FC 2008: The Roundup

This past weekend was it! FC 2008 was in town, and the long-awaited (could consider it four+ years in the making, not counting the time that my sparring partner, Reveille, was out of the state). Let the drums guide you into the tail… er, tale…

(and I SWEAR I actually wrote tail, then realized my mistake)

What a great weekend. My first time back at con since 2002, and the first time I had ever crafted a costume* for it. Really all in all it was a whack of newness for me in several ways, with the costume, the performance, and not being active much in the community there were few there that I knew or would meet. I went in just revelling in the adventure of it, and it came of full of greatness.

I hit the Improv Workshop on Friday afternoon; I’d first done (and the only time I’ve done) improv at FC, and was looking forward to doing it again. The workshop this time round was run by a different crew than the ‘usual’, and was also done earlier in the con and in the day. This latter bit had the advantage that there were fewer people attending and pretty much most there were quite interested in participating, so it was a good romp. I think in the end I preferred the way the improv was run under the old crew (with my friends Dronon and Nicodemus at the helm), as it seemed tighter and more of a lineup that built upon each previous game, and that in no way meant I didn’t have much fun. Making stuff up on the spot, playing off each other, and trying to keep things moving in a new direction is a challenge, and also when it flows it just flows, kinda like being in the zone.

About two weeks before the con I got a flash if inspiration and chose to host a gathering and practice of Tai Chi on Sat and Sun of the con. I commissioned artwork from Santar, scoped out the spot on Thursday, put the posters together and printed them out on Friday, plastered them around the con, put an announcement in the con newsletter, and made it out on time on Saturday to host. The idea was to have anyone who knew Tai Chi to come out and we’d have groups doing Tai Chi throughout the lobby. The Saturday saw no other takers for practice, so I just did the Sun Style Set once in one area, then scoped out a better area, and did it twice more there. I could see a good number of pics being taken and some video too (woo!), and had several conversations afterwards with a few individuals. Was really fun, and I had little problem doing the set in the suit, despite the limited visibility or the paws (the paws worked splendidly, in fact). Balance was the only thing a bit off. Sunday morning’s Tai Chi had two very interested participants come out, who both had some martial arts experience but little with Tai Chi. We did the Sun Style set together (for which they followed along the best they could), spoke some, then did Shaolin #6 (a bit easier for them to follow), spoke some more, I demonstrated a line of Xing Yi (metal), spoke some more, then we did some Bagua (!). It was great fun, they really enjoyed it, and again, the suit didn’t let me down. (And it also stayed damp for the rest of the day… )

The fursuit aspect of the con was one of the most interesting bits for me, simply because I hadn’t done it before. There is almost his whole other dimension, or maybe world is a better word, there, things I wouldn’t have noticed or paid attention to. Such as the headless lounge, with its many fans and head drying apparatus, suddenly becoming aware times that were popular for suits to come out, and then the other world of being within the costume and performing. I have to say, I really actually enjoyed it all.

The big event on Saturday for me was the Fursuit Parade. This thing was huge: from beginning to end it was 18 minutes of non-stop costumes walking through the hotel. I had brought my guan do for this, and con security allowed me to carry it on the condition I brought along a minder to, well, mind the blade. Even moreso, it turned out, was minding the butt, which was heavy and damaging on its own — there were plenty of times that Granite told me to stop, pull back this way, watch that way. Which left me free to just concentrate on the walk, and I glided through the hotel with some fu-like stepping. Was fun, being all in-character like. Afterwards I hung about the con entrance (this was the one time during the con it didn’t rain, which was a blessing — it would likely have been nigh well impossible to hold 300+ fursuits for the start of the parade inside) and got some pics taken and even some video (!).

And about pics, Saturday evening I went upstairs to where Tugrik had set up a rather impressive photo-shoot rig, where he was blasting away photographs on a DSLR sending 10MP photos over wireless to a software that auto-associated images with subjects, storing them all onto a rig, catalogued for viewing and later access. Wow. And the shots he took were great too, the lighting and backdrop really pulling out the costume, and the speed was enough that he caught me in several jump kicks that looks great. The pics will be up online in a couple of weeks, and I can’t wait — my only regret is I didn’t think of running back to the room to grab my spear and get some photos with that! (or the guan do, for that matter…) These are likely to be the best pics of my costume.

The big big event, of course, was Sunday evening. This was the impetus for me being at the con, for having a costume, and etc. My kung fu brother Reveille, in his also-new fursuit the dragon Zi (whom, btw, won 2nd place in the masquerade in the novice category!), had his staff, I had mine, and my kung fu sister Lori was there to provide us accompaniment on a lion drum. We had our skit worked out: The Trade, where two mercenary rival/friends meet upon the road, each having the other’s species tied to their staffs, stop, and engage in a discussion… which involved us circling each other slowly, gliding off the animals (stuffed animals, in this case), getting into position, and whipping out the full-blown Shaolin Staff Sparring Set, all while Lori gave us mood music. We were up second, and so got to set the tone for the whole show. Our performance followed the usual thing that would happen during competition, but it came out as a whole awesome, with vigour, power, and authentic-ness. In a short 45 seconds it was done, and we were heading off the stage to much applause.

For the curtain call I ran back onto the stage and did a full-on triple kick. I then played jumpy with one of the stage ninjas (who were, apparently, all full acrobats or something, we’re talking handsprings here!). We (that is to say everyone) danced, we posed. There also was audience judging and we (that is to say, Rev and I) didn’t win. The humour skits, some with fairly elaborate setups (and length, which seemed longer than I thought was permissible, plus a video entry which was allowed to be voted on, which I really thought was odd), faired at the top.

A great con it thusly was! I am already thinking about attending next year, and if there’s a way to slip in some more kung fu into whatever theme gets chosen for the con. I had lots of fun being in costume (which really, now that I think about it, shouldn’t surprise — I’ve always loved acting (hello making two full-length movies and many video shorts in my youth!)), had fun doing Tai Chi in costume and teaching, and had a blast being in the FNL show, and wondering if there’s anything to be done to amp-up my costume, AND I know that I seriously need to drink more water after being in the fur head, doubly so after doing, you know, kung fu. Right now I’m in a vain mood, looking for vids and pics of me (Rev caught a replay of our set on the con TV channel, but I’ve yet to see it…) online. I’ll be putting up what I have here — already I’ve got vids from the parade and one of me doing a couple of moves. And I’ll put up a ‘construction gallery’ for the suit itself.

Hooray!

* Just crafting the costume was great in itself; I set my sights on only crafting a head and paws (and originally claws on the feet, but I was worried about kicking them off — though in retrospect it might have worked to do what I did on the paws on the feet too, hmmm), leaving myself free to move and to wear my blue-grey monk robes. Every step of the way while building it I was amazed at how well it was turning out — I was totally figuring things out as I went, doing this stuff for essentially the first time, and with very few missteps, a bit of tweaking here and there, and some time investage, it came out wickedly. And cleverly too — discovering for example how to cut, clue and squish a thin square piece of foam, colouring it with a silver pen, and gluing it to the gloves I was using as a base for the paws so that a) they looked good and b) (more importantly) I could make a fist without damaging my hand or the claws. The thing when finished looked convincing (going for more of a non-toon suit), fit well, and let me do all my kung fu unhindered.