Tag: summer

How Movies and Memes have made me Connect Art and Music

As I was walking through the National Museum of Art in Washington DC, I couldn’t help by hear constant genres of old music (Classical and Medieval), as I walked through the impressively European artwork. While hearing the music for so long (I spent hours in there), I was reminded of the time of when I was in other museums (in Rome, LA, San Francisco), and each time I heard music that I had subconsciously connected the artwork to.

There are only two reasons why this has occurred. The answer: movies and memes. Why these two? Well, I could argue that shows have also helped, but they gained their inspiration from movies and documentaries. Movies and documentaries often connect the old European art to classical music, Native and Polynesian art with traditional flute music, and so on and so forth. Documentaries are really to blame for this, particularly art and culture documentaries, pairing famous artworks alongside music that just gets stuck in your head.

However, it’s not just documentaries, as I mentioned earlier. Movies, too, sometimes only vaguely related to the artwork, can have music that can pop into my head, despite not even being in the same country (in some Roman churches, the soundtrack to Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame kept playing in my head). For some reason, my mind connects one to the other, and there’s no way to get out of it. And I’m certainly not the only one.

But where do memes come in? Well memes, the epitome of how people process pop culture and politics in the name of humor. These can take shape in the form of pictures, videos, and just about any other digital medium that you can work with. While sometimes art is used to make clever historical memes (there was a period of Washington painting memes that flooded my dash), the gifs and videos are what really get me.

Oftentimes the gifs are attached to some dumb song or another, and the videos are edited to have music in them. So rather than classy music binding itself to art in my mind, its dumb music that makes me smile or crack up. It’s dumb, but my mind seems keen on connecting my memories to the present, something I’m certain all of our brains do. Brains like to do stuff like that, especially when we get a first glance at famous works via pop culture. Sometimes it’s kind of nice, and other times it’s not.

Is Comic-Con Too Big for San Diego?

Every year in July San Diego is able to boast its position as the host of the world’s largest Comic-Con. Tourism skyrockets as thousands of people come from all over the country (and even the world) in order to attend the convention at the San Diego Convention Center near downtown. Every year more people and businesses come, with the former wanting to see what goes on and the later wanting to show off their newest wares. It is really a sight to behold.

There is one big issue with this situation, however. As more and more people and businesses come, the less space at the convention center there is to fit them. In fact, the convention has long outgrown the capacity of the convention center, with booths and events being lined up along the street, as well as filling up the center itself.

Comic-Con is also notoriously packed, with people I’ve spoken to saying that some aisles are almost impossible to go down. As it is such a famous convention, it would only make sense that thousands of people would attend. With the growing lack of space, however, it becomes almost too pack for its own good. Not that that’s going to stop people from coming, but it will make moving around less enjoyable.

San Diego is very aware of this fact. They want to make sure that they can continue to host Comic-Con and keep the economic boost for the city, even making plans to expand the convention center to better fit the convention. Why haven’t they acted on those plans? Well, the answer is simple: the convention would have to move to another city in order for them to expand the convention center.

In order for the convention to run uninterrupted, it would have to temporarily move to another city while the San Diego hall was getting renovated, for who knows how long. The issue here comes from the fact that the new city that gets to host might not want to give it up. Especially with a convention that provides so many benefits to the city, San Diego might not be able to get its own convention back when the construction is all said and done. Especially when the convention goes to cities like Los Angeles of San Francisco.

As a result, San Diego has been pushing it off. But how much longer can they push off expanding? Eventually, they’ll run out of too much practical space, and they can’t just let the convention branch all over downtown San Diego. They’ll eventually just have to expand the hall, and hope that the city Comic-Con goes to is willing to give the convention back.

Going to a Convention: What You Should Do

You might be wondering “why would I need an etiquette guide for a convention? What is there I need to know?” Well, you would think that no one needed an etiquette guide in order to attend a public convention, but that is unfortunately not the case. You see, a surprising amount of people don’t seem to understand the most basic rules of walking around a tight space with a large group of people, sometimes on accident, and sometimes just out of disrespect. Based off of witnessing these broken rules, I am here to provide a small guide for you not to do the same.

Shower before you go. This might seem like an obvious one, but I swear you will pass by someone who smells like they haven’t showered in 3 weeks. Especially at Anime Expo. It’s uncanny how many times I’ve walked down an aisle, only to be hit with the distinct stench of someone who just went to the convention without washing themselves (for who knows how long). It’s gross, and no one wants to smell it.

