Have visited Benma 1/2's Spring Splash II since April 21, 2000.
SDCC 1998
SDCC 1999
AX 2000
SDCC 2000
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BENMA'S CHRONICLES: SDCC 2000 MONDAY, JULY 17th: 3 DAYS BEFORE CONVENTION With an extra week inbetween AX and CCI, I thought I would have plenty of time to finish my costume(s). But Ucchan is delayed in meeting Kasumi and determining the black light situation, so we decide to handle it there. I leave about 11:30 so I can make the scheduled 1:30 rendezvous. I take Mom's Ugly Brown Car instead of the BBBMoL since I don't want mine messed with and because she purchased a new truck 2 days before. At 12:30, about 2/3 of the way there, the car overheats due to too much pressure in the radiator system. I call Ucchan, whose cell is NOT on yet, and inform her that I'm going to cool off for an hour and start again. I check things out when it cools down, and everything appears fine, so off I go. I make it to our new rendezvous option, to find NO ONE THERE. They say they're at Wal-Mart, and I hang loose for a good 20 minutes until they arrive. I unload my five(!) costumes and stuff into Ucchan's classroom, and proceed to park at Asuza's parents' place, which has more available parking space than Ucchan's and because I'm not taking it across the border, even if it would fit right in. Now it's time for some SHOPPING!!!--But not THAT type of shopping. We need to find a leotard for Ucchan's Inque and a hat for P. Kuno's Grey Ghost. We spent more time driving than anything else. But that's OK. We head home, and I help clean the place for an hour, since two weeks notice wasn't enough. Better than not having a place to stay. P. Kuno molds a Batarang, in addition to watching "Black Out" for more research. Time for bed, so we can wake up obscenely early for the border crossing. TUESDAY, JULY 18TH, 2 DAYS BEFORE CONVENTION P. Kuno's brother stops by and drops us off at the border where Ucchan is supposed to pick us up @ 6:40. Fifty minutes later she's not there. We bum a ride from a guy with a pickup truck. While P. Kuno is teaching, I read and sand one half of the Batarang. Ucchan shows up and we go eat, followed by multiple thrift stores. We get everything but P. Kuno's hat. We waste $15 on fabric which glows, but not as brightly as what we found at Salvation Navy. Damn. But we "lived and learned" a lot at this convention. Costume progress is slowly being made. ...Very slowly. Back at P. Kuno's, he sands the batarang and paints it black. Back to sleep for another 3 hours. WEDNESDAY, JULY 19TH, CONVENTION EVE FINALLY I get a computer!! My father's e-mail was shut down for 2 weeks already (and 2 more after I return home) due to a late payment; I get to check e-mail and update my website for the first time since. I also continue work on team shirts (FINALLY) because we bought them yesterday. No one believes me when I tell them that I didn't use that time for sleep. We go looking for P. Kuno's hat after picking up our pre-reg badges ($35 vs. 9 hours of volunteer work...an easy decision to make.) We head to Party City and get tights for Blossom and a $3 plastic hat for the Grey Ghost. We head home again, and dye the Dana dress blue (it started out lavender.) Time to sleep, for tomorrow is a BIG day. THURSDAY, JULY 21st, FINALLY, THE COMIC CON HAS COME BACK TO SAN DIEGO Ucchan and P. Kuno sneakily took the day off so we can hit the Con. Or at least, it would have been good if the sub had shown up and he didn't have to lose an hour. P. Kuno rather unselfishly sacrifices 2 1/2 hours of convention time preparing my makeup for my Darth Maul debut. We learn that oil-based makeup does not come off with tearing from eyes. They drop me off and go to lunch with a friend. I cruise the hall and get a great response, especially with the lightsaber in hand. Someone wants a rad pose of man and a Han Solo (who later entered the masquerade!). Then I spot a train of Jawa-twips trailing another Darth Maul, who I sneak up behind. "A Sith should not be unarmed," I say, and we discuss makeup and costuming details. Twice I head over to the masquerade table, but don't get forms because I want to do it as a group. This would cost us an hour of costume work on Friday, as we had to go back to get the forms because when we did have a group to get the papers, the booth had closed. Trunks and I leave shortly before Ucchan and P. Kuno to continue costume work. Trunks finishes Strider (mostly) and I continue to work on team shirts. "Are you sure Natsume is 12 and Kurumi is 13?" "Yeah, yeah, whatever." OK. Here goes. Of course their numbers are transposed. Oh well. We head back to TJ for another half night of sleep. P. Kuno yells at Trunks and I to shut up so he can sleep, but chatting for hours at night is a tradition we've developed since '98. So we whisper quietly (and sneakily) afterwards. Heh heh heh. FRIDAY, JULY 21st, SDCC DAY TWO Another day, another 3 hours of sleep, another border crossing. Trunks applies the final touches to Strider while I continue team shirts and script editing. We do afore-mentioned extra trip to get the masquerade forms. Kasumi is there and starts messing with my mind. I start getting antsy as Trunks is circling, and while I appreciate the