Casual Fanatics 10:39 AM

I've been thinking about this for awhile. I realize that by posting this that I've pretty much crossed over into being a verified kook. But instead of passing out crayon scrawled fliers at the bus stop or mailing letters to the editor I'll just quietly work this out here where you can't see me foaming at the mouth and screaming at invisible tormentors.

I was thinking about why I do OtakuHELL.

And I realized it was because I like to share these weird little video treasures with other people. And I thought about that for some time. And then the other week I was talking to somebody about sharing books. And I made the connection. About the act of sharing these things. It's like this:

You read a book. Maybe you like it or maybe you don't. Or maybe that book strikes a cord in you. You really REALLY like that book. You want to tell everybody about this book. You want to share this book with everybody. But what you're really doing is you want to share your experience.

It's not just books of course. The same thing happens with music and movies and TV shows. We have all at one time tried to share the experience of a song or a band or a movie. (And it just occurred to me that I need to expand this idea to cover things like sports and experiencing the simple pleasures of activities, like gardening, etc.)

Now the thing of it is that this compulsion to share our experiences seems to me to be a pretty universal thing. And It seems to me that what is being shared is more about emotions then ideas. It's not like Memetics, the idea that ideas are like viruses that transmit themselves from person to person. It's about being compelled to share a common pleasurable experience. It's not about sharing an idea. And that's important.

These experiences are not dependent on the merit of the subject. Maybe it's the worst movie ever made but you are compelled to share the experience because there is something that made it pleasurable. And maybe it's our ability to find that pleasurable experience even in the most flawed and worthless things that is the most noble thing about us.

Because sometimes the experience touches a person in a profound way. The experience becomes an obsession. And that's where Fans come from. The stronger the experience the stronger Fans are compelled to share that experience. Maybe it's more like a spiritual experience? I need to think about this.

So the thing I'm thinking about now is, Why are we compelled to share these experiences?

I'm sure this idea isn't new. There's probably a book or two written about it somewhere that I don't know about or a branch of Psychology that covers this. I'm just trying to explain this the way it came to me. And if anybody can add to this or point me to one of those books (compelled to share your experience) I'd like to hear about it. I'm not trying to develop a theory to explain the world, I'm just trying to understand why I do OtakuHELL.

Ultra 7 9:33 AM

Currently uploading an episode of Ultra 7 to megaupload. Wish I had more of these then those few tapes, but I'm happy with what I have.

Trying to come up with some 4 panel HNK strips to post, but It's not happening. I need to buckle down and just churn out some random crap until something clicks. If nothing else I should at least post some Nurse Katie pin ups, something visual and interesting.

It seems the best way to capture that filmation quality is to pretty much use filmation shows for the basis of the design. So I'm planning on screen capping from a few filmation cartoons and more or less redraw then with Heino. Which reminds me, I need to get a copy of Sing Mit Heino. And I need to buy a copy of Vegas, too.

Just blue skying here.

Back to the inkpots 9:42 AM

Future project!
I'm gonna take the computer out of the corner and load it up with XBMC and hook it up to the TV with the monitor adaptor that's in the closet. That's the plan. Let's see how long it takes me to actually do it now.

Missing Image 11:41 PM

Brains 9:52 PM

Red Dog 12:07 PM

Skel-La-Tor 11:42 AM

Finish It! 12:17 PM

Round 2! 9:50 AM

A! 2:08 PM

I Am A Giant 1:37 PM

I I I I am
Gonna cut you down to size
I I I I am
Gonna make you realize
I I I I am
Like a comet on the rise
No one can top me
Nothing can stop me

I am twenty stories tall
I am a giant
Towering above it all
Strong and defiant
I am a giant

I I I I am
Not the kind who kids around
I I I I am
Gonna crush you to the ground
I I I I am
The music and the sound
Ain't here to play kid
Outta my way kid

I am twenty stories tall
I am a giant
Towering above it all
Strong and defiant
I am a giant

I I I I am
I am a giant
I I I I am
I am a giant
I I I I am
I am a giant

I am

I Am A GIANT

I Am A Giant

I am.

Update: The Music Video

Joe May RIP 11:47 AM

Joe May passed away at 5am.

E! 12:43 PM

Poke-A-Monster 7:51 AM

If I can get enough of these done I'd like to add tones for publication. Lord knows I hate doing the pre-press stuff on the computer, but it will be done. I'd have all the HNK pages done by now if it weren't for the finishing tones. Guess I need to figure out how to streamline the process.

The reason I think I can do these strips so quickly is that by making everything a simple design I can draw them quicker then something that is more complex. No backgrounds to worry about drawing, etc. As long as it reads clearly I'm happy.

Hmmm. I think I need to fix panel 2. And panel 4. I guess I'm not happy.

NanoMango Splash page 9:07 PM

A Challenger Appears 7:31 AM

For NanoMango 7:48 AM

Hey, I could've used this for a flier... 7:47 AM

Powerless 11:55 AM

Yesterday the Edstead was without power. And without power there was no air conditioning. And without air conditioning there was no way I could get to sleep. *sigh*

Vintage Girly Magazines 1:22 PM

Vintage Girly Magazines

Paved with good intentions 7:14 AM

What happened Saturday?

Saturday's show was scheduled in the same room, State Room 2, only two hours later then Friday night's HELL. Did I mention that State Room 2 had a max capacity of 100 people? Yeah, only a hundred people. It makes HELL an intimate experience.

