category: otaku

Providence Anime Conference: Artists Alley

Since I don't have a great track record of finishing giant long entries about my travels in general, I'm planning to write several shorter entries about PAC instead of doing one giant con report. (If you'd like one long con report, feel free to listen to Aaron and me on his podcast, "live" from our hotel room.)

The Artists Alley is a staple at anime conventions. For those readers who haven't had the privilege of attending a con, the Artists Alley generally consists of talented (and not-so-talented) anime fans, selling either fan art or original art, in almost any media you can imagine. In the past, Aaron and I have bought prints, figurines, hats, boxes, t-shirts, and probably other things, too. Usually, though, we skip past much of the original art and the fan-art bookmarks and buttons.

We were pleasantly surprised to find several artists at PAC with unique and skilled reinterpretations of some of our favorite characters, as well as some really compelling original works. Shelli Paroline was the artist behind the official conference graphics (as far as I know), and was selling and displaying some great ink drawings of Totoro, Star Wars, One Piece, and original creations. I really wanted to buy a print of her interpretation of Luke and R2-D2, but she didn't have any more on hand to sell. Neither did she have any more copies of her great Ewok print. So, I satisfied myself with the Totoro print.

I also highly enjoyed Stephanie Yue's prints; most of the ones that caught my eye were super-cute original drawings of martial arts as done by mice. I bought an 11x17 poster of 24 Posture Mouse Tai Chi Chuan — I haven't done the 24-form in years, but watching the mousie do it reminded me of how it goes. There was also a great print of two mousies sparring, and one doing a hip-throw on the other. (Poor mousie — I've been on the receiving end of a hip-throw myself, and it's a little scary, IMO.)

Sharing a table with Stephanie was Zack Giallongo, from whom Aaron bought a Megaman poster. It has a great cel-painted look about it, and has an intricate background full of Megaman villains, bosses, and bad guys.

Also in the Artist Alley was Alison Wilgus. Alison is a friend of the Ninja Consultants, and we met her through them at Otakon two years ago. Unfortunately, she didn't have anything we were interested in buying at the time, but we did enjoy shooting the shit about the con and the panels we attended. Interestingly enough, we seemed to have attended completely opposite panels, but enjoyed the panels we attended equally.

All in all, the Artists Alley at the Providence Anime Conference was small but awesome, from my point of view. I don't usually buy anything from Artists Alley (excepting the massive Artists Alley at Otakon), so buying two prints (and wishing I could have bought more) is a pretty big deal.

Still to cover: panels, accommodations, and the overall "feel" of the con. Stay tuned...

 

One Thing I Saw This Weekend

Seen in the dealer room at the Providence Anime Conference, 5 October 2008.

More photos (and con report) to come...

 

New Toy

I'm sitting in the recliner, typing on our new-to-us laptop with a brand-new stick of RAM installed.

(Note to self: need to trim fingernails before doing any hardcore typing on this here laptop.)

Aaron and I are preparing for our trip to Rhode Island this weekend for the Providence Anime Conference -- he's ironing and spot-cleaning his cosplay, while I'm trying not to fall asleep before I get all my stuff packed and ready to go. The laptop will be accompanying us, despite the fact that our hotel only has wired internet, and we only have wifi on the laptop. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the Convention Center will have wifi. If nothing else, we'll be able to mess around and pre-write blog entries about the con.

New toys are fun.

 

Anime Punch 2008: Armageddicon III

This weekend, Aaron and I took a trip down to Columbus for our first anime convention in over a year. Honestly, it was nice just to get out of town for a weekend. The convention, however, was a great time, as always.

Anime Punch has been one of our favorite conventions the couple of times we've attended, just because they a.) stick to actual anime themes, instead of being an all-encompassing anime / gaming / J-rock convention; b.) insert their collective sense of humor into everything; and c.) include intellectual and intriguing academic panels alongside the typical fan panels. This year was no exception.

But let me begin at the beginning: with bologna sandwiches in Waldo...

read more...

 

New Toy

Since I've had a little extra money to throw around, I've been treating myself here and there to things I've been wanting, but haven't really been able to justify. This time, it was a macro lens for my Nikon D50.

I'd noticed recently that the lens I usually use didn't work so well with close-up photography. This is unfortunate, as I really enjoy finding small and/or unusual things and photographing them as best I can. Granted, I do think my "old" lens is in need of cleaning (OK, I know it is), which would explain the weird glow in the comparison photos I took tonight:

I can get in so much closer now, and the images seem to be crisper and have more contrast. I can also narrow the depth of field waaaaay down, throwing everything but my subject out of focus. (Which, for those of you who have seen a decent amount of my photography, is my usual MO.)

So, now I can give you the marimokkori photo I really wanted you to see:

Note the pronounced, um, mokkori. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about.

OH MY GOD.

 

Japan Update

Aaron's passport arrived on Monday, at which point we faxed in our order for Ghibli Museum tickets to the JTB (Japan Travel Bureau) office in Manhattan. According to Maiko-san, they were overnighted to us today, so we should have them in hand tomorrow. And that's the last piece of the pre-planning puzzle to fall into place.

Aaron and I still need to figure out a more detailed itinerary, but we do have our trip roughly sketched out:

Tuesday:
Leave Detroit Airport 2pm local time

Wednesday:
Arrive Narita Airport 4pm local time
Two-hour limo bus to hotel
Dinner (in hotel?)
Commence jet-lag

Thursday:
Dynamic Tokyo Tour
- Tokyo Tower: check out the observatory and the kitchy souvenir shops
- Tea Ceremony at Happo-en Garden
- Lunch at Chinzanzo Restaurant
- Driveby of the National Diet Building
- Photo-op at the Imperial Palace Plaza
- 40-minute cruise up the Sumida River to Asakusa
- Asakusa Kannon Temple
- Nakamise Dori (Avenue) shopping area
- Drive through Ginza shopping district

After tour: dinner somewhere, then watch Japanese TV in the hotel?

Friday:*
Akihabara!
- Super Potato (collectibles)
- Maid Cafe (lunch or snackies?)
- Kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi - lunch or dinner?)
- Hell, we'll probably visit just about every store there...