Never crowd in the center of the aisle. I know conventions, particularly big ones, may be a little disorienting, but don’t stop in the middle of the aisle. Find a place that you can collect yourself off to the side so people can pass by. When you stop in the middle, you force people to have to walk around you, often causing a huge line of traffic. Another obvious one, but it still happens all the same.

Don’t block the paths to booths. Some booths are quite popular, with a popular artist or company displaying their wares, attracting many to see. However, often there are always some people who make it impossible to get inside the booth, causing people to have to push their way through just to see. And then the culprit gets mad at those people for trying to push their way through. Be polite, and always try to let someone in the booth if you can.

The last thing big thing I am going to put is respect the cosplayers. There are always cosplayers milling about, going around for people to take pictures of. Be polite and ask first, however. Don’t come up and demand a photo, and especially don’t come up and touch a cosplayer inappropriately. This is an issue I have witnessed first-hand, where someone asked for a picture then grabbed the breast of a cosplayer. That is not okay, not even if they’re scantily dressed. It’s a character design, not an invitation to harass. They are just trying to enjoy their time at the convention just like you, and you should let them.

Lessons Learned from Tanacon: Never Plan a Convention in a Month

People are still buzzing from the disaster known as Tanacon. It happened over the weekend as a contrarian convention to Vidcon, and quickly gained news for being disorganized, too small for the amount of people that came, and basically a big scam. So what happened?

Well, this all began when popular Youtuber Tana Mongeau felt that she had been snubbed too many times by Vidcon, who wouldn’t give a content creator’s pass, even as she starred in Escape the Night, one of Youtube Red’s larger shows. Finally, she had decided she had had enough, and decided to make a convention of her own, meant to be a fun place for her and her fans. The move was bold and inspiring, but there were a series of missteps that ultimately led it to being considered one of the worst conventions ever.

The first misstep? Trying to plan an entire convention in a month. Such a move is utterly impossible. It takes many years in order to start a convention, and none are ever perfect from the start. The fact that she tried to plan a convention in a month with no previous experience and nothing really planned is bold- too bold for a newbie.

But you know, the result of a month’s planning wouldn’t have been so bad had there not been over 5,000 people in attendance. This came as a result of Tana promising the option of free tickets, wanting it to be open to all. Tanacon gave free tickets to those who reserved online in May. For VIP or FFC (featured fucking creators), you have to pay $65 and $70 (plus $12 tax) respectively, which were supposed to allow you to skip the line and get a guaranteed spot for meet-and-greets. However, when it came down to it, there was no different lines for the VIP and the regular, and it seemed more people had bought the VIP passes than the free ones.

People also flew out from all over the country to come, wanting to see the larger Youtubers such as Shane Dawson, Elijah Daniel, and of course, Tana Mongeau herself. What they got instead was waiting over five hours in a line with no shade, no water, and no food, unable to get into a venue that couldn’t fit anywhere near the number. The line was unmoving, leaving people getting sunburnt and even getting the risk of heat stroke. Some people even went so far as to jump the fence blocking the ticketing booth, throwing passes over to the crowd waiting.

For those who could actually get in the convention, they were sorely disappointed. There was only one hall for people to go around, and the many fun events that had been promised were lacking. Plus, there wasn’t enough space for everyone to attend the meet-and-greets, leaving many people who had reserved tickets left out. Plus, half the people who said they would attend actually couldn’t, having conflicting times for panels at Vidcon. To make matters worse, at the end of the day, security kicked people out, as per order of the fire marshal.

The real cherry on top, however, would have to be the gift bags, which were supposed to have over a $60 value. What people got instead was a bag, stickers, and a condom (this is a kid friendly event). This left people furious. Now there are a few law suits, as people were basically scammed out of around $80+. It’s also a message of how not to run a convention.

Attack of the Hybrid Dyno

The Jurassic World series seems to be obsessed with introducing a hybrid dinosaur in each of its films. It’s incorporated in various different ways, either being entertainment (in the first film) or a cool new pet (in the second film). Both times, they are a combination of various predators (never the gentle herbivores), and both times, they get out and try to kill everyone.

Which, isn’t necessarily bad. It can make an interesting point. But can it be done without making a copy of the original hybrid?

No kidding, the hybrid dinosaur in the second film is supposed to be an edited version of the hybrid dinosaur from the first movie. When I say edited, I mean with some more velociraptor DNA (to make it obedient?), to try and improve from the fiasco from the last film. Couldn’t they have done something else? They had the potential to make it more unique. But I guess if you have the legendary hybrid dinosaur that destroyed Jurassic World as a pet, that would be a pretty good bragging point.

