Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Having dropped our dog, Una, at the pet sitter's the night before, Thursday morning The Gryphon and I were free to head straight to Baltimore to help with Otakon 2007. We slept in a little, waking around 9 a.m., because I'd worked the night before until about 1.

After we'd packed the car and eaten brunch, it was alm0st 11:30. The traffic wasn't too bad, so we made pretty good time and were driving through the Inner Harbor of Baltimore by about 2.

We couldn't find a space in the parking garage of the hotel where we were staying, but we managed to find one in a facility called, I believe, the Arena parking garage. Turns out it was cheaper per day, which was an added bonus.

I'd intended to wear my staff shirt on Thursday, because it can make it easier for entering and leaving the Baltimore Convention Center (BBC), when it's only Otakon staff and authorized personnel.

But the weather report had predicted miserable weather, with a high of 96 degrees, so I opted for a no-sleeved polo shirt instead. Fortunately, we already had our badges, so we didn't have any trouble getting in. I also had a sweatshirt, just in case I ended up in a room where the air conditioner was on full blast. I tucked it into a bag I'd bought just before the convention, which I figured would be a nice way to carry any items I might need.

I walked with The Gryphon to one of the hotels, where he was meeting with his department head, Doc the Stampede. Basically, this year The Gryphon was assistant to Doc, who was the industry liaison.

A number of big industry representatives associated with Japanese animation and culture have a large presence at the convention, which may include a booth in the industry space, as well as providing us with programming content such as videos, or bringing along guests, such as voice actors, sometimes at their own expense, as the American company Funimation did.

Therefore, Industry is under the umbrella of the Guests Relations department and answered to The Godfather, who was Otakon con chair last year.

This year I was in Press Relations, which is also in the Guest Relations department. Our specific task was to serve as a liaison between the press and the guests, as well as the nonprofit organization, Otacorp, which runs Otakon every year.

I wasn't sure where the head of Press Relations would be, so I called him from the hotel once The Gryphon had connected with Doc. The head of press relations was a guy I'll call the Blue-Eyed Brazilian, or BB for short. His mother is Brazilian and his father, who is not, gave him extremely blue eyes. For the last two years he's actually lived in Brazil while finishing grad school, and he's immensely proud of his heritage, always quick to tell people more about his family's culture.

He's a tall guy, who's at least a few inches above 6 foot, and has a friendly, outgoing manner, which makes him ideally suited for his position. The outgoing nature, I mean, not so much the height. Although the height does help him to get attention when he needs to, say, get a room full of press representatives to listen to an announcement.

I'd been on friendly terms with him since we both helped at the loading docks during the pack out on Sunday about five years ago, a thankless job aided enormously by BB's sense of humor. He kept us all smiling and laughing as we sweated through our shirts, loading boxes. Other than that, I'd never actually worked with him at Otakon, so I was looking forward to the opportunity.

Ironically, as I was calling him to let him know I had arrived, he was calling me to tell me I should go to the Press Relations room, at the foot of the stairs leading to the Pratt Street Lobby where the registration of members takes place.

As I walked through the entire length of the BBC, I got a glimpse of how everything was going, but my best view of the setup came from the Press Relations room itself. We had a unique view of the Dealers' Room, from second story windows that looked out across the entire expanse. Throughout the course of the convention, numerous press representatives got to take great overhead shots of the Dealers' Room, which is very impressive when it's full of people.

Here's what it looked like Thursday, as the dealers worked to set up their booths.

During quiet times throughout the weekend, one or two of us would stand at the windows, looking down. If we saw anything that needed to be addressed, we radioed it to the Dealers' Room staff, so they could handle it. So unofficially, we were another set of eyes.

Press Relations consited of a tight little crew of five people, including myself. In addition to BB, there was his roommate and buddy, Gerbil, who goes by that nickname since it's a mutation of his actual name, which is foreign and gives people trouble. Throughout the weekend, Gerbil proved to be the calm, sensible center of a sometimes chaotic department, serving as BB's unofficial assistant, helping him schedule press interviews and tackle other major tasks.