Saturday:
Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa - the third largest festival in Japan!
Check out the shops and the festival/parade
Overnight stay in the Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu

Sunday:*
Nakano Broadway - a giant otaku mall in Nakano
Maybe check out the Harajuku girls?

Monday:
Ghibli Museum in Mitaka

Tuesday:
Breakfast, check-out
Limo-bus back to Narita Airport
Depart Tokyo around 4pm local time
Arrive in Detroit around 2pm local time, same day

We still have to fit in a few more definite things, like the Ramen Museum south of Tokyo, and we still need to be sure we have everything marked in our handy-dandy bi-lingual Tokyo atlas. We obviously have some more time to fill in, and the asterisks on Friday and Sunday mean that we might swap our Akiba and Nakano days around, since we'll be closer to Akiba after spending the night in Asakusa, anyway.

Oh, and as a cute illustration, allow me to show you our neighborhood-for-a-week:

Distance from Tokyo Prince Hotel to the nearest 7-11: one-third of a mile.

Let me know if you don't know WTF I'm talking about with some of our itinerary... it's getting late, and I'm getting lazy with the linkage. :-)

OMFG Japan! *head asplodes*

 

My Geeky Worlds Collide

So, I was reading the novelization of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home — you know, the funny Star Trek movie with the whales — when I came upon a scene that was removed from the final draft of the screenplay, but was left in the novelization. I remembered reading this before, but it made a little more sense this time.

In late-20th-century San Francisco, Mr. Sulu is approached by a young Japanese boy, who asks if Sulu is his uncle. Actually, he says, "Ah! Hikaru oji san desu ka?" (Which, truth be told, don't you just use oji for your own family, but ojisan for someone else's? Not sure about the proper politeness factor on this one.) Then the boy asks casually what his uncle is doing here. I recognized the words tokoro, nani o, and desu ka, and the rest of the sentence made sense with the author's prose around the Japanese.

At this point, Sulu replies with some vocab that I don't know, but I can at least recognize the sentence structure. From the English context clues the author provides, he is responding (in antiquated Japanese that he learned from classes on literature) that the boy has mistaken him for someone else. The boy exclaims, "Honto desu ne," which I think means something like, "Really!"

The boy starts to get all creeped out and back off, but Sulu asks the boy to wait with some other words I don't know. Then he asks the boy's name, which I totally understood, and the boy responds that he's Akira Sulu. According to the author's English paraphrase, Sulu of the Enterprise then tells Akira Sulu that he will live a long and happy life, to which the boy responds, "Ogisama arigato gozaimasu," before scurrying off.

I know my Japanese skills are still severely limited at best, but it done my heart good to recognize some Japanese spoken by Hikaru Sulu's great-great-great grandfather. ^_^

 

T-minus 28 days and counting

We bought luggage at TJ Maxx this past weekend: two large 29" Dockers suitcases for about $60 apiece. We're still contemplating whether to purchase a new carry-on or two, or just use our backpacks and shoulder bags as carry-on.

Since I expedited my passport, it arrived a couple of weeks ago. Aaron's still waiting for his to show up, even though he applied for his much sooner than I did mine. As soon as his passport arrives, we'll reserve our Ghibli Museum vouchers, since we need passport info to get those.

Due to an incredible stroke of luck, we managed to book a room at the Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu during the Sanja Festival. The Shigetsu is practically across the street from the Sensoji Temple and Asakusa Shrine... well, OK, maybe a couple streets and a park away. At any rate, we'll be in Asakusa, in the thick of things, during the Sanja Matsuri. Could be crazy. Will definitely be a new and fun experience.

I've completed the Pimsleur Japanese Short Course, all eight lessons, and am going to continue with Japanese I tomorrow. (From what I understand, the Short Course is basically the first eight lessons of Japanese I, so I'm starting with Lesson 8 tomorrow.) Vocab from JPod101 is starting to dovetail with Pimsleur, which tends to make my Pimsleur lessons feel less difficult... or less meaningful. When I already know all the new vocab except the word "lunch," I tend to feel a little jipped, I guess.

I have the feeling I'm still going to either have to consult Aaron's phrasebook or look up some words online before our departure. After I'm done here, I may take a few minutes to look up "water," "menu," and other daily vocabulary I might need. Honestly, though, I'm fully expecting not to need my meager Japanese skillz in Tokyo. I expect that the person at the front desk of the Tokyo Prince Hotel is going to greet us in English, rather than saying, "Tokyo Purinsu Hoteru e youkoso irashaimase!" So, I'm probably not going to have to remember about nimei being the honorific term for "two people," or roppaku being the word for "six nights." It might be polite of me to give it a shot, though, and I'm still not convinced that we won't need my fantastic *scoff-scoff* Japanese skillz somewhere along the line.

I'm afraid I might try to get too fancy if I try to speak too much Japanese, as I'm basically doing the language version of learning to play piano from that crazy infomercial guy. I don't know all the underlying grammar and structure; I'm learning phrases on the fly and picking up some structure along the way. The particles are still eluding me a bit, and there are words with similar meanings that confuse me. I'm afraid that if I try to put together new sentences with words I know, I'm going to fuck the grammar all up and end up sounding like... well, like a foreigner, I suppose. Go figure.

[Hmm. I'm a big word nerd. I just cleared up some of my confusion by reading the Wikipedia article on Japanese particles that I just linked to. Just tell me that "o" indicates a direct object, and it clears things right up. Wikipedia makes everything clearer...]

OK, off of the Japanese language rant.

At any rate, things are starting to come together. We'll start being a little more methodical about planning the things we definitely don't want to miss, and listing things in the same vicinity that we could squeeze in around the biggies. Like, Nakano Broadway is a must. The Ghibli Museum is a must. The Ramen Museum... OK, that's really high up on the list. The Parasitological Museum is a free oddity that would be fun to check out, but is not necessarily a must-do. ;-)

What's the Japanese word for OMGEXCITED!!!111 ?

 

Hitting The Wall of Nihongo

It's not that my brain is full. I'm still doing OK with picking up the grammar and vocabulary in the Pimsleur lessons, and the JPod101 Survival Phrases. Thing is, I'm not sure if they'll be helpful, and if I'd be better served to spend all my Nihongo brainpower on the katakana studies that Erin suggested. Although that would be harder to study during my lunchtime walk.

