Tekkoshocon
5 April 2009 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dime_novel_heroI went to the Tekkoshocon anime convention this weekend. Lots of little bits to note, in no particular order:
I got to go for free! Because I went to the Tekko 1/2 mini con and was promoting Confluence, I was contacted by the staff and offered space to promote our con. Well, I'm not prepared to sit at a table all day to promote our con and the con is not in a position to give them a table we decided to exchange simple memberships.
I went down to the Convention Center after work on Friday so that I could drop off flyers. The people at registration didn't have my name. When I was leaving, the security guy at the door said that I would need to check my props at Con Ops.
Pike: "Props? It's a bicycle seat."
Security: "Well, I work for the hotel. I don't know anything about anime or costumes."
Pike: "I'm dressed as a cyclist because I ride a bike. This is not a prop, it's a bicycle seat. I'm carrying it so it doesn't get stolen. I'm wearing a bike helmet so I don't hit my head. I'm wearing a bike jacket because it's cold and raining. It's not a costume. It's transportation"
Security: "It's very convincing."
Down at Con Ops, they didn't have my name on the list either. After a few phone calls, that was all cleared and I was given a weekend press pass. I didn't see anything on the panel or video program that interested me so I went to the dealers room. There, I picked up Slayers, Season Two on DVD to replace the VHS that I have.
Tekkoshocon has no freebee table. That is, no dedicated space for other cons, publishers and others to place their flyers and such. There were, however, a number of empty tables scattered about so I placed Confluence flyers on nearly every horizontal space I could find. I was please that by the time I left Saturday evening, most of the stacks of flyers were gone or significantly depleted.
On Saturday, I went for the entire day, getting up fairly early so that I could dress in my full steampunk get-up and see Emma: A Victorian Romance in one of the video rooms at 8am. It was interesting, lacking the frenetic pace of many other anime offerings. In the dealer's room they wanted $45 for the first season DVD. And that's for only a 12 episode season. Amazon has it for the same price, although some associate dealers have it for $27, still a lot for only 12 episodes (I paid $30 for a full 24 episode season of Slayers). The soundtrack CD is listed at an astonishing $62. The season two DVDs are list at from $60 to $120, and that's just for a single disk which probably has no more than 2 episodes. Imports are damned expensive. I haven't been able to find any active torrents online. I liked what I saw enough to want to see more but not yet enough to pay import prices.
A lot of people really liked my steampunk costume. Many asked what character I was cosplaying because they couldn't remember it from any anime. It's not from any anime, of course. At least four people asked if I was cosplaying Dr. Steel. And while I respect Dr. Steel's vision of a utopian playland, I am not cosplaying him, nor am I one of his Toy Soldiers. And I have a full head of hair.
Everyone wanted to take my picture. I took almost no photographs. There were hordes of cosplayers and a number of good costumes but I'm not a costume picture taker and I figured most of the best ones would eventually show up on Flickr anyway.
I saw a film called The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. I liked it a lot and want to show it at Confluence. The dealers room had it for $40, which is a hell of a lot for a 100 minute feature film on DVD. Amazon has it for $22.
I spoke with one of the artist/dealers about Confluence. He had never heard of it and asked how long it had been going on.
Almost twenty years.
No, really. Here is a science fiction convention that has been going on in Pittsburgh for two decades and people who should know about it don't. That's a major failure on our part and something needs to be done about it. I have this knawing feeling that having said that, I will be the one to make that happen.
I got to go for free! Because I went to the Tekko 1/2 mini con and was promoting Confluence, I was contacted by the staff and offered space to promote our con. Well, I'm not prepared to sit at a table all day to promote our con and the con is not in a position to give them a table we decided to exchange simple memberships.
I went down to the Convention Center after work on Friday so that I could drop off flyers. The people at registration didn't have my name. When I was leaving, the security guy at the door said that I would need to check my props at Con Ops.
Pike: "Props? It's a bicycle seat."
Security: "Well, I work for the hotel. I don't know anything about anime or costumes."
Pike: "I'm dressed as a cyclist because I ride a bike. This is not a prop, it's a bicycle seat. I'm carrying it so it doesn't get stolen. I'm wearing a bike helmet so I don't hit my head. I'm wearing a bike jacket because it's cold and raining. It's not a costume. It's transportation"
Security: "It's very convincing."
Down at Con Ops, they didn't have my name on the list either. After a few phone calls, that was all cleared and I was given a weekend press pass. I didn't see anything on the panel or video program that interested me so I went to the dealers room. There, I picked up Slayers, Season Two on DVD to replace the VHS that I have.
Tekkoshocon has no freebee table. That is, no dedicated space for other cons, publishers and others to place their flyers and such. There were, however, a number of empty tables scattered about so I placed Confluence flyers on nearly every horizontal space I could find. I was please that by the time I left Saturday evening, most of the stacks of flyers were gone or significantly depleted.
On Saturday, I went for the entire day, getting up fairly early so that I could dress in my full steampunk get-up and see Emma: A Victorian Romance in one of the video rooms at 8am. It was interesting, lacking the frenetic pace of many other anime offerings. In the dealer's room they wanted $45 for the first season DVD. And that's for only a 12 episode season. Amazon has it for the same price, although some associate dealers have it for $27, still a lot for only 12 episodes (I paid $30 for a full 24 episode season of Slayers). The soundtrack CD is listed at an astonishing $62. The season two DVDs are list at from $60 to $120, and that's just for a single disk which probably has no more than 2 episodes. Imports are damned expensive. I haven't been able to find any active torrents online. I liked what I saw enough to want to see more but not yet enough to pay import prices.
A lot of people really liked my steampunk costume. Many asked what character I was cosplaying because they couldn't remember it from any anime. It's not from any anime, of course. At least four people asked if I was cosplaying Dr. Steel. And while I respect Dr. Steel's vision of a utopian playland, I am not cosplaying him, nor am I one of his Toy Soldiers. And I have a full head of hair.Everyone wanted to take my picture. I took almost no photographs. There were hordes of cosplayers and a number of good costumes but I'm not a costume picture taker and I figured most of the best ones would eventually show up on Flickr anyway.
I saw a film called The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. I liked it a lot and want to show it at Confluence. The dealers room had it for $40, which is a hell of a lot for a 100 minute feature film on DVD. Amazon has it for $22.
I spoke with one of the artist/dealers about Confluence. He had never heard of it and asked how long it had been going on.
Almost twenty years.
No, really. Here is a science fiction convention that has been going on in Pittsburgh for two decades and people who should know about it don't. That's a major failure on our part and something needs to be done about it. I have this knawing feeling that having said that, I will be the one to make that happen.
