L.A. Story, Part 6: "The Best Part of AX"

Well, I'm quite relieved to have finished Parts 1 - 5, but the unfortunate truth is that, 1.) I ain't done yet; and 2.) these last two posts are supposed to be the most important posts of the whole series. So no bullets have been dodged just yet.

Of course on Saturday, we all partied after the Tsunku session and the Momusu autograph session. So next came (logically) Sunday, and that meant the last day of Anime Expo. By this point, I had accomplished my goal of seeing a Morning Musume concert (from a great vantage point) and failed wonderfully in getting a shot at singing to Tsunku. So what else was there to do?

In my opinion at the time, it wouldn't be much. So I decided not to charge my camera battery, and in doing so, missed out on some of the more memorable moments of the whole convention. I don't recall the main reason we headed down to the LACC on Sunday, other than that we were awake, and the convention was still going on. If I remember correctly we just headed down there to see if something interesting woud happen.

At the MangaGamer booth there was a 'mini concert' of three idols; Miru, Aina Kase, and Yozuca* (there is no footnote below, that's how she spells her name, apparently). And all the while a crowd assembled, waving battery-powered glowsticks and pumping their fists to the beat. Miru even taught us all a small call-and-response chant that was fun to yell at the appropriate moment. Seeing all those fans being so excited about this extremely small-time show was another very surreal moment for me, and I realized it would be just a short time before I was back amongst people who don't *do* that at concerts -- even large ones. So again, I'm not sure if I can attend another concert that doesn't involve audience participation.

The stars of the show played Jyan-ken (aka rock, paper, scissors) with the crowd and the winners were given special CD-R's with I-don't-know-what on them. But they were labeled by hand, apparently by the idols themselves. For a few pics of this event (including a picture of the 'special' CD), see Lampshade's post (lucky bastard!).

As that event was winding down I took a brisk walk to a place only a few booths away, where C-Zone was giving their 2nd (and last) concert. Yeah, finally, C-ZONE!!! Here they are, aren't they wunnerful?

We first heard about this new group from our new friend from New Orleans, Mage, right before the Momusu concert. As he was telling us about Sunday's C-Zone show, I'm thinking, yeah, sure, whatever. Of course, once the short Momusu show was over we had a taste for blood which could not be contained. So once we actually got to see C-Zone, I was all about it. They're all cute-as-buttons, and just by looking at them, you can tell that they're experts in Gregorian chant-style-music.

Well, you'd be surprised to find out that they actually sound a little more like a Jpop group, so of course I liked the music. But let's back up a bit. Before we saw the 3-idol concert, we gawked at C-Zone for awhile as they graciously took pictures with the normal folk... Moze was in line to get his picture taken, so I loaned him my camera, turned it on, and showed him how to shoot it. But before he could get to the front, my battery died. Worst. Camera moment. Ever. Totally my fault, btw.

But C-Zone had just started with their second concert as I returned to their booth, and I fittingly ran into Mage. He gave me a truncated history of the group between songs, and we watched as they did their (what was it, 3?) songs. They did some choreography, nothing *too* strenuous, as it was a very small stage, and a crowd gathered as the event went on. Because they weren't as popular as Morning Musume (a bit of an understatement), one could take pictures at will. Which I would have, if my camera was still working at that time.

But Mage and I clapped to the off-beat during every song, and everyone else stood and stared, or took pictures. It felt very awkward to be one of *two* people clapping along with the song, but it was called for, so dammit, I kept going.

Especially after the other idol show, just minutes before, where people were going nuts... why did none of the other people watching put any enthusiasm into it? They just stood there. I'm wondering if C-Zone was perturbed by this as well. (Hint to other audience members... at Jpop shows you're supposed to *participate*.)

The group gave a short introduction of themselves when the music was over, then invited a Q&A session, which didn't reveal very much about, well, anything really. "How do you like America so far?" Ummm, nobody claps during our songs? No, the *real* answer was more along the lines of, "It's great, I want to come back as soon as possible, I'm going to eat mountains of ice cream." (This is quite similar to what Koha said earlier in the week, so I might have gotten the two confused).

As they said their goodbyes, one by one, the girls choked up a bit, and the lovely Miu (the girl in the middle) decided that she wanted to cry about it, so their manager gave her a towel emblazoned with the C-Zone logo, and she dried her tears. I wondered aloud if I could somehow obtain that very towel, but it didn't happen. They said goodbye and snuck behind the curtain.

