SMASH! (finally!)
Aug. 18th, 2009 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darishaAlrighty, who's in the mood to procrasinate? Oh, me, me! Pick ME! *waves arms enthusiastically*
While the life and death of Socrates are highly amusing (the man had more issues than a day-time soapie), there comes a day in everyone's life where they just go: "I don't wanna". For me, today is that day (heh, ten guesses who has an assignment due next week, lol).
So instead, I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago - I'm going to talk about SMASH!. It's been over a week since the convention ended, and I still haven't plugged your ears (or eyes for the smart-arses out there) with my wonderful stories and opinions. You know you all want to know :P
Where do I start though? Geez, the weekend had more ups and downs than a high-speed merry-go-round. I suppose the beginning is good.
Being the genius I am (don't laugh, you know it's true), I left packing until the very last minute. Of course, this left me to discover all the things I thought I'd done, hadn't, and now had no time to do. That was fun. Repacking all my gear from Avcon was the least of it, lol. When I finally got to bed, it was probably around 1am. That's when the fun REALLY started.
For the record, I have asthma. And allergies. Not a pleasant combination, considering the pollen count in Adelaide at the time was about 80%. So when I started coughing on the Thursday night, I didn't think anything of it. I took my medication and went on with life. But the cough got worse. It was one of those deep, chesty 'I'm gonna spit out a lung if I'm not careful' types of coughs. It tore my chest and my throat up so badly I got maybe an hour's worth of sleep before I had to get up at 4am to get ready to catch my taxi at 5am and my plane at 7am. Have I ever mentioned redbull is my friend? Because it is. Or maybe my god. I've yet to decide (my megalomania makes this difficult). Ahem, getting back to my story...
I was really excited. I haven't been to Sydney since I was 12, and I'd heard such great things about SMASH! that I couldn't wait to see it for myself. I mean, seriously? How awesome do you have to be to get sponsored by Wacom and be able to pimp out international artists for the entertainment of paying customers? I'd say you'd have to be pretty damn awesome. Not to mention I'd get to hang out with Alex again after only seeing her not 6 months previously. So yeah, I was really, REALLY excited.
The flight was good, and totally uneventful (if you count wanting to beat the screaming child in the back with the rock-hard roll they served for breakfast uneventful). The weather was nice, the flight got in early, and I even managed to remember I could entertain myself with solitaire since purchasing EVE (pronounced Eee-vah) 2 months ago. The day was getting off to a good start. Too bad my cough had gotten so bad I'd lost my voice. Oh well. I wasn't going to let it ruin my weekend.
After some confusion in finding Alex (security wouldn't let me meet her at her gate because I had a pair of children's paper scissors in my luggage), we jumped on the bus and headed for our accommodation. Once again, an uneventful trip - nice people made room for us, the bus driver let us know when our stop was coming up etc. No complaints (although I think the people just made room for us because I was still coughing, lol).
When we got off the bus, we walked 10 minutes or so down High St to Randwick Lodge where we were staying for the weekend (the map said nothing about a hill >o<). Only the way, we stopped at a chemist so I could buy some cold and flu tablets and some soothers (cost me thirty-freakin-dollars I might add!). Randwick Lodge is right on the corner of High St and Avoca St. You can't miss it... although I suppose the fact that it's large and pink probably has something to do with it. After checking in, we dumped our bags and headed off to see if we could find our way in to town to meet Nadia, Cuson Lo, and his wife for lunch at the Lindt Cafe.
At this point, I'd just like to mention how much I LOVE living in Adelaide. Buses are clear in where they're going, they're spacious, and they don't cost an arm and a leg to ride. We found the right stop to take us in to Sydney, we even worked out which bus to get on (despite the bus driver getting confused. He said he wasn't going where we wanted to go - only the 372 or 377 would get us there, even though the bus clearly said 372 on the front. Dumb arse). What really made me appreciate my RADeladian home was that, when we asked for two - T.W.O (2) - concession day trips from Randwick into the city, the driver charged Alex $17. We thought that was a little expensive (it only costs $4.20 for a concession day trip in Adelaide) but accepted that, being Sydney, things were going to be a little more expensive. What we didn't count on was Sydney being A LOT more expensive. Apparently the $17 was only for one concession day trip. Just ONE! Can you believe that? Alex has already paid, but I sure as hell wasn't going to pay that much. I was dirt poor (still am) and couldn't afford that, so, buying a single trip, I was determined to get my hands on a multitrip for the weekend (but more on that later).