Of course, this faithful service could not rescue him from BB's wrath, as you can see in this photo, where he is the recipient of a slow-motion punch, full to the face, which, if it had actually connected at full force, could have been deadly.

Don't worry. BB seemed to sense how invaluable Gerbil would prove throughout the weekend and let him live.

Another staffer goes by the name Ed, after the character of the same name in the anime series, Cowboy Bebop. The funny thing is, for many years she'd been mistaken for a friend of mine, The Book Lover, since they are both about the same height, about the same build, with long wavy brown hair and glasses. This year, however, The Book Lover and her husband, The Martial Artist, didn't make it to Otakon (to my knowledge), and therefore, the mistaken identity happened less frequently.

Ed has a rapier-like sarcastic wit which, despite her stall stature, made her the biggest presence on our staff. Sometimes we joked about sending her to give a verbal beat-down to those who deserved it, but we kept her in reserve. After all, sometimes it's more effective to have a nuclear bomb than to use it.

The final member was someone I'd worked with when I was a registration lieutenant. She was one of my registration staffers. I'll call her The Pottermaniac, since on Friday, when the book came out, she dressed in a Hogwarts costume, complete with Slitherin tie, and bought a copy of the book at a Dealer's Room booth before the room even opened. Throughout the rest of the weekend, whenever she had down time, she'd read the book voraciously. Amusingly, every time she put it down, Ed made a grab for it and got in a little reading, so that the tug-of-war over the book became sort of an in joke.

Just as she'd been one of my hardest workers at Registration, The Pottermaniac was an enthusiastic Press Relations staffer. The youngest member of the staff, at 21, she wore costumes every day of the convention, but all of them were so well made and so respectable looking (i.e. no silly cat girl suits or super short skirts) that if you didn't know any better, you'd think she was just a fashionista in cutting edge styles.

Before the press started checking in, we needed to put together some press packets, so BB took Gerbil, The Pottermaniac and myself to the local Kinko's to pick up some materials. As it turned out, it took three of us just to find the place. First, BB asked somebody on SAFE staff (a private security company on contract to Otacorp), and he was confused about where we needed to go. You see, BB told him that he'd heard Kinko's was one block from the BCC, so at first the SAFE staffer tried to give us directions to the Baltimore Community College!

Then, after consulting a map and Kinkos.com, we figured we knew where to go. We started out and after walking several blocks, The Pottermaniac pointed out a Kinko's. Of course, as soon as BB went inside and gave his order, we learned it was, in fact, only for shipping. Printing and copying services were at another store, up the street.

Amusingly, a similar thing happened when we entered the correct Kinko's store. We went up to the wrong counter and asked about the copies, only to be directed to the back of the store. I joked that, as Press Relations people, we really ought to be able to read.

As we walked along, we got to know each other a bit. The Pottermaniac asked us all how old we were, and I discovered, much to my surprise, that I was the oldest of the crew by a good 10 years. Both BB and Gerbil are in their mid-20s.

Fortunately for my ego, The Pottermanic was surprised that I was 36 and commented that I looked a good deal younger than that. I'd think that she was just being nice except that I had the same from a number of other people that weekend, with many of them wanting to know what I did to make my skin so nice. I told them to eat right, drink plenty of water, get eight hours of sleep a day and clean your face with a good deep cleanser every day and moisturize.

It's sort of similar to the advice I give people who want to know how I lost 80 pounds and have maintained the loss for two years. I tell them to eat healthy and exercise! Really! There's no magic pill or secret formula involved.

When the box was handed over, it was on the small side. The Pottermanic and I joked that we could each take a corner, and she, BB and I were marching through the store that way, but Gerbil was too dignified to participate. For the rest of the walk we passed it back and forth the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, Ed had been busy setting up the room, making signs for the door, which was a colorful display after she'd finished, including stars and flowers, as well as crucial information. Definitely hard to miss!

The Pottermanic and I helped her finish them while BB and Gerbil establishing registration procedures for press. I also helped BB pick up the necessary materials from Registration for us to provide badges to the press for their access.

When the doors opened for members to preregister for the convention, the press could enter our room, too. BB, Gerbil and The Pottermaniac handled most of the registrations.

