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"there may be bitter tears but/ They're never worth the crying"
2002-10-03 17:27:01
melezov: I think you need to actually read one of Xanthrax's reviews before you can judge. They are VERY VERY useful indeed.
Xanthrax doesn't make amvs but he does know a great deal about what makes amvs good and his reviews are excellent. Similarly I'd like to think that my reviews are also very useful - many people have thanked me for my help. Unfortunately the time it takes me to write reviews does stop me from writing more and many people don't actually respond after you've written a very detailede review - which sucks.
As for Mandark... who gives a crap?
To be honest I prefer to write my comments in email and private messages - conversations can be much more rewarding than plain reviews.
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Profile Image of the... errr... whenever I feel like it 11!!!
2002-10-02 14:55:12
OK, I've restared the profile images again but this time it's not and art site.
Turboneko's Cristina won the award for Best Dark/Suspense video in the AWA Pro contest with an awesome Beserk Video called Phemt (link in my top 10 :P)
The image today is of a really cute SD-Phemt keychain propping up the award :D
Damn, AWA was fun and 1 year is too long to wait. Jacon anyone? -
"drink sangria in the park/ and later when it gets dark we go home"
2002-10-01 17:01:49
OK, it's.....
AWA Report time! I apologise in advance for anyone I haven't mentioned by name as I met soooo many people, but it was a pleasure to meet you all.
thursday:
Go to hotel at 3... pissing it down thanks to hurricanes. Had a few hours to kill before people arrived so I watched some tv. Is it me or is tv in Georgia just non-stop adverts for car dealerships?
ErMaC and Himiko arrived right in time for the creator dinner. I had the (mis)fortune to go in the back of the truck which went on a Magical Mystery tour around atlanta looking for the place. Fun though :)
The dinner itself was pretty good with plenty of firey eye-candy. It was a godsend really as it was one of the only things I ate the whole weekend.
After the dinner was a cool late night VAT session. It was one of the best amv sessions of the con actually as it was full of unsober amv creators who were going wild over all their fave vids. It was great fun and for me summed up how the whole con was going to be with everyone being really supportive and enthusiastic over everyone's videos. It might sound like mutual back-patting but in comparison to the deadly stories of amv contest jealousy this was incredible. There was no bitter criticism at all, in fact it was the opposite where everyone was really happy for everyone else - heck even Joe admitted to liking some of Vlad's videos :D
At this point I would probably say who I met... except for the fact that I met EVERYONE ON THE PLANET. I was totally overwhelmed by the fact that all of these people that I've respected for so long knew who I was and were pleased to meet me. I've never had so much instant rappor with so many people before, it was great.
I also discovered that I'm one of the shortest amv creators there are, alongside Nicole :)
So, yeah - cool VAT stuff, drank a nice single malt with Hsien, Andy, EK and co (before Andy switched over to his peculiar Gin/Cinnamon concoction. Hsien got wasted - which was to become a familiar occurrence. More surprisingly, people were getting wasted and not getting into fights. I said before AWA that it was either going to be a vicious explosion of anger and hate or it was going to be a huge release. I was so glad it was the latter - everyone had a great time.
Got back to the hotel room and talked until about 6/7 in the morning with justin and molly. Cherry lube. After a small nap, I went to will and tim's panel....
Friday:
Friday morning started with Dokinium. It was a great panel - both funny and interesting. Unfortunately being so early it wasn't very well attended which was a shame. The quest for dokinium video that they made for the con was excellent and they showed some really cool stuff. With any luck they'll get a better slot next year and will be able to show it again - dokinium 2?
After the panel was Expo stuff and the arrival of mindwarp and rvp. Lots of meeting people. We were told to step out of the vat room for being too loud ^_^;;;;
Hsien and EK's panel. Tunak Tunak was hysterical. Little Editor was satisfyingly to the point :D Hsien new videos were incredible, (I knew that about one of them already). Sappy Self Indulgence got a great and deserving response. EK's experimental stuff was all great too - literally bursting with talent and a shame it ended too soon. I've got a feeling that these little experiments that EK has been doing are going to be steps towards a great full video - they were very good. They remind me of some of the things I've messed around with in the past and allthough they seem like failed pieces at the moment, I think they'll be invaluable training for future projects.
After the panel it was a More Than Toast trip that turned out to be Less Than Tacos thanks to some bad directions. Whoops :)
The Pro Contest showing was evil evil evil evil. The word was put around that they were showing one video from every creator UNLESS a video won something so it was torture waiting to see if your video got played or not and even then we weren’t sure whether this rumour was true. Spent most of the time talking to vlad about various things.
