|
||||
| Crescent City Con, or as its known by the locals as "CCC" or just "C3" was held in New Orleans the same weekend as AFO. Why did I choose this over Fujikoma’s top rated anime convention of the year? Eh well Friday the job needed me so getting the day off would be impossible and the 11 hour drive was looking grim. So instead I went along with Soni, Elly, and Ling on a 5 hour drive down to the bayou swamps of New Orleans. Soni had been going to this con since it started and to her, its her favorite. I knew absolutely nothing about it and hadn’t even seen the con’s website before going so I had almost no idea what I was getting into. What is CCC all about? Parties! Some sci-fi here and there, kiddies activities, a few costumes, and late night Fantasm-ish panels but… this con definitely knows how to party. The drive Friday afternoon wasn’t bad at all. It was mainly finding out where to meet up with everyone but once we got on the road it was a cinch. We only stopped once getting there! Arriving at the hotel the first thing you notice is that the hotel (Landmark Best Western) was… round. Every floor would lead you in circles. Kind of odd but its got its benefits. We learned first that the hotel had NO bellhops, and any carts you could get would have to be from whoever used it previously so well… we got no carts. About six or so trips back and fourth (Mainly carrying Elly and Soni’s many many platform boots -_-) our room was set. We even had our own unique little bar set up. The entire hotel seemed to be out of ice but someone suggested I check the bar on the top floor to see if theyd hook me up. Sure enough there was a guy at the bar who was also an employee there. He took me to the kitchen area and just freakin shoveled ice into the cooler I was lugging around! Thanks whoever you are! Ling began using his much endorsed vodka filter which made even the cheapest alcohol taste like the expensive kind (think Absol to Grey Goose) and since it was already late afternoon, we started looking for parties. Oh, and for a bit we were Stuck in our room! Yep! The handle on the door broke off and we couldn’t escape! Someone fixed it shortly after though. Ah yes, and I got to meet Holly Wood! BLT (Black tie Lingerie Toga) was the one most of us talked about going to but they were actually looking for badges and were really strict on the dress code. I hadn’t brought any of the requirements but luckily Soni had a suit and tie so I was pretty much dressed for the occasion. We passed up BLT in favor of the party floor, Floor 14. The hee-haw Rebel Party hosted by Joe Bob was the loadest so we all went there. Music was great in here and was pretty much coming from a laptop so if you could swipe WinAmp you could play whatever was on the list. The big thing here was PBR (Pap’s Blue Ribbon). A monstrous cooler full of it and everyone was drinking. The party went out to the porch where even there people were partying. Some people even jumped up on the bed and were dancing! Pretty much the entire floor was room party after room party. The round layout of the hotel meant you could just hit them all up one after another in a circle, so it worked out real well! Going down the hall, the Pirates Party was kinda mellow. A blow up palm tree and giant Captain Morgan cardboard stand was here and only a few people. Next, a Sci-Fi room with cool glow lights, black lights, a real DJ spinning, and a web camera. Elly and I had fun with that. The room next to that had oil wrestling. While it’s a cool idea and all, I didn’t stay long because the room was a bunch of GUYS wrestling. Elly stayed to watch and talk to the guys though. Apparently only one of them was gay. Area 54 was playing music videos. Some Weird Al ones and other odd shows. They had some cool banana drink I liked. Most of tonight’s action was in the Rebel room so we mainly went there. As I faded out I remember going down to the con suite (which was oddly next to the lobby on the very first floor) kicking a Marvin The Martian cardboard stand and some big guy came down saying he had the coolest bathrobe at the con which I told him he didn’t and could have gotten my ass beat if I wasn’t careful. The next morning Elly and I went down to get breakfast at the con suite. They had all sorts of generic cereals and we waited for them to make hot dogs. When the time came for when theyd be ready they were still cold and uncooked, ack. So I walked around the convention area and checked out the dealer’s room. Not very large at all and nothing I really wanted. Mostly tabletop rpg things, shirts, Troma film goods and sci fi books. They DID have an awesome bootleg dvd/video booth there. The guy had battle royale and I asked if he had gotten part 2 yet. He of course didn’t have it as it only came out in japan a week ago, but he did have a movie produced by the same directors, "Suicide Club". He let me and Elly preview it and, man! After just seeing the first two minutes I handed the man my $15 and bought it. Thankfully my PS2 will play DVDRs since that’s what changed Ellys mind on buying a bootleg of Pirates of the Caribbean. We couldn’t find Soni or Ling so Elly and I grabbed some brochures and were almost planning to hop on a tour bus to see New Orleans. Vampire Tours, Museums, Gardens, etc and whatever else this city had to offer. We did end up finding our ride and went out to the city. It wasn’t too packed today and the slight drizzle really set the swampy New Orleans feel, and even though it wasn’t Mardi Gras, people gave out beads anyway for certain favors. Heh heh. Soni took us to this Rizzuto’s place to eat, where she used to work and the food was so great! The place didn’t card either, as most places here don’t care. We also went into a nude dancer place that was 3 floors tall! Its cool here how most buildings along the strip use every floor for some part of