AWA Mine, ahem, nine.

Getting a ride to this con was pretty hectic but it all panned out. My friend Jason from about a years ago resurfaced through some co-workers and I met him in person for the first time a week before the con. He was leaving early Friday morning so I would need to take the day off of work, which luckily went through. We headed off about 9am that morning. No rain or anything this year either, and the drive went fast too since I had just met this guy we had lots to talk about. He turned out to actually be the guy who made the music video that used the transformers movie opening song years back at AWA4’s video contest! Small world! Once we hit Atlanta we swung by wally world and got some snacks. Dr. thunder, mini mt. Dews, gushers, fruit roll-ups, and Doritos.

Liz, joey, and chris/james met me right out front of the renaissance and helped unload everything to the room. For some ODD reason jason’s two friends just kind of stood around and watched us do everything and didn’t even follow us up to the room to grab his stuff, jeez! Mckayla and Cheryl were in the room now changing and I dumped out all of my luggage. TV was easy enough to jack into so I setup the ps2 and the tv/vcr combo I brought. Nothing was going on until the Otaku Unite panel so we killed some time walking along the artist alley talking to people and going to the dealer’s room. The room was very well organized this year and had a great variety of things to buy. In the far back of the dealer’s room was about 20 old old school arcade games. The deal was that if you got the highest score on the game over the course of the weekend, the entire arcade game would be yours! The only ones I was interested in getting were Bubble Bobble and Mr. Do! But I was out of quarters so I didn’t get to compete. Besides, there was absolutely NO way id be able to lug an arcade machine back home anyway.

The Otaku Unite panel was coming up and it took 3 of us hunting in all directions in order to find the main video room. The con map was no help at all but there was a main floor map that showed You Are Here which helped us find it. Eric was right in front of the room greeting people and thanking everyone for showing up to see the Movies Of My Dreams production. The room was set up nice so that the chairs angled downward and there was enough to fit about 100 people. Dave Merrill, Steve Bennett and Eric Bresler all gave thanks and said a few notes before the movie began about what we were about to see and what went into making it. In our group watching it were Liz, Joey, James, and myself. The movie began with some shots and background info on the monster suit wrestling group known as Kaiju Big Battel. It was really humorous and they showed all of the characters involved in that idea. The Otaku Unite documentary was about an hour long and pretty much explained what goes on in the bizarre world of anime and convention fandom. They covered all areas such as cosplay, music, voice acting, and various kinds of fan participation. They also went into the stranger sides of fandom such as Yaoi, Xplay (Cross-dressing), and some of the more unusual types of people you might meet at these things. There were a bunch of interviews of some of the major people in the anime scene who explained what we do and why we like these big round-eyed cartoons so much anyway. Among these people were people ranging from the average fan to some of the people that started the anime scene from the beginning (voice of Speed Racer go far enough back, ya think?) We were really happy to see Fujikoma was listed in the credits (above MegaTokyo! XD) of the film as well as getting a sneak cameo when they discussed various fan clubs that can be found on the internet. After the film everyone clapped and we went to get pictures with Eric and the crew who made it. He even did quick interviews of our reaction to the movie. We joked around with this a bit saying "I was a cracked out drug fiend…..but then Otaku Unite changed my life!". In all seriousness though, we let Eric know that his production went very very well and wished him the best on the success of the documentary.

Kate had mentioned possibly going to a punk concert tonight and James was keen on the idea too. Since we had lost most of our group and the rest of Fujikoma wouldn’t be arriving until late late (around 8pm they had still not even started leaving Jacksonville!) we decided to go to this instead of the con. The band we went to see, Treephort, wouldn’t be playing until 10pm so we went to Steak & shake and got something to eat. Kate was a regular here so her waiter Bill gave us excellent service and the food was really good. We grabbed some employee hats before we left. There was still some time before the concert so I stopped off at Sherlock liquor and loaded up. This was the -most- unorganized store I’ve ever seen and I spent a good 30 minutes trying to find everything. Of my original plan not to spend more than $60 ($70 thanks to James) I ended up going over to a grand total of $90.76. A full box of nothing but hard alcohol all ready set, we left to go see Treephort play. The club was way full now (of jailbait cuties and burned out punk kiddies =P) and it was extremely hot. So much that just standing around worked up a sweat. The audience was more lively now compared to when we arrived earlier that night and was not only skanking, but tossing around people, crowd surfing and getting into pushing shoulder-ramming mosh fights. Treephort definitely started everyone up because they would interact with the crowd (keyboardist yelling into peoples faces, and making out with one guy) and pull off the most bizarre shit. Some band members ripped clothes off during a song, one guy plugged a toaster into his crotch, another guy stripped down to his speedos (actually that was the same guy!). Tonight was one of their best shows because they actually had a guy playing the horn parts of songs and even he went all out and wore a medieval squire outfit while onstage. The final encore to their concert was the best thing the entire night; VOMIT. Yes, live vomiting on the stage. The main guy and and another band member got about a gallon worth of chocolate Yoo-Hoo’s and started downing them left and right. They had a trash can there to hold the mess but once they got going, it was all over the place. They didn’t stop at just once either, because after the first load they chugged another few bottles and went again, gagging themselves to conjure up more. One time he coughed up such a mess it came out his nose and spilled on the audience. It was sooo sick but cool as hell because everyone was cheering and screaming. The last vomit ended with them vomiting on each other and then making out. This was all done to really easy listening music requested by the band leader. James and I both bought their shirt with the skull & crossbones logo and we talked to the merchandise guy to see if they'd play somewhere close to us because the punk scene was dead.

