Whiskey, Texas

Friday, March 06, 2009

By train to the Stars

For my birthday a couple months ago, Miss C bought me tickets to a Dallas Stars hockey game. The game was Monday, Feb 23 against the San Jose Sharks. It would be my first Stars game in about 13 years, and my first time ever inside the American Airlines Center. In lieu of driving to Dallas during the evening rush hour, we elected to take the train...

Trinity Railway Express in Ft. Worth

Miss C on board the TRE

Walking to the AAC with a train load of Stars fans.

We had a great view from our seats on the Platinum level.

A face-off in our corner

Trailing 1-0 late in the 3rd, the Stars pulled their goalie and left an empty net...

... to no avail. The final: Sharks 1, Stars 0. It was still a fun time though...

Lots of activity at the DART / TRE station after the game...

Ridin' the train with my Sweetie!

In all, it was a very enjoyable evening. Hope it won't be another 13 years before I get to see the Stars again. Thanks, Miss C!

I've got vacation coming up in about 9 days... the kids will be on Spring Break and we'll be attempting a ski trip to New Mexico (even though I understand there's barely any snow). I may or may not post another blog entry before the trip. Check back soon and see...

WSC

np: Led Zeppelin - "Ramble On"

Labels: Dallas Stars, Dallas Texas, DART, Trinity Railway Express

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The A-Kon experience - 2

Why is L dressed like an Akatsuki?

L and her friend, S in full Akatsuki garb. The Akatsuki are a group of ninja assassins from the "Naruto" series.

So, this was L's costume for A-Kon 19... L went dressed as Deidara. Just the two of us went on Saturday; we had only a couple hours to spend there before I had to come home and get ready for work. On Sunday, we returned with a second Akatsuki in tow -- L's friend S, dressed as Sasori.

L was Deidara, the blonde at the far left. S was Sasori (upper left).

"My little Akatsuki's" do some shopping in the comic market...

Wigs...

... magazines...

... pocky!

And now for my costume... when L first started talking about going to A-Kon, and the possibility of dressing up for it, I immediately thought of the only anime show I had any kind of identification with. There was just one show that I felt I could relate to, and it had the added benefit of allowing me to "kick it old-school", of being able to show those young punks the kind of anime that MY generation grew up with. True fans no doubt know the show by its Japanese name, "Mach GoGoGo" But to the layman, it's simply "Speed Racer."

Striking a pose as Go Mifune.

I was pleasantly surprised by the reactions I got to my costume, from people both young and old. A couple of young women (late teens / early 20s) came up and asked for a hug. There was the 40-ish mom who told me she remembers rushing home from school every day to watch the show. And a middle-aged t-shirt vendor congratulated me on representing the "early history" of anime. But the best reaction was from a little boy, probably about 4 years old... his eyes lit up when he saw me and he knew just who I was. "Speed Racer!" To him, I was the real deal. I gave him a high-five, posed for a photo with him, and told him to go see my movie. K told me after we returned home, "you must feel like a rock star". Well, pretty much...

I must have posed for at least 50 photos during our two days at A-Kon. A couple shots have ended up on the various Photo Galleries on the A-Kon site. One of them even ended up as the main photo on the A-Kon "Activities" page. I have no idea how long this link will remain active, or how long my photo might remain on it, but it's worth checking out:

http://www.a-kon.com/bm/Activities/index.shtml

feelin' like a rock star with my girl

WSC

np: Webb Pierce - Cow Town

Labels: A-Kon, Akatsuki, cosplay, Dallas Texas, Naruto, Speed Racer

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

The A-Kon experience - 1

Why is this convention hall filled with people?

Filled with dealer tables and freaks in costumes, something BIG must be going on...

It's A-Kon 19 in Dallas! A-Kon is an annual convention celebrating anime, manga, cosplay, gaming, and all things in between... and if you don't know what any of that stuff is, look it up -- I had to!

They would get there or die trying... The person I met who came the farthest was a dealer from Colorado...

A little bit of background info... L has been interested in anime and manga books for about the past year or so after her friends introduced her to some manga titles like the "Naruto" series. Several months ago, L urgently announced that we just HAD to go to this anime convention in Atlanta in September. I had never heard of such a thing, but I figured if there was one in Atlanta, then there must be an equivalent (superior, actually... since everyone knows we do things bigger and better in Texas) convention somewhere in the D-FW area. It didn't take me long to find a website for A-Kon 19.

After looking at some of the photos of last year's event on the A-Kon website's Photo Gallery page, I was almost as interested in attending this event as L was. Even before we registered, L was busily planning her costume... and just to show that I was "in the spirit" of things, I planned one of my own. No, you don't get to see it quite yet; I'll post photos in my next entry. In the meantime, surf around on the photo galleries on the A-Kon site; you just might spot me.

