I'm back from Con Nooga and I have to say it was amazing. After three years of MTAC and all it's bull shit, Con Nooga was a much needed breath of fresh air.
First of all, the con was huge. MTAC has always been crammed into three little halls and two main rooms from which all the other rooms sprouted. It's small. Way smaller then it should be considering the con just gets bigger every year. It outgrew that building two years ago and they are still using it. Con Nooga on the other hand is held at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel which is an old converted train station. The place was huge. So big you could actually take a shuttle buss from one side of the con to the other if you didn't want to walk. Maybe that's not so impressive for some of you, Dragoncon goers come to mind. But for a small con guy like me it was pure sekky. I'll never go back to crappy MTAC again.
Not only was it big but there was actually a lot to do. So much that I couldn't go to all the events and panels I wanted to. I didn't even have time to go to the Traditional Vs. Webcomic panel, and I'm a webcomic author! It's not your crappy, commercialized, give us your money and we'll let you walk around in circles all day while Staff yells at you for every little thing, con like MTAC has become. I don't even remember what I did last time I went to MTAC. Did I do anything other then walk around... Oh I saw a cosplay strip show... I think that was it. It's all I remember anyways.
Another thing this con had going for it that MTAC doesn't... It's not a daycare where 500+ kids get dropped off by their parents and are left to run wild for the weekend. God I loved not having to deal with that kind of crap. A mature con within driving distance, finally!
So far all I've been doing is comparing Con Nooga to MTAC. Which is okay. MTAC needs to be bashed a little. But let me tell you a bit about what was actually going on.
Con Nooga is a Multi Fandom Convention, or as my associate, Eko, (who I went to the con with) kept saying, an Everything Convention. I kept getting onto her about that beacuse it's not an "everything" con. There weren't any lumberjacks there... But what it is, is an all things geek convention. It's a Sci-Fi con, a Furry con, an Anime con, a Horror con, a Comic Book con, a Steampunk con, and a Gaming con all rolled into one. (I hope I didn't leave anything out)
Panels and Events ranged from Fursuit Construction, Meet The Chattanooga Rollergirls, Make Your Own Damn Movie (hoasted by Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment), Steampunk Round Table, Bigwheel Rally, Texas Hold 'em tournament, LARPing, Bellydancing, and room parties galore, just to name a few. Let me put it this way. I haven't had this much fun, or had this many things to do in one place, since I went to Disney World. And better then Disney World, everywhere I went cool and/or hot chicks were always inviting me to room parties. *Grins*
I can't possibly cover everything in one post so I'll post more about little things here and there in coming weeks. But for now, here's some of the Bellydancing show put on by Yard Gnome Productions. I filmed this but the video was put together bt Eko who cut some of it out. So after I get the files from her I'll make my own video. But until then...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGXVUZU5_9g
((Sorry I can't give it to you as a link. I can't figure out why my blog won't let me post html today...))
