MARI IJIMA @ JTAF! 12/17/05

[rnurmin]

Fortress_Maximus: Do you know what time Mari Iijima will be performing the concert?

Thanks,

[Fortress_Maximus]

Approx. 4pm. Don't know if she'll sign first or later. The actual schedule will answer our questions.

[UN Spacy]

If you guys wanna contact me tomorrow I'm at (510) 205-5559.

Please no sexually explicit calls. LOL.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Fortress Maximus, I can confirm that I am attending. I need to register in the morning. I'm about 2 hours away, so I don't know when I'll get there. I'll be there with a friend.

[yellowlightman]

I'm not gonna be attending the con (no money) but I'm shooting to show up in the evening to hang out and get dinner.

[goldenboy_forever]

I'll be staying at the grand hyatt in with

Alex

patt

nick

lenard

danny

me

Don't know what we'll do yet but either go clubing or just drink up at the hyatt on saturday night hope to see everybody there

from Rich

[Fortress_Maximus]

The schedule for SA and SU is up!

http://jtaf.project760.com/schedule.html

I imagine this what most you want to know:

Registration at Peace Plaza (Saturday): 10:00am - 5:00pm

Events at Peace Plaza Saturday:

12:00pm - 1:00pm : Opening Ceremonies

1:30pm - 3:00pm : Random Ninja Performance

3:00pm - 3:30pm : USA Musume Performance

3:30pm - 4:15pm : Akai Sky

4:30pm - 5:15pm : Mari Iijima

Autograph Sessions at Peace Plaza (Saturday): 10:00am - 5:00pm

Dealers Room (Saturday): 11:00am - 6:00pm

Edited December 17, 2005 by Fortress_Maximus

[UN Spacy]

Wow. It was a REAL treat to finally meet Mari Iijima, it's just too bad I forgot where I placed my Mari sings Minmay CD. Sorry I didn't get to meet up with you guys, it's only so often we get to gather at one place. Maybe next time......

BTW. Did any of you guys pick up her latest CD? Kinda skimpy for $20.

[Ishimaru]

Wow Mari still looks young not much of a difference in the 80s but she still looks cute, I hope FM is geting the autograph for me I dont want to place pressure on him.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

BTW. Did any of you guys pick up her latest CD? Kinda skimpy for $20. 

353358[/snapback]

I did. I listened to it on the way back to the hotel in Oakland. It was done by the time we crossed the Bay bridge. Though to be fair, we did get stuck behind some unlucky bastard which led to a moment where the lyrics to "Wonderful People" became rather ironic. That kind of made it worth buying, and it was a nice album. Besides, it kind of covers for the regret I had in 2002 on not being able to buy one when I first met her(they were playing a CD while I was waiting).

Still a shame she didn't get to perform.

[duckie81]

Oh lame, i totally forgot about this

[Fortress_Maximus]

Wow Mari still looks young not much of a difference in the 80s but she still looks cute, I hope FM is geting the autograph for me I dont want to place pressure on him.

353374[/snapback]

Yup Mari is still quite the cutie.

Dean, done and YGPM!

[Mechamaniac]

How come Mari didn't get to perform?.

And yes, she is QUITE the cutie, so tiny and petite, you just wanna scoop her up and run off somewhere so she can make you her love slave.

[UN Spacy]

How come Mari didn't get to perform?.

353591[/snapback]

Ummmmmmmmmm. Maybe b/c JTAF was VERY UNORGANIZED.......I'm glad I didn't pay any registration fee for something that should be free.

[Fortress_Maximus]

How come Mari didn't get to perform?

Oh a couple of factors some of which were completely beyond the con managements control, such as:

1) SF experiencing steady rain since the morning around 10:30am, as such even the opening ceremonies were rained out. Normally all major events are held in the Jtown Peace Plaza which is outdoors and can easily accomidate 200+ people. However due to the sudden change in the weather, EVERYTHING got turned upside down and inside.

2) Mari and the all other live performances were suppose to be outside with plenty of space and where the sound system was originally all set up! Around 11:30am it was dismantled and after finally locating a temporary location within the mall, the crew set the sound system up. By the time testing and the first set of performances by Random Ninja Group were complete, there were more setbacks from the merchants. *Gawd!*

3) Mari appears, perky as a ray of sunsine and is ready to perform. But the con management learns something very disturbing. Basically many of the merchants in the mall complained about the noise generated from the first group and the blockage in foot traffic. The result as you can guess by now, Mari was prohibited from performing.

