post AWA thoughts
Nov. 16th, 2021 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davemerrillSo it's two weeks since I got back from AWA and I guess I didn't get the COVID. I got two separate PCR tests the Sunday of the con - just so I'd have results in time before my flight on Tuesday- and they were both negative, of course.
The con went OK! Thursday was super crowdy. Friday still kinda crowdy. Saturday and Sunday didn't feel as crowded as those days felt in 2019. My feeling is, my guess was right and the show lost about ten percent attendance. The people that did show up were masked, vaxed, tested, and ready to party. I mean Thursday night drunken Disney Atlantis Princess drunk.
A lot of my friends who usually come didn't make it this time. The Saturday night that we'd normally have some sort of room party in memory of the room party we used to have which was called Dessloktoberfest, well, it was me and Neil and Ryan and Lloyd and Matt Buffington sitting around Neil's room drinking the rest of the six-pack of Shiner I brought and just shooting the breeze; no big deal but after not seeing these guys for 2 years it felt great.
The congoers were great about masking up. The part about "you must show your vax card or your negative test results" didn't quite filter down to the walk-ins, however, so there were a lot of walk-ins getting annoyed that they had to fish out their vax cards. I mean, the Braves weren't asking for vax receipts. Seems like the States, or Georgia anyways, has basically decided to Stop Giving A Shit and let the virus roam free as the wind blows.
The World Series meant parking was absolutely not happening for under thirty dollars on Saturday. I saw "Parking $100" at the Steak & Shake on Sunday. Most of the Braves fans were bemused & amused by the anime cosplayers, if people were expecting trouble it didn't happen. Hard to be angry when the Braves are in the series, I guess.
Most of the nerd fan drama nonsense seemed to dial itself back. Disgraced former anime voice actor Vic Mignogna had a signing scheduled the Saturday of the show at a hotel across I-285 from the convention, and there was some talk about what if certain banned Vic-involved people show up at the con? I don't wanna say the head of public safety was looking forward to throwing certain people out on their ass, but when Lloyd and I did our "history of AWA" panel that certain people had shown up to in 2019, public safety was there with eyes on. But certain people didn't show up. Better for everybody involved, I think.
The con had crazy line problems on Thursday - more Thursday attendees than ever before. Two lines for the SHFS materialized out of nowhere and what can you do? They got merged into one line, and people who got the short end of the stick weren't happy. One woman told me AWA was the worst run convention she'd ever been to. That's a tall order for 5pm on a Thursday! Anyway, I saw her later, she got into the SHFS and walked out with armloads of stuff, so I guess things went OK for her at some point.
Anime Hell went without a hitch. Opening ceremonies were an hour late starting, so I figured by the time Neil's Totally Lame got going it would be at least 9 - but they scheduled an hour of slack time into the schedule and Neil started more or less on time, as did Hell, as did Midnight Madness. Didn't have a full room for the full two hours, but that's on par with attendance levels throughout the convention, I think.
Sunday I got a ride for myself and Neil over to Dad's house, and we carved a pumpkin and handed out candy to kids, the first pumpkin I've carved in a long time. Walked around the block and caught up with a neighbor girl who's now a neighbor lady living in her childhood home taking care of her elderly mom and her kids and her mom's business and her own job, and still had time to dress up Mrs. Voorhees (her son was Jason).
My convention panels were over by noon Saturday, I left the dealers' room for the last time with $40 still in my pocket, spent my downtime catching up with friends from 10, 20, 30 years back, hearing about kids, health issues, middle school drama, and how everybody's coping with the tidal wave of covid wrecking everything.
I got to hear from a LOT of fans happy to be back at the con, happy AWA was back. Got to hear from a few staffers who thanked me for helping the show through the rough patch it was going through when it changed hands a few years back. After the con I came home and there was an email from someone who had been attending my classic anime panels for years and how those panels had opened her eyes to a lot of great shows she might otherwise never have seen, and that was a nice email to get in the aftermath of a convention.
Flying seems to have added a few layers of passport-checking, boarding-pass checking, can I see that sticker on your passport, please? checkpoints. An hour before we needed to leave for the airport I decided my old luggage was trash, so I hustled over to the Canadian Tire and splurged on a new set of (cheapish) hard-shell luggage. Treat yourself, I guess. Glad I did.
