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MFF 2012 Report
13 years ago
General
Another con in the books, and another one which I didn't expect to go to before the year started. It's been a surprisingly big year for me, and I think I ended my convention trips for the year with a bang. Just like RF I wasn't expecting to attend MFF before the year started, but after seeing BBF's video from last year's con and hearing glowing reviews from anyone that's attended...I had to check it out and thankfully my haunted attraction job paid for it.
The Hotel
One thing that was constantly mentioned to me was that the con has a fantastic hotel, and I can firmly say MFF has one of the best hotel/venues for a con. Seriously, I see it as a big factor on why the con is great. Especially for these key reasons.
1. It's big, but with a simple layout that's easy to get around. It also helps that it's more vertically arranged then sprawled out, all you have to do is go up or down a floor and you're not too far from any venue.
2. Large lobby with plenty of hang out space all over. Nuff said.
3. RFID Hotel Keys. This is something I want to see more hotels using, it really is the most fursuit friendly hotel key since was able to keep it in my neck pouch and just tap that against the lock.
The Convention
I felt the convention was really well run, pre-reg was a snap and I felt like I got my monies worth with the Sponsership. (Especially due to the really tasty Sponser's Brunch.) A pleasant surprise was the Con Suite, especially on finding out it's open to everyone. (A really nice gesture considering there's not many cheap eateries nearby the hotel.) Overall, it was a nicely run ship that knows how to run a party.
The Food
I certainly loved the food here, from the breakfast served at the hotel's resturant, to the Sloppy Joe's served in the con suite. As for places outside the hotel, three come to mind. All of them being in the new financial park.
Park Tavern - This was the place I was the most interested in, and it totally delivered. The Animal Tots appitizer was the thing that had me interested in going here, and it delivered in spades. Tater tots, pulled pork, cheese curds, grainy mustard, Bell's Kalamazoo gravy and a fried egg. It was total comfort food heaven for me, and for ten bucks you certainly got you monies worth since the portion sized seemed more like a family style entree. It took me and five other friends to finish it off! On top of that, I had a awesome stuffed bacon and blue cheese burger. While the place can be on the pricey side, you certainly get what you pay for and then some.
Kings - This retro bowling alley/bar/resturant knows a thing or two about food and drink. I loved their funky appitizers like the fried mac and cheese bites and cheesburger spring rolls, and their orange creamsicle drink was pretty good as well.
Five Roses Pub - I only had a salad here, but damn was it a good salad since it had shrimp, apple, Irish Bacon and fried goat cheese. The foodie in me was quite satisfied!
Dances
As always I gotta' hit up the dances, and they put on a good show. Many thanks to all the DJ's who gave us all plenty of good beats and tunes to dance to. I think a set a new record for myself since with the first night with
, 
and 
I ended up dancing about three hours in suit without taking my head off.
The Fursuit Dance Comp
Once again I tried out for the dance comp, and not surprisingly there was quite a turnout for the prelims. (Over 50 to be exact!!!) I'd say everyone can say this was hard, no doubt about it. Unfortunately I didn't make it in, but it happens. I just gotta' push harder for whatever my next dance comp will be.
On the plus side, with MFF's competition having a group choreo dance to kick things off, I was still able to perform in the dance comp. It was fun learning it all, and I had a blast performing it.
As for the dance comp, it was by far the best one of the year. Everyone brought it hard and helped put on one hell of a show! It also had one of the best atmosphere's of a dance comp due to all the dancers hanging out/bouncing/going ballistic at the entry point from the backstage and watching everyone perform.
Myself I got the idea to get up in the pawpet theater section of the main stage to watch, and that turned out to be a brilliant idea since 1, it gave me a great vantage of the floor and 2...well just take a look at this video.
As you can see, it created quite a cute visual of a bunch of suiters watching from there. I wish there was more videos showing the main stage since we were going bonkers during several performances.
With all the dancers watching each other and such, it not only gave a great energy in the dance comp, but it also showed we're a family. We love watching each other bring it and inspire others, it's not about rank, it's about dancing to express, for the love of it. With us dancing from the heart, the end result is MFF's dance comp being what it is, one of the best dance comps we've had, period. I look forward to the future, especially with what we've seen not only in the dance comp but also the prelims. There's a lot of kick-ass talent all around, and inspiration is coming from all over.
