The trip to Detroit went by a lot quicker then I thought it would, that's what happens when you have two awesome music-lovin' ladies like Monique and Karen as your car-mates!
I went to Toronto on Thursday night to my GF Alex's house to stay the night, then picked up my car-mates at the subway station before headin' out to the closest US con to my nation... Canada. I took the tunnel this time around as opposed to the bridge last year. The tunnel is sooo much quicker and it basically unleashes you right into the GM center, VERY convenient.
As I drove upwards in the parking garage, I saw some Halo-Spartan cosplayers up ahead, slowed-down, found my tune and cranked up my volume to some Halo music! They noticed it laughed and jammed to it. Everyone laughed. The end.
We got our stuff unloaded, I found my contact to get my press badge and room number, etc... After about an hour of settling in I was re-aquainted with the Renaissance/GM center, and yes its still confusing rings of floors with stairs here and there. It makes one feel the need to be able to jump high or have a jetpack.
I believe the first person I knew that I saw at the con was Kevin, shouted from floor to another floor below, one of the weaknesses of the building layout is how cool it actually is.
One of my perks was that I got to borrow a Glidecam to do some shooting for the con, which I did. Not quite as fancy as the steadicams that Acksonl or Mike/MLZ have, but it was the first one I've used since College. Someone even asked me if I was Ackson to which I replied honestly, "No. I'm terribly sorry." I probably shattered that person's dreams. Oh well, life moves on.
The hotel bed was super-soft as were the pillows, sooo comfy after a day's shooting. Friendly maids to, bonus points. Elevator was not as much trouble as I thought waiting-wise. The worst was Sunday morning before check-out, about a 15 minute wait before I found one I could fit on. Other then that, all was good.
I had 6 photoshoots total (which will be posted later on, so have patience my pretties), with people such as Amanda, Tamar, Amber, & other!
Regular con photos have been edited and can by found here, actually- those ones are from last year's, but this year's can be found HERE. As usual, if you see a photo of yourself, they're up for sale for $5, but only if you're the cosplayer in the pic. Only about 90 photos in the album so not terribly big as I was shooting more video at this con, which will be posted... *spoilers ahead*... later.(!)
I enjoyed myself a lot more then I thought I would at Youmacon this year, which is great as I was worried it would be a little underwhelming, but it wasn't. Sunday was a bit dry in the Renaissance yes. The addition of the Cobo building is an interesting touch, a bit confusing in the layout as it could have used more maps and directions to where everything was. Programming was also pretty decent, though I didn't get a chance to see what I wanted to check-out, except for Mario Party in RL, that looked fun! I was at the J-Pop dance for a bit and that was pretty rockin'! Got some good photos and videos of it and some other concert stuff.
I'll be back next year, so sit tight till then, and don't hold your breath. Because you'll suffocate after like 2 minutes. More shout-outs to people from the weekend go here! I probably left-out some important and fun stuff like the laughter-filled dinner on Sat night, and getting-lost-not-knowing-where-to-go times, but it'll come up in conversations later!
Cheers~
Mike