The only problem is, it is pretty much the central focus of the film, like the last one. In the original Jurassic Park series, each film had a different plot (centered around the island, but with very different story lines). This series, however, while it does add certain elements that make it unique, it still focuses around a hybrid dinosaur. And the same kind of hybrid dinosaur. Which kind of limits the opportunities for creative opportunities.

Planning a Trip to Disneyland

Disneyland in Anaheim is a park that receives millions of visitors in a year. It’s the first one ever opened, and is most known for the fact. It is also known to have a major overcrowding problem, pushing ticket prices up seemingly every year. It’s an issue that especially affects socal locals, who not only need to plan around the traffic, but also be ready to drop a minimum of $200 a person. Which often pushes them away (unless you’re one of the ones who buys an annual pass and goes every weekend). But, if you are willing to splurge once a year or every other year, here’s a few habits my friends and I picked up trying to make the most out of our visits.

The first habit we picked up was going during “off seasons”. An “off season” are the seasons where tourist traffic is lower than average (late summer/early fall to december, january to april). You might think “but LA always has tourists.” That’s why I said lower than average traffic. The months are important, because they center around when people need to go back to school, and when they go one winter break. Going during an “off season” can make all the difference in wait times, which can be cut by as much as half. Choosing a weekday is also important, as it guarantees people will be in school (which helps if you have vacation during the quarter system, which is different from everyone else).

The second is to be very picky of where we get our food. Disneyland food is especially pricey, and you have to know where you’re going to get the most bang for your buck. If you get a park hopper pass, I would just recommend that you go to California Adventure, where the food tends to be cheaper. But if you’re stuck in just Disneyland, go to Downtown Disney (you can always come back into the park). But the food in the New Orleans area of Disneyland isn’t bad.

The third habit we picked up was fast passing the biggest rides. You can only take out one fast pass at a time, but its worth getting them for Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain. Those tend to be the rides within Disneyland park that have the longest waits (although Matterhorn can be up to 110 minute wait, as well). In California Adventure, getting a fast pass for Cars Ride, and Guardians of the Galaxy are the ones you need to get. While getting the fast pass for the ride is helpful, if the lines are short enough, it may just be more worth it just to wait in the line.

The last important habit I can say is try to stay all day. You have the make the most out of your trip, especially if it was a hassle getting there in the first place, and staying all day and trying to see as much as you can is the least you can do. The crowds can be a bit tedious, however, and if it threatens to chase you away, that’s okay. Just stay out of the fantasyland area and you avoid most of the people with strollers.

What is Anime Expo?

For the first time in six years, I’ll be missing this years Anime Expo, known as AX, in Los Angeles. Though I’d never been all that invested in anime, I made a point to go every year, wanting to see artists I follow on social media or catch up on new and upcoming video games. It has much more to do than that, but that’s what I’ve always gone for.

AX was first inaugurated around 26 years ago, as the United States was diving into the “anime craze”. It was organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SJPA), and it appears every year during early July. It is also the largest anime convention in North America, with over 100,000 people attending last year.

So what goes on at AX? Well, lots of things. Because of how large the convention is, AX has the luxury of being able to bring pop culture icons and anime artists out from Japan to visit for panels, or to promote their company on the main floor. The main floor is for “official” companies, ones who can promote new games (Monster Hunter), or promote their anime company (Funimation, Bushiroad), or their culture brand (Rilakkuma). You can also buy cosplay related items such as wigs, weapons, and costumes (although they run a bit pricey).

On the floor below the main floor, there’s what’s known as Artist’s Alley. Formerly in the back of the main floor, the alley has grown so much that they had to move it down to its own space. Here is where you can find artists selling anything from prints to stationery, either original or based off a certain anime/game. Here you can find artists you like or follow, or discover new art. Be prepared to spend a lot.

There is a gaming section too, but on the other side of the convention center. There is both the gaming room and a place to take pictures in cosplay, along with all the panels. In the game room, you can play virtual Japanese games, board games, or card games. There’s plenty to do, the only issue being that playing any popular games requires waiting for an uncertain amount of time.

There’s plenty of things to do at this convention, and its worth buying a four day pass (when its much cheaper, that is). Although I won’t be able to go this year, I know it will be bigger than ever.

Incredibles 2 and Legend of Korra: Shifting with the Times

I got to see the Incredibles 2 last night with my friend, and I have to say it was a very good film. I did notice in watching the film, however, that there was quite a bit of appeal to the people who were kids when the original Incredibles came out. Because of fourteen year gap between the films, most, if not all of the people who got to enjoy the first film are now in college or beyond (myself included), and have the potential to be the biggest source of income for the movie. And while of course there are elements in kids’ movies that appeal more to the adults, Incredibles 2 seemed to appeal to the older kids more than usual.

