I’m back from Anthrocon 2022, the first AC post-Covid, and I’m very happy to report that it’s the largest AC ever! I had some amazing roomies,  Vonadi and  ArgentVZ, and got a chance to meet and chat with friends old and new. We stayed in the AC Hotel for the first time, and yeah, the location was fine (less than five minutes walk to the convention center), but we were iffy on the ultra-modern aesthetic. I appreciated the hardwood/vinyl floors, but the frosted-glass sliding bathroom door with the world’s most over-engineered shower…meh.

As usual, I recorded this year’s fursuit parade, and you can check it out on YouTube (in 4K!) here. Argent (camera) and Von helped me with filming. It was over an hour long, to the point where I was able to walk in the parade somewhere in the middle, relax/hydrate for 10 minutes, then go back upstairs and watch the rest next to the camera!

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. We all got to Pittsburgh on Thursday afternoon, and immediately grabbed dinner at a place called Tako. Von and I got tasty frozen margaritas and we all had some pretty great Mexican food. From there we did “LineCon” (i.e., get our badges), but honestly it wasn’t bad at all and the con staff did a great job. After registration, we went to the Zoo, where we had a hilarious time playing a card game called Coup (basically bullshit your friends and don’t get called out on it), as well as some Jackbox courtesy of  iancorvid. I met  SixSydes for the first time out of suit - always awesome to say hi to an artist I admire, and he seems like a great guy!

On Friday we had breakfast at a cafe called De Fer in the Strip District. The Strip District is a little north of the convention center and recently they’ve done a lot of work to rehabilitate the empty lots and deserted factories into restaurants and shopping. Anyway, this cafe is highly recommended for breakfast sandwiches and a morning coffee or smoothie. Tasty, modern aesthetic, and gets you out of the “bubble” surrounding the con. If you’re willing to walk another 3 minutes north, you’ll hit Grandpa Joe’s candy store, which is one of the largest ones I’ve ever been to, and we all grabbed something sweet to snack on. They have bulk, international, and retro candy, as well as ice cream and board games if you forgot to bring any of your own. The prices are okay, nothing terribly crazy.

The Macro/Micro meetup was that afternoon. When I threw my suit on and showed up with Argent and Von, we were able to catch a few slides from a presentation on how to take good macro photos - we definitely used the tips right afterwards during the photo shoots! Out on the roof we said hi to so many fursuiters -  KuiPaws,  Rogue,  SyLoX (who I promised to see at more local Maryland Furs events!),  MFI,  EquusSilvermane,  bighornywolf, Omi,  SparkFloof,  Kurrikage,  IliaVulpie,  Tyrnn, and the list goes on! Tons of great pictures will be posted over the next few days to my Twitter. But I will say one thing before moving on - it was HUMID this year, making it one of the most uncomfortable cons for suiting outside, ever. I guess the only benefit was a cool lightning storm that night that lit up the whole city.

After quickly hopping in the shower, we met Von’s friend Mercury at Pizza Parma - er, Furryland Cafe - which, I mean, c’mon, you have to go to at least once during AC. I’ll happily patronize any business that puts in that little bit of extra effort to welcome us to the city. As someone who doesn’t really like the taste of alcohol, I’d like to recommend the Mike’s Hard Strawberry Lemonade I had there, very drinkable. While we’re on the topic, Argent brought some local Bold Rock (don’t laugh at the kobold, he got enough at the con), watermelon flavor. Aside for wanting a slightly stronger watermelon flavor out of it, it was pretty good.

Then it was finally time to go to the Dealer’s Den for the first time. I picked up a Hyena Agenda workout tanktop like a true blue basic furry (XD), and met artists Von and Argent knew named  Stigmata + their SO  sasharjones, who have some incredible art. On Saturday we went to their panel “Two Types of Dragons,” which was a very engaging exploration of motivations behind choosing our fursonas and what it potentially says about our aims and desires in participating in the fandom. At the Artists’ Alley we raided  Sapphy’s table, who cleaned up at the con with some excellent 3D-printed tags.

That evening I was able to catch up with my buddy Covah at the Westin, who invited me to his room, and we watched brutalmoose on YouTube and snacked on pop-rock Oreos. He also brought Wisconsin-local drinks - Spotted Cow from New Glarus and probably the best sparkling water I’ve ever had called Bubbl’r (Twisted Elix’r flavor). After getting my fill, I buzzed back over to the con to catch another raunchy game of CAH with Von’s custom deck. I swear, every time he breaks those out he attracts a bunch of new furs who always mention what a fun time they had. If you see him at a con - ask him when the next game is! We were just outside the dance floor after the game ended, so Argent and I vibed there for a bit before calling it a night.

Saturday we had breakfast at another cafe in the Strip District, Cafetano. With how good De Fer was, I’d recommend this one even more strongly, as their “El Picante” (turkey and cheese with spicy pineapple relish) was to die for. On the other hand, I had a berry smoothie that was a tad disappointing, as it had a strong tapioca sort of flavor. While heading back to the con, we stumbled upon a comic book store, Eide’s, that is a MUST do in the future. It has four(!) floors, with new and vintage comics, used DVDs, records, all that jazz. I picked up an issue of G-Fan, because how could I not? Unfortunately they were sold out of the latest issue of Saga, which is my favorite series running right now.

Back in the Dealers’ Den, I was able to get a quick sketch badge from  Dook, who really came through for me, because I left all my badges at home. I’ll post it on my Twitter soon! As far as the Art Show, I had to leave early on Sunday, so I wasn’t able to seriously consider anything. That being said I DID see some, like, actually really hot stuff in the NSFW section (though as I told Argent, you have to separate art you’re horny for from art you actually want).

To wrap up Saturday, there was a beautiful sunset that evening and I went out with Covah to take some pics of him on one of Pittsburgh’s many bridges. On Sunday morning, I had a quick bite at a cafe adjacent to our hotel and then it was time to part ways until the next con.

Before wrapping up, I just wanted to mention that I heard on Twitter about the police being aggressive in kicking people out of the con space. I’ll add that I didn’t feel comfortable with the amount of police presence I saw this weekend. I have NO idea why they were constantly perusing the Dealers’ Den (maskless, of course, because they don’t give a shit), and honestly if they had to be there I kind of wish they were just like, not inside the convention center at all? Hopefully next year they go with private security or lay more ground rules to limit presence. Every year I see so many people able to fully express themselves for just a tiny slice of time, and it’s so unfair to take some of that opportunity away from them.

My next convention will be MFF 2022 in December. See you there!