Like Friday night, I showed up an hour early and watched folks line up at the door to HELL. But, compared to Friday night, there were even more people who wanted to get into HELL. The con staffer in charge of the panel rooms, who Bruce informed me went by the handle of Fuzzy, tells me that despite informing the A-Kon programming directors of the problem nothing could be done. We were stuck with State Room 2 and it's smallish and intimate qualities.

So, that was that. Nothing to do but to make the best of it. Sure, HELL fills the Main Programming of other cons, but not at A-Kon. Nope.

But it seems that A-Kon couldn't ignore the number of folks who were queuing up for HELL. The line had gone all the way down to the end of the hall and back up the other side of the hallway to where I was sitting, opposite of the door to HELL. Soon Fuzzy was joined by other A-Kon staffers to work out some sort of solution.

And the first solution was that nothing could be done. So everybody in line was told only the first hundred would get into hell. Which sent most of the line away in disappointment.

Then, as the folks in line slowly wandered off, there was a second solution. They could move HELL into Video Room 3 if we were willing to start an hour later. A Midnight HELL seemed like a good idea to me if there was enough room for everybody in HELL. So everybody in line was told that HELL was now at Midnight in Video Room 3.

I gathered up my gear and off we went to Video Room 3, which was just around the corner from HentaiFEST and the Dance. Problem solved. Well, not quite.

First the word got out that everybody would be carded, suddenly HELL was an 18 and up Show. I had to try and convince the A-Kon Staff, and Bruce for some reason, that HELL was an all-ages show. Then it turned out that Video Room 3 didn't support microphones so we were moved once more to Video Room 2.

At this point I was surprised that anybody stuck around to get into HELL. But they did. And I'm grateful to all the folks who did come to the show. Thanks for coming out and supporting HELL, if it weren't for you guys I would've given up on the whole thing long ago.

I wanna thank the A-Kon Staffers for all the trouble they went through getting us into a video room and AV Staff we tormented with our crap audio setup. Thanks to Bob and Emily for the Kawaii TV opening. And, of course, thanks to Bruce, Avery and Katie for doing the thing they do, too. Maybe next year.

The Highway to HELL 10:06 AM

You know, this used to be a lot of fun. There were a few times where I thought about packing everything up and going home. Or at least going to the hotel bar for the rest of the con.

Friday. I stopped by Bruce and Mundee's to feed and water the cats and then it was a quick stop to top off the tank before going to the Skid Mark hotel in Dallas. Of course since they were rebuilding 30 I couldn't get on the Tom Landry Highway the way I usually did. All the on ramps were detoured but the detours didn't lead to 30. I should've taken this as a sign of things to come. Somewhere past Six Flags I finally find a ramp that heads east to Dallas and Project A-Kon 19.

After parking the car ($5) I stumble into the Artist Alley/Komiket and find Bruce and Katie and bum a couple of Advil off of Bob DeJesus. Soon Ed shows up and after some debate he takes me to ConOps to get a badge. At the elevators we're stopped by ConSec, they're trying to regulate the number of people per elevator. It's only Friday afternoon and already 6 elevators have been disabled by con-going hijinks. We finally get to ConOps and get me a panelist badge. Then we decide it's time to stop by the hotel bar and run down the clock before HELL. An hour and a half to show time I leave the bar and head back to my car to get my gear.

I make good time and get to the 3rd floor of the convention center at 8pm. There's already a line queuing up at State Room 2. I take a look inside the room: It's small. Smaller then the Houston where we'd been put last year and the year before. I take a stroll over to see what's in the Houston. It's Robotech. I don't look inside the Houston, I didn't want to know at that point.

I take my gear and find a seat across the hall from the door to State Room 2. Over the next hour I watch as the line for HELL grows and grows and grows. It becomes painfully obvious that there's way too many people and not enough room in HELL. As more people show up I get more bummed out. Bruce shows up and finds the ConSec in charge of the panel rooms. God bless those A-Kon staffers for trying, but they couldn't get HELL into a bigger room. God bless Bruce for trying to negotiate for a better space, too. But we were stuck with State Room 2.

Looking back I think State Room 2 was were we had HELL back at A-Kon 16. And like A-Kon 16 we tried to make the best of it. So, of course that meant that more things would go wrong.

In the past I've always gotten great sound at A-Kon shows. The A-Kon AV Staff are usually a top notch group of folks. But the folks I got for State Room 2 just weren't on that Friday night. Something that even the A-Kon staffer in charge of the panel rooms noted to me. I ended up getting AV assistance from someone in the audience, and I wish I'd gotten his name, because that volunteer pretty much saved the show. A thousand thanks to that anonymous guy, it's because of people like you that I didn't pack everything up and go home. Anonymous Audience Guy helped setup the video projector and when we kept losing audio he got the audio back. And we lost the audio more times then I can remember.

And that's how it went. We soldiered on thanks to Bruce, Avery and Katie. And a big thanks to that Staffer in charge of the panels who covered the door and tired to get us into a better room, we appreciate your patience for putting up with us and making a bad situation work. And of course, Anonymous Audience Guy, you rock!

I want to apologize to everybody who couldn't get into the show on Friday night. Things were beyond our control. I would like to encourage everyone who couldn't get in to the show, and even those who did, to e-mail A-Kon or post a note on the A-Kon forum and let them know what happened. So that next year everybody can get into HELL and have a good time.

Saturday night's A-Kon HELL? That's another story.