HIGHLIGHTZ of AX 08 4 Me!

VENICE BEACH
A looong way from the AX at Disneyland days and a paradise for all kinds of burnouts, crazy white people, and tough hombres who don’t mind eating whatever comes out of the water. We saw an armless black guy speeding by in a wheelchair covered in stuffed animals and flashing lights like a human deco-truck. I barely made it back to the hotel alive on the 4th of July as bottle rockets, cop cars, and house parties blew up around us like some bad-but-fun Hollywood Michael Bay shit. Totally awesome!

SHOKO NAKAGAWA
Yeah, OTAKU USA got mad face time for interviews and photos with Shokotan, but what did you expect? We talked about the AKB Massacre, retro vs. new anime and manga, why tokusatsu rules, and what prefect little Idols are made of, the whole thing capped off by a standing offer to go shopping at Nakano Broadway together some sunny day, which may never happen even in my dreams, of course, but it’s fun to pretend. The resulting interview will run in issue 8 of OUSA!

OTAKU USA BOOTH
I suppose no one out there wants to hear anyone say anything positive or have any pride in what they’ve managed to accomplish in spite of overwhelming hardship and struggle (and even I'm looking at my watch now) but yeah, we sold out all our back issues and signed up a lot of new subscribers. The guys from the home office are happy. We’ll be at New York Anime Festival doing roughly the same thing in September. Thanks to all who came and visited and said hi and gave yer support. We like you too!

MARUIONE.JP x KERA STREET SNAP
Anyone who came to the show dressed in Harajuku inspired street fashion came to the booth (and no, ripped pantyhose and cat ears do not count), with the same hardcore Gothloli girls coming back again and again. Top brand from the look of things: Angelic Pretty. Some of the results of the International Street Snaps are already up at LIVEJ. MARUIONE’s next stop: Otakon in Baltimore!

TOKIDOKI
You girls really need to stop buying this stuff and I pray this is mostly some LA thing that will just blow over real soon. Update: it's all over the fucking place and wrong for so many reasons.

OTAKU USA PANEL
This was thrown together so last min. (partially my fault, partially AX’s) but it went off pretty good without a hitch. The best part was probably when the kid working the door asked me if "otaku" meant pervert. Ed Chavez was a no-show (I hope a bookcase full on manga did not fall on him), but we had Carl Gustav Horn on the panel to make a special keynote speech, which was wall-shaking powerful in a Steve Jobs meets Blofeld kind of way. We gave away tons of stuff, including a toy uzi, although, sadly, NO ONE showed up in a club shirt!

ANIME CLUB SHIRTS
I counted only four the whole time I was at the con and all of them were Dragonball Z-inspired. I'm not ready yet to live in a world without Anime Club shirts, so try and help me out on this!

NEWTYPE WINS THE SPJA AWARD FOR BEST PUBLICATION
Since dead mayors can win re-elections, presumably, Heath Ledger will win an Oscar as well.

A FAT CYNICAL NERD TROLLING THE HALLWAYS LOOKING TO MAKE FUN OF OTHER FAT CYNICAL NERDS
Self loathing is its own reward, I guess.

THE J-ROCK REVOLUTION PANEL WAS AWESOME
No, I don't actually like J-rock music very much, thanks anyways, but this web community's panel, co-hosted by the editorial staff of Japan's CURE magazine and lorded over by some insane androgynous jrock star whose name I already forgot was the most fun I had at the con. The fans are roughly at the same place where anime geeks were decades ago, having to share con space with a bunch of people they fundamentally don’t like and won’t admit they have anything in common with (substitute Star Trek fans for anime and manga fans, and you get the picture). Even more amazing, when they have Q&A at their panels, they practically have tears in their eyes while asking questions instead of acting like a goddamn lynch mob (man, those ADV panels were tense and frightening). There was some dumb high school stuff that went down at the Jrock panel too, but to be real honest, it was a lot of fun to sit in on. I just hope they never ever make believe that their hobby is some kind of important INDUSTRY and ruin everything that way.

BEING HOME
Call of Duty 4. My boo-boo. Next stop: San Diego. Anime Weekend Atlanta, and Tokyo again, hopefully in late September.

Comments

[hillsy]

"TOKIDOKI
You girls really need to stop buying this shit. I pray this is mostly some LA thing that will blow over real soon."

Sorry, mang....that shit is all over Seattle, be it Nordstrom's, Macy's, high end outlet malls (sounds strage, dunnit?) Ain't just LA.

[Patrick Macias]

Can you like, burn down any place that is selling it?

[hillsy]

Hell yeah.....the streets will run brown! From all the melty Frango...

[Steve Harrison]

Hey...hey...*psssst*

I heard that PiQ was a sure bet to win 'best mag' next year....

[hillsy]

Hey Uncle Steve....your workbench is looking a little dusty. I can't talk...I've got a whole 1 entry in my "Sofubi Lounge" over the last 3 months...

[Steve Harrison]

Well, I've had some major, major problems since May, and it's totally destroyed my mind for the kind of quality posting I want on my blog...

Like I wanted to write about what I thought was wrong with Newtype USA..well, it died and became PiQ. Then I wanted to discuss why PiQ was a total failure from the start, but it died much faster than I predicted (I had November in the pool)

So I think I should write about Iron King and Red Baron and the different feeling they give me, but the depression is so bad I can't even see straight.

Most writing I've done lately is junk like this, and workng on a mess of Yamato LP and CD stuff for Tim and the Star Blazers web site.

And freaking out over a former friend finding my blog and my urge to buy a S & W .500 revolver and blow his fucking brains out...ahem.

just trying not to die yet, that's all I can do.

[hillsy]

I think that's my problem...I focus on "quality" blog entries when I should use the "shotgun" method and just put anything out there and hope something is decent. Look at Patrick! ;)

And remember, Steve-O...Tokusatsu blogging=gooder, shooting former friends=badder....and prison!

[danno!]

Re: J-Rock Revolution

I so do remember the days of lugging VCRs to the local SciFi cons and getting attitude and dirty looks from the Klingons. (That's not entirely true. The KDC were much less uptight about them Japanese Cartoons then the rest of those mother Filkin' SciFi worldcon types...)

Luckily we were somewhat accepted (read: ignored) by the comicbook convention people and got our Laserdisc players in the doors that way.

Hey, if the J-Rock people wanna rail against the Narutards and the Death Note doters I won't stand in their way.

[danno!]

Anime Club Shirts? Anime Clubs make shirts? Where?

[SPM]

Do Anime Clubs adn Motorcycle clubs (1%er's) follow the same principles for wearing club gear?