Tag: cosplay

Dragon-Con Stories: The missed connection

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

If I had one genuine gripe about Dragon-Con weekend, this would be it.

She laughed with me, and not necessarily at me, at my completely failed attempt to pop off the cap of my Blue Moon bottle on the door hinge, resulting in a shattered bottle tip, and foam gushing out.  She gave me no indication, be it through our lengthy conversation or body language, that she minded my lame flirting and loitering around her, while she was stuck at another convention’s marketing table.  The words came easy, and the topics transitioned seamlessly as we conversed about various topics from movies, Emma Stone, whom I name-dropped as a comparison to her own eyes (which is obviously a good thing), to anime conventions and costumes, based on the cornucopia of people to watch.  What started out as an innocuous complimentary remark turned into a pleasant encounter.

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Photos: Cosplay For A Cause Calendar release party

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Cosplay For A Cause is a 2012 calendar created by costumers, featuring costumers, from around the globe, with all proceeds going towards Japan Red Cross relief.  Thirteen months of unique, never-been-seen photography to commemorate every month (plus a courtesy January) of womens in costumes from popular anime and video games.

I may not have the best of things to say in regards to the concept of Japan relief and awareness to some degree, but I am a staunch supporter of my friends.  I know this endeavor is done with good intentions and no bullshit, so I have no qualms with supporting friends.  The calendar release party was a jovial occasion with many attractive gals aplenty, drinking, and geeky conversations, and as far as I could tell, moderately successful.  Keep it rolling by purchasing your own calendars at the aforementioned link.

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Photos: Superheroes Day at Fernbank

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Since many of us that live in Atlanta are away, estranged, or distanced from our parents, or are just simply rotten children, we spend the day trolling at Fernbank Museum on Fathers Day.  The chicks don superhero costumes for Superheroes Day, giving a lot of the douchebag miserable dads who feel like an adequate Father’s Day is spending home alone but were drug out by the wife and kids for the kids, a little bit of reprieve, getting to ogle chicks wearing tight superhero outfits.

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A trip down memory lane

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

After a few weeks of reading about how certain comic book characters and storylines have evolved throughout the years on Wikipedia, I felt the urge to dig up some old comic books and look back in time to some of my few salvaged comics.  In the process of rummaging through some old boxes, I stumbled upon this now-ancient relic of the past: Kevin Lillard’s A Fan’s View the book.  Oh my, was this a brief moment of some serious reminiscing.

I liked Kevin and what he did back in those days, and I wanted to support him, hence my purchase of his book.  From what I’ve learned through hearsay and rumor, Kevin has long since left the convention scene, and his old website is long gone.  I hope that whatever he’s doing these days, he’s still doing well, nonetheless.  Needless to say, this book is more a memento of what he did, aside from the various JPEGs we as once cosplay enthusiasts hoarded from his numerous convention reports throughout the late 90s into the 2000s.

It goes without saying just how much the times have changed these days.  As I looked through the pages, I can’t help but briefly pause and think about how many people I once knew from these days, and where they may be today.  With the evolution of the internet, social networking, and particular websites, more information than what’s genuinely necessary seems to be available in regards to many individuals, any in many cases, it’s not really for the better.  I knew a good bit of people that were pictured, and knew of some others.  Some folks I didn’t, because of the old “east coast cons vs. west coast cons” disparity that once existed, and I got a good laugh out of the rudimentary evolution of costuming back then, compared to now.  If a character had a navy blue cloak with a lighter blue trim, it seemed to mean navy blue with royal blue trim, of the cheapest, lustless basic cotton as possible; basically a Vampire Hunter D costume from 2000 looks like comparing a Crayola 8 pack to a 64 pack.

But mostly, perusing through this old relic, led to a litany of judgmental remarks, hinging on the lines of:

  • You know, I didn’t really like him/her at all
  • I had a crush on her
  • If only people knew what he/she were doing today
  • Man, these costumes sucked to standards now, and then
  • Derek is/was a gigantic dork
  • And to emphasize, you know, I didn’t really like him/her at all

Photos: Halloween Partying, and more

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Halloween’s come and gone for another year, and before I dive head-first into Nanowrimo-land for yet another year, let’s close the book on the frightful holiday.  Jen, Tom, Allison and I decided to Resident Evil it up this year, and go hang out at Center Stage’s Halloween party.  Yes, believe it or not, I am a Resident Evil character; an obscure one, albeit, but Chris Redfield nonetheless – Safari Chris reference.  I guess I’d be more convincing if I were actually on steroids and not just doing extra arm workouts and drinking more protein shakes for two weeks.