A few words about Cosplayers... these people are f-ing NUTS! This was my first exposure to the world of Cosplay and I was blown away by how much time and work some of these people put into their elaborate costumes. Most of the costumes were consistent with the anime / manga / gaming themes (everything from Pokemon to Power Rangers to Halo 3 to Mario Brothers were represented) but there were also costumes as random as the Ghostbusters, Spider Man, Burger King, and Darth Vader. We didn't get to attend the actual Cosplay contest; it was held on Saturday night and I had to work. Maybe next year I will ask off for that day so that we can attend and possibly even participate. But we saw more than an eyeful during our day and a half at the convention... here is a look at some of the more noteworthy costumes.

A group from the popular "Naruto" series

Some familiar faces, along with some relative unknowns...

One of the main attractions of the convention -- besides running into Cosplayers at every turn -- were the convention halls full of dealer tables, hawking no end of dvd's, books, t-shirts, art work, Japanese candy and snacks, paper parasols, weaponry... you name it. There was some serious commerce going down. I'll share more in my next entry.

Everyone is welcome in Yaoi-land -- even heterosexual men! (But I didn't see very many...)

We also spent some time looking through the various entries in the Art Show...

I'm not sure I'd hang this on my wall, but L might...

more works of art

Hmmm, exactly what I was thinking.

Stay tuned for more from A-Kon...

WSC

np: Hagfish - "Aquarium"

Labels: A-Kon, anime, cosplay, Dallas Texas

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Monster Jam 2008

How we spent our Sunday afternoon ...

Last Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!, the kids joined me for a spur-of-the-moment trip to Reunion Arena in Dallas for Monster Jam 2008. "Props" to our friend BEK for introducing us to Monster Jam three years ago. This would be our first return visit since we went with BEK in 2005. If possible, we enjoyed it even more this time around -- we had better seats and the truck action was more spectacular.

Monster Jam 2008 - Reunion Arena, Dallas TX

The Sunday afternoon show began at 2 pm. After the emcee incited the crowd into a patriotic frenzy, saluting active-duty servicemen while the P.A. system blared Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA", followed by the National Anthem, it was time for monster truck mayhem.

a partial lineup of the afternoon's participants...

The festivities kicked off with a wheelie contest; each of the eight trucks demonstrated their abilities to achieve a near-vertical stance jumping over a small pile of dirt and a row of helpless, flattened cars.

"Captain's Curse" gets some good air...

Next, it was time for a series of elimination-style races. Between the truck events, other motor-sport activities were represented -- a 4-wheeler ATV race and a display of extreme motorcycle stunts. Finally, it was time for the "main event" we all came to see, Monster Truck Free-Style -- in other words, lots of jumping and smashing stuff.

A fresh victim for the hungry monster trucks... that van would be unrecognizable within 15 minutes!

"Bad Habit" free-style performance

"Bounty Hunter" loses a wheel and the crowd goes wild...

"Gravedigger" center-of-gravity exhibition

It was definitely a fun-filled afternoon. Maybe we'll make this an annual tradition instead of once every three years.

Satisfied customers - the kids modeled their "Gravedigger" gear after we returned home.

WSC

np: Jack Ingram - "Barbie doll"

Labels: Dallas Texas, Gravedigger, Monster Jam, monster trucks

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Nice catch; pull 'em up

Wednesday before work, I went out and caught a southbound on the Ft Worth Sub between Gainesville and Alliance. The attraction was the lead locomotive, B40-8 # 8632 (the former ATSF 7442). With fewer than 40 B40-8s operating on the system, compared with close to 3,000 "comfort-cab" 6-axle GE's, catching a B-40 leading a through train is something akin to finding the proverbial needle in the hay stack. It was a nice day, and I shot the train at several locations, including this view of the train crossing the wood trestle north of Justin...

BNSF 8632 leads southbound H KCKTPL approaching Justin, TX: Feb 6, 2008

So it's come to this...

Seen recently on Long Avenue in north Fort Worth: indisputable evidence of the further decline of American society. Really now, do today's teens and young adults actually require written instructions reminding them to pull their friggin' pants all the way up over their asses? Instead of posting these reminders on roadside billboards, wouldn't it be more effective to attach instructional leaflets -- complete with diagrams and illustrations -- to all the pairs of JNCO's and Dickies on the display racks down at JC Penney's?

Obviously this young man -- photographed boarding a DART train last summer in Dallas -- hadn't seen the new billboards yet.

Dallas city councilman Dwaine Caraway recently (and unsuccessfully) attempted to pass a city ordinance against the popular fashion practice of sagging pants, to "crack down", as it were, on those who fail to hoist their trousers to the proper altitude. Apparently, though, the city of Laura Miller actually did have more pressing matters with which to occupy itself than the legislation and enforcement of a civic dress code. So Dallas resorted to the next best thing -- an ad campaign, with billboard space graciously donated by everyone's favorite media conglomerate, Clear Channel. Now other metroplex cities -- Garland, Grand Prairie, and Fort Worth, to name a few -- have jumped on board.

If the billboard strategy fails, maybe the message of Dallas "gospel rap" artist "Dooney Da Priest" will eventually find its target audience. We can only hope.