Lei

Happy Easter

The robot is back at home in the world of electronica and house beats moving up and down to the deafening base of the underworld. It's time for a changeup.

Thursday night was a long weekend special at the Lotus nightclub. I went there with a group of friends to celebrate breadbakers birthday. Her coworker came along and got quite drunk which made it all the more interesting. Especially her performance at the post club meal in the Denny's restaurant on Davies, making rude remarks directly or in the presence of the restaurant staff. I haven't been to a Denny's in ages and on this evening I was reminded why. I prefer the korean late night on robson instead.

Friday was a right off as I felt sick by the time I got home. As a result I bailed on Cakemaker's afternoon lunch engagement with the former owner of the catering company which she helps run. By the time I woke up, most of the day was gone so I just went to work and recouped my energy for the next day. That was my good friday.

Saturday was the Sakura-con anime/manga conference at the seattle conference centre. I went there with my sister and her friends to see what this was all about. A building full of anime fans all dressed up in their favourite characters. The night before I had asked my sister if she or any of her friends would do the same. She promptly said no. I thought I'd spike out my hair like some jpop rock star since there was an article in a small magazine on how to do this that came with a 'tofu' t-shirt that was given to me as a gift. A very late birthday gift all the way from San Francisco by mail. I don't watch much anime but did follow the Initial D series when I got may hands on a box set for my birthday a couple of years ago. I got hooked right away and eventually became a fan of the band which produced many of the songs used in the series. 'M.O.V.E' - the band, was performing live doing a small tour of the US in the afternoon along with 'Lin Clover'. After waiting in a god awful three hour lineup just to register for conference tickets, we got in. We were able to catch the last three songs performed by M.O.V.E. and that made my day. Domo arigato gozaimasu!! It's too bad that their set was so short but they sounded good live and looked great doing it. The concert room was huge but square and only filled about a third to capacity. The dance floor was amazing bouncing up and down to all the concert revellers. Far more than the famed bouncing dance floor of the commodore here in vancouver. I managed to sneak some photos onto my camera but won't post them here due to the crippled state of this blog.

I didnt' care about the rest of the conference but still spent some time looking around at the booths and all the items on sale and for display. Many people did come yet the strange thing about this conference was that there was very few asian anime fans in attendance. One japanese friend was with us and she told me that anime festivals are quite popular in japan. Yet here, hardly any of them would come out of the woodwork for this conference. Even so, it was really quite interesting. Where can you go to see predominantly american teenagers dressed up toting seven foot long gigantic guns across their backs and walking through the street of downtown seattle on their way to the conference. Where else can you see forty-something old adults wearing costumes and wigs to match their favourite characters. Where else can you see what sailor moon or hell-sing and Tifa would look like twenty years later all out of shape with their guts hanging out of their tiny sailor moon outfits and neo-blonde wigs. I know. Downtown seattle, top floor at the Todai's all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant by the bubbling chocolate fountain of youth desert table. It would make an amusing 'where are they now' show.

Snow conditions have been horrible up at whistler and as a result, I have not been up any where near as I have wanted to. I managed to make time on sunday and got lucky despite the sections of thick clouds on the mountain. It didn't rain. It hardly snowed. It was wonderful spring like conditions. Jumps on the terrain park were fast as was the nicely prepared halfpipe which again had just been pipe-dragoned and painted for a competition earlier in the day. I brought a friend who would be going back to japan soon and had not been up to whistler before. Next week is the telus ski & snowboard festival. I hope to find some time to go up and see some of the events as well as get in some photos.