The AX Report 2001
by Xoth, Master of Black Magic
Day 4+: Another Con Bites the Dust
The AX Report 2001
by Xoth, Master of Black Magic
Day 4+: Another Con Bites the Dust
 ..
of...uh, stuff. |
By wake-up time Sunday morning, our room was a pretty thorough mess. Empty soda cans littered the room, a large mound of used towels occupied a space under the bathroom sink, and discarded CD shrinkwrap glimmered brightly in the morning sunlight. Call it pity for the hotel’s poor housekeeping staff, call it a sense of duty as a responsible guest, call it simply boredom on my part—I felt the need to start cleaning up. I’d like to say that the maid found the room in perfect order when I left the next day; in fact, I’d like to say they at least didn’t have to pick up all our trash. But let’s face it: cleaning a room occupied by eight other people for 3 days is a lot like watching a man wrestle an enraged bear. You kinda stand there, wanting to do something, but damned if you know what it is you can do in a situation like that. After standing there for awhile, watching the metaphorical man metaphorically get mauled by the metaphorical bear, I did what any sane person would do: I metaphorically walked away and pretended nothing out of the ordinary was happening. |
However, after that it was time to get serious again,
for we were headed down to the dealers’ room for the last time. When
going to the dealers’ room on the last day of the convention, you must
keep in mind several things. 1) By this time, anything you wanted
to get is gone. 2) What’s remaining is being sold cheap. 3)
If something cheap does catch your eye, it’s probably going to catch/has
already caught someone else’s. 4) As it is the last day, and as otaku
are not the most well-adjusted people in the world, unpleasantness, oftentimes
physical, will inevitably ensue from #3. Armed with that knowledge
(and an arsenal of deadly weaponry), we took one last moment to wish each
other good luck and then plunged into the melee. Due to repeated
blows to the head with baka mallets and the like, I cannot recall the carnage
I witnessed that day. If I ever have a post-traumatic-stress-related
flashback, perhaps I’ll share it—but not until then.
Note: By now I shouldn’t have to tell you that most of that was total BS. Honestly, I don’t even think that there were “last day discounts.” Then again, I don’t recall buying anything on Sunday, so maybe there were, and I just didn’t see anything that was especially worth buying. Meh. |
..
bargains—literally. |
 ..
So sorry, but we do have this lovely consolation gift... |
Well, there was only one last thing to do: go to the awards ceremony and see Otaku Generation get their prize for winning the Karaoke Competition. So we did just that, heading back out to the theater which had caused us so much aggravation on Thursday night. We arrived at the end of the art auction and listened in as some rich otaku (yes, apparently, they do exist) blew—err, invested thousands of dollars in anime artwork. Of course, it was for charity, so the money was going to a good cause; still, I heard jaws hit the floor (mine included) shortly after the auctioneer announced a bid of ten thousand for one particular piece. No kidding. Ten-freaking-thousand. And some pieces didn’t go for much less, either. Well, after that came the awards ceremony, and we cheered as we watched the two members of Otaku Generation walk up to the stage to receive their prize. They—what? What happened to the other three? Oh, well, apparently, they left early, so Golbez and another guy accepted the trophy. Well, not at first. Golbez was a little confused at first and grabbed the novelty check that was the SPJA’s donation to charity. After a bit of hilarity, things were straightened out, and they left with the trophy instead. |
| At that point, there wasn’t much else to see, so
we could’ve gone back to the room and—sat around. Instead, we stayed
a little longer and watched the closing ceremonies, which included the
winning music videos (YAY!!), the presentation of the check to a representative
of the charity (heh), and some parting words from the guests of honor. (Zzzzz...
;) With the end of that, AX 2001 was well and truly over. But
there still remained a number of hours to kill before the three of us remaining
were to head back to LAX and then to our homes. So what did we do?
Daran went out to say his goodbyes to the Para Para Paradise machine, and
I guess Mabis went with him. I honestly don’t remember whether or
not we got dinner. Anyway, after that, we decided that it would be
a good idea to hit the sack early, since we were leaving the hotel at an
ungodly hour. We packed up as much as possible, arranged for a shuttle
and a wake-up call, and went to bed. (actually sleeping in beds too, which
was probably the only semi-decent result of being the only three still
in the room. :D)
Let me end by saying that we had to get up at 4am in the morning—yes, 4am—to check out by 5 to be at LAX by 6:30 to catch our respective morning flights back to our respective homes. And let me also refer you back to Day 1, where my journey began. And here I leave you. :) |
Good question... |
Back to:
[ Intro ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ]
Now onward to:
[ Miscellaneous ]
Disclaimer: This account contains a lot that could offend people. Sexual content. Drug use. Profanity. Violence. Celebrations of Japanese culture. Non-white people. Crudely drawn pictures. Sentence fragments. If anything in this account offends you, find another web page. If your kid reads something that offends you, tell them to find another web page. If you’re really ticked off by it, then e-mail “cosmic_chicken” at “excite” dot “com” so I can ignore you. Certain characters, events, etc. referred to and depicted in this account come from Japanese animated films and television series and are copyrighted by their respective companies. Whatever the SPJA and Anime Expo have copyrighted belongs to them.
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