4) Thankfully Mari was incredibly patient and willing to met with fans. She signed autographs, took pictures with fans and sold her cds, calendars and other memorabilia. We didn't stay to the end, so we don't know what happened in the end.

Edited December 19, 2005 by Fortress_Maximus

[Fortress_Maximus]

How come Mari didn't get to perform?.

353591[/snapback]

Ummmmmmmmmm. Maybe b/c JTAF was VERY UNORGANIZED.......I'm glad I didn't pay any registration fee for something that should be free.

353592[/snapback]

I respectfully disagree. JTAF was organized, with sufficient staff and resources. However, as I previously mentioned there were various factors beyond their control. Namely the foul weather, local hotels retracting promises, and the local merchants complaining and refusing to remotely compromise. Successfully making changes on the fly is not an easy task. Please understand this con took MANY months of preparation, research, time, effort and resources. While this specific con encountered its share of problems, generally IMO cons should not be free. When you pay for cons, not only are you are helping promote anime in general, you help increase recognition to the fanbase and local community. Fans meet the voice actor(s) and companies that create the animes we enjoy. Without cons the average fan has little to no opportunity to meet these types of people. Although I did not specific work as a staff member, I did work behind the scenes with management and I know the people who dedicated their time and efforts to this event. Despite all the work the con staff does it remains a thankless job even when things go well, so please, take a moment, reflect on this and try to empathize.

Sadly, I must admit however, I was sorely disappointed in the dealers room and I apologize to all of you who were equally disappointed. I had no idea about the location of the room and/or the quality of the vendors.

Lastly, hopefully the next JTAF will encounter less snags and have a few more contingency plans in place. For those of you who did manage to attend on SA, I wholeheartedly thank you, it was great meeting and spending time with you all.

Edited December 19, 2005 by Fortress_Maximus

[BoBe-Patt]

sigh... I'm sorry to say but that was one of the worse expo's I've ever been to. I thought nothing could be worse than PMX here in long beach, but I guess I was wrong! And to top everything it off, it rained the whole time!!! arrgghhh!!! rain sucks!!! Anyway, the only thing that made the trip worthwhile, was meeting up with some old friends.

[EXO]

That was Lamecon 2005. They charged for admission for what? A dinky dealer's room and some crap we coulda seen for free cuz the whole thing was in a public mall.

[Fortress_Maximus]

...

Edited December 19, 2005 by Fortress_Maximus

[Solscud007]

...   

353624[/snapback]

yeah the regsitration was pretty much worthless. there wasnt anything that we could nothave gotten for free. except the smal dealer room. Although the dearl room was smaller than a hotel bathroom, there were one or too interesting items that some of us purchased with decent prices.

here is a little review of our trip

http://www.animepunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6181

[yellowlightman]

Looks like it was better off I spent most of Saturday sleeping and missed the JTAF, but it was cool seeing all you guys. Just wish you had come up to northern California with better results, oh well.

[MEMO1DOMINION]

Mari didn't get to perform

DANG, WAS TOLD ABOUT THIS CON AND MARI...GREAT OF HER THAT SHE STUCK IT OUT FOR THE FANS. IN PERSON, SHE IS AWSOME.

BRINGS ONE POINT OUT ABOUT CONS..

I JUST HAD A CONVENTION IN CHILE. AND WAS THINKING OF DOING ONE IN SAN DIEGO, SPRING BREAK. CHECK THE THREAD HERE.

ANIME NATION

WAS GOING TO ADD A MACROSS 25TH ANIVERSARY PROMOTION THERE AND I SPOKE TO SOME OF YOU GUYS ABOUT IT. WILL SEE IF I CAN TRY TO GET MARI AND EVEN KAWAMORI TO COME DOWN FOR THIS EVENT. BUT IF YOU GUYS WILLING TO HELP, HEY, THE MORE THE MERRIER.

IDEAS WELCOMED.

NOPE, NO CARNE ASADA THIS TIME...MAYBE A PRIVATE PARTY. KNOW SOLSCUD ALWAYS DID THE ONE IN IRVINE AND MAYBE IF HE COULD HELP IN THAT. SOME SAID TO ADD A MODEL COLLECTION ROOM FOR DISPLAY...HMMM...NOT BAD IDEA.

Edited December 20, 2005 by MEMO1DOMINION

[Fortress_Maximus]

Why are you shouting?