feeling of being "in" I know I can only goof around later. During this trip, I have cut out the Freeze Gun as per Trunks' instructions and it looks pretty sweet. We get food and head back to the classroom. I continue work on Eggbaby, but as soon as Ucchan and P. Kuno show up, they want to leave instead of working on costumes. Trunks and I voice concern over only 1 of 9 walkaround/masquerade costumes being done, but oh well. I don SS Goku and off we go. Trunks walksaround as Terry McGinnis (fitting, since he'll be Batman tomorrow) and is recognized by Kasumi alone. I, on the other hand, am stopped for pictures, including with the voice actor for Goku and the voice actress for Gohan. Man was she hot! Of course, Trunks and I want to leave to work on costumes, but scratch that because we only took one car. So I sign up for the art show, and while Trunks takes more Goku pix, I take some schway shots of my fingers instead of his Terry. So Ucchan needs to shop and retrieve some stuff from home. She drops us off at school...with no keys. That caused something to snap in Trunks, while P. Kuno tries to find a custodian with keys. No dice. Ucchan still hasn't realized that she is in possession of said keys. Then, in a last ditch effort, P. Kuno tries the window to the classroom. It's open. he tells me to jump through quickly to avoid attracting attention. And, being the most agile (read reckless) member of AGSMA, I jump in and open the door. Back to work on costumes. I run out of black paint. We tell Ucchan to get more, and she brings food also. We do gloves and a mask for Blight, and I finish shirt bones and team shirts (ya ta se!!). And hey! Guess what? It just became... SATURDAY, JULY 22nd, SDCC DAY 3 I've been to FOUR conventions. Pulled FOUR all nighters. What a royal pain in the butt. Ucchan's replacment paint that is supposed to take "30 minutes to dry" wasn't dry until 8 AM...an hour AFTER Trunks put his hairdryer on it. More time spent on coreoghraphing fights on paper and in my head and synching it to the music. Inque is almost done at this point, as is Blight. So we decide to take a quick nap. (Or more accurately, we would have passed out anyway if we hadn't.) Upon waking up, Ucchan and I need to head to P. Kuno's to retrieve stuff. She quizzes me on how to get there in case of emergency. I pass. We find some items we needed, and a few extras we didn't think of to boot. After crossing back (thankfully quickly) we get breakfast and COFFEE and head back. Blight is FINALLY done. Inque still needs an arm piece. We finish Blossom (except for the convenient part of SHAVING MY LEGS) and head to the Con. --Note to team--next year, two sewing machines and all costumes done before con. --Note to self--need to shave legs for Blossom. So Ucchan and I (with Trunks in the back to drive the car back) head for the Takahashi signing with Batman, our centerpiece, unfinished. Oh well. Masquerade isn't my main concern anyway. Besides, my costume is done!! Of course a soundtrack would be nice, but reverb because of a remote left at home (Duh!) and the key voice actors no longer available for work make that a little difficult. Yesterday, Ucchan and P. Kuno won prized slots for the Takahashi signing, and in the biggest gesture of friendship, he have it to me and made my convention. I owe him big. So we walked around as the Powerpuff girls. The reason Blossom took so long was because Ucchan and I had determined that I needed a size 18. She made a 16. Doh! But it finally got done after adding an inch to both sides of the dress. No Utonium, though. But Batman needs to get done, and he is an asset we can't afford to not have working. So we get in line for Takahashi and people spot us for pictures without walking around. Including the Ralf dude from yesterday's Goku, who accosts poor Kodachi. So we start moving to get the line going, but he can't seem to take a hint. So as the leader, I have to go in and save her before Ucchan's Buttercup goes ballistic. I should have saved her sooner. Poor girl. But we got her back. One fan had a card for Takahashi-san which we all signed. So we get to the front and Ucchan and I get our Ranma 1/2 # 1s signed concurrently. Then I venture out with, "Takahashi-san,..." and spoke Japanese. At first, she seemed a little surprised to hear a guy's voice in Japanese coming from what (sort of) looks like a girl. Ucchan says that I impressed Takahashi-san with my Japanese. I thought I sucked. But either way, the signing was the highlight of my convention. So Kodachi has to go do some sucky volunteering and Ucchan and I turn in the last masquerade form. I am supposed to meet Natsume and company for their backstage passes, AT FOUR, which other members griped about. But we only have until FOUR to get the proper audio tape in. Doesn't seem like a bad idea, now does it? So we head back to record our awful reverb/static soundtrack. Trunks and I load up 3 completed costumes and miscellaneous props and blitz to the convention center. So Trunks puts me on a corner with the tape to run up with it while he parks. And DAMN!! The walkway is two abreast with people leaving. GRRR. So I try to run up the car exit--there's no car in sight--and this jerk blows a whistle. I should have kept