About a third of the press who had requested passes signed up that night, among them several representatives of Otaku Life Radio, who would spend a good deal of time in the Press Relations room over the convention, using it as home base, since they had about four to six members on duty at any one time, covering different events and seeking interviews. They also sometimes conducted one-on-one or roundtable discussions in a quiet corner of the room, with BB's permission, of course.

By the end of the convention, we knew these guys so well that we were jokingly ordering their intern around, as if he was ours, too. The Pottermaniac particularly enjoyed shouting, "Hey, intern! Get me a stack of paper" or whatever it was she wanted. He was a tall college student with feathered blond hair and a ready smile, and he good-naturedly put up with our ribbing. And yes, he actually would do errands for us on command. He's lucky that we didn't take advantage of that more than we did.

I didn't actually get to register anybody the first night but got to see how it was done. Later on in the weekend, I actually did get to register a couple people. But for this first shift, I just sat back and watched, helping wherever I could, and chatting with the members of the press. Here's a view of them peering at the Dealers' Room setup as they made plans.

That first night, it was mainly people from fan-based outlets, which range from traditional terrestrial radio and cable access TV to Internet radio, magazines, e-zines, and just about any permutation of the above. There were also a good number of freelance photographers and reporters, who covered the convention for a variety of publications. The mainstream press, such as local television, tended to show up only when there was a specific thing they wanted to cover.

Sometime after 3, I met up with The Gryphon and we carried our luggage to the hotel and registered. We had a much smaller room than the previous year, with two beds, so we put our suitcases on one. The room smelled a little medicinal, probably from one of their cleaners, but not intolerable.

On the way back, I wanted to get something to eat, so we tried to find something close to the BCC. We found a little pizza place that was also selling sandwiches. I lucked out; right after I ordered my turkey sandwich, they moved to selling pizza only.

The Gryphon sat with me as I ate ravenously. I was already really hungry from all the walking. He, on the other hand, would be eating at the Guest Relations dinner, where the top staffers in the Guest Relations department welcome whichever guests have arrived at that point. This year, there were fewer than expected, I heard, because of weather problems that tied some of them up in transit.

When I returned, I helped escort groups of press to the orientation that BB and Gerbil held for the press, where they informed them about procedures for the weekend.

The Press Relations stayed open until about 8, and afterwards we all went to find something to eat. I got a picture of everyone on our way out.

(from left) Gerbil, BB, Ed and The Pottermaniac

First, Gerbil and BB led us to a Greek place they'd seen on the way in, but it was closed! By this time, Ed was really hungry, since she hadn't eaten anything substantial since 10 in the morning. We took her to one of the favorite places of Otakon staffers, Afghan Kabob, which has a wide range of healthy, tasty food.

We walked in just 10 minutes before they were closing, and they were only taking orders for takeout. They were also out of rice, but we said that was fine. Since I'd already had dinner, I just ordered an appetizer of hummus. We all took our food up to the Day's Inn, where some of us were staying, and sat at a little marble table to eat. When I opened up my hummus, I was surprised to see how much they'd given me. I offered to share it, but after taking a bite or two, no one seemed interested. They hadn't given me much bread, so after I went through the bread, I ate it by spoon. It was tasty!

As we ate, we got to know each other a little better, sharing stories about ourselves and about our experiences with prior Otakons. It was a good bonding time for us. By about 11 p.m., we all went up to our rooms, after BB told us to report at 8:30 tomorrow.

I checked e-mail on The Gryphon's laptop until he got back to the room at about 11:30. Then, we headed down to the hotel bar to get a drink and talk about our days. There, we eventually were joined by our friend The Dormouse, as well as two guys I knew from Spec Ops and Treasury. I introduced them to each other, and it turned out they had both been in the military, so they swapped stories for hours until everyone realized how late it was getting (1:30) and we all said good-night.

Of course, for me, that's pretty typical. Getting up at 6:30 the next day wouldn't be, though, and I resolved to do better the next night.

More on Alyce's Otakon Experiences:

Musings on Alyce's Otakon Experiences

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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