PortConMaine - South Portland, Maine - June 30-July 2

[Dylonius Funk]

I was wondering how many folks here will be making the trip to Maine forPortCon (http://www.portconmaine.com/index.htm) this year? i know the guys who run the convention and they put on a terrific show. Frankly i'm happy there's a con i can go to where i can come for the day and sleep in my own bed that night /images/graemlins/happy.gif. This year should be a good as they've gotten VG Cats creator Scott Ramsoomair and ADV and Funi VA Luci Christian as headline guests. I think it should be a good show this year.

[PatrickD]

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Dylonius Funk said:
This year should be a good as they've gotten VG Cats creator Scott Ramsoomair and ADV and Funi VA Luci Christian as headline guests. I think it should be a good show this year.

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Don't forget the Lisa Furukawa Ray concert!
I'll be there again. I haven't missed a PortConMaine yet!

[jaylee]

I'll definitely be there again this year.

[tstidm1]

One of these years, I should go up there. It would be a great weekend of Baseball (Portland Seadogs) and Anime. I wonder how much Airfare costs to Portland.

[Dylonius Funk]

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Redneck Otaku said:
One of these years, I should go up there. It would be a great weekend of Baseball (Portland Seadogs) and Anime. I wonder how much Airfare costs to Portland.

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The Seadogs are allways a good show. As far as travel goes you'll usually pay a lot less to come into Boston than you will Portland. Just because i'm a nice guy i did a quick check for prices for the con weekend from Baltimore to both Logan and Portland International Jetport

Boston prices (http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qryt=2&tovr=-1294727294&ps3u=)

Portland prices (http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?tovr=-1294727294&ps3u=)

A round trip into the Jetport is around $400 where as one into Boston is around $140. You could allways fly into Bostona and then take the Amtrak Downeaster train into Portland. Whenever we used to fly we would allways fly out of Boston because flying out of Portland is so much more expensive due to it being such a small airport. On the pluu side it's right near the Maine Mall where the Sheraton is so if you were gonna stay in the Sheraton for the con you wouldn't have far to go.

[PatrickD]

FYI: PortConMaine's schedule is posted on the web site:
http://portconmaine.com/schedule.htm

[Chris Beveridge]

Survive Style +5!!!

Go see it if you've never seen it or can't play R2 discs. It's just so... you gotta see it!

[amkaron]

I will be making the trip up to PortCon Maine for the first time this year. I am planning on taking the noon-time Concord Trailways bus on Friday (June 30) out of South Station in Boston for the 2 hour ride to Portland. The bus should arrive in Portland around 2:15 PM (The Concord Trailways bus station is at the same place as the Portland, ME train station for the Amtrak Downeaster-- however, the bus is a little cheaper than Amtrak and you can listen to a movie and music en route. (Round trip bus from Boston on Concord Trailways is around $34)

However, unless I find someone else to room with, I can only afford to stay Friday night-- I will have to leave early Saturday evening to return to Boston. I am heading up to Portland to hear Lisa Ray in concert, and meet Luci Christian.

I usually go to two conventions a year, AnimeBoston and AnimeNext-- however, I could not go to AnimeNext this year because there was a Bar Mitzvah that weekend for a member of my family.

[jaylee]

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Chris Beveridge said:
Survive Style +5!!!

Go see it if you've never seen it or can't play R2 discs. It's just so... you gotta see it!

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um...wow...wtf?!...'n stuff...

seriously. this movie is just messed up. my friend and i are still telling poeple about it.

[amkaron]

I just wanted to say that I had a good time up in Maine at PortCon, although if I ever have to watch Portcon chair Julie York do "Extreme Geek" again, it will be too soon. Knowledge of anime alone is woefully sufficient to win this game, to put it mildly.

Thank you, Dylonius, for allowing me to stay at your place. I appreciated meeting you and your mother, and I had a good time. If I had known that you did not have Genshiken in your anime collection, I would have brought my copy up to screen a few episodes for you.

Unfortunately, I only saw a few minutes of Survive Style +5 due to the conflict with the first Lisa Furakawa Ray piano concert on Friday. From what I saw, though, Survive Style +5 had the markings of a hilarious movie. I went to see both of Lisa Ray's concerts, and purchased her 2nd and 3rd CDs. Hopefully, I will find time this week to listen to them.

Other thoughts--

1.) I know that PortCon is a gaming convention as well as an anime convention, but I was amazed that an autograph line for fantasy writer RA Salvatore would be longer than an autograph line for either Luci Christian or Lisa Ray. The autograph line for Luci Christian was short enough that I was able to get 4 items signed by Luci and 1 item signed by Daniel Kevin Harrison. Thank goodness for small conventions!

2.) Even though it is not anime, the late night screening of the first six episodes on the season 1 DVD of Robot Chicken was probably the highlight of the night in the video rooms. Everyone at the screening of Robot Chicken was participating in singing along with the opening and closing credits of each episode.

3.) Among the cosplayers that I did see were:

a.) A cosplayer of Susumu Kodai (aka Derek Wildstar) on Friday.

b.) Two cosplayers from the Ouran High School Host Club anime series.

c.) A very detailed cosplay of J-rocker Mana from the J-rock group Malice Mizer.

d.) A Nabeshin cosplayer who unfortunately was clueless about Nerima Daikon Brothers when I tried to ask him about the series.

4.) The cosplay stage show was not bad-- I was entertained.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a few days worth of vacation in Maine.

BTW-- on my bus ride on Concord Trailways back to Boston, the bus driver screened the Disney movie "The Greatest Game Ever Played", which is the biography movie about how amateur golfer Francis Ouimet beat 2 rich British golfers in an 18 hole playoff to win the 1913 US Open at the Country Club in Brookline, MA and helped rid the stigma of golf as only a "rich man's" game. I could imagine an anime being made out of that movie.

[PatrickD]

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shinji7161 said:
I just wanted to say that I had a good time up in Maine at PortCon, although if I ever have to watch Portcon chair Julie York do "Extreme Geek" again, it will be too soon. Knowledge of anime alone is woefully sufficient to win this game, to put it mildly.

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It also takes an iron stomach. /images/graemlins/wink.gif Extreme Geek is pretty wild geeky fun.

[amkaron]

Yes, "Extreme Geek" is wild and fun-- to watch, anyway. Just don't take it too seriously when the game master calls members of the audience "losers" for just playing it safe and wanting to watch rather than participate in the "extremeness" of "Extreme Geek."

Watching "Extreme Geek" is like watching the old "Extreme Championship Wrestling" (as opposed to ECW on Sci-Fi)-- except the wrestling is replaced with other games.