Trying to find Nadia was... fun? We got so lost XD We got off the bus at Central Station like she told us to, but we couldn't find the weird sculpture thingies she told us to look for. I think we waited for about half an hour out the front of the station. Between various phone calls and random wandering, she finally found us - apparently all we'd needed to do was get off one stop later, lol. Never mind. After discovering we could get a 10 trip multi-pass for LESS than $17 (can't remember how much at the moment, but I do remember it was less), we went down to Darling Harbour to the Lindt Cafe. Cuson Lo and his wife seemed really nice, but they didn't speak very much english and Nadia, Alex and I didn't speak ANY chinese so it was kinda awkward. I really hope they enjoyed their stay though - apparently it was their first time visiting Australia.
The cafe was awesome. Cookies, truffles, and two big swirling vats of melted chocolate. Yum! I got a super nice iced chocolate, but I think I should have gotten dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate - it was REALLY sweet :/ Everyone needs to shun Alex though. In a chocolate cafe, surrounded by chocolate EVERYTHING, she ordered a bottle of coke. SHUUUUN. SHUUUN-NAAAH! :p A trip to Ekersley's ended our city journey and we headed back to UNSW and the Roundhouse to scam a look at the setup and meet some of the committee (we stole a couple of posters too, shhh, hehe). Despite feeling sick, it was a good day. We even managed to go to bed early, lol.
Saturday didn't start so well. I woke at about 3am with chills and a fever, but water and sleep seemed to sort that out. The problem was that I was losing my voice and I had to speak on a the storytelling panel Saturday afternoon :/ It was such an awesome day though! The costumes were great, the attendees were nice and positive and genuinely looking forward to reading the comic. We met the awesome artists, Helen and Michael, from Upchuck kids. We had to sit next to them all weekend, so I'm kinda glad we got along. Candy and lolz ensued. Alex made friends with the guys from Nekochii, and I tried my best not to cough on people, lol.
I was kind of nervous about the storytelling panel, but it went really well. I still couldn't speak very well, but we had a good old chat and it was great hearing other writers talk about their thoughts, methods and experiences. Aya completely stole the show, lol. It was nice not to be shunned for being just writer at an art/anime convention, lol. I'm sad I didn't get to see and of the other workshops, like Aya and Alex's do their traditional art workshop or Cuson's digital workshop. I reckon it would have been awesome fun :P I also missed the Maid Cafe too. So sad :(
Sales were so-so Saturday, but we gave out a lot of business cards. Although I think that might have been due to the fact that Alex was giving away free sketches. We could have made a killing selling those XD Komala took a whole group of us to this INSANELY expensive pizza place for dinner. At first glance I would have gladly bought one of those stupid day trips before I ordered one of the pizzas, but OH. MY. GOD! When the food actually arrived, it was SOOOO good. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a big fan of vegetarian food - I've gotta have my meat - but I shared a Sicilian vegetarian pizza with Alex and it was so, so yummy. The staff were pleasantly helpful (despite the fact they didn't speak very good english) and the company was great. It was so much fun <3 But it was over so quickly :( I was kind of glad though - I was starting to get REALLY sick O.o I ached all over, my head was spinning, and I could feel myself burning up. It was pretty bad.