Between what I learned from Josh in Japan (mainly just left/right and numbers) and my two other audio sources of Nihongo goodness, I can introduce myself, ask directions, ask if you understand English, be humble about my own knowledge of Japanese, ask you to repeat yourself slowly, be generally polite, make sure I get on and off the train at the right place, ask if you'd like something to eat or drink, ask how to say something in English, ask what something says in Japanese, and a few other parlor tricks. Most of the really useful stuff has come from the JPod101 Survival Phrases, though.

I've read that the Pimsleur lessons don't give an accurate representation of native language speed or rhythm — which is daunting, but expected. I think I can get a better idea of the flow with a half-hour Pimsleur lesson than a 15-minute JPod101 lesson, though. I guess I'm just wondering if I should even keep bothering. I know I'm going to sound pretty idiotic saying stuff like... oh, I don't know... OK, for example, I don't think I'll ever have occasion to say, "Ee, eigo ga yoku wakarimasu. Watashi wa amerikajin desu." ("Yes, I understand English well. I am an American." Well, hello, Captain Obvious! Was my god-awful accent the first giveaway?) I also don't think I'll ever have occasion to actually ask someone if they'd like to eat or drink something, and especially not at either my place or their place. ("Watashi no tokoro de?")

I've read online that there's an upcoming lesson that teaches how to count yen. I need some help with remembering numbers without counting on my fingers, so I'll stick with it at least until that one. Listening and repeating also helps my recall of the previous lessons. I don't think I'll get need to use very much Japanese in Tokyo, but I'd like to at least sound like I'm trying my best when and if I do use it.

(The people at my work think I sound Japanese. I don't think they've ever even watched anime.)

 

Nice Engrish

I just submitted a reservation for a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Asakusa, Tokyo. Turns out there's a festival going on while we'll be in Japan! How cool. However, it makes our goal of staying in a ryokan a little more challenging, as the good ones in Tokyo all appear to be in Asakusa, and they're probably all booked because of the HUGE festival.

Anyway, I just got the greatest confirmation message ever:

Thank you for an application.
I do the telephone of affirmation by return.
In addition, since there is also a case of a transmitting trouble, 2 and when you will carry out for three days and there is no reply, please ask by E-mail, telephone, etc.

o.O

I'd imagine the Japanese are probably too polite to nickname the hack-job that we gaijin do to THEIR language.

 

I Think I'm Learning Japanese

A while back, Aaron borrowed the Pimsleur Language Program Japanese: The Short Course audiobook from the library. It was really almost on a whim — we were looking through the books-on-CD, and there it was. We hadn't booked our trip yet, but we'd seriously discussed it; so Aaron borrowed the CDs from the library and ripped them to mp3s, which we promptly loaded onto our respective iPods.

One of the basic tenets of the Pimsleur Approach is that you listen, repeat, and engage in "conversations" with the native speakers on the CD — but you are NOT supposed to go look up how to write or spell the words. This is problematic for me, as I am naturally a visual speaker: I remember what words look like. Some people remember what letter a word or name starts with; I remember how many letters it has. If I can't see how the word is formed properly, I'll make it up in my head, and that's probably not good.

For example, in the first lesson, you learn the word for "a little," which is pronounced "skōsh". Knowing what I know about Japanese already, I knew that the romanji spelling was probably "sukoshi". While I really, REALLY appreciate the correct native pronunciations, not knowing how things are spelled (in our alphabet, anyway) makes some words difficult for me to remember.

I've discovered a solution: fellow bloggers who have already completed the Pimsleur Method lessons. These individuals have transcribed the conversations, new words, and review words in each lesson. I glanced over the Lesson 3 notes briefly before I listened to Lesson 3 today during my lunchtime walk, and I think it helped.

My favorite phrase right now? Watashi wa Nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu. Demo mada jouzu ja arimasen.

I'm also enjoying the JapanesePod101 Survival Phrases. I've taken to listening to one 30-minute Pimsleur lesson during the beginning of my lunchtime walk, then following it up with a 10 to 15-minute Survival Phrase podcast. I find that it brings me down slowly from the intensity of the Pimsleur method of learn-and-recall, but it lets me stay in the zone just a little while longer and learn some more vocab in a more light-hearted way.

Both JapanesePod101 and Pimsleur are teaching me phrases that will be ultimately very helpful in Japan, I think. Pimsleur is giving me stuff like, "I'm sorry," "I understand Japanese a little," "Do you understand English," and other standard niceties... so far. JapanesePod101 is teaching me stuff like, "(Repeat) one more time, please," "Slowly," "What is your name," "All right (OK)," and other helpful tips, like using the "magical 'wa'" to infer a question. I'm enjoying having the dichotomy of the formal vs. the informal, and I like aspects of both. If I had to choose only one, I'd pick Pimsleur, hands-down... but I really do prefer pitting the two against each another for a more robust learning experience. ^_^

I had a bit of a Japanese epiphany today, and it combines my otaku geekery with my musician geekery. It occurs to me that some vowels in Japanese are pronounced like you would "ghost" notes in jazz. When I marched in the Bluecoats (a drum corps known for performing jazz), there was one particular phrase in which the brass staff had us "ghost" a note. That is, we pushed down the valves that would produce the note, but didn't actually blow any air through the horn. The result is a note that is almost audible; it's difficult to explain verbally, but makes perfect sense if you have a musical background. (Musicians and former musicians, back me up on this.)

Some Japanese syllables — most notably, "su" and "shi" and "ki" (and many others, I'm sure, in various word positions) — have vowels that aren't voiced. They don't seem to be silent, exactly, but they aren't as pronounced as the others. And it struck me today, during my walk, that those vowels are like ghosted notes. You move your mouth like you're saying them, but no sound really comes out. The result is a vowel that you might almost hear if you know it's there. Not really like a apostrophe... it's still there, just not emphasized, or really voiced at all. (Japanese language enthusiasts, tell me if I've got it right.)

