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dancerjodiAh so many thoughts, how to put them into a short, coherent post . . .
Also, sorry for typos. I don't use the LJ client and I don't feel like scrolling up and down to find the red text from my spellcheck :)
FRIDAY:
We arrived at around 5:00 on Friday and thanks to Nazier were able to stash our coats in the Operations room. After walking around a while, checking out the dealers room (small amount of vendors, no comics, no toys!) I headed to n0ire's reading while Brian went to the panel on "Evil characters and why we love them". He got bored and left the panel to wander a bit (N0ire's story was great) and we met up afterwards to head to the drum circle. I had a choli under my t-shirt and a hip scarf in my backback. This was my first time dancing at a drum circle. I have a hard time with it I think, because I'm trying to practice bellydance and not just do the free-form gothy type dance I do at clubs. Brian took a bunch of pics. We wandered some more (hitting dealer's row - I got a nice stamped velvet blue choli and some gold trim that's better than what I have now on my Padme Episode I Battle Outfit). We were going to hit Rocky and see the preshow, and then head over to the Dresden Dolls show. After waiting a bit and overhearing the Teseracte director comment how "the show's going to be really late; we forgot our DVD player", Brian and I left to head over for the Dolls show. They were great as usual - they opened with a version of "Science Fiction Double Feature" (heh, so we got a bit of RHPS after all!). We headed home after the show was over and we grabbed from food from the con suite (perhaps around 2:30 or so).
SATURDAY COSTUME PANESL:
A 501st member and aquaintance of Brian's asked us to come to his 2:00 costuming panel on costuming from movies (we did Tuscan Raider and Episode I Padme Battle Outfit for it), so we got ourselves up in time to shower, dress, pack and head into the con in time to suit up for that 2:00 panel. Since we got there a bit early we headed in the room for the current costuming panel that started at 1:00 (it was about 1:30) - Anime Costuming. I think I was spoiled by the panel at Anime Boston that featured a professional costumer that works in Las Vegas and is a pretty well-known costumer, Tristen Citrine (her main website is down at the moment, here's her Cosplay lab link http://cosplaylab.com/cosplayers/detail.asp?memberid=1379 ). We missed the first 1/2 of the panel so I'm not sure what was touched on before we showed up - there wasn't too much new knowledge gained for us. A woman dressed as the Tree Clow Card from Cardcaptor Sakura did hold up a book for historical costuming patterns that seemed like it may be a good resource (but she didn't read the title or say who the author was, so I didn't catch it). After that we moved up closer to the front for the movie costuming panel. There was a woman from the Rebel Legion that we had met at DragonCon presenting, another woman who did her first costume in the 70's when Star Wars A New Hope first came out (she was Leia), the 501st guy, someone in a variant of a slave Leia outfit, and a woman who presented at the Anime costuming panel. Similar to the Anime panel, we didn't get too much new information, though the two older women down the end of the table (the Rebel Legion woman and the classic 70's Leia) shared some good online resources and passed out an informational sheet on places to look for reference information. I felt really bad for a woman who asked a general "how to I start" question and didn't get much help. She mentioned wanting to make a Vampire Hunter D outfit and asked where she could find a pattern. The answer: "There aren't any" - rather than people suggesting she find something similar or combine patterns, or play with drafting and muslin. One of the panelists (I just can't believe this) in the middle of the panel stopped to answer her cell phone and have a conversation with a friend - damn that was rude! Uh, yeah - panels left things to be desired.
SATURDAY PM:
At 4:00 I headed to the bellydance class with Nancy/Aurora; she's the teacher that Brian and I went to go see in her group's performance in Stow a month or so ago. It was a fun and crowded class. Try cramming 30+ people to stretch and bellydance into a long rectangular shaped room! I'm glad that there was interest in it and it seemed like people had a lot of fun. After meeting Brian and Bratling we headed for lunch, talked with Bratling about how Arisia seems to have changed over the years (less vendors, less costumed people, less nakedness). Size/scope aside, its just a different type of con than what we're used to. After dinner we checked out the art show, I got all drooly over some handmade silver jewlery that was way out of my price range (N0ire was pondering getting one though, she looked beautiful in it!). From there we headed up to change again. Brian got back into Tuscan Raider and I got into the Bantha outfit. Some people knew what I was, yay! We went to a panel discussing "The Force" or "Jedi" as a religion (a recent census in the UK resulted in hundreds of thousands of people identifying as Jedi :) ). It was really great - good discussion, knowledgeable panelists (one of them seemed to have a background in religion and anthropology). He commented us on our costumes and knew what I was supposed to be too :).
SATURDAY MASQUERADE: It was masqerade time then, and we headed over to sit with Kazama and T and Bratling in the back. Some of the costumes were great, some of the skits were great (my favorites by far were Gimli and the couple that did the Voltaire "Evil" skit. The judging took forever, the 1/2 time show was a showing of a bunch of movie trailers (Harry Potter!!!!) and then the rewards were given. The masquerade was just a different animal than DC too - it seems like the outward look/quality of costumes and skits aren't all that's judged. Judges go backstage and scrutinize the materials things are made of, how seams are finished, etc (for instance, there were awards for "the best elf ears" or "the pipe constructed of pipe cleaners"). While the judging occurred a masquerade camera guy came over and asked to interview us about *our* costumes (what they were, how they were constructed, etc) for their masquerade video - weird. During the masquerade I also ran into a friend from high school that I haven't seen since then; we rode the same bus and she lived 4 blocks from my house (weird)!
THE END OF THE NIGHT: Since I was tiring of being that 1/2 naked we went up to change again and Brian slipped into something more comfy (bdus and t-shirt) while I put on the kimono-style dress. We stopped at the con suite for a snack (it was a rave theme, though the glowy things were all gone), stopped by a Wolfram and Hart themed room party (heh) and had an amazing drink made from sprite and cranberry juice that was made slushy by dry ice, and then went down to the "goth dance", the festivities for the evening (luckilly, found some friends outside of the door that we could chat with and joke about furry things with) :). The goth dance was well, eh. It started sounding a lot like last year's DC dances (ravey music, too repetitive though). They played one gothish song and the tiggerette and I ran out so that we could at least say we dance to one song! They followed by Du Hast, and that's about the time that Brian and I looked at each other and decided it was time to leave. I changed out of the sexy clothes and we headed back to the Radison to get our car out of the garage.
SUMMARY: Arisia seems more focused on the traditional sense of sci-fi i.e. the literary one. I'm much more into the comics/movies portion of science fiction and there weren't too many things for me there as a result. Also, there is a high rennie/SCA prescence there. That's not a bad thing - it just means that most people dressed up in "costumes" aren't cartoon characters, superheros or the like - they are Elizabethans. It was nice to meet some new people, nice to hang out with friends, and nice to check out the vendors (and find that gold trim for my Padme outfit). I don't think though that we'll be back again next year. The panels didn't do much to interest us, the vendors didn't have much to interest us, and we could see Dresden Dolls at a club for < $50. This makes me really sad - friends work so hard on it and all (I hope that they had fun, and that they feel fulfilled and that they put on a great event after all is said and done). Its just not the kind of con that I go for . . .
Oh yeah, photos coming later.
Also, sorry for typos. I don't use the LJ client and I don't feel like scrolling up and down to find the red text from my spellcheck :)
FRIDAY:
We arrived at around 5:00 on Friday and thanks to Nazier were able to stash our coats in the Operations room. After walking around a while, checking out the dealers room (small amount of vendors, no comics, no toys!) I headed to n0ire's reading while Brian went to the panel on "Evil characters and why we love them". He got bored and left the panel to wander a bit (N0ire's story was great) and we met up afterwards to head to the drum circle. I had a choli under my t-shirt and a hip scarf in my backback. This was my first time dancing at a drum circle. I have a hard time with it I think, because I'm trying to practice bellydance and not just do the free-form gothy type dance I do at clubs. Brian took a bunch of pics. We wandered some more (hitting dealer's row - I got a nice stamped velvet blue choli and some gold trim that's better than what I have now on my Padme Episode I Battle Outfit). We were going to hit Rocky and see the preshow, and then head over to the Dresden Dolls show. After waiting a bit and overhearing the Teseracte director comment how "the show's going to be really late; we forgot our DVD player", Brian and I left to head over for the Dolls show. They were great as usual - they opened with a version of "Science Fiction Double Feature" (heh, so we got a bit of RHPS after all!). We headed home after the show was over and we grabbed from food from the con suite (perhaps around 2:30 or so).
SATURDAY COSTUME PANESL:
A 501st member and aquaintance of Brian's asked us to come to his 2:00 costuming panel on costuming from movies (we did Tuscan Raider and Episode I Padme Battle Outfit for it), so we got ourselves up in time to shower, dress, pack and head into the con in time to suit up for that 2:00 panel. Since we got there a bit early we headed in the room for the current costuming panel that started at 1:00 (it was about 1:30) - Anime Costuming. I think I was spoiled by the panel at Anime Boston that featured a professional costumer that works in Las Vegas and is a pretty well-known costumer, Tristen Citrine (her main website is down at the moment, here's her Cosplay lab link http://cosplaylab.com/cosplayers/detail.asp?memberid=1379 ). We missed the first 1/2 of the panel so I'm not sure what was touched on before we showed up - there wasn't too much new knowledge gained for us. A woman dressed as the Tree Clow Card from Cardcaptor Sakura did hold up a book for historical costuming patterns that seemed like it may be a good resource (but she didn't read the title or say who the author was, so I didn't catch it). After that we moved up closer to the front for the movie costuming panel. There was a woman from the Rebel Legion that we had met at DragonCon presenting, another woman who did her first costume in the 70's when Star Wars A New Hope first came out (she was Leia), the 501st guy, someone in a variant of a slave Leia outfit, and a woman who presented at the Anime costuming panel. Similar to the Anime panel, we didn't get too much new information, though the two older women down the end of the table (the Rebel Legion woman and the classic 70's Leia) shared some good online resources and passed out an informational sheet on places to look for reference information. I felt really bad for a woman who asked a general "how to I start" question and didn't get much help. She mentioned wanting to make a Vampire Hunter D outfit and asked where she could find a pattern. The answer: "There aren't any" - rather than people suggesting she find something similar or combine patterns, or play with drafting and muslin. One of the panelists (I just can't believe this) in the middle of the panel stopped to answer her cell phone and have a conversation with a friend - damn that was rude! Uh, yeah - panels left things to be desired.
SATURDAY PM:
At 4:00 I headed to the bellydance class with Nancy/Aurora; she's the teacher that Brian and I went to go see in her group's performance in Stow a month or so ago. It was a fun and crowded class. Try cramming 30+ people to stretch and bellydance into a long rectangular shaped room! I'm glad that there was interest in it and it seemed like people had a lot of fun. After meeting Brian and Bratling we headed for lunch, talked with Bratling about how Arisia seems to have changed over the years (less vendors, less costumed people, less nakedness). Size/scope aside, its just a different type of con than what we're used to. After dinner we checked out the art show, I got all drooly over some handmade silver jewlery that was way out of my price range (N0ire was pondering getting one though, she looked beautiful in it!). From there we headed up to change again. Brian got back into Tuscan Raider and I got into the Bantha outfit. Some people knew what I was, yay! We went to a panel discussing "The Force" or "Jedi" as a religion (a recent census in the UK resulted in hundreds of thousands of people identifying as Jedi :) ). It was really great - good discussion, knowledgeable panelists (one of them seemed to have a background in religion and anthropology). He commented us on our costumes and knew what I was supposed to be too :).
SATURDAY MASQUERADE: It was masqerade time then, and we headed over to sit with Kazama and T and Bratling in the back. Some of the costumes were great, some of the skits were great (my favorites by far were Gimli and the couple that did the Voltaire "Evil" skit. The judging took forever, the 1/2 time show was a showing of a bunch of movie trailers (Harry Potter!!!!) and then the rewards were given. The masquerade was just a different animal than DC too - it seems like the outward look/quality of costumes and skits aren't all that's judged. Judges go backstage and scrutinize the materials things are made of, how seams are finished, etc (for instance, there were awards for "the best elf ears" or "the pipe constructed of pipe cleaners"). While the judging occurred a masquerade camera guy came over and asked to interview us about *our* costumes (what they were, how they were constructed, etc) for their masquerade video - weird. During the masquerade I also ran into a friend from high school that I haven't seen since then; we rode the same bus and she lived 4 blocks from my house (weird)!
THE END OF THE NIGHT: Since I was tiring of being that 1/2 naked we went up to change again and Brian slipped into something more comfy (bdus and t-shirt) while I put on the kimono-style dress. We stopped at the con suite for a snack (it was a rave theme, though the glowy things were all gone), stopped by a Wolfram and Hart themed room party (heh) and had an amazing drink made from sprite and cranberry juice that was made slushy by dry ice, and then went down to the "goth dance", the festivities for the evening (luckilly, found some friends outside of the door that we could chat with and joke about furry things with) :). The goth dance was well, eh. It started sounding a lot like last year's DC dances (ravey music, too repetitive though). They played one gothish song and the tiggerette and I ran out so that we could at least say we dance to one song! They followed by Du Hast, and that's about the time that Brian and I looked at each other and decided it was time to leave. I changed out of the sexy clothes and we headed back to the Radison to get our car out of the garage.
SUMMARY: Arisia seems more focused on the traditional sense of sci-fi i.e. the literary one. I'm much more into the comics/movies portion of science fiction and there weren't too many things for me there as a result. Also, there is a high rennie/SCA prescence there. That's not a bad thing - it just means that most people dressed up in "costumes" aren't cartoon characters, superheros or the like - they are Elizabethans. It was nice to meet some new people, nice to hang out with friends, and nice to check out the vendors (and find that gold trim for my Padme outfit). I don't think though that we'll be back again next year. The panels didn't do much to interest us, the vendors didn't have much to interest us, and we could see Dresden Dolls at a club for < $50. This makes me really sad - friends work so hard on it and all (I hope that they had fun, and that they feel fulfilled and that they put on a great event after all is said and done). Its just not the kind of con that I go for . . .
Oh yeah, photos coming later.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-18 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-18 04:55 pm (UTC)mrowr? furry things? fuzzy-furry or anthro-furry?
no subject
Date: 2004-01-18 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-18 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-18 05:45 pm (UTC)~Jimmy AKA Corwin (Father of the Senior Partner)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-18 05:50 pm (UTC)The hard core sci fi literary focus is also more present now than it ws last year. That may change.
However you are right in that overall this con is mroe about lit scifi than movie and tv sci fi, and that the rennie influence is huge.
As for the club dance there was a coup which appeared to take place after you left where people ousted the icky DJ.
"Goth" dance at Arisia
Date: 2004-01-19 04:51 am (UTC)Wow!
Mostly we were just kind of tired and our friends were leaving too. I wasn't expecting a mind-blowing experience or anything, it just wasn't our thing.
It was great to see you over the weekend though, you looked fabulous covered in leaves! :)
Re: glad I didn't bother...
Date: 2004-01-19 04:57 am (UTC)I love seeing con attendees outside in the 'normal' world during the day. During Anime Boston we headed down Boylston Street to get lunch, and seeing cosplayers with blue hair in McDonalds was a riot. :) This past weekend we ended up eating lunches and dinners at the City Place Mall (I think that's the name; the one over where PF Changs is). It was pretty easy to pick out con attendees (versus people that just happened to be in the area for work or a theater event).
I love nerdy sci-fi people - I think Arisia just brings (in different) a different flavor of nerdy sci-fi people that I don't fit with. I'm not there to hook up or party, I'm there to learn, celebrate geeky things I'm into and buy things related to such geeky things I'm into. Since there isn't too much of these things I don't think I'll be going again (unless maybe a day pass - if there would be enough stuff going on to warrent checking it out).
no subject
Date: 2004-01-19 07:53 am (UTC)Helloween
Date: 2004-01-19 07:59 am (UTC)Yeah.
I've never seen them (not even conscious of ever even hearing them, actually) . . . it may have been more fun from my friend's review of the show.
Ah well, I can't pass up an opportunity to dress up in costume. If the panels were more enthusing or the Dance was more my thing I would have been more into it :)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-19 01:08 pm (UTC)i never liked helloween.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-19 09:06 am (UTC)Thanks!
Date: 2004-01-19 09:23 am (UTC)Thanks! I did have a lot of fun, but I definitely wasn't feeling "the vibe" as much as I was consciously thinking of what to do where. I need to loosen up a bit. Most of my life I've been dancing in really structured "learn it to get it perfect" environments so the more relaxed improvisational dancing is something that's new to me :)
"There is a good one two Saturdays a month near Harvard: http://www.earthdrum.com/calendar.htm"
Thanks!
I know I met you somewhere before Arisia, but I couldn't remember where (and couldn't remember your name), otherwise I would have said hello! I thought your costume later on Saturday was great. :)
Period Costuming pattern book
Date: 2004-01-19 03:46 pm (UTC)