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Yeah, even I realize that I spent 35 bucks to get into a dealers room. Though i got some cool things in there, so that wasn't bad itself. I blame no one for the setbacks and agree with Fortress Maximus. The con did their best to deal with an increasingly bad situation. In the end, the 35 bucks was admission to the dealers room, and a donation towards the money they lost due to Mari not being able to perform (they paid for EVERYTHING). It's a small price to pay.

My only real complaint was having trouble finding registration. It wasn't really marked the first day. I even got the absolute last Robotech giveaway, even though I didn't pre-reg.

[singtao]

How come Mari didn't get to perform?.

353591[/snapback]

Ummmmmmmmmm. Maybe b/c JTAF was VERY UNORGANIZED.......I'm glad I didn't pay any registration fee for something that should be free.

353592[/snapback]

I respectfully disagree. JTAF was organized, with sufficient staff and resources. However, as I previously mentioned there were various factors beyond their control. Namely the foul weather, local hotels retracting promises, and the local merchants complaining and refusing to remotely compromise. Successfully making changes on the fly is not an easy task. Please understand this con took MANY months of preparation, research, time, effort and resources. While this specific con encountered its share of problems, generally IMO cons should not be free. When you pay for cons, not only are you are helping promote anime in general, you help increase recognition to the fanbase and local community. Fans meet the voice actor(s) and companies that create the animes we enjoy. Without cons the average fan has little to no opportunity to meet these types of people. Although I did not specific work as a staff member, I did work behind the scenes with management and I know the people who dedicated their time and efforts to this event. Despite all the work the con staff does it remains a thankless job even when things go well, so please, take a moment, reflect on this and try to empathize.

Sadly, I must admit however, I was sorely disappointed in the dealers room and I apologize to all of you who were equally disappointed. I had no idea about the location of the room and/or the quality of the vendors.

Lastly, hopefully the next JTAF will encounter less snags and have a few more contingency plans in place. For those of you who did manage to attend on SA, I wholeheartedly thank you, it was great meeting and spending time with you all.

353601[/snapback]

from a dealers point of view jtaf was very unorganized. no one seemed to know where the dealers room was. when i got there i asked 4 staff and no one knew. it takes about 30 min to finally find someone that knew and that person wasnt even staff. once we get there we find out the dealers room would be opening 1 hour late and closing 1 hour early. the whole weekend i requested street signs which they said they had but they never put out. the staff was very nice and helped as much as they could but for what ever reason they couldnt get fully organized. it was just a bad idea having the room 2 blocks away from the mall and a $15 fee to in. for the people who requested macross my appologizes. i should have looked at the guest list. over all the show for all the venders was lame. ill try to talk to the jtaf guys for next year, maybe point him to this thread

Edited December 20, 2005 by singtao

[Solscud007]

Oh hey it's you. Im the one who bought the $35 transformer. My friends wre talkign to you outside th dealer room. Yeah it was unfortunate to not have organization. and so few vendors.

[EXO]

They were so organized they had B&W xeroxed badges, lanyards that weren't from anything anime, and some guy with a sign made of ripped up cardboard and "dealer's room" written out with markers to lead us to the place. Let's just face it, they took as much money for as little things in return. Nothing to do with the rain.

ADD: as far as the rain... they shoulda had a plan B... they shoulda thought, gee we're taking all this money... we should plan in case of rain... (yeah, I saw that on an ap. of the Apprentice, lol) Always have a Plan B. If there's anything I hate it's that attitude of "Oh well, sorry" when they know they screwed you.

Edited December 20, 2005 by >EXO<

[singtao]

no way, they had a sign? i guess they just couldnt get it infront of the dealers room. at least they tried. ohh yeah we never got our badges either, yet another point against them. i have met one of the organizers and hes really a nice guy. i think they had the best intensions but lacked proper organization and leadership. i think most of the staff were working for free, at least a few of the people in the dealers room were and did their best. in addition im sure putting a show on at the japan town mall was costly i have looked in to the costs of setting up a con and mall shows are not cheap.

Edited December 20, 2005 by singtao

[singtao]

Oh hey it's you. Im the one who bought the $35 transformer. My friends wre talkign to you outside th dealer room. Yeah it was unfortunate to not have organization. and so few vendors.

353735[/snapback]

ohh yeah the guys from L.A. right? i was surprised by how small the dealers room was and such a high fee to get in. also the reason the dealers room wasnt in the hotel by the mall was because of the mall stores not wanting to compete. im thinkin they should move the whole con instead of just trying to make it work where it is.

