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Anime Weekend Atlanta Author's Notes 2005 Anime Weekend Atlanta was the hottest show of the weekend - or maybe it's best to call it the warmest. The temperature felt like it was 85 degrees all weekend in the atrium where this writer spent most of his two days at the convention, and everyone felt the heat. We don't recall the building being that warm during the previous two years that AWA was at the Renaissance Waverly in Cobb County, and a convention official said the hotel couldn't get it any cooler. But one reason for the warmth might have been the attendance. The area around the artists' alley was packed all weekend; the crowds never let up. We'll guess that AWA had its largest attendance ever, pretty good considering they're held three weeks after the huge Dragon*Con. Part of the convention's attendance success might be that the organizers make sure fans aren't bored because they have nothing to do. Between concerts featuring four groups (Yoko Ishida, Peelander Z, Lisa Ray and Select Start), a room that showed music videos, and a collection of actors and artists), you'd think there wasn't much hang-out time, but that's where a lot of people spent their time. The most interesting hang-out event of the weekend was the gothic lolita tea party, where a group of young women turned themselves into something out of a Margaret Mitchell novel. They were served real (hot) tea by Lauren Goodnight, who took corsetry to a new level. Artists Tavisha and Rikki Simons were among the guests, and Rikki's voice role as Gir in Invader Zim was especially popular. There were three Gir costumers in three variations of the character, which must have been an anime convention record. Running the picture-sales operation meant long hours and little sleep over the two days, with plenty of costumers finding their way to our setup. We finally had to close things on Saturday night when we ran out of ink and paper, after using more of those consumables at AWA than we'd used at the previous weekend's Nan Desu Kan. We brought an extra set of ink tanks for our printer and it still wasn't enough - guess we'll have to plan to get more when we renew the picture operation at Sugoi Con at the end of October. We took care of our slow-computer frustration by finding a used Sony Vaio laptop PC and re-retiring the old Toshiba 445CDX. The Sony was fast enough to let us print at full speed, and it had a pleasantly bright screen. Too bad we couldn't find a decent WiFi signal at the convention hotel. Even at the cheap motel and its good WiFi, we had uploading problems until we switched FTP programs. Thanks to Kent and Jack from Ontario for giving this writer a lift to that cheap motel room. We tried to warn Jack that the duffel bag with the light stands and cables was heavy, but he still insisted on carrying it. After putting the bag down in a parking lot on the other side of the Cobb Parkway, a panting Jack asked us how we carried the thing. "We don't carry it that far," was the response. We're not always trying to put anime conventions in context with the real world, but it happened again for Anime Weekend Atlanta. Some of the guests of honor couldn't get to Georgia because of Hurricane Rita, and others were lucky to get to the show. The warnings of a devastating storm led thousands to try to fly out of Houston at the last minute, just as guests from ADV Films were trying to take their long-scheduled flights to Georgia. David Williams of ADV said he got to a Houston airport three hours before the flight left, and he still missed the flight because so many people jammed the place. A couple of guests tried to make their flights and gave up. And ADV closed their Houston production headquarters early on Thursday, just before the storm arrived on the convention weekend. Fortunately, the weather wasn't as bad as predicted. Anime Weekend Atlanta Main Page