Califur and Fanime annoyances

[furtech]

Just so folks don't get the idea that I'm a genuinely good person and patron saint of dogs and bluejays, I revert to cranky-mode for a moment...

I have been to two conventions in the last month: Califur (a local furry con) and Fanime (semi-local anime con).

Califur chose to move to a hotel with a really bad layout and flow. This apparently was the first of several bad decisions on their part. The hotel charged a fortune for parking and snacks. They also barricaded the con from the "real" guests/wedding and would not allow anyone to even use the hallways in their area (meaning we had to walk a huge detour through the front lobby.

Another bad decision was to allow several media organizations to freely move about the con and take pictures and video. Yet another bad decision was to post "notices*" warning about the media on a small piece of cardboard, and then post that notice by setting it on the floor, leaning against a wall under a counter where it was unlikely ever to be noticed. When I took this sign into reg and strongly suggested that placing it there was A Bad Idea, they said they hadn't had any complaints (I'll bet: most people never noticed it!). I also objected to their allowing the media companies to freely roam, and they quickly defended that decision by citing the positive articles that one of them had done on other events and that this would be "good for furry fandom!" What a bunch of idiots.

*FYI: the "notices" essentialy said (and I paraphrase): -"There will be filming/taking pictures by the media; by entering you agree to allow yourself to be photographed or filmed, etc."-

First, I don't believe that such "good" publicity can be guaranteed; I have yet to see one that is any better than, "Well, it wasn't as BAD as I thought it would be". Plus there are all the examples of the press promising to do "good" articles-- and how many of those turned out negatively (say, because a superior/higher-up decided that prurient articles sell more copies) or worse (complete lies, like the Sex2K piece).

I go to cons (any hobby con) to have fun relaxing with friends and like-minded folks. I hate being on-guard for media filming or shooting and constantly having to take a wide path around them. There were numerous reports of the photographer taking pictures in the costume changing room (WTF?!!). He belatedly asked for release signings, but many declined. Next time that happens, I think I'll ask for a refund-- especially if the convention does not announce in advance that the press will be there.

Fanime, on the other hand, was about a 100X's larger and had 1/100th the problems of Califur. Mostly this was to perform a (non-competition) skit before the masquerade, but I also wanted to see the folks of AGSMA (my cosplay posse). The skit went well (Okami) and I had a great time with Mich, Kim, Lyd, Wayne and Henry-- but I'll make another post about that.


What Are They Thinking? (Or, is "thinking" the operative word?)

My basic irritation was about nitwit/thoughtless attendees. I liked to believe that fans were generally a step or several up from "average"...but certain behaviors make me wonder. Fanime had a huge dealer's room, with a single entrance. No real problem that I could see...but several fans decided to plop themselves on the floor right in the flight path of the steady stream of people entering the room. WTF? I can't decide what combination of thoughtless-idiotic-clueless-vain-goddammit I want to use to describe this. I almost tripped over the guy sitting on the floor using his laptop-- he was right in front of the largest anime/toy shop in the room. The -last- place I was looking was on the floor where he was sitting. Both of them were right in front of the entrance to the dealer's room. These are just the two examples I snapped pics of-- there were PLENTY of others (singles and groups) who decided that the middle of a busy hallway was the perfect place to sit/lie/leave large backpacks&props.

Oh, and the other annoyance is the prevelance of anime baby-girl squeeling/giggling. In a cartoon, fine...but these are real people who are just over-the-top giggly, vacuous and speaking (shrieking) bad Japanese ("Sugoi!" a billion giggly times! *Agggh!*).

Comments

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I've seen a lot of complaints about the black curtains and the wedding party at Califur. To be honest, I side with the hotel on this. If I were getting married in a frou-frou wedding and discovered there was any kind of other con going on, I'd threaten to take my business elsewhere unless the hotel made sure we'd have some level of privacy.