I'm really enjoying learning a new language, and for a purpose, working toward a goal — that goal being basic communication in a foreign land at a specified time in the near future, rather than a high school or college exam. I'm enjoying making my brain wrap itself around new concepts again. It's a feeling I hadn't realized I'd missed.

OMG Japan trip! *squee*

 

T-minus 10 Weeks and Counting

The plane tickets have been purchased. The hotel reservations have been confirmed. The Dynamic Tokyo Tour is a go.

OMFG, we're going to Japan!!

Wednesday, May 16: Arrive in Tokyo. Limo-bus to hotel. Check in, get our culture shock going on. Locate dinner.
Thursday: Guided tour. Begins at 9am. Ends late afternoon in Ginza. First major task: getting "home" from Ginza.
Friday: Still open. Maybe Akihabara? Maybe Ghibli Museum?
Saturday: Also still open. Perhaps book Saturday night at the Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu.
Sunday: Visit Harajuku and the Meguro Parasitological Museum?
Monday: Possibly a day trip to Nikko, or just catching up on whatever we haven't done yet.
Tuesday: Check out, have lunch, and catch the limo-bus back to Narita Airport for our flight home at 4pm.

As Sheryl would say... ::flail::

...

WTF am I going to do with the 2500 WorldPerks Bonus Miles I'm going to earn from this trip?

 

Planning the Ultimate Schnuth Vacation

Former travellers to Japan, please complete the following sentence:

"I can't believe you're planning a trip to Japan and you're not planning to go to                !"

That's right, fellow readers, we're taking the plunge and heading off to Japan, most likely in May. My lowest APR credit card just so happens to be able to swing airfare and hotel for a week in the Land of the Rising Sun. It's not the best financial decision we could make, but it's one of those things that I think we'd regret not having done when we had the chance.

We're going to sit down soon (probably this weekend) and think about things we really MUST do while we're in Japan, particularly Tokyo. We may have to forego our tour of southern Japan, just due to funding issues. We'll see. At any rate, we already have some destinations on the potential to-do-in-Japan list:

• Akihabara (Electric Town)
• The Ghibli Museum
• Eat at a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi-ya
• The Tokyo Tower (conveniently located adjacent to our current hotel of choice)

I'm sure there's a lot more we'd like to do, including visiting a shrine and just walking around the city, but that's all I can come up with right this moment. Anyone have any additions, especially within a decent subway-ride of Tokyo?

I've also heard that it won't matter that we're not fluent in Japanese. Actually, only Sheryl has told me that, and she's one of about three people I know (other than friends of friends) who have been to Japan. Who else wants to chime in on this one? Will I be OK asking how much this costs, how do I get to [insert place here], knowing my right from my left, counting to ten (and higher if I think really hard), and basic shit like that? Has everyone else had Sheryl's same experience of dealing with English-speakers in all the important places? What words do I need to be able to *read*, if any?

(Aaron's not too good with languages, and I'm cool with that. If one of us has to go take a crash course on Japanese, I'm it. Bring on the vidcasts and websites and CDs.)

I am SO stoked for this. I haven't been this excited about a trip in a long, long time.

 

Video Skillz

For your viewing pleasure... Anime Punch 2006, as presented by the Weekly Anime Review Podcast.

In March of 2006, Aaron and I attended Anime Punch (aka The Armageddicon) in Columbus, and we brought the old-school 8mm videocamera for shits and giggles. I played videographer and taped a few panels, some musical guests, and some otaku milling about in the hotel lobby for ambience. Aaron finally happened upon the source footage tapes last week, and captured them to his computer, setting into motion the process of video making. Also known as "Oh, shit — I'm certified in defunct non-linear video editing software, and now I have to translate that knowledge to a more basic yet more pirateable prevalent program."

I acted mainly as technical consultant, showing Aaron the basics of nonlinear video editing — take your giant source file, make little clips of the stuff you want to use, then string those clips together on the timeline. We learned some things together, like how to apply audio and video transitions in Premiere. He was the main artistic force behind the project, deciding which clips to use, whether to keep the ambient sound, things like that. I put together the images for the intro, suggested the basic wipe as a non-annoying transition ("Is that like what they used in Star Wars?" "Yeah." "OK, that sounds good."), and showed Aaron the ropes of video editing, so to speak.

Both of us decided that we're feeling a little better about someday making an AMV — well, I have about 10 seconds of one put together, but I feel like I might be able to finish the next minute and a half of my short song without crashing and burning.

But, yeah. Good times. Aaron wants to buy a digital video camera now. :-)

 

Ohayocon7 Retrospective, Part I: Fried Bologna Sandwiches

[Posted on Flickr by dianaschnuth].

I haven't blogged about the last few cons Aaron and I have attended, mainly because I prefer to save my opinions and narratives for Aaron's podcast. This time, though, there are enough other random, un-anime things that deserve mention that I think I'll go ahead and blog about the weekend. And I will begin at the beginning, with fried bologna sandwiches in Waldo, Ohio...

read more...

 

Gone To The Con

Heading out to Ohayocon in the morning. Planning to stop in Waldo en route for some fried bologna sandwiches. Meeting Amy at the Drury Inn & Suites (hopefully before opening ceremonies), and all three of us are bunking up in a hotel room for the weekend.

This might be our last con for a while (or we might go to Anime Punch in the spring), so I'm planning to live it up. Not that I don't usually, but you know.

Still need to pack my clothes, get Amy's Christmas and birthday presents ready, upload the Low Carb Lifestyle Podcast episode so generously recorded by a guest podcaster, and do some dishes (if I don't fall asleep first). I'm sure there's something I've forgotten, too, but I'll think of it eventually.

I'm tired already. This can't be good.

 

Hen Na Gaijin

For anyone who remembers Jeff "Pip" Hawley, from Residential Computing Connection at BGSU:

Japanese T-shirt "Hen na Gaijin" (I'm a Strange Foreigner)

I remember him telling us that the Japanese exchange students nicknamed him Henna Gaijin, which he said meant crazy foreigner. It's one of only two phrases I picked up from him that semester we were both Senior Lab Coordinators. The other one was "Nihongo o hanashimasen," (although I believe it's technically "wo," but pronounced "o"?), which basically means "I don't speak Japanese." Not exactly the literal translation, but close enough.