But... the exit was actually *behind* where the audience was standing, so they came out from the *side* of the curtain and ran behind us, waving and saying 'bai bai'. They were very cute. For more about them, including some video of their performance at AX, visit their MySpace page.

Last event of the day was the charity auction, where *everything* was up for sale, including the bowler hat that the auctioneer was wearing. It wasn't originally on the block, but after some coercing, the auctioneer decided that the charity was more important than his hat, so he let it go to the tune of $70.

Some of our group were there to be serious bidders, but found that there wasn't much *really good* stuff to be had. Most of the anime items were signed by the English voice actors, and like myself, they probably don't appreciate 'dubs' all that much, especially when the voices sync much better in Japanese, plus a little reading never hurt anyone. I won't get too far into why the English actors are thought of as lesser celebrities, but any true anime enthusiast can tell you why dubs are stupid.

Really, about the only things worth bidding on from a wota standpoint were two cardboard posters: one of Hangry and Angry, which I believe was signed by both members; and one of the full lineup of Morning Musume as they were July 3, 2009, for their first show on mainland USA. I'm told that the MM poster netted a good $2,700. All in all, an obscene amount of money was thrown around for a handful of rare items, and the California Children's Hospital-That-Treats-Cancer-In-Some-Capacity (the one whose video I *so* enjoyed at the opening ceremonies) gained some beaucoup bucks to help more kids. And that's noble.

So what *was* the best part of AX? Was it the camaraderie that was felt instantly by a group of wota from all around the world as we dined that first night at the Suehiro Cafe? Was it when we found the achilles heel of the Big Guy from Vegas who might ordinarily beat us into a pile of mush, were it not for such cute girls as the Morning Musume to sate his desire to kill? Was it when that kindly Japanese family invited us -- nay, inconvenienced themselves to treat us -- to a viewing of an H!P DVD? Or was it many of the other moments that I've mentioned on this blog up to this point?

Well, you really can't have one without the other. *All* of these moments are inexplicably tied together, and not one of us would have flown all the way to L.A. for the promise of just *one* of these events. It was everything we dreamed it might be, and somehow, life-as-usual.

So, instead of a cop-out... what really *was* the best moment of the whole trip? Well, you weren't there; I spent Sunday night by myself after leaving the auction early. I had a few overpriced Fat Tire in the lobby bar of the Westin, until I decided to go back to the rotating restaurant on the top floor to snap some photos that very last night.

The entire trip, whenever I'd ordered a bottle of beer, it came with a glass. But without fail, even if I ordered a 22 oz. bottle of Sapporo, they gave me a juice glass or a little brandy goblet, enough for a few sips, then a refill, and repeat the process a number of times. So when I ordered a small bottle of Chimay in the revolving restaurant (a beer normally served with a small glass like I'd already been given too-many-times), you can imagine my surprise when it came with a fishbowl:

So Monday morning came, I presented Tom with my "aircraft-destroying" geode, and hopped the shuttle to LAX. Really, my worst chance of getting killed was on the L.A. freeway, but I had a couple of flights ahead of me to be worried about. My last memory of L.A. is one of triumph and fear, all rolled into one.

I've seen the Atlantic Ocean from the Florida shore, in 2001. I was disappointed in the fact that I had flown all the way to California but did not get a chance to see the Pacific Ocean in person. And then the plane took off. My window-seat allowed me to watch the ground as it became smaller and smaller, then it turned blue. Even though I was in an airplane, it still counts... there below me was the Pacific Ocean, reknowned for containing a large volume of water, and we flew over it for some time. I actually saw Santa Catalina Island, which was the setting for Catalina Caper, not my favorite but-a-somehow-compelling early episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Now, I'm no expert at navigation but Iowa is *not* across the Pacific Ocean from California, so I just had to trust the Captain to eventually point the plane towards Dallas, Texas -- which is also not across the Pacific Ocean. Good thing I wasn't piloting the plane, because we may have ended up *in* the ocean instead of gaining altitude above it. So, as luck would have it, I made it home in one piece.

And now (unlike many of the people around here, who thought I was crazy to go in the first place), I have friends-for-life who live as far away as the other side of the world.