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Home from MFF!
8 years ago
Hey guys! I'm home from MFF! It was a greatest convention, very busy (but it was very busy last year too), and there was a lot of walking involved.
Ok so here's sort of a day by day breakdown of some of the things that happened.
Thursday: Arrived around noonish after a flight delay- the 6 AM flight boarded at 9 AM. Started meeting people pretty much as soon as I got there. Saw a registration line a mile long and a pre-registration line even longer. Didn't bother picking up my badge until 9 PM and it still took 50 minutes. I admit, Thursday was a bit boring due to the lack of activities, but the convention hadn't officially "started" yet. Went to Art Jam late and doodled until I felt like I needed to go to bed.
We decided to get Giodorni's (Spellcheck please!) pizza on Thursday Night because there were technically less people at the convention that night, and so the wait for the pizza was slightly shorter.
There seemed to have been an issue with our reservation- the group I went with got two rooms (8 people, so 4 to a room), and we didn't get the rooms we had actually reserved because the website was very slow to update which rooms were sold out or something. I do not know the particulars of what went wrong. In any event, we ended up stuck in 3 person rooms with 4 people each. Very meh, but we made it work.
Friday: Artist Alley! Did not actually get a lot done this day due to a personal issue, unrelated to the convention, which popped up. Still, I was there, I got to meet and greet, and I got a couple things finished for people. Afterwards I milled around for a bit, grabbed a small supper, and started drawing at the white tables over by the bottom of the elevator. I admit, it was a bit too loud for me and I was starting to panic, but I managed to focus on the couple of friends who showed up instead. I'm very grateful to them.
MFF, if you read this, can I please ask that there be an Art Jam room every night from 7 PM to 12 AM? We Artist Alley folks need places to go to work on our art that we're selling in the Alley, and there are never any places in the convention center suitable for that after Artist Alley closes. The white tables area is always super loud, the rotunda has no tables, the downstairs area where the tabletop gaming was set up was too loud, the upstairs area is even louder, and hotel rooms are just notoriously bad for trying to set up an art space in when you have 3 roommates to share them with.
Saturday: Artist Alley again! Surprisingly when I got there, there were very few artists setting up. More trickled in over the next two hours until it filled up, but I suspect a lot of people were just too hung over to wake up at 9 AM.
I got a lot more done this day, and I'm very proud of that. Because I had an issue with having nothing to eat while in Artist Alley on Friday, a friend of mine brought me some ramen to wolf down on Saturday, but I think that only made things worse. I actually closed up shop about an hour early due to a queasy stomach.
That night after my stomach settled, a small group of my friends and I went to RPM Steakhouse. Our host, if you will- the one who paid for the Uber and who had the idea of going to the steak house- decided to get a 165$ Kobe Steak that wouldn't even cover the screen of a smart phone. (To be fair, they said it was extremely delicious.) I got a 10 ounce ribeye instead- much cheaper, probably almost as delicious, and a lot more filling. Part of me wanted to get a bigger steak, but that part is usually a bad judge of how much I can actually eat before I'm full.
Anyways it turns out the steakhouse also has cotton candy, which was this weird but wonderful mix of fruit flavors. At times it tasted like strawberry, jackfruit, oranges, lime, lemon, pears, berries, etc. I ate most of that, to be honest- Everyone else had some but they didn't want that much.
Sunday: Artist Alley numero tres. The Empty Alley! At least, that's what I'm calling it. If you went through on Sunday, I'm sure you noticed there were a lot of empty artist tables. I know I did. To be fair, it was mostly full by the time I left due to artists trickling in late, but it started off remarkably empty. On both Saturday and Sunday, the number of artists listed to be in the alley was enough to fill the alley, but then a bunch didn't show up until after it had already started. That was...unusual. Nothing like that happened in 2016.
I do not think it was the long walkway's fault, either. I suspect it was more just a symptom of the fact MFF was bigger, rowdier, and more of a party atmosphere than last year and so people were just too out of it to show up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed first thing in the morning.