Alex and I wandered to the hospital across the road after Komala dropped us back at the lodge. Saw the nurse, got my temperature taken (38.3 degrees celcius) and took some paracetamol. Then we sat in the waiting too to wait for a doctor. And waited. And waited. I sent Alex home after about 2 hours. I think I fell asleep at one point, but by the time I got see a doctor and get out, I had been waiting for 4 hours. I was NOT happy. Didn't help that, by the time the doctor saw me, my temperature was down and I was feeling a little better. I think she thought I was faking it. I was so embarrassed >o<
Sales wise, Sunday wasn't so great. The crowds were no where near as big, and most people were interested in the cosplay competition more than buying artwork. It was kind of boring. We tried selling small sketches, but that didn't do anything. We tried giving them out for free, that didn't work either. I had to bite the bullet and drop the prices of A3 prints to $6. It broke my heart to sell ourselves short like that, but we weren't selling anything and it was hard to compete with artists selling coloured A3 prints for even less. I refused to drop prices any more though - the quality and thickness of the paper our prints are on was triple that of the other artists'. Some artists were practically (and literally) giving stuff away though, just to get rid of it. It was so sad. I don't think people really appreciate the time, effort and money that goes into preparing for a con, and the fact that some artists were reduced to giving away their hard work to attendees was hard to watch :(
Packing up, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the lodge. I somehow got sucked in to paying $10 for dial-up speed internet that night. Bad move, but I was desperate to get online. I had to check my emails and announcements from uni or I'd get so behind. Unfortunately only one computer could access the net, so Alex and I had to share. It was sooo slow. I think I waited 10 minutes to load a page. I gave up after 20 minutes, lol.
Monday was a lazy day. We wandered around Randwick, exploring and taking reference photos for Refraction; we had breakfast in this amazing little chocolate shop. THE nicest hot chocolate EVAH! Chocolate coated fruit, muffins the size of your head (not literally, but they were HUGE!) and cute decor. I'd so go back any time <3 By the time we got to the airport though, we were completely wiped. It had been fun, but we were so tired @_@;;
Overall? AMAZING! Despite being sick, it was such a great weekend. Organised, eventful, and just plain fun. It was great meeting everyone - the committee, the volunteers, the artists, the guests, the attendees... I'll definitely go back for SMASH! next year. I just hope next time I won't be a walking disease factory and that I'll be able to see more, lol. And hopefully I won't be as poor and will be able to buy stuff XD
Total Sales for the weekend: 11 x A3 prints, 16 x A4 prints, 8 x A5 prints, 7 x bagtags, 8 x bookmarks.
Not great sales wise, but the whole point of this endeavour is to get our names and our story out there. And I think with SMASH! we've achieved that. A much better result than Avcon :) I wonder if we'll do any better at Manifest...? COME ON MELBOURNE! :P
-
While the life and death of Socrates are highly amusing (the man had more issues than a day-time soapie), there comes a day in everyone's life where they just go: "I don't wanna". For me, today is that day (heh, ten guesses who has an assignment due next week, lol).
So instead, I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago - I'm going to talk about SMASH!. It's been over a week since the convention ended, and I still haven't plugged your ears (or eyes for the smart-arses out there) with my wonderful stories and opinions. You know you all want to know :P
Where do I start though? Geez, the weekend had more ups and downs than a high-speed merry-go-round. I suppose the beginning is good.
Being the genius I am (don't laugh, you know it's true), I left packing until the very last minute. Of course, this left me to discover all the things I thought I'd done, hadn't, and now had no time to do. That was fun. Repacking all my gear from Avcon was the least of it, lol. When I finally got to bed, it was probably around 1am. That's when the fun REALLY started.
For the record, I have asthma. And allergies. Not a pleasant combination, considering the pollen count in Adelaide at the time was about 80%. So when I started coughing on the Thursday night, I didn't think anything of it. I took my medication and went on with life. But the cough got worse. It was one of those deep, chesty 'I'm gonna spit out a lung if I'm not careful' types of coughs. It tore my chest and my throat up so badly I got maybe an hour's worth of sleep before I had to get up at 4am to get ready to catch my taxi at 5am and my plane at 7am. Have I ever mentioned redbull is my friend? Because it is. Or maybe my god. I've yet to decide (my megalomania makes this difficult). Ahem, getting back to my story...
I was really excited. I haven't been to Sydney since I was 12, and I'd heard such great things about SMASH! that I couldn't wait to see it for myself. I mean, seriously? How awesome do you have to be to get sponsored by Wacom and be able to pimp out international artists for the entertainment of paying customers? I'd say you'd have to be pretty damn awesome. Not to mention I'd get to hang out with Alex again after only seeing her not 6 months previously. So yeah, I was really, REALLY excited.