Since back then, in the year 1999 or so, I've learned a few more phrases, and a little of how the language is structured, and a few bits of hiragana and katakana (I can recognize "n," "to," "ro," "no," and "shi," from sheer repitition alone). I can introduce myself, and get into a knife fight with the Yakuza, and warn the locals that Gojira is coming. Being that I'm not going to Japan anytime soon, though, I'm not in a big hurry to actually learn the language, although it's something I want to accomplish someday.

Although I can't speak or read Japanese, that doesn't keep me from totally digging on Japanese language and culture.

 

SITACon Group Photo

[Posted on Flickr by Happy House of Hentai]

I used to be the person who stood way in the back of group pictures and was never seen. When did I become this person who declares, "OK, I'll pretend to be a short person and get in the front!"

Left to right: Scott and Rym from the Geek Nights podcast; me; Andrew Corbin, con chair; Martin Leung, Video Game Pianist; Aaron (from the Weekly Anime Review Podcast, of course); and Hello Kitty and Lord Kaosu from the Happy House of Hentai.

 

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

I'm taking Friday off of work, so that Aaron and I can drive eight hours to Utica, NY for an anime convention.

Normally, we wouldn't go to two out-of-state cons in a row like this — after all, we just did Otakon a couple months ago. We're making an exception for SITACon, though, since they invited us as guests. They're covering our hotel room, some of our travel expenses, and our admission to the con.

This is weird.

Aaron is going to be presenting a Meet-and-Greet panel about his podcast, and is going to be on a massive Podcasters Unite roundtable panel, with the hosts of half a dozen other podcasts. I told him I'd join him for his Weekly Anime Review Podcast panel, being that it's just him and all, but I'm probably just going to be running Nikon recon during the roundtable discussion, taking photos of the panelists for posterity. Assuming none of them are camera-shy, which could conceivably happen. Podcasters can be like that sometimes.

It was very considerate of the con chair to invite me, too. I mean, he listens to Aaron's podcast enough to know that a.) we're married, and b.) we go to cons together, so he invited us both. Very cool.

I guess I'm still not sure what to think of this whole thing. I'm not sure if it's going to be fun meeting other podcasters we haven't met before, or if it's going to be a thinly-veiled popularity contest, or what. I *think* it'll be fun... I *hope* it'll be fun...

And if it starts to go downhill... hell, I'll *make* it fun. I'm a guest at an anime convention, dammit! ^_^

 

Those Crazy Japanese

For anyone who hasn't seen this yet...

Along the lines of All Things Japanese, this site was helpful for me in deciphering why it was amusing for an anime convention to be named Nan Desu Kan. I'd heard enough Japanese to recognize it (or, rather, "nan desu ka") as a common turn of phrase, but the Learn Japanese website explained that it means, "What is it?"

I'd love to take a Japanese class. I don't think there are any local evening classes taught by native speakers, though. I want to be able to do more than count to twenty badly, ask "what is it," and other fun otaku tricks. If the Learn Japanese site had audio clips to confirm pronunciation, it would be even better. I'll have to look into some of the podcasts on learning to speak Japanese.

Not like I'm ever going to make it to Japan any time soon, unlike *some* people I know. And, yes, I do know more than one person who either has been or is going to Japan. ^_^

 

Ouran High School Host Club

My experience with anime and manga has mainly been through Aaron. After ten years together, he has a feel for things I would probably like, and introduces me to them. That's how I found out about Neon Genesis Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain, Tonari No Totoro and all the other Studio Ghibli movies, and all my other favorite anime (of which I may or may not have yet finished watching the entire series). Hence, I get exposure to a lot of robots and mecha (like Eva), or blatant mind-fuck anime (like Lain, and like Eva), and some sci-fi type titles. I haven't really gotten into the shonen titles, because I'm not much for ninjas and hack-and-slash type entertainment.

However, I am also not a overly girly person by nature. I shy away from anime featuring bishonen or magical girls or anything overly girlish. If not for Erin's manga review of the Ouran High School Host Club, I would certainly have passed it by without a second glance. I mean, really. A bunch of obviously bishonen guys on the covers of this manga, and with a pink and purple cover, no less? Please.

Erin's review piqued my interest, though:

By 2002 host clubs were all the rage.... Rich women would pay big money to talk to hot young men. Ouran High School Host Club is the high school equivalent thereof - idle rich girls at a private academy hang out with the host club's hot young men in an ornate, unused library. They're not looking for sexual favors later, but they might want a date.

The protagonist, Haruhi (Haru for short), stumbles unknowingly into the club, breaks an $80,000 vase, is mistaken for being a hot guy herself, and is forced to work as a host to pay back her debt. At least one character is surprised to discover that Haru is actually a frumpy girl and not a guy - as a scholarship student she simply couldn't afford the school's fancy uniforms.

Much of the humor of the book is derived from fact that Haru is middle class while the boys are upper class. They've never had instant coffee or instant ramen! Haru has never had fatty tuna! The rest of the humor stems from Haru's calmness as she is surrounded by metrosexual prettyboy dramaqueens, many of whom need their egos stroked continually. Haru becomes the calm in the middle of the host club maelstrom.

Ever since listening to this review on the Ninjaconsultant podcast, I've been buying up the English translations of the Ouran High School Host Club manga. And just last week, Aaron told me that he'd heard that the manga was being made into an anime — so, of course, I went out and downloaded the fansubs via BitTorrent.

Maybe it was just my inexperience with the act of reading manga (right-to-left just ain't natural to me), but it took me watching the anime to finally realize why it is that I love this series so much. Sure, there are the guilty pleasures of looking at cute (yes, cute, but not necessarily handsome) high school boys. Even more than that, though, is the protagonist's view of the metrosexual guys she's forced to hang out with, and the flighty fluffies who come to the host club to drool over them.

The biggest draw for me, I just realized, is the satire. The stereotypes are fantastically funny: the supposedly popular guy whose ego gets crushed whenever anyone sees through him, the twins who border on having just a little too much "brotherly love", the baby-faced Senior who carries around a stuffed bunny, the smart and diabolical schemer behind-the-scenes. Even Haru is kind of dull-witted at times, more so in the anime than in the manga, which makes for hi-jinx and hilarity when the punch line needs a little more beating into the ground to be truly funny.

