A few quick reflections, since I'm home a little earlier on this, the second night of the Big Apple Anime Fest (BAAF for short). While there are things to be said about going to a con with friends (most of them good, of course), there are equally good things to be said about going to a con within easy commuting distance of one's home, so that one can actually go and *sleep* (yes, God, sleep, real sleep, thankyouthankyouthankyou!) in one's own bed in between.
My first impression of BAAF was that it was a LOT bigger than any other anime con I'd been to. (For size comparison's sake-- I've been to Katsu several times, Otakon... once? and Anime Central once, as well as several much smaller cons.) Well... as far as size of the hotel (37 stories, 4 of which were taken up by con activities), location (right in the middle of Times Square), number of screening rooms (6, plus a video game room, and an RPG room, and a manga reading room, and 5 rooms' worth of panels), and the fact that they've got 2 theaters in the the Loews/Virgin Megastore aaaaalll to themselves... yeah, I'd have to say it's a pretty big con. And the crowds today *certainly* outstripped anything I've seen at other cons.
Part of it, too, is just that this con is less... self-contained? than others I've been to. There were lots of day- and half-day visitors today... so many that I wasn't even allowed *on* to the fifth floor on my first try, because it was too crowded. I suppose that was one of the major drawbacks of the con... so many people meant I couldn't even attend some of the events or screenings I wanted to. From comments I overheard in both halls and screening rooms (yes, the amount of regular-volume talking AND celphone calls in the screening rooms has got to rate a pretty hefty black mark against this con so far), a lot of these people were relative newcomers to anime. Which is a good thing. I really love anime, and I want other people to love anime, too. I just... wish they were a little more discreet about it.... not calling their buddies in the middle of the movie to talk about it, or making loud comments to their neighbors.... anyway, I digress.
As I was saying, the venue was huge, the crowds were huge... but individual aspects of the con weren't. Dealer's room was on the small side for such a large draw (tho' lots of big-name booths). The big guest-of-honor panels-- which I've seen held in the largest room available (often the ballroom or somesuch) at other cons-- were in decent-sized rooms, but... not all that large, really. The room was pretty full. Some of the screening rooms were *really* small, so much so that a relatively little audience put them at over-capacity. And yes, there were a lot of rooms for screenings, but the screenings themselves only go 'til 1 am, and the panels are over by 6 pm. It's just sort of weird to me that an open-all-night town like NY should have such an early-to-bed con. Heh.
So far, it's been tiring, but fun. I safely made it into the City-- only the second time I've driven myself (and oddly enough, the last time was for an anime event, too... my otaku powers give me strength to do battle with NYC traffic. HEH). Times Square, which I'd never visited before, is a trip. Smaller than it looks on TV space-wise, but teeming with life and excitement... huge in personality. The signs are so bright at night that I mistakenly thought the sun was still up, when I stepped out of the hotel last night at a little after midnight. And the streets and sidewalks were even busier at the midnight hour than they'd been at noon. (I imagine this is what Vegas must be like all the time.) Even though I got there later than I wanted to on Friday, I still got to see a *lot* of different anime titles I'd been hoping to get a taste of, and a few old favorites. The screening room atmosphere wasn't always the greatest, but the anime generally was.
Even though I was frustrated in my attempts to see much anime today, I *did* get a nice spate of shopping in. I got to meet and gush at and get a book signed by Rod Espinosa (Neotopia, Courageous Princess, Battle Girlz). I picked up a new (well, started in March) Antarctic title as well, Counter Ops, which I got signed by the artist (Jin Song Kim) and writer (J. Ang) as well. Actually, I'd swung back by the Antartic booth to get their autographs, since they'd just stepped out when I stopped the first time-- Mr. Espinosa was sort of a bonus. ^_^ In hindsight, I hope I didn't make them feel bad, since on first glance-through the art in Counter Ops looked exceptionally cool (I won't comment on a story I haven't read yet). I was likewise delighted to get into the Tsukasa Hojo panel... he's just as cool in person as the creator of City Hunter *should* be, which is a pretty amazing accomplishment, when you think about it.
I wrapped my day on a truly superb note-- a big-screen viewing of Millenium Actress, with introduction by the director, Satoshi Kon (who also did Perfect Blue, if that gives you any indication of the quality you should expect, here). It was... wow. ::grin:: He warned us that anyone who needed to should go to the bathroom instead of listening to him talk, because stepping out for a few minutes would mean missing about 100 years in the movie. Chiyoko's life story, as she tells it to the documentary filmmaker who so deeply admires her, comes alive for her listeners (and for us, the audience). It twines in and out of the present, just as real life and fantasy (the roles played in her movies, and Chiyoko's own imagination) twine together, until you reach the point where the differences-- present, past, far future, fantasy, history, reality-- don't really matter anymore. It's funny and tragic and hopeful and (for me, at least) deeply moving. I *really* want to see it again.
