Snakes, Burgers, Dancing, and Maids - EvilleCon 2013

Basic Convention Info
Name: EvilleCon
Host City: Evansville, IN
Venue: Holiday Inn Evansville Airport
Dates: March 22-24, 2013


I first learned of EvilleCon thanks to some artist friends from the Evansville area at a convention last year. Word had it that it was a small con with a friendly atmosphere, but to be honest the name already had my curiosity piqued. And given that I'd already heard good things about Evansville from other folks, I was pretty stoked to finally have an excuse to visit. The trip there was pretty smooth and pleasant – I've driven through Indiana enough times by now to start getting used to the bizarre, mountain-less landscape – and without much trouble I found my way to the airport grounds, and the Holiday Inn.

c/o Holiday Inn Evansville Airport

Now, most folks who know anything about me and my travels know that I've got a weird hobbyist thing for hotels. As in, sometimes I'll occasionally just go into neat-looking ones to have a look around, even if neither I nor anyone I know is staying in them(I blame it on my early con experiences and the subtle energy of event spaces when filled with folks of similar interests). So one of the first things I do upon arriving at a con is have a look around the venue. The Holiday Inn at Evansville Airport is surprisingly fancy, and gorgeous, with a huge atrium-style area that contains the lobby, the pool, and a wide-open area that served as the home for the artists alley. A large number of the guest rooms also looked out onto that area with personal balconies, so all-in-all the venue definitely gets big points for aesthetics.

Atrium of the lobby

Balconies(long view)

Balconies(side view)

Main elevator, sweet blue glow

So now that I'm done gushing about the location, on to the actual con itself. It's a fairly standard practice among conventions that I'm familiar with to come up with a theme for each year. Some cons try and schedule events associated with their theme, but more often than not it just flavors the con's appearance, and gives a neat way to differentiate the years. EvilleCon follows the Chinese Zodiac for its themes(which in addition to giving good names and themes, is just pretty dang cool all-around), so this year's theme was Year of the Snake.

Expect to see this guy a lot

As per my usual m.o., once the con got started on Friday morning I spent some time just wandering around and taking things in. One of the most notable features was the gaming alley set up along the path towards the event rooms. Among other gems, I played/spied Pump It Up Fiesta 2013, Dance Maniax, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a full cabinet version of one of the Dragonball Z fighting games that were never released in America. You might not think of arcade games when you hear “anime convention,” but geeks like me, who grew up around arcades, friggin' chomp at the bit when we see them. In addition to providing a momentary break from running the con floor, they give you a tried-and-true method to wow your fellow con-goers by cranking out a 200+ combo on a peppy K-Pop song(bonus points if also in costume at the time). So any con that provides them gets my respect.

Needless to say, after gettin' my arcade on, I had worked up a bit of an appetite. As a foodie, proximity to delicious eats is also an important factor for any convention. When located in the heart of a city's interior, or in a similarly-dense area, this is never a problem. But out by the airport, there were only a few choices, most of them fast food. Luckily for me, the con staff had acquired the services of a food truck – which I have a huge weakness for – and thus my mission was clear. The company was River City Roller, and the combination of price and awesomeness would have been hard to pass up. My personal choices consisted(at various different meals, not simultaneously) Ginormous Quesadilla and Ginormous Cheeseburger, and my only regret is not combining them at some point into Ginormous Quesaburger, with some of their jalapeno poppers in the middle.

And in addition to the food, the people working the truck were a lot of fun to talk to. Given a weekend of staying in a pretty confined space, dealing with hungry folks who sometimes forget their manners, it can be easy to let it get to you and just zone out. But the whole weekend, the River City Roller peeps were polite, laid-back, and genuinely interested in what was going on, often asking cosplayers about their costumes and carrying on more than just the usual small talk. If you're ever in Evansville, make sure you check these folks out and give 'em some business, yo!
So, with my gut sated, I returned to the con once again, and found events a'plenty. I'll list a few of my personal favorites below:

Cosfluff 101 Plus-Size Cosplay

Hosted by the artist buddy who first filled me in on EvilleCon, Cosfluff 101 was the first panel of its type that I've attended before. Before I became interested in moving beyond basic sewing, I was frequently frustrated by how difficult costuming for us larger folk usually was(trips to costume stores at Halloween were more academic than anything). This panel was a how-to guide on working with materials, but also on how to modify costumes to work with different body types, as well as a general feel-good meetup with the main take-away of “cosplay is about fun, so everyone who wants to should enjoy it.” Check out their Facebook page and show 'em some love.

