{"id":40611,"date":"2015-06-04T12:07:06","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T16:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=40611"},"modified":"2020-07-16T12:07:17","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T16:07:17","slug":"when-i-grow-weary-of-the-convention-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=40611","title":{"rendered":"When I grow weary of the convention scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

I didn\u2019t really enjoy MomoCon that much.\u00a0 It\u2019s not because MomoCon was executed poorly, quite the contrary, but it\u2019s mostly two-fold to why I personally didn\u2019t really have much of a great time.\u00a0 One, my head wasn\u2019t in really a great place, and hasn\u2019t been in one for a little while for reasons I have yet to really discuss with others, and two, I simply felt like I was kind of too old or something, to really get much enjoyment out of a convention.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I guess three, everybody I knew who was there was either on staff, an exhibitor, or a guest that had their own obligations to fulfill, so I spent an inordinate amount of time by myself, wandering around, and struggling to find things that I wanted to take pictures of.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, I think I\u2019m a little over the convention scene as a whole, and not just singling MomoCon out, because when the day is over, I know quite a few people who work and run MomoCon, and I have nothing but good things to say about them, their work, and their dedication to pulling off a convention the size of MomoCon, to which I remember its earlier days, when it was literally held at the Georgia Tech recreation hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I really do feel that it boils down to the fact that I\u2019m growing if not already grown, weary of the convention scene as a whole, and I\u2019m not sure what lies ahead for me in regards to future conventions.\u00a0 I\u2019ve already decided that after this year\u2019s Dragon*Con, I won\u2019t be going to next year\u2019s, because I want to actually miss it for a change, and I think I could allocate the $1,000+ spent on hotel and expenditures might be better spent towards like a big international trip or something dramatically different.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t even really enjoy taking pictures this past weekend, which I kind of feel was something of a red flag as it pertains to my general interests and something I\u2019ve enjoyed throughout the years.\u00a0 I had this nagging feeling that I\u2019ve seen everything before, or I\u2019m not really impressed with the quality of some of the things I see, or that clich\u00e9d feeling that the convention scene really has become like high school where only pretty people get attention, and anyone else is left feeling inadequate or unappreciated.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like I see a costumer that I\u2019m intrigued by, but then they\u2019re whisked away by vastly more talented photographers, whom more importantly, has brought all of their gear from bounces, umbrellas and gofers, consumes 200 square feet of space to operate, and lures all of the really nice costumers who justly so, want high-quality pictures of themselves.\u00a0 The costumer is metaphorically roped off from everyone else at this point, and people like me abject\u00a0refuse<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0wait<\/em>\u00a0on someone I just want two or three quick pictures of, so that I can share with the rest of the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Often times, these costumers then become burnt out on taking pictures for anyone else, and despite the fact that they get into costume to be noticed, lavished attention on and photographed, occasionally\u00a0deny<\/em>\u00a0people from stopping for a picture.\u00a0 Any time this happens to me, I mentally blacklist them as someone not worth taking a picture of myself.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the photographers themselves, I can\u2019t hate on the fact that they want to take pictures of costumers, but I feel like bringing so much gear for what\u2019s really recreational photography is pushing past the limits of what I like to call\u00a0tryharding it<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The analogy I made for this dynamic at conventions is one of this cycle of ego-stroking between very-talented costumers and very-talented photographers; the hottest women and the guys with the six pack abs flock to the tryharding photographers, and they do their thing while everyone else is kind of left on the outside looking in.\u00a0 And given the nerdy, outcast-like nature of conventions in general, this has cultivated the ironic scenario of where a class-dynamic has been created within the subculture of outcasts and nerds who started these things to try and abolish them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, I get that I may be coming off sounding salty and envious of those more talented than I am in just about everything, be it costuming, photography, or just plain popularity, and I get that.\u00a0 I can say that I\u2019m not, regardless of if it\u2019s believed or not, but ultimately, when I take a few steps back and look at convention scenes today, especially compared to those of yesteryears, it\u2019s most certainly a different landscape, and not necessarily one that I\u2019m nearly as fond of now as I was back then.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, I have reluctance to do any con, if it\u2019s going to be like this, where I\u2019m left to my own vices for the entirety of it.\u00a0 I like the opportunity to take pictures, but if there\u2019s not any pictures to be taken, it\u2019s always preferable to be in the company of comfortable people.\u00a0 Take comfortable people out of the equation, and then it\u2019s really the question of why be there in the first place?<\/span><\/p>\n

You want to know my fondest memory of MomoCon?\u00a0 Honestly, it was on Saturday night, when I was separated from the rest of my friends, because we all kind of fell out of sync, and I had eaten when they hadn\u2019t, so they went to go eat (and drink) without me.\u00a0 It happens, and I wasn\u2019t upset about it.\u00a0 But it was around 7:30 pm on a Saturday night of a convention, so it should be a great time to do something clich\u00e9d fun and awesome, but with everyone spread out, and others already getting their drink on, it didn\u2019t seem worth trying to catch up.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I left.\u00a0 Walked to my car, drove off, and went home.\u00a0 Let my dog out, fed the animals, picked up dinner on the way home and ate garbage fast food, and watched\u00a0Game of Thrones<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had no regrets, nor did I feel one iota of anxiety or envy that I could be missing out on some wacky and fun drunken escapade at the con.\u00a0 And I was really happy being home and relaxing alternatively.\u00a0 I know I make old jokes about myself all the time, but I think I really felt like I was actually becoming old right then and there, but damn was I in a pleased mood that night.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn\u2019t really enjoy MomoCon that much.\u00a0 It\u2019s not because MomoCon was executed poorly, quite the contrary, but it\u2019s mostly two-fold to why I personally didn\u2019t really have much of a great time.\u00a0 One, my head wasn\u2019t in really a great place, and hasn\u2019t been in one for a little while for reasons I have … Continue reading When I grow weary of the convention scene<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[128,108,15,133,146],"class_list":["post-40611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-conventions","tag-cosplay","tag-og","tag-old-man","tag-triggered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40612,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40611\/revisions\/40612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}