#and making cosplays and going to panels and staying up stupidly late | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

londonspirit · 5 years

Text

My Zac Con aka CCXP Cologne

[Warning: really long post, full of swooning and rambled ramblings cause words are hard when it comes to that man! Consider yourself warned]

When they announced CCXP Germany, I was skeptic. Even more so when they announced Zachary Levi as first guest!

My Zac, finally coming to a con nearby? That couldn't be true. But of course I went and got me a ticket for all four days! Couldn’t let that ONE chance slip through my fingers. Even better, a dear friend wanted to join into the fun.

And so we were headed towards Cologne on Thursday, even though Zac would only be there from Friday on. But we wanted to get a feel for the venue, the people and everything else. It was lovely: not as huge as the one in Brasil, but fine for their first time. Wonderfully organized, clean, enough food and drinks on location, and even an app to keep one up to date! After that we had a wander around Cologne - had to show my friend the city (she's from England) and yes, we had the hopes to run into the man himself. Sadly that didn't happen, cause he did the same wander two hour LATER! *hmpf* Still not over that.

Anyhow: Friday was the first photo day. And I was nervous. I knew it would be fine, my English is sufficient enough to say Hi and tell him how incredibly awesome he is but yeah... still nervous. Luckily he was scheduled for autographs before we had our photos, and those autos were out in the open. Naturally we went there first thing after arrival. And there he was, only a few metres away from me, breathing the same air as us! And I might have made all sorts of weird noises. (Yet, my friend held my hand and tried to calm me down!) We stuck around for a bit - just making sure he was REALLY there!! *grins* But finally it was time for our photos. We queued up; and I could hear him laugh which did NOT help the butterflies in my stomach.

Coming around the corner and seeing him in all his tall as fuck glory, I might have had to take a very deep breath! He grinned and actually introduced himself!! I mean: WHAT? I know who you are, I am HERE just for YOU!! But yeah, that's Zac, he does shit like that! *sighs happily* And yes, I did actually mutter 'You're really real' when I approached him. I cannot for the life of me remember what he replied (I THINK it was 'yes, I am' but don't hold me to that!) Those eyes are VERY distracting, I tell ya. I asked for a hug photo, and he said: “Yeah, you can hug me.” (HNGNGH!) Which I did. He smells of nothing (thanks Sal for confirming that); he's also very warm and VERRRRY firm!! Like DAMN firm! *grins* I thanked him and basically floated back out. I cannot for the live of me remember the rest of the day! There were panels we attended but honestly, I cannot remember any of them! *hehe*

The next day we had our autographs (still sooo fucking thankful to my Sally for getting that for me - I owe you BIG TIME for that. And as an FYI: if you're like me and (used to) think photos are better than autos: NO! Autographs are soo much better, especially when it's with such a lovely human being!) Again: queuing up (which wasn’t really a queue, just a collection of a handful of people, which was a shame really - everybody should want to meet that man!!); Sally went first and I kept grinning like a loon; she likes him almost as much as I do, but she’s got herself much better in control.

The steward tried to distract me; still not sure whether i appreciated that or not. Anyhow, he was done with Sally, and looked up and at me, and I might have squeaked a bit. The steward who had written down my name was down the line, and I panicked. He waved me up, might have said 'come up' and stupidly I pointed down the line but she was there, hurrying to give him my name. I didn't really feel my legs when I walked up to him, because he was looking at me. (You know when celebrities look at you and don't really see you? NOT HIM! He does see you, and good lord, that's a really heady feeling.) I had my photo to get signed; and he said: "Welcome back" or something along the lines of remembering me from the day before. Oh, and to avoid con crud, he fistbumped everyone (although he high-fived many people which totally defeated the purpose! My beautiful silly dork!) Anyhow, he signed, and I started babbling: thanking him for coming to Germany, and telling him how much I missed NerdHQ. At that point he looked up, that huge, beautiful smile on his face. "You've watched it?" - "Every year," I told him, "Used to plan that weekend around his panels." His face was the most beautiful thing I’vve ever seen, so happy; he was basically beaming. Told me he was still trying to get that off the ground again, in a different format. The passion and love he has for that? It's incredible. I then asked him if he enjoyed the walk down into Cologne, and that we walked the same ways only hours before which made him grin. He enjoyed it, he said, didn't get sunburned (We did, and I told him that. *snorts* told ya, I was basically vomiting words all over him). He REALLY takes his time, tries to keep a conversation going. He listens, and I can’t stress that enough, he SEES you when he looks at you.

