Another from the November archives.
Chance found my brief attendance at Steamcon 2009, an event marked by some of the best cosplay I’ve ever seen and a surprisingly free lunch. Wasn’t there long but this shot, while far from being particularly impressive, marked a small moment in time observed from the back of a venue. Picture of the day, indeed.
Latest e-mail received this morning from the folks over at Octagon Global Recruiting.
Follow-up to the prior mailing below.
And of course this was all kicked off with the TV spot that aired during the LOST Season 3 finale.
Can’t say I’ve been very active with the latest ARGs but there has been a degree of involvement, what with the recent convention and excess of browsing time at work. Not going to be leading any trail heads but even my casual interest has been picking up of late and I’ve enjoyed following the latest in the LOST game despite the somewhat disappointing Recruiting Booth last week.
Interviewees were displayed on mounted screens above each chamber with headphones affixed as they answered a series of questions. Pretty cool but not exactly in line with the string of more immersion-friendly recruiting e-mails that were sent out. Would have liked to have seen something more akin to what most career fairs offer in terms of company representation in place of something so flashy but hey, it’s freakin’ comic-con. Flashy is essential, as are khaki-clad blonds sporting Australian accents.
Wasn’t able to snag an interview myself after chatting up the staff, this being 10ish Thursday, but I hadn’t made it a priority and can’t complain as the booth was packed. The wiki has the low down on what transpired both during the interviews and at the LOST panel later. Cool stuff.
If you’d like to read up on the latest goings on check out the lostpedia wiki or Unfiction forums.
Taken from the San Diego zoo.
Was beaten to the punch by Becky prior to its first completion (there were two that I saw) and the veritable sea of craning necks, plus accompanying comments, from zoo attendees was priceless.
Clearly being played up due to Comic-Con weekend, this being my second encounter with meat space exposure.
Long day at the con starts with a delivery.
Shot well over a hundred photos today, first batch is working its way up as I sit in a sushi induced coma. (Sure Tom, the 28 piece platter was a great idea) Plenty of toys, cosplay, ARG, and various examples of making my evenly-haired accomplice feel as uncomfortable as possible. My favorite of which was a strained posing with a pair of Suicide Girls, twin nymphets quick to comply with a smile as they promptly sandwiched. Good stuff.
The con did not fail to please, sufficient oratory will have to wait until tomorrow as I haven’t even finished separating the visual wheat from the chaff to say nothing of digesting the experience as a whole.
And washed the feeling of thousands from my grimey self.
Subjects to be expounded upon:
I have a veritable cornucopia of silk screened t-shirts. When I want a second skin with the contra guy, self-digesting zombie, or a stylized squid I need look no further than the dingy wire hangers in my closet and the dark rainbow of cotton they keep in stasis. But my relationship with “clever t-shirts” is a complicated one.
Looking just at the sites I currently have bookmarked and ignoring the years of steadfast brick and mortar sifting it’s plain to see that there is a lot out there for consumers and it’s easier than ever to acquire witty, cute, or downright offensive attire. T-shirts currently represent the best and worst of freelance artistry, reasonable production costs, and internet marketability. One could likely argue that saturation is complete, what with Shirt of the Week programs running alongside television shows and clothing power houses like Threadless churning out daily updates.
This is not a bad thing.
T-Shirts are the starch staple of many a clothing diet, and as one that has vast experience making custom heat-transfer Soul Caliber shirts in his parents’ basement as a youngster (awesome!) I am certainly down with the availability of such a wide selection that includes even the narrowest of niches. How many conversations or uncomfortable comments has your own shirt garnered from that mall clerk? That goth girl at the bus stop? That truant officer that hangs out behind the Dairy Queen? Yes, clever t-shirts are quite the social lubricant.
Then there’s the bad. You know what I’m talking about, silk screening is a wild frontier where anything goes and artistic taste need not apply when one is portraying twin pieces of fecal matter copulating in a beam of heavenly light under the bold lettering of “Holy Fucking Shit.”
That said I continue to wear whatever shirts please me with one exception, Comic Con.
Without expounding on the quivering mass of rolling flesh that is SDCC, each individual subscribing to their own aesthetic of the animatronic whole, it’s an understatement to say that t-shirts are the attendee’s billboard of choice. I dig that but don’t really want to bump in to a duct-tape and cellophane Gordon Freeman cosplayer while sporting my own Half-Life shirt. I have enough awkward interludes with that guy behind the Dairy Queen as is. What?
I typically suit up for each con in a solid color shirt and instead fly a singular flag in another form, usually as pin or sticker on my bag. I’ve finally wizened up and will be bringing my OWN damn poster tube for prints and the homemade spawning vat of stickered octobees pictured above shall be its sole adornment this year (well just one, but why print one when you can print FOUR).
My poster tube is green and super sweet, not unlike that guy behind the Dairy Queen.
Full circle folks!
Ah, Wizard World. The mere mention simultaneously excites and confuses, entertains and puzzles. Yes, any event with more than one person is bound to elicit conflicting emotions. Yes, I’d be curious to see if one could lasso a celestial planetary mass with strung-together XXL black t-shirts. Yes, I fucking love the con.
Good costumes, bad – even horrid. Pressing masses, faces aglow with flickering fan films, and the shuffling walls of black silk-screened cotton are the lifeblood of this beast. Inhibitions are checked at the door and one is just likely to see a female wearing nothing but electrical tape and that one overweight guy, that I swear is at every con, dressed as Sailor Moon. Truth be told there is more skin that averts the eyes than attracts but the convention remains family friendly, it being far from uncommon to see costumed adults pushing their forcibly themed spawn. Cracks me up.
Wizard World pales in comparison with a proper comic-con, namely the one in San Diego, but this year was considerably better than last. Most of the big names hold out for San Diego and the one in Rosemont is about 90 percent vendors. Managed to meet the guys from Cyanide and Happiness (class acts the lot) and Max Brooks (Zombie Historian) was signing over at the Avatar Press booth promoting his forthcoming graphic novel. This year’s Artist Alley also impressed much more than years’ past but it always bugs me how much of artwork featured is re-drawn Marvel figures.
I took a few shots last year but actually got down to business today. Those dressed to thrill are, when approached polity, usually willing to whipcrack a pose in exchange for a Thank You, a point of protocol I took advantage of while enjoying the slalom of aisles. This has replaced my previous acquisition obsession of figures, at which I’m equally relieved and saddened.
From a technical standpoint today marked the first use of my SLR in a con environment with any degree of success. Last year I was firing from the hip with my 3.5 18-200 and it was way, way too dark for me to shoot sans flash. Strapped on the 1.8 55 and, using the point-and-shoot as a side arm, was able to capture a handful of shots I was reasonably pleased with, though shooting at 1.8-2.8 at ISO 800 is noisy and focal length awkward. Will have to look in to some noise-reduction ‘ware prior to San Diego. Also, flash with diffuser.
Not a ton of toy stuff this year, and the Rosemont con doesn’t have anywhere near the video game and movie promotion of San Diego’s.
The gentlemen of Cyanide and Happiness go the extra mile. Buy their stuff eh!?