...You wave your hand and they scatter like crows...

[hazelchaz]

My Animé Los Angeles report, part 5: Saturday. (See also part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6, and part 7.)

Day Two is the big day at most three-day conventions, and Animé Los Angeles was no exception. Not for Registration -- we issued about 750 badges on Saturday, compared to over 1400 on Friday and 500 on Thursday -- but that means that there were about 500 more people Saturday than were around Friday. (We had 235 one-day Friday members, so I've subtracted them from the numbers.)

If we were going to end up being too big for the hotel, Saturday would be when we'd find out. We had announced a cap of 2700 for Saturday, but ended up not enforcing it. We were concerned that we wouldn't have enough seats for the Masquerade. As it turns out, of our 2851 total members, 386 were one-day Fridays, one-day Sundays, or other members who didn't pick up their badge until Sunday, so we only had 2465 members on site Saturday. ("Only!") Nobody was turned away from Registration, and nobody was turned away from the Masquerade hall -- we still had seats at showtime. Which surprises me, even with the lower numbers, because my usual 40% rule of thumb would mean we'd have been Standing Room Only.

There were five principal complaints about the Masquerade. (1) There was a lot of confusion about the Masquerade line, and the people who knew that there should be room to put the whole line inside the building were not the ones routing the line outside the building in the cold. This happened because I wasn't paying attention to the end of the line, and neither were the other Division and Department Heads who would have corrected the situation.

I'm going to ask Operations to mark down on a map where the line should go, and make sure that Events Division and the other Divisions get to see it -- and we'll make sure that's incorporated into our plan on the day for the rovers and for the signage and maps. I'm also going to ask the Fairy Godfathers to walk the complete length of the line from time to time, not just for morale-boosting silliness but also to keep an eye on whether members are freezing outside again.

(2) We were late opening the room for seating. This was because we did some last-minute rearranging of the seats in the room after we'd figured out where the video cameras should be placed. Again, something we should be able to mark down on a floorplan of the room and get right the first time next year.

(3) The Overflow Viewing Room was subject to some confusion, as well. We didn't know how many people were in the line. Even if we knew how many seats were in the main room (let's say it was 900) we were holding the overflow room for the 901st person in line. Next year, I'd like to have a separate line for the overflow room, and I'd like us to have someone go down the line handing out numbered tickets to everyone in line. "If you have a ticket, there's a seat waiting for you." Mostly this is so we can make sure that we don't have more than 900 people in line, as we'll only hand out 900 tickets (or whatever the correct number turns out to be).

(4) The video quality wasn't the best -- making the jumbo screens with the video projection in the main room, as well as the video overflow room, hard to watch. The basic problem is faces were washed out. This was because we didn't devote enough tech setup time to getting the cameras and the projection right -- and that's because we just ran out of time. We've learned, though. A similar arrangement was put together at Gallifrey One, same hotel and much the same tech equipment and crew, and the overflow video room (named the "Heckle Room" there) had video good enough to serve the purpose. (One of the great advantages of sharing expertise and materials with the two other fan-run conventions at the same hotel is that we sometimes can learn from our mistakes three times as fast as we would otherwise.)

(5) And while we had a lot of Novice entries, we didn't end up with a lot of Novice awards. fairegoddess has apologized for this situation. "There were many great entries that deserved recognition and didn't receive it." I'd like to add my apologies as well. Animé Los Angeles strives to have a Masquerade that welcomes novices and recognizes their achievements, and we fell down on the job this year.

Two very minor Masquerade issues, from my point of view, would be from people who didn't read and understand the rules. You have to come to the Mandatory Masquerade Meeting (that's why it's called "mandatory"), or your entry is scratched -- this happened to one entrant that I ran across upstairs, who showed up for their workmanship judging appointment but not for the mandatory meeting. (How to fix that next time? Maybe give them their appointment times when they first sign up, but don't give them the room number until the mandatory meeting?)

And the other minor issue would be people who don't understand that you really have to pre-record your presentation. Honest. We don't have live mics on the stage for you. If you don't pre-record then they're not going to hear you in the back of the hall, or in the overflow room.

One suggestion I've heard would be for someone to set up a computer with a good quality microphone and offer a simple masquerade-entry recording studio service. But since I don't have anyone willing to sit still and run that, I doubt it'll happen anytime soon. (Hint, hint.) Or do what RabidXNinetails did: "With my group we all recorded our lines separately and the completed lines were emailed to me and I just slapped them all together using windows movie maker."

