11-26-2023, 12:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-26-2023, 12:12 AM by Drunk Monk.)
Saturday we arrived just in time for the katana demo. It was so bad. A painfully weak HEMA group swinging katanas with no skill whatsoever while their leader babbled about how he classified katanas. It’ll be grist for the KFM mill.
Afterwards Tara (who recognized bad sword work when she saw it) suggested I abandon my proposed lightsaber retread and focus on anime katanas instead. Brilliant. I’m doing just that.
I chatted up two artists who Ive written about previously because they have a martial arts vibe in their work. I’ll fit them into the piece in attempt to lure them into tabling at TCEC. One of these years I’ll get them & they will make some money.
Then we grabbed some chipotle at metreon. Food was super crowded everywhere so we went with cheap and efficient.
The cosplay was great. A lot of anime. Jonny gave me a new gi top ostensibly for iaido, and it shredded immediately. It had been pulled to the side. Hope none of those went out to customers.
I started taking pix of One Piece Zoros for my article. Went to a new anime sword booth and the dealer whips out a $2K ‘Damascus’ steel katana. Made by his uncle, a new smith coming out of China. Now I have the conclusion of my KFM article. I’d been getting lazy and abandoned my old rule ‘always crack open the sheath’. He was selling a lot of bamboo blade cosplay swords with plastic fitting and I assumed they were all so. That piece was a beaut, even if katanas never used that style of pattern welding. He said they make jian & dao but didn’t have any to show.
Tara wanted to check out Vivian Lyra Blair, who played young Leia in Kenobi. She’s like 10 but so precocious. Spoke smarter than a lot of 20 years olds. It was delightful and sweet, especially when a fangirl cosplaying Leia went up to the Q&A. They were about the same age. So cute. This young lady is one to watch grow up.
We watched the original voice actors for Ashoka, Hera & Ezra autographing. All attention was on Ashoka. One fan was in tears, shaking with joy, so much that her lightsaber was jiggling. Ashley Eckstein was very generous with her attention to each fan, so much so that the back of the line was getting annoyed.
I bought a Santa Carla iron on patch. Not sure which hoody to put it on yet.
We sat for about a half hour just cosplay watching. Bumped into Hoel & Ray from the Fillmore (he was happy to have gotten a pic with the Fonz, plus met Jason Lee & Adrianne Barbeau.
Then we took Tara out to her belated birthday dinner with Bri and a surprise guest Alex. We hit Bella Tratoria on Geary and it was fantastic. We shared the artichoke & olive anti pasta and then I had the smoked salmon propasta which was absolutely delish.
Now we’re back home at the bungalow. I go back tomorrow for the talks of Maul, Kirk & Obi-wan, plus some associates want me to chime in on their podcast from FXSF. That’ll be absurd.
Afterwards Tara (who recognized bad sword work when she saw it) suggested I abandon my proposed lightsaber retread and focus on anime katanas instead. Brilliant. I’m doing just that.
I chatted up two artists who Ive written about previously because they have a martial arts vibe in their work. I’ll fit them into the piece in attempt to lure them into tabling at TCEC. One of these years I’ll get them & they will make some money.
Then we grabbed some chipotle at metreon. Food was super crowded everywhere so we went with cheap and efficient.
The cosplay was great. A lot of anime. Jonny gave me a new gi top ostensibly for iaido, and it shredded immediately. It had been pulled to the side. Hope none of those went out to customers.
I started taking pix of One Piece Zoros for my article. Went to a new anime sword booth and the dealer whips out a $2K ‘Damascus’ steel katana. Made by his uncle, a new smith coming out of China. Now I have the conclusion of my KFM article. I’d been getting lazy and abandoned my old rule ‘always crack open the sheath’. He was selling a lot of bamboo blade cosplay swords with plastic fitting and I assumed they were all so. That piece was a beaut, even if katanas never used that style of pattern welding. He said they make jian & dao but didn’t have any to show.
Tara wanted to check out Vivian Lyra Blair, who played young Leia in Kenobi. She’s like 10 but so precocious. Spoke smarter than a lot of 20 years olds. It was delightful and sweet, especially when a fangirl cosplaying Leia went up to the Q&A. They were about the same age. So cute. This young lady is one to watch grow up.
We watched the original voice actors for Ashoka, Hera & Ezra autographing. All attention was on Ashoka. One fan was in tears, shaking with joy, so much that her lightsaber was jiggling. Ashley Eckstein was very generous with her attention to each fan, so much so that the back of the line was getting annoyed.
I bought a Santa Carla iron on patch. Not sure which hoody to put it on yet.
We sat for about a half hour just cosplay watching. Bumped into Hoel & Ray from the Fillmore (he was happy to have gotten a pic with the Fonz, plus met Jason Lee & Adrianne Barbeau.
Then we took Tara out to her belated birthday dinner with Bri and a surprise guest Alex. We hit Bella Tratoria on Geary and it was fantastic. We shared the artichoke & olive anti pasta and then I had the smoked salmon propasta which was absolutely delish.
Now we’re back home at the bungalow. I go back tomorrow for the talks of Maul, Kirk & Obi-wan, plus some associates want me to chime in on their podcast from FXSF. That’ll be absurd.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse