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astillar(Belated because I haven't had internet for the last week or so.)
The run up to AX involved a lot of late night cosplay cramming. Between packing and last minute cosplay work, I only got in an hour's nap before the airport shuttle whisked me away. I almost got to sleep during the flight, but kept waking up mid-nosedive into the lap of the person next to me. My brief exposure to the state of Nevada (during my Las Vegas lay-over) left a very curious impression. I daresay it might possibly be more awesome than Texas. Blasphemy, I know, but c'mon, gambling AND automatic weapons in one place????
In LA, Jenny and Amelie picked me up in the rental car they'd gotten. We stopped at In-n-Out Burger, which someone (who will remain nameless) claimed had the best burgers on the planet. I liked the place, with it's 3-item menu, but I liked the employee uniforms more than the food. I'm talking about those chubby baseball caps! I want one. (The burgers were okay, by the way.) After foodums we picked up some cosplay supplies in run-down (read, "scary") Hollywood and returned to the hotel to get to work. Later that afternoon Amelie and I waited in the sun and heat for two hours in the registration line, only to find out that on-site registration wouldn't be starting till the next day. Lame. AND AX was now charging $20 for shuttle passes. Lame plus. So we returned to the hotel room defeated. The highlight of the evening was going to Little Tokyo for dinner. We went to Mr. Ramen, as is our tradition, and as tradition goes, none of us were able to fully finish our ramen bath-tubs. I like to think I could've done it this year, but I made the mistake of ordering curry ramen, which overwhelmed me before I could finish. On the way back to the hotel we drove through the Toy District which has actually gotten scarier since last year, when the worse thing were the knife-wielding cockroaches. Now it's majorly Hobo-town; the sidewalks are packed with tents and cardboard huts. Yikes.
Thursday passed rather quietly since none of us had any major cosplay plans for the day. That is, except for Amelie. Her Beetlejuice cosplay turned out to be a big success, which surprised me. Considering that the movie is around 20 years old, I just didn't expect it to get as much recognition as it did. I'm glad that her debut cosplay went over so well.
Friday I wore my Wybie cosplay. It was a . . . mixed success. After doing so many masked cosplays that leave me blind, I thought I'd finally do something about it. So I mounted my digital camera behind a little peephole in Wybie's mask, so that I could see without having to carve a huge hole in the face. That innovation worked well, but then the battery died after 40 minutes. Crap. But the worst part was the heat in that costume. Wearing a black full length vinyl coat, plus a dense yarn wig? I was melting. I took a lot of breaks out of costume (to cool and dry off) but gradually the breaks got longer and longer and the spurts of cosplay got shorter and shorter. All together, I think I was in Wybie maybe 3 hours total that afternoon.
That night was the Lolita Midnight Tea and I was drafted into service of that cause. The girls had chosen a nursery rhyme theme and had come up with a rather profuse table setting. However, they took second place behind a MKR-themed table which was almost austere in comparison, but very well-conceived and executed. Glowing ice cubes? Wow. The winning table was made all the more impressive when you consider that just one girl made the costume and entire setting all by herself. While the Tea Party was winding down, some rather un-loli hijinx occurred.
After all the bruhaha of the Midnight Tea, the gals would've crashed but instead they pulled off an all-nighter to finish the Princess Tutu stuff. I quit and went to bed around 2 am, only to wake and find the girls still working the next morning. I hadn't minded spending most of our free time Weds, Thurs, and Fri working on Tutu stuff since those days were slow cosplay days anyways. At first it was rather fun, since I'd never been such an active part of a cosplay group before. I especially liked how we each had our own specialty niche, like some sort of cosplay Voltron (I get to be the lava lion). But by Saturday I was starting to get burnt out and I think everyone was started to show the effects of stress and little sleep.
Sooner than we wanted, time ran out and we became the property of the AX 2009 Masquerade Show and I was strongly reminded of why I don't enter cosplay contests. They eclipse the best part of the con weekend! We were locked into the AX Masq. program from noon Saturday till 2 am Sunday morning. OMG, it was torture. The whole time I was thinking, "AGGGGH!!!! I'm missing out on seeing all the cosplay! The biggest cosplay day of the biggest convention in the country and I'm not seeing jack squat! ARGGGH!!!" As we waited in the loading area behind the masquerade stage, Jenny kept reminding us not to be nervous. Nervous? I wasn't nervous. I was tired, hungry, hot, and bored, but not nervous. When I was able to distract myself from my tantrum, I couldn't help but marvel at the backstage atmosphere. There wasn't any air of competition or rivalry or pettiness. What I perceived most was an excitement, relaxation, and camaraderie. I was surprised and impressed by that. And I also got to meet some cosplayers I recognized and admire, which was a cool bonus. I like to think I kept the spazzing to a minimum.
It wasn't until we were at the foot of the stairs leading to the stage that I finally grew nervous. The stage director lady told me to take my position while the stage was dark and the MC was talking. So I quietly ventured onto the stage and took my spot in the middle. For a few heart-pounding seconds I stood there in the dark, looking out at the thousands of people in the audience. We'd never actually rehearsed the skit and it had been weeks since the one and only time I heard the music. Panicking? Yeah. But once the lights came up and the music started, there was nothing I could do but try.
. . . The skit did not go as well as we'd hoped (and was handicapped by audio problems/truncating) but it was to be expected. We sat back down in our chairs and waited an hour or so for the results. I guess I was kinda grumpy, partly over how our skit had turned out, but mostly because I was required to wait some more. Jenny and Beauty were called on stage to receive their award for the Midnight Tea. While that was going on, our den mother (AX staffer assigned to our group) asked why I wasn't on stage with them. I told her because I wasn't part of their Tea group. "Oh," she replied, "Well you might want to go up there anyways. *wink*"
A few minutes later we were on stage, winning Runner-Up Best Group Craftmanship. (I think the Trinity Blood group got 1st place in that category) I know I was a bit stunned, remembering the last week of cosplay cramming and all the shortcuts we'd taken to finish barely on time. Although the award was unexpected (by me, anyways), it was a much-appreciated validation of the work we'd done. It seemed to say that all that effort hadn't been pointless.
How did we celebrate our win, you ask? By going to the otaku-filled IHOP at 2 am and stuffing ourselves with delicious, unhealthy breakfast, then going straight to bed. Silly as it may sound, I think that victory meal might've been my favorite moment of the weekend. Tired (maybe a little sleep-deprived drunk), but happy, satisfied, and with friends.
Cosplay pics are here
Non-cosplay pics are here
The run up to AX involved a lot of late night cosplay cramming. Between packing and last minute cosplay work, I only got in an hour's nap before the airport shuttle whisked me away. I almost got to sleep during the flight, but kept waking up mid-nosedive into the lap of the person next to me. My brief exposure to the state of Nevada (during my Las Vegas lay-over) left a very curious impression. I daresay it might possibly be more awesome than Texas. Blasphemy, I know, but c'mon, gambling AND automatic weapons in one place????
In LA, Jenny and Amelie picked me up in the rental car they'd gotten. We stopped at In-n-Out Burger, which someone (who will remain nameless) claimed had the best burgers on the planet. I liked the place, with it's 3-item menu, but I liked the employee uniforms more than the food. I'm talking about those chubby baseball caps! I want one. (The burgers were okay, by the way.) After foodums we picked up some cosplay supplies in run-down (read, "scary") Hollywood and returned to the hotel to get to work. Later that afternoon Amelie and I waited in the sun and heat for two hours in the registration line, only to find out that on-site registration wouldn't be starting till the next day. Lame. AND AX was now charging $20 for shuttle passes. Lame plus. So we returned to the hotel room defeated. The highlight of the evening was going to Little Tokyo for dinner. We went to Mr. Ramen, as is our tradition, and as tradition goes, none of us were able to fully finish our ramen bath-tubs. I like to think I could've done it this year, but I made the mistake of ordering curry ramen, which overwhelmed me before I could finish. On the way back to the hotel we drove through the Toy District which has actually gotten scarier since last year, when the worse thing were the knife-wielding cockroaches. Now it's majorly Hobo-town; the sidewalks are packed with tents and cardboard huts. Yikes.
Thursday passed rather quietly since none of us had any major cosplay plans for the day. That is, except for Amelie. Her Beetlejuice cosplay turned out to be a big success, which surprised me. Considering that the movie is around 20 years old, I just didn't expect it to get as much recognition as it did. I'm glad that her debut cosplay went over so well.