Which, makes sense. Like I said, there is a fourteen year gap between the release of Incredibles and Incredibles 2, and the people who would want to see the movie the most are in or out of college already. That gives the freedom to add more “adult” elements, while still calling it a kids’ movie.

The same event happened in Legend of Korra. The show, which was a sequel to Avatar the Last Airbender, brought in darker, more adult elements, appealing to the fan base who watched the original show. Although it was only a four year gap between the two shows, the generation who watched the show had grown quite a bit since the first episode. Plus, with Legend of Korra having a total of four seasons, the kids continue to grow into adulthood. If you contrast this from the Last Airbender, you’ll notice the original show was much more lighthearted in nature, and Korra is more gritty (even the styles are different, the original having more roundish characteristics, and the latter having sharper more realistic imagery).

Both the movie and the show hold the task of appealing to their old fan base, while still attracting a new, younger fan base. It’s a balancing act, having the freedom to stretch beyond the traditional limits of kids’ media while at the same time having to maintain some semblance of it. It’s a difficult task, one that these media seem to do well.

A Trip to Universal Studios: What to Expect

With summer here, hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the globe will be travelling to Los Angeles to see the world famous attractions. One of these attractions, is of course, Universal Studios.

What can you expect if you want to go here? Well, from experience (although I haven’t been since a year before Hogwarts opened), here’s a few tips that’ll prepare you for what usually happens when you visit the park.

First step: buying tickets. No matter what, you will want to buy your tickets online. They can range anywhere from $109-124 during the summer (during off seasons, they’re much cheaper). The price ranges on what day of the month you decide to go. Earlier in the month tends to be cheaper. If you decide to buy the tickets at the door, they will be the most expensive.

Second: Be ready for crowds. Universal Studios not only attracts locals, but tourists from all over the world. Don’t be surprised to find that the biggest rides will have the longest waits (yes, this includes the studio tours). Also, there will be people everywhere, despite the streets being built for large crowds. Make sure to keep track of your party at all times.

Third: It’s probably best not to buy food in the park. Think of it like any theme park food- overpriced, and not that great. It’s better just to go to City Walk and return to the park. It may not be cheaper, but it is certainly better tasting. However, if you don’t want to deal with the trouble of getting out and back in to the park, then staying in the park will be fine. The food won’t kill you.

Fourth: Bring water and find ways to stay hydrated. Los Angeles is a semi-desert, and gets insanely hot during the summer (the average in the 90s), and it’s important to drink plenty of water while you’re in the park. Also bring sunscreen. You don’t want to get sunburnt by walking to get on a ride.

Fifth: And lastly, don’t forget to enjoy the whole park. There are multiple levels to it, and a great view of Warner Brothers studios. It is a fun park, and although the lines can get long, the day wouldn’t be worth it if you skipped half the lines. Also, it’s not recommended that you bring infant kids. They wouldn’t really enjoy most rides, and dealing with a crying kid in the heat is less than enjoyable. Have Fun!

Can Romantic Comedies Make a Comeback?

Romantic comedies, or rom coms, have faced a serious decline in popularity on the big screen. Once at their peak in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, rom coms have been relegated to the indie screen, where they have become products of subculture, rather than a point of mass entertainment. But could this change?

Rom coms initially began falling out of popularity on the big screen in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, as many rom com films fell back on the same tropes and plot points, causing the genre to look too repetitive and unoriginal. These tropes include cute-meets, love triangles, happy endings, mid-movie break-ups and change of hearts, last moment change of hearts, and many others that led movies to become repetitive and unoriginal. The good rom coms were mashed together with the many bad ones, and audiences lost interest.

Rom coms moved to the indie screen as a result, and major media companies practically gave up on the genre for more profitable endeavors. Rom coms became parts of subculture, with more dynamism coming in as a result of having the “indie freedom” that comes with being made without having to appeal to the general populace. And with this decade being dominated by a distinct lack of rom coms, it seemed like they were never coming back.

That was, until the announcement for August’s release of Crazy Rich Asians was announced. The film, released by Warner Brothers and based off the bestselling book by Kevin Kwan, is creating discussion around whether or not the genre can come back to the big screen. Increasingly, there is hope that the film with give the genre a much needed rebirth, bringing the genre back to a newer audience.

While I don’t know about the film bringing an entire genre back, it does have the potential to give romantic comedies an entirely new look, shedding old tropes that really needed to go.