[EXO]

no way, they had a sign? i guess they just couldnt get it infront of the dealers room. at least they tried. ohh yeah we never got our badges either, yet another point against them.  i have met  one of the organizers and hes really a nice guy. i think they had the best intensions but lacked proper organization and leadership. i think most of the staff were working for free, at least a few of the people in the dealers room were and did their best. in addition im sure putting a show on at the japan town mall was costly i have looked in to the costs of setting up a con and mall shows are not cheap.

353742[/snapback]

no they didn't have a sign... it was just some guy holding a cardboard sheet that you had to follow. It was like those signs the homeless people hold at the exit of the freeway. I shoulda had Nick take a picture.

I dont really get what they paid for in the town mall. The dealer room was outside the mall. There was this one shop where the voice acting was suppose to be. If they paid for accomodations, shouldnt they have demanded an alternate place to have the concert since it was paid for? Nice guys don't really mean crap to me. If anything it's the a-holes that gets things done.

[yellowlightman]

ADD: as far as the rain... they shoulda  had a plan B... they shoulda thought, gee we're taking all this money... we should plan in case of rain... (yeah, I saw that on an ap. of the Apprentice, lol)  Always have a Plan B.  If there's anything I hate it's that attitude of "Oh well, sorry" when they know they screwed you.

353739[/snapback]

In their defense, it's not like you'd expect it to rain in San Francisco during the month of December.

...

Edited December 20, 2005 by yellowlightman

[singtao]

no they didn't have a sign... it was just some guy holding a cardboard sheet that you had to follow.  It was like those signs the homeless people hold at the exit of the freeway.  I shoulda had Nick take a picture.

I dont really get what they paid for in the town mall.  The dealer room was outside the mall.  There was this one shop where the voice acting was suppose to be.  If they paid for accomodations, shouldnt they have demanded an alternate place to have the concert since it was paid for?  Nice guys don't really mean crap to me.  If anything it's the a-holes that gets things done.

353750[/snapback]

i totaly agree those guys are almost too nice and more than likely didnt put their foot down. i was just pointing out i doubt that they didnt care or try. im sure they had to pay for the outside space for the concert and wasnt the artist area in the mall? i never to got to go while the show was there so im not sure. id love to see some pics of the card board sign

Edited December 20, 2005 by singtao

[Otaku-Smeghead]

Well the Trip wasnt a total lost to me. I got a few Sentai refernce Books that I wanted since I came back from HK met some great people. yes you Agent 1

and got semi buzzed at the Bar with Solscud and the others (Viva La Snake Bites) I just cant find those in LA Bars I did meet the future Mrs EX-smeghead at JTAF

but like always I didnt have the nerve to talk to her

Big Ups to Golden-Boy and his GF for Acomedations. Next Stop on the Con Trip is E3 then AX Wizard World LA maybe and Comic Con

[UN Spacy]

Was I the only one that got pictures from the event?

Come on you joshers. Get with the group meat pics.

[F360°]

wow, with all these comments , I was kinda glad that I had to work that day,, only if I were free that day I still would of went and check it out just for Mari Ijima

I go to Japan Town from time to time for eats, shopping and anime rental. Use to be for Bowling and movies too but since Jbowl is gone and there's a AMC somewhere else I no longer go to Jtown for those 2 events.

To me Japan town was never really a nice place for Convertions, they do not have large rooms or rooms that interconnect. But their Festivals events were always pretty good since that takes place out on the streets.

I do convention work part time at the Moscone Convention Center( which I hope one day there will be a Macross con there , I mainly deals with registration of attendees and exhibitor, along with gernal information on where's where and when's what's, and what's what's. Believe me even in those large events something always goes wrong , but they just get them fix up right away, or having plan b, c and d.

I hope for the next JTAF things will be more organized and have a fully researched backup plan.

needs:

MAPS, Event schedule showing time and place along with maps to every attendee, Larger event schedule boards should be place at a couple of locations, lots of Large Signs,

Information Booths or Staffs. All staff should have walkie tallkies or Cellphone so if they don't know the answer to a question they can call someone that knows. Whoever is incharge should walk around to see if everything is going well.

For a Outdoor event in December where weather plays a important role, indoor acomadation is and should be part of the original plan instead of a last minute backup.

For the person in charge if someone screw you over, you should be like a "cop on donuts" or "a geek on keyboard" and freakin demand that they fix it or work something out.

Now that's out of the way, where's all the pics? everyone should of gotten a couple of shot here and there. anymore MARI IJIMA pics at the event?