*whew* Made it back to Los Angeles in one piece ! San Japan ends my back to back travel to Otakon (largest anime con on the East Coast) in Baltimore and San Diego Comic Con. I managed to edit together half the video on the plane ride back to LA before my laptop battery died *grrrrr*
If y'all don't know, I travel with my trusty G10 Canon camera and just interview random folks about cons and cosplay, then dump it into iMovie and slap something together :) I can't bring everyone with me on my travels but I can at least show y'all something !
Texas was hot ! I should know better - I spent a lot of my childhood there but living in Los Angeles now, I've forgotten how hot it was. I landed pluck right in the middle of a 20 day heatwave of 100+ degree scorcher. I arrived in Austin, rented some grip equipment from GEAR Rentals, and headed down to San Antonio with my sister and her hubby.
(My "office")
Now this time, I was invited by San Japan so I was given a room that I shared with cosplay show sign-up. This allowed me a chance to set-up a 9 ft. backdrop. See, most of the time, I travel with a 4 ft. backdrop since it has to be small and fit on the plane. This is probably the only con on my tour that I could pull this off. The folks at San Japan were so accommodating. They're good peeps. I talk to many folks and asked how they felt about the con. The only real complaint is the lines, rooms filled up fast and the heat. Luckily, two of the problem will be solved next year when they moved to the convention center across the street. As for the heat....uh, well, Texas is just hot.
(Thanks Crystal !)
Met folks from Texas, from out of state and even from out of the country with a few folks from Canada, Japan and Australia. Crystal bought me a little gift (yay !) and Rhapsody Angel dropped by with Skittles (love, love, love !). A few cosplayers have mention that one of the reasons they love cosplaying was meeting people and I have to agree. For me, the best part of what I do is just meeting and chatting with people from all over. I'm still surprised people want to meet me - honestly, I feel very humbled by all this since to me, I'm just a guy that runs around and makes random videos and takes photos. Speaking of photos, I've posted up cosplay photos from my HTC phone on my Flickr acct where you can also see pictures from past cons. Older con videos also found on my YouTube too.
I even had a panel to do which was fun but frightening at the same time as I'm not used to speaking in front of a group of people. I probably stumbled my way around but luckily my sister was there to give support ! I think I did alright :) I didn't get a chance to run around the con as much since I was working so I didn't get to see the Cosplay Show nor Nabeshin either. I guess this is a drawback of working cons. :( but hey, lucky for me there's YOUTUBE !
(Chicken Fried Steak @ Lulu's. Yum !)
So thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat with me at San Japan ! Y'all know I couldn't have gotten so far with all of y'all out there. I'll be at DragonCon in about 3 weeks. I won't have a table or a booth at all so I'm just going as an attendee to check it out - every con I visited back in 2009, someone would always asked "Have you gone to DragonCon ?". I believe it is time I make that trek ! (By the way, the PBS documentary "Four Days at DragonCon" can be stream here)
I will be back in Atlanta at the next con, Anime Weekend Atlanta where I'll be with Epic Cosplay wigs in the dealer hall with books and photo booth. Check my tour list to see where I am. Hope to see y'all around !
