electricity

this is the one and only thing i bought this weekend, and it is absolutely ace. Nyannyannyanko provides kittea, and enables individual servings of loose tea. perhaps this ought to be brought up at Sabina's Teatalk? XD me, i'm just excited cos this makes it much easier to drink loose tea at work. San-X, how i love thee. ^-^

as to the actual weekend, well---it was okay. i think last year was probably the most fun i'll ever have at Acen, and that was mostly cos we spent most of our time away from the actual con and going out with friends we hadn't seen in ages. while we did get to see John (or Ganymede, to some) for a bit, this weekend wasn't as full of that as previously. due to various circumstances, it was a bit more stressful than would have been optimal, but, well...whatever.

unfortunately, Dale dropped his 100 lb. cabinet on his ankle after tripping over some other loose stands that were lying on the floor when we were getting ready to do our sound check and were thusly hauling our gear around. it doesn't seem to be broken, but he was in a lot of pain, and of course couldn't put any weight on it at all. he went to sleep for awhile, and it got wrapped up and iced. he ended up playing the show in a wheelchair, but he was feeling quite a bit better by then, at least.

the show itself---the band played quite well; in fact, i think we're getting this whole "playing as a unit" thing down a little more than we'd had it before. however, gathering reports from people standing in various places around the room, i understand the sound was more than a bit crap---certainly muddier than it was last year. felt bad later when i found out that the guy who ran our sound ended up doing it at the last minute---the guy who was to have run our sound got violently ill shortly before the show and couldn't do it. so Duel Jewel's guy ended up doing our sound as well.

so people up front were quite happy and enjoying themselves, but anywhere towards the back wasn't doing so well. there was also a rather nasty bass feedback problem (resulting in an intermittent low buzzing humming thing) that was probably directly related to the fact that someone decided the bass needed to be in the floor monitors. er.

now, a few months prior to this, we'd been informed that one of the guests-of-honor at Acen, Gohda Hiroaki (director and chara designer for the Aa! Megami-sama OAVs and movie, chara designer for Onegai Teacher, amongst others), wanted to play with us very badly. and we learned from the guest relations people that he's really into metal. so of course, since we weren't going to get to meet up with him until just before the show, the solution was play a song that he knew and that the band knew. thusly, everyone (except me, since a keyboard just wouldn't fit at all XD) ended up playing "Fade to Black" with Gohda-san. a few people were confused about this---my sister being one of them. i'm told her reaction involved lots of head shaking and muttering, "I never thought I'd see the day when my sister would be involved in a Metallica cover." i should probably explain this to her, as well. XD Mommie, for her part, loved every second of it. but that's because she's The Mommie. XD

anyway, Gohda-san ended up becoming friends with Dale; he and Kya came up to our room a few times and were hanging out with us up there, since he wanted to get to know us (and particularly Dale) better. Kya and ShinJon also ended up taking Gohda-san out to see the Anthrax and Mötorhead show on Saturday night, since he reallyreallyreally wanted to go. apparently he had a really great time---and he even did a really nice full-colour sketch of The SWEK As Amalgam---all five of us as one. it's rather androgynous, has got bright pink hair, black sunglasses, is wearing all black and has a guitar. he also wrote that he had a really good time playing with us and called us his friends, and that he hopes to come back next year. *^^* we have yet to scan it, but once we do, it'll be up on our site.

as to other stuff, well---we survived. XD actually, once i get a copy of it from Dale, there's a great photo he took of Spaz and i that really sums the whole thing up quite well. i'll scan it up once i've got my copy. >D

the layout was a bit goofy this year, due to the dealer's room being conveniently situated approximately five miles away from where the rest of the con was being held. all through hamster tunnels, too. outside was quicker, we soon discovered---but we never did go back after the first time. XD Wizzywig once again had almost everything i was seriously interested in. damn them and all their San-X wrongness! XD they've also got some Mashimaro stuff in, but i can obtain that quite easily from places around here, so nyah. one booth had a bunch of LDs and some anime soundtracks on vinyl for sale. O.O;;; the LDs were nothing special, but the vinyl was---unfortunately, so special that it was also quite expensive. not really surprising. loads of Macross albums, some Megazone 23, Iczer One, Area 88, You're Under Arrest, and i forget what else. we also saw a t-shirt that made me think of both Puu and Elva-chan. XD more IniD stuff than we'd seen previously at a con. there were also some very wrong Hide Kubrick toys (well, the packaging moreso than the toys themselves). oho.

also learnt butterscotch schnapps + Pepsi = something that shouldn't really work at all, but really does. quite well, in fact. grape schnapps + Pepsi, too. thanks, Adam & Jessica. XD

(oh, and lest i forget, there was also a Vash the Stampede and a Wolfwood running around together offering live-action yaoi for photographic purposes. XD)