Friday I wore my Wybie cosplay. It was a . . . mixed success. After doing so many masked cosplays that leave me blind, I thought I'd finally do something about it. So I mounted my digital camera behind a little peephole in Wybie's mask, so that I could see without having to carve a huge hole in the face. That innovation worked well, but then the battery died after 40 minutes. Crap. But the worst part was the heat in that costume. Wearing a black full length vinyl coat, plus a dense yarn wig? I was melting. I took a lot of breaks out of costume (to cool and dry off) but gradually the breaks got longer and longer and the spurts of cosplay got shorter and shorter. All together, I think I was in Wybie maybe 3 hours total that afternoon.
That night was the Lolita Midnight Tea and I was drafted into service of that cause. The girls had chosen a nursery rhyme theme and had come up with a rather profuse table setting. However, they took second place behind a MKR-themed table which was almost austere in comparison, but very well-conceived and executed. Glowing ice cubes? Wow. The winning table was made all the more impressive when you consider that just one girl made the costume and entire setting all by herself. While the Tea Party was winding down, some rather un-loli hijinx occurred.
After all the bruhaha of the Midnight Tea, the gals would've crashed but instead they pulled off an all-nighter to finish the Princess Tutu stuff. I quit and went to bed around 2 am, only to wake and find the girls still working the next morning. I hadn't minded spending most of our free time Weds, Thurs, and Fri working on Tutu stuff since those days were slow cosplay days anyways. At first it was rather fun, since I'd never been such an active part of a cosplay group before. I especially liked how we each had our own specialty niche, like some sort of cosplay Voltron (I get to be the lava lion). But by Saturday I was starting to get burnt out and I think everyone was started to show the effects of stress and little sleep.
Sooner than we wanted, time ran out and we became the property of the AX 2009 Masquerade Show and I was strongly reminded of why I don't enter cosplay contests. They eclipse the best part of the con weekend! We were locked into the AX Masq. program from noon Saturday till 2 am Sunday morning. OMG, it was torture. The whole time I was thinking, "AGGGGH!!!! I'm missing out on seeing all the cosplay! The biggest cosplay day of the biggest convention in the country and I'm not seeing jack squat! ARGGGH!!!" As we waited in the loading area behind the masquerade stage, Jenny kept reminding us not to be nervous. Nervous? I wasn't nervous. I was tired, hungry, hot, and bored, but not nervous. When I was able to distract myself from my tantrum, I couldn't help but marvel at the backstage atmosphere. There wasn't any air of competition or rivalry or pettiness. What I perceived most was an excitement, relaxation, and camaraderie. I was surprised and impressed by that. And I also got to meet some cosplayers I recognized and admire, which was a cool bonus. I like to think I kept the spazzing to a minimum.
It wasn't until we were at the foot of the stairs leading to the stage that I finally grew nervous. The stage director lady told me to take my position while the stage was dark and the MC was talking. So I quietly ventured onto the stage and took my spot in the middle. For a few heart-pounding seconds I stood there in the dark, looking out at the thousands of people in the audience. We'd never actually rehearsed the skit and it had been weeks since the one and only time I heard the music. Panicking? Yeah. But once the lights came up and the music started, there was nothing I could do but try.
. . . The skit did not go as well as we'd hoped (and was handicapped by audio problems/truncating) but it was to be expected. We sat back down in our chairs and waited an hour or so for the results. I guess I was kinda grumpy, partly over how our skit had turned out, but mostly because I was required to wait some more. Jenny and Beauty were called on stage to receive their award for the Midnight Tea. While that was going on, our den mother (AX staffer assigned to our group) asked why I wasn't on stage with them. I told her because I wasn't part of their Tea group. "Oh," she replied, "Well you might want to go up there anyways. *wink*"
A few minutes later we were on stage, winning Runner-Up Best Group Craftmanship. (I think the Trinity Blood group got 1st place in that category) I know I was a bit stunned, remembering the last week of cosplay cramming and all the shortcuts we'd taken to finish barely on time. Although the award was unexpected (by me, anyways), it was a much-appreciated validation of the work we'd done. It seemed to say that all that effort hadn't been pointless.
How did we celebrate our win, you ask? By going to the otaku-filled IHOP at 2 am and stuffing ourselves with delicious, unhealthy breakfast, then going straight to bed. Silly as it may sound, I think that victory meal might've been my favorite moment of the weekend. Tired (maybe a little sleep-deprived drunk), but happy, satisfied, and with friends.
Cosplay pics are here
Non-cosplay pics are here