going; he couldn't have caught me. But I act like a good little boy, and start swimming upstream, yelling "Excuse me, pardon me" at every step. It's no better inside the building, and I'm cutting and running at full speed, dodging people as if I was force-aided. The only other problem was this dumb broad who asked "Why are you running." You know, if I didn't have a good reason, I wouldn't be wasting my already depleted energy, now would I??? Even if Ucchan says I run on batteries, they need to recharge once in a while. I even see Natsume and company on the way in, turning backwards and yelling "Eboshi" and raising my hand to get her attention and indicate my position. And even running backwards, I didn't run into anyone (although the hallway was much less crowded.) The tape is in!! (At 4:05) I distribute t-shirts, carry up the stuff, and Ucchan calls and tells me that Kodachi's volunteering sucked and she didn't have fun, so "Take her to the floor and make sure she has fun." Um...OK. And I'm thinking, "How?" I guess I did my job. We checked Viz, but no one else won a Takahashi ticket. Again I thanked GOD that P. Kuno gave me his ticket. We also signed up ofr the Playstation 2 drawing, but didn't win that, either. At six, we head up to the backstage area. Trunk's cameras still haven't turned up, and he's a wreck. The stage crew invites me onstage to set up the black lights. You know you're either important or in with the right crowd (or just a royal pain in the butt) if they invite you backstage for consulting. So the black lights are set. Until I hear that the plug we were using is for the video camera. Great. Hey, I don't need the stupid thing taped, I just want my costume to look good! What about me? What about Ran-chan? Anyways. I ask if he can split it, which didn't seem to connect. I just have to thank the guy for his effort and trying to make it work, even if it didn't. But he tells me the option of pumping up the fog with a black light behind it. It would reflect off of the fog and back onto me. It'll have to work. We barely get Batman stitched together at 7:30 (or later) for pictures. And P. Kuno left the Bruce Wayne jacket in the classroom. Good one! So we leave to get it. An hour later, we're back, not having blocked the skit, let alone rehearsed it, but I explained to P. Kuno second by second what needs to happen. So we're up and I'm putting on Blight. No I'm not. P. Kuno decided to take the goggles and had down to the car in case anything happens to them. So once again, the fastest AGSMA member is elected to run down. And even that almost didn't happen, as I decide to jump a rope barrier, and land without traction! Stupid dress shoes. But with my inherent Ranma ability, I manage to stay upright without spraining or breaking an ankle, so at least something's going right. Back up. Trunks doesn't want to rehearse. I don't blame him, especially since I had to leave the tape in the car to save time. I block everything and we run through it--ONCE--before we move to the "In the hole" line. While there, I go over the more complicated piece, the Ucchan/Trunks/I fight, and we move to the "on deck" line. Some confusion as to where to start until I correct the situation. So our music starts. The lights are up, no fog, and no blacklight. Great. Everything's fine util I'm standing too close after Trunks falls. Oops. Then Ucchan grabs him and...beat...WHERE'S MY LINE??? We're EARLY?!? Improv time. Can't just keep punching him, so I start taunting. The dialogue FINALLY starts. He pushes us off and DAMN!! jumped back too far. Trunk's punches hit air. We're also too far back for him to grab our heads to smash them together. We stand there, and when we realize the mistake, we lean forward and hit ourselves, making too much contact for Ucchan's liking. But my head has a certain Geodude-like quality to it, so I barely notice. So we're a little off now, but the dancing is on. I walk over and...no P. Kuno. I should have yelled something. Out comes the freeze gun. Too late. I'm finally decked. Too late. We didn't look as bad on the tape, but we sucked. No rehearsal will do that to you. Expecially in a complicated fight scene. I guess it was a reality check from above, reminding us to have fun, not just to go for the win. And that maybe we shouldn't do Comic Con masquerade on leap years--1996's Mortal Fiasco came to mind. Trunks and I took it the worst, because the masquerade was the focal point of his convention and because I am a performer and a perfectionist, a deadly combination to begin with; but add to that the fact that I was the chief choreographer, and I was devastated. So everyone is silent going offstage. I rip my mask off--it's hot under there--and Trunks yells at me to put my mask back on. There's two groups in front of us, so I wait a minute before complying. I take over center stage for the press photos, doing a classic Blight zapping pose and then crossing my arms, which I then chuckled at because I wasn't angry with anyone other than myself. But the photographers ate it up anyway. We declined interviews and go back to the green room. On the way, Ucchan, P. Kuno and I discuss that we should have done Powerpuffs because we would have had fun and spent less time on