There are six volumes of the manga available in English, and currently there are 13 episodes of the anime, which is still in production in Japan. Until Ouran is licensed in the U.S., I will valiantly download and watch every fansubbed episode, and be proud of myself for reading a manga and watching an anime that Aaron didn't find first.

 

Ohayocon6

I can't seem to think of a witty introduction, so I guess I'll just give you a link to my Ohayocon 2006 photos.

I've found one photo of Aaron and me posted online so far. I'm sure there will be more eventually, though.

Aaron and I recorded a con report in the car on the way home from Columbus on Sunday. The audio didn't turn out quite as well as Aaron had hoped, being that we didn't take into account the sensitivity of his mics and the acoustics of the car. Still, though, if you haven't already, check out our Ohayocon report on the Weekly Anime Review Podcast, scheduled for release this Thursday.

 

Ohayocon Countdown

Only two days left until our fourth Ohayocon, and I'm as underwhelmed about it as I was about Christmas.

I have two unfinished Kujian helmets sitting upstairs: one papier-mache, one cardboard and fiberfill. The papier-mache helmet I only started on Monday, and I knew when I got one layer down that there was no way I'd get it done by the weekend. Still, tonight I decided to prime it for painting, just to see... and, really, there's no way it'll be ready for the con.

The cardboard one is a retooling of the original helmet I made for Youmacon. It was too tall, and the plexiglas outer brim was too brittle to wrap around the helmet, and it cracked in three places. So, I've been trying to improve upon it this evening, to no avail. I'm just feeling... disinterested.

I really enjoyed cosplaying at Youmacon, so I'm not sure why I'm so blase about it this time around. Maybe it's because I can see how uber-awesome my papier-mache helmet will be when it's done, and I hate having to retool a funky fiberfill chop job instead.

Ah, well. I should get back to that, I suppose. *sigh*

 

Back in the Swing

It has been a loooong time since I sat down and did any video editing.

So, I got a hair up my ass to try my hand at making an anime music video. Downloaded a bunch of free apps (and some not-so-free ones), ripped some DVD footage, imported it into Premiere, and sat down to edit.

OMG. I had forgotten a.) how much I love to edit video; and b.) how easily it can suck away several hours of your life.

Even for my little 1½ minute AMV, this is going to take some serious time. If I were returning to Media 100®, everything would come back to me in an instant. I mean, I was an assistant for Media 100® seminars for my second co-op, and I used the program for probably three academic classes after that. Alas, I am now using Premiere Pro, and I'm having to first remember the *process* of editing, remember how I would have done it in Media 100®, *then* figure out how to do it in Premiere. Luckily, it's making sense now.

Unluckily (depending on how you look at it), I'm still as detail-oriented and anal as I ever was — even more so, now that I don't have a deadline.

Aaron: When you decide to make an AMV, I'll do my damnedest to explain Premiere to you. I think I can make it make sense. We'll see...

 

Kick-Ass Mics + iRiver = Crazy Delicious

After a weekend of cooking, driving, and eating, Aaron and I drove up to Ann Arbor to meet a couple of podcasters, Erin and Noah — better known as the Ninjaconsultants.

It was a little awkward at first, meeting people we only knew from teh intarweb, but we all relaxed after a while. After we took a turn around Wizzywig and purchased our respective geeky otaku goodness (I got the cutest Nyanko Burger stickers and Post-Its and a Totoro wallscroll), we retired to a nearby coffee shop for some mobile recording.

We got some beverages and sat at a table in the back of the shop. After we'd all had the chance to get comfortable, and we finally got around to talking about some anime-related stuff (good fodder for Aaron's podcast), Aaron busted out the iRiver and his new, handmade lapel microphones. We had two mics between the four of us, so Noah had the idea of clipping their mic to Erin's wooden cappuccino stirrer and propping it up between them in his empty glass. We did the same, clipping our mic to both of our straws in one glass, making a bit of a bipodal affair leaning against the edge of Aaron's cup. It may seem like quite the jury-rigged setup, but it worked smashingly.

We recorded for two hours.

We talked about all sorts of things: Star Wars, the homeless, anime conventions, public transportation, probably dozens of not-quite-related topics. (Aaron's going to have a fun time sorting it all out later, so he can actually use some of it on his show...) But it was a really good time, as I'd hoped it would be.

Whether anyone's interested or not, I'll probably post a heads-up here when Aaron airs parts of the interview (and I use the term "interview" loosely). The audio quality turned out fantastic, we got a good amount of decent content, and Erin and Noah recorded a few bumpers and IDs for Aaron's show. I think there'll be a few fun one-liners he can use, too.

As we were leaving, I commented, "I feel so counterculture, podcasting from a coffee shop..."

Are you hip to it, daddy-o? Yeah.

 

Youmacon 2005: Photos

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment you've all been waiting for: Youmacon 2005 photos!

For a list of other Youmacon photos, check out the Youmacon website. For other pics of our costumes, check out Fan's View (click "next page" to see Aaron's pic), Fiery Panda Studios (again, click "Next Image" to see Aaron), and Tastetheneedle's gallery on Cosplay.com, among others.

Listen to Aaron's and my con report on the Weekly Anime Review Podcast next week!

 

Mission Accomplished

My Kujibiki Unbalance cosplay costume is complete.

Well, almost. I still have to cut my armbands to size and iron my skirt one last time. But everything else is ready to go.

I put my costume on as soon as I had the last circle of felt glued to the helmet. My shadow had a weird silhouette as I walked up the stairs to the bathroom, to look in the full-length mirror.

I only felt a little ridiculous in my big blue skirt and giant poofy helmet of flannel and felt. Even so, I think my cosplay kicks ass. It has its small flaws — but overall, I'm pleased with my very first cosplay attempt.

Unfortunately, the batteries in the digital camera are dead, so I can't post a picture of my cosplay yet. But we're going to get fresh batteries on the way to the con, and we'll take plenty of pics while we're there. My co-workers are demanding to see a large photo of me in costume, so I'll have to oblige both them and my general blog readership. :-)

 

Cosplay Update

Since Aaron's Fullmetal Alchemist costume arrived today, custom-made in the mystical land of China, I decided I'd better start work on my skirt again.