business. Fifi Mahoney’s was interesting. Soni and Elly just loved the wigs here as they could be used for nearly any costume. The manager here even mentioned how big of a request she’s gotten since Otakon rolled around. Outside we walked around taking pictures of buildings and saw some breakdance thing going on in the center of downtown. This Army Surplus store was really cool too. It had everything from riot helmets to scout uniforms to giant scythes. Cheap as hell prices too! Elly and Soni got matching full service Marine jackets for only $15. Definitely got to visit there again! Elly and Soni got on their sexy Harry Potter outfits and we went down and caught the last few acts of the cosplay. There weren’t that many entries at all really but there were a few cool ones. One guy did the Microsoft Butterfly and another did a full Ghostbusters suit and pack. There were more kids than adults if I remember correctly. While watching some girl recognized the Harry Potter outfits and was amazed that they were both handmade, especially the tie Elly had been sewing the entire trip down to the con. I think her alias was Jedi Teza or something but she was extremely cute and really friendly. She didn’t come off as a fangirl at all. After the cosplay was a 15-minute speed costume race. The contestants were told who they would need to make a costume of and then they were given minimal materials to create a costume with. Some of the ideas were Mother Teresa, Xena, a Manticore, and a horse (which took two people; one, of course, being the ass). It turned out funny but really cool to see how quickly the costumers fixed everything up. Slave auctions were an hour or so later and these were a riot. Joe Bob hosted it and was constantly slugging back PBR while doing it so it got funnier and funnier as it went along. Most of the male auctions were first and a lot went for bottom dollar. The host helped them on by saying that they would not only get the guy, but a can…no, no… the 6-pack for bidding. All funds went to help some BDSM group. One guy took off his shirt and was flexing his muscles but the host made him get off the stage if he was going to do that. Female auction went sky high starting with the first lady. $200 first bids and they only climbed from there. One guy (who the host labeled as the "Perverted Priest") bought 5 girls! The highest bidding went to Holly who had a tough bidding battle between two guys but the guy sitting right behind me seemed pretty confident that he’d win and did. Soni and Amber were the final contestants and were both in girl scout outfits. Maybe it was because they were last and everyone was out of money but they didn’t go for that much. The Priest won again for a weak $60. Soni went out with a bang though and flipped off the audience. Yay! Went walking around some more. Nothing had started yet, and again the BLT area was being very greedy as far as badges and everything. I got most of the drinks from our room. Killed some time at a beginners BDSM panel which didn’t teach too much and the panel hosts didn’t seem all too excited to be teaching the class because they had probably taught the class way too many times before. Erg, and they have a site on geocities so blah. More wrestling tonight only now it was in the main room. I even got to catch Elly joining in on it this time! The dance was right after it in the same room and oh did I mention that pretty much every main event took place in the one giant panel room? The dance didn’t attract many people and the music wasn’t that good either. It might have been all-requests but most songs were 70s and 80s swing and rock. They sold glowsticks at the DJ table but they were like $2 a piece for the small ones. Soni and Elly were both in their full Marine gear so we didn’t stay at the dance too long. Besides, the parties were getting started up again. The Rebel party again was in full gear and easily the most crowded party room of them all. So crowded that the glass doors to the porch were fogged up and the girls dancing were getting really sweaty. They were actually checking badges now once you got on the floor and for some reason they insisted that you have your badge Above your waist. I ended up just tacking it onto my hat so they’d quit bitchin. Out in the center of the hallway some girl was in a g-string getting severally whipped over and over by lots of people. She seemed to like it so people went harder on her. They were doing it all wrong too according to that panel from earlier but its not as if they were trying to be sexual about it, this was all about pain! They eventually moved it into one of the room parties where another girl got some of the action but she couldn’t take it as well and gave up after a few minutes. It looked like most room parties just gave up and ended up watching sci fi movies instead of trying to compete parties. Sure there was plenty of alcohol to go around but no flashy lights or kickin music. Hotel policy wouldn’t let us extend our stay any later than noon so waking up at 11:30am wasn’t the keenest idea. Soni woke up in surprise to see she got autographed (on her…) and didn’t even know it! We got to say goodbye to Holli and her husband and a few more new faces like angry guy who was downing a quart of straight vodka in the lobby. Loading up the van didn’t seem near as bad as unloading since we finished at least half of the liquor we brought. We stopped by an awesome Sushi bar on the way back that had the best sushi ever: Crunchy Rolls. After that we did a drive around New Orleans. Got to see Anne Rice’s house, Anne Rice’s orphanages, Trent Reznor’s house, and some places Soni used to live. Before we left we just had to get snow cones though. This one tiny little shop had so many great flavors. I got apple pie and man was it great! We all slept real well on the way back home.
+GOOD+ -BAD- ~UGLY~ |