And then there was music. We scheduled a band for "after the Masquerade" intending for the Masquerade to feed into the live music, which would feed into the karaoke and the dance. Didn't we learn last year not to schedule anything that relies on a hard and fast ending time for Masquerade? Anyhow, that didn't work out as well as we wanted...

Saturday was also a big day for some behind-the-scenes things. We had one person in a position of responsibility who had so much pain and Real Life hit them that they ended up stepping back from their position and letting their second take charge. We had an issue with someone else getting annoyed bcause they couldn't get food when they needed it. I take this quite seriously (I call it the collency rule) -- next year one of the things I want us to have is a self-service PB&J station in the Staff Lounge, so people who stop by between meals can get something even if the soup or the jambalaya aren't ready. And next year, I want to get some of the jambalaya myself -- I missed it this time. (My own fault.)

One of the rare sought-after ribbons at the convention was drama drama drama DUCK - Prima donna Platypus which really means "Witness to undue drama." Thankfully only a few of those were earned this year, and there was a minimum of sticky situations spilling out into the halls.

Something that blew up, which is entirely my fault, was a situation with the Scavenger Hunt. In future, if the Scavenger Hunt cites ribbons in any way, it'll be explicitly "take a picture of someone not on your team wearing the ribbon" or something like, because we don't need a hundred scavengers all badgering people for ribbons simultaenously. And while before the convention it seemed pretty safe to have "Take a picture of the Chair" on the list, during the con it turned out that the Scavenger Hunt was right in the middle of a very sticky situation and it was not a good time to find me.

Both of these were my fault, as Sabrina had specifically cleared them with me ahead of time. Very bad judgement on my part. Next time, I'm going to ask that the Scavenger Hunt List be approved by the Division Heads -- so that people with more common sense than I have a chance to look it over.

And discussion of Saturday would hardly be complete without explaining the Fanzine Lounge. But can it be explained? trinsf and cmdrsuzdal came down to animelosangeles intending to pull off a first -- a Fanzine Lounge at an anime convention. A fanzine lounge, as Leigh Ann and España have explained to me, is basically a hospitality lounging space like a con suite but without the food and the crowding. (right)

A pleasant place to hang out and talk about this and that. (I talked about this in my Loscon coverage.) ala_mokita had talked Leigh Ann and Espña into going along with the idea, and the room behind Information was transformed. Slightly. It had been set up as a lounge for Volunteers, but was underused. The addition of a table for fanzines to read and borrow, and free ones to take, and signs on the wall, was all they needed to transform the room.

The funny thing is, it was a hit. People wanted to hang out there and talk. Leigh Ann and España could walk away and metaphorically close their eyes, and it would still exist. Richard Foss explained how the "Historical Swords and Demo" went over, which was five or ten minutes of deadpan physical humor followed by an interview with Tadao. (left)

For a while it was my default location, but it didn't need me there to be a happening place. I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures to prove that, but just take my word on this... We're going to see if we can find a better place for the official Fanzine/Doujinshi Lounge next year.

To be continued...

Comments

[the-celestia.livejournal.com]

Your 'simple masquerade-entry recording studio service' sounds exactly like something I would have a lot of fun doing (since the only way I ever attend any con is if I have something specific to do the ENTIRE time) but no way could I handle being in a hotel with as many jars of peanut butter as it sounds like cons today involve!

"All the rest have peanut butter"

[hazelchaz]

There aren't as many jars of peanut butter as were at the 1972 Worldcon.

So what's your limit on jars of PB, anyway?

Re: "All the rest have peanut butter"

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

What story am I missing here? o____________0?

Re: "All the rest have peanut butter"

[hazelchaz]

Well, there's the nursery rhyme that I've quoted; and there's a particularly memorable costume from that convention's Masquerade which resulted in one or two new rules for Masquerades from then until the end of time.

1972 Worldcon

[hazelchaz]

Mike Resnick explains:

But the most memorable of all was a fellow who came as an underground comic strip hero called 'The Turd'. His costume consisted of about five gallons of peanut butter smeared all over his pudgy body. But he forgot that he'd be under hot lights all evening. The peanut butter turned rancid, ruined every costume that he brushed against, and did some serious damage to the carpet and to some draperies he happened to lean against.

From that day forward, there has been an arcane rule that outlaws the use of peanut butter in Worldcon masquerades. Now you know why.

