I'd never been to Acen before, but there I was. On Thursday, Besh, Bryan, and I all drove down to Chicago from Madison, WI to enjoin in the activities. Michelle and Stroker would be driving up later. We arrived, and met a troop of voice actors during check-in. Bryan checked into his room. Besh and I checked into ours.
Besh is my boy. We've never dated. We never intend to date. He's as close to a sibling as I get.
Besh and I soon learned that not all hotel rooms are created equal. During the 60's there was an informal architectural style called Googie. It consisted of the combination of unlikely textures and shapes: rough stone, cantilevered roofs, odd modern touches like chrome, neon and a strange love of avocado colors, side-by-side with hideous anachronisms. It's not a pleasant style. Our room embraced certain Googie aspects of design. I wish I'd taken a picture of it all, a quick description will have to suffice. There was exposed brick (on one wall), 1/4th of one wall was covered in faux bamboo, and the lamps were either wall mounted and bronze or free standing with a faux crackled-glaze finish and the carpet was a color I only associate with institutions. Vertical blinds obscured our lovely view of the pool, however when pushed aside they did not obscure the high-tech locking device our sliding doors used, a large iron pole. The bathroom was similarly screwy. Brown and ivory tiles were everywhere and the toilet was turned at a random angle. Touring the rooms of our friends we quickly learned ours was the anomaly. Everyone else had pleasant rooms with generic décor. In addition to the decorations, we would later learn that the showerhead hated us. I dubbed it the "magical-fluctuating pretty-damned-mean showerhead." By day two the hotel room contained Besh, Brad, Marco, and me. We learned to wait for the screams from who ever was taking a shower. They always came.
Oh yeah, the room also had a strange, bullet shaped hole in one wall that corresponded to a medium sized dark stain on the floor. Lovely.
Besh and I then reported to the staffers meeting. Now in my defense I had offered to help out with guests. Besh and I chatted with Carl Horn, got our badges, and cruised over to the greenroom. Now, the greenroom is a place for guest and staff to chill, get fed, and hang. This was the BEST-damned greenroom I have ever seen. It was two floors (well, a balcony/ loft actually), multiple TVs, couches, two bathrooms (and a bidet…wheeeeee) and a fridge full of Guinness and Bock beer. Most of my con memories are linked to the green room. Almost all of my pictures are of the green room. The green room became where the nightly party was held. It was swank. During the day the green room contained two student masseuses. I cannot say enough about that damned swank-assed greenroom.
Marco, Scott Frazier and Toshi as they chill in the green room.
We grabbed beers for guests and reported to a staff and guest meet and greet. Now, had the programs been on time, every staff member would have been getting signatures from guests. This was not the case. So all the artists were getting sketch requests while the American voice actors just sat, looking confused. I introduced myself once more, answered the usual query (no, I'm NOT dating Besh), offered beer to folks and it was then that I learned my role at Acen. I was in-charge of American Guests. Admittedly I'd told Richard "Pocky" Kim that I'd be available to lend a hand here and there. But I soon learned that this offer gave Richard the ability to play "Tag you're it". Any first-time or confused American guest turned to me for answer about schedules, what was expected of them, how to cope with FAQ's and stalker quality fans. I was at every Voice-Actor signing session and I provided everyone with multi-colored permenant markers. Besh and I did a butt-load of work. But I loved it and would love working for Acen next year.
My duties were simple, but time consuming. Luckily I wound up hitting it off with the first-time guests. I already got along with the rest of the guests, so it was easy. The squadron of first-time guests consisted of Leah Applebaum, Rachael Lillis and Crispin Freeman. This was not only their first time at Acen, but also their first time at a con…ever. And cons can be a bit over whelming. Lisa Ortiz, Jason Lee, and Amanda Winn-Lee also traveled in our posse of folks. Robert DeJesus and Toshi Yoshida represented the hard-core guests who didn't need a damned bit of help, but partook of the adult beverages with us.
More of what made the greenroom fun. Besh, me, Toshi, Lisa and Crispin
Lisa Ortiz ( who is probably mumbling in Spanish) and me on Friday night.
There is a lot I could say about the panels and costumes of Acen, however I am tired. A Fan's View covered it better than I can right now. The greenroom was the place we all wound up at after hitting other parties on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Some random green room memories:
Besh, Toshi and I are the Three-headed Monster. A side note: The spiked collar was given to me by someone at who had just found it somewhere and felt it should be mine. I agreed.