And on that note... bed. Sleep. Sleep good. One more day....
Well, yesterday was awfully exciting... hm. No, that's not quite accurate. Yesterday was a whole lot of boring, in an overall environment of excitement. So click onward, dear reader, for my account of "the Great Blackout of 2003" (yes, I swear, that's what the local stations have been calling it)....
Plans for Thursday was light. A few errands, a movie to watch, and a quick late-night trip to pick up my sister-- she was due back from vacation in England late Thurs. night. She planned to take the limo shuttle from Newark (about an hour's drive) to the state line (about five minutes' drive), where I would pick her up around midnight or 1. (No big deal for me, the night owl.) She planned to sleep over and head on her merry way in the morning. Sooo... I looked at my list of errands, looked at the state of the house, and decided I'd get a little cleaning done before I ran my errands.
As a note, I abhor cleaning. That's not to say I like dirt and messiness, but the repetitive and ultimately pointless labor of regular housecleaning somehow gets under my skin more than does the presence of a few dust bunnies. Some people take comfort in the mindless acts of dusting and straightening and vacuuming, some people are compulsive about it... I'm just irritated by it, and can't bring myself to do it unless it *has* to be done. Messiness-- a stack of books next to the bed, a jacket hung over a bedpost instead of put away in a closet-- bothers me not at all, and I'm actually more comfortable in a lived-in room than in one that's painfully neat. Granted, I take "lived-in" to sublimely ridiculous extremes at times, but I'm not actually *disorganized.* There is order (of a sort) to my messiness, and I can generally lay my hand on whatever item I need, provided someone else hasn't "cleaned up" on my behalf. All of this conspires to mean that when it *is* finally get too much for me and I go into housecleaning frenzy, I usually have a *lot* of work to do.
So. I cleaned off a bed in the guest room (which becomes a sort of storage/dumping ground in the summer when no one's occupying it), cleaned the bathrooms, did laundry, got a little vacuuming done, paused for a late lunch, prepped dinner, cleaned the kitchen, loaded the dishwasher, was about to press the button to start it and-- the lights dimmed, and returned, and dimmed, and returned, and flickered, and went out. Oops.
4:11 pm. Well, alright, at least it wasn't a brownout. So: checked the circuit breakers, called my cousin next door to find out if she had power. She told me she was out, and the neighborhood about eight blocks down was out, too-- she'd just brought her son back from a music lesson. And, funny, the radio station she listened to on the ride home had just mentioned a power flicker, too... eheh. Well, now we know. I'd gotten most of my chores done, but my errands had just become pointless-- *no* one had power, the stores all closed. Those blank CDs I was going to buy, to burn a file for Dad? Ha. How was I going to burn a CD without power to the computer, hey? I couldn't even get my car out of the garage without consulting my dad for instructions (electric garage door opener-- amazing what we take for granted, no?).
For the most part, I was set. Plenty of candles and matches, flashlights and spare batteries, stashed around the house-- power is not something one takes for granted in the Adirondacks, where summer storms or a stupid person with a shovel can knock out your power for hours. My boom box runs on batteries and has a radio, so I could keep up on what was going on. More than anything, I was bored out of my mind. I tried to keep phone calls to a minimum, because the lines in our immediate area were badly congested. After a couple of hours of reading, I wound up going out to weed my lily bed, for lack of anything better to do. I even felt a little disappointed when the power came back at 8:15-- here I was, candles at the ready, prepared to have ice cream for dinner and wait out the siege, and they took my darkness away. Ah, well.
As matters turned out, my sister's flight wasn't even directly affected by the outage, although she was delayed. She was due to change planes in North Carolina, but the plane she was supposed to take to Newark was caught by storms and diverted to Georgia. She didn't even make it to Newark until 1:30 in the morning. I drove to Newark to pick her up, since the limo shuttle stopped service just after midnight. Aside from two toll barriers that were out of service, everything looked normal on the ride down-- a few towns were dark and traffic (ironically) was light, but most of North 'Jersey had power back already.
I wasn't even up much later than "normal" (for me). Still, I'm tired today. Must be all that housecleaning. See? Toldja. Housecleaning's bad for you. ; )