Cartoons and chaos

Saturday

CM, AM and I queued for 70 minutes to get into mini-Animania at the Citigate Central Hotel, a thoroughly inadequate venue that must surely be abandoned after this con. We missed the cosplay competition, but secured prime seats for the awards ceremony, which meant we still got to view the best costumes - without having to endure the typically awful skits. A couple of episodes of the bonkers, fan-serving "Lucky Star" were enough to persuade me to purchase the box set, sale-priced at $45 (it's $59.95 on Madman's web site). Konata rules! It was a fight to get at the dealer tables and the only other merch I bought was a "Time paradox" badge and a sticker that says "I beat the Internet - the end guy is hard". Witnessed an incredibly confident impromptu karaoke perfomance from a Brazilian bloke who belted out a show theme(?) in perfect Japanese, sans autocue lyrics, on the main stage. There was no food available at the convention, so when the wrapping up started, we made a beeline for Da Niang Dumplings.

Saturnight

SC's 29th in Erskineville. There were friends and strangers. There were robot masks. There was candle light during Earth Hour. There was "Guitar Hero World Tour" (yes, I indulged). There was Fat Yak pale ale and, when that was gone, whatever else I could forage, ie. pinch from the fridge. There was apple schnaps, then a fetch quest to a bottlo for the butterscotch and peach flavours. There was a cake-cutting and speech from the birthday boy. There was a girl who found it all too easy to resist my amorous advances. There was a nasty incident around 2am where a buddy got flattened by a group of guys outside. He didn't deserve the face rearranging, but he did bring it on himself - and he was lucky we could calm the situation before they laid the boot in. There was a shared cab ride. There was the comforting embrace of the Discovery Channel and 12 hours on the sofa. There were no side effects apart from muscle cramps and a soul sickening caused by the exposure to violence. There were phone calls and SMSes.


Listening: "American Soldier" (2009) by Queensryche. Prog-metal concept album inspired by and heavily sampling the testimony of US armed forces personnel who served in various conflicts. A freebie from the thoughtful LA - onya, mate!

Reading: "Agent Zigzag" (2007) by Ben Macintyre, also responsible for 1998's splendid "The Napoleon Of Crime". Subtitle - "The true wartime story of Eddie Chapman: lover, traitor, hero, spy." A secondhand bargain at Elizabeth's Bookshop.