Anime and alcohol

Had to queue for 45 minutes to get into the one-day Animania convention at the Citigate Central hotel. (By lunch, the inadequate venue was so packed that the door staff were only letting someone in when someone else went out!) For the two-day con in August, I'm definitely gonna pre-register. Anyhoo... Hit the screening room too late for "Air Gear", but watched subbed episodes of "My-Z-Hime" (babes vs huge baddies sci-fi in a detailed aristocratic society), "Hell Girl" (disturbing modern horror about retribution at a price) and "Witchblade" (tragic character becomes sexy superheroine in an earthquake-devastated Tokyo). Caught up with CM and a camera-toting AM in the main stage area, where they'd saved me a seat for the cosplay. You won't be shocked to learn that "Bleach", "Death Note" and "Naruto" were the most heavily mined sources of inspiration. Bid the brothers farewell and exited via the dealers' tables. The lone standout was a cool "What would Kira do?" sticker (answer: buy a spare to send to RS).

Fed my face, then temporarily returned to earth with "Sydney's Pubs: Liquor, Larrikins And The Law", a modest exhibition at the Justice & Police Museum near Circular Quay. Appropriate to the context, it focused on drunken disorder, sly grog and underworld connections. Artefacts, documents, models. Monitors cycled through period pics. Once upon a time in Australia, pubs had real charm.