Discotek WAS at AWA but they did not have Braiger. They had the Cleopatra with my pull quote on the back, though. I wound up paying shipping for Braiger along with Future Boy Conan. What a world we anime nerds live in now.
The con went OK! Thursday was super crowdy. Friday still kinda crowdy. Saturday and Sunday didn't feel as crowded as those days felt in 2019. My feeling is, my guess was right and the show lost about ten percent attendance. The people that did show up were masked, vaxed, tested, and ready to party. I mean Thursday night drunken Disney Atlantis Princess drunk.
A lot of my friends who usually come didn't make it this time. The Saturday night that we'd normally have some sort of room party in memory of the room party we used to have which was called Dessloktoberfest, well, it was me and Neil and Ryan and Lloyd and Matt Buffington sitting around Neil's room drinking the rest of the six-pack of Shiner I brought and just shooting the breeze; no big deal but after not seeing these guys for 2 years it felt great.
The congoers were great about masking up. The part about "you must show your vax card or your negative test results" didn't quite filter down to the walk-ins, however, so there were a lot of walk-ins getting annoyed that they had to fish out their vax cards. I mean, the Braves weren't asking for vax receipts. Seems like the States, or Georgia anyways, has basically decided to Stop Giving A Shit and let the virus roam free as the wind blows.
The World Series meant parking was absolutely not happening for under thirty dollars on Saturday. I saw "Parking $100" at the Steak & Shake on Sunday. Most of the Braves fans were bemused & amused by the anime cosplayers, if people were expecting trouble it didn't happen. Hard to be angry when the Braves are in the series, I guess.
Most of the nerd fan drama nonsense seemed to dial itself back. Disgraced former anime voice actor Vic Mignogna had a signing scheduled the Saturday of the show at a hotel across I-285 from the convention, and there was some talk about what if certain banned Vic-involved people show up at the con? I don't wanna say the head of public safety was looking forward to throwing certain people out on their ass, but when Lloyd and I did our "history of AWA" panel that certain people had shown up to in 2019, public safety was there with eyes on. But certain people didn't show up. Better for everybody involved, I think.
The con had crazy line problems on Thursday - more Thursday attendees than ever before. Two lines for the SHFS materialized out of nowhere and what can you do? They got merged into one line, and people who got the short end of the stick weren't happy. One woman told me AWA was the worst run convention she'd ever been to. That's a tall order for 5pm on a Thursday! Anyway, I saw her later, she got into the SHFS and walked out with armloads of stuff, so I guess things went OK for her at some point.
Anime Hell went without a hitch. Opening ceremonies were an hour late starting, so I figured by the time Neil's Totally Lame got going it would be at least 9 - but they scheduled an hour of slack time into the schedule and Neil started more or less on time, as did Hell, as did Midnight Madness. Didn't have a full room for the full two hours, but that's on par with attendance levels throughout the convention, I think.
Sunday I got a ride for myself and Neil over to Dad's house, and we carved a pumpkin and handed out candy to kids, the first pumpkin I've carved in a long time. Walked around the block and caught up with a neighbor girl who's now a neighbor lady living in her childhood home taking care of her elderly mom and her kids and her mom's business and her own job, and still had time to dress up Mrs. Voorhees (her son was Jason).
My convention panels were over by noon Saturday, I left the dealers' room for the last time with $40 still in my pocket, spent my downtime catching up with friends from 10, 20, 30 years back, hearing about kids, health issues, middle school drama, and how everybody's coping with the tidal wave of covid wrecking everything.
I got to hear from a LOT of fans happy to be back at the con, happy AWA was back. Got to hear from a few staffers who thanked me for helping the show through the rough patch it was going through when it changed hands a few years back. After the con I came home and there was an email from someone who had been attending my classic anime panels for years and how those panels had opened her eyes to a lot of great shows she might otherwise never have seen, and that was a nice email to get in the aftermath of a convention.
Flying seems to have added a few layers of passport-checking, boarding-pass checking, can I see that sticker on your passport, please? checkpoints. An hour before we needed to leave for the airport I decided my old luggage was trash, so I hustled over to the Canadian Tire and splurged on a new set of (cheapish) hard-shell luggage. Treat yourself, I guess. Glad I did.
Discotek WAS at AWA but they did not have Braiger. They had the Cleopatra with my pull quote on the back, though. I wound up paying shipping for Braiger along with Future Boy Conan. What a world we anime nerds live in now.