I'm not sure how, I but I somehow miscalculated the number of pleats my skirt is going to have. I'd planned on 12 pleats in my six-paneled skirt, but... wait... *thinks real hard* No, that's right. It'll be twelve pleats. I'm thinking I might have sewn the pleats in a little too far, though, because the skirt is supposed to poof outward from the hips, and I have the pleats sewn in for about ten inches down from the waist. I didn't think about the poofy factor at the time; I was thinking about the fact that the heavy material I chose isn't going to hold a crease very well.

Well, if it comes down to it, I do have a seam ripper. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it, though.

I have an idea of how I'm going to make my helmet, but I haven't started it yet. The hardest part is going to be attaching the frame for the helmet to the ball cap I bought at Goodwill. First, though, I want to get the skirt finished. One project at a time.

Did I just say "One project at a time"?

*shakes head*

Tell that to my multiple webpages, soy candle backlog, neglected plants, and my upcoming podcast.

 

Futari no HAATO BARANSU...

Every time I walk into JoAnn Fabrics, I get the feeling that I'm a little out of my element. However... I believe now I have all the necessary fabrics and notions to create Ritsuko's skirt (see right). I'll tackle the helmet later.

I think I have a reasonable pattern-plan for making a huge-ass flared pleated skirt. Being a very beginning sewer (er... one who sews? Not a drainage system, kthx), I couldn't really come up with it myself. So, I combined a tutorial for making a pleated skirt with a tutorial for making a flared skirt... and voila! — a reasonable-sounding (looking?) plan.

However, I am determined to do this right, especially as I only have 4½ yards of medium blue cotton/poly fabric, so I can't screw this up. My determination not to screw up was only bolstered by the fact that I just spent freaking $42 on my cosplay supplies — and that's before making the helmet.

One question for those who sew, or who have textile-related ideas: The nice lady at JoAnn's convinced me that felt was the way to go for the white stripe of trim on the skirt. I can't really use ribbon, since the pattern will need to be curved to allow for the flare, and any white fabric I found wasn't thick enough to prevent the blue from showing through when held over it. After buying three yards of white felt, though, I'm having second thoughts. I don't think the texture of the felt will be appropriate to match with the cotton/poly skirt. I was thinking of something more fake-satiny, or the same cotton/poly as the rest of the skirt, but it's all so thin it shows the blue through from underneath.

Any solutions to my conundrum? You have a few days to comment, as I plan to wash my blue fabric before sewing, like I'm supposed to. Strict determination to do it right, after all.

 

Time To Go All Otaku On Your Ass

First, I would like to make you all aware of a new podcast out on the podwaves: the Weekly Anime Review Podcast. Which just so happens to be produced and hosted by one Aaron Schnuth.

Every Friday, Aaron will be reviewing a different anime; this week, he reviews Genshiken. He's been trying to get me to watch this short series for some time now, but his podcast review was what finally drove me to drag it out of the stack o' anime and watch it. (That, and coming to the end of my Muppet Show Season One DVDs.) I'm on episode three, but only because I'm pacing myself and not letting myself have a crazy Friday Night Genshiken-a-thon.

If you want to find out what it's all about (both Genshiken and the podcast), check it out! Better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed in the podcast aggregator of your choice, and you'll never miss a show.

If you're at all interested in Japanese animation, I would highly suggest checking it out. And not just because my husband is the host. ^_^

Now that the WARP plug has been covered, on to Otaku topic #2: I need a cosplay idea for Youmacon in November.

read more...

 

A $649 Totoro Hat?!

...and I'm selling it?

Looks like someone found my site by searching for "totoro hat" on Froogle. Apparently, it's still got some bugs. o.O

 

Goddammit.

Motherfuck. I'm not going to be able to go to the Animarathon on April 2nd, even though it's only 20 minutes from my freaking house.

Why?

Because I have to be in Saginaw fucking Michigan that day. Three hours away. Playing my mellophone.

Not go to Saginaw? Not an option. Why? Damn commitment to the damn corps.

Why couldn't I be all wishy-washy and half-assed and just say I can't make it? Why won't my brain let me? God damn my integrity.

Have fun at the FREE ANIME CONVENTION down the road next month, Aaron. Let me know how it goes. Maybe I'll get to go *next* year.

*smoke pouring from ears*

 

Need My Sewing Fix

I swear to God. It?s like a fucking addiction.

I spent fifteen minutes of my 20-minute break today sketching out ideas for a new totoro hat design.

Part of me is like, didn?t you want to try making those s?mores candles tonight? or practice your mellophone? and part of me is like, OMG I might have the answer to the standee-up ears!

Seriously, though—now that I?m actually fabricating hats, coming up with ideas, and being generally creative, I can understand why it?s impossible to find actual character hat patterns online. Especially since so many people sell their hats for a profit. It?s kind of like with soy candles: it?s impossible to find all the little tips and tricks all in one place, just because individual candlemakers (myself included) are so proud of having figured it out themselves, and they?ll be damned if they?ll share their hard work with budding candlists for free.

I know that, once I get this totoro hat to look just right, I ain?t planning on posting a pattern. Buy one and seam-rip it if you really want to know the secret of the totoro hat. ;-)

But that might be a while...

 

Totoro Hat, Take Two

Attempt #2 at a Totoro hat I'd be proud to wear to the Animarathon in April. Much closer this time. I made the hat *too* big this time, instead of not big enough, so I had to adjust the hems and do some trimming—but, hopefully, I was left with a hat that would suffice for Aaron. I also increased the size of the hatband hem width and the ears, and decreased the size of Totoro's eyes and nose.

I'm afraid I might have to try out some other style of a more form-fitting hat, as having a loosely-fitting hat isn't going to work with those pesky ears. Maybe you can't tell in the photos, but they really like to flop forward and/or backward a lot, and not stay standing up. Rigid, sure, no problem, but upright? Not so much.

Oh, yeah, and I still need to add whiskers. Sticky-outie whiskers, not sewn-on whiskers.

