More Anime Expo

I got up around noon, ate, shaved my head (might be my last chance to do so conveniently for a few days, depending on what horrible things are going to be done to my bathroom), went to the gym. Still takes for-fucking-ever. It was 4:30 before I was back home, and I wasn’t sure it was even worth the trouble of going back to the Anime Expo.

Turns out it was. I got there around 5:45, got to spend twenty minutes in the dealers room (no line this time), picked up an absolutely gorgeous book of Clamp artwork (North Side), learned that the Cowboy Bebop t-shirts in my size were long gone, and that imported Japanese soundtrack CDs generally cost much more than I want to spend. Also got freebies — the preview issue of the English translation of Shonen Jump, two copies of an issue of NewType USA. Yay, pelf!

Then I wandered. While yesterday I was unable to hook up with anyone I knew, today I ran into four separate groups/individuals in pretty short order. There was Fred in the “Dubs That Time Forgot” video panel, then Tintin (who I mentioned yesterday, the woman I met at MoCCA) on line for the masquerade, and then Q at a different point on the masquerade line, and then ladymondegreen and friends in the masquerade audience.

I hadn’t originally been planning to see the masq. You needed tickets to get in, for one thing. Free (with expo membership), but you had to have gone and got them, and I hadn’t, because masquerades aren’t really my thing. I told Q I didn’t have a ticket, and was going to wander off to the videos, and she pulled a pair of tickets out of her pocket, tore one off, handed it to me, and said “You have one now. Sit down!” And I’m grateful to her, because the show was amazing. Not only were the costumes really good (and Q explained the many references I didn’t get), but during the judging they showed some anime music videos, and they seriously rocked. The two best both used Cowboy Bebop footage. One used Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Mind” to make Faye appear to be singing a torch song to Spike, and the lipsinking and choices of footage were really good. The other used “Tonight”, the climactic medley from West Side Story, giving the various parts to Jet (of course), Vicious, Faye, Spike, and Julia, and it was hi-fucking-larious.

It’s a bit odd how fans seem to have projected into the series a romantic attachment between Faye and Spike that isn’t there; some of the masquerade skits were based on that premise, as well as the first video. No odder than slash fiction, I guess.

Still more Anime Expo

Last day of the expo. I decided to go instead of hanging around waiting for the plumber, since I suspect that when my super told me the plumber’d be here today he was forgetting about Labor Day. No message on my answering machine when I returned at 6:30 PM, so I think I guessed right.

I got a chance to browse the dealers room at leisure. Found a bargain: the Cowboy Bebop Original Soundtrack CD-Box set — four disks plus a booklet (in Japanese) for $40, an amazing bargain for an import. I’ve got all four, plus my old Bebop soundtrack CD, in my five-disk CD player right now. Excellent!

I also spent $10 for an expo t-shirt, and that’s it for purchases. I was saved from greater expenditure by the observation that a table selling just about everything I wanted was owned by Kinokuniya Books, which I can shop at any time I want, so it wasn’t like I had to give up on buying this stuff if I didn’t get it today.

On my way out of the dealers room I met Q, who convinced me to go to the auction. The art auction had (for some reason) been cancelled in favor of a charity auction raising money for a Brooklyn-based 9/11 relief organization. Lots of very pretty stuff going for more than I can afford. Anyone who was there — Did you notice that big ol’ bald head silhouette being projected onto the lower-left corner of the display screen? That was me.

I noticed how the auctioneer controlled the flow of the auction, speeding things up when an item seemed to have exhausted the audience’s interest, or stretching them out when it seemed there were possible big spenders thinking about raising their bids, and controlling the bid increments. I wonder what lessons from that profession carry over into running tabletop role-playing games.

(The current track on the soundtrack CD reminds me of the theme from A Charlie Brown Christmas.)

Effects of exercise

Y’know how old, unhealthy people are always grunting and groaning as they move, stand up, sit down? That’s one of the fates I’m working out to avoid. Today, sitting on a toilet, I noticed myself making groaning noises as my various leg aches kicked in. Must be some of that irony stuff I hear’s been going ’round.

I guess the big advantage to getting your aches and pains through a workout is that you know exactly where they come from. Today I’ve been getting aches in both forearms when I stretch my hands back, and I flash back to the curls I did yesterday, and remember pushing those very muscles, then stretching them out after each set.

The exercise thing does have its upside. Yesterday, while sitting cross-legged on the floor on line for the anime expo masquerade, I found I was able to so sit for a much longer time that I’d been able to for most of my life. My legs are trimmer, more muscular, and bending them doesn’t cut off my circulation as badly as it used to. It may soon be time for yoga classes (which I think I can get free at my gym).