My First Con

Geek Media Expo

Nashville, Tennessee

October 26-8, 2012

      If you’re wondering why I’m posting this almost two years after the fact, then I’ll have to chalk it up to being lazy/busy.  My schedule isn’t that flexible, and I tend to write things on a whim.  Anyway, here’s an overdue recap of my first con (unless gun shows count as cons).  Anyway, I was lucky to get three days off that year to attend GMX.

      The first night I attended a panel featuring Billy West and Rob Paulsen.  At one point, some guy in a creepy Yakko cosplay (FYI: if you’re going to cosplay as an anthro, don’t just paint your freaking face) talked Paulsen into singing “Yakko’s World” on stage.

I really don’t get why this song is popular among Animaniacs fans.  It’s just Yakko listing countries to the tune of a well-known public domain song.  I know that getting celebrities to recite famous lines can be annoying, but having them sing a two-minute-long song is really inconsiderate.  The best part is that a couple weeks later, Paulsen appeared in a Demo Reel about how annoying it was when he’s asked to sing that song.  The video is really much funnier if you were there.  Though I didn’t talk to West, Paulsen was in many childhood favorites of mine, so I had a picture of myself taken with him.

      Later that night, because I was going through a bit of a brony phase at the time, I attended an utterly pointless brony panel where they just showed some fan videos I could have just looked up on YouTube.  There was also a gaming room that had a few systems including a Wii with Brawl and an Atari Jaguar with Tempest 2000.  I played some Brawl with some strangers.  There were games and systems for sale.  I bought a copy of WCW vs. nWo: World Tour, but it wasn’t as fun as I remembered it as a rental way back.  Maybe I should have bought the Retron 3.

       The next afternoon I attended a panel with Ellen McLain.  She seems like a nice lady.  The picture I took with her was in danger of being photobombed by an increasingly naked Joker.  I then left the con to attend Mass, and returned for Doug Walker’s panel.  I don’t agree with everything he says, but overall he’s a good reviewer, and he seems nice.  He had just “retired” the Nostalgia Critic was answering questions about the then-upcoming Demo Reel before it was revealed to be the huge flop that it was.  I asked him if there were going to be celebrity guests on it (embarrassingly, I mispronounce “demo”), and he said the first video will have Rob Paulsen (it was the aforementioned video).  I know it sounds cliché, but he’s surprisingly short (then again, I am 6’2’’).  I said some silly things while chatting to him I hope he’s forgotten.

       After a long wait, I attended a second brony panel run by Alcobrony, which is literally a group dedicated to getting drunk while being bronies.   I really have to say that these guys were a hoot.  Oddly enough, one person brought her children there.  Now I don’t want to sound like one of those crazy bronies who looks down on the show’s target audience, but, seriously, a brony function after midnight is no place for children.  Still, the Alcobronies could have watched their language.  They told some funny stories while throwing candy at the audience at pain-inducing speed.  The candy-thrower ended up beaming some brony’s pug by accident and immediately went over to pet it apologetically. 

He did it TWICE.

 At the end of the panel we were quizzed on trivia that I’m not embarrassed to admit I did not know (Berry Punch’s original name was to be Pinot Noir).  The prize went to a brony bore a striking resemblance to Steve Jobs. 

Afterwards I stayed up to attend a panel in which some terrible anime was riffed on.   Tired and ready to sleep during the wee hours of the morning, I took the long drive home, during which my Lesabre was acting up because of some loose sparkplugs I had not had fixed yet.  I stepped in dog doo on my way back to the apartment.

MORE PHOTOS   

Billy West and Rob Paulsen

Above: An awesomely bad Dr. Zoidberg cosplay.

The church I attended between panels.

An awesome transformer/mecha cosplay

My autographed TGWTG DVD.  I love the simple design.

 

Chrysalis, queen of the Alcobronies.

The ill-fated pug.