Does it seem cold in here to you? What's there to do tonight, anything?

Pictures from Ani-Magic 2004 are online. Click on didjiman and karisu_sama to see them.

I've been going to a number of anime conventions to promote animelosangeles. (The convention was a week and a half ago, and went very well; we had over 600 people show up.) I attended Ani-Magic in October -- it was the first weekend of October, which meant that once again it conflicted with Conjecture.

The convention was held at the Hyatt in Santa Clarita (aka Valencia aka Newhall depending on which map believe). The Hyatt was a bit more of an upscale venue for this convention; in years past (and next year) its venue has been the Best Western Antelope Valley Inn. Lancaster is kind of nice in October; Valencia is just hot. The "AVI" had a number of garden areas, some quite nice for backdrops; the Hyatt had a small rose garden. And, as mentioned, the Hyatt's a bit more expensive to stay in or eat at...

At some previous conventions when I'd been promoting animelosangeles I'd been stressing that we'd have a Con Suite; but many of the California anime fans have no idea what a con suite is. Saying Convention Hospitality Suite didn't help much, either. So I figured that I'd just turn my hotel room into a demonstration con suite for the day. I loaded up my truck with sodas, cookies, fruit and snacks, and booked a room for two nights (so I could do the "con suite" all day Saturday), and Friday night I headed out.

I suppose I should mention that about a week before this I'd had a flat tire on my way to work... AAA came and put my spare tire on, and I continued on my way, and forgot to take care of the flat. This became important when late Friday night, near the Citadel, I had a blowout on the freeway... and the towing people had no idea where I could get a new tire that time of night. Memo: not only should I deal with my flat tires on a timely basis, but I should also start earlier in the evening for road trips so I've got a chance of getting repairs if something like this happens again. (Did I ever tell you that on my very first road trip, the weekend after I got my very first car, I had to use my AAA membership? Stranded in Firebaugh, not an experience I'm eager to repeat.)

So there went Friday night. I had guaranteed my room on my credit card for late arrival, so I told the hotel people that I still wanted the two-night stay even though I wouldn't arrive until daylight on Saturday. They were going to ding me for Friday night anyway, and I needed the room Saturday night; if I'd let them give my room away Friday night (and therefore not be charged) there wouldn't be a room for me Saturday. So be it. I finally made it up to Valencia shortly before noon, distributed a bunch of flyers encouraging people to come up to our room (at the very end of the hall on the top floor), and went back up to get my party ready to open. There's not much difference between running a room party that's open during the day, and a con suite. I had a whole slew of con suite-like foods; including a cooler full of soda, and white & wheat bread with creamy & chunky peanut butter and two kinds of jelly. (Next time I should hard-boil a bunch of eggs, too.)

I have to say that the room was very well-suited for a party. The closet had a bunch of shelves -- so I could store almost everything in the closet. This was also the first time for me trying to turn over a new leaf re: "finishing one project before starting another." I got everything off of the hotel cart (I wasn't able to bring my folding cart, so I had to use a bellhop to get everything up to my room) and the very first thing I did is get everything off of the floor and the beds and put it or hide it away. The theory being that at any time, I could throw open the door and have people come and visit, and it wouldn't be an embarrassment.

So step one was to put everything away, even though I'd be taking most of it right back again. Then I decorated the room -- put out tablecloths on all the flat surfaces, put wall scrolls over the generic hotel art and anywhere I could find a place to put them. And so forth. The whole thing worked out rather well.

One chap named Zack was very helpful; he stopped by the room and asked if we were open, and I said yes, come on in, and asked if he'd help me put the snacks out. I didn't have my usual serving bins (rectangular plastic tubs) so I'd picked up some aluminum take-out containers at Smart & Final, and they worked out really well for serving oreos, ritz crackers, chocolate, and an assortment of other goodies.

Zack came back later after he'd put on his costume -- a miniature version of the Teen Titans tower building, complete with action figures lining the top edge, and the theme song playing on a little loudspeaker. A couple of his friends came along and helped feed him carrot sticks through the little slot he haid. He'd worked out everything he needed to walk around all day in the costume -- he even had a cup holder on the inside that he could put a soda can or a water bottle into!

