Jared's Bizarro Sunday Adventures

Since Victoria wanted to give masquerade a chance, I decided I would roam the near empty halls of Alexis Park.  there was not much going on in terms of panels so I decided to do what I usually do while bored at a con, go to the video game room.  The game room is usually one of the strong points of Anime Vegas and this year was no execption.  they had several systems running including a Neo-Geo.  In addition to that there was a table featuring toys and card games.  There was nothing I was really interested in, but it was nice to window shop.  The best part of the room was when I got a nostalgia rush from Mortal Kombat II.  I love seeing old school games at the game room and seeing MKII was such a treat.  The crowd grew more and more and forced the room to stay open longer than was planned.  It is nice to know that gamers still remember and appreciate the classics like MKII.  Sadly the room had to be closed up and I had to move on to the next night time event.

One of the more recent traditions of Anime Vegas is the rave, this year it came back with a bang.  There was a nice lighting setup, a pretty good DJ, and enough room for everyone.  The downside to the rave was the people at the rave.  While there was a big group of people dancing and running around with glow sticks there seemed to be even more people on the sidelines watching.  If you are going to go to a rave then dance, do not waste space watching the light show.  Sadly I could not get in much dancing as I was carrying a poster, a bag, and my notes.  After some awkward dancing and some quick photos I headed out to see what else was going on at Anime Vegas.

I ran into a friend of mine who was going to the Anime Conji hospitality room.  I decided to follow her because navigating around Alexis Park at night is very difficult if you do not know where you are going.  The room had a nice set up with chips and dip and soda pop.  However, I was informed that after nine they were going to make the room 21+ to serve a few alcoholic drinks.  I could not stay for the late night party as I was called to meet up with the team to go out for a post-masquerade dinner.

Victoria Channels Gypsy Rose Lee in Masquerade

Because I was feeling 100%, I decided to enter the masquerade at the very last minute. Though the masquerade started at 6PM, the show as running into delays. I entered the masquerade around the fifth act. Anime Vegas' masquerade had mixed reviews. There were a majority of dance themed sketches. Some entries confused members in the audience such as South Park and Green Day acts. While there some good sketches (Kuroshitsuji, Nurse Angel Koumugi, Avatar ), they were overshadowed (unfortunately) by the infamous Kick Ass skit that involved a graphic depiction of a cosplayer jerking off to an Evangelion wall scroll.

Videos of masquerade can be found found on CaliConBlog's YouTube soon!

From a performer's perspective, it was nice to perform on stage again. I was more than grateful that Natalie and Jessie let me perform at the very last minute. For halftime, there was full on stage performance by DN Angel cosplayers. The judges made deliberations as the halftime show went on. Halftime lasted approximately two hours.

Because it was getting late, and Matt, Jared, and I were feeling hungry, we decided to leave the Alexis Park Resort and hit the strip for dinner and good old Vegas fun. I will say that the nice thing about the Alexis Park Resort is that you can see how the strip is lighted up at night. Matt, Jared, and I hailed a taxi back to Harrah's. A taxi cost approximately $8.20 to go back to the hotel.

The three of us started walking around the strip. We thought it would be funny to do mini-photoshoots around the strip. We also spotted a Batman and Jack Sparrow on the strip that were posing for photos as long as you tipped them. The funny part is that they recognized that we came from an anime convention.

We stopped by the Caesar's Palace food court for dinner. The food was pretty decent for what it cost. The portions were pretty big and it was pretty filling. Caesar's Palace was pretty crowded due to the holidays. There were plenty of people there for the clubs.

The nice part about Caesar's Palace was that it was very well lighted up at night. I was cosplaying as Miku Zatsune (Vocaloid). Matt was cosplaying as Junpei (Persona 3). Jared was in his standard yanki badass get up. Since it was Las Vegas, stares from the "normal people" were minimal. However, it was not uncommon to have tourists want to take pictures with us.

The funny part is that some guy wanted photos with Matt. So, we decided to let him pose with him.

Matt, Jared, and I went to the The Mirage for shenanigans. It was at this point, Ryan called us to let me know that I won an award for "Best Video Game Solo" during masquerade. It was midnight and it did not matter if Justin Bieber's "Baby" was playing in the background. The three of us were overjoyed and it merited celebrating the Vegas way.

The Mirage has a tropical garden in the casino that was nice for photos. Russian tourists wanted pictures with Jared and I.

We went right across the street to The Venetian. As mentioned on the day zero section, The Venetian has plenty of photo op places for cosplayers. It was our last stop of the night before we returned to Harrah's.

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