Tsuki-con was was held yesterday evening at the Blanco Ballroom in San Antonio, Texas. The first-time event was a fundraiser intended to raise funds for The Advocates Youth Boxing Program, which “is designed to help youth, at-risk youth and young adults to build positive character traits and instill positive values.”
Upon hearing about it, I thought: “well, that’s a pretty cool idea, the geek community has been known to come out and contribute to charitable causes, particularly if kids are involved.” I participate in an event called Extra Life that raises funds for children’s hospitals every year, and the thought of helping out another worthy cause sounded good to me.
I went straight to the Blanco Ballroom after work and arrived to find the parking lot nearly full, which was encouraging. Sure enough, there were plenty of dealers, artists, and attendees there. The Ballroom isn’t exactly grand-spanking new, but it was in decent shape and worked well for the event. Unlike most events I have been to, there was plenty of seating, but one artist friend muttered that he’s rather see potential customers walking around. Oh well.
Tsuki-con was a one-evening affair. In addition to the artists and dealers, they had a cosplay contest, held some raffles, had panels, and some entertainers performed as the evening went on. Unfortunately, they do have a few things they need to work on for next time:
Where’s the Charity? – I was a little disappointed in that there wasn’t a table for the charity that was supposed to be benefiting from the event. It would have been nice to learn more about what they are doing. Indeed, I wasn’t even sure where I was supposed to donate to the charity. I did buy a special print from an artist, part of the proceeds was going to the charity, so I figured that was good enough. This could have been a good opportunity for The Advocates Youth Boxing Program to drum up support, sign up volunteers and build awareness of their organization, but they didn’t take full advantage of it.
Who’s in charge, here? – It was not even made clear (or at least, I couldn’t tell) just who was in charge of the event. Considering some of the issues that arose, it would have been nice to be able to find someone to get things sorted out.
I didn’t think this was THAT kind of show – Most of the entertainment was provided by Madame’s Muses, “a modern vaudville style dance troupe hoping to bring class back to the Art of the Tease.” Yeah. At first we were treated to a slightly risque song by one of the Muses, but it wasn’t anything too bad and the crowd enjoyed the performance. There was a Steampunk Elvis (who I do not believe is associated with the Muses) who, along with some friends, treated us to a funny steam-themed rendition of “Viva Las Vegas” called “Viva The Steampunk.” Everyone was having a fun time.
And then came the fishnets.
A trio of women wearing short shorts and fishnet stockings took the stage and started dancing…well, as one would expect women in short shorts and fishnet stockings to dance. Now, I didn’t mind the show myself, but considering this was supposed to be a “FAMILY ORIENTATED” (their spelling, not mine) event it was way over the line. I later heard that some parents immediately left with their children, and frankly, I don’t blame them. So much for ‘bringing class back.’
Roller Girls Get Shafted – The Bexar County Roller Girls were in attendance and I was intrigued, having never seen or been to a roller derby. Now, I don’t know if this was planned as part of the event, but they intended to put on an exhibition. A part of the floor was set aside, lines were placed onto the floor with tape, and the gals did some practice laps. People took seats in anticipation of watching the exhibition, but nothing was ever announced after the Muses did their thing, or shook certain things, as it were. We kept waiting and waiting, and then…
Lights out! – A rave was scheduled for the final hour of the event. Of course, you can’t have a rave with all that light, right? So at about quarter to ten, nearly all of the lights in the ballroom were turned off, which pretty much ended the show for the artists (you know, the guys that were raising money for the charity) and so they packed up and left. The Roller Girls were left to start their exhibition in near-darkness, which I can only presume is not a Good Idea given the dangerous nature of the sport. So yeah, unless you were one of the kids gyrating around to the music, the event was pretty much done at that point.
Tsuki-con was a good idea with a lot of promise. It started out well enough, but the execution of the event failed very badly at the end. Poor planning and research on the part of the organizers made it an evening to remember for the wrong reasons. Hopefully they accomplished their mission of raising money for the boxing program and do it again sometime in the future, with a few adjustments.
Eduardo Soliz 