Highlights
There's several highlights that come to mind, the first one is the Dancerfur's celebration after the dance comp.
After the dance comp, was nice enough to order us two 30 inch pizzas. Once we recieved the monster boxes we made a mad dash to the Con Suite to demolish them before the Suite closed, after a quick prayer for 
diggyroo we made quick work of the pizza and 
suggested we dance on the big ass pizza boxes, brilliant!
After a quick duct taping we took the fused boxes up onto the second floor of the little atrium with the dome and had a impromptu pizza box cypher. It was pretty awesome how we progressed from that, and to make matters more interesting that atrium area was labeled as a "quiet zone" due to other groups using the meeting space in there. So it was also one of the quietest cyphers around. XD Video was certainly taken of that, and I'll post it whenever it's finished.
The second highlight is me almost killing and 
. How the hell did I do that? Simple.
After one of the dances I was really tired and making my way to the escalators in suit, both Rawk and Rei were right behind me. As we reach the escalators, Rawk and Rei see some dude almost eat shit coming off the escalator. A SPLIT SECOND LATER, I walk right into the freakin' standing sign that's right between the escalators. It caught me off guard and I lose my balance, my hand grabs the top of the sign and I do this drunken-like swig around to try and regain myself. At this point Rawk and Rei are loosing it since they think I'm flat out wasted. I swear if they looked behind themselves on the escalator, they would have died since my whole body was going up the escalator diagonally. XD Believe it or not, I was compleately sober that night. I was that freakin' tired.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, this was a fantastic con. In fact out of the four I went to this year, this was my favorite. From the great hotel, food and well run convention, to all the fun antics I got into with my roomates and friends...this was a blast from day one. Once again it's certainly the people who make the conventions great, so thank you each and every one. <3
I look forward to all the pics and videos, and if you see me in any of them I'd like them sent my way since it helps out with the PCD.
The Hotel
One thing that was constantly mentioned to me was that the con has a fantastic hotel, and I can firmly say MFF has one of the best hotel/venues for a con. Seriously, I see it as a big factor on why the con is great. Especially for these key reasons.
1. It's big, but with a simple layout that's easy to get around. It also helps that it's more vertically arranged then sprawled out, all you have to do is go up or down a floor and you're not too far from any venue.
2. Large lobby with plenty of hang out space all over. Nuff said.
3. RFID Hotel Keys. This is something I want to see more hotels using, it really is the most fursuit friendly hotel key since was able to keep it in my neck pouch and just tap that against the lock.
The Convention
I felt the convention was really well run, pre-reg was a snap and I felt like I got my monies worth with the Sponsership. (Especially due to the really tasty Sponser's Brunch.) A pleasant surprise was the Con Suite, especially on finding out it's open to everyone. (A really nice gesture considering there's not many cheap eateries nearby the hotel.) Overall, it was a nicely run ship that knows how to run a party.
The Food
I certainly loved the food here, from the breakfast served at the hotel's resturant, to the Sloppy Joe's served in the con suite. As for places outside the hotel, three come to mind. All of them being in the new financial park.
Park Tavern - This was the place I was the most interested in, and it totally delivered. The Animal Tots appitizer was the thing that had me interested in going here, and it delivered in spades. Tater tots, pulled pork, cheese curds, grainy mustard, Bell's Kalamazoo gravy and a fried egg. It was total comfort food heaven for me, and for ten bucks you certainly got you monies worth since the portion sized seemed more like a family style entree. It took me and five other friends to finish it off! On top of that, I had a awesome stuffed bacon and blue cheese burger. While the place can be on the pricey side, you certainly get what you pay for and then some.
Kings - This retro bowling alley/bar/resturant knows a thing or two about food and drink. I loved their funky appitizers like the fried mac and cheese bites and cheesburger spring rolls, and their orange creamsicle drink was pretty good as well.
Five Roses Pub - I only had a salad here, but damn was it a good salad since it had shrimp, apple, Irish Bacon and fried goat cheese. The foodie in me was quite satisfied!