The flight was good, and totally uneventful (if you count wanting to beat the screaming child in the back with the rock-hard roll they served for breakfast uneventful). The weather was nice, the flight got in early, and I even managed to remember I could entertain myself with solitaire since purchasing EVE (pronounced Eee-vah) 2 months ago. The day was getting off to a good start. Too bad my cough had gotten so bad I'd lost my voice. Oh well. I wasn't going to let it ruin my weekend.
After some confusion in finding Alex (security wouldn't let me meet her at her gate because I had a pair of children's paper scissors in my luggage), we jumped on the bus and headed for our accommodation. Once again, an uneventful trip - nice people made room for us, the bus driver let us know when our stop was coming up etc. No complaints (although I think the people just made room for us because I was still coughing, lol).
When we got off the bus, we walked 10 minutes or so down High St to Randwick Lodge where we were staying for the weekend (the map said nothing about a hill >o<). Only the way, we stopped at a chemist so I could buy some cold and flu tablets and some soothers (cost me thirty-freakin-dollars I might add!). Randwick Lodge is right on the corner of High St and Avoca St. You can't miss it... although I suppose the fact that it's large and pink probably has something to do with it. After checking in, we dumped our bags and headed off to see if we could find our way in to town to meet Nadia, Cuson Lo, and his wife for lunch at the Lindt Cafe.
At this point, I'd just like to mention how much I LOVE living in Adelaide. Buses are clear in where they're going, they're spacious, and they don't cost an arm and a leg to ride. We found the right stop to take us in to Sydney, we even worked out which bus to get on (despite the bus driver getting confused. He said he wasn't going where we wanted to go - only the 372 or 377 would get us there, even though the bus clearly said 372 on the front. Dumb arse). What really made me appreciate my RADeladian home was that, when we asked for two - T.W.O (2) - concession day trips from Randwick into the city, the driver charged Alex $17. We thought that was a little expensive (it only costs $4.20 for a concession day trip in Adelaide) but accepted that, being Sydney, things were going to be a little more expensive. What we didn't count on was Sydney being A LOT more expensive. Apparently the $17 was only for one concession day trip. Just ONE! Can you believe that? Alex has already paid, but I sure as hell wasn't going to pay that much. I was dirt poor (still am) and couldn't afford that, so, buying a single trip, I was determined to get my hands on a multitrip for the weekend (but more on that later).
Trying to find Nadia was... fun? We got so lost XD We got off the bus at Central Station like she told us to, but we couldn't find the weird sculpture thingies she told us to look for. I think we waited for about half an hour out the front of the station. Between various phone calls and random wandering, she finally found us - apparently all we'd needed to do was get off one stop later, lol. Never mind. After discovering we could get a 10 trip multi-pass for LESS than $17 (can't remember how much at the moment, but I do remember it was less), we went down to Darling Harbour to the Lindt Cafe. Cuson Lo and his wife seemed really nice, but they didn't speak very much english and Nadia, Alex and I didn't speak ANY chinese so it was kinda awkward. I really hope they enjoyed their stay though - apparently it was their first time visiting Australia.
The cafe was awesome. Cookies, truffles, and two big swirling vats of melted chocolate. Yum! I got a super nice iced chocolate, but I think I should have gotten dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate - it was REALLY sweet :/ Everyone needs to shun Alex though. In a chocolate cafe, surrounded by chocolate EVERYTHING, she ordered a bottle of coke. SHUUUUN. SHUUUN-NAAAH! :p A trip to Ekersley's ended our city journey and we headed back to UNSW and the Roundhouse to scam a look at the setup and meet some of the committee (we stole a couple of posters too, shhh, hehe). Despite feeling sick, it was a good day. We even managed to go to bed early, lol.
Saturday didn't start so well. I woke at about 3am with chills and a fever, but water and sleep seemed to sort that out. The problem was that I was losing my voice and I had to speak on a the storytelling panel Saturday afternoon :/ It was such an awesome day though! The costumes were great, the attendees were nice and positive and genuinely looking forward to reading the comic. We met the awesome artists, Helen and Michael, from Upchuck kids. We had to sit next to them all weekend, so I'm kinda glad we got along. Candy and lolz ensued. Alex made friends with the guys from Nekochii, and I tried my best not to cough on people, lol.