I did close up shop in Artist Alley an hour early again, but this time it was so I could browse Artist Alley and Dealer's Den. I saw a lot of very wonderful artists, met Tincrash and Chocopony in person (The latter having been a friend of mine before the con), and was very impressed with the variety of things I saw. I am sorry to report I did not see any Stitch-related things, but my wallet is glad to report that as well because that means I get to spend that money on bills instead. Wee~
Come to think of it...There was actually a fair amount of Stitch things to pick from last year, including a Stitch kigurumi, but this year there was nothing. Maybe there was some and I just picked the wrong day to browse?
Anyways after that it was small pizza time again and then art at the white tables until I got sleepy. I managed to finish 9 commissions on-site for MFF, and I'm going to finish the rest this week with a mass mail-out on Monday. I am taking today off, however, due to Monday's events.
Monday: We packed up and checked out of the hotel around 1 PM before milling around in the lobby till around 4 PM. At that time, we went to O'Hare International Airport to catch a 6 PM flight.
6 PM. Where the rain happens when you're east of the Mississippi. Where the wind and the lightning cause a SIX HOUR flight delay, in part because your plane had to divert to Cedar Rapids, Iowa because it nearly ran out of fuel while waiting in a holding pattern, and instead of re-planing you, O'hare decided to wait for that plane to come back instead. I could have probably watched most of the LotR trilogy in that time. The worst part is, it was a creeping delay, with numerous "updates" telling us the prior update's estimated boarding time was wrong and they needed to delay it again. And again. And again. And again.
I get that lightning and wind can be dangerous to airplanes, but they really really seemed like chickens. The plane was -at the airport- at 9 PM but they didn't let it land, so it had to leave and find another airport to refuel at. I get going "ok, new planes, you need to divert", but if a plane is already there and ground-level winds are light, what's the problem with letting it land?
Anyways we finally left Chicago first thing Tuesday morning, and I passed out as soon as I got home. And that was MFF!
Given that I can't dance, large crowds and loud noises can trigger my panic episodes, and I wasn't interested in most of the panels, I didn't actually do that much. Luckily for me, I had something like 20 great friends there who helped make it enjoyable.
Ok so here's sort of a day by day breakdown of some of the things that happened.
Thursday: Arrived around noonish after a flight delay- the 6 AM flight boarded at 9 AM. Started meeting people pretty much as soon as I got there. Saw a registration line a mile long and a pre-registration line even longer. Didn't bother picking up my badge until 9 PM and it still took 50 minutes. I admit, Thursday was a bit boring due to the lack of activities, but the convention hadn't officially "started" yet. Went to Art Jam late and doodled until I felt like I needed to go to bed.
We decided to get Giodorni's (Spellcheck please!) pizza on Thursday Night because there were technically less people at the convention that night, and so the wait for the pizza was slightly shorter.
There seemed to have been an issue with our reservation- the group I went with got two rooms (8 people, so 4 to a room), and we didn't get the rooms we had actually reserved because the website was very slow to update which rooms were sold out or something. I do not know the particulars of what went wrong. In any event, we ended up stuck in 3 person rooms with 4 people each. Very meh, but we made it work.
Friday: Artist Alley! Did not actually get a lot done this day due to a personal issue, unrelated to the convention, which popped up. Still, I was there, I got to meet and greet, and I got a couple things finished for people. Afterwards I milled around for a bit, grabbed a small supper, and started drawing at the white tables over by the bottom of the elevator. I admit, it was a bit too loud for me and I was starting to panic, but I managed to focus on the couple of friends who showed up instead. I'm very grateful to them.
MFF, if you read this, can I please ask that there be an Art Jam room every night from 7 PM to 12 AM? We Artist Alley folks need places to go to work on our art that we're selling in the Alley, and there are never any places in the convention center suitable for that after Artist Alley closes. The white tables area is always super loud, the rotunda has no tables, the downstairs area where the tabletop gaming was set up was too loud, the upstairs area is even louder, and hotel rooms are just notoriously bad for trying to set up an art space in when you have 3 roommates to share them with.
Saturday: Artist Alley again! Surprisingly when I got there, there were very few artists setting up. More trickled in over the next two hours until it filled up, but I suspect a lot of people were just too hung over to wake up at 9 AM.