DDR Project 2... awesomeness. My video went down really well and there was a great party atmosphere with loads of dancing. There were some incredible videos this year and the whole thing was really really good. Eric Kobet's video totally blew me away, it's a shame he couldn't make it to awa. Honestly there were some phenomenal videos this year. Everyone was saying that they were going to go all-out next year, so it's going to be great.
Post-ddr was the amv table, Hsien's decorating skills and another late night. me and justin bounced some ideas around and I amused and horrified him with some of my music :) We almost did Karaoke that night but when we checked it out the room was really dead and you can't do karaoke without any atmosphere. Maybe we could do an amv karaoke challenge next year where creators are challenged to sing along to one of their amvs :D
Saturday:
Woke up around Noon and rushed over to the VAT as I'd heard they were going to show some Expo winners, which they did and they were very cool. especially liked Flux's big O vid and Robert Cole's sunscreen video. More than toast's panle was funny entertaining and surprisingly cute :3 they're great guys. After the panel it was time to get freshened up ready for the amv award ceremony.
Expo Awards - a whole bunch of good videos. As with the rest of the contests there was this almost universal feeling of acceptance. I think everyone in the contests were really happy for all the winners and I didnt see anyone angry with any of the choices. I know some people might not have agreed with some results but I think everyone knew that the awards weren't really the point and that there were lots of great entries. I was really happy at how little bitching there was... actually I didn't see any bitching at all, it was just a fun friendly atmosphere. The winners were shown and well received. The expo showing finished and I wasn't at all disappointed that I wasn't in the first showing, I think it was part of that general feeling of acceptance that was going around. Of course I was then pleasantly surprised when Matt announced that there was one more video that "was truly shameless". SRV won Best Video, I was proud as punch :D
Pro Awards - congratulations to everyone who won awards and to all who participated. There were some great videos and I can honestly say that I liked all of the winners. I was especially glad to see that all of the nominees for Best Video won awards in one category or another, as these were competing against each other in lots of categories. Thankfully there were no landslide victories. I managed to scoop 2 awards with my eva/kare kano video but I was truly honoured to received the award for Best Artistic Endeavour. I got all excited and made a silly little thank you speech - I think it's the award I'm most proud of. Getting the grand prize at the expo was good but being recognised for an element of my work that I put so much into was the best. I'm not sure whether I really deserved best tech, but I don't think it mattered in the end as all of the other contestants own awards elsewhere. Again, everyone was just happy for everyone else.
The Masters video were really really interesting. There were lots I liked and some very good examples within their own field. The decision was definitely a tough one - and I liked the winner. All in all the amv contests were all great in spirit, exactly how they should be. Big congratulations to Quu and Matt for all their hard work, everything went like a dream.
It's a shame that I missed the actual DDR (non-amv) competition because of the awards ceremony, it would have been great to see ErMaC winning the competition. Well done, you insane freak you :)
Post awards was Iron Chef and hence, drink. I introduced America to Absinthe, met up with EK and jbone for a drink and then proceeded to bod on EK's failed exp drawings. I only had 100 bucks I could spend so it went way above the price I could afford. I knew it would do well, and there is one very lucky and very happy bunnyboy out there.
Both Iron Chef videos were great and I thought either could have won. My excitement of the day jumped up another 100% when I was invited by Quu to be next year's challenger for Iron Chef!!!! I'm still in shock, but damn it's going to be fun. Hsien won the contest this year so next year it's going to be plugged as a "british invasion". It's all in good fun :)
After Iron Chef the VAT room became a dance room, so a huge mass of creators went and partied in a hotel room. Brad, Dave, EK and co made a commercial parody and I talked to Tim Park a lot. More Absinthe. Everyone else was getting wrecked :) The party was eventually closed down by the hotel so we all went back down to the main area to discover that the "hour that does not exist" was going to start soon. Gratuitous Porn Video got a good response :D
More drinking, more meeting people, some sleep but not much ^_^
Sunday:
Missed morning panels due to sleeping but caught some of Quu's showings - in particular Liquid Petals. MJ was pretty pleased to hear that it was shown and was well received. Went and saw my friends David and Wednesday's panels on UK anime, which was fun. After that, it was much hanging around talking to people whilst waiting for the Technical Issues panel to start... which might hae well have been renamed as "Vlad and Ian's 2 hour argument on the pros and cons of hardware and software editing methods" :P It was fun though and managed to actually get a laugh from a technical panel ^_^
After the panel, went to get fooooooooood with mtt after not having anything to eat since friday. Went to a steakhouse which was pretty good. Continually amazed by how easy it was to get along with everyone. Usually when meeting new people there is a certain level of uncomfortableness when looking for things to talk about but the whole weekend it was so easy to get along with people. I think we need to do this more than once a year, it was great fun.
