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this weekend, next weekend
Jan. 8th, 2018 09:20 amSpent this weekend Getting My Act Together for the Anime Hell show at Eyesore next Saturday.
This is the first time I've done an Anime Hell show outside of the fan convention environment and I'm curious to see how it's gonna go. I always worry that the show is not going to meet the expectations of the audience; I've had feedback in the past that suggests people think Anime Hell is a collection of horrifying death scenes, or it's a collection of bad anime clips. And it contains both those things, but not exclusively. I guess "Anime Hell" isn't the best name for this event, but until somebody invents a time machine, we're stuck with it.
So it's some new clips and some best-of stuff, a re-edited segment comparing Western and Japanese TV cartoons, and that's meant a lot of seeking out clips and ripping them to a video format I can use, which was most of Saturday. Also on Saturday we went out and put some flyers in stores, a thing I haven't done in years and years and years and years. Silver Snail was enthusiastic and happy to put the flyers up, they wanted all I could give 'em. A certain anime retailer in Spadina Chinatown was like ABSOLUTELY NOT, so that's a store I'll never go into again. Another comic book store was iffy - they want to stick to promoting strictly comic related events - but at least they were polite about it.
Eyesore has been great, really welcoming. Dan (the owner) and Adam (friend of the store, local geekswapper scenemaker) have been positive and Adam in particular has been the guy saying "hey, let's do this" when I get bogged down in something else and distracted.
I think in today's Toronto that a place like Eyesore is desperately needed, a weird, non-corporate cultural space where people can rent crazy movies and congregate to enjoy some not-as-intended entertainment. Also if you want to rent movies in general, there are darn few places left to do it. Hopefully we can get Eyesore on the radar of some of the city's anime nerds and they can get off their butts and get down there every once in a while.
I've said this before, but Toronto's nerd scene really does seem to be Balkanized, split up into little tribes that don't interact & view each other with suspicion. Eyesore's largely patronized by horror/schlock film fans. The comic book people go to Fan Expo, the indy/arts comics people revolve around TCAF and Canzine/Broken Pencil, the anime nerds go to Anime North, the literary SF people go to Ad Astra, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of crossover between any of the groups. In fact I ran an ad for Eyesore during Anime Hell one year at AN and somebody in the audience complained later that I shouldn't be promoting some Queen Street hipster video store, because... well, they didn't have a reason. More recently I mentioned helping Eyesore out at their new location, doing prep work to get the new store up and running, and somebody on my FB was like "why should I help them?" Well, it's because crazy stuff doesn't happen in this city (any city, but here especially) unless somebody makes it happen. I know some anime fans who won't set foot in Anime North, because reasons. Everybody's got that axe out and the grinding wheel ready to grind, it seems.
I realize I'm from the fandom generation that had to get out and force things into existence, and I'm probably not happy unless I'm out there forcing something into existence. I also realize that I came from a fandom environment in Atlanta that believed in the 'big tent' philosophy where we'd put on a club or a con and everybody was welcome, and was advertised as such. Come on in, this stuff is great, come enjoy it. Sure, that caused some problems, but at least they were different problems.
Anyway, I hope people come out and have a good time, that's really all I'm after, an evening of showing crazy stuff to friends. Come on in.
This is the first time I've done an Anime Hell show outside of the fan convention environment and I'm curious to see how it's gonna go. I always worry that the show is not going to meet the expectations of the audience; I've had feedback in the past that suggests people think Anime Hell is a collection of horrifying death scenes, or it's a collection of bad anime clips. And it contains both those things, but not exclusively. I guess "Anime Hell" isn't the best name for this event, but until somebody invents a time machine, we're stuck with it.
So it's some new clips and some best-of stuff, a re-edited segment comparing Western and Japanese TV cartoons, and that's meant a lot of seeking out clips and ripping them to a video format I can use, which was most of Saturday. Also on Saturday we went out and put some flyers in stores, a thing I haven't done in years and years and years and years. Silver Snail was enthusiastic and happy to put the flyers up, they wanted all I could give 'em. A certain anime retailer in Spadina Chinatown was like ABSOLUTELY NOT, so that's a store I'll never go into again. Another comic book store was iffy - they want to stick to promoting strictly comic related events - but at least they were polite about it.
Eyesore has been great, really welcoming. Dan (the owner) and Adam (friend of the store, local geekswapper scenemaker) have been positive and Adam in particular has been the guy saying "hey, let's do this" when I get bogged down in something else and distracted.
I think in today's Toronto that a place like Eyesore is desperately needed, a weird, non-corporate cultural space where people can rent crazy movies and congregate to enjoy some not-as-intended entertainment. Also if you want to rent movies in general, there are darn few places left to do it. Hopefully we can get Eyesore on the radar of some of the city's anime nerds and they can get off their butts and get down there every once in a while.
I've said this before, but Toronto's nerd scene really does seem to be Balkanized, split up into little tribes that don't interact & view each other with suspicion. Eyesore's largely patronized by horror/schlock film fans. The comic book people go to Fan Expo, the indy/arts comics people revolve around TCAF and Canzine/Broken Pencil, the anime nerds go to Anime North, the literary SF people go to Ad Astra, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of crossover between any of the groups. In fact I ran an ad for Eyesore during Anime Hell one year at AN and somebody in the audience complained later that I shouldn't be promoting some Queen Street hipster video store, because... well, they didn't have a reason. More recently I mentioned helping Eyesore out at their new location, doing prep work to get the new store up and running, and somebody on my FB was like "why should I help them?" Well, it's because crazy stuff doesn't happen in this city (any city, but here especially) unless somebody makes it happen. I know some anime fans who won't set foot in Anime North, because reasons. Everybody's got that axe out and the grinding wheel ready to grind, it seems.
I realize I'm from the fandom generation that had to get out and force things into existence, and I'm probably not happy unless I'm out there forcing something into existence. I also realize that I came from a fandom environment in Atlanta that believed in the 'big tent' philosophy where we'd put on a club or a con and everybody was welcome, and was advertised as such. Come on in, this stuff is great, come enjoy it. Sure, that caused some problems, but at least they were different problems.
Anyway, I hope people come out and have a good time, that's really all I'm after, an evening of showing crazy stuff to friends. Come on in.