The media: Ugh, ugh, ugh. Lately when I'm reading non-furry related boards and the topic of furry comes up, it's always "those freaks who have sex in fursuits." Like it or not, this what the average person thinks furry is these days. People have seen that CSI episode now they're experts- trying to educate them is like shouting over a waterfall.

Did Califur actually invite the media? Because I'd turn around and walk right out of there. No, I don't agree to being filmed just because I buy a membership at a convention. It's one thing to be filmed at E3 where there's huge mass of people (and most of the cameras are aimed at the displays anyway)- quite another at a small con.

As for the thoughtless attendees- this isn't just at conventions. I see thoughtless people all the time out in the real world. Talking on their cell phone while checking out at the grocery store, leaving the grocery cart right in the middle of the aisle and not moving it, putting a baby wearing diapers on the food counter while ordering... ugh.

I don't even like the shrieking and baby girl talk in cartoons, let alone in real life. :D

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally side with the hotel on the black curtains! Hell, that wedding probably cost them in excess of $35K! I hold the con at fault because a small furry con shouldn't have been held at that hotel!

Funny note about the wedding: it was a Chinese or Korean wedding-- very hoi-hoi! Someone (probably me) suggested that I crash the wedding pretending to be someone's drunken relative. Being Asian, they would all be too polite to just throw me out, mostly because they'd think I was related to someone in the wedding party (ala Doodles-- "I thought he was YOUR uncle!"). Considering the money they spent, I'd never do that to them, but it was fun to joke about!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

The Media: they asked permission to film/photograph at the con and the convention granted them total access, with no press liason or escort-- hence things like taking pictures in the costume changing room happened.

The press at large cons-- E3 and even things like Fanime-- are no problem: they're reporting on an event. And it's easy to get lost in the crowds. Yeah-- little cons I attend to let my hair down and relax.

Re: thoughtless people-- true, but I keep (foolishly) thinking we're better than mundanes most people. Real World is where that half of the bell curve lives as well (the half that is -below- average!).

Baby talk: I have to force myself to -not- slap people who baby-talk at cons...

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

LOL about slapping people- on the horse forum I've been addicted to lately, a couple of people have suggested that they start the Shock and Awe Bitchslap Tour of 2008. The premise was that they would go around and bitchslap people who breed poorly conformed horses for the heck of it.

We could have the Shock and Awe Bitchslap Tour of 2008 for giggly fangirls!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Shock and Awe Bitchslap Tour! I'm in! (though I'd probably qualify for a couple myself-- but it'd be worth it!)

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

FurFright had a wedding smack in the middle of it a few years ago. And I mean IN THE MIDDLE. Because of where the stairs/elevator was you had to walk partially through the con. That wasn't so bad. If the attendees needed to pee however, they had to go deep into convention land. I had several people ask me in the ladies room what the heck was going on. I went with teh "artist convention, including many performance artists." That seemed to make them happy and explain the costumes. Oh, those whacky ARTISTS. Those are perfectly normal.

The funniest was when I was getting on elevator at ground floor carrying some equipment, standing there with the New England WASPS with their oh so elegantly wrapped wedding presents. The doors open... and there's two huge fursuitors wearings stilt boots that make them about 9 feet tall.

"Ohmygod!" go the WASPS.

"it's okay, they're performers. They're just on the wrong floor. Just get in." And they got in and rode along with the fursuitors for a floor.

Other groups FurFright has shared a hotel with are the Baptist Preacher Convention, Church Usher's Convention, the Miss Connecticut Pageant, and an slumber party for middle aged women. They've moved now, but it was originally held in an airport hotel, so the fursuiters would sometimes go roam the concourse with a handler and amuse weary travelers. They had one of the fursuitors being wanded by TSA on the promo reel for awhile.

FurFright had a reporter sneak in last year, who wrote a pretty positive article: Hell Hath No Furries Funniest quote from article "May as well have gone to a Catholic school Halloween party. The dance starts in half an hour. Maybe something will happen there."