Dances
As always I gotta' hit up the dances, and they put on a good show. Many thanks to all the DJ's who gave us all plenty of good beats and tunes to dance to. I think a set a new record for myself since with the first night with
, 
and 
I ended up dancing about three hours in suit without taking my head off.The Fursuit Dance Comp
Once again I tried out for the dance comp, and not surprisingly there was quite a turnout for the prelims. (Over 50 to be exact!!!) I'd say everyone can say this was hard, no doubt about it. Unfortunately I didn't make it in, but it happens. I just gotta' push harder for whatever my next dance comp will be.
On the plus side, with MFF's competition having a group choreo dance to kick things off, I was still able to perform in the dance comp. It was fun learning it all, and I had a blast performing it.
As for the dance comp, it was by far the best one of the year. Everyone brought it hard and helped put on one hell of a show! It also had one of the best atmosphere's of a dance comp due to all the dancers hanging out/bouncing/going ballistic at the entry point from the backstage and watching everyone perform.
Myself I got the idea to get up in the pawpet theater section of the main stage to watch, and that turned out to be a brilliant idea since 1, it gave me a great vantage of the floor and 2...well just take a look at this video.
As you can see, it created quite a cute visual of a bunch of suiters watching from there. I wish there was more videos showing the main stage since we were going bonkers during several performances.
With all the dancers watching each other and such, it not only gave a great energy in the dance comp, but it also showed we're a family. We love watching each other bring it and inspire others, it's not about rank, it's about dancing to express, for the love of it. With us dancing from the heart, the end result is MFF's dance comp being what it is, one of the best dance comps we've had, period. I look forward to the future, especially with what we've seen not only in the dance comp but also the prelims. There's a lot of kick-ass talent all around, and inspiration is coming from all over.
Highlights
There's several highlights that come to mind, the first one is the Dancerfur's celebration after the dance comp.
After the dance comp,
was nice enough to order us two 30 inch pizzas. Once we recieved the monster boxes we made a mad dash to the Con Suite to demolish them before the Suite closed, after a quick prayer for 
diggyroo we made quick work of the pizza and 
suggested we dance on the big ass pizza boxes, brilliant! After a quick duct taping we took the fused boxes up onto the second floor of the little atrium with the dome and had a impromptu pizza box cypher. It was pretty awesome how we progressed from that, and to make matters more interesting that atrium area was labeled as a "quiet zone" due to other groups using the meeting space in there. So it was also one of the quietest cyphers around. XD Video was certainly taken of that, and I'll post it whenever it's finished.
The second highlight is me almost killing
and 
. How the hell did I do that? Simple.After one of the dances I was really tired and making my way to the escalators in suit, both Rawk and Rei were right behind me. As we reach the escalators, Rawk and Rei see some dude almost eat shit coming off the escalator. A SPLIT SECOND LATER, I walk right into the freakin' standing sign that's right between the escalators. It caught me off guard and I lose my balance, my hand grabs the top of the sign and I do this drunken-like swig around to try and regain myself. At this point Rawk and Rei are loosing it since they think I'm flat out wasted. I swear if they looked behind themselves on the escalator, they would have died since my whole body was going up the escalator diagonally. XD Believe it or not, I was compleately sober that night. I was that freakin' tired.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, this was a fantastic con. In fact out of the four I went to this year, this was my favorite. From the great hotel, food and well run convention, to all the fun antics I got into with my roomates and friends...this was a blast from day one. Once again it's certainly the people who make the conventions great, so thank you each and every one. <3
I look forward to all the pics and videos, and if you see me in any of them I'd like them sent my way since it helps out with the PCD.
LOL You're amazing, man. <3 lovelovelove seeing you at all of these cons. Thanks so much for supporting all the rad DJs with the rest of us, I really love that you put so much energy and enthusiasm into your suit dancing! See ya at whatever the next con we'll both be at is!
http://furrydoc.tumblr.com/post/365.....ght-woke-up-at
Such a awesome con, with inspiration coming from all over. I hope to see you around again soon, whenever that may be. I can already say I won't be at FC, since the money I earned from my haunted attraction job was used for MFF instead. At the moment I can't confirm what con's I'll be at next year. However there are some possibilities here and there. :)