Wargh! I bought my first 'real' DVD today (as opposed to anime DVDs, which most people regard as figments of a deranged imagination), Casablanca, containing Bonus Goodies like theatrical trailers and other such fun. It was on sale, too, at Reel.Com for $15 dollars or so. Apparently most DVD freaks aren't much for CVLTVRE.
However, my attempted Culturification was cut short by the horrific annoyance that is MacroVision(tm). For those of you who've lived sheltered lives, free of this scourge of all that's good and wholesome, MacroVision(tm) is a Copy-Protection scheme for movies which was designed by Sony. Essentially it involves adding 'flares' of increased signal in, which are cheerfully screened out by the TV, but which make VCRs and other recording instruments go "Whoa! Damn, that was bright. Better tone down the signal." which results in picture fade-outs and other annoyances, and generally prevents you from copying any Macrovision-protected film. The problem here is that I pipe output from my DVD player through my VCR, and my VCR is one with lots of automatic signal fiddling features, and it takes to Macrovision like a fish takes to liquid sulfur. It gets cranky, and the Macrovision flares are clearly apparent. So it looks like I will not be able to Culturificate myself until I can get my hands on a device which suppresses the Macrovision flares before they reach my VCR. I think I have one, too, in my 'goody box'. Being a pack rat does have its' uses... Now I just have to haul that crate of widgets out of my closet and dig through layers of horribly modified audio cables and Frankensteinian mice to reach the deep, chocolatey goodness that lies within.
Or something.
This episode, we take a look at the doom that awaits us all at Anime Weekend Atlanta 4! (dramatic chord)
AWA is a convention held in Atlanta, Georgia (duh) in the fall. The fourth incarnation took place in fall '98, and was a thing of terror to behold. It was the first Con I'd been to with the local anime club (the Japanese Animation Club of Tallahassee, or 'JACT'), and it was also the first one I'd been driving to. It would have been a simple thing, if I hadn't planned to detour to pick up "Van", one of the motley assortment of Internet types who I'm in a variety of levels of contact with. Van lived in southern Georgia, and since Tallahassee is almost due south of Atlanta, it was a simple detour to go pick him up.
Hah!
For one thing, Van's house is not exactly easy to reach. Especially with night-fall approaching (we got off late, hey, some of us have Real Jobs(tm)). It involves driving down one of those partly flooded mostly-dirt driveways that you tend to get out in the sticks, surrounded by overgrown meadows and such.
Getting in, after we found the place, was not a problem. Getting out again was not quite as easy. "Gosh," I thought. "Why drive through this driveway that looks like it's been sustaining heavy bombardment? When we can drive through that nice, flat meadow right beside it?"
"Hey," Van added, which was all he could get out before we hit one of the anti-tank traps in the meadow.
Luckily we were going about 3 mph, so all it did was collapse under the whump, and gouge the bottom of my front bumper, but it certainly put the fear of God into me for the rest of the trip. Especially as the air conditioner cut out on this particular trip (mutter). This led to me getting a cellular phone to keep in the car in case it ever spontaneously detonated as a result of such ancient injuries, but that's another story.
Regardless, we edged off the anti-tank trap and got back out onto real roads for the rest of the (uneventful) trip. Well, driving in Atlanta was 'eventful', but only in the sense that everyone who drives in Atlanta is completely insane. Now, sure, there's a dense grid of traffic, bumper-to-bumper, in other big cities, but they're not all going 80+ mph at the time...
The actual Con was fairly... unspectacular, compared to the legendary experiences of the Hentai Space Vines. There was parody dubbing that lasted late into the night. (Aiie... it's the Chicken Knight!) There were the voice actors for Space Ghost and Zorak/Moltar from Space Ghost Coast to Coast off of Cartoon Network. There were persistent people in the Dealer's Room. And there were lots of anime fans. So many, in fact, that I learned a lesson that would serve me well in future conventions: You will not be able to get into the Music Videos. You will not be able to get into the Costume Contest. The Costume Contest is Not For Fun, it is a Gruelling Duel to the Death between surly kids dressed as Pikachu and other surly kids dressed as Mokona.
This corresponded with a later lesson of another Con, which was: The Costume Contest is Ludicrously Popular. No Other Events should be Scheduled at the Same Time as the Costume Contest, as they will only be Shoved Aside by persistent Fanboys seeking to watch Live Video Feeds from said Contest.
I suppose I should now describe the Costume Contest.
Essentially, anime fans like to dress up as their favorite characters (the fact that said characters may not be the same gender as the fan is, at best, a minor impediment). At any given anime convention you can see lots of fans wandering around in costume. This is all well and good. But then there's the Costume Contest, where all of these people go up on stage and show off in little skits and such, before watching the prize get handed to the same damn team of geniuses who win all the time with their fully animatronic Gundam costumes with Working Ass-Whupping Action. In the early days, this worked fine, but when you get everyone wanting to either perform in or watch the performing of the Costume Contest, things get a leeeeettle bit nuts.
Little of great impact happened that weekend (Except for watching some poor girl in a Washu costume get cornered by a crazed mob of fans chanting "Wa-shu! Wa-shu! Wa-shu!") (And wondering if the girl in the cat-girl costume which consisted mostly of a loin-cloth and bikini top (with the requisite fuzzy ears) was old enough to be showing that much thigh... and wether she realized the logistics of what would happen if someone stepped on the long tail she'd attached to the back of her, er, loin-cloth.) but hey, it was an anime con. What do you want, a ninja attack?
Next Episode: The Return To KatsuCon.
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