It was over way too soon, and I said 'bye, see you later' and stumbled down the steps, a smile basically plastered to my face; people were looking a tiny bit strange as I walked down towards my friend, but the stewards were just grinning back. It’s weird what you remember in moments like that. I hugged my friend and might've cried a few happy tears. I LOVE her so much for just letting me be cause I needed at least half an hour to come back to myself. Since I was basically useless for the rest of the day, we just hung around, waiting for him to do the interview in the fish bowl. He came out, waving and vanished inside, did the interview, and after 15 minutes he came back out, and high-fived everyone standing there before hurrying away again.

That was our day over cause there wasn't much else that day.

Sunday morning: double picture with my Sal and Zac. We both went full on fangirl: she wore a Shazam shirt and I had made a special one for him. His face lit up when we walked in. "I LOVE the shirt!" I swear, that grin will be the death of me one day. He pulled us both in (TIGHT); it was over way too soon again. We thanked him again, and left very giddily.

They had added a combination ticket late on Saturday: auto and selfie with Zac! I did pretend to think about that for a bit but deep down inside I KNEW I had to do it. Who knows when he'll be back... so yeah, that was basically a given. So the first thing in the morning was going to get that ticket, and then pick a time. I chose the one after his panel so I could properly say goodbye. (Also hoped it wouldn't be too full and that he would take even more time). We then spent ALL day with sitting in panels we weren't really interested in, which was okay apart from that utterly dreadful and terrible Batman panel. *shudders* Still wondering why they even did this: the artists clearly didn't want to be there AT ALL. The cosplay panel on the other hand was quite interesting. We moved seats after the GOT panel, which meant we had front row seats!

And then it was finally time. And since it's Zac nobody was surprised that it was not a moderated one but the usual Q&A! I've seen so many online, and yet being actually there was something else entirely. Especially being that close. *exhales deeply*

That man's ... everything is unparalleled, his personality, his look on life, his optimism; his down-to-earth-ness! He’s so passionate about the things he loves, and yet still fully rooted in reality. He’s famous, very aware of it, and uses that for the bestest of reasons. It's just mindblowing. I'm soo glad I had the chance to witness it live. (And yes, I might have recorded it cause I KNEW I'd forget so much with time. I still hope that at some point some video shows up, but until then I'm happily listening to him ramble on). That man's come such a long way, and still so much to give and to do, and I cannot wait for him to do all the things he loves and wants to do. I even managed to ask a question (yes, I did make a list with Q's the second I knew I would be going)!! I'm still in shock about that. (It helped that we were front row, so I couldn't see the people all around!) I very happily sat down again after asking, cause my knees were a bit wobbly during that answer cause he tries to direct that towards you. And having that gaze on you for who knows how long? It's the most dizzying thing in the world. I’m still amazed that he managed to stay seated the entire time; usually he’s up on his feet very quickly and then you can’t take photos cause he’s basically all blur and unstoppable.

