of con, Nicole and I were terribly sad. We arrived early to get some autographs from some of the guests (considering the rest of the convention we were busy working on masquerade things, we had no time to meet any of the guests). Nicole got to meet Chiho Saito (Revolutionary Girl Utena artist) but I don't get to meet Akemi Takada. So sad, but oh well, such is life. We went to the dealers' room (again) to look for things for Nicole since she had no time to go during the rest of the convention. I wanted to see the Princess Mononoke dub (anyway we were supposed to meet Wayne there) so we leave the dealers' room. Oddly, when we stopped at a vacant spot to put some of our things together, a stranger next to us started a conversation with me then asked if Nicole and I would like to watch Princess Mononoke with him and his friend. Though I thought it weird, I couldn't say no because of how awkward it would have been if we had gotten in line together later. He turned out to be very nice and extremely charming. We all watched the movie together which I must definitely say rivaled the subtitled version. The voices were very good and full of emotion. The thing about speaking English and not Japanese is that you tend to hear emotion in English better than in Japanese. Go figure, eh? So I, dare I say it, think I like the dub better than the sub! *gasp* The highlight of the movie for me was seeing wonderful Eboshi and her beautiful voice done by Minnie Driver. At about 2 we ended up leaving part way through the movie to catch the closing of the dealers' room at 3. As for my new friend, he may have disappeared forever (from me at least). Such is the odd fate of conventions. You meet strange and interesting people and you never see them again. Perhaps by chance, you run into them at another convention while waiting for an elevator only not to recognize them, getting off on Level 1 while they end up getting off on Level 3. I wonder what happened to him? Well afterwards, we ran into Didabarochi/Ben and my friend Mike. We cruise the dealers' room and nab up valuable (to us, anyway) merchandise. Me? I got tons of Ayashi on Ceres manga, other manga, some random pencil boards, and some folders. Once the dealer room closed, we slugged around in a spacious waiting area where we were attacked by random fan photographers for our pictures. I as Eboshi, Nicole as San, Ben as Son Goku, and Mike as Anji from Rurouni Kenshin. We then went to visit some of Nicole's friends in the Artist's Alley. There, I had the laugh of a lifetime when an ex-artist for Mixxzine/Tokyo Pop told Nicole she was the cutest San he had ever seen and asked her "How old are you [little girl]?" To which she replied fiercely, "I'm 17!" The rest of the day she seemed embarrassed, and afterwards we left the illustrious convention. So terribly sad. Though I feel that conventions, for me, aren't ever really ranked as "this was the best for me, that was second best, and that was third best" instead, I feel that each convention holds something separate, special, and dear from another convention. For Anime Expo 2000, I will remember it as the "Hanging Out In The Lobby and DDR Room Convention," the "Mysterious Boy Convention," and best of all the "Masquerade Convention"--the convention where AGSMA ruled! Glad to be on board. Love, Isabel/Natsume. Ranma-chan: Pinocchio parking--walk from B.F.E. to save one dollar...better than not finding a spot in the hotel parking lot, I suppose. I change into SS Goku, and call Trunks again, with the same result. Oh well, no more Mononoke pix. So I figure he's either A) in MH and can't hear the phone or B) he's already gone. So I proceed to Film 1 to hopefully meet the rest of our group after MH is over. I catch Natsume while she's running. She informs me that the dealer's room closes at three. --Not six. OK, time to go shop...? And then a theory dawned on me--Popularity of a character directly corrolates to the number of pictures people ask to take, and is exponentially increased by higher quality of the costume and if there are multiple characters walking together from the same universe. Well, two out of three isn't bad. Cruising the dealer's room I'm stopped at every corner. Target acquired...I see a comic/manga section. Ranma...Ranma...Ranma...#4! And the 8-3 witch I don't know why I didn't have (my store pulls every Ranma from the shelves and holds it for me.) Afterwhch I see the cutest stuffed Mokona, but of course I'm tapped. --Interesting that I can find more stuff I like and can probably spend more money at AX than at SDCC, despite AX's dealer room being 1/10 SDCC's size. More pictures, none of which see my lame boot job because the pants came untucked. But again, the taping of yarn to my shoes was the best I could do in the 20 minutes I had to work, because I thought I had an extra week to get everything done. The group easts, and the line takes forever to get overpriced D-land hotel food. It tasted good though. Kurumi redoes my mouth blood so that they are smaller trickles. We talk for a while, but eventually Natsume and Kurumi leave. I want to stick around for "Con Gripe," to watch for fun (and maybe complain about he center camera showing everything blindingly lit. But first...DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION!!! And these freaks are either really good or have spent big money and have memorized all of the moves and sequences. On to con gripe? No, because they haven't finished the auction that was supposed to end at five. It's seven now. Next came the awards ceremony, closing ceremonies (lame) and Con Gripe. It's not as funny as I'd hoped, so I leave around 9:30. And, at 11:00, at home, I take Goku pictures for the website and my first AX comes to a close. And so... Benma's AX 2000 Agenda Check: 1. Debut SS Goku: Success! 2. Get good copy of New Cutey Honey Volume 3: Failure. 3. Carpool to save parking $: Success Saturday, failure others. 4. Enter (and win) Pokemon Stadium tournament: Failure (since I wasn't there on Sunday.) 5. Try not to do things last minute as a team: Absolute Failure (and my fault.) 6.Hidden Agenda #1: Success!! (Heh, heh, heh) Next up: SDCC 2000. Otonoshimine! Stardate: July 4, 2000 Tuesday If you take a right past the firetruck and go under the railroad bridge, past the flowers in the front, you'll find the Parking Lot and Tram. Mononoke Mountain is a production by AGSMA ©. Anything Goes School of Masquerade Arts (AGSMA) ©. The Anything Goes School of Masquerade Arts (AGSMA) and all content, including pictures, on this page (unless otherwise noted) is copyright to AGSMA, and cannot be used without prior permission. This page hosted by This Provider. |