I was kind of nervous about the storytelling panel, but it went really well. I still couldn't speak very well, but we had a good old chat and it was great hearing other writers talk about their thoughts, methods and experiences. Aya completely stole the show, lol. It was nice not to be shunned for being just writer at an art/anime convention, lol. I'm sad I didn't get to see and of the other workshops, like Aya and Alex's do their traditional art workshop or Cuson's digital workshop. I reckon it would have been awesome fun :P I also missed the Maid Cafe too. So sad :(
Sales were so-so Saturday, but we gave out a lot of business cards. Although I think that might have been due to the fact that Alex was giving away free sketches. We could have made a killing selling those XD Komala took a whole group of us to this INSANELY expensive pizza place for dinner. At first glance I would have gladly bought one of those stupid day trips before I ordered one of the pizzas, but OH. MY. GOD! When the food actually arrived, it was SOOOO good. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a big fan of vegetarian food - I've gotta have my meat - but I shared a Sicilian vegetarian pizza with Alex and it was so, so yummy. The staff were pleasantly helpful (despite the fact they didn't speak very good english) and the company was great. It was so much fun <3 But it was over so quickly :( I was kind of glad though - I was starting to get REALLY sick O.o I ached all over, my head was spinning, and I could feel myself burning up. It was pretty bad.
Alex and I wandered to the hospital across the road after Komala dropped us back at the lodge. Saw the nurse, got my temperature taken (38.3 degrees celcius) and took some paracetamol. Then we sat in the waiting too to wait for a doctor. And waited. And waited. I sent Alex home after about 2 hours. I think I fell asleep at one point, but by the time I got see a doctor and get out, I had been waiting for 4 hours. I was NOT happy. Didn't help that, by the time the doctor saw me, my temperature was down and I was feeling a little better. I think she thought I was faking it. I was so embarrassed >o<
Sales wise, Sunday wasn't so great. The crowds were no where near as big, and most people were interested in the cosplay competition more than buying artwork. It was kind of boring. We tried selling small sketches, but that didn't do anything. We tried giving them out for free, that didn't work either. I had to bite the bullet and drop the prices of A3 prints to $6. It broke my heart to sell ourselves short like that, but we weren't selling anything and it was hard to compete with artists selling coloured A3 prints for even less. I refused to drop prices any more though - the quality and thickness of the paper our prints are on was triple that of the other artists'. Some artists were practically (and literally) giving stuff away though, just to get rid of it. It was so sad. I don't think people really appreciate the time, effort and money that goes into preparing for a con, and the fact that some artists were reduced to giving away their hard work to attendees was hard to watch :(
Packing up, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the lodge. I somehow got sucked in to paying $10 for dial-up speed internet that night. Bad move, but I was desperate to get online. I had to check my emails and announcements from uni or I'd get so behind. Unfortunately only one computer could access the net, so Alex and I had to share. It was sooo slow. I think I waited 10 minutes to load a page. I gave up after 20 minutes, lol.
Monday was a lazy day. We wandered around Randwick, exploring and taking reference photos for Refraction; we had breakfast in this amazing little chocolate shop. THE nicest hot chocolate EVAH! Chocolate coated fruit, muffins the size of your head (not literally, but they were HUGE!) and cute decor. I'd so go back any time <3 By the time we got to the airport though, we were completely wiped. It had been fun, but we were so tired @_@;;
Overall? AMAZING! Despite being sick, it was such a great weekend. Organised, eventful, and just plain fun. It was great meeting everyone - the committee, the volunteers, the artists, the guests, the attendees... I'll definitely go back for SMASH! next year. I just hope next time I won't be a walking disease factory and that I'll be able to see more, lol. And hopefully I won't be as poor and will be able to buy stuff XD
Total Sales for the weekend: 11 x A3 prints, 16 x A4 prints, 8 x A5 prints, 7 x bagtags, 8 x bookmarks.
Not great sales wise, but the whole point of this endeavour is to get our names and our story out there. And I think with SMASH! we've achieved that. A much better result than Avcon :) I wonder if we'll do any better at Manifest...? COME ON MELBOURNE! :P
-