That hour was over way too quickly, and before I knew it, I was in a queue again, waiting for my second autograph. When it was my turn I had to wait a bit longer cause he had to sign some stuff for who knows who. I wasn't unhappy, just standing there, watching him? There's worse thing to do :-D And once again, he smiled at me when I came up to him. "I know you," he grinned when I gave him our double pic to sign. I might have had a gift for him which was music related, so naturally I asked him if there's anything to expect in that direction. He nodded, and very passionately said there would be at some point, still working on the how and all that. So yeah, here's more hope than usual. Cause the world NEEDS that beautiful voice in it! I also asked when he would be leaving, and wished him save travels. Oh, and I thanked him again for coming, and he said he'd be back next year! (I really hope that's really happening, I'd be sooo there again!). And as I was leaving he said to say hi to my English friend (apparently she was the only English person at the whole con), and I pointed at her, and he waved at her! What a sweetheart!

I was mentally exhausted after that, so I just sat down in front of the autograph booths to watch him a bit longer. (It was far enough away to still be inconspicuous but close enough to see him clearly) My Sally -bless her huge heart- just left me there and went to get us coffee, cause she knew I needed the time to calm down (and the caffeine)! I love her so much, and I'm so glad we did this together. She's my hero!!! There were only a handful more people there; and no other celebrity to sign anything. His time slot was until 6:30 pm, and it was just after 6 when he was basically done. And yet he stuck around until the VERY end. There were only staff left, and he climbed over the tables to take pics with them, signed things for them, giggled and just had fun. He could've left, there was nobody there anymore, and yet he stuck around until his time was up and then he packed all his things, waved at the staff people and wandered off, still with a skip in his step. I was done by that time - there was the B. Wong panel but I didn't want to end the con on anything else than Zac so we agreed to leave and go home.

Now, one week later, I am still so full of happiness and joy and gratitude for having been given the chance to meet the man. I'm grateful for Sally who took it all in her stride, dealt with me the only way that works on me. Thank you, darling, I love you so very much. Those are some memories I will treasure for the rest of time. I've met a few people I like and adore, but NOBODY will get even close to meeting and talking to the one and only Zachary Levi. I wish him only the best and all the success he deserves. And that he fulfills all those dreams he has about a better world. And yes, I hope he’ll be back next year! I’ll happily do it all over again in a heartbeat!!! I have to go back to work tomorrow (I do not want to) but I will fed off of his heart and his love and energy for a very long time!!!

Here’s to seeing him again next year - let’s just make this an annual thing, yeah?!

#personal #long post #like really looooooooooong #zachary levi #zac levi #ccxp cologne

13 notes · View notes

squeemcsquee · 6 years

Text

Anime Midwest 2018, Day 1

Well, frack. In my attempts to edit, this post got deleted. So, I’m going to do my best to re-create this post, but yipes!

This was my first year attending Anime Midwest, and I went with @lechevaliermalfet and @shbumi. We started out heading toward the con on Friday morning. We knew it would start midday, but there wasn’t anything huge on our radar, so we opted to just arrive a little late.

We took a back way for part of the way up. Not sure if it was faster or not, but hey, the scenery was a little more interesting than usual.

When we got to the hotel, there were Anime Midwest staffers on hand to point attendees to the appropriate desks for checkin, etc. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we opted to pay $10 more/night to get a balcony room that was available. On our way there, I got stopped for a photo, even though my Navi cosplay wasn’t even fully ready yet and I had suitcases with me. I took it as a good sign!

Once we got in, I made sure to get the photos for TraffickCam

Our balcony view wasn’t spectacular, but hey, balcony!

Once everything was carted in, we headed toward the con center. We probably could have walked outside, but we opted to go through the walkways, since we were most used to doing that from Anime Central.

This event was also very Pokemon-heavy for myself and @shbumi as event Pikachu were all over and Sat and Sun were both special Pokemon dn. And the Hyatt is an excellent place to stay if you want to play Pokemon Go.

When we got to the con center, we found a mini Line-Con. Rumor had it that the registration computers had gone down for a bit, forcing delays. We were in line for probably an hour to an hour and a half.

Thankfully, no one got too pissy about it that I could tell. Anime Midwest staff were also walking around, handing out programs and lanyards, and they had them available for pickup on a table before you reached the badge booths as well. And things did move steadily - it was just a lot of people for them to push through.

