davemerrill

So 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 22nd AWA is over and it went pretty well! 29K attendees, 31K warm bodies, and at least one tasering because some people can't behave.
















The SHFS started an hour late because the hotel was late in getting the room set up and we had some confusion as to where the hotel needed to be directing their room setup resources. But we had a room full of sellers and buyers and a line down the hall and out into another facility entirely waiting to get in and spend money. I sold most of what I brought, Neil sold most of what he brought, Matt B. sold most of what he brought, most sellers seemed to do pretty well. I think the event might need a little more space, but I don't think we need to add tables; 70 is about as many tables as we can expect people to buy on a Thursday night, I think. Add an hour to the event, maybe.

We found out pretty much day-of that the Bebop+Mixer was going to have a dance floor and a live band, and I was like, is this gonna work? And it worked really, really well.

Anime Hell went smoothly - it's all digital files now, Tech had all the digital files, I just played them using VLC on their PC, not so much as a hiccup. I'm putting two hours of material in there but due to me setting up clips and pausing for emphasis, the show runs about 20 minutes over, which isn't fair to Gavv, so I have to start being more selective. Got a lot of great feedback about the show, too.

Stayed up late Sat. and Sun talking anime nerd stuff with the old anime nerds, caught up with some old pals, met some folks I only knew from online, didn't get too hammered, got food every AM, stayed hydrated. My US phone decided to update itself on Sunday and wiped all my contacts, THANK YOU PHONE, so I went in and out of touch with the world. Waverly wifi was spotty at best. Room wifi was fine. Didn't have a "party" per se, but people hung out in the room regardless and we had some snacks and booze. Didn't meet any guests, bought Chargeman Ken and a pair of Sanrio Gudetama socks for Shain in the dealer's room, sat in on some other people's panels for a change, had a Let's Anime reader say nice things to me after At The Movies.

Neil brought me a monitor to replace the dead monitor and it survived the trip from Boston to Atlanta, and it survived the trip from Atlanta to Toronto and it's a great monitor, thank you Neil.

So far I've avoided the after-con cold that's hitting a lot of people, but who knows, it's only Tuesday. Stay tuned.

If you're reading this Livejournal I think it's safe to assume that you know about Anime Weekend Atlanta, the anime convention I helped start back in 1995 that is, this year, going to hold its 22nd consecutive gathering at the Cobb Galleria Convention Center and the Renaissance Waverly Hotel. If you do NOT know about AWA then I have failed in my task and will duly chastise myself.


What you might not know is that registration for the Super Happy Fun Sell is open and waiting for you and your reservation and your table full of pre-loved anime and manga merchandise!



So, if you've got a closet full of anime DVDs you no longer watch or manga you no longer read or games you no longer play or toys you no longer play with, why not get a SHFS table and pass 'em on to new loving homes - and put a little folding money in your pocket at the same time? Huh?

And we're back! Another one in the can. Some old problems solved, some new problems rise up, a little price gouging, some bargains, old friends met, new friends made, friends no longer with us remembered. A fully packed Corn Pone Flicks Bad American Dubbing panel, some pizza, an airport run, candy, costumers, and it rained every single day. That's AWA this year.

IF you're coming to AWA next month then naturally you're all-a flutter about the SUPER HAPPY FUN SELL, our garage-sale used merchandise blowout whereby fans sell their old stuff to other fans and everybody walks away happy. Registration for SHFS tables is now LIVE and waiting for you to reserve YOUR table!

The SHFS takes place on Thursday evening as one of our inaugural events, and this year it starts two hours earlier, at 5pm. So don't be late!

jeez, been 18 years of these things. The con went really well. I mean, no ambulance calls, no flipouts, people were generally well behaved. Staff was on top of things and performing at top capacity. Guests and panellists had a lot of fun and seemed to enjoy themselves. Bought a little stuff in the dealers room, got to see a lot of friends and catch up, held a few panels that seemed to go well. We may have reached that happy medium between "horrifying disaster" and "transcendentally awesome life-altering experience" - the highs might not have been as mind blowing but the lows weren't as depth-dredgingly low.

for me personally I flew into Atlanta on Wednesday night and got to spend the night at my folks, catching up on family news and enjoying the new shed in the back yard.



Thursday I borrowed the family van and did a little pre-con shopping, picked up Gavigan at the airport, and visited the site of AWA 7 and 8, which is still a Sheraton attached to a convention center. The convention center is now totally empty and OFF LIMITS.





We hustled it back up to civilization and got settled just in time for me to get cracking on the SUPER HAPPY FUN SELL, the yard sale event. We had sold every table before the show, but that didn't stop a few very persistent people from deciding they could haul all their junk to AWA and just be handed a table. "I was told there would be tables for walk-ins." Not by me, you weren't.



Of course we did have some no-shows, so eventually everybody got to sit down and sell their junk. The SHFS setup might have been the most frustrating part of the show for me, if only because of the no-shows, the people insisting I give them a table, the people who were told they had a table when they did not, etc. Next year there will be some changes.

Then I went and did Old School Classroom for a while, screening MAKEN LINER 0011 and some of the Unico pilot film and the World Of Leiji Matsumoto and SUE CAT, all about an idol singing cat. Then it was bedtime.

Friday, we had a pre-show panellists orientation meeting at 11, which is a fantastic idea that I wish I'd come up with 18 years ago. Then it was time for Opening Ceremonies. Here's Lloyd and Stan working the crowd.



