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Ohayocon - Author's Notes - 2007 The author's notes are being posted late this time because...well, we can't make any excuses this time. We were up until 4 a.m. Monday, hanging out with fans and actors, something this writer doesn't typically do - but Ohayocon wasn't a typical event for us. It had more emotional meaning than usual, but it also was exceptionally normal. Our experience was a little like what happened in 2001, a few days after the airliner attacks in the U.S, when the life of race driver Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi was changed forever. Zanardi and his race car were cut in half in a crash. Minus both legs, Zanardi's driving career seemed to be over - but he had unfinished business to resolve. One year later, at the same track, wearing prosthetics, Zanardi got into a hand-controlled car and ran the laps he hadn't finished because of the crippling crash, running as fast as he had on that fateful day. Zanardi resumed his racing career in Europe, driving hard and winning races, despite his handicap. The author of this site isn't handicapped and we've gone through nothing like Zanardi's trauma, but we had some unfinished business at Ohayocon, where our 2006 time at the convention was interrupted by a heart attack. We moved through that invisible barrier on the convention's second morning, when we got past the point where, one year earlier, we had been lying on the floor, waiting for an ambulance. In 2007, we spent that same time on both feet, changing backdrop colors and getting our photo booth ready for another busy day. There was nothing unusual or out of the ordinary about the way the convention weekend went. Friday was a little quiet because traffic flow was limited, due to the long registration line delays (caused by a failed computer setup, we were told). Saturday was much busier, to the point we had little slack time to update the web site from the booth. Sunday was quieter but still not quiet. We were told that the convention had planned for 4,500 fans and got 6,000. Totals such as that once were considered large, but they're typical now for anime conventions. Running the photo booth has its advantages and disadvantages. We get to make a couple of extra dollars, but we also don't get to wander around the show floor much. Some of the most intense costuming groups were just under our booth location on the convention center's grand staircase. We had to escape the booth twice on Friday night to get a few pictures of the Monica Rial celebrity roast and the Voices for Peace concert backed by Swek members. Of course, we didn't get as many costuming pictures as usual because we had to take care of booth customers (and had a half-hour Saturday delay when a new computer program crashed and we had to switch to an old program). But it seemed as if most of the award-winning costumers from the Saturday night contest went to our booth on Saturday afternoon. We missed some Seras Victoria costumers, but we were visited by both of the Gankutsuou casts. And the most fascinating costuming trend was the three sets of Nerima Daikon Brothers costumers, people who made those outfits even though the musical series had been released in the U.S. only a month or so earlier. Thanks to Kent and his friend from Canada, and the other convention volunteers who gave us a hand in hauling our equipment back to our room after each day's work was over. The only problems we had were with the high price of the Hyatt's room service food, and having the third-floor doors between the convention center and the hotel locked on Sunday afternoon. We managed to get those doors unlocked. Nothing unusual about the weekend, and no emotional shortcomings about having the booth at the same place where it was located when we had the 2006 health problems. We've had better luck with our health than with MP3 players in recent months (one broke, lost the second, the third one works). We've been so back to normal to the point that, back in October, we went to two race tracks on the same day to take pictures. The only point where our courage ran out was on the day after Ohayocon, when, instead of staying in Columbus to soak up the atmosphere of being in Ohio State's home town on the night of the Bowl championship series game with Florida, we got out town and headed home. Good thing we left. The Buckeyes had their wost game in years and were routed by Florida. It would have been way too depressing to spend four hours in the presence of unhappy fans in red and gray, watching their superteam collapse on TV. But there was joy at the convention, most of it connected with old friend Shin Kurokawa. The world's most beautiful nerd was constantly accompanied by young women, chanting "Shiny! Shiny!" who wanted to glomp him. This year's odd convention coincidence in Columbus was revealed on Sunday afternoon when we shared an elevator with a young woman dressed in jeans and a jeweled tiara. Spotting a few other women dressed in the same manner, we wandered back into the convention center and got the answer; moving into the facility on Sunday evening was a group of Ohio county and state fair organizers for their annual convention. Winter is obviously off-season for fairs, and Columbus is in the center of Ohio, so the time and location were obvious. The women in  tiaras were county fair queens, competing in the state fair queen contest. And when were were leaving the hotel on Monday morning, we found that the rooms just down the hall from our fifth-floor location had been turned into hospitality suites for the operators of touring midway rides. This writer went to county and state fairs long before anime conventions were invented, and it was neat to see the old and new festival traditions operating right next to each other. And, just when we were starting to consider clearing time on our schedule for one of the Austin, Texas conventions, we saw online the Associated Press story on the dead birds found in downtown Austin - so many that part of downtown was closed. The irony there is that the first Austin convention, Ushico's block Party, is scheduled to have a Princess Tutu feature, based on an anime that features characters based on...birds. Huh? Ohayocon Main Page