We then rushed to our first panel of the day, Linkara and The Geek Talk Comics. I didn’t really know who The Last Angry Geek was and I’m only casually familiar with Linkara’s work. But their discussion on comics was fun.

From there, @shbumi and I wandered to Forget This, I’m Using Hot Glue! The first part of the panel was difficult to see. Due to tech issues, the panelist could only show her slides on her laptop. Attempting to take a photo with my phone and then view the screen didn’t help, and I wasn’t inclined to move further up, because I could still hear okay.

I did wish I had an app like Guidebook to help me keep track of things, though. The printed program guide doesn’t really have note-taking space and it was hard to dig my notebook from my bag. That was poor planning on my part, I’ll admit. Still, if I’d been using something like Guidebook’s notes feature, I’d have been in heaven. This panel had plenty of good tips on using more than just hot glue.

The AC in the con center was cranked stupidly high, and there weren’t enough people yet to generate the level of body heat needed to offset the cool air. So, because I was hungry and because I needed to warm up, I went with @shbumi to check out the ConSweet.

The ConSweet is an AnimeCon.Org offering that lets attendees have free ramen (only ever saw chicken or shrimp available), soda, and rice. When available, you can also get salad, plain noodles, and oatmeal.

For a fee, there was a chef offering to add items to your ramen bowls.

There’s nothing like free food!

After this, I looked into the exhibit hall. It wasn’t as crowded as you would see at ACen, but they still had an awesome selection of vendors and artists on hand.

I wound up purchasing a small Navi from a vendor. How could I not, since I was cosplaying her that day? I didn’t get the artist’s name, though, and I wish I had. My little Navi stayed lit the entire weekend.

My next event wasn’t until 8:00, at the Making Anime in Japan: Q&A with Animators and Directors From Japan panel, featuring guests Terumi Nishii, NaSka, Hiroake Inoue, and Takashi Otsuka.

This one was very interesting to me. It was a fan-driven panel, but the depth and breadth of questions asked surprised me. There were the standard questions about how to get into the industry, but also questions about problems within the industry and changes the guests would like to see. It was very informative.

After the panel, we checked out the video game room. Sadly, it wasn’t to my tastes, so that was really my only visit during the weekend. The classic games they had that I would have wanted to play were already loaded on my 3Ds or @lechevaliermalfet ‘s. I’m still too self-conscious to attempt VR in a big public space. And while I might have tried the rhythm games, the wait was longer than I preferred. But plenty of people were enjoying themselves - this just wasn’t the area for me.

Instead, we headed to the manga library. On the way, though, I noted empty halls. This isn’t something you’d see at Anime Central until the wee morning hours, but Anime Midwest is still only about half the size and uses less of the convention center, so that’s probably why.

It was still unusual to me.

At the manga library, I browsed some My Little Pony comics and enjoyed the quiet. I love that this is a thing that exists. It lets me look into comics and manga that I’ve maybe wanted to buy, but haven’t been sure about.

And then it was time for a final panel and to wrap up the night:

I feel like this panel needs more love. But then again, I’m a huge fan of seafaring piracy’s history. The panel was well-paced and informative, and a great way to end my evening.

All of my Anime Midwest 2018 Coverage:

Anime Midwest 2018, Day 1

Cosplayers of Anime Midwest, Day 1, Part 1

Cosplayers of Anime Midwest, Day 1, Part 2

Anime Midwest 2018, Day 2

Cosplayers of Anime Midwest, Day 2, Part 1

Cosplayers of Anime Midwest, Day 2, Part 2

Great Graphic Novels You Should Be Reading (Carolina Manga Library)

Anime Midwest 2018, Day 3

Cosplayers of Anime Midwest, Day 3

#anime midwest #anime midwest 2018 #con recap #con review #prose and cons

0 notes