Sunday was filled with goodbyes mainly. The VAT and the onc had their closing ceremonies. Saw Brett Weaver's amv and was really impressed with the excellent scene choice, intelligent choice of music and overal artistic ability. It was a great first video, well done Brett. Never really had a good chance to fully introduce myself so probably sounded like a foolish fanboy when commenting on it at the con but, again, I really enjoyed it.
After the closing ceremonies, me and molly joined EK, Brett and a whole bunch of other guest types to go and eat at a cafe near the con... a cafe with the biggest proprotions in the world ever. Cake bigger than your head. It was pretty impressive. After a serious face stuffing, it was a party in the green room which was fun. Got to speak a little more to lostboy and others and it was a generally fun evening. Another late night, some strange conversations and then another failed attempt at sleep as me and molly were up until around 7:30
Monday: Woke up after about 2 hours sleep. Did ruby tuesdays with molly then went to airport. came home. slept for a few hours. wrote this.
Wow, I've written loads but haven't even started to scratch the surface of everything that went on. It was great meeting everyone and a shame that some couldn't make it (Scott, Eric and so on).
AWA was a blast and worth minute and dollar of it. I'm definitely going next year (well, I have to because of Iron Chef :P) and I'll really look forward to seeing everyone again, it was a pleasure from start to finish.
I'll probably write more later ^_^;;
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2002-09-25 10:47:50
50 cds with all my videos on. 30 divx versions and 20 mpeg versions.
The divx versions are soooo gorgeous. 640x480... constant quantiser 2... 320kbps mp3... ::droool::
The mpeg versions are... watchable :)
I'm staying up all night tonight, going to the airport at 4 in the morning and sleeping on the plane. When I get to Atlanta I'll probably have a couple of hours sleep before everyone arrives at around 6. Then its off to dinner.
Not much left to do today. Have to pick up some shirts from the dry cleaners in a second and then finish packing. I've got NME for Jescaflowne, I've got cds burned for various people. I have a bottle of the green fairy which I need to gift wrap. Sorted.
Hopefully I'm taking enough money :)
Oh and just for everyone's attention, I'll be part of the Technical Issues panel ni the VAT room on Sunday. So, if you've got any questions :)
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2002-09-11 19:04:32
OK, its big journal entry time.
This morning:
ISP seems dead. Hmmm. PPP failure. Hmmm. Check the forums - noone else is having trouble. Phone ISP
Me - "Hi, I cant log on with my account my username is" blah blah
ISP - "OK. ...... Right.... Odd...... Yes, your account has been cancelled."
Me - "Oh?"
ISP - "Yes it was cancelled in February."
Me - "It was?"
I pay for my ISP via credit card and as I dont actually buy real things on my credit card I dont check the statements, I just have the bank automatically pay the bill each month.
However, it seems that for the last 6/7 months I have been using this ISP without paying a single penny for it. Heck, I'm still using it right now (although I'm looking for something else now). The only reason I couldn't connect was because my modem drivers had done odd things.
The ISP basically buy their services of some bigger franchise and act as resellers, so when they told the real owners of the net connection to cancel me - they must have forgotten. ^_^;;;
Unfortunately that took all day to work out (including some other pressing matters) which means that I missed being able to talk to some people online who I really wanted to speak to (Justin and Marco in particular). Oh well, I'll catch them tomorrow.
This evening:
Well, this evening has been very strange. Due to a small twist of fate, I ended up going to a gig. A Deep Purple gig. I kid you not. I've just come back from seeing 4 of the 5 original memebers of Deep Purple (all except Richie) performing all their hits... including Speed King. Good god I felt young for once - there were some very very very old people in that crowd (and on that stage as it happens). It was a good show, to be honest.
I went with my Dad as a bit of a nostalgia trip - he'd seen them almost exactly 30 years ago at the same venue when he was 15.It was amusing and entertaining at the same time. Ian Gillan can still sing too, which was most impressive and there was some great ivory twinkling going on. The support act were this sort of Jethro Tull-esque folk prog rock thing who were quite amusing.
It did make me think a little about how my dad saw them when they were 15. What bands did I see when I was 15 and how many of them can I imagine doing the same gig in 30 years time. Honestly, I can't think of one. Will Green Day crawl onto stage in 2032 to sing about how masturbation has lost its fun? I mean, next week Bad Company are playing... it's very hard to envisage Slipknot doing the same thing in 30 years that Deep Purple did today with Korn playing a week later. It's such a weird thought.
JOURNAL: AbsoluteDestiny (Ian Roberts)
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