Artifaxis is updated on Tuesday and Friday
Well. Amecon was fun :) I think I prefer cons at hotels, especially when it rains so much, but the venue was better than in 2004, when there was a pretty long walk between some of the rooms. It rained then as well. We actually had a very amusing time with the accommodation we had arranged. We booked a double room for two nights in a nearby place, but when Moonshadow arrived there he was told there was only a twin room booked for one night in our name, and they couldn't offer us a double room because there weren't enough staff to clean them. So we were moved to the sister hotel a little further away. When we got there late at night, the lights didn't work. The concierge came and prodded the switches much as we had done, and then went and got us a lamp. He plugged it into the socket and it promptly blew. Thankfully for us - and for him - the second lamp worked. This sort of theme continued throughout the weekend; the second morning there was a steady stream of water coming through the ceiling into the breakfast room. The staff put a bucket under it but didn't seem all that perturbed (for what it's worth, it was a very good breakfast). Then that day, the lifts stopped working at the convention site, and we noticed buckets had also been placed in strategic locations. Is this endemic to Leicester? :)
Once we got to the con, we watched some interesting anime (Area 88, Eureka 7, Spirit of Wonder, s-CRY-ed, Samurai 7 - which was excellent), and we did the normal convention things as well as spending time in the dealers' room (although not as much time as usual). I manned the art room for a bit; there was some excellent art going up there. We ran a competition, and the winner of the fan art had drawn a fantastic picture of Beano characters in manga style. We loved it. The masquerade was excellent, although arranged a little oddly - there were two rooms for the crowd and we sat in the second room, so as each cosplayer came through to pose for us, we heard the following cosplayer being announced. Hopefully we'll have some pictures of the costumes, which get better with every convention. The AMV competition was good fun - we entered our new video (Mum's Coming to my House, available on the AMV page), which made it to the shortlist, where it was beaten by some truly excellent videos. Later on, there was an AMV disco with cheesy 80s music, where they played our It's Raining Bishounen AMV, among many, many others. We ran a panel on making comics, which went well (or so I am told) - I think I'm getting used to public speaking. It's weird that I'm fine telling people how to draw and make comics, which is not something I am all that brilliant at, really, but I'm not comfortable giving talks on the topics I've spent four years of my life researching, in a subject I have studied for eight years or so. The dealers' room was overall quiet and our sales went slowly but steadily. I had made CDs of When I Rule the World, and sold two, which I think is pretty good. We missed a couple of anime I'd have liked to have seen, and also the 'Omake' session, which was the skits and performances which would normally have been given during the masquerade. That was held on the Sunday, and I would have liked to have gone.
I found the sheer number of people a little odd, and I missed being in a hotel at the site of the convention. But those are minor gripes - it was a good weekend, and we're definitely going back :)
On a different note, Looking for the Sun 18 is finally done. Volumes 1 and 2 have been reviewed as well - here and here. Woo!
- Sun Kitten, 15th August '06
Well. Amecon was fun :) I think I prefer cons at hotels, especially when it rains so much, but the venue was better than in 2004, when there was a pretty long walk between some of the rooms. It rained then as well. We actually had a very amusing time with the accommodation we had arranged. We booked a double room for two nights in a nearby place, but when Moonshadow arrived there he was told there was only a twin room booked for one night in our name, and they couldn't offer us a double room because there weren't enough staff to clean them. So we were moved to the sister hotel a little further away. When we got there late at night, the lights didn't work. The concierge came and prodded the switches much as we had done, and then went and got us a lamp. He plugged it into the socket and it promptly blew. Thankfully for us - and for him - the second lamp worked. This sort of theme continued throughout the weekend; the second morning there was a steady stream of water coming through the ceiling into the breakfast room. The staff put a bucket under it but didn't seem all that perturbed (for what it's worth, it was a very good breakfast). Then that day, the lifts stopped working at the convention site, and we noticed buckets had also been placed in strategic locations. Is this endemic to Leicester? :)
Once we got to the con, we watched some interesting anime (Area 88, Eureka 7, Spirit of Wonder, s-CRY-ed, Samurai 7 - which was excellent), and we did the normal convention things as well as spending time in the dealers' room (although not as much time as usual). I manned the art room for a bit; there was some excellent art going up there. We ran a competition, and the winner of the fan art had drawn a fantastic picture of Beano characters in manga style. We loved it. The masquerade was excellent, although arranged a little oddly - there were two rooms for the crowd and we sat in the second room, so as each cosplayer came through to pose for us, we heard the following cosplayer being announced. Hopefully we'll have some pictures of the costumes, which get better with every convention. The AMV competition was good fun - we entered our new video (Mum's Coming to my House, available on the AMV page), which made it to the shortlist, where it was beaten by some truly excellent videos. Later on, there was an AMV disco with cheesy 80s music, where they played our It's Raining Bishounen AMV, among many, many others. We ran a panel on making comics, which went well (or so I am told) - I think I'm getting used to public speaking. It's weird that I'm fine telling people how to draw and make comics, which is not something I am all that brilliant at, really, but I'm not comfortable giving talks on the topics I've spent four years of my life researching, in a subject I have studied for eight years or so. The dealers' room was overall quiet and our sales went slowly but steadily. I had made CDs of When I Rule the World, and sold two, which I think is pretty good. We missed a couple of anime I'd have liked to have seen, and also the 'Omake' session, which was the skits and performances which would normally have been given during the masquerade. That was held on the Sunday, and I would have liked to have gone.
I found the sheer number of people a little odd, and I missed being in a hotel at the site of the convention. But those are minor gripes - it was a good weekend, and we're definitely going back :)
On a different note, Looking for the Sun 18 is finally done. Volumes 1 and 2 have been reviewed as well - here and here. Woo!
- Sun Kitten, 15th August '06
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