So I went to a fan convention & We caused an earthquake (1.9 richter scale) in the convention hall.

[Leopolds Ghost]

Reposted here because my other thread was too sad and No Elephants wanted to hear about something vaguely cheerful.

They had a big concert/rave two nights in a row with 4,000-6,000 people in the main hall. The first night, the bands encouraged all the audience members to start pogo-ing up and down while shouting "Fun! Fun! Fun!" for about 40 minutes straight. It was a very diverse crowd. The music was very deep. They said their goal was to make the building shake.

Second night they told everypony to cut that out because we were in danger of making the building collapse, since the whole building was shaking and it set off car alarms a mile away. It did feel kind of like a mini-Woodstock. The convention staff were literally afraid the ceiling would collapse.

They had a range of acts from heavy rap to electronic to folk to indie rock, all of whom were bronies (there's sort of a subgenre of music at least in the electronic scene.) The rap artists were very good which astonished me. I wasn't surprised that the electronic music was mostly good. The best stuff was the singers that mixed in stuff like actual songs by people who are professionally involved in the fandom, since the official composer is really talented. If this were the 90's he'd probably be writing musicals. Rolling Stone wrote an article about the music...

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. (this is what people think bronies are like. the concert looked nothing like this, but it makes me lol)





The music and projection was a lot more like this but much more cheerful and without the dark imagery.

(for some reason, it seems to be a joke to cast Fluttershy as a heavy metal singer, like in this classic rock song.)





http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LfUXBRVBw6I/TmAcd3_1qJI/AAAAAAAALXM/n_6kR6i8z3E/s320/52248+-+DJ_P0n-3+artist+imp-oster+vinyl_scratch.png

[Enthusiast]

1. I read the Rolling Stones article.

Pretty amazing. The video on site wouldn't work, however.

[No Elephants]

2. Worked for me. Maybe it was a temporary glitch?

[Leopolds Ghost]

5. Here's a couple panels from the OFFICIAL licensed My Little Pony comic.

Gives you an idea how much the core audience of the franchise has changed:





It's definitely a cult fanbase, like Rocky Horror or something...
when you consider that this comic is apparently a #1 bestselling comic and
that the convention was the 18th largest convention of any kind this year.

I wish I could say that everything was roses for the MLP fans but Hasbro
which owns the franchise seems to be trying to force the show runners to
re-tailor the actual cartoon to appeal only to little girls. If they do
that then the only people left in the fandom will be creepers eventually.

[No Elephants]

7. It does look a lot more brony than 6 year old girl.

I guess they'll always have Barbie.

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. Not to worry, they've come out with a spinoff franchise for girls.

It features the ponies transported to... a modern high school.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, I guess..


(I don't really think the comic is not for girls, though? I dunno, I haven't read it.)



The Comic:

The Artist:

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. BTW did you catch the donald sutherland reference :-)

[No Elephants]

3. Leo, not sure what I said, but I did not mean to force you to be cheerful!

I'd love for you to feel happy, but just feel what you feel and post however you feel like posting. It's all good with me, really.

Maybe I meant that my own posts should be more cheerful? Because I feel like maybe I've been upsetting people. Anyway....

I read the article, too. I think you've enlightened me from time to time more than the Rolling Stone article did, though.

You are a good writer. You are a brony and an activist and you run a not for profit place. Do you blog?

Anyway, I am really glad that you had a great time at the convention.

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. Oh, I didn't mean it in a negative way at all. The other thread was for me to vent about feelin bad.

So I posted this in another thread because it was a little more upbeat to talk about the convention.

I went in not knowing what to expect... Fan conventions in general have a negative reputation for bringing out the most socially awkward nerds in existence, and, per my other post, I don't need more of that in my life.

I wish I was a good enough writer to blog, but I can't compose my thoughts in a vaccuum, if nopony is replying to me then I just get long-winded and write too much and then noone reads it at all. Blogs seem to exist to validate the opinions and self-worth of people who are popular and have a lot of friends on-line. I remember trying to hold conversations about the terrible urban planning in this country on actual urban planning bulletin boards and nopony listened to me, so I finally stopped talking to people about it because I couldn't find people who a) agreed with me and b) were willing to have a conversation about it. That's why I am upset that the person I used to work for won't call me back, because she and I used to have great conversations about arcane urban planning issues that nopony in this country gives a shit about (because we have terrible architecture and terrible, automobile oriented infrastructure.) If I had a blog I'd probably talk a lot about those things but I'd have to have friends who wanted to read it first. I know people say "write for yourself" but I don't see the point if nobody reads it.

[No Elephants]

6. I see your point, though I think sometime journaling (not online) for oneself

can have a place sometimes, too.

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. Too bad I can't write.

I'm a visual person, I care more about inanimate objects (buildings) these days. I'd be able to form more coherent sentences on paper if I had more friends to talk to. Not that I don't care about people but it feels like the world's going to hell in a handbasket... politically / culturally / evironmentally, and it's hard to relate to people when you try your best to be social and people still don't really relate to you (me).



Part of the problem (I hate to say it, but my mom would say it) is we're the smart ones. ("We" including a lot of folks willing to post extended paragraphs on DU) The average person (wherever you go) thinks they have no problems, doesn't read (hence the popularity of twitter), and live an unexamined life and don't want to be obnoxed by eggheads.



That doesn't mean we don't have problems, we can see the problems in our own lives. Smart people are often depressed. Organized religion came about in an effort to understand the crushing dilemma of mortality and the soul and evil. Stuff most people don't care about or no longer believe in or want to wish away. I do believe in a higher power but sometimes I don't believe s/he wants me anymore. Then I remember what always used to comfort me, that none of us has more than a short time on this earth anyhoof and it's up to us to make the best of it and not expect to be luckier and more successful than everypony else.