Then I went off and did a panel about Prince Planet, sat in on Fred Schodt's panel, had some lunch, wandered the show, bought some junk, saw some friends, had dinner at Maggianos with CB and Elizabeth and Parker.

On the way out to dinner we passed the Formal Ball, which is run by my brother Jason who's the events director. It's a formal ball, you need to be in formalwear. Fans being who fans are this means Jason spends the entire year explaining to people what 'formal' means, and wasting his time listening to the idiotic debating strategies of time-wasting morons who feel that the Rules Do Not Apply To Me I Am A Special Snowflake My Mommy Said So. Two of these goof-balls were attempting to talk their way into the formal ball dressed as Thing One and Thing Two. You know, from that well known Japanese anime manga artist Dr. Seuss. They were wearing nice jackets, but also red tights and Chuck Taylor sneakers. Jason was getting all het up so I stepped in and let them work their rhetorical magic on me, which consisted of them explaining that some other people were getting into the ball dressed less than formally (we're not talking about them, we're talking about you), how they could put on nicer pants (then go and do so, why don't you) and how they could put on dress shoes (if you had done so, we wouldn't be having this conversation)and where do we go to get our refunds (the table with the cash box on it, stupid). Seriously, these weren't even clean sneakers. "You're really hung up on the shoes!" one said. Well, basketball shoes are a deal-killer when it comes to a formal dance. Even *I* know that, and I wear shorts half the year and most of my wardrobe is T-shirts with Rory Hayes drawings or cereal box characters.

I heard later they lodged a complaint against us with some kind of AWA complaint-lodging organization I was previously unaware of. Lodging a complaint against the Merrill boys at AWA? Good luck with that one guys.

ANYWAYS we had some dinner and then it was time for Hell. I ran a bunch of old clips and new clips and people seemed to like it. I dunno, I got lots of compliments, I guess I'm doing something right. Ryan cranked up Midnight Madness, I retreated to Carl Horn's party for some post Hell libations, and got to bed at, I dunno, 3?

Saturday I did Greggo's Anime Match Game in the Betty White seat next to Vic. I haven't done one of these game shows in a long time, but I managed to come up with some amusing stuff to make the audience laugh and I was instrumental in allowing our final contestant to get some decent prizes. I hitched a ride with Rich Anderson to the Vortex down in Little Five Points to get a burger and reminisce about my youthful days buying REM LPs in Wax 'N' Facts. We got back to the con in time for me and Drew and Richard H. to do the Kokusai Eiga panel, which went well in spite of technical issues. Then it was time for the old peoples party up in the old peoples suite for the old peoples.

I'm of two minds about this. I like having a private party up away from the hubbub, but at the same time I feel really cut off from the rest of the show, at a crucial Saturday night time when people should be milling around and socializing in a larger pool than the pool we have to swim in, in a small hotel room. I am kicking around the idea of getting a Waverly function room, having the hotel set up a cash bar and some snacks, and having a reception/party for the over-21 set where the over-21 set can find it, open to anybody who can prove they're over 21. In conversations with AWA attendees over the weekend I did hear from people who would like something of this nature - one guy visited the Bebop Lounge and was disappointed that he couldn't get anything stronger than coffee.

The benefits of having a Waverly cash-bar event are that we could set up a sound system and have somebody DJ old school music, we could have a screen and be showing old videos and images, it would be someplace people could wander into, have a drink, wander out of to experience the rest of the con, wander back into.

Anyway it's just an idea at this stage. Stay tuned.

Speaking of events, Ed did the karaoke out in the food court of the Galleria and it seemed like a good use of the space. The food court is surrounded by CGCC function space on the upper level, giving performers a balcony to play to.



I did the Atlanta Anime Con Roundtable panel on Sunday at noon, at 3 I did the Tezuka panel, at 5 we did closing ceremonies, and at 6:30 Jason and I were on our way to Scalini's for the post-con dose of garlic and family. We spent the rest of the evening putting the con to bed and watching crazy videos on Neil's little media computer. Monday AM I got up later than expected, packed, got downstairs, said bye to the people I could find, and before I knew it I was at the airport. The flight was a little bumpy, but I finally made it home to Toronto, and now I'm sitting here typing this.

This year I got to reconnect with a lot of people I hadn't seen in years and years - Meri Davis from A-Kon, Jeff Bullock, Jay Finch - and catch up with locals whom I see more regularly, and make some new friends, and spend more time talking to people whom I only spend a little time talking to. Got to see a lot of babies and toddlers and teenagers, got to see some folks from my generation who are dealing with health issues and life issues, we got to do some events that I think went beyond just stupid cartoons and managed to make a difference in people's lives. That's a bonus, I think. Usually I get done with a convention and I feel wiped out and exhausted, but this is one of those years where instead my head is filled with plans for next year. I guess that means it was a good show.

I'm back from AWA. Show went really smoothly from what I could see - last year was smooth, but this year we missed out on some of last year's hiccups, which is cool. Of course there were other hiccups and there's always sweeping undercurrents of change and development that cause sparks. I will have pix and a full report laters. Right now am just getting back into something resembling normalcy.

here's a tip - if you want to do panels at AWA next year, have your act together (this means being in direct touch with the Events Director of AWA, which Is Not Me) by July 1 at the latest. Hotel rooms at the Waverly go on sale in early Feb and sell out in two weeks. Information on getting a SHFS table is on the AWA website and you should nail one down when you nail down your badge, don't walk in Thursday night expecting a table.

Also my review of OH! EDO ROCKET is up at Otaku Collection DX!

http://otaku.collectiondx.com/moviereview/review-oh-edo-rocket