It’s been a minute since I went to an anime convention (11 years!) and even longer since I helped out at one (21 years!), but when you start becoming an old dude sometimes you’re just compelled to give in to the mid life crisis and do random stuff just because you have a free weekend. After a semi-successful round of driving at Lone Star Drift where I barely picked up a camera (gasp!) I found some down time to go volunteer at Tokyo X!
Read MoreCategory: Cosplay
It’s like Halloween, only more esoteric and with less candy. Wait, no really, it’s more awesome than it sounds.
San Japan 8Bit
Ya know? Some times you just run into a perfect storm. I mean everything that could happen just comes together so perfectly that good or bad all one can do is simply gawk at how perfectly things fell in to place. That in a nutshell was San Japan.
Now this was my very first time shooting the convention and in fact I was merely back up called on short notice, nevertheless, we gotta live up to our motto: Have Camera, Will Travel Trespass. To say this convention left an impression on me is a severe understatement. San Antonio’s Riverwalk area and the B. Gonzalez Convention Center offered such a great backdrop for photos I was instantly smitten!
This instasmitt was even smittener with some of the best cosplayers around. It was great running into old friends from the Houston circuit as well as make new friends and contacts.
Speaking of the convention itself, it was fairly well organized for its size and there was quite a lot to do. My fellow photog and I had to plan ahead on which events we would capture and which shoots we’d attend. All in all we were far from disappointed. In fact the only criticism I had was the hellish weather which was two notches below excruciating and a tick above stroke. Que sera, sera. Read More
7 Things About Quakecon
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that video games have come a long way in the last 20 years. Hell, even just the genre of first person shooters has evolved considerably over that time. And right at the start, it was the Quake series that brought about a refined take on multiplayer and arguably spawned the concept of e-sports. With all that in mind, I was determined to make the pilgrimage to Dallas to experience the mecca of gaming. A place where gaming culture, and my kin, are celebrated. Dude, I went to Quakecon.
Anime Matsuri 2015
Spring is in the air and that means one thing: swollen faces and stuffed up noses from being inadvertently trapped in a massive orgy with all the trees in the gulf coast.
And Anime Matsuri!
2015 Houston Japan Festival
Confession time! I’ve never been to the Houston Japan Festival before! To some that might not be a big deal, but I moved to the United States in 1995 and this year marks Japan Fest’s 22nd anniversary. This means that the Houston Japan Festival has literally been in town longer than I have. Yeah, much slacking on my part.
Rice Bowl x Anime Matsuri Weekend
It has been a real fun few weekends! I’m hella joyed to officially welcome Hai to our little team of Hipster nerds after CJ and I caught up with him at Anime Matsuri. He’ll be our dude out in Austin sharing whatever fun he gets into over there, and hopefully he’ll drop into to town to visit once in a while. Hai and I talked a little bit about StrangeRhythms and its audience, and I briefly outlined that our content direction is the desire to share things we love through photography. In a few words, passions over everything, photos before anything; have camera, will trespass. We’re just nerds that want to do media stuff! That in mind, our actual coverage is a strange ensemble of subjects. Some days we post fashion things, other days it’s motorsports and occasionally, it could be anime. You’d think these hobbies would all be mutually exclusive, but sometimes they come together as an orchestra and produce a beautiful symphony.