White's School of Martial Arts Demo

Covering basic cutting techniques, and a demonstration of using pressure points to incapacitate a foe(or revive an unconscious friend, which was an interesting twist I'd never seen), this panel was a nice diversion from my usual con fare, and taught me all sorts of new tricks to use on unsuspecting friends and family at every opportunity.

Anime Q&A with Chuck Huber
Film-making with Chuck Huber

Now, I've never really been much of a “go to cons for the celebrity guests” kind of guy. Don't get me wrong – there's a fair number of voice actors I can't play it cool around and have to fanboy over(Scott McNeil, Jennifer Hale, and Crispin Freeman, if I ever meet you, a buddy photo will be inevitable). It's just that I'm not much one for collecting autographs, and I suck at remembering to check guest lists before I go to events so that I know what to bring if I do want an autograph. So usually, I'll sit in on a Q & A panel, or stop by a table to just say a quick hello, but I'm usually too busy with other events or just in general to do much with guests.
This time, though, I made a point to catch several of Chuck Huber's events. I'm primarily familiar with him through his work on Yu Yu Hakusho(Hiei), Soul Eater(Professor Stein), and Hiro Nohara(Shin Chan), but like most voice actors he's got a long list of roles of which anime is only a small part. And as cool as it was to hear Professor Stein talk about how much he wanted to dissect someone, what really made these panels was the fact that Chuck is an insanely cool guy who doesn't hesitate to gab directly with attendees. He gave me some of the best advice I've ever received from anyone in regards to learning new things(and I'm paraphrasing at this point:

If you want to get good at something, go out and fail at it as quickly as you can.

You may be familiar with it in another form from Adventure Time:

“Sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something.”

I've been a perfectionist since I was a wee little lad in elementary school. Which means that, for much of my life, I have balked at doing new things unless I was pretty confident I could master them in a short time. I still have problems with that to this day – among other things, there's a bass guitar sitting in my guest room that I've never played, a course on Japanese languishing on my computer barely touched, a juggling kit that needs some serious attention, etc. It might seem a small thing, but hearing that sentiment from a professional(as well as an accompanying sense of “seriously, just go do it, whatever it is. You've got what it takes.”) was a massive inspiration. At the time, I had just started becoming curious about costuming and whether I could be good at it, and my first entirely self-sewn costume(Jake from Adventure Time, which I'll post sometime soon) came about largely because I took that advice to heart and repeated it internally like a mantra when things got rough. So obviously, given how much I've gushed about it, I'll probably have to start doing this meet 'n greet thang more often. Well-played, con-iverse.

And of course, as with any convention I attend, the cosplay contest/masquerade was a must-see. I didn't get many pictures of the event itself, but here's a few of my (horrifyingly-amateur) photographs of the costume scene in general:

Last but not least was an event I'd never really looked much into, the Maid Cafe. If you're not familiar with otaku culture, then...you're probably completely lost by now, anyway. But seriously, if you're new to this whole scene, then you've likely not heard of maid cafes before – or, you're thinking of something involving French maids that, while sexy, is inaccurate. To make a long story short, maid cafes can be thought of as cosplay events, with the cosplayers acting the parts of personal maids and hosts(their male counterparts) of a house, and the patrons being the owners of said house. There's always sweets and drinks, and entertainment usually consists of games for each table, J-Pop/K-Pop dances, and so on on(I'm working on an article about maid cafes, so make sure to check back for more information if you'd like to learn more). In addition to having a friendly staff, EvilleCon's maid cafe also featured a violin player, who was kind enough to let me take some video:

And with that, I bade my first EvilleCon “aloha.” It made a great first impression, and I'm looking forward to attending next year. The 2014 dates are March 28-30, and housing spots are going fast, so if you want to get in on the Year of the Horse(Pony), then get crackin'. For now, this is your boy Ro, signing off.