John Hertz adds:

Mike Resnick, at Chicon 2000, confessed he'd forgotten the rest of that Scott Shaw story (in his "Worldcon Memories" article in Mimosa 25) from the Masquerade at L.A.Con in 1972. Shaw was the cartoonist who entered as the title character of an underground comic strip he wrote, The Turd. Indeed he was covered with peanut butter chunky, I'm afraid -- which smeared and dripped and led to the notorious 'No Peanut Butter' rule. But those effects were not evident from the audience.

He lurched on stage brandishing a plumber's helper (for non-U.S. readers, a wide rubber cup on a stick used to restore outflow in what I understand you call a water closet). Like most in the house I knew nothing of his comic strip, but from his appearance and manner we saw at once what he was. Laughter.

He paused for our recognition. Then, in a voice like a sewer, dragging out the words, he roared, "I ... STINK!"

That was so obviously true, and the perfect expression of this creature we really started laughing. Many of us took it for his curtain line. He let just enough more time go by, then burst out, finishing his thought, "... I AM!"

That brought the house down.

[Editorial note: Lynn didn't catch that the complete thought would be "I stink, therefore I am."]

Ben Yalow continues:

This person was one of the most recognizable members for the rest of the con. It seems that if you spend many hours covered with lots of chunky peanut butter, the oils start to soak into your skin.

A bath won't remove them.

Being scoured down by your friends after the bath won't remove them.

Even if you scrub hard enough so that the skin gets raw and painfully irritated it won't remove them.

So, for the rest of your weekend, you get to walk around the con smelling like peanut butter, and everybody knows who you are, and why you smell like peanut butter.

I don't know if it lasted long enough so mundane friends get to wonder why he smelled like peanut butter, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Re: 1972 Worldcon

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

Oh God. *Laughs head off*

Re: "All the rest have peanut butter"

[the-celestia.livejournal.com]

Pretty much the peanut butter and I cannot be in the same room.

From reading your posts, I have the impression that PB&J rooms are a big part of cons these days. That room would pretty much be completely off limits for me, 24/7 (and until it had been very well aired out). Anyone who was going to relieve me for breaks or work in the same enclosed space for me would need to be reasonably peanut-butter-free (an honest handwashing and toothbrushing after consuming peanut products is adequate, just eating a breath mint is not). I can handle there being candy with peanuts around (chocolate covered peanut sort of thing), and even consume it in small quantities (not that I usually do) but absolutely not peanut butter. I cannot have a peanut butter consuming roommate.

The gentleman in the peanut butter costume would have made me quite ill, possibly emergency department visit ill (and to be honest while I anticipate peanut butter in food rooms, I would not have anticipated peanut butter during a Masquerade (which might be the one aspect of a Worldcon I'd have even remote interest in).

On the other hand, I'm the type of person quite willing to spend entire days at a task, so long as said task is actually worthwhile, and I don't have 'events I really have to see' or other distractions because I'm not there to *attend* the con but to *facilitate* the con.

Does that quantify it?

Re: "All the rest have peanut butter"

[hazelchaz]

I understand about allergies being serious. figmo is deathly allergic to mushroom spores.

No, PB&J rooms are not a big part of conventions. They've become a gimmick for our Animé Los Angeles publicity at other conventions, and peanut butter is often found in the con suite at a number of conventions. But as far as random jars of peanut butter everywhere: no, and I apologize for fostering that misperception.

Re: "All the rest have peanut butter"

[hazelchaz]

The gentleman in the peanut butter costume would have made me quite ill

It was almost forty years ago and people still remember. "No materials or effects that will leave a mess on stage or in the green room are allowed. No materials or effects that may ruin another entrant's costume are allowed." These two rules, combined in the case of the Animé Los Angeles masquerade, are part and parcel of masquerade rules everywhere you go because of that one incident.

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

Is it bad I'm proud that I know about, err, basically everything you've hinted to in this post? Like meetings and drama and anything that happened behind the scenes and you won't really go into, I'm like, "Oh, that!"

... I feel knowledgeable?

In other news, was talking to my Mommy about it, and apparently they Really Really Really need me at Work this weekend, so no Condor for me :(. I've warned her if its dead I'm going to be going ".... I could be in San Diego, right now, at a con..." the entire time. Oh well, I'll just see you the following weekend at my picnic then :).

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

Now, I know the story of why No Peanut Butter or some matter of wording (No messy props) is part of every anime and Science Fiction cons masquerade.