What's this? A new post? Yes, indeedy. And these are going to be getting more and more frequent until we've officially settled in at our new online home. I won't promise a particular schedule, but I have a very good idea of what I'm going to post (and when) once we get the ball rolling.
These past few months have been incredibly busy for us, and with good reason. The time isn't right for us to let everything out of the bag just yet, but something so incredibly
awesome happened this past weekend that I simply can't keep to myself.
To set the scene, this past weekend was Otakuthon 2015. This time around, we take full credit for the festivities having a surprise guest.
Now, on a good convention weekend, you might have the chance to meet one of your childhood idols and get a few autographs and/or photo ops.
On a great weekend, you might share a meal with said childhood idol and chat about everything that does on behind the scenes and what they've been doing since the gig that made them famous before moving onto more candid and heartfelt topics that give you a whole new insight into the kind of person that they are.
On a superb weekend, you might get said childhood idol to lend their voice to the pet project you've been trying to get off the ground for the past few years.
This weekend was not a good weekend. It was not a great weekend. It wasn't even a superb weekend. These words are woefully inadequate to describe my version of August 7th through 9th.
How do you describe a weekend in which one of your childhood idols:
- drives all the way from Syracuse, New York, to your place in Canada
- records all of the lines for his character in your home studio, blowing away all expectations and teaching both the producer (you) and director a thing or two in the process
- pulls some strings with the convention staff at the last minute to ensure that you have an official presence at the event
- shares a meal with you not once or twice, but six times over the course of the weekend, with laughs and candor aplenty, plus a few well-deserved jabs
- chills with you on your couch, watching the remake of the title that made him famous (and it's his first time seeing it)
- opens his panel with the full story of the reason why he was a last-minute addition to the con's guest list (i.e.: you)
- follows that up by coming through on a four-year-old promise to publicly
pimp your game
- continues the festivities by co-hosting a discussion on the title that made him famous, all the while underscoring your own
mastery of the subject matter, putting even the English director of said work to shame
- gives you everything you need to officially close the book on a twenty-year-old mystery
- out-of-the-blue
gives you a personalized copy of their (critically well-received) book
- returns home not as an actor or colleague, but as a
friend, bear hugs and all
- admits that, from the beginning, he was planning to do all of the above for free,
just because you asked.
To call this past weekend
fan-fucking-tastic would still be an understatement. I'm legitimately dumbstruck here. I've seen actors give back to their fans before, but this? I really don't know where to begin...
Thank you,
Tristan, for going so far out of your way to do so much for us. It was a pleasure to have you as a guest in our home, and an honor to host a semi-impromptu (if abridged) reprise of
Understanding Evangelion with you, and a joy to chill and chat with you, talking about anything and everything for three days straight. Thank you for making this fanboy's dreams come true.
Yes, this weekend was
fucking awesome. And the takeaway? Aim for the stars;
you just might reach them.
Anyway, while I work the giddiness out of my system....
Commence Operation Schwesternschaft.
The curtain has risen. Who can say what has yet to unfold...?