costumes and more in the actual convention. But Trunks was adamantly opposed to it, which is why we then agreed to do Batman Beyond with him. The only real problem I saw was the lack of time to adequately prepare. But you live and learn, right? At least that's the theory. In the green room, I talk some with Natsume, but I'm still devastated from our pathetic performance. At least everyone looks hella sweet in the team shirts I painted. We stick around just to make absolutely certain that we didn't win anything--that our failure was complete--and leave when our number isn't called. Trunks and I leave to vent while Ucchan and P. Kuno take Kodachi home. Trunks called this convention a waste, and losing his cameras and the masquerade, it was. I got my autograph, which was my reason for coming. He packs up and leaves for home. I decide to organize a little and update my website. We find that the unsealed glue ruined the utility belt on the way home. I eat, and return to P. Kuno's for the first good night's sleep in about a week. SUNDAY, JULY 23rd, FINAL DAY OF SDCC 2000 Wake up at 9:30. Reluctantly, I get moving. P. Kuno wants to be there at ten. Sheah! Right! Especially since he needs to fix his dad's printer AND we need to shower at his mom's (two different locations). We have his brother drop us off to walk across the border, with Ucchan picking us up, but she's late. Can't find their badges. How do you lose something like that? I had a similar episode of not knowing where mine was earlier in the week, but to lose it completely? Well, we find them, and I tell everyone to wear team shirts instead of doing Powerpuff walkaround 2, which would suck, especially without Kodachi's Bubbles. And we're off again (as always). P. Kuno thinks we're walking too slow since he's spent all his time working on a costume that wasn't even his. Ucchan in ponytails did receive numerous discounts for being cute, but I laughed for the rest of the day when she got a discount not for being cute but because she was wearing a Batman Beyond symbol on her shirt, which I painted. It's about time to head up and watch our debacle, so I head to the masquerade viewing room and take a load off. And Sailor Jamboree is HELLA LONG!!! What happened to the two minute time limit?? Half way through, the crowd starts yelling to fast forward. When it was finally over, half the audience seemed to be glad that it was over instead of appreciative of the performance (myself included, I must admit, but of course I saw them already at AX, not to mention here in '99.) But then four of the members walk out almost in tears, and I feel sorry for them. The Best of Con winners at AX AND SDCC 2000 and I feel sorry for them. People can be so mean sometimes. They were good, but just too long! And they have to realize that in America, not many people are going to want to sit through four minutes of Japanese music without understanding a single word (of course, I don't have that problem). So we are soon thereafter, and while it didn't look as bad as it seemed, it still sucked. At least Trunks thought it wasn't as bad as Mortal Fiasco. I get my art show piece, or rather, try to find the crackhead artist who took his piece back down despite the fact that someone had placed a bid and won. Then we pre-reg for next year and I buy an Obi-Wan lightsaber from P-Chan. We get Chinese food because the Hawaiian place is closed, and clean up Groundzero (FKA Ucchan's Classroom). Back to Mexico, back to sleep, back to the grind (at least for Ucchan and P. Kuno). Which leads us to my SDCC Agenda check: 1)Get Ranma 1/2 #1 signed by Takahashi-san: SUCCESS!! 2)Debut Darth Maul: SUCCESS!! 3)Redeem Anime Pavillion Certificate: Failure. 4)Trade New Cutey Honey Vol. 4: Failure. 5)Debut Blossom: SUCCESS!! 6)Try not to do things last minute as a team: Absolute failure 7)Hidden Agenda #2: Failure 3/7. Not bad. Not good, either. Next up: Vacation. See you next year!! POST MORDEM: MONDAY, JULY 24th AND TUESDAY, JULY 25th Well, they're back to teaching, so I'm back to surfing. I finish updating my website and AIM Trunks and P-Chan. Trunks found his cameras, which were in his suitcase after all. We eat at the Hawaiian place, and they take a quick nap. We watch Mazinger-Z and I take my nap. Off to sleep for the night. Then we repeat the school/e-mail & AIM portions. I resolve mini-gauntlet with P-Chan which he barely wins. I mean barely--our first match, I killed off one of his guys but had less overall energy in my three than his two. We go to Cold Stone, watch X-Men and Pokemon 2K (but pay for Pokemon to get the Ancient Mew double-sided hologram--sneaky, eh?), and I leave for home and a doctor's appointment. I owe Ucchan & P. Kuno so much money that I have to sign off my first born to them. Maybe it IS better that I went home. Oh well, all good things must come to an end, as the old cliche goes. Again, see you next year! But keep an eye open on Halloween, too. owari Benma 1/2's Spring Splash II (BSSII) (c). Anything Goes School of Masquerade Arts (AGSMA) (c). All content, including pictures, on this page (unless otherwise noted) is copyright to BSSII or AGSMA, and cannot be used without prior permission. This page hosted by Geocities. Get your own Free Home Page |