MoyaMobile-Canada's Trip To ScaperCon 2003
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| MoyaMobile-Canada's Trip To ScaperCon 2003 |
We were joined at the Anti-Banquet by some other Scapers that we had met. Good food, good new friends, isn't this what conventions are really all about?
 Some of the anti-banquet gang... and some of the anti-banquet pizza! |
 Chiana demonstrates some serious sucking power... |
 Chiana liked Giordano's so much, she got the t-shirt! |
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Instead of a masquerade, ScaperCon featured an after-dinner talent show. This consisted of fans singing, reciting, playing instruments, etc. It was an interesting change, something you don't usually see at even fan-run conventions in Toronto. To be honest, I'm not sure it's not something I would recommend other conventions trying - for every really good act, there were other acts that weren't very good, though they unfortunately thought they were... And unlike a masquerade where a bad act is over relatively quickly, at a talent show they can end up going on and on and on and... The definite highlight of the talent show was a cover band that closed it at the end. This band consisted of Scapers who apparently only ever get together to perform at ScaperCon under the name "Electromagnetic Candy". Let me say: This band was great, especially considering they probably got extremely little time to practice together. They played "Dancing With Myself" and a handful of other similar retro-rock covers... and while they may have not remembered all the lyrics and may have missed a note here or there, they were talented enough that nobody on the very full dance floor seemed to notice or care. A definite highlight of the convention! |
 D'Argo checks out Electromagnetic Candy. "They're not KISS, but they're not bad!" Unfortunately, the dance didn't live up to the expectations set by the band. The mood was killed almost entirely by the DJ choosing most unwisely to go straight from the retro-rock goodness of the band to terrible hip-hoppy crap, and about 3/4 of the people on the dance floor fled the room. It's unfortunate, because the mood in the room as the band wrapped up was electric, and had the DJ been able to take advantage of that, the dance could have really rocked. What didn't help was that the poor DJ seemed to be stuck with insufficient and uncooperative equipment, as she only had a single multi-disc CD player to work with - and that player didn't let her load a disc while another was playing, leaving huge gaps between the songs. Still, poor equipment can't excuse playing that stupid "I Like Big Butts" song so many times over the course of the night! This isn't to say that the dance was a total dud. There were a few points where the music perked up a bit, and those people that did stick around made their own fun dancing in long "snakes" of people and later in the evening performing the inevitable simulated sex acts on the stage. There was one girl who was at the dance in ballet shoes, and near the end of the night performed a short routine. Being able to perform such moves should be applauded. Being able to perform such moves in jeans should be illegal. ;) |
| Lesson of the day: Dances need a DJ, and proper equipment. You can't just stick a poor soul with a decent music collection into the position of DJing a dance and hope for the best. It may not always appear that way, but DJing is a skill. It takes a certain amount of talent and experience to be able to read a crowd and have a feel for which way to take the "flow". I had a short chat with the girl who DJed the dance, and she seemed to be a nice enough person - she just wasn't a DJ. And as for the equipment, you should at a minimum always have three completely independent CD players and a mixer. Using a multi-disc is just asking for trouble - mix between two players, and when one overheats (And it will! Most home units were not designed with dances in mind) swap in the third. |
 D'Argo rocks! |
 "It is my opinion that the bar closed WAY too early!" |
 "I don't believe it... Are they actually playing Culture Club's "Church of the Poison Mind? I haven't heard that song in 20 years!!!" |
 "So, uh, hi there... my names D'Argo... Do ya come here often?" |