We got back to the hotel and I caught Nikki and her guy in the lobby. Now was the opportune time to watch Suicide Circle! Mike, Joey, HoA Mike, Liz, Gomez and Gomez’s girlfriend found their was to our room and they said they would watch too. Luckily gomez’s girlfriend knew how to mix drinks so we were in luck with that. She brewed up something funky in the coffee cup so we once again had Coffee Pot Of doom this year, and it was blue. Half of the group all wanted to talk, so instead of being loud in the bathroom while we watched the movie they stood outside talking so they wouldn’t bother us. The general reaction the movie was pretty dull since everyone expected a true BR gorefest/dark comedy. Nikki is a huge BR fan and she liked it, but the rest of us just liked certain scenes.

It wasn’t until around 2 am when the rest of the people in our room showed up but once they did the room got packed fast. Josh, ?, and ben had brought two guitars and a complete drum set. Part by part the entire drum set arrived and filled up at least a quarter of the room. It was pretty cool really but took up so much space. I showed everyone my Fujikoma hell vol. 3 compilation tape or what Gomez named "Tape Of Crazy shit" which included the Arfenhouse flash animations, corny music videos, jackass stunts, commercials, SNL Jeopardy, internet jokes, SARS jokes, and whatever else I could fit into 2 hours of tape. The elite few of us who stayed around (joey, kate, james, chris, me) had noticed that the drink mixes weren’t doing anything for us and we needed something more powerful. Chris had brought his Cowboy Bebop highball shotglasses with him (gifts from me ^_-) to the con so we took turns dueling up and doing shots of 99 Banannas. Everyone liked it and none of us got sick off of it. We went by the pool but it was closed and sealed off. I grabbed an apple sitting in the exercise room here which fed me for the night. After that, Soni called me asking me to swing by the 417 party where steve Bennett was at. I brought chris and Joey along but once we arrived things got ugly….reeeal ugly. Like, only two females in the room here, Steve Bennett snoozing away as usual and shawnZero getting spanked with a leather belt. It sucked for Steve because he woke up just as the spanking was happening and was totally grossed out. Outside the room we chatted with this Lagato costume lady who had the badge name of "Pabst blue ribbon" and trigun guy with a Mohawk. They hooked me up with some PBR and said they have a tub full of it in their room. On the hunt for whatever was left we swung by the closed videogame room and doodled on their signs. Joey couldn’t fall asleep because in less than an hour she had to pick up Amy at the greyhound station. I told her that I’d stay up with her and drive since she was so tired (tipsy).

Finding the greyhound station for Marietta wasn’t a problem at all but finding a parking area was impossible. The entire station was fenced off and we couldn’t find an entrance or exit anywhere. We ended up just leaping a fence to get over to it. Amy arrived and we drove her back to Sofia’s and got some rest. Around noon we got up and drove Sofia to her job interview at Razzoo’s Cajun grill. Since we were driving her to work afterward we needed to find a way to kill time for an hour. Early on, joey seemed kind of shocked that I’d never heard of the gloriousness that is Media Play so I told her because of that we just HAD to go there and I just HAD to buy something before we left. This was the dumbed down Media Play we went to that surprisingly didn’t have a CD Singles section. I bought THE WORST MOVIE EVER Troll 2 for comedic value and THE BEST MOVIE EVER Fight Club for joey since she had not seen it yet. We found a used singles section that had everything on 50% discount at the front of the store that had so many rare cds made in Holland and England and ended up getting nearly $60 worth of stuff at this store. Media Play rocks the house! After dropping off Sofia we went back to get Amy hopefully in time to make the dealers room back at the con. It was 5pm now and she was STILL asleep. There was no way we’d be able to make it to the con in time. On top of that a giant Atlanta rain storm came out of nowhere which slowed things down even more.

Joey and I had not eaten all day so we both changed clothes and showered then went to find people to go eat with us. The majority of people had just got done eating (at Hooters!) so nobody wanted to go. There wasn’t anything better to do so Kate, Chris, and Lee came along. We wandered back and fourth where to go but since it was so late now the only places open would mean we’d need to drive there. Drive we did; and in ssssttyle! Kate’s Mustang (‘stang!) convertible had its top down and we all squeezed in and went out to Waffle House. To Kate’s dismay they were totally out of Chocolate Pie and wouldn’t get another shipment until 10:30 so she just ended up playing all of joey’s loud cell phone mini games while we ate.

