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Fandom, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship stillvisions...
Sorry about that.
Another spin around the sun, another Toronto Trek looms. Rather than getting myself hung up on a pithy introduction, it's best for me to dive right in. Given my current case of bloggers block, it's safer before this con too is lost to the laws of dimminishing returns that plague most web pages.
So, I can fill space with the customary advisory now. Anyway, this report may or may not contain references that people may find offensive. See, I'm delving into the world of fandom, and this sometimes results in topics involving fictional characters doing what consenting fictional characters do in the privacy of their own home or holodeck. Deal.
Okay I lied; it will definitely mention such things. Also I might swear in places and make somewhat lewd jokes - since I haven't written it I'm not sure but it's a guess, since I'm generally not able to go more more than cheap laughs.
Yes, this report will contain opinions. Some, you might not agree with said opinions. Deal with it. I've received flack for *gasp* expressing how I feel about some events at these cons, because I apparently am not possessed of the right to complain.
Of course even more amusing is that more than one of these people who condemned my opinions (privately or publically) had no trouble at all providing me with dirt on other events/people, but hey, I guess that's different.
I've been told that having never run con X means I'm not entitled to speak negatively of it. Apparently I can't comment on war atrocities either without committing some, by that logic.
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Also, I've been told that instead of complaining, I should do something about it. Excluding doing some volunteer stuff, and generally taking part in the events, I'll give you a news flash: I get about 1000+ distinct IPs visiting a week. Since December, last year's Toronto Trek report had about 500 visitors. My CNAnime report had 2000, and my AN report has had about 1600...
So people say to do something about it? Well, I'd say writing this report qualifies as "doing something".
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I had a great time, but that doesn't mean I can't comment on things I thought didn't work. Deal with it.
So, with that little bit of venom dealt with, I'll move on, with some expectation of whining and barbed remarks later. You've been warned.
Where to begin: well, the last time I was at Toronto Trek, I had no website and was just trying out the digital camera I'd bought about two weeks prior. Even after the pictures were done, the original intent was for me to supply the pictures to other people and leave it at that. I had pictures left over that people weren't going to post (and people were taking a while putting the other ones up) so I decided to make a gallery with an introduction...
That "introduction" mutated into a con report, and the rest was not so much history as "fate doing its best to grind me into a pulp by giving me more work".
Now, I'm back to where it began; a different existence, but another Toronto Trek.
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Friday brought with it the cruel punishment of waking up at 9 AM for something at school. The horror. After that, I swung up north and cross-town to the Regal Constellation, site of the 17th annual Toronto Trek. For those of you who don't know the specifics, the convention name is a bit of a misnomer; it's a general sci-fi/fantasy/fandom con which basically takes on anything that enough people are willing to expend energy on. I like that.
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Having arrived early and self-caffenated; I wandered over to where us pre-registeres people were to get signed in. Wasn't open until 3, so I wandered off in search of familiar faces. It didn't take long - the sight of two people still working on a costume in the lobby was the dead giveaway; Xiola and Minako were putting some finishing touches on an umbrella while waiting for the others to arrive.
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While some of the expected crew were running late the familiar faces started to trickle in; Oselle wandered by and promptly had a typical fangirl moment running into some people she knew. I'd say the photo at right pretty much sums it up.
With one of the rooms now available, people went upstairs to suit up, while I decided to check out the registration line, seeing as it was supposed to be open.
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Emphasis on the word supposed but for some reason it was going to be four o'clock before the line opened. At least they gave us warning.
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Many brave souls decided the wait was worth it. Being unable to understand the concept of delayed gratification myself, I left to hopefully find the first batch of complete cosplayers and such, as well as things to make up and pass off as real.
I found the photo at right to be especially amusing. Not that it's particularly shocking, mind you, but it still seemed kinda cute.
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Yes, I amuse easily.
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But then again, conventions are their own little reality bubble; refugees from a world that never existed seeking shelter in one that shouldn't. Suddenlly everything gets switched up, and the guy in the Klingon becomes par for the course. It takes an hour or two in order to aclimatize, but it happens pretty much naturally.
In the meantime, the rest of the crew had arrived (we had started to wonder about them) and I hopped upstairs to see people in various stages of preparation for their costumes.
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Darian was going as Le Petit Prince (which to you non-frenchy people means "the little prince", and not the musician. Damn he's short) from the old book/cartoon. Actually, he was doing the TV version more than anyhing else, which meant one very important thing:
Insane Cartoon Hair, like something right out of the 80's. Nifty.
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Meanwhile, the others were getting prepped; I really can't remember any of it, so once again I'll rely on my event photos to guide me.
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Kisa was dressed as Count Cain (from remarkably the manga Count Cain), Xiola as Merryweather Hargreaves (Cain's sister, surprisingly from Count Cain), and Minako as Mana (from the demented imagination of Jrock stars), and Darian as Le Petit Prince (from some crazy French dude).
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With the others getting ready, we sauntered out to take pictures and be seen. Well, them at least; I was just dressed as an attention-slut photographer.
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So, I started wrangling the respective people together for their pictures. Darian was first up, I think. Since we still had the light, I decided to set up this shot...
And it was an excuse to giggle as I watched Darian nearly plunge off the edge. I added the lens flare, and suspiciously it decided to flare on his crotch; this will be a recurring theme for Darian...
More on that later...
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Next up was a bunch of Minako shots...
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Dressed as Mana, Minako does a pretty dead-on job of being a scary jrock star. She also has a knack for doing good photos; amazingly these three shots came from a total pool of about 7 pictures.
The first was a quick toss-off lobby shot that turned out great; she really got the "I'm fragile but may just snap your neck" look. I'm not sure if that requires acting on Minako's part, other than the "fragile" part.
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Next, we were killing time waiting for the reg desk to open (now the "official" time was 4 o'clock and counting) so I got some shots of Minako in the patio ballroom.
We only got a few shots in before some cleaning guy kicked up out. I mean, it wasn't like we weren't allowed in there or something...
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Oh wait, it was that we weren't allowed in there... meh, tresspass happens.
Anyway, this last shot was one of three takes, and looks great, so the inclusion of this one is a no-brainer. At this point the old guy was about to run us over with his cart, so a quick exit was required. Anyway, more shots lay on the horizon, as well as the dreaded registration.
And this one was a pain.
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Opinion alert: Yes, delays happen, and I don't know the source of this one, but a delay of more than two hours for those who were pre-registered to have their stuff ready was, shall we say, a massive pain.
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I mean, considering we'd told them in advance, you'd have thought that it'd be ready, but apparently not. Now, I was told that us pre-registered people got the benefit of paying less, but somehow I don't think the karmic cycle felt the need to balance things by giving people a two-hour delay. Especially those who actually waited for the duration; I was only there for 45 minutes, a mere hour and a half after it was supposed to be open.
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I know, I know, delays happen, but given the whole, well, "pre" factor involved I hope next year they check to avert whatever problem they had; it's not like they had no warning we were coming or something (though mild kudos for at least warning people of the one-hour part of the delay)...
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*Ahem* and with that, I was finally registered. Got this nice pic of Kisa at right, and more to come; I'm just still feeling the need to be chronological for the most part. It'll pass soon enough.
The con finally underway for real (at least for me) things took on a different shape, or at least I keep saying that to justify a break in the report now. Well, either that or wait for my lazy ass to write some more...
I thought you'd agree...
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