I also brought some of my silly ribbons; a few of them I delegated out, so there were some fans roaming the grounds handing out ribbons and telling the recipients where they got them. So that worked out well. The word quickly spread that there was a room on the 6th floor where you could go up and get a free soda. We had a lot of foot traffic! Getting across the reason for the room was a little harder; I'd stop and explain it everytime we'd gathered a new crowd, but I wished I'd thought to have a handout or flyer explaining the concept. I really have been falling down on the job re: flyers and signs lately...

We eventually got shut down by the hotel. (Who tried to tell me that there was a limit to the number of people I could have visiting in my room -- not sleeping in the room, visiting...) But I think the reason we got noise complaints had to be when we broke out into song. Somebody started singing "Can't take my eyes off of you" and by the time we got to the second chorus, the whole rooom was going strong. It's my favorite memory of the whole convention, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I just wish that Ani-Magic's hotel liaison had set up "quiet" and "noisy" floors, so that there wouldn't have been any likely noise complaints! We're going to do a "noisy" wing for Anime Los Angeles 2, so even if you're having a private party you can have your room far away from the people who want to get an early night's sleep.

Interesting highlight #1: I brought "penguin" stickers, and offered people as many stickers as they'd been to Ani-Magics. This was the 4th Ani-Magic, so some people got 4. (I got two.) I was surprised how many staffers I ran into that I only gave one sticker to... what's happening with Ani-Magic's staff turnover?

Interesting highlight #2: A whole department (well, three or five fans worth) came up to get something to eat, because they'd missed out on the staff feeding. As near as I can tell, the staff feeding was a big bunch of take-out food brought in, and certain departments were told to come to the first or second "seating" -- that is, they weren't all allowed into the buffet room at once. But, it seems that there wasn't enough food brought in for everyone. And possibly they only had one delivery -- instead of bringing half in for the first batch, and the other half in later. It's still a little murky; is there anyone who can explain what went on? Anyway we had some hungry convention staffers coming up and getting sustenance, which I was happy to provide.

So how was my effort, as far as people deciding to attending Anime Los Angeles? Well, there was a lot of warm fuzzies going around; many people telling me that they were planning to attend. Very warm feeling. But nobody pre-registered on the spot. Next time I'll have a fan table to sit at during the day, and perhaps people will sign up then... It all worked out well, as I said Anime Los Angeles got a nice crowd, but all I brought home from Ani-Magic was an empty truck and a lot of warm feelings. And the hostility from the hotel! They actually checked me out of my room when they saw me carting my stuff out of the hotel to load my truck back up in the middle of the night -- when I came down in daylight when my key stopped working, they'd already checked me out and overcharged me, too. The hotel experience left such a bad taste in my mouth I decided I wasn't coming back to this Hyatt for a convention, and I called up my friend Michael Mason at ConJecture to buy me a 2005 ConJecture membership. (Since then I've learned that Ani-Magic and ConJecture will be on different weekends in 2005, and Ani-Magic is going back to the AVI.)

Then at the end of the month, Christian and I went to yaoicon up near San Francisco Airport, and we met Pat Larson on Saturday. We got lost on the way there -- I should have printed out driving directions. We ended up going across the Bay on the last bridge, then coming south through S.F. to get to the airport area... Yaoi-Con (which is also in its 4th year) was held at a slightly shabby Westin. Slightly shabby is good -- it means that the hotel won't get cranky if we scratch things up a little bit. We actually had been offered a table, but I allowed myself to be convinced that we should just put up some signs and spend the day in the room. Now I wish we'd sat the table during the day; we didn't get much traffic up to our room. We got some, though; we got a lot of nice vibes, and gave away a lot of silly ribbons. I'd had the "PERVY" ribbons made that had been suggested at Worldcon, and they were popular. Pat gave away "Plays well with others" ribbons and was disappointed by how many people actually refused... I'm not sure that Yaoi-Con is really a Pat" convention, actually.

But Christian, he had a blast. He went to the Bishounen Auction (a fundraiser for the convention, which apparently is a for-profit operation) which is sort of like a Chippendales show but only more so. And he also checked out the Cosplay, and came back to the room full of stories about what they were like. The Cosplay just used the house lights, very low-tech-intensive, which helped us decide what to do with the event at Anime Los Angeles. Kevin & Andy (that is, kproche and bovil) stopped by the room, and karisu_sama and didjiman visited us too, and on the whole it was a nice time. Lots of warm fuzzies. Didn't bring home any more membership money, though... and Christian only had a Saturday membership, so we didn't hang out long on Sunday before rushing home to try to make it back to our respective houses in time for the trick-or-treaters (since it was Halloween).