We split up once we got back to the hotel and searched for any ongoing parties. 417 had started light and there were a few people we knew there like Emily and Liz. Some guy offered me a drink of this goblet filled with crap he called Blue Balls, which was totally weak. We heard from party recon (joey) down at the artist alley that 810 was just starting up so chris and I grabbed Anna and went to check it out. They were checking Ids at this one but let Anna and Chris slide. The room had both beds stacked in the corner and blacklight going with glow in the dark designs lined against the wall. The drink of the night here called Razzamataz was SO Freakin’ Good! Both chris and I got it and loved it. Anna wanted a Screwdriver but we didn’t even get started on it when security busted the room and was telling everyone that if you didn’t have an id or were under 21 that you need to stand to the side for them to deal with you. As luck had it Anna had already snuck by the security but chris was still lined up to show ID. They cleared mine (I tried being pushy and distractive to clear chris through but…) then checked chris’s and thankfully only looked at the year, not month and he got by. Close call! The dances were going on but the music coming from them was either trendy crap like Ramstein Du Haust or DDR music so we ditched that idea. Hooked up with Soni back at 417 and chatted for awhile before we met up with joey again back at the artist alley. Anna was wearing down (only 5 hours of total sleep for the weekend does that to ya) and split off and we went to our room and chilled out for awhile. Ben and his friend were playing Nintendo song remixes on their guitar and we were watching Fight club with subtitles so we could hear the music and still have something to watch. Elly and Fuji said they were going back to their apartment soon and wanted to know if I’d like to come with them to see it. Soni was completely dissatisfied with the con and couldn’t wait to leave and the room situation took a turn for the worse so I went back to their place Saturday night.

Elly had warned us that her 3rd kitten was still being housetrained and might have taken a leak on the carpet and sure enough had not just taken a leak while we were gone but took a fresh one just as we arrived on her backpack of all things, gah! Her apartment was really cool though and had videogame promotional things everywhere and she was even nice enough to cook us some ramen before her and Fuji went to bed. Soni and I were still pretty wide awake so we played DDR for a bit then got tired and decided to find something to watch. Elly had Dragon Half, which both of us loved but neither of us had seen for years. I got up to half of the movie and just fell right asleep.

I woke up the next morning to hear that the Fuji room had to be out of the hotel by 10am (20 min from the time he called) and I asked him to stay longer because everyone at the apartment was completely asleep. He called back a few minutes later to say they had gotten a flat tire on their rented van and would need me to get my stuff before noon or they were leaving without me to get my stuff. Fuji was cool with it and said he’d be able to get me there in time. Chris and Lee were waiting outside of the room and thankfully all of my stuff and then some was waiting for me to get it. The room itself was a complete sty. I did a final combover to see if I had left anything but all of my stuff seemed intact so I loaded my things into Jason’s car and we were all packed. Both of us wanted to say final good-byes to everyone so we agreed to stay until 2 till we leave. Soni and I went by the dealer’s room and I ended up spending a good $50 on last minute deals. Joey had gotten a Jumping Flash muu muu character plushie earlier so I wanted to find another, but ended up finding an even better main character, Robbit, instead. I also bought cliff a new pair of goggles to replace his previous two pairs that been whored around into oblivion. We saw the Otaku Unite booth handing out all sorts of promotional items like temporary tattoos, fridge magnets, and stickers so we went there and talked with Gaeson for a bit. There were CD soundtracks for the Japanese band Lolita No. 18 on sale here so I bought Soni one and got a picture with Gaeson.

Tirki was going around getting people to meet up for a final big group picture so we went there next and got everyone we could to be in it. I called chris and it turned out they had already left and were on the road home so that was half of us that missed out on that but I caught McKayla and (*Shock!*) Renee in passing and got them to be in the picture with us. Lionel was nice enough to take everyone’s picture with several cameras. After that James, Mike, joey and I all got together and did an awesome Suicide Circle picture. See if you can figure out the riddle! If you saw the movie you’ll understand.

We left the hotel after that and Jason and I dropped Soni at her new apartment. We stopped by Auburn on the way back and I met one of the club presidents, Bo and talked about the con for a bit. I showed him the Fujikoma (fugikoma) page which he thought looked pretty cool.

+GOOD+
+Great hotel; very open, bright, clean
+Giant phallic tables in the lobby
+Two game rooms and great selection of games
+Good variety in dealers room with affordable prices
+Free candy in the ladies room!
+The Otaku Unite! panel
+FIVE glass see-though elevators which actually got fixed when two broke

-BAD-
-hotel security busting every attempt at a room party
-security busting us for standing in the hallways
-no parodies played
-Shitty music at the dances
- 9 years running and its still the SAME CON

"You know if Jan Scott-Frazier is in the lobby late at night complaining about the con, its gotta suck."

"Shut the door!"
"Shut your mouth!"

"Bake Sale! Aiie! My Cherry Pies! "
"Balogna skin strips?"