But anyway, the party itself was kind of blah, the venue wasn’t as well executed as it was last year, but from what I hear it’s irrelevant since there won’t be a Halloween party there next year.  Naturally, that’s hardly the important part, because it was still an enjoyable evening with good company.  Not to mention I got my first exposure to hunch-punch, and more or less got obliterated on top of a myriad of beer, thinking the red concoction wasn’t alcoholic.  But from what I remember, it was still a night of inebriated belligerence, and I have one fond drunken memory of pulling out the race card on a black girl at Waffle House for making assumptions about my ethnicity, and then shooting down her weak rebuttal that her boyfriend was Asian, that such notion does not make her the authority on Asian people double standard oh shit I’m going to go sit down no wait I have to go take a piss

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The 2010 Dragon-Con post and photos

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

That time of the year has come and gone again. People stayed over at my house again. Another year has passed where my boy Evan has followed me to Turner Field, and inexplicably watched the Mets beat the Braves, in spite of their polar opposite records (the Mets suck). Another year that over 50,000 nerds descended on Atlanta, on the same weekend as 10,000 gay black men, and 60,000 college football enthusiasts, with there bound to be some overlap here and there. Another year, another Labor Day Weekend, and another Dragon-con.

The difference is that last year, I discovered the secret to enjoying Dragon-con, and I actually looked forward to applying such a theory to this year’s. That being said, another year has passed where I look back and estimate that I consumed somewhere around 23 or so beers during the weekend, another year where I took a lot of photographs, and another year that the overall conclusion is that it wasn’t a bad weekend.

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Because I’m busy, damn it

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

When I actually have had the opportunity to see my own website, it hasn’t gone past me that the last time I posted anything was six days ago.  Considering the earnest effort I’ve put into being a somewhat consistent brogger, six days is a fairly considerable length of time, given the fact that in the old iteration of things, I used to mostly post maybe once a month in the worst of times.

The simple fact has been that I’ve been busy working.  Which, given the current state of me, is a very good thing; long story short, I’m pretty hurting right now in the wallet.  A dry spell on the freelance front, as well as yet another change of the mortgage lender (and their subsequent payment policies) has me playing a lot closer to the heart than I have done in over two years.  So, I’m not complaining that I’ve turned in a solid 41-hour work week, and am going to do as many hours as I can this week, even with Dragon-con looming ahead this weekend, even if it more or less means that I haven’t had much time to keep up with my writing.

When I haven’t been working, I haven’t really done a whole lot since last week.  It’s more or less been the same old on a regular basis – wake up, run, lift weights, shower, eat cereal, go to work, work, come home, eat dinner, play Left 4 Dead, go to bed.  Every now and then, I’ve watched some baseball, or watched some other show, but not a whole lot else.  What can I say, I’ve been boring lately; given the financial woes, I’m finding it best to be a little dormant.

But anyway, since I had a somewhat passable time last year, I’m actually looking forward to Dragon-con this year.  Like last year, more or less plan on showing up to the convention in the evenings, and loitering around the lobby of the Marriott.  I will likely do a good bit of drinking out of a glass boot, possibly carry around a wrestling title belt, and hope to see some familiar faces, friends, acquaintances, Miranda Lawsons, Jill Valentines, Kelly Chambers, other hot chicks, and funny costumes that remind me of my childhood and/or better times.

Hopefully, as things settle down after the convention and this work schedule, I will get back to doing some more regular writing; admittedly, I have a few ideas of things I’d like to write, but just can’t quite seem the time to make things work.  If and when things get worse financially, there are bound to be thousands of words to be unleashed when I go into full financial stay-at-home lockdown mode.  But until then, it’s back to being busy, poorly multi-tasking, being social and shit, and not writing.