This is fun. Addictive. I *heart* fleece remnants at Hancock Fabrics.

Edit: Forgot to mention one thing. When one is cutting fabric on one's kitchen table, it would behoove a person to make sure that the measuring tape is not unwound and laying about in close proximity to the path of the cutting implement. Otherwise, one may find oneself reattaching the end of one's vinyl measuring tape, said tape having been severed at the three-inch mark.

 

Totoro Hat!

Yay! My very first Totoro hat is complete. Not bad for a first try... Next time, I'll cut the fleece bigger to allow for seam allowances, and try to figure out how to sew the face on with the machine, instead of by hand. (My practice circles on the machine didn't turn out too well...) Maybe make the eyes a little smaller, and the ears a little bigger.

But, for now, I'm happy. Yay, Totoro hat! I can sew... sort of. :-)

 

Totoro Makes Me Cry

Am I a total goober or what? I never used to cry at anything—in fact, I often took great pride in being the only stony-faced person in the midst of a sobbing and sniffling movie theater. And now look at me: all weepy at the sound of the Totoro theme.

BEAR NO DRIVE CAR! THAT NO MAKE SENSE! *ahem*

And now, for the Totoro-deprived: some stills from the movie...

Satsuki (emphasis on the first syllable, please) and her little sister Mei wait with Totoro at the bus stop. Satsuki lent Totoro her father's umbrella a short while later, so poor O Totoro wouldn't be standing in the rain.

Oh, look. It's Totoro's bus! It's the nekobasu, or catbus. Legend has it that, as cats get older, they become shapeshifters. This particular cat became intrigued by a bus it saw, and decided to become a catbus. There's some Totoro art out there showing a catbus full of Totoros.

Totoro gave the girls some acorns and other various nuts and seeds as a thank-you for the umbrella. They, of course, planted them in their garden, where trees always go. Now the Totoros have come to Satsuki and Mei's house to help them grow the seeds into a giant tree.

After growing the tree in the garden, Totoro gives Satsuki and Mei (and his little totoros) a ride to the top of the tree. How? On his spinning top! Totoro rules!

Totoro has hailed the catbus for Satsuki, and now he waves goodbye to them as they take off from the top of Totoro's camphor tree.

Of course, I can't give the *whole* story away... but be watching for a special edition Tonari No Totoro DVD set to come out sometime within the next year or so. For now, you can buy the fullscreen English dub. (Ugh. Can't wait for the double-DVD set!)

So, the big question: why does Tonari No Totoro make me cry? I'm not sure. I think it's that whole childhood-lost sort of vibe—the scenes that would have made me OOH and AHH as a little kid now make me remember what it was like to be a little kid. I know, I know, it sounds totally retarded. That's the closest I can come, though. I wish I could turn off the waterworks, believe me. I feel really stupid about it... although it doesn't really matter when I'm home alone, watching Totoro. ^_^

 

Ohayocon5

I'm still working on a weekend review, but I did manage to finish my Ohayocon5 photo gallery. (I've gotta come up with a new way to make slideshows for my site—besides Flickr.)

There is also a great collection of photos at fansview.com, in addition to an informative narrative on the weekend.

Edit:
OK, here's the overview I promised. Now, it's kind of cold in this room, so my fingers are a little stiff; plus, I didn't take notes during the weekend like I'd planned. So, I don't promise literary greatness here. But, hopefully, between my photos and my narrative, you'll get the general idea.

read more...

 

Home From Ohayocon

Ohayocon was a great time! Almost like a mini-vacation. Very cool.

I'm currently working on adjusting and resizing the 30+ digital pics we took over the weekend. Until then, here's a pic I just took of Aaron displaying his two prized purchases: his moogle hat and his Mr. Sparkle t-shirt.

Con pics and a review/narrative soon to come!

 

Anime Weekend

I know I don't generally update much on the weekends, but this weekend will be especially sparse, as Aaron and I will be at Ohayocon in Columbus. We've attended for the past two years, but only for one day—this year, we've reserved a room, and will be at the con from Friday afternoon through Sunday.

Aaron's got some co-workers that are going, too, including some that I've never met. They have every intention of drinking like crazy collegians in their hotel room, apparently. We'll see how that pans out, as Aaron and I will likely be spending most of our "free" time screening anime in one of the several video rooms.

Unfortunately, we didn't manage to procure a sewing machine in time to create my masterful Totoro cosplay outfit. Maybe next year.

We're bringing the digital camera, so I may spend my day off on Monday posting highlights from the con. In the meantime, you can read about our previous experiences from Ohayocon4 and Ohayocon3.

 

A little sewing help?

OK, guys—well, girls, probably. I don't sew, but I'd like to. I have a project to complete. My plan is to attend Ohayocon in January all decked out in a homemade Totoro cosplay outfit.

This could take some explanation.

Totoro = wonderfully cute creation by Hayao Miyazaki, featured in his film Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro). One of my favoritest movies. If you'll recall, I did some sketches of some totoros back in November.

Cosplay = where otaku (psycho crazy anime / Japanese pop-culture fans) dress up as their favorite character at a convention.

Ohayocon = the only anime convention I've been to so far, located in Columbus. (It's punny—"ohayo" means "good morning," as well as the name of our state. Erika from the Bluecoats taught me that—it was my very first word in Japanese.) Aaron and I will be attending Ohayocon for the third year in a row next January.

So, I want to dress up like the crazy people. There's a plushie out there of Mei, one of the characters from the movie, wearing Totoro pajamas. Instead of making a giant, ugly, deformed stuffed Totoro costume, I want to make some Totoro jammies. Several months ago, I drafted an initial plan of what my costume would be like, but I've revised my ideas since then. Instead of a more simple sweatsuit-type outfit, I'm looking at more of a one-piece footie pajama made out of plushie pile material, with a hood attached (or separate, if necessary).

I guess my big question is, does anyone know where to get a pattern for grown-up footie pajamas? I'll need to modify it by a.) making it out of plush instead of fleece, and b.) adding a white panel to the front belly, besides making it big enough for my fat ass. I'm starting on this project way early, because I know I'm in over my head.

Oh, yeah, and I need to thrift myself a sewing machine. And learn how to use it. D'oh!