I got a lot more done this day, and I'm very proud of that. Because I had an issue with having nothing to eat while in Artist Alley on Friday, a friend of mine brought me some ramen to wolf down on Saturday, but I think that only made things worse. I actually closed up shop about an hour early due to a queasy stomach.
That night after my stomach settled, a small group of my friends and I went to RPM Steakhouse. Our host, if you will- the one who paid for the Uber and who had the idea of going to the steak house- decided to get a 165$ Kobe Steak that wouldn't even cover the screen of a smart phone. (To be fair, they said it was extremely delicious.) I got a 10 ounce ribeye instead- much cheaper, probably almost as delicious, and a lot more filling. Part of me wanted to get a bigger steak, but that part is usually a bad judge of how much I can actually eat before I'm full.
Anyways it turns out the steakhouse also has cotton candy, which was this weird but wonderful mix of fruit flavors. At times it tasted like strawberry, jackfruit, oranges, lime, lemon, pears, berries, etc. I ate most of that, to be honest- Everyone else had some but they didn't want that much.
Sunday: Artist Alley numero tres. The Empty Alley! At least, that's what I'm calling it. If you went through on Sunday, I'm sure you noticed there were a lot of empty artist tables. I know I did. To be fair, it was mostly full by the time I left due to artists trickling in late, but it started off remarkably empty. On both Saturday and Sunday, the number of artists listed to be in the alley was enough to fill the alley, but then a bunch didn't show up until after it had already started. That was...unusual. Nothing like that happened in 2016.
I do not think it was the long walkway's fault, either. I suspect it was more just a symptom of the fact MFF was bigger, rowdier, and more of a party atmosphere than last year and so people were just too out of it to show up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed first thing in the morning.
I did close up shop in Artist Alley an hour early again, but this time it was so I could browse Artist Alley and Dealer's Den. I saw a lot of very wonderful artists, met Tincrash and Chocopony in person (The latter having been a friend of mine before the con), and was very impressed with the variety of things I saw. I am sorry to report I did not see any Stitch-related things, but my wallet is glad to report that as well because that means I get to spend that money on bills instead. Wee~
Come to think of it...There was actually a fair amount of Stitch things to pick from last year, including a Stitch kigurumi, but this year there was nothing. Maybe there was some and I just picked the wrong day to browse?
Anyways after that it was small pizza time again and then art at the white tables until I got sleepy. I managed to finish 9 commissions on-site for MFF, and I'm going to finish the rest this week with a mass mail-out on Monday. I am taking today off, however, due to Monday's events.
Monday: We packed up and checked out of the hotel around 1 PM before milling around in the lobby till around 4 PM. At that time, we went to O'Hare International Airport to catch a 6 PM flight.
6 PM. Where the rain happens when you're east of the Mississippi. Where the wind and the lightning cause a SIX HOUR flight delay, in part because your plane had to divert to Cedar Rapids, Iowa because it nearly ran out of fuel while waiting in a holding pattern, and instead of re-planing you, O'hare decided to wait for that plane to come back instead. I could have probably watched most of the LotR trilogy in that time. The worst part is, it was a creeping delay, with numerous "updates" telling us the prior update's estimated boarding time was wrong and they needed to delay it again. And again. And again. And again.
I get that lightning and wind can be dangerous to airplanes, but they really really seemed like chickens. The plane was -at the airport- at 9 PM but they didn't let it land, so it had to leave and find another airport to refuel at. I get going "ok, new planes, you need to divert", but if a plane is already there and ground-level winds are light, what's the problem with letting it land?
Anyways we finally left Chicago first thing Tuesday morning, and I passed out as soon as I got home. And that was MFF!
Given that I can't dance, large crowds and loud noises can trigger my panic episodes, and I wasn't interested in most of the panels, I didn't actually do that much. Luckily for me, I had something like 20 great friends there who helped make it enjoyable.
I also was pretty bummed from the lack of stitch art and stuff but there were pockets here and there. I got a digital print from an artist on the other side of the alley from you (I don't think you were there at the time), but that was about the biggest piece of merch I found.
Glad you made the trip one that was enjoyable for you.