A slight musical diversion and Convention Thoughts. :: The Life of the Traegorn

A slight musical diversion and Convention Thoughts.
Posted Feb 20, 2007 - 13:29:55	Tweet

So, things continue in a generally forwards direction these days. I'm perfectly happy for this pattern of momentum to continue, and am not really in a place where I want to complain about that much...

...and anyone who knows me knows that I love to bitch - so this is a relatively rare occasion.

But before I dig into life in general, I first wanted to point out a very strange musical experiment I've put online. I call it The Absolute Boredom Song. I recorded this a couple of Sundays ago when I was bored out of my mind. Crysta had a pile of work to get done, but I was actually caught up with my own stuff (I know - a miracle). So, with nothing else to do, and it being a Sunday afternoon, I took out my camera and my harmonica and came up with this bizarre experiment.

I know, I know - I'm weird.

I've had the idea sitting in my head for a while, to do a duet with myself, so I figured it was my opportunity for absolute strangeness. So, you guys can all watch... and maybe laugh and point - but I had fun making it. *grins*

In other news, I plan on going to MarsCon 2007 in a couple weeks, to help run the NoBrandCon room party. I don't know if I'm going to actually bother with the Convention proper, but I had a good time last year. Sadly, no Peso this year (as he lives in Japan), but I know SeanOrange is going too... so who knows what will happen. We still need to find other people to come with us though, so we're going to have to figure this one out at this week's NoBrandCon meeting.

Things are going fairly well on the Convention planning front, so I'm really excited about this year's NoBrandCon. Honest to god, this one has to be great... because even though I will still try to help with next year, it will be within a much smaller role (as I am graduating and likely not going to stick around in Eau Claire). SeanOrange, Peso, and Vinnk have all managed to stay involved, so I don't see why I can't also. But this will be my last year with any major responsibilities - so it's kind of weird to think about.

Apparently this weekend there is an Anime convention in Milwaukee called, unsurprisingly, Anime Milwaukee. While I am excited that this is happening, and fully support them (and since they link to NoBrandCon I officially love them and wish to have their hypothetical babies) I am a little disappointed with how unambitious every group trying to do this sort of thing in Milwaukee has been.

Again, don't get me wrong, I think what these guys are doing is great -- but every Anime Con that I've seen try to start in Milwaukee (this and SnowCon a month ago) are free one day events. Now, I'm a fan of Free. If NoBrandCon could be totally free to everyone, I'd make it so in five seconds. But this whole "One Day" things - without significant dealer room, without extravaganza... well - it seems small.

The problem with this is that it will never grow if you don't try to make it big. NoBrandCon is a smallish convention, with only 605 attendees (not including Staff, Volunteers, or Vendors) last year - but we always try to act big. We started with just 115 people showing up our first year, but we flew in a guest, advertised for two years ahead of time, and made sure we were at least two days. We hunted down dealers to fill our dealer room, we aggressively advertised... and we've become very successful.

Anime Detour, in the Twin Cities, also started out trying to do things aggressively like we did for NoBrandCon, and because of the larger population base available, they have become a very successful medium sized convention (within their first year they did so I should point out). If someone had the foresight and the guts to take the risk, Milwaukee could have something that big too.

Someone just has to be willing to do that.

Free one day events are great, don't get me wrong, but if the guys who run SnowCon or Anime Milwaukee want their events to get noticed, they need to get things moving and think bigger.

(I should note that my opinions do not necessarily reflect those of NoBrandCon Management - which is why this rant is here and not on their site.)
- Traegorn